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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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All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2025

Non-destructive electrochemical diagnosis of failure mechanisms in aqueous zinc batteries

The early detection of secondary reactions that affect the life and performance of zinc manganese oxide batteries requires a shift from conventional time-consuming and often destructive procedures to rapid lifetime-predictive techniques. In this work, an electrochemical approach is employed to elucidate independent signatures for four common types of failure mechanisms in zinc manganese dioxide (Zn||MnO2) batteries—namely, the loss of zinc inventory, the loss of active material at the cathode, electrolyte depletion, and increased cell impedance. Our findings, specific to coin cell configurations, reveal that each induced failure mechanism can be distinctively modeled and identified based on responses from the rest voltage and columbic-efficiency data for prompt detection. For instance, electrolyte depletion response manifests a distinctive abrupt (>80 %) decrease in columbic efficiency (CE) and charge-rest voltage (Vc) while the discharge-rest voltage remained constant at ~1.3 V. Furthermore, electrolyte rejuvenation of the cell increased the CE to >95 % and restored Vc from ~0.3 to >1.7 V. Recovery experiments and reference performance tests demonstrated consistency between electrochemical descriptors and their associated failure mechanisms. Further, the outcomes of this work provide valuable insights and data models for some of the dominant failure mechanisms present in zinc manganese battery chemistries, which are beneficial to accelerated early-lifetime diagnosis and advancement of Zn batteries development.

25 ENERGY STORAGE↗
DOE OSTI2022

Stress-Controlled Creep–Fatigue of an Advanced Austenitic Stainless Steel at Elevated Temperatures

Creep–fatigue interaction occurs in many structural components of high-temperature systems operating under cyclic and steady-state service conditions, such as in nuclear power plants, aerospace, naval, and other industrial applications. Thus, understanding micromechanisms governing high-temperature creep–fatigue behavior is essential for safety and design considerations. In this work, stress-controlled creep–fatigue tests of advanced austenitic stainless steel (Alloy 709) were performed at a 400 MPa stress range and 750 °C with tensile hold times of 0, 60, 600, 1800, and 3600 s, followed by microstructural examinations. The creep–fatigue lifetime of the Alloy 709 was found to decrease with increasing hold time until reaching a saturation level where the number of cycles to failure did not exhibit a significant decrease. Softening behavior was observed at the beginning of the test, possibly due to the recovery of entangled dislocations and de-twining. In addition, hysteresis loops showed ratcheting behavior, although the mean stress was zero during creep–fatigue cycling, which was attributed to activity of partial dislocations. Microstructural examination of the fracture surfaces showed that fatigue failure dominated at small hold times where the cracks initiated at the surface of the sample. Larger creep cracks were found for longer hold times with a lower probability of dimpled cavities, indicating the dominance of creep deformation. The results were compared with other commonly used stainless steels, and plausible reasons for the observed responses were described.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗
DOE OSTI2024

DMTN-221: Periodicity Analysis in Alert Production

The baselined timeseries features to be computed in Alert Production include a Lomb-Scargle periodogram ran on two classes of variable systems: RR Lyrae and Eclipsing Binaries. Based on a simulated LSST-like cadence light curves taken from the Extended LSST Astronomical Time-series Classification Challenge (ELAsTiCC) we perform an end-to-end test to characterize the periodicity recovery on the Alert Production multi-band light curves. In both variable classes, we found that a single-band Lomb-Scargle implementation yields to a low fraction of recovered periods, with a significant preference on the simple periodic phenomena such as RR Lyrae. We also investigated the results from a multi-band Lomb-Scargle and found an increased fraction of recovered periodicities above 15% for the eclipsing binaries, and over 80$\%$ for the RR Lyrae stars. Our findings suggest that a multi-band Lomb-Scargle should be implemented for searching periodic phenomena through AP. We also asses the computational and scientific performance of several configurations on simulated alert data and find that our current configuration scales linearly with the number of detections while assuming an heuristic frequency grid.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2023

pnnl/i2x

Interconnection Innovation e-Xchange (i2x) Test Systems allows for scripted customizations of social behavior, recovery operations, investment decisions, and metrics in a simplified Python module. Public test systems allow for replication of results by other stakeholders

McDermott, Tom↗
DOE OSTI2020

Midwestern Regional Carbon Sequestration Partnership (MRCSP) Phase III (Development Phase) (Final Report)

The Midwest Regional Carbon Sequestration Partnership (MRCSP) was founded in 2003 as part of the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) Regional Carbon Sequestration Partnership (RCSP) Initiative. The public/private consortium, funded through the MRCSP, brings together nearly 40 industry partners in 10 contiguous states in Mid-West and North-East regions. Battelle, as the project lead, oversees research & development, operations, and coordinates activities among various partners. Since its founding, MRCSP has made significant progress towards advancing CCS and CCUS technologies for participating states in the region. Between 2008 to 2020, Phase III of the MRCSP program focused on the development of large-scale injection tests. This report is part of a series of topical reports prepared under the MRCSP Phase III. The MRCSP Final Technical Report summarizes the research conducted while monitoring large-scale injection tests at a CO 2 -EOR facility in Northern Michigan. The project successfully injected more than one million metric tons of CO 2 into depleted oil fields in the Northern Niagaran Pinnacle Reef Trend (NNPRT) for enhanced oil recovery (EOR). These commercial-scale tests provided valuable real-world knowledge that has been used to refine technologies and methods, reduce uncertainties, and demonstrate safety and effectiveness of CCUS technologies to increase public acceptance. The Final Technical Report provides an overview of Phase III efforts including advancing the understanding of the regional geology, storage capacities, deployment of many monitoring and modeling techniques and its efficacy, and technical demonstration of large-scale CO 2 injection, containment, and associated storage in the NNPRT region. Specific topical reports on the subjects covered in the Final Technical Report are also available through EDX/OSTI.

01 COAL, LIGNITE, AND PEAT↗
DOE OSTI2021

Parametric study and speciation analysis of rare earth precipitation using oxalic acid in a chloride solution system

Oxalic acid precipitation is a common step in the purification of rare earth elements (REE) from a concentrated pregnant leach solution (PLS). However, the presence of contaminants such as Al, Fe, and Ca in given amounts decreases the REE precipitation efficiency and product purity while also increasing the amount of oxalic acid needed to maximize recovery. As such, a statistically designed test program was performed to identify the optimal conditions necessary for a relatively low REE content PLS containing elevated concentrations of contaminant ions. The performance objective was maximization of REE precipitation efficiency while minimizing the oxalic acid dosage. A central composite design was utilized to quantify performance impacts and identify the ultimate set of parameter values for oxalic acid dosage, Fe(III) contamination concentration, solution pH, and reaction temperature. The resultant model suggested that oxalic acid dosage and reaction pH are the most significant factors for the REE precipitation efficiency, followed by the interaction of oxalic dosage and Fe concentration. Test results indicate that increasing the oxalic acid concentration from 0 g/L to 80 g/L improved the REE precipitation efficiency from approximately 4.2% to 95.0%. Furthermore, raising the solution pH from 0.5 to 2.5 considerably enhanced the precipitation efficiency from 0.0% to 98.9%. A solution temperature elevation decreased REE recovery, which indicated an exothermic reaction between REEs and oxalate anions. Finally, a high level of Fe contamination adversely impacted REE precipitation efficiency. Here, to further the understanding of the REE-oxalate system, a fundamental solution chemistry study was performed using the equilibrium constants of the reactions. The study resulted in the development of oxalate speciation diagrams and provided an analysis of the REE precipitation characteristics at various oxalate anion concentrations and Fe(III) contamination levels using MINTEQ software. The dominant Fe(III) species in the solution system were found to be Fe-(C 2 O 4 ) 3 3- , Fe-(C 2 O 4 ) 2- , and Fe-(C 2 O 4 ) + , which consume the majority of the oxalate anions. The simulated model was found to be in agreement with the experimental findings and helped to explain the adverse impact of increased iron concentrations on REE precipitation efficiency.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗
DOE OSTI2022

Emissions mitigation technology for advanced water-lean solvent-based CO 2 capture processes

This technical final report submitted to DOE/NETL presents all the research activities performed during the entirety of DE-FE0031660 project-Emissions Mitigation Technology for Advanced Water-Lean Solvent-Based CO 2 Capture Processes which spans from October 2018 through March 2022. RTI International has been conducting studies from fundamental and operational aspects to reduce the overall amine emissions from the advanced Water-Lean Solvent (WLS) systems, specifically RTI’s Non-Aqueous Solvent (NAS). This technical final report will highlight the key findings from project which align closely to the project objectives which are: Identify the contribution of vapor loss, entrainment, and aerosols to the overall emissions of water-lean systems; Determine the significance of CO 2 capture system operating parameters to the amine emissions; Develop an emissions model based on critical operating parameters; Evaluate the effectiveness of emissions mitigation devices to reduce the amine emissions to <1 ppm under flue coal-fired flue gas; and, Determine the contribution of the ECTs to the overall CO 2 capture cost. The following are the key findings based on numerous tests using both lab-scale setups and parametric testing performed at RTI’s Bench-scale Gas Absorption System (BsGAS). During the BP1, the aerosol generation system and monitoring equipment were installed at BsGAS to produce and determine the aerosol characteristics during the NAS CO 2 capture process. The aerosol produced by this setup produced aerosols with the peak diameter and concentration of 50 micron and 1.2E10 7 cm -3 , respectively. These particle sizes and concentrations are matched to those observed in the actual coal-fired power plant flue gases and expected to be found at the absorber inlet of the CO 2 capture system. Over 1,300 hours of parametric testing have been conducted to evaluate the impact of the aerosols and operating conditions during the CO 2 capture with NAS on the overall amine emissions in the treated flue gas. At the worse condition tested, the presence of the aerosols in the flue gas could increase the overall emissions by 10X compared to the baseline emissions from NAS’s vapor pressure. CO 2 capture rate was found to be a main factor impacting the overall emissions as well as aerosol size and concentrations in the absorber off-gas. The higher CO 2 capture rate, the higher amine emissions in the treated gas. The temperature difference between the temperature bulge seen in the absorber and the water wash temperature also impacts the particle growth where the larger the temperature difference, the more amine emissions from aerosols in the treated gas. The majority of the aerosols did not grow substantially in the system, and the particle concentrations remained nearly constant between the absorber inlet and wash outlet. Only a small portion of the particles were found to grow significantly. The high efficiency demister with mesh size of 5-10 micron can be installed to remove a portion of the aerosols from the gas stream leaving the water wash. Overall, these results from parametric testing have established the emission baseline and validate our assumption on the need of emission control technologies (ECT) in order to minimize the emissions from the baseline NAS CO 2 capture process. Over 2,000 of BsGAS operating hours was used to investigate a handful of process improvements which led to a selection of the vital few changes that effectively control the amine emissions. These process improvements are lime-coated-filters for absorber gas inlet, advanced demister at the top of the absorber, a second water wash with amine recovery unit were designed, installed, and tested at BsGAS at the end of BP1. The result showed that the NAS CO 2 capture process with these additional emission control devices could lower the amine emission in the treated gas to about 1 ppm using a simulated coal-fire flue gas stream. The main contributor in lowering the amine emission came from the second water wash with amine recovery unit where the amine concentration in the scrubbing water was kept below 2 wt% through a continuous amine removal via an adsorbent bed, resulting in a low amine vapor pressure. The adsorbent bed was regenerated via a direct steam regeneration and the recover amine was returned to the absorber to minimize wastewater and makeup amine. A flue gas generation system was designed and installed during the first half of BP2 to support the emission testing using a real coal-derived flue gas. The system is capable of generating both coal- and natural gas- derived flue gases with the composition of the gaseous species highly resemble to that of the power plant flue gases. The particulates detected in the coal-derived flue gas showed the mean diameter of 1 micron. The CO 2 capture operating was then proceed using the real coal-derived flue gas where the amine emission was controlled to be about 0-3 ppm for the total run time of about 200 hours. Similar testing was conducted with natural gas-derived flue gas and the result showed a highly amine emission of 30 ppm under the total run time of 200 hours. The Principal Component Analysis (PCA) and the Partial Least Squares Projection to Latent Structures (PLS) techniques were applied to the parametric testing data to derive a multivariate statistical model. The model was validated and trained with half of the data collected, and the predictive ability of the model was evaluated using the remaining half of the data. The resulting empirical model was capable of predicting the overall emissions from the NAS process without the ECTs with ±15% accuracy (average absolute deviation, AAD) in BP1. As more emission data were obtained under the real coal-flue gas in the BP2, the model incorporated these new set of data to reflect the final process configuration, operating parameters, and amine emission. This results in the updated empirical model predicting the amine emission from the NAS CO 2 capture process with 84% goodness-of-fit (R 2 ), 85% predictability (Q 2 ), and 15% AAD. The study evaluates the use of RTI’s Non-Aqueous Solvent technology for 90% CO 2 capture from a net 650 MWe pulverized coal power plant, downstream of the flue-gas desulfurization unit. The captured CO 2 has a purity of > 95% CO 2 , and is dried, compressed to 15.3 MPa (2,215 psia), ready for sequestration. The analysis uses Case B12B from the DOE Baseline study on Bituminous Coal, Revision 4 where the Cansolv CO 2 capture plant is replaced by the RTI CO 2 Capture plant. The CO 2 capture plant has been sized to capture >90% CO 2 from flue gas derived from a net 650 MWe supercritical pulverized coal power plant. The CO 2 capture plant is equipped with emission control technologies that limits the amine emissions to < 1 ppm. Two different cases were evaluated for the technoeconomic study. The key difference between the two cases is the regenerator pressure. In Case 1, the regenerator operates at 0.195 MPa (28.3 psia), whereas in Case 2, the regenerator pressure is 0.44 MPa (64 psia) thus removing the need for the first stage of compression of the eight-stage compression train. Results from the TEA are compared against the DOE reference cases for SCPC plant with and without CO 2 Capture (Case B12A and Case B12B of the DOE Baseline study, respectively). Case 2 with CO 2 regeneration at higher pressure results in the lower cost of CO 2 capture. The total capital cost of the capture process has been estimated using 2018 dollars in Aspen Process Economic Analyzer and was estimated to be $579 MM. The capture plant operation leads to a total parasitic power loss rate of 96 MWe, resulting in a decrease in pulverized coal power plant efficiency of 7.8% points. The resulting cost of electric power increases from 64.4 mills/kWh, for no capture, to 97.5 mills/kWh, with 90% capture, an increase of 51% in the COE. The cost of capturing 90% CO 2 was estimated to be $38.2/tonne-CO 2 , and meets the DOE target of $40/t-CO 2 . Emission control technologies (ECT) investigated in this project includes a second water wash with use of activated carbon beds for removal of amine from the wash water prior to recirculation in the water wash. These ECT allow operation of the CO 2 capture plant with < 1 ppm amine emissions with the treated flue gas and contributes to $2.4/t-CO 2 captured. Amine emissions derived from thermal and oxidative degradations were investigated under this project along with the emissions derived from aerosols for the NAS system. The thermally degraded of the lean NAS showed less than 4% decreased of the original total amine content in the NAS at 150 °C while the result obtained at 120 °C showed no drop in total amine content, suggesting that thermal degradation of the NAS is minimal. These results also suggested that the thermally degraded species are not likely formed and contributed to the emissions due to the low regeneration temperature of the NAS at 90-105 °C. The oxidative degradation, on the other hand, could become problematic as some of these oxidative degraded species were observed during the NAS-5 testing at National Carbon Capture Center (NCCC) and SINTEF in our previous project. The rapid screening of selected inhibitors suggested that oxidative degradation of NAS can be suppressed using thiol containing compounds in amounts of at least 1 mol%. The detailed mechanistic degradation pathway was conceived for a specific amine used in NAS formulation during BP2. he reduction of the nitrosamines caused by the NO x present in the flue gas was also examined. The study suggested that the thermo-chemical treatment of the NAS solvent would be a more effective and economically viable compared to removing NO x at the DCC.

01 COAL, LIGNITE, AND PEAT↗
DOE OSTI2021

Concentrating Rare Earth Elements in Coal mine drainage Using Coal Combustion Products through Abandoned Mine Land Reclamation

Rare earth elements (REEs) (including scandium, yttrium and a group of 15 lanthanides) are often considered to be critical components in the productions of renewable energy hardware, electric vehicles, health care and military equipment, and consumer electronic products. The demand of REEs has been projected to be growing at an annual rate of 5-9% in the next 25 years. In 2011, the global demand of total rare earth oxides (REOs) was estimated to be approximately 105,000 tons, which is expected to grow to 210,000 tons by 2025. China overwhelmingly dominates the current worldwide rare earth productions but has strategically restricted its exports, causing significant instability for the global market. In response to the increasing demand for REEs and the supply dominance of China, identifying alternative sources of REEs has become a critical issue for the United States and other countries. Coal, coal ash, and coal mine drainage (CMD) are considered to be the alternative sources of REEs. In the U.S., high REE concentrations have been reported to be closely associated with coal deposits, including the Appalachian Basins. When surface and/or groundwater come in contact with geologic strata containing sulfide minerals exposed by coal mining, the accelerated oxidation of sulfide minerals in the presence of ferric iron and/or oxygen can produce sulfuric acid. The process promotes the weathering of REE-bearing rocks and minerals in the host geologic strata. Compared to average river water and seawater, the concentrations of REEs can be orders of magnitude higher in CMD. In this study, we demonstrated a trap-extract-precipitate (TEP) process that can effectively recover REEs from CMD. The three-stage TEP process uses alkaline industrial by-products to capture REEs from CMD and then applies an extraction/precipitation procedure to produce a feedstock that can be economically processed to produce marketable rare earth oxides. The alkaline industrial by-products tested in this study include the residual from a water softening process (DRWP sludge) and two types of stabilized flue gas desulfurization materials (sFGDs). sFGD material is a mixture of lime (CaO) and two coal combustion by-products, calcium sulfite FGD by-product and fly ash. The objectives of this study are to (1) validate the effectiveness and feasibility; (2) determine mechanisms controlling the rare earth recovery, (3) quantify the associated economic and environmental benefits, and (4) evaluate the full-scale application. To achieve these objectives, tasks to be carried out in this proposed project are organized into three phases. In the first phase, the research team collaborated with Ohio Department of Natural Resources, American Electric Power, The Wilds (a nonprofit wildlife conservation organization), and a private landowner to carry out field investigations aimed to screen and evaluate the seasonal changes of rare earths in the CMD discharges that have high recovery potentials. Next, the recovery of REEs from CMD was tested using a series of lab-scale column and batch tests under, respectively, percolation and completely mixed conditions. Results obtained from these lab-scale studies show that all three tested solids are very effective in retaining REEs. Over 98% of the CMD REEs that contacted the solids were captured before the solids exhausted their neutralization capacities. We also determined an extraction process using a non-acid, organic ligand extraction solution that can effectively remobilize the retained REEs from the spent solids (over 90%). The REE concentrate (>7.5 wt. % of total REEs) is then formed in an aeration process. The TEP process uses environmentally benign industrial by-products and a naturally-occurring organic ligand to mitigate CMD and recover REEs. Techno-economic analysis (TEA) and life-cycle assessment (LCA) was carried out in the third phase. The engineering-economic costs and net energy, net CO2 emissions, and water and other requirements were investigated to understand the economic and environmental implications of this process. This work uses mass and energy balances from laboratory-scale experiments to estimate the economic costs and environmental impacts. The results suggest that passive treatment systems that use DRWP sludge are preferred over those that use sFGD material, because of lower economic costs ($89,300/yr with a unit cost of $86/gT-REE vs. $89,800/yr, or $278/gT-REE) and improved environmental performance across all indicators from two different impact assessment methods. These differences are largely attributable to the larger capacity of DRWP sludge in the passive treatment application. We envision this TEP process can be integrated with abandoned mine land (AML) reclamation to create an approach that can add economic incentives for AML reclamation, remediate CMD discharge, and eliminate public safety hazards and threats to local environment and ecological systems posed by AMLs. It can restore lands and communities that are adversely impacted by legacy mining.

01 COAL, LIGNITE, AND PEAT↗
DOE OSTI2023

Additively manufactured polymer composites for heat exchanger applications: evaluation of critical thermophysical properties

Polymeric heat exchangers (PHXs) have been used in applications involving weight restrictions, chemical compatibility, and fouling issues. Additive manufacturing (AM) or 3D printing provide new solutions to previously inaccessible combinations of properties and geometries. There are some advancements in the PHXs by AM; however, the process and the properties of materials still need further investigation to improve the overall performance. In this study, additively manufactured polyethylene terephthalate glycol (PETG) composites reinforced with graphite and pitch-based carbon fibers were evaluated for their potential application as PHXs. The thermal conductivity, volumetric heat capacity, coefficient of thermal expansion, creep behavior, and long-term performance were studied in detail. Our results reveal that the composites have an anisotropic thermal conductivity. The thermal conductivity along the printing direction is higher than the layer building direction due to the shear-induced alignment of the fillers. The printed composites achieve good thermal stability with 80% lower CTE at room temperature than neat PETG. Creep tests suggest the creep and creep recovery were highly temperature-dependent, and the deformation can be recovered when the temperature is below glass transition. These results suggest additive manufactured composites be potentially used for heat exchanger applications at low temperatures.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2020

Accumulation of high-value bioproducts in planta can improve the economics of advanced biofuels

Coproduction of high-value bioproducts at biorefineries is a key factor in making biofuels more cost-competitive. One strategy for generating coproducts is to directly engineer bioenergy crops to accumulate bioproducts in planta that can be fractionated and recovered at biorefineries. Here, we develop quantitative insights into the relationship between bioproduct market value and target accumulation rates by investigating a set of industrially relevant compounds already extracted from plant sources with a wide range of market prices and applications, including <$10/kg (limonene, latex, and polyhydroxybutyrate [PHB]), $10 to $100/kg (cannabidiol), and >$100/kg (artemisinin). These compounds are used to identify a range of mass fraction thresholds required to achieve net economic benefits for biorefineries and the additional amounts needed to reach a target $2.50/gal biofuel selling price, using cellulosic ethanol production as a test case. Bioproduct market prices and recovery costs determine the accumulation threshold; we find that moderate- to high-value compounds (i.e., cannabidiol and artemisinin) offer net economic benefits at accumulation rates of just 0.01% dry weight (dwt) to 0.02 dwt%. Lower-value compounds, including limonene, latex, and PHB, require at least an order-of-magnitude greater accumulation to overcome additional extraction and recovery costs (0.3 to 1.2 dwt%). We also find that a diversified approach is critical. For example, global artemisinin demand could be met with fewer than 10 biorefineries, while global demand for latex is equivalent to nearly 180 facilities. Our results provide a roadmap for future plant metabolic engineering efforts aimed at increasing the value derived from bioenergy crops.

09 BIOMASS FUELS↗
DOE OSTI2021

Microwave Plasma Flash Pyrolysis for Coal-to-Product Applications

Since 2010, the US coal industry has experienced a precipitous decline, with coal production volumes dropping by as much as 35% according to EIA. This decline is hardly surprising given that 90% of domestic coal use is allocated to electricity production: While coal generation supplied about 45% of the nation's power in 2010, its share is projected to fall to only 22% in 2020. Fortunately, alternative uses for coal as a feedstock rather than as energy source are available. Coal tar is an established feedstock for chemicals and high-value carbon products including carbon fiber and battery-grade graphites. At present, growth of these uses is constrained by the low availability, purity, and yields of currently available coal liquids, and high energy- and CO2-intensity of current methods of production (i.e. coking). Previously reported work conducted in a partnership with Pacific Northwest National Laboratory demonstrated technical and economic viability of flash pyrolysis of coal in a microwave plasma environment at bench scales targeting production of fuel feedstocks (synthetic oil). H Quest’s work since then indicated promise of microwave-derived coal liquids to be uniquely suited for the lower-cost production of carbon materials, including synthetic graphite, carbon fiber, and composites. Low bulk process temperatures, subsecond residence times, and ambient pressure operation enable small-scale deployment, reduce capital and operating costs, and suppress formation of impurities, including QI material, typical in conventional coal tars. With no inherent production of CO2 or water consumption, microwave plasma flash pyrolysis presents a viable route to the sustainable production of both platform chemicals and carbon-based materials. Most recently, H Quest developed a novel, ruggedized microwave plasma reactor, which departs from the proof-of-concept approach and addresses the problems typically encountered in scaling laboratory microwave plasma apparata (e.g. eliminating fragile quartz enclosures prone to coking and fouling). This reactor has been integrated with a 15kW microwave power supply, a pulverized coal injection system, and a product recovery system. A series of screening tests across a range of coals (including hv-, lv-bituminous and subbituminous PRB), entrainment gas flows and compositions and microwave energy inputs are performed to evaluate conversion rates within the novel, scaled-up system, confirm yields of liquid products, and to perform compositional (GC/MS and elemental) analyses of the products. Results of these tests will be presented and discussed.

Skoptsov, George↗
DOE OSTI2020

Enhancing Heavy-Oil-Recovery Efficiency by Combining Low-Salinity-Water and Polymer Flooding

Summary Combining low-salinity-water (LSW) and polymer flooding was proposed to unlock the tremendous heavy-oil resources on the Alaska North Slope (ANS). The synergy of LSW and polymer flooding was demonstrated through coreflooding experiments at various conditions. The results indicate that the high-salinity polymer (HSP) (salinity = 27,500 ppm) requires nearly two-thirds more polymer than the low-salinity polymer (LSP) (salinity = 2,500 ppm) to achieve the target viscosity at the condition of this study. Additional oil was recovered from LSW flooding after extensive high-salinity-water (HSW) flooding [3 to 9% of original oil in place (OOIP)]. LSW flooding performed in secondary mode achieved higher recovery than that in tertiary mode. Also, the occurrence of water breakthrough can be delayed in the LSW flooding compared with the HSW flooding. Strikingly, after extensive LSW flooding and HSP flooding, incremental oil recovery (approximately 8% of OOIP) was still achieved by LSP flooding with the same viscosity as the HSP. The pH increase of the effluent during LSW/LSP flooding was significantly greater than that during HSW/HSP flooding, indicating the presence of the low-salinity effect (LSE). The residual-oil-saturation (Sor) reduction induced by the LSE in the area unswept during the LSW flooding (mainly smaller pores) would contribute to the increased oil recovery. LSP flooding performed directly after waterflooding recovered more incremental oil (approximately 10% of OOIP) compared with HSP flooding performed in the same scheme. Apart from the improved sweep efficiency by polymer, the low-salinity-induced Sor reduction also would contribute to the increased oil recovery by the LSP. A nearly 2-year pilot test in the Milne Point Field on the ANS has shown impressive success of the proposed hybrid enhanced-oil-recovery (EOR) process: water-cut reduction (70 to less than 15%), increasing oil rate, and no polymer breakthrough so far. This work has demonstrated the remarkable economical and technical benefits of combining LSW and polymer flooding in enhancing heavy-oil recovery.

Engineering↗
DOE OSTI2022

Effects of Testosterone on Mixed-Muscle Protein Synthesis and Proteome Dynamics During Energy Deficit

Effects of testosterone on integrated muscle protein metabolism and muscle mass during energy deficit are undetermined. The objective was to determine the effects of testosterone on mixed-muscle protein synthesis (MPS), proteome-wide fractional synthesis rates (FSR), and skeletal muscle mass during energy deficit. This was a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial. The study was conducted at Pennington Biomedical Research Center. Fifty healthy men. The study consisted of 14 days of weight maintenance, followed by a 28-day 55% energy deficit with 200 mg testosterone enanthate (TEST, n = 24) or placebo (PLA, n = 26) weekly, and up to 42 days of ad libitum recovery feeding. Mixed-MPS and proteome-wide FSR before (Pre), during (Mid), and after (Post) the energy deficit were determined using heavy water (days 1-42) and muscle biopsies. Muscle mass was determined using the D3-creatine dilution method. Mixed-MPS was lower than Pre at Mid and Post (P < 0.0005), with no difference between TEST and PLA. The proportion of individual proteins with numerically higher FSR in TEST than PLA was significant by 2-tailed binomial test at Post (52/67; P < 0.05), but not Mid (32/67; P > 0.05). Muscle mass was unchanged during energy deficit but was greater in TEST than PLA during recovery (P < 0.05). The high proportion of individual proteins with greater FSR in TEST than PLA at Post suggests exogenous testosterone exerted a delayed but broad stimulatory effect on synthesis rates across the muscle proteome during energy deficit, resulting in muscle mass accretion during subsequent recovery.

Endocrinology & Metabolism↗
DOE OSTI2021

History Matching and Performance Prediction of a Polymer Flood Pilot in Heavy Oil Reservoir on Alaska North Slope

The first-ever polymer flood pilot to enhance heavy oil recovery on Alaska North Slope (ANS) is ongoing. After more than 2.5 years of polymer injection, significant benefit has been observed from the decrease in water cut from 65% to less than 15% in the project producers. The primary objective of this study is to develop a robust history-matched reservoir simulation model capable of predicting future polymer flood performance. In this work, the reservoir simulation model has been developed based on the geological model and available reservoir and fluid data. In particular, four high transmissibility strips were introduced to connect the injector-producer well pairs, simulating short-circuiting flow behavior that can be explained by viscous fingering and reproducing the water cut history. The strip transmissibilities were manually tuned to improve the history matching results during the waterflooding and polymer flooding periods, respectively. It has been found that higher strip transmissibilities match the sharp water cut increase very well in the waterflooding period. Then the strip transmissibilities need to be reduced with time to match the significant water cut reduction. The viscous fingering effect in the reservoir during waterflooding and the restoration of injection conformance during polymer flooding have been effectively represented. Based on the validated simulation model, numerical simulation tests have been conducted to investigate the oil recovery performance under different development strategies, with consideration for sensitivity to polymer parameter uncertainties. The oil recovery factor with polymer flooding can reach about 39% in 30 years, twice as much as forecasted with continued waterflooding. Besides, the updated reservoir model has been successfully employed to forecast polymer utilization, a valuable parameter to evaluate the pilot test’s economic efficiency. All the investigated development strategies indicate polymer utilization lower than 3.5 lbs/bbl in 30 years, which is economically attractive.

Wang, Xindan↗
DOE OSTI2023

FY23 Status of Quality Assurance Plan for Out-of-Pile Test Data

The DOE Advanced Reactor Technology program has supported recovery and preservation of legacy metallic fuel data collected as part of the US fast reactor program, recognizing it as essential to development and licensing activities for advanced fast reactors. Databases were established as organized collections of experimental records and data generated from in-pile experiments at EBRII, FFTF, and TREAT as well as related out-of-pile examinations of irradiated fuels. The Out-of-Pile Transient Database (OPTD), includes records of over 150 out-of-pile furnace transient tests on metallic fuels conducted at Argonne’s Alpha-Gamma Hot Cell Facility to evaluate their transient performance and characterize fuel/cladding interaction. The database is accessible to registered users from US universities, laboratories, and nuclear industry. Because the data in OPTD has not been formally qualified, its applicability and ability to support licensing activities is limited. This report outlines progress and plans to quality assure data in OPTD, maximizing its impact for model validation and verification as well as qualification of fuels for safe and effective use in advanced reactor designs.

11 NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS↗
DOE OSTI2020

Strip sensor performance in prototype modules built for ATLAS ITk

ATLAS experiment is preparing an upgrade of its detector for High-Luminosity LHC (HL-LHC) operation. The upgrade involves installation of the new all-silicon Inner Tracker (ITk). In the context of the ITk preparations, more than 80 strip modules were built with prototype barrel sensors. They were tested with electrical readout on a per-channel basis. In general, an excellent performance was observed, consistent with previous ASIC-level and sensor-level tests. However, the lessons learned included two phenomena important for the future phases of the project. First was the need to store and test the modules in a dry environment due to humidity sensitivity of the sensors. The second was an observation of high noise regions for 2 modules. The high noise regions were tested further in several ways, including monitoring the performance as a function of time and bias voltage. Additionally, direct sensor-level tests were performed on the affected channels. The inter-strip resistance and bias resistance tests showed low values, indicating a temporary loss of the inter-strip isolation. A subsequent recovery of the noise performance was observed. Here we present the test details, an analysis of how the inter-strip isolation affects the module noise, and the relationship with sensor-level quality control tests.

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