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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 109 records · Page 6
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2024

Characterization of Oil and Gas Drill Cuttings for Critical Mineral Recovery and Reuse Potential as Soil Supplements

Expansion of unconventional oil and natural gas production over the last decade in the United States has resulted in record production of natural gas and oil in 2024. Millions of tons of drill cuttings generated from shale gas development are currently disposed of in landfills. Converting these cuttings into value product(s) such as critical minerals (CMs) and soil supplements, has the potential of reducing environmental impact of fossil fuel exploration. In this study we characterize the CM distribution and extractability from collected drill cuttings and core samples from major U.S. shale formations. A four-step sequential extraction, consisting of a sonicated soap step, sonicated EDTA step , mildly reducing agent, and a oxidizing agent, was developed to simultaneously extract CMs and convert the drill cuttings into soil supplements. Viability of converted drill cuttings as soil supplement was determined with a seedling growth experiment. Results show high concentrations of vanadium (V) (up to 1575 ppm, barite (up to 5 wt. %), and rare earth elements (REE) concentrations (up to 253 ppm). High extractability of selected critical minerals such as REE (19-50%) and Ba (10-58%) show promising results. Preliminary results show seedling growth in a mixture of converted drill cuttings with soil. These results show the potential for recovery of CMs from drill cuttings as an alternative domestic and the reduction of the environmental impact of fossil fuel production.

Barczok, Maximilian↗
DOE OSTI2024

Artifacts in the Aerosol Size Distribution Measured by the Ultra-High-Sensitivity Aerosol Spectrometer (UHSAS)

The ultra-high-sensitivity aerosol spectrometer (UHSAS) (Droplet Measurement Technologies, Longmont, Colorado) is an optical particle size spectrometer that determines aerosol size distributions in the diameter range from 60 to 1000 nm in 100 logarithmically spaced diameter bins1 by measuring the amount of light scattered by individual aerosol particles from a 1054-nm laser. Recently, it was noticed that aerosol size distributions determined by the UHSAS from all U.S. Department of Energy Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) user facility sites exhibited modes at diameters greater than ~500 nm (Figure 1, blue arrows). These modes were not present in size distributions determined by another aerosol spectrometer that was co-located with the UHSAS, the Grimm 11D optical particle counter (OPC) (GRIMM Aerosol Technik Ainring GmbH & Co. KG, Germany), which sizes particles into 31 linearly spaced diameters bins from 253 to 35,150 nm using a 683-nm wavelength laser. Additionally, abrupt changes in aerosol particle number concentration with changing particle diameter are seen in UHSAS data at several diameters (Figure 1, red arrows). The purpose of this report is to explain the origin of the modes and the abrupt changes in aerosol size distributions observed by the UHSAS and why they are absent in the data from the Grimm OPC.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2023

Synergistic interactions between anammox and dissimilatory nitrate reducing bacteria sustains reactor performance across variable nitrogen loading ratios

Anaerobic ammonium oxidizing (anammox) bacteria are utilized for high efficiency nitrogen removal from nitrogen-laden sidestreams in wastewater treatment plants. The anammox bacteria form a variety of competitive and mutualistic interactions with heterotrophic bacteria that often employ denitrification or dissimilatory nitrate reduction to ammonium (DNRA) for energy generation. These interactions can be heavily influenced by the influent ratio of ammonium to nitrite, NH 4 + :NO 2 - , where deviations from the widely acknowledged stoichiometric ratio (1:1.32) have been demonstrated to have deleterious effects on anammox efficiency. Thus, it is important to understand how variable NH 4 + :NO 2 - ratios impact the microbial ecology of anammox reactors. We observed the response of the microbial community in a lab scale anammox membrane bioreactor (MBR) to changes in the influent NH 4 + :NO 2 - ratio using both 16S rRNA gene and shotgun metagenomic sequencing. Ammonium removal efficiency decreased from 99.77 ± 0.04% when the ratio was 1:1.32 (prior to day 89) to 90.85 ± 0.29% when the ratio was decreased to 1:1.1 (day 89–202) and 90.14 ± 0.09% when the ratio was changed to 1:1.13 (day 169–200). Over this same timespan, the overall nitrogen removal efficiency (NRE) remained relatively unchanged (85.26 ± 0.01% from day 0–89, compared to 85.49 ± 0.01% from day 89–169, and 83.04 ± 0.01% from day 169–200). When the ratio was slightly increased to 1:1.17–1:1.2 (day 202–253), the ammonium removal efficiency increased to 97.28 ± 0.45% and the NRE increased to 88.21 ± 0.01%. Analysis of 16S rRNA gene sequences demonstrated increased relative abundance of taxa belonging to Bacteroidetes, Chloroflexi, and Ignavibacteriae over the course of the experiment. The relative abundance of Planctomycetes, the phylum to which anammox bacteria belong, decreased from 77.19% at the beginning of the experiment to 12.24% by the end of the experiment. Analysis of metagenome assembled genomes (MAGs) indicated increased abundance of bacteria with nrfAH genes used for DNRA after the introduction of lower influent NH 4 + :NO 2 - ratios. The high relative abundance of DNRA bacteria coinciding with sustained bioreactor performance indicates a mutualistic relationship between the anammox and DNRA bacteria. Understanding these interactions could support more robust bioreactor operation at variable nitrogen loading ratios.

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2021

Identification and Biochemical Characterization of a Novel Hormone-Sensitive Lipase Family Esterase Est19 from the Antarctic Bacterium Pseudomonas sp. E2-15

Esterases represent an important class of enzymes with a wide variety of industrial applications. A novel hormone-sensitive lipase (HSL) family esterase, Est19, from the Antarctic bacterium Pseudomonas sp. E2-15 is identified, cloned, and expressed. The enzyme possesses a GESAG motif containing an active serine (S) located within a highly conserved catalytic triad of Ser 155 , Asp 253 , and His 282 residues. The catalytic efficiency (k cat /K m ) of Est19 for the pNPC6 substrate is 148.68 s –1 mM –1 at 40 °C. Replacing Glu 154 juxtaposed to the critical catalytic serine with Asp (E154→D substitution) reduced the activity and catalytic efficiency of the enzyme two-fold, with little change in the substrate affinity. The wild-type enzyme retained near complete activity over a temperature range of 10–60 °C, while ~50% of its activity was retained at 0 °C. A phylogenetic analysis suggested that Est19 and its homologs may represent a new subfamily of HSL. The thermal stability and stereo-specificity suggest that the Est19 esterase may be useful for cold and chiral catalyses.

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2023

Searching in H I for Massive Low Surface Brightness Galaxies: Samples from HyperLeda and the UGC

A search has been made for 21 cm H I line emission in a total of 350 unique galaxies from two samples whose optical properties indicate they may be massive. The first consists of 241 low surface brightness (LSB) galaxies of morphological type Sb and later selected from the HyperLeda database and the second consists of 119 LSB galaxies from the UGC with morphological types Sd-m and later. Of the 350 unique galaxies, 239 were observed at the Nançay Radio Telescope, 161 at the Green Bank Telescope, and 66 at the Arecibo telescope. A total of 295 (84.3%) were detected, of which 253 (72.3%) appear to be uncontaminated by any other galaxies within the telescope beam. Finally, of the total detected, uncontaminated galaxies, at least 31 appear to be massive LSB galaxies, with a total H I mass ≥ 10 10 M ⊙ , for H 0 = 70 kms -1 Mpc -1 . If we expand the definition to also include galaxies with significant total (rather than just gas) mass, i.e., those with an inclination-corrected H I line width W 50,cor > 500 km s -1 , this brings the total number of massive LSB galaxies to 41. There are no obvious trends between the various measured global galaxy properties, particularly between mean surface brightness and galaxy mass.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2022

The Rapid X-Ray and UV Evolution of ASASSN-14ko

Abstract ASASSN-14ko is a recently discovered periodically flaring transient at the center of the active galactic nucleus (AGN) ESO 253−G003 with a slowly decreasing period. Here, we show that the flares originate from the northern, brighter nucleus in this dual-AGN, post-merger system. The light curves for the two flares that occurred in 2020 May and September are nearly identical over all wavelengths. For both events, Swift observations showed that the UV and optical wavelengths brightened in unison. The effective temperature of the UV/optical emission rises and falls with the increase and subsequent decline in the luminosity. The X-ray flux, by contrast, first rapidly drops over ∼2.6 days, rises for ∼5.8 days, drops again over ∼4.3 days, and then recovers. The X-ray spectral evolution of the two flares differ, however. During the 2020 May peak the spectrum softened with increases in the X-ray luminosity, while we observed the reverse for the 2020 September peak. We found a small change in the period derivative, which seems to indicate that the system does not have a static period derivative and there is some stochasticity in its evolution.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2024

One-to-one aeroservoelastic validation of operational loads and performance of a 2.8 MW wind turbine model in OpenFAST

Abstract. This article presents a validation study of the popular aeroservoelastic code suite OpenFAST leveraging weeks of measurements obtained during normal operation of a 2.8 MW land-based wind turbine. Measured wind conditions were used to generate one-to-one turbulent flow fields (i.e., comparing simulation to measurement in 10 min increments, or bins) through unconstrained and constrained assimilation methods using the kinematic turbulence generators TurbSim and PyConTurb. A total of 253 bins of 10 min of normal turbine operation were selected for analysis, and a statistical comparison in terms of performance and loads is presented. We show that successful validation of the model was not strongly dependent on the type of inflow assimilation method used for mean quantities of interest, which had median modeling errors per wind-speed interval generally within 5 %–10 % of the measurement. The type of inflow assimilation method did have a larger effect on the fatigue predictions for blade-root flapwise and tower-base fore–aft quantities, which surprisingly saw larger errors from the assumed higher-fidelity assimilation methods. Avenues for further work are discussed and include possible improvements to the aerodynamic, structural, and controller modeling that may offer insight on the origin of the up to ∼ 40 % median overprediction of fatigue for these quantities.

17 WIND ENERGY↗
NASA NTRS1971

Apollo 11 Mission Report, Supplement 5: Performance of Lunar Module Reaction Control Systems

Spacecraft velocity data and crew reports indicated that RCS engine performance was nominal. It is estimated that the RCS engines accumulated a total of 1060 seconds on-time and 12,000 firings during the mission. The quad temperatures ranged from 132 to 232 F during the period when the heaters were active, within predicated ranges. The total propellant consumption from the RCS tanks was about 319 pounds, compared to a predicted value of 253 pounds. An additional 69 pounds of propellant were used from the ascent propulsion system tanks during interconnect feed operations associated with APS lift-off, following periods of rapid propellant usage. The only problems noted were two thrust chamber pressure switch failures on the quad one down-firing engine and on the quad 2 aft-firing engine. Engine performance was nominal on both engines, and the switch failures had no effect on the mission.

Blevins, D. R.↗
NASA NTRS1973

Far-infrared observations of galactic nuclei.

M82 (NGC 3034) and NGC 253 have been detected at wavelengths from 27 to 125 microns by using a 30-cm airborne IR telescope and a multiband photometer. Spectral power distribution curves are plotted for the galactic nuclei. Tables of obtained data are also given.

Harper, D. A., Jr.↗
NASA NTRS1976

Far-infrared photometry of NGC 1068

The detection of far-IR emission from the galaxy NGC 1068 in four passbands spanning the spectral range from 28 to 320 microns is reported. The observations were made with a 61-cm airborne IR telescope and a liquid-helium-cooled multifilter radiometer. It is found that the flux density between 38 and 100 microns increases with increasing wavelength to a maximum value of 454 (plus or minus 94) Jy, but decreases rapidly for wavelengths greater than 100 microns. The total flux is estimated to be about 3 by 10 to the -11th power W/sq m, which corresponds to a bolometric luminosity of 3.7 by 10 to 11th power times the solar luminosity at a distance of 20 Mpc. The nuclear M/L ratio is shown to be no greater than about 0.003, indicating that the scale, optical depth, or both, of a thermal far-IR source in NGC 1068 would have to be larger than those of the extended IR sources around the nuclei of our Galaxy, NGC 253, or M82.

Telesco, C. M.↗
NASA NTRS1978

1 millimeter continuum observations of extragalactic objects

Continuum observations of 23 extragalactic objects have been made at a wavelength of 1 mm; nine of the 23 have been definitely detected at this wavelength. The sources detected include seven from which the 1-mm emission appears to be nonthermal, and two from which the emission appears to be thermal radiation from dust. Repeated observations of the brightest nonthermal sources permitted a search for 1-mm variations on time scales of one month to three years. BL Lac was observed to vary by more than a factor of 2 in flux, and 3C 84, 3C 120, and 3C 273 showed possible variations; 3C 279 showed no variations greater than + or - 30%. The 1-mm variations of BL Lac appear to be correlated with variations at radio wavelengths. The other sources with nonthermal spectra detected were 3C 111 and M87; the two thermal sources detected were NGC 253 and M82. Comparison of the latter two 1-mm measurements with 2.6-mm CO measurements suggests that the CO line in these galaxies is not heavily saturated.

Elias, J. H.↗
NASA NTRS1979

A flash photolysis resonance fluorescence investigation of the reaction OH + CH3CCl3 yields H2O + CH2CCl3

The absolute rate constant for the reaction OH + CH3CCl3 yields H2O + CH2CCl3 was determined by the flash photolysis resonance fluorescence method from 253 to 363K. The use of the Arrhenius equation with atmospheric observational data on methyl chloroform nearly doubles the predicted tropospheric OH reaction sink strength for the removal of atmospheric gases whose lifetimes are controlled by OH. The increased use of methyl chloroform instead of the restricted trichloroethylene focused attention to its role in stratospheric ozone depletion, producing modeling analyses to determine the amount of released methyl chloroform which reaches the stratosphere. Since the primary atmospheric loss of CH3CCl3 is considered by reaction with OH radicals, these data are used to compute an average tropospheric OH concentration and the strength of the 'global tropospheric OH reaction sink'.

Kurylo, M. J.↗
NASA NTRS1980

Galaxies and far-infrared emission

The far-infrared luminosities of the central few hundred parsecs of many galaxies may exceed by more than an order of magnitude the amount expected from late-type stars. However, for the M82, NGC 253, NGC 1068 and several other galaxies studied in the present paper, the inferred mass-to-luminosity ratios are within the limits expected for stellar distributions containing early-type stars.

Telesco, C. M.↗
NASA NTRS1980

Forward- and reverse-bias tunneling effects in n/+/p silicon solar cells

Excess currents due to field-assisted tunneling in both forward and reverse bias directions have been observed in n(+)-p silicon solar cells. These currents arise from the effect of conducting paths produced in the depletion layer by n(+) diffusion and cell processing. Forward-bias data indicate a small potential barrier with height of 0.04 eV at the n(+) end of conducting paths. Under reverse bias, excess tunneling currents involve a potential barrier at the p end of the conducting paths, the longer paths being associated with smaller barrier heights and dominating at the lower temperatures. Low-reverse-bias data give energy levels of 0.11 eV for lower temperatures (253-293 K) and 0.35 eV for higher temperatures (293-380 K). A model is suggested to explain the results.

Garlick, G. F. J.↗
NASA NTRS1981

Formation of the thioester, N,S-diacetylcysteine, from acetaldehyde and N,N'-diacetylcystine in aqueous solution with ultraviolet light

The thioester, N,S-diacetylcysteine, is formed during the illumination of phosphate buffered (pH 7.0) aqueous solutions of acetaldehyde and N,N'-diacetylcystine with ultraviolet light. The yield of N,S-diacetylcysteine relative to N-acetylcysteine and unidentified products progressively increases as ultraviolet light below 239 nm, 253 nm and 281 nm is cut off with optical filters. When ultraviolet light below 320 nm is removed with an optical filter, there is no detectable reaction. Illumination of 0.025 M N,N'-diacetylcystine with 0.5 M and 1.0 M acetaldehyde with filtered ultraviolet light gives, respectively, 20% and 80% yields of N,S-diacetylcysteine. In the reaction with 1.0 M acetaldehyde, N-acetylcysteine forms early in the reaction and later decreases with its conversion to N,S-diacetylcysteine. The prebiotic significance of these reactions is discussed.

Weber, A. L.↗