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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 OSTI2025

New Molecular Mechanisms for Greenhouse Gas Capture in Metal-Organic Frameworks: Carbon Dioxide and Beyond

Separations involving gaseous small molecules, including acid gases, nitrous oxide, and hydrofluorocarbons, are vital to U.S. energy and technological dominance. However, many current separations technologies are too energy-intensive for broad deployment. Sorptive separations, in which a mixture of gases is contacted with a porous solid material, leading to separation based on the differing affinity of the gases for the solid, promise lower energy requirements compared to many existing technologies.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗
DOE OSTI2025

Mechanical Solutions Scan Report

Power lines, poles, and towers are the backbone of the United States (U.S.) electric-power grid. These transmission and distribution networks route electricity from generator to loads. The characteristics of these routes are rapidly changing -- trending towards decentralized renewable generation, electric heating, vehicle charging, and large data-center loads. Coupled with aging infrastructure and the increased frequency of extreme weather events, there is concern about the future reliability and transmission capacity of conductors and adjacent components. This scan report seeks to provide an overview of mechanical solutions to challenges caused by extreme weather events associated with components of transmission and distribution infrastructure, including conductor heat sag, ice accumulation, wind, and wildfire. Many options could increase transmission capacity or reliability, and these are at various stages of technological readiness. Some have only been lab tested, while some have been widely deployed in the U.S. or overseas for decades. The solution categories and providers featured in this report are intended to be comprehensive at the time of publication and to serve as a reference for decision-makers concerned about transmission and distribution reliability. There are two other categories of large, complex solutions, which are not covered in this report: replacing existing conductors with advanced conductors and implementing digital grid enhancing technologies. A separate scan report titled “Advanced Conductor Scan Report,” which discusses advanced carbon-core conductors, was published by the Idaho National Laboratory (INL) in 2023. Information on digital technologies, such as dynamic line ratings, power-flow controllers, and other power electronics and communications-based devices, can be found on the Grid- Enhancing Technologies landing page. Mechanical grid-enhancing technologies, or solutions covered in this report, often do not require full equipment replacement and do not rely on digital components. Mechanical technologies are overlooked because they may be older, simpler, or seemingly “more obvious” than digital or carbon-core technologies. However, it is wise to consider mechanical solutions in a thorough evaluation of grid enhancing technology solutions.

24 - POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION↗
NASA NTRS1988

The separation test in vacuum of the Ariane 4 payload fairing

The separation tests performed during the qualification test program of the Ariane 4 Payload Fairing are described. This is the first fairing structure to be developed using carbon fiber technology. Two separation tests were performed under vacuum conditions. The primary objectives of these tests were to verify compliance with the vehicle imposed requirements and to establish the behavioral characteristics of the fairing structure itself.

Butcher, J. R.↗
DOE OSTI2025

Preliminary Techno-Economic Assessment of Gas Switching Reforming (GSR) of Natural Gas for Pure Hydrogen Production and Power Generation with Integrated CO2 Capture

The increasing demand for hydrogen and the CO2 intensity of natural gas (NG) reforming motivate the development of low-carbon-emission hydrogen production technologies. Gas Switching Reforming (GSR) is an advanced auto-thermal reforming technology that produces hydrogen or syngas from natural gas. It integrates inherent CO2 capture by utilizing a specialized oxygen carrier in a single fluidized bed reactor, eliminating the need for complex, energy-intensive post-combustion separation. GSR technology builds upon Chemical Looping Reforming (CLR), an experimentally proven technology with strong potential for scaling up. In this study, select oxygen carriers (OC) (NiO/Al2O3, Fe2O3-CeO2/Al2O3, and magnetite) were tested in methane steam reforming in a fixed bed reactor to determine their relative reactivities under relevant conditions for GSR (800 °C, 7 bar total pressure). Process models were then developed to perform techno-economic analysis (TEA) of GSR for hydrogen production (GSR-H₂) and a combined cycle (GSR-CC) in which high-purity H₂ is fired in a gas turbine to produce electricity. Operating at 10 bar and 1100 °C and with the additional recovery steps implemented increased H₂ production by ~30% and improved efficiency relative to prior studies. For GSR-H₂, the levelized cost of hydrogen (LCOH) is 1.61–1.64 $/kg-H₂, competitive with a reference SMR case, though operating and maintenance costs are higher due to increased electricity demand. GSR-CC has a significantly higher levelized cost of electricity (LCOE) than its reference NGCC (natural gas combined cycle) plant, suggesting it is less competitive; however, increasing production scale could make it more attractive. Life-cycle results for GSR-H2 indicate NG consumption drives ~75% of total global warming impacts (~2.3 kg CO2 eq/kg H2). An environmental, health, and safety screening suggests iron-based carriers are comparatively safer, whereas NiO may pose greater risks. Overall, GSR-H2 is a scalable, competitive option for hydrogen production using nickel and non-nickel OC.

03 NATURAL GAS↗
NASA NTRS2002

IDEA: Planning at the Core of Autonomous Reactive Agents

Several successful autonomous systems are separated into technologically diverse functional layers operating at different levels of abstraction. This diversity makes them difficult to implement and validate. In this paper, we present IDEA (Intelligent Distributed Execution Architecture), a unified planning and execution framework. In IDEA a layered system can be implemented as separate agents, one per layer, each representing its interactions with the world in a model. At all levels, the model representation primitives and their semantics is the same. Moreover, each agent relies on a single model, plan database, plan runner and on a variety of planners, both reactive and deliberative. The framework allows the specification of agents that operate, within a guaranteed reaction time and supports flexible specification of reactive vs. deliberative agent behavior. Within the IDEA framework we are working to fully duplicate the functionalities of the DS1 Remote Agent and extend it to domains of higher complexity than autonomous spacecraft control.

Muscettola, Nicola↗
NASA NTRS1999

The History of Solid-Propellant Rocketry: What We Do and Do Not Know

Contributions to the evolution of solid-propellant rocketry have come from a variety of sources. World War II research on large solids enabled one company to capitalize on work in the area of castable double-base propellants. Separate development of castable composite propellants led to production of Polaris and Minuteman powerplants. Pivotal to the development of these missiles were Edward Hall's advocacy of the Minuteman missile within the Air Force and contract funding to resolve problems. The discovery that adding large amounts of aluminum significantly increased the specific impulse of a castable composite propellant further aided large-missile technology. These separate lines of research led to the development of large solid-propellant motors and boosters. Many more discoveries went into the development of large solid-propellant motors. Ammonium perchlorate replaced potassium perchlorate as an oxidizer in the late 1940's, and binders were developed. Discoveries important in the evolution of large solid-propellant motors appear to have resulted from innovators' education and skills, an exposure to contemporary problems, an awareness of theory but a willingness not to let it dictate empirical investigations, and proper empirical techniques. Other important contributions are the adequate funding and exchange of information. However, many questions remain about these and other innovations.

Hunley, J. D.↗
NASA NTRS2013

A Structural Model Decomposition Framework for Systems Health Management

Systems health management (SHM) is an important set of technologies aimed at increasing system safety and reliability by detecting, isolating, and identifying faults; and predicting when the system reaches end of life (EOL), so that appropriate fault mitigation and recovery actions can be taken. Model-based SHM approaches typically make use of global, monolithic system models for online analysis, which results in a loss of scalability and efficiency for large-scale systems. Improvement in scalability and efficiency can be achieved by decomposing the system model into smaller local submodels and operating on these submodels instead. In this paper, the global system model is analyzed offline and structurally decomposed into local submodels. We define a common model decomposition framework for extracting submodels from the global model. This framework is then used to develop algorithms for solving model decomposition problems for the design of three separate SHM technologies, namely, estimation (which is useful for fault detection and identification), fault isolation, and EOL prediction. We solve these model decomposition problems using a three-tank system as a case study.

Roychoudhury, Indranil↗
DOE OSTI2024

A holistic platform for accelerating sorbent-based carbon capture

Abstract Reducing carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) emissions urgently requires the large-scale deployment of carbon-capture technologies. These technologies must separate CO 2 from various sources and deliver it to different sinks 1,2 . The quest for optimal solutions for specific source–sink pairs is a complex, multi-objective challenge involving multiple stakeholders and depends on social, economic and regional contexts. Currently, research follows a sequential approach: chemists focus on materials design 3 and engineers on optimizing processes 4,5 , which are then operated at a scale that impacts the economy and the environment. Assessing these impacts, such as the greenhouse gas emissions over the plant’s lifetime, is typically one of the final steps 6 . Here we introduce the PrISMa (Process-Informed design of tailor-made Sorbent Materials) platform, which integrates materials, process design, techno-economics and life-cycle assessment. We compare more than 60 case studies capturing CO 2 from various sources in 5 global regions using different technologies. The platform simultaneously informs various stakeholders about the cost-effectiveness of technologies, process configurations and locations, reveals the molecular characteristics of the top-performing sorbents, and provides insights on environmental impacts, co-benefits and trade-offs. By uniting stakeholders at an early research stage, PrISMa accelerates carbon-capture technology development during this critical period as we aim for a net-zero world.

Science & Technology - Other Topics↗
NASA NTRS1990

Solid-liquid staged combustion space boosters

NASA has begun to evaluate solid-liquid hybrid propulsion for launch vehicle booster. A three-phase program was outlined to identify, acquire, and demonstrate technology needed to approximate solid and liquid propulsion state of the art. Aerojet has completed a Phase 1 study and recommends a solid-liquid staged combustion concept in which turbopump fed LO2 is burned with fuel-rich solid propellant effluent in aft-mounted thrust chambers.These reasonably sized thrust chambers are LO2 regeneratively cooled, supplemented with fuel-rich barrier cooling. Turbopumps are driven by the resulting GO2 coolant in an expander-bleed-burnoff cycle. Turbine exhaust pressurizes the LO2 tankage directly, and the excess is bled into supersonic nozzle splitlines, where it combusts with the fuel rich boundary layer. Thrust vector control is enhanced by supersonic nozzle movement on flexseal mounts. Every hybrid solid-liquid concept examined improves booster energy management and launch propellant safety compared to current solid boosters. Solid-liquid staged combustion improves hybrid performance by improving both combustion efficiency and combustion stability, especially important for large boosters. These improvements result from careful fluid management and use of smaller combustors. The study shows NASA safety, reliability, cost, and performance criteria are best met with this concept, wherein simple hardware relies on several separate emerging technologies, all of which have been demonstrated successfully.

Culver, D. W.↗
DOE OSTI2025

Force-Triggered, Biobased Sealants for Prefabricated Building Components: Toward Improved Efficiency and Performance

The prefabricated building construction industry has made extensive progress in expediting the manufacture of prefabricated components at off-site plants. However, the sealing of joints between these components, which is crucial to ensuring the weatherproofing of the assembly, still represents a labor-intensive, on-site effort that relies on the manual installation of tapes and caulks. Here, to reduce work at the jobsite and improve the airtightness and waterproofness of building envelopes, we developed a sealant that can be installed at the plant on prefab components and have the curing reaction triggered at the jobsite by using microencapsulation technology to separate the reactive agents. A series of force-triggered, high-strength, and fast-curing sealants derived from biobased feedstocks were developed, which consist of a biobased epoxy agent encapsulated in a polymer shell, embedded in a biobased amine curing agent. The shell of the microcapsules allows an effective separation of the reactive species in the one-part sealant, allowing shelf stability to an otherwise fast-curing system as well as improving the hydrophobicity of the whole system. When force activates and breaks the microcapsules, the highly reactive epoxy and amine mix and cure, exhibiting peel strength values of up to 143 ppi (pounds per inch). The hydrophobicity of the sealants allows them to retain up to 94% of the original peel strength after complete submersion in water for 24 h, showcasing the water resistivity of the sealant system. The open-air shelf stability of the sealant complex is demonstrated by the obtention of peel strength values of ∼16 ppi when triggering the curing reaction even after being exposed 8 months to open air and humidity. The successful on-demand triggering of curing reactions and the shelf stability provide efficacy of these force-triggered sealants for installation on prefabricated components, storage for months prior to delivery, and assembly at a jobsite. These force-triggered biobased sealants for prefabricated buildings can result in lower installation time and cost and better performance than tapes and caulks at the jobsite.

biobased↗
DOE OSTI2025

Comparison of Industrialized Late 20th Century Flowsheets for Reprocessing Used Nuclear Fuel

This study identified and compared three flowsheets for reprocessing used nuclear fuel (UNF) industrialized in plants in the United Kingdom (the Thermal Oxide Reprocessing Plant), France (UP2-800/UP3) and Japan (the Rokkasho Reprocessing Plant). The study also identified the major implications for a plant in the United States if it were initiated. All flowsheets employed the established Plutonium Uranium Reduction Extraction (PUREX) solvent extraction technology to separate uranium and plutonium from UNF dissolved in nitric acid. However, differences in the approaches to managing iodine-129, tritium and technetium were identified in the flowsheets. A US plant would also need to separate krypton-85 as well as iodine-129 and tritium for immobilization and disposal.

11 NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS↗
NASA NTRS1987

Mass and power estimates for Mars in-situ propellant production systems

An in-situ propellant production (ISPP) concept, a method for producing oxygen from carbon dioxide in the Martian atmosphere, is evaluated. The concept considered here employs zirconia membrane technology to separate O2 from CO2. Several options which can improve the reliability of the CO2/O2 ISPP system and also reduce the mass and power requirements are examined, and it is noted that the use of absorption pumps and advanced zirconia membranes significantly improves system reliability by eliminating the rotating turbomachinery of mechanical pumps. Mass and power requirements of ISPP systems designed to produce O2 only from CO2 (for an unmanned Mars mission) and to produce both CO and O2 from CO2 (for a manned Mars mission) are evaluated.

Frisbee, R. H.↗
NASA NTRS2002

Requirements analysis for a multi-spacecraft flight system

The StarLight mission scheduled to launch June 2006, will demonstrate the separated spacecraft technologies of formation flying, precision formation, estimation, and long baseline stellar interferometry.

StarLight systems engineering requirements↗
DOE OSTI2025

Ultra-selective CANAL Polymers for Hydrogen-based Membrane Separations after Long-Term Aging

Hydrogen is a critically important molecule in the chemicals and energy industries, driving the need for efficient purification technologies such as membrane-based separations. However, polymer membranes often suffer from physical aging, leading to decreased gas permeability over time. This study leverages the unique aging behavior of contorted microporous polymers, synthesized via catalytic arene-norbornene annulation (CANAL) polymerization, to enhance molecular sieving for H 2 separations. While prior studies demonstrated a 1000% increase in H 2 /CH 4 selectivity with minimal permeability loss over 150 days, we extend this investigation to hyperaged (∼1 year) CANAL polymers and evaluate their performance under various conditions of industrial relevance. We report a remarkable 6100% increase in H 2 /CH 4 selectivity and a 2400% improvement in H 2 /N 2 selectivity, with only a 55% decline in H 2 permeability. These membranes exhibit excellent long-term stability in binary and ternary gas mixtures and at elevated temperatures. Additionally, extended aging enhances H 2 /CO 2 selectivity beyond the 2008 upper bound due to improved size-sieving. High-temperature permeation experiments and grand canonical Monte Carlo simulations reveal that H 2 permeability increases from 570 to 3500 barrer as the temperature rises from 35 °C to 190 °C, while H 2 /CO 2 selectivity declines from 14 to 3 due to the higher diffusion activation energy of CO 2 . Despite this tradeoff, hyperaged CANAL membranes maintain performance beyond the 200 °C upper bound, having selectivity–permeability performance comparable to many state-of-the-art membranes for H 2 /CO 2 separations. As a result, this study highlights the robustness and industrial viability of ultra-selective CANAL polymers for hydrogen purification, contributing to advancements in clean energy and sustainable separation technologies.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2026

Non-Equilibrium Actinide Radiation Chemistry and the Nuclear Fuel Cycle

Invited John and Naomi Fackler Lectureship in Chemistry and English seminar at Valparaiso University, IN, USA. Actinides are inherently unstable elements that frequently coexist with other radioisotopes, generating intense ionizing radiation fields that drive the formation of non-equilibrium oxidation states. These transient species exert a profound mechanistic influence on the radiation response of actinide-containing systems due to their unique redox chemistry. Despite their importance, they remain poorly understood, yet such insight is essential for advancing actinide science and accurately predicting radiation-driven behavior. Actinide separations—critical for nuclear energy technologies, strategic deterrence, space exploration, and nuclear medicine—depend on precise control of actinide oxidation states to recover targeted elements from complex matrices such as used nuclear fuel. However, during these processes, actinides, their coordination complexes, and the separation media are all exposed to intense, multicomponent (alpha, beta, gamma, etc.) radiation fields that can alter process efficiency, selectivity, and chemical stability. Understanding, controlling, and mitigating radiation-induced reactions is therefore key to innovating and optimizing next-generation separation technologies. This seminar will provide an overview of the nuclear fuel cycle and non-equilibrium actinide radiation chemistry in the context of recovering actinides from used nuclear fuel, with a particular emphasis on direct-dissolution–based reprocessing strategies. We will explore time-resolved electron pulse radiolysis and gamma dose accumulation studies to elucidate the molecular-level roles of radiation-driven, non-equilibrium actinide species in process performance and in the radiolytic stability of organic ligands used for actinide recovery. These insights offer new pathways for designing advanced separation methods and next-generation solvent systems, with broad implications for the future of the nuclear fuel cycle.

37 - INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL AND ANALYTICAL C↗
DOE OSTI2026

Non-Equilibrium Actinide Radiation Chemistry and the Nuclear Fuel Cycle

Actinides are inherently unstable elements that frequently coexist with other radioisotopes, generating intense ionizing radiation fields that drive the formation of non equilibrium oxidation states. These transient species exert a profound mechanistic influence on the radiation response of actinide containing systems due to their unique redox chemistry. Despite their importance, they remain poorly understood, yet such insight is essential for advancing actinide science and accurately predicting radiation driven behavior. Actinide separations—critical for nuclear energy technologies, strategic deterrence, space exploration, and nuclear medicine—depend on precise control of actinide oxidation states to recover targeted elements from complex matrices such as used nuclear fuel. However, during these processes, actinides, their coordination complexes, and the separation media are all exposed to intense, multicomponent (alpha, beta, gamma, etc.) radiation fields that can alter process efficiency, selectivity, and chemical stability. Understanding, controlling, and mitigating radiation induced reactions is therefore key to innovating and optimizing next generation separation technologies. This seminar will provide an overview of the nuclear fuel cycle and non equilibrium actinide radiation chemistry in the context of recovering actinides from used nuclear fuel, with a particular emphasis on direct dissolution–based reprocessing strategies. We will explore time resolved electron pulse radiolysis and alpha and gamma dose accumulation studies, integrated with multiscale computational modeling, to elucidate the molecular level roles of radiation driven, non equilibrium actinide species in process performance and in the radiolytic stability of organic ligands used for actinide recovery. These insights offer new pathways for designing advanced separation methods and next generation solvent systems, with broad implications for the future of the nuclear fuel cycle.

37 - INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL AND ANALYTICAL C↗
NASA NTRS1987

The 1986 Goddard Space Flight Center Battery Workshop

The subjects covered include: lithium cell technology and safety improvements; nickel-cadmium separator and electrode technology along with associated modifications; flight experience and life testing of nickel-cadmium cell; and nickel-hydrogen applications and technology.

Morrow, George W.↗