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DOE OSTI2021

The FEWSION for Community Resilience (F4R) Process: Building Local Technical and Social Capacity for Critical Supply Chain Resilience

Local business leaders, policy makers, elected officials, city planners, emergency managers, and private citizens are responsible for, and deeply affected by, the performance of critical supply chains and related infrastructures. At the center of critical supply chains is the food-energy-water nexus (FEW); a nexus that is key to a community’s wellbeing, resilience, and sustainability. In the 21st century, managing a local FEW nexus requires accurate data describing the function and structure of a community’s supply chains. However, data is not enough; we need data-informed conversation and technical and social capacity building among local stakeholders to utilize the data effectively. There are some resources available at the mesoscale and for food, energy, or water, but many communities lack the data and tools needed to understand connections and bridge the gaps between these scales and systems. As a result, we currently lack the capacity to manage these systems in small and medium sized communities where the vast majority of people, decisions, and problems reside. This study develops and validates a participatory citizen science process for FEW nexus capacity building and data-driven problem solving in small communities at the grassroots level. The FEWSION for Community Resilience (F4R) process applies a Public Participation in Scientific Research (PPSR) framework to map supply chain data for a community’s FEW nexus, to identify the social network that manages the nexus, and then to generate a data-informed conversation among stakeholders. F4R was piloted and co-developed with participants over a 2-year study, using a design-based research process to make evidence-based adjustments as needed. Results show that the F4R model was successful at improving volunteers’ awareness about nexus and supply chain issues, at creating a network of connections and communication with stakeholders across state, regional, and local organizations, and in facilitating data-informed discussion about improvements to the system. In this paper we describe the design and implementation of F4R and discuss four recommendations for the successful application of the F4R model in other communities: 1) embed opportunities for co-created PPSR, 2) build social capital, 3) integrate active learning strategies with user-friendly digital tools, and 4) adopt existing materials and structure.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2011

Computational Needs for the Next Generation Electric Grid Proceedings

The April 2011 DOE workshop, 'Computational Needs for the Next Generation Electric Grid', was the culmination of a year-long process to bring together some of the Nation's leading researchers and experts to identify computational challenges associated with the operation and planning of the electric power system. The attached papers provide a journey into these experts' insights, highlighting a class of mathematical and computational problems relevant for potential power systems research. While each paper defines a specific problem area, there were several recurrent themes. First, the breadth and depth of power system data has expanded tremendously over the past decade. This provides the potential for new control approaches and operator tools that can enhance system efficiencies and improve reliability. However, the large volume of data poses its own challenges, and could benefit from application of advances in computer networking and architecture, as well as data base structures. Second, the computational complexity of the underlying system problems is growing. Transmitting electricity from clean, domestic energy resources in remote regions to urban consumers, for example, requires broader, regional planning over multi-decade time horizons. Yet, it may also mean operational focus on local solutions and shorter timescales, as reactive power and system dynamics (including fast switching and controls) play an increasingly critical role in achieving stability and ultimately reliability. The expected growth in reliance on variable renewable sources of electricity generation places an exclamation point on both of these observations, and highlights the need for new focus in areas such as stochastic optimization to accommodate the increased uncertainty that is occurring in both planning and operations. Application of research advances in algorithms (especially related to optimization techniques and uncertainty quantification) could accelerate power system software tool performance, i.e. speed to solution, and enhance applicability for new and existing real-time operation and control approaches, as well as large-scale planning analysis. Finally, models are becoming increasingly essential for improved decision-making across the electric system, from resource forecasting to adaptive real-time controls to online dynamics analysis. The importance of data is thus reinforced by their inescapable role in validating, high-fidelity models that lead to deeper system understanding. Traditional boundaries (reflecting geographic, institutional, and market differences) are becoming blurred, and thus, it is increasingly important to address these seams in model formulation and utilization to ensure accuracy in the results and achieve predictability necessary for reliable operations. Each paper also embodies the philosophy that our energy challenges require interdisciplinary solutions - drawing on the latest developments in fields such as mathematics, computation, economics, as well as power systems. In this vein, the workshop should be viewed not as the end product, but the beginning of what DOE seeks to establish as a vibrant, on-going dialogue among these various communities. Bridging communication gaps among these communities will yield opportunities for innovation and advancement. The papers and workshop discussion provide the opportunity to learn from experts on the current state-of-the-art on computational approaches for electric power systems, and where one may focus to accelerate progress. It has been extremely valuable to me as I better understand this space, and consider future programmatic activities. I am confident that you too will enjoy the discussion, and certainly learn from the many experts. I would like to thank the authors of the papers for sharing their perspectives, as well as the paper discussants, session recorders, and participants. The meeting would not have been as successful without your commitment and engagement. I also would like to thank Joe Eto and Bob Thomas for their vision and leadership in bringing together such a well-structured and productive forum.

24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION↗
DOE OSTI2012

Reuse of Produced Water from CO 2 Enhanced Oil Recovery, Coal-Bed Methane, and Mine Pool Water by Coal-Based Power Plants

Power generation in the Illinois Basin is expected to increase by as much as 30% by the year 2030, and this would increase the cooling water consumption in the region by approximately 40%. This project investigated the potential use of produced water from CO 2 enhanced oil recovery (CO 2 -EOR) operations; coal-bed methane (CBM) recovery; and active and abandoned underground coal mines for power plant cooling in the Illinois Basin. Specific objectives of this project were: (1) to characterize the quantity, quality, and geographic distribution of produced water in the Illinois Basin; (2) to evaluate treatment options so that produced water may be used beneficially at power plants; and (3) to perform a techno-economic analysis of the treatment and transportation of produced water to thermoelectric power plants in the Illinois Basin. Current produced water availability within the basin is not large, but potential flow rates up to 257 million liters per day (68 million gallons per day (MGD)) are possible if CO 2 -enhanced oil recovery and coal bed methane recovery are implemented on a large scale. Produced water samples taken during the project tend to have dissolved solids concentrations between 10 and 100 g/L, and water from coal beds tends to have lower TDS values than water from oil fields. Current pretreatment and desalination technologies including filtration, adsorption, reverse osmosis (RO), and distillation can be used to treat produced water to a high quality level, with estimated costs ranging from $2.6 to $10.5 per cubic meter ($10 to $40 per 1000 gallons). Because of the distances between produced water sources and power plants, transportation costs tend to be greater than treatment costs. An optimization algorithm was developed to determine the lowest cost pipe network connecting sources and sinks. Total water costs increased with flow rate up to 26 million liters per day (7 MGD), and the range was from $4 to $16 per cubic meter ($15 to $60 per 1000 gallons), with treatment costs accounting for 13-23% of the overall cost. Results from this project suggest that produced water is a potential large source of cooling water, but treatment and transportation costs for this water are large.

20 FOSSIL-FUELED POWER PLANTS↗
DOE OSTI2019

Advanced Solar and Load Forecasting Incorporating HD Sky Imaging: BNL Phase II Activities (Final Report)

Over the last ten years, lower costs and government incentives for rooftop and utility scale solar photovoltaic (PV) systems have led to a rapid growth in the amount of power generated from this renewable energy source. For example, the cumulative PV generating capacity of 1,160 MW in New York State at the end of 2018 represents a growth of more than 4,000% over the past seven years and almost 400% over the past five years. But increased dependence on this inherently variable energy source introduces the need to anticipate, i.e., forecast, changes in energy production and manage them appropriately. Utilities and grid operators can then use this forecast information to balance changes and maintain stability of the electric grid by adding additional sources or diverting excess supplies for sale or storage, as needed. Current techniques based on persistence modeling are not accurate enough to provide reliable forecasts. With support from the U.S. Department of Energy’s Solar Energy Technology Office (DOE SETO) and the New York Power Authority (NYPA), Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL), the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR), and the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) formed a collaborative team to provide reliable forecasting over a range of time intervals. In addition, the forecasting area was scaled up to about 50 km2, a factor of 20 times larger than previously achieved, so that available solar irradiance could be forecast throughout an entire region including both large generating facilities and distributed rooftop solar arrays. In its role, BNL developed a technology for predicting changes in available solar energy from zero to 30 minutes ahead. This “nowcasting” approach uses inexpensive, off-the-shelf, high definition (HD) imagers with custom software to identify and track the movement of approaching clouds and predict their impact on available solar irradiance. The BNL Nowcasting model improves forecasting accuracy by 20 to 50% over current techniques. Forecasting reliability for low clouds (worst case scenario since they move over solar panels more rapidly than high clouds) was calculated to be 95% accurate for forecast periods of five minute ahead. Reliability decreases with longer forecast time intervals and was calculated to be about 80% for 10 minute forecasts, and about 70% for 20 minutes ahead. Clouds were still reliably tracked by the imager network at 60% accuracy for forecast lead times up to about 30 minutes ahead, and this was determined to be the practical nowcasting limit for low clouds in a network of this scale. This work represents the second phase of a multi-phase effort to develop and deploy solar forecasting at a regional scale so that contributions from distributed rooftop solar resources can be forecast along with solar generating facilities, giving utilities and stakeholders an accurate assessment of future energy production. Additional work is planned to operate the forecasting network in an area upstate New York to assess system reliability under diverse meteorological conditions and to monitor system performance over a full range of seasonal variability.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2016

Thermal effects of groundwater flow through subarctic fens: A case study based on field observations and numerical modeling

Modeling and observation of ground temperature dynamics are the main tools for understanding current permafrost thermal regimes and projecting future thaw. Until recently, most studies on permafrost have focused on vertical ground heat fluxes. Groundwater can transport heat in both lateral and vertical directions but its influence on ground temperatures at local scales in permafrost environments is not well understood. In this paper, we combine field observations from a subarctic fen in the sporadic permafrost zone with numerical simulations of coupled water and thermal fluxes. At the Tavvavuoma study site in northern Sweden, ground temperature profiles and groundwater levels were observed in boreholes. These observations were used to set up one- and two-dimensional simulations down to 2 m depth across a gradient of permafrost conditions within and surrounding the fen. Two-dimensional scenarios representing the fen under various hydraulic gradients were developed to quantify the influence of groundwater flow on ground temperature. Our observations suggest that lateral groundwater flow significantly affects ground temperatures. This is corroborated by modeling results that show seasonal ground ice melts 1 month earlier when a lateral groundwater flux is present. Further, although the thermal regime may be dominated by vertically conducted heat fluxes during most of the year, isolated high groundwater flow rate events such as the spring freshet are potentially important for ground temperatures. Finally, as sporadic permafrost environments often contain substantial portions of unfrozen ground with active groundwater flow paths, knowledge of this heat transport mechanism is important for understanding permafrost dynamics in these environments.

58 GEOSCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2015

Microbiological-enhanced mixing across scales during in-situ bioreduction of metals and radionuclides at Department of Energy Sites

Bioreduction is being actively investigated as an effective strategy for subsurface remediation and long-term management of DOE sites contaminated by metals and radionuclides (i.e. U(VI)). These strategies require manipulation of the subsurface, usually through injection of chemicals (e.g., electron donor) which mix at varying scales with the contaminant to stimulate metal reducing bacteria. There is evidence from DOE field experiments suggesting that mixing limitations of substrates at all scales may affect biological growth and activity for U(VI) reduction. Although current conceptual models hold that biomass growth and reduction activity is limited by physical mixing processes, a growing body of literature suggests that reaction could be enhanced by cell-to-cell interaction occurring over length scales extending tens to thousands of microns. Our project investigated two potential mechanisms of enhanced electron transfer. The first is the formation of single- or multiple-species biofilms that transport electrons via direct electrical connection such as conductive pili (i.e. ‘nanowires’) through biofilms to where the electron acceptor is available. The second is through diffusion of electron carriers from syntrophic bacteria to dissimilatory metal reducing bacteria (DMRB). The specific objectives of this work are (i) to quantify the extent and rate that electrons are transported between microorganisms in physical mixing zones between an electron donor and electron acceptor (e.g. U(IV)), (ii) to quantify the extent that biomass growth and reaction are enhanced by interspecies electron transport, and (iii) to integrate mixing across scales (e.g., microscopic scale of electron transfer and macroscopic scale of diffusion) in an integrated numerical model to quantify these mechanisms on overall U(VI) reduction rates. We tested these hypotheses with five tasks that integrate microbiological experiments, unique micro-fluidics experiments, flow cell experiments, and multi-scale numerical models. Continuous fed-batch reactors were used to derive kinetic parameters for DMRB, and to develop an enrichment culture for elucidation of syntrophic relationships in a complex microbial community. Pore and continuum scale experiments using microfluidic and bench top flow cells were used to evaluate the impact of cell-to-cell and microbial interactions on reaction enhancement in mixing-limited bioactive zones, and the mechanisms of this interaction. Some of the microfluidic experiments were used to develop and test models that considers direct cell-to-cell interactions during metal reduction. Pore scale models were incorporated into a multi-scale hybrid modeling framework that combines pore scale modeling at the reaction interface with continuum scale modeling. New computational frameworks for combining continuum and pore-scale models were also developed

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2025

CLEAP Project: OR-SAGE Analysis for MT, UT, and CO States

The OR-SAGE tool is designed to use industry-accepted practices in screening sites and then employ the proper array of data sources through the considerable computational capabilities of GIS technology available at ORNL. The tool was developed to screen the potential for NPP siting on a national and regional basis. However, because of the tool granularity, it is often focused specifically on the immediate area around user sites of interest. If data center siting parameters can be added to OR-SAGE, the ability to evaluate data center siting on a localized scale will be beneficial.1 More than 60 data sets have been collected and processed by ORNL to develop exclusionary, avoidance, and suitability criteria for screening sites for a variety of power generation types, including nuclear power plants. Available site evaluation parameters include population density, slope, seismic activity, proximity to cooling-water sources, proximity to hazard facilities, avoidance of protected lands and floodplains, susceptibility to landslide hazards, and many others. All siting parameters should be considered as flags to inform siting decisions and should not be used to rule in or rule out any NPP site. Once data center siting parameters are identified, appropriate data sets will be collected and processed. The OR-SAGE process is very versatile. Essentially, OR-SAGE is a visual, relational database. The database partitions the contiguous United States, a total of 720 million hectares (~1.8 billion acres), into 100-m by 100-m (1 hectare or ~2.5 acre) cells. The database is tracking just under 700 million individual land cells. Successive suitability criterion is applied to each cell in the database. User-specified thresholds can be applied to each siting parameter data layer. In this manner, a variety of scenarios can be quickly and thoroughly evaluated. Data can be added and/or revised within OR-SAGE to address user interests. Siting security assessment capability is currently being added to OR-SAGE. Security is expected to be of concern at data centers whether it is collocated with a nuclear power generating technology or not. If data center is collocated with a nuclear power generating source, the security threat attractiveness level of both will likely increase. It will be of additional benefit if a potential data center site is also assessed for security vulnerability.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗
DOE OSTI2016

The ecological impact assessment of a proposed road development (the Slovak approach)

The construction of roads is one of the most widespread forms of natural landscape modification. Over the last 20 years, dozens of road constructions have been assessed in Slovakia, which makes it possible to talk about methodological positives and negatives. A special feature of Slovakia is that many planned or renovated roads are located in protected areas or are in contact with them (including Natura 2000 sites). Therefore, it is important to understand the scope of the roads' ecological impacts and find ways for their appropriate evaluation and incorporation into the Environmental Impact Assessment process. For this reason, the Ecological Impact Assessment methodology can be used as a basis for our research, which consists of three stages. In the first stage (scoping), a buffer circumventing the proposed road is created to determine the area for impact prediction and evaluation. Subsequently, the landscape structure and baseline landscape conditions are discussed, a map of current landscape structure is created and the current ecological status of the affected area is calculated. In the second stage (the evaluation of ecological resources), important ecological parts of the landscape are delineated. This step is based on the importance of previous information and its vulnerability, and leads to the mapping of the road ecological impact zone. In the third stage (impact assessment), important ecological parts are spatially correlated with the proposed road construction. Finally, the significance of ecological impacts of the activity is evaluated by applying specific criteria (duration, reversibility, magnitude, size and road ecological impact zone significance). A scale is proposed for each criterion to evaluate the total significance of impacts. In this way, detailed significant ecological impacts can be found which will help lead to proposed correct mitigation measures and a post-project analysis. - Highlights: • This paper proposes a methodology for the EcIA of road construction. • It tries to understand the spatial structure and configuration of landscape elements. • The most important ecological parts within the territory are identified. • The total significance of ecological receptors is evaluated by applying criteria.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2023

A multiscale landscape approach for prioritizing river and stream protection and restoration actions

River and stream conservation programs have historically focused on a single spatial scale, for example, a watershed or stream site. Recently, the use of landscape information (e.g., land use and land cover) at multiple spatial scales and over large spatial extents has highlighted the importance of incorporating a landscape perspective into stream protection and restoration activities. Previously, we developed a novel framework that links information about watershed-, catchment-, and reach-scale integrity with stream biological condition using scatterplots and a landscape integrity map. Here we examined an application of this approach for streams in urban and other settings in King County, Washington State, United States, where we related stream macroinvertebrate condition to two indices of landscape integrity, the US Environmental Protection Agency's (USEPA) nationally available Index of Watershed Integrity (IWI) and Index of Catchment Integrity (ICI). We generated a scatterplot of IWI versus ICI for sample sites, where points represented site macroinvertebrate condition from poor to good. The same data were also visualized as a landscape integrity map that displayed catchments of King County according to the level of watershed and catchment integrity (high or low IWI/ICI). Almost three-quarters of poor-condition sites were associated with high-integrity watersheds and catchments (i.e., underperforming sites), which suggested that either one or both national indicators were insufficient for this area, and that sites underperformed because of local-scale factors. In response, we used a catchment-scale indicator related to forest condition (PctForestCat) after examining several GIS-based dispersal indicators from the National Hydrography Dataset and other candidates from the USEPA's StreamCat dataset. We then compared the results of the scatterplots and maps based on the current and original analyses and found that many of the sites previously classified as underperforming now performed as expected, that is, they were poor-condition sites in poor-condition catchments. This analysis demonstrates how results based on a national dataset can be improved by developing an alternative that represents regionally important stressors. The methods used to develop an effective landscape indicator based on StreamCat datasets, and the utility of the multiscale approach, could provide important tools for prioritizing, optimizing, and communicating stream conservation actions.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2011

Experimental Investigation and Validation of Neutral Beam Current Drive for ITER Through ITPA Joint Experiments

Joint experiments investigating the off-axis neutral beam current drive (NBCD) capability to be utilized for advanced operation scenario development in ITER were conducted in four tokamaks (ASDEX Upgrade (AUG), DIII-D, JT-60U and MAST) through the international tokamak physics activity (ITPA). The following results were obtained in the joint experiments, where the toroidal field, B(t), covered 0.4-3.7 T, the plasma current, I(p), 0.5-1.2 MA, and the beam energy, E(b), 65-350 keV. A current profile broadened by off-axis NBCD was observed in MAST. In DIII-D and JT-60U, the NB driven current profile has been evaluated using motional Stark effect diagnostics and good agreement between the measured and calculated NB driven current profile was observed. In AUG (at low delta similar to 0.2) and DIII-D, introduction of a fast-ion diffusion coefficient of D(b) similar to 0.3-0.5 m(2) s(-1) in the calculation gave better agreement at high heating power (5 MW and 7.2 MW, respectively), suggesting anomalous transport of fast ions by turbulence. It was found through these ITPA joint experiments that NBCD related physics quantities reasonably agree with calculations (with D(b) = 0-0.5 m(2) s(-1)) in all devices when there is no magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) activity except ELMs. Proximity of measured off-axis beam driven current to the corresponding calculation with D(b) = 0 has been discussed for ITER in terms of a theoretically predicted scaling of fast-ion diffusion that depends on E(b)/T(e) for electrostatic turbulence or beta(t) for electromagnetic turbulence.

Suzuki, T↗
DOE OSTI2016

Green Ocean Amazon 2014/15 – Scaling Amazon Carbon Water Couplings Field Campaign Report

Forests soak up 25% of the carbon dioxide (CO2) emitted by anthropogenic fossil energy use (10 Gt C y-1), moderating its atmospheric accumulation. How this terrestrial CO2 uptake will evolve with climate change in the 21st Century is largely unknown. Rainforests are the most active ecosystems, with the Amazon basin storing 120 Gt C as biomass and exchanging 18 Gt C y-1 of CO2 via photosynthesis and respiration and fixing carbon at 2-3 kg C m-2 y-1. Furthermore, the intense hydrologic and carbon cycles are tightly coupled in the Amazon where about half of the water is recycled by evapotranspiration and the other half imported from the ocean by Northeasterly trade winds. Climate models predict a drying in the Amazon with reduced carbon uptake while observationally guided assessments indicate sustained uptake. We set out to resolve this huge discrepancy in the size and sign of the future Amazon carbon cycle by performing the first simultaneous regional-scale high-frequency measurements of atmospheric CO2, H2O, HOD, CH4, N2O, and CO at the T3 site in Manacupuru, Brazil, as part of DOE's GoAmazon 2014/15 project. Our data will be used to inform and develop DOE's Community Land Model (CLM) on the tropical carbon-water couplings at the appropriate grid scale (10-50 km). Our measurements will also validate the CO2 data from Japan's Greenhouse gases Observing Satellite (GOSAT) and NASA's Orbiting Carbon Observatory (OCO)-2 satellite (launched in July, 2014). Our data addresses these science questions: 1. How does ecosystem heterogeneity and climate variability influence the rainforest carbon cycle? 2. How well do current tropical ecosystem models simulate the observed regional carbon cycle? 3. Does nitrogen deposition (from the Manaus, Brazil, plume) enhance rainforest carbon uptake?

63 RADIATION, THERMAL, AND OTHER ENVIRON. POLLUTAN↗
DOE OSTI2020

Catalytic Bio-crude Production in a Novel, Short-Contact Time Reactor

RTI has developed a catalytic fast pyrolysis (CFP) process to produce biomass-based hydrocarbon replacement fuels. From a technology perspective, this advanced biofuels process produces liquid transportation fuels that can leverage capital expenditures in the existing petroleum distribution infrastructure. From a business perspective, this technology does not face potential market limitations caused by oxygenate blend limitations for light duty vehicle applications. A promising catalyst has been developed with excellent potential for deoxygenation to produce a hydrocarbon-rich biocrude that is more suitable for upgrading with traditional hydroprocessing technology. The role of the catalyst is to control the chemistry during biomass pyrolysis to produce a biocrude in a single step that has lower oxygen content and is more thermally stable than conventional biomass fast pyrolysis oil. Catalyst properties are optimized to minimize gas and coke production and improve catalytic deoxygenation and biocrude yields. Results from this project have demonstrated that biocrudes from catalytic fast pyrolysis contain <20 wt% oxygen, with the organic fraction as low as 12% oxygen. These oxygen numbers are > 50% lower compared to traditional fast pyrolysis oils. The biocrude produced from our CFP process can be upgraded to gasoline range hydrocarbons. A very conservative approach for upgrading included a preliminary stabilization step followed by a hydroprocessing step. The oxygen content in the upgraded product was decreased by 97% (to less than 3wt %) from the oxygen content of the biocrude sample. Additionally, the acid content was reduced by 99% from the acid content of the biocrude sample. In an optimized integrated process, the CFP step and the hydroprocessing (upgrading) step need to be carefully balanced to maximize the input biomass energy that is recovered in the finished biofuels. Hydrogen utilization and carbon recovery during both catalytic biomass pyrolysis and biocrude upgrading need to be optimized to maximize energy recovery in the finished biofuel. A nominal 1 ton per day (TPD) catalytic biomass pyrolysis system was designed based on the laboratory experimental data. The system was designed to achieve the short residence times (0.5–2 sec) and high heat transfer rates required for maximum liquid biocrude yields while optimizing process integration to maintain catalyst activity by continuous regeneration. The catalytic biomass pyrolysis reactor is a continuously circulating single-loop transport reactor design that is flexible enough to allow sensitivity studies around temperature, residence time, biomass feed rate, and catalyst-to-biomass ratio (i.e., catalyst circulation rate) for process optimization. For a nominal 100 lb/hr feed rate of dry biomass, the products include ~25 lb/hr char and coke, ~20 lb/hr permanent gases, and ~55 lb/hr condensable vapors. Pyrolysis temperatures are 350–600°C, and the system is operated close to ambient pressure. Production of the catalyst developed within the project was scaled up to provide enough material (200kg) for bench-scale testing. The 1TPD bench-scale unit was fabricated, installed and commissioned with this project. Biocrude samples from wood were produced in this unit with the CFP catalyst with material balance > 90%. The intermediate biocrude yields and chemical composition compare well with previous laboratory results and a hydroprocessing strategy for upgrading the resulting biocrude was developed. The experimental results obtained within this project were used to develop a process model for a 2000 TPD commercial facility. Detailed flow sheets were developed for all major unit operations in the process and provided a basis for an economic analysis to develop capital and operating costs. Estimates of the biofuel production costs were used to develop internal rates of return for the yields and compositions measured for the current state of technology at the end of this project and for the yields anticipated for an optimized (nth plant) scenario as additional process improvements are made.

09 BIOMASS FUELS↗
DOE OSTI2019

Development of Processing Technology for Radioactively Contaminated Water at Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant - 19656

During the operation of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant, distillation by evaporation was the main method for processing radioactively contaminated water. When the plant was decommissioned, the evaporation facility was mothballed and floor drain treatment was suspended in 2016. At present, the existing tanks with the capacity of 26,000 m{sup 3} are more than 60% full with radioactively contaminated floor drains, which requires alternative processing methods. The current process flow for radioactive waste management at State Specialized Enterprise 'Chernobyl NPP' includes processing of accumulated liquid radioactive wastes at a liquid radioactive wastes processing plant. Under the processing technology, liquid radioactive waste is immobilized at the plant by cementation and the resulting solid radioactive waste is then buried in a near-surface storage. Key factors for the selection of alternative radioactively contaminated water processing methods are the possibility to clear the processed water (no control monitoring), which requires the same degree of processing as for drinking water, and minimization of radioactive waste generation due to the lack of free space for solid waste disposal in the near-surface storage. Floor drains that require processing contain radionuclides such as {sup 137}Cs, {sup 90}Sr, {sup 60}Co and {sup 40}K. The current level of the total beta and gamma activity is about 4*105 Bq/kg. The following criteria are set for the Chernobyl NPP site for water to be disposed to the sewerage system: - Max. 37 Bq/kg for the total beta and gamma containing radionuclide activity; - Max. 0.7 Bq/kg for the total alpha containing radionuclide activity. METOIL produces inorganic sorbents for removing radionuclides from liquids and develops sorbent-based technology for a variety of applications related to liquid radioactive waste processing. In 2017-2018, experts from the Chernobyl NPP and METOIL ran several joint laboratory tests to evaluate the efficiency of inorganic sorbents made by METOIL for processing floor drains at the Chernobyl NPP. The test procedure included treatment of radioactively contaminated water in a two-stage sorption process: static sorption (sorbents are mixed in a liquid) and dynamic sorption (the liquid is filtered through a sorbent column). NIKET and MODIKS sorbents were provided for the tests. The results of the test measurements showed that the total alpha containing radionuclide activity is less than 0.026 Bq/kg and the total beta and gamma containing radionuclide activity is 9.2 Bq/kg. The physical and chemical parameters after processing also met the water disposal criteria. High sorption capacity of the sorbents used for the tests allows processing hundreds of water volumes with just one sorbent volume. At present, preparations are underway for full-scale tests at a pilot plant with a capacity of minimum 10 m{sup 3}/day. At a later stage, spent sorbents may be immobilized by inclusion into the cement matrix, which will substantially reduce the amount of radioactive waste to be buried. (authors)

12 MANAGEMENT OF RADIOACTIVE AND NON-RADIOACTIVE W↗
DOE OSTI2011

Capturing the implications of land use change in Brazil through environmental assessment: Time for a strategic approach?

Brazil is experiencing a surge in planting of sugar cane crops driven by internal markets and external policy drivers for biofuels. The current expectation is for the expansion of these crops to continue. This creates concern over the extent to which the full implications of large scale land use change are currently being considered by decision-makers. Using the State of Sao Paulo as a case study (as it accounts for the majority of sugar cane grown in Brazil), a comparison was made of the impacts identified in Environmental Impact Statements (EISs) and Preliminary Environmental Reports (PERs), which have to be submitted for approval of most new sugar cane activities, with significant impacts known to be associated with sugar cane activities derived from literature review. The results from a review of 32 EISs and PERs (30% of the population) indicated that whilst some impacts were well covered by the sample (water and soil pollution, and air emissions) energy balance and Green House Gas emissions and food security had very limited consideration, and water resources, residues, labour conditions and social responsibility were only partially covered. Environmental Impact Assessment is constrained by its environmental advocacy role and its application to the project level only. This study highlights its limitations in the context of assessment of land use change which demands more strategic consideration.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2021

Exploring Western North Pacific Tropical Cyclone Activity in the High‐Resolution Community Atmosphere Model

Abstract High‐resolution climate models (∼28 km grid spacing) can permit realistic simulations of tropical cyclones (TCs), thus enabling their investigation in relation to the climate system. On the global scale, previous works have demonstrated that the Community Atmosphere Model (CAM) version 5 presents a reasonable TC climatology under prescribed present‐day (1980–2005) forcing. However, for the Western North Pacific (WNP) region, known biases in simulated TC genesis frequency and location under‐represent the basin's dominant share in observations. This study addresses these model biases in WNP by evaluating WNP TCs in a decadal simulation, and exploring potential improvements through nudging experiments. Among the major environmental controls of TC genesis, the lack of mid‐level moisture is identified as the leading cause of the deficit in simulated WNP TC genesis over the Pacific Warm Pool. Subsequent seasonal experiments explore the effect of constraining the large‐scale environment on TC development by nudging WNP temperature field toward reanalysis at various strengths. Temperature nudging elicits a significant response in TC genesis and intensity development, as well as in moisture and convection over the Warm Pool. These responses are sensitive to the choice of nudging timescale. Overall, the nudging experiments demonstrate that improvements in the large‐scale environment can lead to improvements in simulated TCs, suggesting future model developments in relation to model physics. In this way, the potential improvements in model fidelity will contribute to the understanding of how the mean state of current or future climates may give rise to extremes such as TCs.

58 GEOSCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2022

A Review: PFAS Adsorption, Sensing, and Remediation with Engineered Nanoporous Materials

Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are among the most abundant environmental contaminant species. They are widespread due to uncontrolled industrial and commercial use and have been linked to health risks such as cancer. With rising global concerns about the public health effects of PFAS, there is an incentive to develop strategies for reliable monitoring and effective PFAS removal, particularly in drinking water. Traditional PFAS sensing techniques are inefficient due to long measurement times, high labor input, high costs, and limitations to ex situ analysis. Current commercially available sorbents for PFAS removal generally lack the ability to capture PFAS components rapidly and quantitatively. Furthermore, existing sorbents are notably inefficient in removing the more toxic, smaller PFAS chemical chains. Large-scale applications of these methods tend to be costly and resource-intensive. Pacific Northwest National Laboratory has developed unique strategies for PFAS sensing and removal with capture probe technology that has an affinity for fluorocarbons, including PFAS. For both sensing and removal, the customizable capture probes can target specific PFAS compounds since they used a metal-organic framework (MOF)-based technology that can be fine-tuned and molecularly tailored. This tailoring of the materials enables high PFAS sensitivity, selectivity, and faster uptake. PNNL’s capture probe materials have been developed into a sensing technique based on the interactions of the capture probes with PFAS at the molecular level and further transduced that to a quantifiable electrochemical response. The materials have been integrated into a sensor platform developed by New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT). Tunable capture probes with a range of detection sensitivities allow for faster and more sensitive PFAS detection limits as low as what appears to be 0.5 ng/L (compared to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency health advisory level of 70 ng/L). Customization of the capture probe results in improved sorption capacities (fast kinetics and high capacities) compared to commercial granular activated carbons. This research applied various experimental and modeling tools to improve understanding the molecular level interactions between the sorbents towards PFAS adsorption properties.

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DOE OSTI2010

Comparison of NMR and crystal structures highlights conformational isomerism in protein active sites

The JCSG has recently developed a protocol for systematic comparisons of highquality crystal and NMR structures of proteins. In this paper, the extent to which this approach can provide function-related information on the two functionally annotated proteins TM1081, a Thermotoga maritima anti- factor antagonist, and A2LD1 (gi:13879369), a mouse -glutamylamine cyclotransferase, is explored. The NMR structures of the two proteins have been determined in solution at 313 and 298 K, respectively, using the current JCSG protocol based on the software package UNIO for extensive automation. The corresponding crystal structures were solved by the JCSG at 100 K and 1.6 Å resolution and at 100 K and 1.9 Å resolution, respectively. The NMR and crystal structures of the two proteins share the same overall molecular architectures. However, the precision of the structure determination along the amino-acid sequence varies over a significantly wider range in the NMR structures than in the crystal structures. Thereby, in each of the two NMR structures about 65% of the residues have displacements below the average and in both proteins the less well ordered residues include large parts of the active sites, in addition to some highly solvent-exposed surface areas. Whereas the latter show increased disorder in the crystal and in solution, the active-site regions display increased displacements only in the NMR structures, where they undergo local conformational exchange on the millisecond time scale that appears to be frozen in the crystals. These observations suggest that a search for molecular regions showing increased structural disorder and slow dynamic processes in solution while being well ordered in the corresponding crystal structure might be a valid initial step in the challenge of identifying putative active sites in functionally unannotated proteins with known three-dimensional structure.

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DOE OSTI2018

California CO 2 Storage Assurance Facility Enterprise (C2SAFE): Final Technical Report

The California CO 2 Storage Assurance Facility Enterprise (C2SAFE) project conducted a preliminary study into the feasibility of a commercial-scale carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) storage complex located in California’s Southern San Joaquin Valley (SSJV). The work represents the first phase of a multi-phased development approach outlined by the United States Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) Carbon Storage Assurance and Facility Enterprise (CarbonSAFE) program meant to develop carbon storage sites capable of permanently storing 50 million metric tonnes of CO 2 , or greater, injected over a typical facility life of 20 to 30 years. This report represents the culmination of work performed under C2SAFE and outlines a phased implementation plan for large-scale, industrial carbon capture and permanent storage in California’s SSJV. The report is meant to be a standalone document and as such provides high-level summaries of all tasks of the project, but is also meant to complement the other three topical reports issued by the project – reports referenced herein. The study considered multiple scenarios including an east-side storage facility, a west-side storage facility, and potential multi-site storage facilities. The east-side storage facility is to be located at Clean Energy Systems, Inc.’s Kimberlina Power Plant, or nearby, and the west-side facility will be located at the California Resources Corporation’s (CRC’s) Elk Hills oil field. The majority of carbon emissions are planned to be captured from existing sources and transported to the selected and verified storage site(s). Capture from the single closest source to the eastern storage facility and the sources within the Elk Hills field would meet the CarbonSAFE storage goal of 50 million tonnes. The study has shown there is sufficient storage capacity to meet this requirement and more; thus, capture from any of the numerous additional large nearby sources would substantially leverage the CarbonSAFE investment. A comparison of preliminary CO 2 capture, transportation, and storage costs to economic value and incentives in the state shows current market conditions make it economically feasible to develop large-scale industrial storage sites in California’s SSJV. The business case for Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) in California’s SSJV appears economically viable today for large CO 2 point sources involved in the production of transportation fuels, such as oilfield cogeneration units and steam boilers. The overall levelized CCS cost is estimated at roughly 125 per tonne of CO 2 , which includes CO 2 amine-solvent post-combustion capture, transportation, and storage. The levelized CO 2 capture cost is based on today’s technology, with no future cost reduction factored in for technology improvement. The sum of the value of incentives and revenue from California Low Carbon Fuel Standard (LCFS) credits (discounted roughly 20% from their current transaction value), sale of California cap-and-trade emission allowances, and Section 45Q tax credits—either for saline storage or the Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR) credit plus CO 2 sales revenue—is about 165/tonne-CO 2 . The economic viability of CCS for Natural Gas Combined Cycle (NGCC) power plants in the SSJV is more site-specific. A plant providing power solely to the electric grid, if it added CCS, should be eligible for Section 45Q tax credits and could sell its excess cap-and-trade emission allowances, but it would not generate LCFS credits. Using the cost and incentive values detailed in this report, it would not be economical for such a plant to add CCS today, barring other considerations. An NGCC plant within an oilfield (e.g., CRC Elk Hills and NRG Sunrise) that provides power to the oilfield as well as to the grid should receive “partial credit” in terms of generating LCFS credits if it added CCS (pro-rated for the fraction of power going to the oilfield). Such a plant should also be eligible for Section 45Q tax credits and garner revenue from selling its excess cap-and-trade emission allowances. Using the cost and incentive values described in this report, the economic viability of adding CCS today would depend on the relative fractions of electricity supplied to the oilfield and the grid. As the value of cap-and-trade emission allowances grows over time (either by market forces or the escalating floor price), the relative fraction of power needing to remain in the oilfield to achieve “breakeven” would diminish. At some point, even plants providing all their power to the grid would be candidates for economical CCS application. The C2SAFE team has proposed to expand upon the knowledge gained during this study by conducting a detailed feasibility assessment under a follow-on phase of the program, Phase II – Feasibility. This would include detailed data collection at the two sites, analysis, reporting, stakeholder outreach, and risk mitigation activities to support the development of a commercial carbon storage complex in the SSJV.

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