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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

Enabling an Interactive Grid: A Strategic Vision for Interoperability

This whitepaper proposes that ecosystems of organizations integrating smart technology use such a vision to align their directions and transcend immediate challenge. It then offers a framework for developing a stakeholder roadmap for these integration ecosystems to achieve their vision, including tools to measure the state of interoperability, and a process to identify gaps and prioritize technologies, policies, and timelines.

der integration↗

Enabling an Interactive Grid: A Strategic Vision for Interoperability

This whitepaper proposes that ecosystems of organizations integrating smart technology use such a vision to align their directions and transcend immediate challenge. It then offers a framework for developing a stakeholder roadmap for these integration ecosystems to achieve their vision, including tools to measure the state of interoperability, and a process to identify gaps and prioritize technologies, policies, and timelines.

interoperability, , grid architecture, der integra↗

The current status of high temperature electrochemistry-based CO 2 transport membranes and reactors for direct CO 2 capture and conversion

The concept of direct CO 2 capture and conversion has attracted significant interest from industries and academia in recent decades due to its potential to address the current grand challenge of global warming/climate change, rapid depletion of fossil fuels and realization of a future carbon neutral ecosystem. The incumbent benchmark technology for CO 2 capture is the post-combustion flue-gas “amine washing”, which is energy intensive and costly for large-scale commercial implementation. The CO 2 conversion technologies, on the other hand, are still at their infancy with many technical challenges to overcome, but primarily being explored in laboratory-scale, low-temperature, solution-based and high-temperature, solid-oxide-based electrochemical cells with renewable electricity perceived as the energy input. In this article, we provide a comprehensive overview on an emergent class of high-temperature electrochemical CO 2 transport membranes that can capture and convert CO 2 into valuable chemicals in single catalytic reactor fashion. The review starts with the chemistry and transport theory of three basic types of membranes purposely designed for different CO 2 feedstocks and downstream conversions. A range of key functional materials used in these membranes and their microstructural/electrochemical properties important to the CO 2 transport are then thoroughly discussed in conjunction with the effects of surface modifications and operating conditions. Several types of combined CO 2 capture and conversion catalytic reactors based on these membranes are also assessed with a focus on their working principles, system configurations and performance demonstrations. Finally, challenges and prospective of these electrochemical CO 2 transport membranes and their associated conversion reactors are candidly discussed for future development.

10 SYNTHETIC FUELS↗

Effects of Eucalyptus wood and leaf litter on saproxylic insects in the southeastern United States

Although Eucalyptus is widely planted outside its native range for timber and pulp production, the effects of these exotic plantations on biodiversity relative to native semi-natural forests or plantations of native tree species remain incompletely understood. Here, we compare the diversity of saproxylic beetles (Coleoptera) and true bugs (Hemiptera) between non-native Eucalyptus benthamii Maiden and Cambage (Camden white gum) and native Pinus taeda L. (loblolly pine) stands on the upper Coastal Plain of South Carolina, U.S.A. We sampled insects emerging from logs of both species placed in both stand types after 1, 2, 6, and 12 months in the field. Beetle and true bug richness and diversity were both significantly lower from eucalypt than from pine wood. Moreover, the two communities were compositionally distinct. Whereas pine supported many species of host-specific phloeoxylophagous beetles, most species collected from eucalypts were mycophagous or predatory taxa capable of utilizing a wide range of hosts. Species richness did not differ between logs placed in eucalypt vs. pine stands but Shannon’s diversity was significantly higher in the eucalypt stands, possibly due to greater sun exposure in the latter. Contrary to a previous study, we found no support for the idea that eucalypt litter reduces the diversity of saproxylic insects. Our findings add to the growing body of evidence that non-native plantations are less favorable to biodiversity than those consisting of native tree species.

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗

Efficient partnership models for energy technology startups enabled by artificial intelligence that hyper-targets ecosystem connectivity

PartnerAI is a platform that utilizes the tools of the rapidly advancing field of Artificial Intelligence (AI) to understand and identify the connections between founders and potential partners or investors in the clean energy space. The platform makes use of data science tools, including clustering and NLP libraries, to evaluate scraped text and data, and build a real-time network of potential connections.

99 GENERAL AND MISCELLANEOUS↗

Demand Capacity Balancing at Vertiports for Initial Strategic Conflict Management of Urban Air Mobility Operations

Urban Air Mobility (UAM) is a new transportation concept that enables highly automated, cooperative, passenger or cargo-carrying air transportation services in and around urban areas. To achieve the high level of operational density and complexity desired by the UAM community, an airspace system that allows UAM operators to readily access and operate safely and efficiently in the airspace is needed. This airspace system will require air traffic management designed to reduce the risk of conflicts and loss of separation between UAM flights. In general, strategic conflict management is considered as the first layer of conflict management for safe flight operations to condition the traffic to reduce the need for airborne separation provision, the second layer of conflict management. Demand Capacity Balancing (DCB) is one of the concept components to achieve strategic conflict management. DCB strategically evaluates traffic demand and resource capacities to allow UAM operators to determine when, where and how they operate, while mitigating conflicting needs for airspace and vertiport capacity. DCB can be applied whenever UAM demand exceeds the capacity in airspace or at vertiports. As the UAM ecosystem evolves with advanced technologies and matured operational procedures, more complicated conflict management will likely be needed. In the current UAM ‘Concept of Operation (ConOps) 1.0’ operational stage defined by FAA, however, it will be meaningful to explore the demand capacity balancing at vertiports only, as an initial strategic conflict management approach for UAM operations because vertiport capacity seems to be a bottleneck of UAM traffic. For this research, we developed a demand-capacity imbalance detection and resolution service for UAM. This DCB service identifies the demand from operators and compares the demand to a given capacity at the shared resources (i.e., vertiports) over the upcoming time horizon which is divided into time bins having a constant interval. When a new flight plan is submitted, the algorithm embedded in the DCB service checks the available time bins based on the desired departure time and estimated arrival time at origin and destination vertiports, respectively. If the time bins for the originally desired times are already occupied by other flights (i.e., demand is at or above capacity), the algorithm finds the next available time bins for takeoff and landing and shifts the conflicting departure time to the earliest time that satisfies the capacity constraints at both origin and destination vertiports. The details of the algorithm will be described in the final manuscript. Figure 1 shows that the proposed DCB algorithm works well for a sample traffic scenario. In this example, a total of 144 flights, split between two operators, are planned over 2 hours, traveling 10 routes between five vertiports. In the heatmaps, the horizontal axis shows 12 time bins where each bin represents a 12-minute interval, and the vertical axis shows five vertiports. The number in each cell shows the number of operations, counting both departures and arrivals, at a specific vertiport in each time bin. For the given capacity of 2 operations/vertiport/bin, Figure 1 shows that the original demand sometimes exceeds the capacity, but the modified demand is reduced to the given capacity after resolving demand-capacity imbalances. When UAM flights are operated, it is expected that many practical issues would arise in the federated system architecture with multiple operators. UAM operators may experience a time synchronization issue due to communication delay between operator and vehicle. UAM vehicles would fly at different flight speeds, depending on vehicle models. Actual departure and arrival times can have large variations, compared to the schedule. The lead time from flight plan submission to desired departure time can vary by service type (e.g., regular shuttle service vs. on-demand service). Using the proposed DCB algorithm, we also investigated how the actual flight schedule and DCB performance are affected by these uncertainties such as unsynchronized times between operators, flight speed differences, lead time differences, and departure time errors. The final manuscript will include the background of this research work, the description of the DCB algorithm and its use cases with traffic scenarios. It will also provide the analytical results about the impact of various uncertainties that can occur in actual UAM operations on the DCB at vertiports, in terms of demand distribution changes, number of simultaneous operations, and delay propagation.

Urban Air Mobility↗

Argonne broadens understanding of America’s transportation and mobility systems

Mobility in America is changing fast. To understand where it’s headed, Argonne caught up with Michael Berube, the acting deputy assistant secretary for transportation in the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy. While at the laboratory, Berube took time to highlight the ways in which technology and consumer demand are shaping transportation, and the insights national laboratories like Argonne can provide about the future.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

EVs@Scale High-Power Charging (HPC) Pillar Deep-Dive Technical Meeting

EVs@Scale Lab Consortium is addressing challenges, developing solutions, and enabling technologies for transportation electrification ecosystem. The consortium has five research pillars one of which focuses on high power charging (HPC). HPC pillar brings together hardware and software expertise, capabilities, and facilities related to high power EV charging, charge management, and grid integration. Deep-dive technical meetings are organized twice a year and provides an opportunity for more industry engagement and technical feedback for the national labs throughout the project lifecycle. High-Power Charging pillar has two active projects: (i) Next-Gen Profiles (NGP) and (ii) High-Power Electric Vehicle Charging Hub Integration Platform (eCHIP). This presentation summarizes the progress made in both projects during the past six months focusing on specific topics. There will be two deep-dive technical meetings twice a year. Every deep-dive meeting will focus on different aspects of the project progress.

ADVANCED PROPULSION SYSTEMS↗

Nov. 2024 EVs@Scale High-Power Charging Deep Dive Technical Meeting

EVs@Scale Lab Consortium is addressing challenges, developing solutions, and enabling technologies for transportation electrification ecosystem. The consortium has five research pillars one of which focuses on high power charging (HPC). HPC pillar brings together hardware and software expertise, capabilities, and facilities related to high power EV charging, charge management, and grid integration. Deep-dive technical meetings are organized twice a year and provides an opportunity for more industry engagement and technical feedback for the national labs throughout the project lifecycle. High-Power Charging pillar has two active projects: (i) Next-Gen Profiles (NGP) and (ii) High-Power Electric Vehicle Charging Hub Integration Platform (eCHIP). This presentation summarizes the progress made in both projects during the past six months focusing on specific topics. There will be two deep-dive technical meetings twice a year. Every deep-dive meeting will focus on different aspects of the project progress.

ADVANCED PROPULSION SYSTEMS,DIRECT ENERGY CONVERSI↗

Coupled laboratory and field investigations resolve microbial interactions that underpin persistence in hydraulically fractured shales

Hydraulic fracturing is one of the industrial processes behind the surging natural gas output in the United States. This technology inadvertently creates an engineered microbial ecosystem thousands of meters below Earth’s surface. Here, we used laboratory reactors to perform manipulations of persisting shale microbial communities that are currently not feasible in field scenarios. Metaproteomic and metabolite findings from the laboratory were then corroborated using regression based modeling performed on metagenomic and metabolite data from more than 40 produced fluids from five hydraulically fractured shale wells. Collectively, our findings show that Halanaerobium, Geotoga, and Methanohalophilius strain abundances predict a significant fraction of nitrogen and carbon metabolites in the field. Our laboratory findings also exposed cryptic predatory, cooperative, and competitive interactions that impact microorganisms across fractured shales. Scaling these results from the laboratory to the field identified mechanisms underpinning biogeochemical reactions, yielding knowledge that can be harnessed to potentially increase energy yields and inform management practices in hydraulically fractured shales.

hydraulic fracturing, metaproteomics, methanogenes↗

Quantum Networks for Open Science (QNOS) Workshop

Quantum computing systems currently being developed will have extraordinary capabilities to effectively solve complex problems in computational sciences, communication networks, artificial intelligence, and data processing, and will provide a powerful capability for researchers in almost every scientific discipline. Harnessing the full potential of quantum computing will require an ecosystem with a broad spectrum of quantum technologies. Quantum networks are one of the critical and highly anticipated components of this ecosystem. The combination of quantum computing and quantum networks are crucial to the US Department of Energy’s (DOE) mission to provide scientists with the state-of-the-art computational capabilities.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

Man-Made Closed Ecological Systems as Model of Natural Ecosystems and as Means to Provide High Quality of Human Life in Adverse Environment

For its more than thirty year long history, the experimental creation of closed ecological systems has from its very sources been distinctly and strongly motivated by the development of human life-support systems for space. As the trend developed its fundamental significance and broad opportunities of terrestrial applications of the technologies under development were coming to the foreground. Nowadays, it can be argued that development of closed ecosystems is experimental foundation of a new branch of ecology biospherics, the goal of which is to comprehend the regularities of existence of the biosphere as a unique in the Universe (in that part of it that we know, at least) closed ecosystem. Closed technologies can be implemented in life-support systems under adverse conditions of life on the Earth - in Arctic and Antarctic latitudes, deserts, high mountains or deep in the ocean, as well as under the conditions of polluted water and air. In space where the environment is hostile for life all around the cell of life should be sealed and the life-support system as close to the ideally closed cyclic turnover of the matter as possible. Under terrestrial conditions designers should strive for maximum closure of the limiting factor: water - in deserts, oxygen - in high mountains, energy - in polar latitudes, etc. Essential closure of a life-support systems withstands also pollution of the environment by the wastes of human vital activity. This is of particular importance for the quarantine of visited planets, and on the Earth under the conditions of deficient heat in high latitudes and water in and areas. The report describes experimental ecosystem 'BIOS' and exohabitats being designed on its basis, which are adapted to various conditions, described capacities of the Center for Closed Ecosystems in Drasnoyarsk for international collaboration in research and education in this field.

Gitelson, I. I.↗

Snowmass Computational Frontier: Topical Group Report on Quantum Computing

Quantum computing will play a pivotal role in the High Energy Physics (HEP) science program over the early parts of the 21$^{st}$ Century, both as a major expansion of our capabilities across the Computational Frontier, and in synthesis with quantum sensing and quantum networks. This report outlines how Quantum Information Science (QIS) and HEP are deeply intertwined endeavors that benefit enormously from a strong engagement together. Quantum computers do not represent a detour for HEP, rather they are set to become an integral part of our discovery toolkit. Problems ranging from simulating quantum field theories, to fully leveraging the most sensitive sensor suites for new particle searches, and even data analysis will run into limiting bottlenecks if constrained to our current computing paradigms. Easy access to quantum computers is needed to build a deeper understanding of these opportunities. In turn, HEP brings crucial expertise to the national quantum ecosystem in quantum domain knowledge, superconducting technology, cryogenic and fast microelectronics, and massive-scale project management. The role of quantum technologies across the entire economy is expected to grow rapidly over the next decade, so it is important to establish the role of HEP in the efforts surrounding QIS. Fully delivering on the promise of quantum technologies in the HEP science program requires robust support. It is important to both invest in the co-design opportunities afforded by the broader quantum computing ecosystem and leverage HEP strengths with the goal of designing quantum computers tailored to HEP science.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗

Exploring the determinants of organic matter bioavailability through substrate-explicit thermodynamic modeling

Microbial decomposition of organic matter (OM) in river corridors is a major driver of nutrient and energy cycles in natural ecosystems. Recent advances in omics technologies enabled high-throughput generation of molecular data that could be used to inform biogeochemical models. With ultrahigh-resolution OM data becoming more readily available, in particular, the substrate-explicit thermodynamic modeling (SXTM) has emerged as a promising approach due to its ability to predict OM degradation and respiration rates from chemical formulae of compounds. This model implicitly assumes that all detected organic compounds are bioavailable, and that aerobic respiration is driven solely by thermodynamics. Despite promising demonstrations in previous studies, these assumptions may not be universally valid because OM degradation is a complex process governed by multiple factors. To identify key drivers of OM respiration, we performed a comprehensive analysis of diverse river systems using Fourier-transform ion cyclotron resonance mass spectrometry OM data and associated respiration measurements collected by the Worldwide Hydrobiogeochemistry Observation Network for Dynamic River Systems (WHONDRS) consortium. In support of our argument, we found that the incorporation of all compounds detected in the samples into the SXTM resulted in a poor correlation between the predicted and measured respiration rates. The data-model consistency was significantly improved by the selective use of a small subset (i.e., only about 5%) of organic compounds identified using an optimization method. Through a subsequent comparative analysis of the subset of compounds (which we presume as bioavailable) against the full set of compounds, we identified three major traits that potentially determine OM bioavailability, including: (1) thermodynamic favorability of aerobic respiration, (2) the number of C atoms contained in compounds, and (2) carbon/nitrogen (C/N) ratio. We found that all three factors serve as “filters” in that the compounds with undesirable properties in any of these traits are strictly excluded from the bioavailable fraction. This work highlights the importance of accounting for the complex interplay among multiple key traits to increase the predictive power of biogeochemical and ecosystem models.

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗

PanFP: Pangenome-based functional profiles for microbial communities

For decades there has been increasing interest in understanding the relationships between microbial communities and ecosystem functions. Current DNA sequencing technologies allows for the exploration of microbial communities in two principle ways: targeted rRNA gene surveys and shotgun metagenomics. For large study designs, it is often still prohibitively expensive to sequence metagenomes at both the breadth and depth necessary to statistically capture the true functional diversity of a community. Although rRNA gene surveys provide no direct evidence of function, they do provide a reasonable estimation of microbial diversity, while being a very cost effective way to screen samples of interest for later shotgun metagenomic analyses. However, there is a great deal of 16S rRNA gene survey data currently available from diverse environments, and thus a need for tools to infer functional composition of environmental samples based on 16S rRNA gene survey data. As a result, we present a computational method called pangenome based functional profiles (PanFP), which infers functional profiles of microbial communities from 16S rRNA gene survey data for Bacteria and Archaea. PanFP is based on pangenome reconstruction of a 16S rRNA gene operational taxonomic unit (OTU) from known genes and genomes pooled from the OTU s taxonomic lineage. From this lineage, we derive an OTU functional profile by weighting a pangenome s functional profile with the OTUs abundance observed in a given sample. We validated our method by comparing PanFP to the functional profiles obtained from the direct shotgun metagenomic measurement of 65 diverse communities via Spearman correlation coefficients. These correlations improved with increasing sequencing depth, within the range of 0.8 0.9 for the most deeply sequenced Human Microbiome Project mock community samples. PanFP is very similar in performance to another recently released tool, PICRUSt, for almost all of survey data analysed here. But, our method is unique in that any OTU building method can be used, as opposed to being limited to closed reference OTU picking strategies against specific reference sequence databases. In conclusion, we developed an automated computational method, which derives an inferred functional profile based on the 16S rRNA gene surveys of microbial communities. The inferred functional profile provides a cost effective way to study complex ecosystems through predicted comparative functional metagenomes and metadata analysis. All PanFP source code and additional documentation are freely available online at GitHub.

16S rRNA survey↗

The Use of Remote Sensing for Monitoring, Prediction, and Management of Hydrologic, Agricultural, and Ecological Processes in the Northern Great Plains

The NASA-EPSCoR program in South Dakota is focused on the enhancement of NASA-related research in earth system science and corresponding infrastructure development to support this theme. Hence, the program has adopted a strategy that keys on research projects that: a) establish quantitative links between geospatial information technologies and fundamental climatic and ecosystem processes in the Northern Great Plains (NGP) and b) develop and use coupled modeling tools, which can be initialized by data from combined satellite and surface measurements, to provide reliable predictions and management guidance for hydrologic, agricultural, and ecological systems of the NGP. Building a partnership network that includes both internal and external team members is recognized as an essential element of the SD NASA-EPSCoR program. Hence, promoting and tracking such linkages along with their relevant programmatic consequences are used as one metric to assess the program's progress and success. This annual report first summarizes general activities and accomplishments, and then provides progress narratives for the two separate, yet related research projects that are essential components of the SD NASA-EPSCoR program.

Farwell, Sherry O.↗

Coffea -- Columnar Object Framework For Effective Analysis

The coffea framework provides a new approach to High-Energy Physics analysis, via columnar operations, that improves time-to-insight, scalability, portability, and reproducibility of analysis. It is implemented with the Python programming language, the scientific python package ecosystem, and commodity big data technologies. To achieve this suite of improvements across many use cases, coffea takes a factorized approach, separating the analysis implementation and data delivery scheme. All analysis operations are implemented using the NumPy or awkward-array packages which are wrapped to yield user code whose purpose is quickly intuited. Various data delivery schemes are wrapped into a common front-end which accepts user inputs and code, and returns user defined outputs. We will discuss our experience in implementing analysis of CMS data using the coffea framework along with a discussion of the user experience and future directions.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗