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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 73 records · Page 4
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2024

The Melting Behavior of Hydrogen Direct Reduced Iron in Molten Steel and Slag: An Integrated Computational and Experimental Study

Direct reduced iron (DRI) and hot briquetted iron (HBI) are essential feedstocks for tramp element control in the electric arc furnace (EAF). Due to greenhouse gas (GHG) concerns related to CO2 emissions, hydrogen as a substitute for natural gas and a reductant in DRI production is being widely explored to reduce GHG emissions in ironmaking. This study examines the melting behavior of hydrogen DRI (H-DRI) pellets in the EAF containing low-carbon (0.1 wt.%) molten steel and molten slag. A computational heat transfer model was developed to predict the melting behavior of H-DRI pellets. To validate the model, a set of experimental laboratory simulations was conducted by immersing H-DRI in a molten steel bath and slag. The temperature history at the center of the pellet during melting and the shell thickness at different melting stages were utilized to validate the model. The simulation results agree with the experimental measurements of steel balls and H-DRI in different metallic molten steel and slag baths.

Materials Science↗
DOE OSTI2025

High-Speed and High-Quality Field Welding Repair Based on Advanced Non-Destructive Evaluation and Numerical Modeling

Creep strength-enhanced ferritic (CSEF) steels such as Grade 91 (9Cr-1Mo-V) and Grade 92 (Fe-9Cr-2W-0.5Mo) steels are widely used in the fossil-fuel-fired and nuclear power plants. The weld integrity of these steels is crucial for power plants' safe and reliable operations. Due to harsh service conditions, the steel weld can become susceptible to environmental degradation. Field welding repair is used to restore the degraded weld’s performance where a controlled temper-bead welding technique is commonly used to temper the freshly formed martensite during welding. However, knowledge of weld repairability is limited and experimental trial and error optimization to achieve desired microstructure and joint properties is expensive and time-consuming. Many existing computational models, e.g., finite element models, are limited to solving heat conduction equation and ignoring convective heat transfer due to molten metal flow. These models can result in over-prediction of peak temperatures of weld pool and heat-affected zone (HAZ), which in turn can affect the accuracy of tempering prediction. Moreover, these finite element models require an input of the deposit profiles in advance and thus limits the usability of these models. Here, a molten pool-based, multi-pass multi-layer model has been developed based on computational fluid dynamics (CFD) approach with the Volume of Fluid (VOF) method. The model calculates the bead formation, thereby eliminating the need for pre-determined bead profiles required by finite element models. For computational efficiency, a coordinate system attached to the moving heat source is utilized. A subroutine is developed to convert the temperature profiles in the reference frame stationary to the heat source to that stationary to the workpiece. The converted thermal cycles are then imported into a microstructure model to compute the tempering kinetics and resultant hardness using a Johnson-Mehl-Avrami-Kolmogorov (JMAK), and modified Grange-Baughman parameter. The modeling approach is first developed and validated on single- and multi-pass deposition of stainless steel filler metal onto a SA-533 high strength steel substrate. The models are then applied to a multi-pass V-groove repair weld of Grade 91 steel plate as well as directed energy deposition of Grade 92 steel. Non-destructive characterization of microstructures was performed on Grade 91 and 92 steel welds. Two welding processes, cold metal transfer (CMT) and flux-cored arc welding (FCAW), were investigated for the Grade 91 steel weld samples. For the Grade 92 weld samples, three different heat inputs (low, medium, and high) of gas tungsten arc welding (GTAW) were utilized to replicate traditional field welding processes. The non-destructive evaluation (NDE) method used for this research was immersion ultrasonic testing (UT) using a micro-resolution ultrasonic imaging methodology specifically designed to operate in the through-transmission configuration operating at 20 MHz of frequency. The system used a focused ultrasonic beam spot size diameter between 250-300 μm, and a 6 μm laser vibrometer spot size for detection, to produce highly defined images with longitudinal and mode-converted shear waves. From the micro-resolution ultrasonic C-scan images, three microstructural regions, i.e., weld metal (WM), HAZ, and base metal (BM), were clearly identifiable. Various levels of ultrasonic amplitudes distributed over the three regions were correlated with electron beam backscattered diffraction (EBSD) images using grain size, grain boundaries, and dislocation densities. The results showed that areas with relatively higher ultrasonic amplitude levels were associated with smaller grains and higher dislocation densities, while areas with lower amplitude levels were associated with larger grains and lower dislocation densities. In addition, ultrasonic velocity data obtained across the three different weld microstructural regions of Grade 91 test samples were correlated with optical metallographic images and hardness measurements. The results showed distinctive decreases in ultrasonic velocity and hardness over the HAZ region, where weld failures often occur during service.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2021

Chemical Understanding of Actinide Separations

This work provides a broad overview of the separation processes used to isolate actinides and the experimentally and computationally determined chemical characteristics that define those separations. The redox chemistry of the actinides plays a pivotal role in both aqueous and pyrochemical processing separations. The near-overlapping energies of the 6d and 5f orbitals in the light actinides allow for facile adjustment of actinide oxidation states, which is used in many established separation methods. In contrast, the stable, generally 3+ oxidation states of the mid- and heavy actinides can make it difficult to separate them from the similarly lanthanides(III). In aqueous separations, the tendency of the actinides to form anionic and neutral aqueous complexes with a variety of complexants (especially soft donors) is used to achieve high separation factors between chemically similar elements in both solid–liquid separations and liquid–liquid extraction. This selectivity can be further tuned through the use of specialized organic or solid-phase ligands. Pyroprocessing separations utilize the unique redox behavior of the actinides to adjust their distribution between a molten salt electrolyte and either a solid electrode or molten metal phase. Atomic-level insights into the mechanisms underlying actinide separation processes, with the ultimate goal of predicting separation behavior, can be provided by electronic structure and statistical mechanical-based calculation methods.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗
DOE OSTI2020

Advanced Manufacturing of Printed Melt Wire Chips for Cheap, Compact Passive In-Pile Temperature Sensors

Melt wires are a passive sensor used to determine peak temperatures during a test. Traditional melt wires are commonly used in test reactor experiments such as in the Advanced Test Reactor (ATR). However, the conditions within a reactor present significant challenges towards test design due to space limitations and the harsh environment. For example, some test capsules have only a couple millimeters in diameter available for instrumentation, which is too small to accommodate a traditional melt wire package, and they are ultimately filled to capacity when they are immersed in molten metal. To enable instrumentation for space limited applications, peak temperature sensing capabilities paired with additive manufacturing options have been utilized to develop printed melt wires for peak irradiation temperature detection. Here, we report on the fabrication of miniaturized melt wire chips with a melting temperature ~960 °C with printed silver nanoparticle ink. This study will advance the development of unique temperature sensors capable of sensing user specified temperature ranges within the harsh environment of irradiation testing.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗
DOE OSTI2023

Methodology for Thermodynamic Analysis Coupled with Computational Fluid Dynamics Modeling for Casting a Novel Aluminum–Cerium Alloy

In this paper, we present the results of computational fluid dynamics (CFD) analysis to assess castability, porosity, molten metal fluidity and other technological properties of a new Al-Ce alloy. A thermodynamic analysis of a new Al-Ce alloy is done to obtain the physical properties as a function of temperature across both solid and liquid phases. These properties are then used to build the CFD of model the full casting process from initial pouring through to final solidification of the part, here an example of a heavy duty mor mount is used. While several excellent commercial CFD codes exists this process shows that CFD can be used to assess the capability of the alloy to properly fill the mold, as well as give predictions where scattered porosity or large-scale defects may occur in the casting. Further, unlike the commercially available software (e.g., ProCAST, SOLIDCast , MAGMASOFT®) the complex 3D-analysis of the stress / strain fields in cast parts is not performed at this time. However, the availability of free software for assessing the required thermodynamic / thermo-physical properties of new alloys (OpenCALPHAD) and CFD codes such as OpenFOAM® makes the developed option attractive and economical, especially for the analysis of new Al-Ce alloys, for which the available data does not exist.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2021

The causal relationship between melt pool geometry and energy absorption measured in real time during laser-based manufacturing

During laser powder bed fusion additive manufacturing, laser power absorption is governed by a pro -tean pool of molten metal that can present as a highly reflective surface, a deeply absorbing cavity, or some amalgamation thereof. These melt pool dynamics have been linked to defect creation, porosity, and surface finish quality. Although these are therefore critical for determining final part quality, their in-stantaneous influence on laser absorption have only been explored through simulation. To date, direct real-time observations have been elusive due to the locally extreme environment. In this work, we fo-cus a laser on Ti-6Al-4V powder and bare plate while quantifying the time-dependent, absolute energy absorption by monitoring omnidirectional backscattered laser intensity. We also simultaneously record the projective melt pool geometries with high-speed synchrotron x-ray imaging. We find that laser ab-sorption strongly reflects the stability of the vapor depression over a wide range of applied laser powers, oxygen content in the processing atmosphere, and with the presence of powder. During laser scanning of a powder bed surface, we find a significant absorption reduction after 400 mu s due to a dramatic change in the vapor depression aspect ratio-an event known to create porosity. Furthermore, as several industrial scan strate-gies necessitate thousands of these events during a build, their identification and control is of significant practical importance. Lastly, a normalized enthalpy model is demonstrated to be effective in quantifying the relationship between the laser absorption and cavity depth, even under transient conditions. In addi-tion to providing vital quantitative data for simulation calibration, the correlation of melt pool geometry with laser absorption during realistic processing conditions suggests the use of a total backscattered light detection system for real-time process control.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2025

Derivation of physical equations for high-speed laser welding using large language models

It is challenging to formulate complex physical phenomena that occur in a manufacturing process, particularly when the available data are limited, rendering conventional data-driven approaches ineffective. This study aims to predict humping onset in high-speed laser welding by introducing a novel framework, namely text-to-equations generative pre-trained transformer (T2EGPT). This method leverages the capabilities of large language models (LLMs), in combination with sparse experimental data and enriched literature data, to derive an interpretable and generalizable equation for predicting humping initiation. By capturing key correlations among physical parameters, T2EGPT generates a compact and dimensionless expression that accurately predicts hump formation. The equation reveals that humping arises from the interplay between inertia-driven backward melt flow and capillary-driven surface stabilization, where inertial forces drive molten metal backward and capillary forces resist surface deformation. Furthermore, compared to traditional data-driven models, T2EGPT demonstrates enhanced predictive accuracy and cross-material transferability. More broadly, this study highlights the potential of LLMs to integrate textual information with data-driven discovery, enabling the extraction of physical laws in data-scarce scientific domains.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2022

Sustainable conversion of biomass to rationally designed lithium-ion battery graphite

The carbon net negative conversion of bio-char, the low value byproduct of pyrolysis bio-oil production from biomass, to high value, very high purity, highly crystalline flake graphite agglomerates with rationally designed shape and size tailored for lithium-ion battery energy storage material is reported. The process is highly efficient, 0.41 g/Wh; the energy content of its co-product of the process, bio-oil, exceeds that needed to power the process. It is shown that the shape of the starting material is retained during the transformation, allowing the ultimate morphology of the graphite agglomerates to be engineered from relatively malleable biomass. In contrast to commercial graphite production, the process can be performed at small scale with low equipment costs, enabling individual research laboratories to produce Li-ion grade graphite with customizable shape, size and porosity for Si/graphite composite and other graphite involved anodes. The mechanism of the graphitization of bio-char, a “non-graphitizable” carbon, is explored, suggesting the molten metal catalyst is absorbed into the pore structure, transported through and transforming the largely immobile biochar. Finally, the transformation of biomass to rationally designed graphite morphologies with Li-ion anode performance that closely mimic commercial shaped graphite is demonstrated.

09 BIOMASS FUELS↗
DOE OSTI2021

Lithium, a path to make fusion energy affordable

In this tutorial article, we review the technological, physics, and economic basis for a magnetic fusion device utilizing a flowing liquid lithium divertor (molten metal velocity in the range of cm/s) and operating in a low-recycling plasma regime. When extrapolated to magnetic fusion reactor scale, the observed effects of a liquid lithium boundary on recycling reduction, confinement increase, and anomalous heat transport mitigation may offer a fundamentally distinct and promising alternative route to fusion energy production. In addition, this lithium-driven low recycling regime could accelerate fusion’s commercial viability since such a device would be smaller, dramatically decreasing plant and electricity costs if all technological complexities are solved. First, the theoretical basis of the energy confinement and fusion performance as well as the related possibilities of low recycling regimes driven by flowing lithium plasma-facing components are reviewed. Then the paper emphasizes the technological obstacles that need to be overcome for developing the necessary systems for such a flowing liquid lithium solution at reactor scale and details how many of these have been overcome at laboratory and/or proof-of-concept scale. Finally, the current and planned scientific and engineering endeavors being performed at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign regarding this alternative reactor option are discussed.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2021

Materials Challenges and Opportunities for Energy Generation, Conversion, Delivery, and Storage (Applied Energy Tri-Laboratory Consortium Workshop Report)

This report documents the outcomes of the Tri-Laboratory Materials Workshop that was held July 31 and August 1, 2019 to begin addressing the needs, opportunities, and challenges associated with the development, fabrication, and testing of the needed materials and components for integrated hybrid energy systems (i.e., incorporating nuclear, fossil, and renewables for electric and thermal applications). This was accomplished by assembling the research program leads and principal investigators at Idaho National Laboratory (INL), National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL), and National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), who support the research and development of new technology and system integration. The team then identified and prioritized key materials development needs. This effort was intended to enhance communications and synergy among the Tri-Lab partners. Advanced functional and structural materials are central to transformative energy technologies for energy generation, conversion, delivery, and storage. With that in mind, the workshop focused on identifying and assessing the foundational materials research needs at both the basic and applied levels. Materials challenges include the ability to withstand harsh environments, such as high temperatures and pressures, corrosion, oxidation, or irradiation while maintaining flexible mission profiles and long service lifespans. Advanced energy system material challenges and needs range from materials for the capture, upgrading/concentration, storage, and delivery of low-grade heat to materials for high temperature environments that involve liquid metals, molten salt, and very high temperature gas heat delivery and storage systems. Material improvements are needed for hybrid energy systems due to accelerated corrosion and stress-fatigue failure of materials and equipment, which results from increased frequency and amplitude of thermal, mechanical, and electrical cycling of systems components. Multifunctional materials are needed for high temperature solid-oxide fuel cells, advanced electrochemical reactors, and in-process separation. Relative to materials manufacturing, application of advanced additive and subtractive methods need to be understood to develop both thin-layer homogenous materials and materials of graded composition. Materials modeling and machine learning will be critical to accelerate the design and production of power electronics, and nuclear reactor materials and fuel, as well as to gain an understanding of beneficial materials phenomena or deleterious microstructure evolution. There is also a need for standardized models, computational structures, data reporting protocols and modeling tools across the three laboratories. This would allow consistent results, analysis, and data sharing. Combining computational capabilities between the three laboratories (e.g., hardware, software) would greatly increase computational capabilities and throughput. The workshop identified the need for laboratories to anticipate and address problems that will occur during scale-up. Laboratory work must connect with industry to ensure that research focuses on processes that are scalable and marketable. Industry input and perspective are essential to guide laboratory research to meet these requirements and deploy new technology in industrial demonstrations. Another aspect of scale-up is the integration of multiple systems since new challenges often arise at the subsystem interfaces. Establishing a scale-up manufacturing demonstration/pilot plant, potentially as an industrial user facility, would be beneficial to the laboratories and industry. That modular scale-up manufacturing demonstration/pilot plant would allow researchers to find and resolve interface problems that cannot be identified by focusing only on individual parts. Communication exchanges among the organizers, attendees, and workshop survey responses indicate that the workshop was successful in achieving its goal to identify key technology gaps and research needs. Strong positive feedback was received on the sharing of ideas, capabilities, talent, and passion to move forward on the materials-related action items.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2021

Dual-Purpose Canister Filling Demonstration Project Progress Report

This report discusses the progress made at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory to support direct disposal of dual-purpose canisters (DPCs). Acceptable filler materials should demonstrate that the probability of criticality in DPCs during the disposal timeframe is below the probability threshold for inclusion in a repository performance assessment. This effort, which will ultimately result in a full-scale demonstration, includes computational fluid dynamics (CFD) modelling developed to gauge the filling process and to uncover any unforeseen issues. Filling simulations of the lower region (mouse holes) of a prototypic DPC show successfully simulate filling of the void space inside the canister and a smooth, even progression of the liquid level. Flow through a pipe that is similar to the drainpipe in a DPC is being investigated separately to gain valuable insight of the flow regime inside a pipe. Three physical experiments validating the computational filling model have been completed using surrogate liquids. One experiment using molten metal has been completed and the results demonstrate adequate filling of the canister void spaces. Although the scale experiment observed some void spaces related to shrinkage of the metal during cooling, the volume filled is expected to be sufficient to meet the purpose of moderator exclusion. Further experiments will scale up the geometry, moving towards a full-sized DPC demonstration, and provide a more rigorous investigation of candidate filler materials.

11 NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS↗
DOE OSTI2021

Development and Advanced Testing of DPC Cement Fillers

The fillers research and development (R&D) program, mostly experimental, is part of a broader R&D program that includes new process modeling and performance assessment of criticality effects and the overall importance of criticality to repository performance (consequence screening). A literature research and consultation effort with experts by Hardin and Brady (2018) identified several potentially effective and workable filler materials including cements (primarily phosphate based), moltenmetal alloys, and low-temperature glasses. Filler attributes were defined, and the preliminary lists were compared qualitatively. Further comparative analysis will be done (e.g., cost estimates) after experimental screening has narrowed the list of alternatives. The research presented here is focused Sandia’s efforts for the development of phosphate-based cement fillers. Molten metal filler research is an ongoing activity at Oak Ridge National Laboratories and is not discussed herein. After the completion of the FY20 research effort the following cement filler compositions were selected for further experimental development work and advanced testing in FY21: 1. Aluminum phosphate cements (APCs); more specifically aluminum oxide / aluminum phosphate (Al 2 O 3 / AlPO 4 ) cements in which Al 2 O 3 serves as the filler material bound by an AlPO 4 binder formed by the reaction of Al 2 O 3 with various phosphate sources; 2. Wollastonite phosphate cements (WPCs), specifically wollastonite and aluminum or calcium aluminum phosphates in which CaSiO 3 serves as the filler material bound by a calcium phosphate that serves as the binder; and 3. Calcium aluminate phosphate cements (CAPCs) specifically grossite (CaAl 4 O 7 ) and hibonite (CaAl 11 O 18 ) fillers bound by an aluminum phosphate that serves as the binder. This effort focused on the optimization and subsequent processing of these three cements to achieve dense and well-consolidated monolithic samples. Upon completion of the FY21 effort the aluminum phosphate cements (APCs) and the calcium aluminate phosphate cements (CAPCs) show the most promise for advanced testing and scale up. We will begin the work in FY22 focused on testing the performance of these two cements in small scale DPCs as well as advanced materials testing to evaluate cement performance under expected radiation doses and representative post-closure geochemical environments.

12 MANAGEMENT OF RADIOACTIVE AND NON-RADIOACTIVE W↗
DOE OSTI2022

Niowave Ancillary Systems – FY21: In Partial Fulfillment of the Deliverable Requirement for Niowave Ancillary Systems Support by LANL

Niowave Inc. produces medical radioisotopes within the US. Lead-bismuth eutectic (LBE) is irradiated using an electron beam to produce neutrons that are used in the production of Molybdenum-99 (Mo-99). The medical community relies on a steady supply of Mo-99 which is primarily used in medical diagnostic imaging. The irradiation of LBE results in high temperatures within the molten metal, this work focusses on the design of ancillary systems associated with the liquid metal system. The LBE is initially at a temperature of 200°C and flows over a steel plate to create a waterfall. The electron beam is then aimed at the waterfall to generate neutrons. The peak temperatures of the LBE post irradiation depend on the beam energy of the LINAC. For a 15 MeV and 20 kW beam, the temperatures can range between 300°C and 350°C. The LBE is cycled through the system to create a closed loop that requires the post-irradiation LBE to be cooled back to 200°C. This work focuses on the heat exchanger and condenser system responsible for the cooling of the post-irradiation LBE.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2022

Nuclear Waste Attributes of SMRs Scheduled for Near-Term Deployment

The purpose of this study is to evaluate the nuclear waste attributes of Small Modular Reactors (SMRs) scheduled for deployment within this decade using available data and established nuclear waste metrics, with the results compared to a reference large Pressurized Water Reactor (PWR). The current fleet of commercial nuclear reactors in the U.S. is composed of 92 large Light Water Reactors (LWR) with an average electricity generating capacity of over 1,000 MWe each. These large LWRs built on-site in massive construction projects have been the mainstay of the industry for the last 50 years. However, new construction soon is expected to include several designs of smaller reactors primarily fabricated in factories and installed in the field in modules. Some of these SMRs will also be LWRs, while some will use other coolants such as liquid metals, molten salts or gases, and different types of fuels. The technologies and economics of SMRs have been the focus of many studies, but there has been only minimal information published on the amount of nuclear waste different types of SMRs are expected to generate and no reports focused on near-term-deployable designs. In this study, the nuclear waste attributes of three small reactors scheduled for near-term-deployment, VOYGR TM (from NuScale Power), Natrium TM ab (from TerraPower), and Xe-100 (from X-energy), were assessed by comparing nuclear waste metrics with those of a reference large Pressurized Water Reactor (PWR).

12 MANAGEMENT OF RADIOACTIVE AND NON-RADIOACTIVE W↗
DOE OSTI2023

Casting and Characterization of U-50Zr

Uranium alloyed with 50 wt% zirconium (U-50Zr) is a proposed light water reactor (LWR) nuclear fuel by Lightbridge Corporation (LTBR). The proposed method for making the U-50Zr alloy is to arc-melt master alloys and then remelt in a vacuum induction melter (VIM) to consolidate the material and cast into an intermediate shape. After casting, the material will eventually need to be formed into a desired fuel shape. The work discussed in this report resulted from a joint effort between Ltbr and Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNN) to investigate a 500g – 1kg scale casting process to produce the U-50Zr alloy in the desired δ-UZr 2 phase and characterize the impurities and microstructure that result from the casting process. Master alloys were fabricated in an arc melter, then five castings were carried out in a VIM with multiple inert coating and crucible materials to find an appropriate combination. Both ZrO 2 and graphite crucibles were used and different combinations of Y 2 O 3 , CaZrO 3 , and TiC to identify which would contain the molten metal with the least reaction. On each casting, the C, O, N, H impurities were analyzed as well as the phase by x-ray diffraction and microstructure. Of the five castings, two resulted in majority of δ-UZr 2 phase-pure material and had impurity levels within acceptable ranges. The two most successful castings utilized a graphite crucible with a TiC undercoating and a Y 2 O 3 overcoat. The O and N levels were below 1000 ppm and the C content was variable but did not result in measurable carbide formation. The highest success casting resulted in an average of 282 ppm C, 567 ppm O, 217 ppm N and 79 ppm H. This casting's crucible and inert coating material was repeated with slightly different casting parameters and resulted in higher C numbers but similar phase identification. The differences between each casting are discussed and recommendations are made for future experiments to better decide on a casting process to go forward with.

11 NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS↗
DOE OSTI2021

ECAR-6588 Chemical Compatibility of MARVEL Components: Project # 33526

This ECAR serves to demonstrate the compatibility of MARVEL Reactor materials in contact with the two molten metal coolants, sodium potassium eutectic and lead. Operational requirements are determined, and recommendations for material treatment or replacement are presented.

21 SPECIFIC NUCLEAR REACTORS AND ASSOCIATED PLANTS↗
DOE OSTI2023

High-throughput methane pyrolysis for low-cost, emissions-free hydrogen

Palo Alto Research Center (PARC) and its partners will explore a targeted molten metal as a catalyst in a methane pyrolysis mist reactor to convert natural gas into hydrogen and solid carbon at a low cost without carbon dioxide emissions. The technology could augment or replace current H 2 production methods, while simultaneously sequestering carbon in high value materials.

08 HYDROGEN↗
DOE OSTI2026

Additive Manufacturing Evaporative Casting

Traditional lost foam casting has been around for decades. The process uses foam forms blown by an injection molding like process or CNC milled into the desired shape, then pouring molten metal over the foam pattern to create a metallic object. Additive Manufacturing Evaporative Casting (AMEC) is a new process that eliminates foam forms by using additive manufacturing to 3D print the desired cast geometry. This not only saves time and money but allows for more advanced and complex designs that can’t be achieved by carving foam. Additionally, AMEC doesn’t require molds and tooling like other casting and foundry options. Because the AMEC process is new, extensive testing is needed to develop a better understanding of the process to minimize defects, quantify material properties, and start computer modeling for the process. This CRADA (collaborative research and development agreement) between ORNL and Skuld seeks to improve the process, develop a computational model, characterize material properties, and explore new applications.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗