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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 91 records · Page 5
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2020

Arctic Coastal Erosion: Modeling and Experimentation

Increasing Arctic coastal erosion rates have put critical infrastructure and native communities at risk while also mobilizing ancient organic carbon into modern carbon cycles. Although the Arctic comprises one-third of the global coastline and has some of the fastest eroding coasts, current tools for quantifying permafrost erosion are unable to explain the episodic, storm-driven erosion events. Our approach, mechanistically coupling oceanographic predictions with a terrestrial model to capture the thermo-mechanical dynamics of erosion, enables this much needed treatment of transient erosion events. The Arctic Coastal Erosion Model consists of oceanographic and atmospheric boundary conditions that force a coastal terrestrial permafrost environment in Albany (a multi-physics based finite element model). An oceanographic modeling suite (consisting of WAVEWATCH III, Delft3D-FLOW, and Delft3D-WAVE) produced time-dependent surge and run-up boundary conditions for the terrestrial model. In the terrestrial model, a coupling framework unites the mechanical and thermal aspects of erosion. 3D stress/strain fields develop in response to a plasticity model of the permafrost that is controlled by the frozen water content determined by modeling 3D heat conduction and solid-liquid phase change. This modeling approach enables failure from any allowable deformation (block failure, slumping, etc.). Extensive experimental work has underpinned the ACE Model development including field campaigns to measure in situ ocean and erosion processes, strength properties derived from thermally driven geomechanical experiments, as well as extensive physical composition and geochemical analyses. Combined, this work offers the most comprehensive and physically grounded treatment of Arctic coastal erosion available in the literature. The ACE model and experimental results can be used to inform scientific understanding of coastal erosion processes, contribute to estimates of geochemical and sediment land-to-ocean fluxes, and facilitate infrastructure susceptibility assessments.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2021

Assessing Climate Risks to Midwest Infrastructure Workshop

Stakeholders in industry, agriculture, and city governments are struggling to understand how to manage climate change risks. Climate scientists, meanwhile, want to know what specific information their fellow citizens need from them to take action.

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY↗
DOE OSTI2022

Post-Invasion Damage Assessment: Ukraine’s Crop Storage Infrastructure

The Yale School of Public Health's (YSPH) Humanitarian Research Lab (HRL), working in collaboration with Oak Ridge National Labs (ORNL), concludes with high confidence that approximately 21.5% of Ukraine’s estimated 57 million tonnes of crop storage capacity has been impacted by conflict since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Intentional and indiscriminate targeting of crop storage infrastructure can constitute a war crime and a crime against humanity under international law.

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY↗
DOE OSTI2024

Consortium to Assess Northern Appalachian Resource Yield (CANARY) of CORE-CM for Advanced Materials

The Consortium to Assess Northern Appalachian Resource Yield (CANARY) of CORE-CM for Advanced Materials is conducted by Penn State and its partners. The objectives of the project are to 1) assess and catalog Northern Appalachian (NA) basin CORE-CM resources and waste streams, 2) develop strategies to recover CORE-CM from these streams, 3) assess the infrastructure, industries, and businesses in the NA basin to determine CORE-CM supply chain gaps, 4) review technology gaps related to CORE-CM production, 5) formulate plans to establish Technology Innovation Centers, and 6) develop stakeholder outreach and engagement in educational activities. This final report documents the work conducted throughout the project.

99 GENERAL AND MISCELLANEOUS↗
DOE OSTI2025

Illuminating the Night: A Survey of Super-Resolution Methods for Nighttime Light Images

Nighttime Light (NTL) images provide critical insights into urbanization, disaster response, and energy consumption. The VIIRS Day/Night Band (DNB) sensor offers high-quality NTL imagery with daily revisit rates, but the available spatial resolution hinders fine-grained accurate analysis. Super-resolution techniques aim to increase the resolution of NTL images, enabling more detailed assessments of infrastructure, light pollution, economic activity, and power outages. However, existing state-of-the-art super-resolution methods designed for natural images struggle with the unique characteristics of NTL data. This work provides a comprehensive review of super-resolution methods across multiple image modalities, evaluates their effectiveness on VI-IRS DNB data, and proposes a multi-modal super-resolution approach tailored to NTL imagery. The proposed approach integrates VIIRS DNB data with road networks and land use information to improve reconstruction accuracy and spatial detail. Code is available for this project athttps://code.ornl.gov/viirs-sr/sr-demos.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗
DOE OSTI2025

Illuminating the Night: A Survey of Super-Resolution Methods for Nighttime Light Images

Nighttime Light (NTL) images provide critical insights into urbanization, disaster response, and energy consumption. The VIIRS Day/Night Band (DNB) sensor offers high-quality NTL imagery with daily revisit rates, but the available spatial resolution hinders fine-grained accurate analysis. Super-resolution techniques aim to increase the resolution of NTL images, enabling more detailed assessments of infrastructure, light pollution, economic activity, and power outages. However, existing state-of-the-art super-resolution methods designed for natural images struggle with the unique characteristics of NTL data. This work provides a comprehensive review of super-resolution methods across multiple image modalities, evaluates their effectiveness on VIIRS DNB data, and proposes a multi-modal super-resolution approach tailored to NTL imagery. The proposed approach integrates VIIRS DNB data with road networks and land use information to improve reconstruction accuracy and spatial detail. Code is available for this project at https://code.ornl.gov/viirs-sr/sr-demos.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗
DOE OSTI2025

Commercialization of Pumped Storage Hydropower Technologies

Argonne National Laboratory and the National Laboratory of the Rockies were tasked by the U.S. Department of Energy’s Water Power Technology Office (WPTO) to conduct the Commercialization of Pumped Storage Hydropower Technologies study to investigate commercialization challenges faced by developers of pumped storage hydropower (PSH) projects and technologies by going beyond literature review to gather direct industry insights, lessons learned and best practices from interviews and webinars with industry specialists to create this report for PSH stakeholders and the general public. Researchers explored key challenges faced by PSH developers and innovators seeking to commercialize new technologies to improve PSH design, siting, construction, and operations. Along with highlighting challenges, the study sought to identify the best practices in developing and deploying new PSH projects and innovations. This report is designed to present insights, lessons learned, and best practices relevant to those with an interest in highlighting, informing, or advancing these PSH commercialization efforts. Along with highlighting challenges and best practices, the study sought to identify avenues by which DOE and national laboratories can help support and streamline PSH commercialization and project development processes.

13 HYDRO ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2026

Massachusetts and New England Sustainable Aviation Fuel Study

The Massachusetts Port Authority established a project to assess feedstock availability to produce SAF near 10 New England airports. A techno-economic analysis was conducted to determine renewable fuels and SAF that could be produced from these feedstocks. The resource assessment found municipal solid waste, woody biomass, and food waste were most abundant. The techno-economic analysis found that potential fuel production varied widely based on location, feedstock, and technology production pathway ranging from 1 to 369 million gallons of gasoline equivalent per year. An assessment of infrastructure readiness to handle SAF was conducted. It was determined that SAF produced outside of New England should be blended in other regions with more capacity and flexibility and delivered to New England as Jet A is today. For SAF produced in New England, there are terminals that have existing infrastructure to receive, blend, and distribute SAF/Jet A blends.

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY↗
DOE OSTI2026

Least-cost Optimal Distribution Grid Expansion (LODGE): Utility Pilots

The Least-cost Optimal Distribution Grid Expansion (LODGE) model provides the optimal portfolio of distribution system upgrades—e.g., voltage regulators, feeder reconductoring, transformer upgrades and non-wires alternatives (NWA), such as strategic siting of storage and distributed generation—to interconnect distributed energy resources (DERs) and enable load growth. It can be used to assess grid infrastructure costs and explore policy and regulatory solutions for distribution planning and DER valuation.In 2025, Berkeley Lab conducted three pilot analyses to validate LODGE results with empirical utility data before the model’s first release in 2026. The pilots, done with utilities in Washington, Colorado, and New Mexico, provide examples that illustrate how the model works, what it can do, and the value of the analysis.

Heleno, Miguel↗
DOE OSTI2024

Williston Basin CORE-CM Initiative Final Report

The University of North Dakota Energy & Environmental Research Center (EERC) is leading the Williston Basin Carbon Ore, Rare Earth, and Critical Minerals (CORE-CM) Initiative to drive the expansion and transformation of coal and coal-based resource usage within the Williston Basin to produce rare-earth elements (REEs), CMs, and nonfuel carbon-based products (CBPs). This project is the first phase in a long-term program and set the stage for future work by assessing resource, market, technology, and infrastructure knowledge; identifying knowledge gaps; developing a series of plans to be carried out in future work; and initiating stakeholder engagement. Composed of several tasks, the project sought to identify, characterize, and assess several necessary aspects vital to make this future work a reality. The project’s fundamental task was to characterize the Williston Basin CORE-CM resources. Over 2500 samples from multiple sources were utilized to begin the assessment. Several locations were identified in western North Dakota where sample analysis identified the total REE (TREE) concentration as being over 500 parts per million (ppm), which is at a concentration level that would be suitable to consider for mining and extraction. Current operating coal mines have sufficient concentrations of TREEs for consideration. However, the current data across the basin are still not adequate to fully characterize REE and CM content nor give reliable estimates of the total resource potential. Waste stream reuse was also considered, and several streams were identified which ranged from potential energy sources to chemicals to material wastes. This includes streams that result from oil and gas production. These streams are not fully characterized, and further data are needed before they can be accurately assessed. Infrastructure within the Williston Basin is suitable for expansion of a new industry to mine, extract, and concentrate REEs and CMs. The development of this industry will not only preserve many existing jobs in the coal-mining industry but produce many new jobs. The supply chain for REEs and CMs is currently controlled outside of the United States in nations such as China, but the potential to develop the supply chain within the basin is considered possible. Processing of the mined materials for REEs and CMs needs further research. The technology and knowhow exist outside of the United States, and within the country much of the knowledge has been lost and must be regained. To develop the supply chain and regain lost processing technology, the creation of technology innovation centers (TICs) is crucial. The Williston Basin contains several similar centers and entrepreneurial assistance for other industries that can be applied in the development of REE and CM innovation centers. Education to develop the new skill sets required is also needed. Outreach is important for the development of the REE and CM industry within the basin. Understanding throughout federal and state governments, state agencies, industry, and resource end users is vital for the industry to form and grow. Through this project these groups have been contacted through bulletins, presentations, webinars, and annual symposiums. The report is a summary of the work conducted and throughout refers to a series of appendixes which contain more thorough and specific information about each section.

01 COAL, LIGNITE, AND PEAT↗
DOE OSTI2020

Exploring the Future of Mobility: Transportation Energy and Mobility Pathway Options (TEMPO) Model

The Transportation Energy and Mobility Pathway Options (TEMPO) modeling framework is intended to generate future pathways to achieve system-level goals, estimate implications of different scenarios and decisions, estimate affordability and infrastructure use impacts, assess energy use and emissions implications, inform decision makers, and assess integration opportunities between transportation and energy infrastructure and supply systems.

ADVANCED PROPULSION SYSTEMS↗
DOE OSTI2023

Availability of state-level climate change projection resources for use in site-level risk assessment

In recent years, incorporating climate change considerations has become an important focus of organizations’ resilience planning and risk assessment efforts, including United States federal agencies. This has led to an increasing demand for higher-resolution and higher-quality climate projection information that is easy to understand for non-expert users. In particular, there is a demand for information about how climate change may affect high-impact, low-frequency (HILF) hazards that are central to risk assessments focused on infrastructure. While national-level resources like the National Climate Assessment provide information on climate impacts for different sectors and regions in the United States, downscaled information with location-specific context is often required for site-level resilience planning. As higher-resolution and higher-quality climate resources continue to be developed at the state level, it is imperative to understand ongoing and planned efforts, as well as key drivers for developing these state-level resources. Based primarily on stakeholder input from climate experts from 31 states, we identify key state-level climate resources, as well as drivers accelerating the development of these resources. We assess the availability of climate change resources, specifically those with information about HILF events that have been developed at the state level and can support users in conducting site-level resilience planning. We identify three key drivers or predictors for the development of climate change resources at the state level: (1) existence of state laws, mandates, Executive Orders, and other state policies, (2) existence of university partnerships; and (3) the makeup of the stakeholder groups (in terms of dominant discipline/expertise) participating in the effort. The diverse state strategies and resources surveyed in this study could support the incorporation of higher-resolution climate information into site-level planning.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2021

A heuristic tool to assess regional impacts of renewable energy infrastructure on conservation areas

Wind and hydropower are important renewable components of national energy portfolios, but their infrastructure negatively affects biodiversity. Regional development requires identification of scenarios that minimize the cumulative impacts of multiple facilities. We introduce the cumulative impact plot (CIP) to quantify cumulative impacts of renewable energy development within a region. Summed impacts of facilities are plotted as a function of the number of facilities, with facilities ranked by increasing (the best-case scenario) or decreasing (worst-case scenario) individual impact. These curves represent lower and upper bounds to which alternative development scenarios (e.g., facilities ranked by generating capacity) can be compared. We used CIPs to assess overlap of potential wind and hydropower facilities with two types of conservation area in the United States: (1) federally protected lands and (2) critical habitats of federally threatened and endangered species. Here, we evaluated two alternative scenarios: facilities ranked by (A) decreasing generating capacity and (B) increasing distance from urban centers. Differences between the best-case and worst-case scenarios were large, thus revealing opportunities to develop facilities with limited impact on conservation areas. Alternative scenarios maximizing energy density generally resulted in conservation area overlap intermediate to best-case and worst-case scenarios. CIPs can also identify the proportion of wind versus hydropower favored under alternative scenarios. Build-out scenarios aimed at minimizing conservation area overlap favor hydropower, whereas alternative scenarios favor wind power. We conclude that CIPs can (1) complement—but should not replace—project-level environmental impact assessment, (2) integrate strategic, cumulative, and scenario-based assessments, and (3) harness rapidly growing geospatial data.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2026

Hydrogen applications in airport operations: a review using the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey as an illustrative airport system

Airports combine aircraft propulsion, ground operations, stationary power systems, and fuel logistics in ways that make emissions reduction technically and operationally complex. Existing studies often assess hydrogen applications in these areas separately, limiting understanding of the shared infrastructure, safety, and operational constraints that shape airport deployment. This review evaluates hydrogen across three airport-relevant operational domains: aviation propulsion, ground support equipment and vehicles, and stationary power systems. Within aviation propulsion, the review examines sustainable aviation fuel production and hydrogen-powered aircraft as two distinct hydrogen-relevant pathways. The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey is used as an illustrative airport system to relate the literature to a real operating context. Drawing on peer-reviewed studies, technical reports, demonstration projects, and public operational information, the review also includes screening-level calculations of hydrogen demand and potential CO 2 e reductions for selected applications. The findings show that hydrogen's role is highly application-specific. Near-term opportunities are strongest where hydrogen serves as a low-carbon process input, supports selected high-utilization ground equipment, or contributes to resilient stationary power-system configurations. Hydrogen-powered aircraft remain a longer-term option because storage, fueling infrastructure, certification, cost, and NO x management continue to constrain deployment. Across all domains, infrastructure readiness, fuel logistics, safety requirements, and leakage management emerge as recurring determinants of viability. Future research should focus on cross-domain infrastructure planning, comparative assessment of hydrogen against alternative pathways, improved treatment of leakage and non-CO 2 effects, and clearer safety and regulatory frameworks for airport deployment.

08 HYDROGEN↗
DOE OSTI2026

Energy, power, and infrastructure demands from electrifying airport ground support equipment at United States airports

As the airline industry seeks to reduce costs and transition to clean energy, electric ground support equipment is emerging as a favorable option. The integration of electric ground support equipment into airport operations requires careful planning for vehicle deployment, charging infrastructure, and grid impacts. We develop a flexible, bottom-up modeling framework to assess energy and infrastructure needs across more than 300 U.S. airports. Our analysis estimates site-specific power and energy demand, equipment counts by type, charger requirements, and costs. Here we quantify the magnitude of new electrical loads created by the electrification of airport ground support equipment, finding that peak power demand at the largest airports can reach up to 20 megawatts, with annual electricity consumption approaching 51,000 megawatt-hours. We further show that behind-the-meter battery energy storage systems and solar photovoltaic systems can reduce peak load and lower total system costs by as much as 10 million dollars.

24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION↗
DOE OSTI2024

Offshore Advanced Infrastructure Integrity Model (AIIM) Dashboard

The Advanced Infrastructure Integrity Model (AIIM) is a multivariate, multi-machine learning modeling technology applied to evaluate the integrity of offshore energy infrastructure (e.g., pipelines, platforms) in the U.S Gulf Region. Offshore energy infrastructure plays an essential role in ensuring access to safe and secure energy for the United States. According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), production in the U.S. Gulf Region accounts for 15% of total crude and 5% of total natural gas from the United States. Many of these structures have been operating for close to or past their design life, while others have the chance of attrition before return on investment. To better understand the potential for reuse or life extension opportunities, an assessment of the infrastructure integrity is critical to inform safe decision making. Assessing structural integrity, AIIM provides key insights that inform infrastructure use and reuse, as well as hazard prevention planning, in support of stakeholders including researchers and industry.

Advanced Infrastructure Integrity Model↗
DOE OSTI2022

Offshore Oil and Gas Infrastructure Reuse for CCS: Opportunities and Challenges in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico

The United States Gulf of Mexico has historically been a significant oil and gas producing region and continues to produce hydrocarbons today. As such, significant investments have been made to install oil and gas infrastructure such as pipelines, platforms, and wells. As these assets reach the end of their useful life or production associated with the assets is curtailed, the assets become a liability for both the owner/operators and the U.S. and state governments responsible for regulating the assets. There are costs and risks associated with safely decommissioning the assets, and in some cases, the assets may be abandoned (e.g., the owner is no longer a going concern). In parallel, carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology has developed in the United States and interest and incentives for CCS projects have accelerated in recent years, with many public announcements of CCS projects in development in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico region. The region is particularly well-suited to CCS due to the high density of industry on the coastline (i.e., CO 2 sources) and favorable geology in the near-offshore region. CCS also requires the use of many of the same assets required for oil and gas production (pipelines, platforms, wells) and the oil and gas industry has direct experience with CO 2 transport and injection (i.e., EOR). Therefore, the combination of existing infrastructure in close proximity to potential CCS project sites appears to provide a potential “win-win” solution for re-use of existing oil and gas assets. This paper presents a high-level evaluation of oil and gas infrastructure in the Gulf of Mexico with the goals of identifying the scale of the opportunity (e.g., how much existing infrastructure is realistically re-usable), identifying gaps in knowledge/policy/information required to evaluate existing infrastructure for re-use, and proposing key actions that could be pursued to further the assessment of existing infrastructure re-use for CCS.

Infrastructure, reuse, re-purpose, oil and gas, pi↗
DOE OSTI2024

Evaluating the Nation's Pipeline Infrastructure with NETL's Advanced Infrastructure Integrity Model (AIIM)

This poster is a part of BIL-EDX4CCS Task 36: Advanced Infrastructure Integrity Modeling to Evaluate Existing Energy Infrastructure Reusability and Risk, the goal of which is to produce a smart tool that will assess existing energy infrastructure reusability and risk using the Advanced Infrastructure Integrity Model (AIIM). This model forecasts lifespan and potential risk using a multitude of factors such as incidents reports, structural characteristics, and the surrounding environment. The project aims to provide scientific insights for a better understanding of carbon storage (CS), potential to support CS stakeholder needs, national decarbonization, and mitigating climate change. AIIM will utilize an energy infrastructure database as its input, developed by acquiring publicly available data as well as NETL derived products. These resources include incidents, geohazards, and infrastructure variables. Soil data in the form of rasters and pipeline incident reports were processed and a script was developed to count the number of times features such as roads, railroads, and rivers intersected with pipeline segments which were then converted to points. Distance to oil and natural gas wells, petroleum ports, intermodal freight facilities, and geologic structures were also calculated. After data preparation and quality control was completed, the data was integrated into the pipeline points. Once models are complete, a smart tool will be created in the form of an online dashboard.

Malay, Caleb↗