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DOE OSTI2018

Final Technical Report DE-EE0006911 Vermont Solar Pathways

Solar PV is the fastest-growing form of energy in Vermont. From 2012 to 2017, Vermont’s solar energy capacity increased almost nine times to 227 MW, a compound annual growth rate of 54%. During this time, the portion of electricity from solar grew from 0.5% to 5%. The state is one of the national leaders in net metering, community solar, and solar jobs per capita. In 2011, the Vermont Comprehensive Energy Plan set a goal to have renewable energy supply 90% of the state’s total energy needs (including electricity, heating and cooling, and transportation) by 2050. The Department of Public Service completed a Total Energy Study to examine the feasibility and cost-effectiveness of various paths to the 90% goal and related emissions goals. The General Assembly created a Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS) that includes credit for projects—such as electric vehicles and modern wood heating—that switch end uses away from fossil fuel, making the RPS essentially a total energy portfolio standard. Achieving the state’s energy goals will require major contributions from distributed resources and the development of supporting infrastructure such as energy storage, electric vehicle charging stations, and upgraded distribution systems. The Vermont Solar Pathways project used scenario modeling and stakeholder engagement to create a broadly supported plan to get 20% of the state’s electricity from solar by 2025. Scenario modeling provided numbers and graphs for examining issues, costs, and benefits, and spurred discussions at the 11 stakeholder meetings held over the course of the project. Stakeholders provided feedback to improve the model and made suggestions for variations on the scenarios.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗

DOE OSTI2018

Chicago Climate Action Plan Advanced Transportation Technologies Initiative: Final Project Report

The Chicago Department of Transportation (CDOT) and our partners, I-GO Carshare and the Chicago Department of Fleet and Facility Management teamed up in support of our mutual goal of advancing the local electric vehicle market and demonstrating electrification of fleet vehicles. By increasing the use of electric and hybrid-electric vehicles this project provides a public benefit by reducing harmful emissions and the transportation sector’s dependence on petroleum in Chicago. The Chicago Climate Action Plan (CCAP) is the climate change mitigation and adaptation strategy adopted by the City of Chicago (City). CCAP calls for improved fleet efficiency, reduced fossil fuel use, and encourages vehicle electrification to reduce emissions from the transportation sector. Alternative fuels and advanced vehicle technologies play a critical role in helping the City achieve CCAP’s goals. In fact, CCAP calls for a 10 percent increase in the use of alternative fuel vehicles in Chicago by 2020.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗

DOE OSTI2018

Advanced Control Architecture and Sensor Information Development for Process Automation, Optimization, and Imaging of Chemical Looping Systems

The Syngas Chemical Looping (SCL) process developed at The Ohio State University (OSU) uses an iron-based oxygen carrier to convert syngas into high-purity hydrogen while simultaneously capturing carbon dioxide that is readily sequestrable. A 25 kWth sub-pilot unit was successfully demonstrated multiple times on the OSU Clean Coal Research Facility, and a 250 kWth – 3 MWth pilot demonstration unit has been designed and constructed at the National Carbon Capture Center (NCCC) in Wilsonville, Alabama. The focus of this project is to develop multiple technologies to automate the startup and shutdown of chemical looping system. Success of this project will propel the advanced carbon capture method toward commercialization, hence be disruptive to the fossil fuel and power industries. Advanced process automation control architecture and imaging and optimization sensor software were developed for OSU chemical looping process. A high-level controller (HLC) consisting of decision-making and controller-selection logic integrated with sliding mode controllers (SMCs) were developed to perform chemical looping process startup and shutdown. Babcock & Wilcox Power Generation Group’s FocalPoint Optimization System was implemented to optimize the process operating conditions. The process automation controller and optimization information were realized and tested on OSU’s existing sub-pilot chemical looping test unit under atmospheric condition. The implemented control architecture was able to perform the complete process procedure from startup, steady-state reaction operation to shutdown with minimal operator intervention. The controller was also implemented on the pressurized syngas chemical looping (SCL) pilot test unit constructed at the National Carbon Capture Center (NCCC), demonstrating its pressure control capability with a designed transient state trajectory. An electrical capacitance volume tomography (ECVT) sensor device and its software were developed to image the packed moving bed and slugging fluidized bed of oxygen carriers in chemical looping systems at elevated temperatures. The ECVT device constructed was capable of tracking the subtle voidage variance along the moving bed axis as a feature for directly measuring the oxygen carrier particles’ linear velocity. Also, the high temperature ECVT device was used to study the fluidization characteristics of Geldart Group D particles.

08 HYDROGEN↗

DOE OSTI2015

Radiation Modified Ion-Implanted Materials

The objective of this project, by BNL and PVI, is to develop radiation-modified materials like titanium, nickel, aluminum, steel, refractory metals and alloys by implanting them with ions. Ion implantation radically improves strength & friction resistance. The focus will be on components of products like jet engines & windmills. Example: implanting windmill parts subject to friction may greatly reduce operating costs. Currently, electric power from wind is a factor of 1.5 more costly than coal due to labor costs [frequent lubrication of parts involves stopping a windmill & opening its nacelle (enclosures)]. A 50% friction reduction through ion implantation of parts will reduce the need for lubricants and make wind-generated electricity cheaper than fossil fuel. Major PVI role is adapting laboratory experimental results into commercially viable industrial processes and marketing them.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

DOE OSTI2018

Functional Plasma-Sprayed Ceramic Coatings for Use in Fusion Energy Systems

There is growing demand for new, cleaner ways to supply the rapidly growing global energy demand, as concerns grow over climate change and declining supplies of fossil fuels. Nuclear fusion, the phenomenon in which atomic nuclei collide together and release massive quantities of energy, is one of the most promising options for generating large amounts of carbon-free energy in the future.1 To initiate a common nuclear fusion reaction of hydrogen isotopes – deuterium and tritium, a hot plasma state is needed at incredibly high temperatures approaching 100 million degrees centigrade. One practical way to achieve these conditions is to use magnetic confinement of the plasma in a toroidal nuclear reactor known as a tokamak (Figure 1). A commercial fusion power station will then harvest the energy by converting the heat provided by the fusion chain reaction into steam to power gas turbines, and generate electricity on to the grid, while the excess neutrons also produced in the process is captured by a blanket made of dense material surrounding the tokomak.

22 GENERAL STUDIES OF NUCLEAR REACTORS↗

DOE OSTI2018

Baja California Sur Renewable Integration Study

The goal of the Baja California Sur Renewable Integration Study (BAJA-RIS) is to evaluate the potential impacts of increasing penetrations of wind and solar power on Baja California Sur's bulk power system operations. Studying the impact of wind and solar power on power system operations is interesting and challenging because of the variable and uncertain nature of wind and solar resources. Baja California Sur is a very interesting and relevant region to study renewable integration impacts because its power system is an electrical island; most of its electricity is generated by burning expensive imported fossil fuels (oil and diesel), making it the power system in Mexico with the highest electricity variable generation costs and the most polluting; its electricity consumption is expected to grow significantly; and it has significant renewable energy resource potential in terms of wind power and especially in terms of solar power.

24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION↗

DOE OSTI2018

Expanding the breeder’s toolbox for perennial grasses

With the increase in world energy demand and the environmental impacts associated with continued fossil fuel use, there is a great need for the development of alternative and sustainable fuel sources. Switchgrass ( Panicum virgatum L. ), a perennial grass native to North America, is poised to become one of the first dedicated biomass crops deployed on a large scale in the United States in large part due to its inherent high yield, adaptability and perennial nature. Current ‘cultivars’ of switchgrass are essentially undomesticated wild selections from natural populations. Thus, there is considerable potential for improvement of this emerging energy crop. Traditional breeding approaches in switchgrass have been hampered by its self-incompatibility and sensitivity to inbreeding, therefore there is a significant need to develop new tools for improved switchgrass breeding. The proposed research uses a systems biology approach to accelerate switchgrass breeding, to develop its biotechnological improvement through the generation of stress-tolerant varieties, and to establish ways to minimize the potential impact of transgenes on ecosystems. In this proposal, we will develop new breeding tools for perennial grasses and apply these tools toward improving switchgrass. Specifically, we will employ two complementary approaches to overcome the difficulty of breeding a large, polyploid, self-incompatible plant. The first approach will accelerate conventional breeding by developing a method to rapidly create doubled haploid (homozygous) lines for breeding. This approach is based on altering CENH3, a centromere-specific histone, leading to the production of haploid offspring when the centromere mutant is crossed to wild type plants. Subsequent genome doubling results in fully homozygous individuals and overcomes one of the major limitations in breeding self-incompatibile crops. These homozygous lines would allow switchgrass breeders to apply a variety of breeding approaches that have been previously impossible. The second approach is to develop tools and reagents to accelerate the biotechnological improvement of switchgrass including: modules for improved stress tolerance, a test bed to evaluate transgenes in a perennial model grass and a robust gene containment system. In order to maintain a favorable energy balance and avoid competition with food crops, dedicated biomass crops must be grown with minimal inputs (fertilizer and water) on marginal lands that are unsuited to the traditional high input agriculture necessary to produce food. Thus, abiotic stress tolerance and efficient water and nutrient use are of paramount importance. Considerable basic research has been directed at these areas and this knowledge has been used to develop transgenic approaches to greatly improve water and nutrient use efficiency. By applying these approaches to switchgrass we will rapidly increase drought tolerance and nutrient use efficiency. This approach can rapidly introduce these traits in different cultivars allowing breeders to add these traits to their elite germplasm. Since biotechnologically improved switchgrass must ultimately be grown in open fields, they must be designed to minimize the potential impact of the transgenes on non-target ecosystems. The best way to do this is to minimize gene flow from the transgenic plants. Thus, we will develop technology to introduce sterility into the transgenic plants. We will then combine this technology with the stress resistance modules to create switchgrass lines with enhanced resistance to abiotic stresses.

09 BIOMASS FUELS↗

DOE OSTI2018

Expanding the Breeder’s Toolbox for Perennial Grasses

With the increase in world energy demand and the environmental impacts associated with continued fossil fuel use, there is a great need for the development of alternative and sustainable fuel sources. Switchgrass (Panicum virgatum L.), a perennial grass native to North America, is poised to become one of the first dedicated biomass crops deployed on a large scale in the United States in large part due to its inherent high yield, adaptability and perennial nature. Current ‘cultivars’ of switchgrass are essentially undomesticated wild selections from natural populations. Thus, there is considerable potential for improvement of this emerging energy crop. Traditional breeding approaches in switchgrass have been hampered by its self-incompatibility and sensitivity to inbreeding, therefore there is a significant need to develop new tools for improved switchgrass breeding. The proposed research uses a systems biology approach to accelerate switchgrass breeding, to develop its biotechnological improvement through the generation of stress-tolerant varieties, and to establish ways to minimize the potential impact of transgenes on ecosystems. In this proposal, we will develop new breeding tools for perennial grasses and apply these tools toward improving switchgrass. Specifically, we will employ two complementary approaches to overcome the difficulty of breeding a large, polyploid, self-incompatible plant. The first approach will accelerate conventional breeding by developing a method to rapidly create doubled haploid (homozygous) lines for breeding. This approach is based on altering CENH3, a centromere-specific histone, leading to the production of haploid offspring when the centromere mutant is crossed to wild type plants. Subsequent genome doubling results in fully homozygous individuals and overcomes one of the major limitations in breeding self-incompatibile crops. These homozygous lines would allow switchgrass breeders to apply a variety of breeding approaches that have been previously impossible. The second approach is to develop tools and reagents to accelerate the biotechnological improvement of switchgrass including: modules for improved stress tolerance, a test bed to evaluate transgenes in a perennial model grass and a robust gene containment system. In order to maintain a favorable energy balance and avoid competition with food crops, dedicated biomass crops must be grown with minimal inputs (fertilizer and water) on marginal lands that are unsuited to the traditional high input agriculture necessary to produce food. Thus, abiotic stress tolerance and efficient water and nutrient use are of paramount importance. Considerable basic research has been directed at these areas and this knowledge has been used to develop transgenic approaches to greatly improve water and nutrient use efficiency. By applying these approaches to switchgrass we will rapidly increase drought tolerance and nutrient use efficiency. This approach can rapidly introduce these traits in different cultivars allowing breeders to add these traits to their elite germplasm. Since biotechnologically improved switchgrass must ultimately be grown in open fields, they must be designed to minimize the potential impact of the transgenes on non-target ecosystems. The best way to do this is to minimize gene flow from the transgenic plants. Thus, we will develop technology to introduce sterility into the transgenic plants. We will then combine this technology with the stress resistance modules to create switchgrass lines with enhanced resistance to abiotic stresses.

09 BIOMASS FUELS↗

DOE OSTI2017

Benefit Analysis of Energy Storage for Cordova Electric Cooperative

This report is a follow on to a previous study performed by Sandia National Labs and Alaska Center for Energy and Power which investigated the use of an energy storage system (ESS) providing spinning reserve within the Cordova Electric Cooperative (CEC) grid. The study provided the savings using the ESS as spinning reserve through reduced fossil fuel consumption and runtime on the diesel generators. In this report, the saving values are used from the previous study to determine the benefit-to-cost ratio for various ratings of ESS performing spinning reserve and quantifying other applications that are applicable to CEC.

25 ENERGY STORAGE↗

DOE OSTI2018

Final TCF Report for Earth Battery: Storing Energy with Compressed Air and Heated Brine in Porous Rock

Cost-effective reductions in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions are best achieved when all low-carbon energy resources are fully utilized. This includes base-load power: nuclear energy (NE) and fossil energy (FE), integrated with CO 2 capture, use, and storage (CCUS), and variable renewable energy (VRE) (wind and solar); but, current CCUS options don’t justify CO 2 -capture costs and existing energy-storage approaches lack the capacity and storage duration needed to fully utilize all forms of low-carbon energy without curtailment. The Earth Battery is designed to meet these challenges by synergistically integrating conventional- and renewable-energy resources, allowing each to contribute more efficiently to the grid than if operated independently. The Earth Battery stores energy underground as pressure and heat, using compressed air and/or CO 2 , together with heated brine. These fluids are stored in either saline aquifers used for CO 2 or natural gas (NG) storage or in oil and gas reservoirs, making deployment possible over much of the U.S. We can provide enormous energy-storage capacity and duration. The main goal of this study was to assess the techno-economic feasibility of the versions of the Earth Battery that use compressed air energy storage (CAES). Current CAES systems use NG turbines and store air in salt caverns, which limits geographic deployment. Conventional CAES wastes much of the heat of air compression, comprising half of the compression energy. Our technology addresses these deficiencies by using permeable sedimentary rock to store air and the heat of compression as heated brine. When electricity is needed, air and hot brine are produced, with hot brine used to pre-heat air before it is fed into the expanders. Key factors affecting round-trip efficiency are (1) pressure loss in the air-storage reservoir, which depends on permeability (> 100 mD being needed for efficient operations) and (2) temperature loss in the hot-brine storage reservoir, which decreases with time as the storage formation heats up. The original scope of this project was to conduct a techno-economic assessment of diurnal storage with the CAES Earth Battery, including (1) Adiabatic CAES, which requires no fossil fuel and (2) NG/CAES, where one or more of the expansion stages are NG fueled. During its assessment, we found NG/CAES, generates excess heat of compression that can be put into long-term (seasonal) storage and be utilized in a combined-cycle fashion with the addition of steam turbines. This resulted in our developing a new Earth Battery technology, which we call the Thermal Earth Battery. We conducted energy-system analyses for the Thermal Earth Battery for various combinations of heat sources: (1) heat of FE combustion, (2) excess heat of compression from NG/CAES, and (3) solar thermal energy (STE). The other Earth Battery class we developed compresses CO 2 , rather than air; hence, it is called Compressed CO 2 Energy Storage (CCES). Finally, we developed an improved, more efficient, more versatile version of the Allam cycle, which uses pressurized CO 2 , and developed various options for integrating renewable energy and energy storage. Our improved Allam-cycle technology minimizes cooling-water consumption, while enabling reliable, dispatchable renewable energy. Although not anticipated in our original scope of work, our Topic 1 project evolved into a highly productive discovery process wherein we developed a portfolio of Earth Battery configuration options and use cases. Our ultimate objective was to evaluate those options and use cases and determine the most optimal first best use options for our Earth Battery technology. That process resulted in identifying seasonal energy storage as a niche where no other energy storage technology could compete with us. As a result, we have identified the Thermal Earth Battery, which uses conventional steam-turbine components, and our improved Allam-cycle integrated with renewable energy and energy storage as the most promising technologies to commercialize in our Topic 2 proposal. Finally, our scope included finding a commercialization team for a Topic 2 continuation of this project, which we have successfully completed.

25 ENERGY STORAGE↗

DOE OSTI2019

An Introduction to Grid Services: Concepts, Technical Requirements, and Provision from Wind

As the role of wind energy grows in the U.S. power grid, there is increased interest and requirements for it to provide 'essential reliability' services (historically often referred to as 'ancillary' services). These services are critical to maintaining the reliability and stability of the grid, and historically were provided by large 'synchronous' generators, mainly fossil-fueled and hydroelectric generators. To help evaluate the potential role of wind in providing these services, this report provides an overview of services provided to the grid, including their technical requirements, quantities currently procured, and some estimates of costs. The report also summarizes the technical and regulatory issues around wind providing these services.

17 WIND ENERGY↗

DOE OSTI2019

Study of Regional Climate Change Final Technical Report

Anthropogenic activity of fossil fuel and biomass burning emissions increase tropospheric aerosol concentrations causing a direct cooling effect by scattering solar radiation and thus increasing the Earth’s albedo. In addition, the aerosols can act as cloud condensation nuclei to regulate cloud droplet number and size, thereby changing both the cloud albedo, and the cloud lifetime and precipitation. Thus, the aerosol climate effect concerns intricate aerosol-cloud-radiation-precipitation interactions which are recognized to introduce the largest uncertainties in using GCMs to project future regional climate changes. The climate effects of aerosols are significant in the land regions of the Northern Hemisphere, in particular the sulfate aerosols over East Asia where significant anthropogenic SO 2 emissions have been observed and concentrations of other aerosol species are also high. The objective of the present project is to advance “modeling aerosol-cloud-climate interactions” in two areas: the aerosol-cloud microphysics interactions and model simulations of aerosol effects on regional climate with focus on East Asia. To achieve the objective, in addition to analyzing relevant observations, the project conducts and diagnoses regional and global climate model simulations. Specifically, two collaborative tasks were carried out: Task-1: Incorporating a physics-based, two-moments cloud scheme developed by J. P. Chen/National Taiwan University (NTU) into regional models (WRF and WRF-Chem) to study “aerosol-cloud microphysics interactions over eastern China and the southeast Pacific” ; for latter region, CMIP5 models exhibit distinct biases in (weaker) cloud radiative effects and (warmer) sea surface temperature. The task is conducted in collaboration with J.-P. Chen, H.-W. Xue/Peking University, and H. Liao/Institute of Atmospheric Physics; and Task-2: Diagnosis of NCAR-CESM and WRF model simulations of “aerosol climate effects” focusing on changes of circulation, precipitation and clouds over East Asia. The task is conducted in collaboration with J.-P. Chen, and I-Chun Tsai & H.-H. Hsu/Academia Sinica. For each task, several topical studies were carried out and documented in eleven (11) articles (five for Task-1 and six for Task-2), published in: J. Atmospheric Sciences (2); J. Climate (1); Climate Dynamics (3); J. Geophysical Research (2); Geophysical Research Letter (1); Int. J. Climatology (1); and Advances in Atmospheric Sciences (1). In addition, Wei-Chyung Wang (the PI) continues serving as the U. S. Chief Scientist for the joint agreement, “Climate Sciences”, between the U. S. DOE and China Ministry of Sciences and Technology (Riches et al., 2010). In this capacity, he works closely with Michael Riches/DOE (the U. S. Manager) to coordinate the scientific exchanges (visiting scientists) between the two countries. Educations (graduate students) and trainings (postdoctoral research associates) are key elements of the research project.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

DOE OSTI2019

An Introduction to Grid Services: Concepts, Technical Requirements, and Provision from Wind

17 WIND ENERGY↗

DOE OSTI2019

Smart DG Hub Resilient Solar Project Final Report

Hurricanes, unstable fossil fuel supplies and increased energy loads have revealed the vulnerability of America’s electric grids. Renewable energy has emerged as a viable option; however in order for this sector to reach its full potential it needs to be paired with storage. For example, all of the solar installations in New York City in 2014 were wired to automatically shut down during grid outages for safety reasons and lacked battery backup or other means to function during outages. Pairing solar with batteries can provide critical power needs and reduce dependency on delivered fuel. Additionally, resilient solar systems can also provide benefits outside of emergencies such as utility bill savings and grid support services. Solar+Storage needed a pathway through regulatory, policy and financial hurdles, some of which are unique to urban environments. Sustainable CUNY of the City University of New York (CUNY) formed the Smart Distributed Generation (DG) Hub to develop a strategic pathway to a resilient distributed energy system that integrates storage into resiliency planning and provide support to the grid on peak power days. Through the Smart DG Hub Resilient Solar Project, with support from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) as well as the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority, the New York Power Authority and private funding, Sustainable CUNY worked with project partners - including the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Meister Consultant Group (now Cadmus), subject matter experts at utility companies, and authorities having jurisdiction - to develop a roadmap for the greater deployment of solar+storage as well as a toolkit of resources. Ultimately, in addition to the completed deliverables of multiple resources, the project established a baseline of the current policy, financial, and market landscape, and an understanding of which key areas would require further actions. The DG Hub’s collaborative platform and subject matter expertise gained through this project led directly to a new award from the NYS Energy Research & Development Authority to continue CUNY’s work in targeted areas including energy storage permitting and stakeholder education, similar to the way DOE’s prior support had sowed the initial seeds for the growth of the solar market in NYC, to the NYS market. Finally, the Resilient Solar Project helped inform the New York City (NYC) administration, leading to a significant policy development that included Mayor Bill de Blasio setting a city-wide storage goal of 100 MW by 2020, the first of any city in the country.

25 ENERGY STORAGE↗

DOE OSTI2019

Reliable and Large Area Organic Solar Cells on Flexible Foil Substrates (Final Report)

Mature solar technologies are now providing energy in a growing number of locales across the US at costs below that of fossil fuels. In short, solar energy is delivering on its promise of over 60 years as a source of low cost, clean and literally infinite renewable energy. However, basing all solar solutions on existing materials systems, such as silicon, is insufficient. To be impactful, new solutions must enable the ubiquitous presence of solar power generation.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗

DOE OSTI2020

The Catalytic Reduction of Dinitrogen Under Mild Conditions (Final Report)

In order to use molecular hydrogen as an alternative to fossil fuels, large quantities of hydrogen (or protons and electrons) would have to be generated from water using a method based on solar energy and stored as a molecule in which hydrogen is a high weight percentage. The hydrogen must then be generated as needed from the form in which it is stored. An attractive molecule for this purpose is ammonia (~17% hydrogen by weight). Among the many problems that must be addressed for a successful implementation of this approach in the long term is the reduction of nitrogen catalytically to ammonia with protons and electrons under mild conditions, a goal that is addressed in this proposal. The first abiological catalytic reduction of N 2 to NH 3 by protons and electrons under mild conditions (22 °C and 1 atm) employed molybdenum catalysts, [(HIPTNCH 2 CH 2 ) 3 N]Mo (HIPTN 3 N 3- ), where HIPT (hexaisopropylterphenyl) is 3,5- (2,4,6-i-Pr 3 C 6 H 2 ) 2 C 6 H 3 . A total of approximately four turnovers (to give a maximum of eight equivalents of ammonia) along with approximately one equivalent of hydrogen per N 2 reduced, were found. A limitation of this catalytic approach is loss of the ligand from the metal. This project is aimed at developing a complex that contains a ligand that will not be removed from the metal. A macrocyclic TREN-based ligand of this type has been synthesized recently. The project is aimed at making similar ligands and molybdenum complexes that contain them and testing the new catalysts for catalytic reduction of dinitrogen. The results of these investigations will help guide further design of ligands for more efficient reduction of nitrogen to ammonia and ultimately an integrated device in which protons and electrons are generated using solar energy and employed to reduce nitrogen to ammonia using molybdenum catalysts.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗

DOE OSTI2019

Thermo- and pH-responsive Supramolecular Gelling Agents for Enhanced Oil and Natural Gas Recovery from Tight Formations

Fossil fuels (oil/natural gas) is the biggest type of energy source on earth and will remain its leading place in the next several decades. Recent advances in shale oil/gas technology and other oil recovery methods, and in turn increased hydrocarbon production, made the United Stated of America less dependent on energy imports, a big progress toward a self-sufficient nation. Characteristics of injection fluids play a major role in determining the amount of recovery. For this purpose, the U.S. oil and gas industry urgently needs new injection fluid technologies to increase oil and gas recovery from tight shale formations to meet our national energy demands. Incendium Technologies, LLC has been developing high-efficiency, cost-effective and environmentally friendly supramolecular assembly solutions for enhanced oil and gas production. These solutions can be used as additives to replace polymeric gelling agents in injection fluids for enhanced recovery. They possess outstanding features including adjustable and reversible viscosity, high salt and temperature tolerance, and self-repairment. With increased efficiency in hydrocarbon recovery and eco-friendly nature, these novel solutions have huge commercial and societal benefits.

02 PETROLEUM↗

DOE OSTI2019

Initial Thermal Energy Yield Potential for the Use of Concentrating Solar Power (CSP) for Coal Hybridization in India

The hybridization of concentrating solar power (CSP) with coal-based power generation in India may serve to mitigate fossil fuel use externalities. Assuming parabolic trough systems without storage, this report estimates the upper bound on thermal energy production from India's solar resource to be 633,000 terawatt-thermal (TW th ) annually. Moreover, considering land characteristic constraints, contiguous solar fields (SF) area limitations, and existing coal plant proximity, we produce technical potential estimates. Within 1,000 meters (m) of suitable coal plants, we find the average capacity factor to be 21.1% and the potential for 102,555 gigawatt-hours thermal (GWh th ) aggregated from 25 megawatt thermal (MW th ) CSP SFs. Only about 10% of the land within 1,000 m of each existing coal plant is anticipated to be suitable for hybridization development, and on average this land is expected to support a 43 MW th SF that yields 81 GWh th annually. Chhattisgarh and Tamil Nadu are particularly suited to CSP-coal hybridization and the abundance of suitable land in these states would allow SFs to provide 129 GWh th annually to each coal plant on average. Future research will assess the financial viability of hybridization and explore coal plant optimization strategies that integrate CSP-derived heat (e.g. feedwater heating or potentially coal drying).This study shows significant CSP-coal hybridisation potential for the existing coal plants in India. This preliminary study suggests CSP-coal hybridization may play a supporting role in India's energy system, but it's future is still largely uncertain. This is an area of considerable interest in India, and the methodology could also be adapted for other areas of the world like the United States.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗