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Search indexed NASA NTRS and DOE OSTI research on propulsion, heat transfer, battery materials and energy systems. Follow report and document links to the original sources.

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At least 559 records · Page 31

Quantum Virtual Cooling

We propose a quantum-information-based scheme to reduce the temperature of quantum many-body systems and access regimes beyond the current capability of conventional cooling techniques. We show that collective measurements on multiple copies of a system at finite temperature can simulate measurements of the same system at a lower temperature. This idea is illustrated for the example of ultracold atoms in optical lattices, where controlled tunnel coupling and quantum gas microscopy can be naturally combined to realize the required collective measurements to access a lower, virtual temperature. Our protocol is experimentally implemented for a Bose-Hubbard model on up to 12 sites, and we successfully extract expectation values of observables at half the temperature of the physical system. Additionally, we present related techniques that enable the extraction of zero-temperature states directly.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗

Performance of Charcoal Cookstoves for Haiti Part 1: Results from the Water Boiling Test

In April 2010, a team of scientists and engineers from Lawrence Berkeley National Lab (LBNL) and UC Berkeley, with support from the Darfur Stoves Project (DSP), undertook a fact-finding mission to Haiti in order to assess needs and opportunities for cookstove intervention. Based on data collected from informal interviews with Haitians and NGOs, the team, Scott Sadlon, Robert Cheng, and Kayje Booker, identified and recommended stove testing and comparison as a high priority need that could be filled by LBNL. In response to that recommendation, five charcoal stoves were tested at the LBNL stove testing facility using a modified form of version 3 of the Shell Foundation Household Energy Project Water Boiling Test (WBT). The original protocol is available online. Stoves were tested for time to boil, thermal efficiency, specific fuel consumption, and emissions of CO, CO{sub 2}, and the ratio of CO/CO{sub 2}. In addition, Haitian user feedback and field observations over a subset of the stoves were combined with the experiences of the laboratory testing technicians to evaluate the usability of the stoves and their appropriateness for Haitian cooking. The laboratory results from emissions and efficiency testing and conclusions regarding usability of the stoves are presented in this report.

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY↗

Non-pertechnetate Technetium Sensor Research and Development

Several significant uncertainties remain regarding the understanding and modeling of the fate and speciation of technicium-99 ( 99 Tc) in Hanford waste tanks, glass, and low-temperature waste forms. A significant (2% to 25%) fraction of the 99Tc in the water-soluble portion of the tank waste may be present as one or more non pertechnetate species that have not been identified and to date, cannot be effectively separated from the wastes. This task will provide a sensor specifically tuned to detect the Tc(I)-carbonyl species believed to constitute the main fraction of the non-pertechnetate form of technetium. By direct measurement of the non-pertechnetate species, such a sensor will help reduce the uncertainties in the modeling of the fate and speciation of 99 Tc in Hanford tanks and waste forms. This report summarizes work performed in FY2016 that was sponsored by the Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management and demonstrates the protocol for using fluorescent Tc(I)-tricarbonyl complex as a means to detect the non-pertechnetate species within tank waste solutions. The protocol was optimized with respect to ligand concentration, solvent choice, reaction temperature and time. This work culminated in the quantitation of Tc(I)-tricarbonyl within a waste simulant, using a standard addition method for measurement. This report also summarizes the synthesis and high-yield preparation of the low-valence technetium species, [Tc(CO) 3 (H 2 O) 3 ] + , which will be used as the technetium standard material for the demonstration of the non-pertechnetate species in actual wastes.

12 MANAGEMENT OF RADIOACTIVE AND NON-RADIOACTIVE W↗

Grid Cyber-Security Strategy in an Attacker-Defender Model

The progression of cyber-attacks on the cyber-physical system is analyzed by the Probabilistic, Learning Attacker, and Dynamic Defender (PLADD) model. Although our research does apply to all cyber-physical systems, we focus on power grid infrastructure. The PLADD model evaluates the effectiveness of moving target defense (MTD) techniques. We consider the power grid attack scenarios in the AND configurations and OR configurations. In addition, we consider, for the first time ever, power grid attack scenarios involving both AND configurations and OR configurations simultaneously. Cyber-security managers can use the strategy introduced in this manuscript to optimize their defense strategies. Specifically, our research provides insight into when to reset access controls (such as passwords, internet protocol addresses, and session keys), to minimize the probability of a successful attack. Our mathematical proof for the OR configuration of multiple PLADD games shows that it is best if all access controls are reset simultaneously. For the AND configuration, our mathematical proof shows that it is best (in terms of minimizing the attacker's average probability of success) that the resets are equally spaced apart. We introduce a novel concept called hierarchical parallel PLADD system to cover additional attack scenarios that require combinations of AND and OR configurations.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

Freeform thermoelectrics in single-step manufacturing: additive manufacturing of bismuth-telluride thermoelectrics

The project succeeded in producing crack-free Bismuth Telluride thermoelectric parts with density exceeding 98% through laser powder bed fusion (LPBF) additive manufacturing (AM). This greatly exceeded the highest previously reported density of 88% and is the highest among all semiconducting materials processed by LPBF. The additively manufactured material shows comparable Seebeck coefficient as conventional form and can be made into complex geometries with reduced material loss. On the other hand, measured properties are dramatically sensitive to the AM process parameters used, such that with identical composition, the Seebeck coefficient can be controllably tuned from +120 µV/K to -207 µV/K, which means the material switches between an n-type to a p-type semiconductor depending on processing. These changes are accompanied by significant differences in the as-processed microstructure due to rapid solidification. A machine learning protocol was developed and greatly reduced the experimental burden of the project, reducing the typical process optimization period of 2 years to 6 months. The project was fully successful in the objective of producing defect-free, complex geometry of bismuth-telluride parts through LPBF, but only partially successful in achieving performance goals. First, cost reduction of manufacturing, as measured by material waste, was successfully reduced by up to 70% compared to conventional manufacturing methods. This exceeded the proposed 30% reduction in materials waste needed to reach the 20% cost reduction goal of the project. On the other hand, the device performance, as measured by Seebeck coefficient, failed to reach the 40% improvement in efficiency. Rather, we observe comparable Seebeck coefficient between AM samples and conventionally processed counterparts. The device-level efficiency improvement does exceed 40% for complex geometry samples due to shape-induced increase in temperature gradients, but this was not the originally proposed metric. The machine learning approach developed in this project greatly accelerated the process optimization and can be adopted for fast development of AM processing parameters for other brittle and otherwise difficult-to-print materials. For the public, we deliver an efficient and widely adoptable process for incorporating waste-heat harvesting thermoelectric devices in both industrial and commercial heat exchangers. The geometric flexibility allows the capturing device to conform to the shape of the heat source to improve the system-level conversion efficiency. The technique can be deployed on any commercial LBPF systems with zero modifications, thus poses minimal adoption barrier for any manufacturer that already employed AM technology. Beyond bismuth-telluride, the machine-learning guided optimization protocol can be used in the future to reduce both the time and cost of process development for AM of other energy conversion and harvesting materials.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

Recovery Act: Energy Efficiency of Data Networks through Rate Adaptation (EEDNRA) - Final Technical Report

This Concept Definition Study focused on developing a scientific understanding of methods to reduce energy consumption in data networks using rate adaptation. Rate adaptation is a collection of techniques that reduce energy consumption when traffic is light, and only require full energy when traffic is at full provisioned capacity. Rate adaptation is a very promising technique for saving energy: modern data networks are typically operated at average rates well below capacity, but network equipment has not yet been designed to incorporate rate adaptation. The Study concerns packet-switching equipment, routers and switches; such equipment forms the backbone of the modern Internet. The focus of the study is on algorithms and protocols that can be implemented in software or firmware to exploit hardware power-control mechanisms. Hardware power-control mechanisms are widely used in the computer industry, and are beginning to be available for networking equipment as well. Network equipment has different performance requirements than computer equipment because of the very fast rate of packet arrival; hence novel power-control algorithms are required for networking. This study resulted in five published papers, one internal report, and two patent applications, documented below. The specific technical accomplishments are the following: • A model for the power consumption of switching equipment used in service-provider telecommunication networks as a function of operating state, and measured power-consumption values for typical current equipment. • An algorithm for use in a router that adapts packet processing rate and hence power consumption to traffic load while maintaining performance guarantees on delay and throughput. • An algorithm that performs network-wide traffic routing with the objective of minimizing energy consumption, assuming that routers have less-than-ideal rate adaptivity. • An estimate of the potential energy savings in service-provider networks using feasibly-implementable rate adaptivity. • A buffer-management algorithm that is designed to reduce the size of router buffers, and hence energy consumed. • A packet-scheduling algorithm designed to minimize packet-processing energy requirements. Additional research is recommended in at least two areas: further exploration of rate-adaptation in network switching equipment, including incorporation of rate-adaptation in actual hardware, allowing experimentation in operational networks; and development of control protocols that allow parts of networks to be shut down while minimizing disruption to traffic flow in the network. The research is an integral part of a large effort within Bell Laboratories, Alcatel-Lucent, aimed at dramatic improvements in the energy efficiency of telecommunication networks. This Study did not explicitly consider any commercialization opportunities.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗

Quantification of Internal Electric Fields and Local Polarization in Ferroelectric Superlattices

Oxide heterostructure superlattices constitute a new family of materials with tunable ferroelectric properties. While theoretical models predict the presence of nanosized ferroelectric domains in these films, they had not been observed as the magnitude of the response functions challenges the limits of experimental detection. Here, a new protocol in a precise variant of piezoforce microscopy is used to image domains in BaTiO3/SrTiO3 superlattices. Comparison of experimentally determined polarization to predictions of phase-field calculations is in quantitative agreement. Additionally, a combination of theory and experiment is used to determine the magnitude of internal electric field within the thin film, in a procedure that can be generalized to all ferroelectric films.

30 DIRECT ENERGY CONVERSION↗

Continuous-Variable Quantum State Designs: Theory and Applications

We generalize the notion of quantum state designs to infinite-dimensional spaces. We first prove that, under the definition of continuous-variable (CV) state t -designs from [Blume-Kohout , ], no state designs exist for t ≥ 2 . Similarly, we prove that no CV unitary t -designs exist for t ≥ 2 . We propose an alternative definition for CV state designs, which we call rigged t -designs, and provide explicit constructions for t = 2 . As an application of rigged designs, we develop a design-based shadow-tomography protocol for CV states. Using energy-constrained versions of rigged designs, we define an average fidelity for CV quantum channels and relate this fidelity to the CV entanglement fidelity. As an additional result of independent interest, we establish a connection between torus 2-designs and complete sets of mutually unbiased bases. Published by the American Physical Society 2024

Physics↗

Electron-Phonon Renormalization in the Proton-Conducting Electrolyte Ba Zr O 3 and Its Implications for High-Temperature Electrolysis

Electrical leakage is an inherent problem in solid-oxide fuel and electrolyzer cells, limiting their energy-conversion efficiency. High concentrations of electrons or holes can exacerbate this issue. However, it is largely unclear how the typical high operating temperatures of the systems influence their charge-carrier concentrations. In this work, we use first-principles calculations to examine how lattice vibrations impact electrical conductivity in conventional electrolytes, using Ba Zr O 3 as a representative material. Our analysis shows that phonon-induced shifts in the band gap and band edges lead to a dramatic increase in p -type carrier concentrations at temperatures above 600 K, compared to models that neglect temperature effects. Additionally, we reveal the importance of oxygen-ion motion on band-edge positions, which makes valence-band-edge shift dominate the band-gap change. Our study provides a protocol for calculating phonon-induced changes in similar oxides, paving the way for interrogating electrical leakage in electrolytes for high-temperature operation. Published by the American Physical Society 2025

25 ENERGY STORAGE↗

Pilot Residential Deep Energy Retrofits and the PNNL Lab Homes

This report summarizes research investigating the technical and economic feasibility of several pilot deep energy retrofits, or retrofits that save 30% to 50% or more on a whole-house basis while increasing comfort, durability, combustion safety, and indoor air quality. The work is being conducted for the U.S. Department of Energy Building Technologies Program as part of the Building America Program. As part of the overall program, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) researchers are collecting and analyzing a comprehensive dataset that describes pre- and post-retrofit energy consumption, retrofit measure cost, health and comfort impacts, and other pertinent information for each home participating in the study. The research and data collection protocol includes recruitment of candidate residences, a thorough test-in audit, home energy modeling, and generation of retrofit measure recommendations, implementation of the measures, test-out, and continued evaluation. On some homes, more detailed data will be collected to disaggregate energy-consumption information. This multi-year effort began in October 2010. To date, the PNNL team has performed test-in audits on 51 homes in the marine, cold, and hot-humid climate zones, and completed 3 retrofits in Texas, 10 in Florida, and 2 in the Pacific Northwest. Two of the retrofits are anticipated to save 50% or more in energy bills and the others - savings are in the 30% to 40% range. Fourteen other retrofits are under way in the three climate zones. Metering equipment has been installed in seven of these retrofits - three in Texas, three in Florida, and one in the Pacific Northwest. This report is an interim update, providing information on the research protocol and status of the PNNL deep energy retrofit project as of December, 2011. The report also presents key findings and lessons learned, based on the body of work to date. In addition, the report summarizes the status of the PNNL Lab Homes that are new manufactured homes procured with minimal energy-efficiency specifications typical of existing homes in the region, and sited on the PNNL campus. The Lab Homes serve as a flexible test facility (the first of its kind in the Pacific Northwest) to rapidly evaluate energy-efficient and grid-smart technologies that are applicable to residential construction.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

Introduction to CAUSES: Description of weather and climate models and their near-surface temperature errors in 5-day hindcasts near the Southern Great Plains

We introduce the Clouds Above the United States and Errors at the Surface (CAUSES) project with its aim of better understanding the physical processes leading to warm screen-temperature biases over the American Midwest in many numerical models. In this first of four companion papers, 11 different models, from 9 institutes, perform a series of 5-day hindcasts, each initialised from reanalyses. After describing the common experimental protocol and detailing each model configuration, a gridded temperature data set is derived from observations and used to show that all the models have a warm bias over parts of the Midwest. Additionally, a strong diurnal cycle in the screen-temperature bias is found in most models. In some models the bias is largest around midday, while in others it is largest during the night. At the Department of Energy Atmospheric Radiation Measurement Southern Great Plains (SGP) site, the model biases are shown to extend several kilometers into the atmosphere. Finally, to provide context for the companion papers, in which observations from the SGP site are used to evaluate the different processes contributing to errors there, it is shown that there are numerous locations across the Midwest where the diurnal cycle of the error is highly correlated with the diurnal cycle of the error at SGP. This suggests that conclusions drawn from detailed evaluation of models using instruments located at SGP will be representative of errors that are prevalent over a larger spatial scale.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

Precision Synthesis of Conjugated Polymer Films by Surface-Confined Stepwise Sonogashira Cross-Coupling

Thin films of poly(arylene ethynylene)-conjugated polymers, including low-energy-gap donor–acceptor polymers, can be prepared via stepwise polymerization utilizing surface-confined Sonogashira cross-coupling. This robust and efficient polymerization protocol yields conjugated polymers with a precise molecular structure and with nanometer-level control of the organization and the uniform alignment of the macromolecular chains in the densely packed film. In addition to high stability and predictable and well-defined molecular organization and morphology, the surface-confined conjugated polymer chains experience significant interchain electronic interactions, resulting in dominating intermolecular π-electron delocalization which is primarily responsible for the electronic and spectroscopic properties of polymer films. The fluorescent films demonstrate remarkable performance in chemosensing applications, showing a turn-off fluorescent response on the sub-ppt (part per trillion) level of nitroaromatic explosives in water. This unique sensitivity is likely related to the enhanced exciton mobility in the uniformly aligned and structurally monodisperse polymer films.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗

On Concavity and Utilization Analytics of Wide-Area Network Transport Protocols

Wide-area data transfers in high-performance computing infrastructures and big data applications are increasingly carried over dynamically provisioned dedicated network connections, which provide high capacities with no competing traffic. Throughput of TCP and UDT over wide-area connections depends, often in a complex non-linear way, on the congestion control mechanism, buffer sizes, and the number of parallel streams. In addition, our extensive TCP and UDT throughput measurements and time traces over a suite of physical and emulated 10 Gbps connections with 0-366 ms round-trip times (RTTs) show significant statistical and temporal variations. Consequently, parameter selection and optimization for transport methods require data analytics to complement analytical throughput models. We present analytics based on the concavity-convexity of throughput profiles which provide insights into peak throughput and superior/inferior trend compared to linear interpolations based on RTT. In particular, we propose the utilization-concavity coefficient, a scalar metric that incorporates both utilization and concavity profile to characterize the overall performance of a transport protocol. These measurements-based anaytics enable us to select a transport protocol and its parameters for a given host and connection configuration to achieve high throughput with statistical guarantees.

Rao, Nageswara↗

Bench- and Pilot-Scale Studies of Reaction and Regeneration of Ni-Mg-K/Al2O3 for Catalytic Conditioning of Biomass-Derived Syngas

The National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) is collaborating with both industrial and academic partners to develop technologies to help enable commercialization of biofuels produced from lignocellulosic biomass feedstocks. The focus of this paper is to report how various operating processes, utilized in-house and by collaborators, influence the catalytic activity during conditioning of biomass-derived syngas. Efficient cleaning and conditioning of biomass-derived syngas for use in fuel synthesis continues to be a significant technical barrier to commercialization. Multifunctional, fluidizable catalysts are being developed to reform undesired tars and light hydrocarbons, especially methane, to additional syngas, which can improve utilization of biomass carbon. This approach also eliminates both the need for downstream methane reforming and the production of an aqueous waste stream from tar scrubbing. This work was conducted with NiMgK/Al{sub 2}O{sub 3} catalysts. These catalysts were assessed for methane reforming performance in (i) fixed-bed, bench-scale tests with model syngas simulating that produced by oak gasification, and in pilot-scale, (ii) fluidized tests with actual oak-derived syngas, and (iii) recirculating/regenerating tests using model syngas. Bench-scale tests showed that the catalyst could be completely regenerated over several reforming reaction cycles. Pilot-scale tests using raw syngas showed that the catalyst lost activity from cycle to cycle when it was regenerated, though it was shown that bench-scale regeneration by steam oxidation and H{sub 2} reduction did not cause this deactivation. Characterization by TPR indicates that the loss of a low temperature nickel oxide reduction feature is related to the catalyst deactivation, which is ascribed to nickel being incorporated into a spinel nickel aluminate that is not reduced with the given activation protocol. Results for 100 h time-on-stream using a recirculating/regenerating reactor suggest that this type of process could be employed to keep a high level of steady-state reforming activity, without permanent deactivation of the catalyst. Additionally, the differences in catalyst performance using a simulated and real, biomass-derived syngas stream indicate that there are components present in the real stream that are not adequately modeled in the syngas stream. Heavy tars and polycyclic aromatics are known to be present in real syngas, and the use of benzene and naphthalene as surrogates may be insufficient. In addition, some inorganics found in biomass, which become concentrated in the ash following biomass gasification, may be transported to the reforming reactor where they can interact with catalysts. Therefore, in order to gain more representative results for how a catalyst would perform on an industrially-relevant scale, with real contaminants, appropriate small-scale biomass solids feeders or slip-streams of real process gas should be employed.

09 BIOMASS FUELS↗

Experimental Protocols for Studying Organic Non-aqueous Redox Flow Batteries

We report that Redox flow batteries (RFBs) are promising devices for grid-scale energy storage due to the decoupling of power and energy, which can be independently scaled by the electrode area and storage tank size, respectively. To date, only aqueous RFBs, such as the vanadium RFB, have been implemented commercially. Nevertheless, the limited energy densities and high-cost materials may preclude their wider market penetration. Organic non-aqueous redox-flow batteries (O-NRFBs), which utilize redox-active organic molecules (ROMs), have been offered as an attractive alternative. Many possible advantages include the use of earth-abundant elements (C, H, N, O, S, F), wherein the ROMs can be prepared from low-cost and sustainable materials. Additionally, a large variety of electroactive moieties are accessible as building blocks, providing a synthetic platform to tune the properties of ROMs through rational design. As a consequence, the development of novel ROMs has attracted researchers with diverse backgrounds, prompting remarkable innovations in the past decade. However, consistency in experimental protocols (e.g., electrochemical methods, cycling stability, experimental conditions) has not coincided with this uptick in research, leading to sometimes ambiguous and incomparable results. This is further convoluted by the complexity innate to battery development, such as cell design, detection, and characterization of reactions and active components. The O-NRFB application imposes stringent requirements on the physical or/and chemical processes involved in electrochemical cycling. Yet such considerations are often overlooked. Further, while quantum mechanical calculations provide a convenient tool for evaluating and selecting ROM candidates, this simulation is not always performed. Thus, in this Energy Focus, we detail a means to standardize experimental protocols for studies of O-NRFBs and suggest practices to facilitate fundamental understanding and development of ROMs.

25 ENERGY STORAGE↗

Forecasting fluid-injection induced seismicity to choose the best injection strategy for safety and efficiency

Induced seismicity poses a challenge to the development of Enhanced Geothermal Systems (EGS). Improving monitoring and forecasting techniques is essential to mitigate induced seismicity and thereby fostering a positive perception of EGS projects among local authorities and population. Induced seismicity is the result of complex and coupled thermo-hydro-mechanical-chemical mechanisms. Injection flux and pressure are crucial controlling parameters for both hydraulic stimulation and circulation protocols. We develop a methodology combining a hydro-mechanical model with a seismicity rate model to estimate the magnitude and frequency of mainshocks and aftershocks induced by fluid injection. We apply the methodology to the case of the Basel EGS (2006, Switzerland) to compare the effects of progressive, cyclic and constant injections on the mechanical response of discrete faults. Results from the coupled hydro-mechanical models show that the pore pressure diffusion and consequent enhancement of fault permeability are limited to the vicinity of the injection well during cyclic injection. Additionally, constant injection induces seismicity from the start of the injection but enhances the permeability of most of the faults within a shorter duration, inducing less post-injection seismicity. The methodology can be adapted to any numerical model and allows new projects to be developed by anticipating the safest injection protocol. This article is part of the theme issue ‘Induced seismicity in coupled subsurface systems’.

58 GEOSCIENCES↗

Patterns of Involved-Field Radiation Therapy Protocol Deviations in Pediatric Versus Adolescent and Young Adults With Hodgkin Lymphoma: A Report From the Children's Oncology Group AHOD0031

The presented protocol for pediatric intermediate-risk Hodgkin lymphoma evaluated the use of a dose-intensive chemotherapy regimen (ABVE-PC [doxorubicin, bleomycin, vincristine, etoposide, cyclophosphamide, prednisone]) with response-based therapy augmentation (addition of DECA [dexamethasone, etoposide, cisplatin, cytarabine]) or therapy reduction (elimination of radiation).

62 RADIOLOGY AND NUCLEAR MEDICINE↗

Dalton Project: A Python platform for molecular- and electronic-structure simulations of complex systems

The Dalton Project provides a uniform platform access to the underlying full-fledged quantum chemistry codes Dalton and LSDalton as well as the PyFraME package for automatized fragmentation and parameterization of complex molecular environments. The platform is written in Python and defines a means for library communication and interaction. Intermediate data such as integrals are exposed to the platform and made accessible to the user in the form of NumPy arrays, and the resulting data are extracted, analyzed, and visualized. Complex computational protocols that may, for instance, arise due to a need for environment fragmentation and configuration-space sampling of biochemical systems are readily assisted by the platform. The platform is designed to host additional software libraries and will serve as a hub for future modular software development efforts in the distributed Dalton community.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗