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Search indexed NASA NTRS and DOE OSTI research on propulsion, heat transfer, battery materials and energy systems. Follow report and document links to the original sources.

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All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2016

SEE Action Guide for States: Energy Efficiency as a Least-Cost Strategy to Reduce Greenhouse Gases and Air Pollution and Meet Energy Needs in the Power Sector

This guide is designed to provide information to state decision makers and staff on options to advance energy efficiency through strategies designed or implemented at the state and local levels of government and in the private sector.1 The information in this guide is intended to be useful to a wide variety of partners and stakeholders involved in energy-related discussions and decision-making at state and local levels. These energy efficiency options, or “pathways” as they are identified in this guide, can assist states in using energy efficiency to meet air pollution reduction and other policy objectives such as energy affordability and reliability. A pathway is a set of interdependent actions that results in measurable energy savings streams and associated avoided air emissions and other benefits over a period of time. These activities can include state, local, or private sector regulations, policies, programs and other activities. For each of five broad pathways that offer sizable cost-effective energy savings, the guide addresses likely questions policy makers and regulators face when screening for the best opportunities to advance energy efficiency in their state.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗
DOE OSTI2019

Continuous Water Quality Sensing for FGD Wastewater

The coal fired plant power industry requires new solutions for on-line monitoring of flue gas desulfurization (FGD) wastewaters for regulated trace metals to reduce recurring operating and off-site laboratory analysis costs and provide a high level of confidence of compliance with state and federal discharge guidelines. The University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) developed an integrated water sensor package for continuous water quality monitoring of flue gas desulfurization (FGD) wastewaters for concentration measurements of Selenium (Se). UAB utilized a diverse team of University Professors/Staff Members/Student(s) (Engineering and Innovative Technology Development Group), a University Affiliated Research Institution from the local area (Southern Research), and a cost sharing Industry Partner (Metrohm). The team developed and validated a proprietary wet chemistry batch process for water sample preparation; and implemented this process as a fully automated on-line monitor prototype system. This prototype system’s performance was evaluated in both the laboratory and during in-field deployment to a coal fired power plant. In both environments it was found that the prototype system was unable to recreate the batch process’s success at preparing FGD water samples for total Se measurements with a commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) cyclic anodic stripping voltammetry (CSV) system. Through this experience, UAB has provided insight into a number of specific areas where improvements can be made with respect to the COTS systems used in this project to yield a more complete and competitive industry solution for on-line monitoring of total Se in industrial wastewater.

20 FOSSIL-FUELED POWER PLANTS↗
DOE OSTI2020

Continuous Water Quality Sensing for FGD Wastewater

The coal fired plant power industry requires new solutions for on-line monitoring of flue gas desulfurization (FGD) wastewaters for regulated trace metals to reduce recurring operating and off-site laboratory analysis costs and provide a high level of confidence of compliance with state and federal discharge guidelines. The University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) developed an integrated water sensor package for continuous water quality monitoring of flue gas desulfurization (FGD) wastewaters for concentration measurements of Selenium (Se). UAB utilized a diverse team of University Professors/Staff Members/Student(s) (Engineering and Innovative Technology Development Group), a University Affiliated Research Institution from the local area (Southern Research), and a cost sharing Industry Partner (Metrohm). The team developed and validated a proprietary wet chemistry batch process for water sample preparation; and implemented this process as a fully automated on-line monitor prototype system. This prototype system’s performance was evaluated in both the laboratory and during in-field deployment to a coal fired power plant. In both environments it was found that the prototype system was unable to recreate the batch process’s success at preparing FGD water samples for total Se measurements with a commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) cyclic anodic stripping voltammetry (CSV) system. Through this experience, UAB has provided insight into a number of specific areas where improvements can be made with respect to the COTS systems used in this project to yield a more complete and competitive industry solution for on-line monitoring of total Se in industrial wastewater.

01 COAL, LIGNITE, AND PEAT↗
DOE OSTI2024

Assessment and Coordination of EVSE Cybersecurity Standards

Cybersecurity certification programs for Electric Vehicle Supply Equipment (EVSE) are fragmented due to no single certification covering all aspects of the device and additionally the existence of multiple programs and under different levels of regulation. These devices are also confronted by the intricate assembly of product software, firmware, and hardware. Devices contain both logical and physical interfaces. These multifaceted devices have vulnerabilities at many levels and interconnect with other potentially vulnerable systems including the electric vehicle, the cloud where data and payment information are stored, and the electric grid and electric grid equipment including utilities. Of the EVSE certification programs that are found, none are directly for the cybersecurity of EVSE. Many standards are for safety, specifically battery safety, some are cybersecurity standards for other types of equipment and can be modeled for EVSE. In specific, ISA/IEC 62443 is found to be significantly in line with EVSE security needs and will be used in future testing to certify EVSE and help guide the project to demonstrate where gaps exist, where strengths lie in the standard and how this can be used to lead the certification efforts in harmonizing EVSE cybersecurity standards. In addition, there are multiple efforts that are currently seeking to build EVSE standards or revise existing standards to address gaps. This effort is seeking to establish a cybersecurity program for EVSE that will inform customers and help increase the level of security across products and state EVSE procurements to achieve consistency across different jurisdictions.

33 ADVANCED PROPULSION SYSTEMS↗
NASA NTRS2004

Automatic Control of Arc Process for Making Carbon Nanotubes

An automatic-control system has been devised for a process in which carbon nanotubes are produced in an arc between a catalyst-filled carbon anode and a graphite cathode. The control system includes a motor-driven screw that adjusts the distance between the electrodes. The system also includes a bridge circuit that puts out a voltage proportional to the difference between (1) the actual value of potential drop across the arc and (2) a reference value between 38 and 40 V (corresponding to a current of about 100 A) at which the yield of carbon nanotubes is maximized. Utilizing the fact that the potential drop across the arc increases with the interelectrode gap, the output of the bridge circuit is fed to a motor-control circuit that causes the motor to move the anode toward or away from the cathode if the actual potential drop is more or less, respectively, than the reference potential. Thus, the system regulates the interelectrode gap to maintain the optimum potential drop. The system also includes circuitry that records the potential drop across the arc and the relative position of the anode holder as function of time.

Scott, Carl D.↗
DOE OSTI2019

Dual Inductor Hybrid Converter for Point-of-Load Voltage Regulator Modules

Achieving high-efficiency power conversion with high power density for large conversion ratio is crucially needed yet challenging in point-of-load applications because of increasing demands of loads. This paper presents a new hybrid converter to address this need. The converter uses two interleaved inductors for complete soft charging of flying capacitors to efficiently provide high output currents with no capacitor hard-charge loss. This dual inductor hybrid (DIH) converter features a smaller number of switches and more effective switch utilization than a recently reported Hybrid Dickson converter, yielding substantially less switch losses represented by smaller volt-ampere products and smaller equivalent output resistance. Converter operation principle is analyzed in detail to confirm the feasibility and benefits, and design considerations are provided to identify a practical design process. Experimental results verify the converter's operation principles and advantages with a 300-kHz 20-W prototype achieving 95.02% peak efficiency and 225 W/in 3 power density. Its advantages and performance promise a good candidate point-of-load converter architecture for demanding applications, such as in data centers, telecommunication, and high-performance digital systems.

24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION↗
DOE OSTI2021

Aberrant FBXW7-mediated ubiquitination and degradation of ZMYND8 enhances tumor progression and stemness in bladder cancer

ZMYND8, an epigenetic regulator, was identified as a common oncogene across various tumors. However, little was reported about the association between ZMYND8 and bladder cancer. Besides, aberrant mechanisms that contribute to abnormal ZMYND8 expressions still remain unclear. In the current study, we first found that ZMYND8 protein levels were significantly elevated in Bca samples versus normal tissues, but not the mRNA levels. We then utilized the Cell Counting Kit-8 (CCK-8) assay, clone formation assay and transwell analysis to confirm that ZMYND8 could remarkably promote the tumor progression in vitro, including growth capacity and migration. Bioinformatic predictive analysis revealed that E3 ubiquitin ligase FBXW7 interacts directly with ZMYND8 and degrades ZMYND8 in a polyubiquitination manner. Low FBXW7 was a hazard factor for promoting and depending on accumulated ZMYND8 proteins to promote Bca progression. Gene set enrichment analysis (GSEA) further indicated that ZMYND8 was notably associated with stemness process, which was well functionally validated. Lastly, ZMYND8 deficiency was observed to inhibit tumor growth of Bca in vivo, revealing a promising translational significance in Bca treatment. In conclusion, our study for the first time provided evidence for a novel mechanism of FBXW7/ZMYND8 axis in Bca, providing therapeutic vulnerability for individualized cancer treatment.

60 APPLIED LIFE SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2023

PKA regulatory subunit Bcy1 couples growth, lipid metabolism, and fermentation during anaerobic xylose growth in Saccharomyces cerevisiae

Organisms have evolved elaborate physiological pathways that regulate growth, proliferation, metabolism, and stress response. These pathways must be properly coordinated to elicit the appropriate response to an ever-changing environment. While individual pathways have been well studied in a variety of model systems, there remains much to uncover about how pathways are integrated to produce systemic changes in a cell, especially in dynamic conditions. We previously showed that deletion of Protein Kinase A (PKA) regulatory subunit BCY1 can decouple growth and metabolism in Saccharomyces cerevisiae engineered for anaerobic xylose fermentation, allowing for robust fermentation in the absence of division. This provides an opportunity to understand how PKA signaling normally coordinates these processes. Here, we integrated transcriptomic, lipidomic, and phospho-proteomic responses upon a glucose to xylose shift across a series of strains with different genetic mutations promoting either coupled or decoupled xylose-dependent growth and metabolism. Together, results suggested that defects in lipid homeostasis limit growth in the bcy1Δ strain despite robust metabolism. To further understand this mechanism, we performed adaptive laboratory evolutions to re-evolve coupled growth and metabolism in the bcy1Δ parental strain. The evolved strain harbored mutations in PKA subunit TPK1 and lipid regulator OPI1 , among other genes, and evolved changes in lipid profiles and gene expression. Deletion of the evolved opi1 gene partially reverted the strain’s phenotype to the bcy1Δ parent, with reduced growth and robust xylose fermentation. We suggest several models for how cells coordinate growth, metabolism, and other responses in budding yeast and how restructuring these processes enables anaerobic xylose utilization.

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2013

Multi-Input Regulation and Logic with T7 Promoters in Cells and Cell-Free Systems

Engineered gene circuits offer an opportunity to harness biological systems for biotechnological and biomedical applications. However, reliance on native host promoters for the construction of circuit elements, such as logic gates, can make the implementation of predictable, independently functioning circuits difficult. In contrast, T7 promoters offer a simple orthogonal expression system for use in a variety of cellular backgrounds and even in cell-free systems. Here we develop a T7 promoter system that can be regulated by two different transcriptional repressors for the construction of a logic gate that functions in cells and in cell-free systems. We first present LacI repressible T7lacO promoters that are regulated from a distal lac operator site for repression. We next explore the positioning of a tet operator site within the T7lacO framework to create T7 promoters that respond to tet and lac repressors and realize an IMPLIES gate. Finally, we demonstrate that these dual input sensitive promoters function in an E. coli cellfree protein expression system. Our results expand the utility of T7 promoters in cell based as well as cell-free synthetic biology applications.

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗
NASA NTRS1942

Aerodynamic Heat-Power Engine Operating on a Closed Cycle

Hot-air engines with dynamic compressors and turbines offer new prospects of success through utilization of units of high efficiencies and through the employment of modern materials of great strength at high temperature. Particular consideration is given to an aerodynamic prime mover operating on a closed circuit and heated externally. Increase of the pressure level of the circulating air permits a great increase of limit load of the unit. This also affords a possibility of regulation for which the internal efficiency of the unit changes but slightly. The effect of pressure and temperature losses is investigated. A general discussion is given of the experimental installation operating at the Escher Wyss plant in Zurich for a considerable time at high temperatures.

Ackeret, J.↗
NASA NTRS2008

Joint Test Plan for Gas Dynamic Spray Technology Demonstration

Air Force Space Command (AFSPC) and NASA have similar missions, facilities, and structures located in similar harsh environments. Both are responsible for a number of facilities/structures with metallic structural and non-structural components in highly and moderately corrosive environments. Regardless of the corrosivity of the environment, all metals require periodic maintenance activity to guard against the insidious effects of corrosion and thus ensure that structures meet or exceed design or performance life. The standard practice for protecting metallic substrates in atmospheric environments is the use of an applied coating system. Current coating systems used across AFSPC and NASA contain volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and hazardous air pollutants (HAPs). These coatings are subject to environmental regulations at the Federal and State levels that limit their usage. In addition, these coatings often cannot withstand the high temperatures and exhaust that may be experienced by AFSPC and NASA structures. In response to these concerns, AFSPC and NASA have approved the use of thermal spray coatings (TSCs). Thermal spray coatings are extremely durable and environmentally friendly coating alternatives, but utilize large cumbersome equipment for application that make the coatings difficult and time consuming to repair. Other concerns include difficulties coating complex geometries and the cost of equipment, training, and materials. Gas Dynamic Spray (GDS) technology (also known as Cold Spray) will be evaluated as a smaller, more maneuverable repair method as well as for areas where thermal spray techniques are not as effective. The technology can result in reduced maintenance and thus reduced hazardous materials/wastes associated with current processes. Thermal spray and GDS coatings also have no VOCs and are environmentally preferable coatings. To achieve a condition suitable for the application of a coating system, including GDS coatings, the substrate must undergo some type of surface preparation and/or depainting operation to ensure adhesion of the new coating system. The GDS unit selected for demonstration has a powder feeding system that can be used for surface preparation or coating application. The surface preparation feature will also be examined. The primary objective of this effort is to demonstrate GDS technology as a repair method for TSCs. The project will also determine the optimal GDS coating thickness for acceptable performance. Successful completion of this project will result in approval of GDS technology as a repair method for TSCs at AFSPC and NASA installations and will improve corrosion protection at critical systems, facilitate easier maintenance activity, extend maintenance cycles, eliminate flight hardware contamination, and reduce the amount of hazardous waste generated.

Lewis, Pattie↗
NASA NTRS2013

State of the Art in Large-Scale Soil Moisture Monitoring

Soil moisture is an essential climate variable influencing land atmosphere interactions, an essential hydrologic variable impacting rainfall runoff processes, an essential ecological variable regulating net ecosystem exchange, and an essential agricultural variable constraining food security. Large-scale soil moisture monitoring has advanced in recent years creating opportunities to transform scientific understanding of soil moisture and related processes. These advances are being driven by researchers from a broad range of disciplines, but this complicates collaboration and communication. For some applications, the science required to utilize large-scale soil moisture data is poorly developed. In this review, we describe the state of the art in large-scale soil moisture monitoring and identify some critical needs for research to optimize the use of increasingly available soil moisture data. We review representative examples of 1) emerging in situ and proximal sensing techniques, 2) dedicated soil moisture remote sensing missions, 3) soil moisture monitoring networks, and 4) applications of large-scale soil moisture measurements. Significant near-term progress seems possible in the use of large-scale soil moisture data for drought monitoring. Assimilation of soil moisture data for meteorological or hydrologic forecasting also shows promise, but significant challenges related to model structures and model errors remain. Little progress has been made yet in the use of large-scale soil moisture observations within the context of ecological or agricultural modeling. Opportunities abound to advance the science and practice of large-scale soil moisture monitoring for the sake of improved Earth system monitoring, modeling, and forecasting.

Review↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Design of a GRCop-42 Regeneratively Cooled Thrust Chamber Assembly and Feed System

An additively manufactured thrust chamber assembly was designed and printed using laser powder bed fusion. The NASA-developed material GRCop-42 was used for its high strength and high temperature characteristics. The combustion chamber and nozzle utilize regenerative coolant channels to achieve long duration hot fire tests. Design for additive manufacturing was used to create geometries not easily attainable with traditional machining. The thrust chamber assembly was post processed to ensure print quality and verify for testing. A feed system – encompassing all propellant lines, valves, sensors, and tanks – was designed and built to enable steady state, pressure regulated testing. Pressure transducers, thermocouples, and load cells were placed to enable measurements of the propellant properties and engine performance. Venturis and orifices were used throughout the system to control the flow rates to the thrust chamber. Aside from providing propellants, the feed system provides pressure using nitrogen, and purges the lines during shutdown. The design process for this testing platform is described. A testing campaign on the hardware will be conducted by the Akronauts Rocket Design Team at the University of Akron in Spring 2023.

Dillon M. Petty↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Design of a GRCop-42 Regeneratively Cooled Thrust Chamber Assembly and Feed System

An additively manufactured thrust chamber assembly was designed and printed using laser powder bed fusion. The NASA-developed material GRCop-42 was used for its high strength and high temperature characteristics. The combustion chamber and nozzle utilize regenerative coolant channels to achieve long duration hot fire tests. Design for additive manufacturing was used to create geometries not easily attainable with traditional machining. The thrust chamber assembly was post processed to ensure print quality and verify for testing. A feed system – encompassing all propellant lines, valves, sensors, and tanks – was designed and built to enable steady state, pressure regulated testing. Pressure transducers, thermocouples, and load cells were placed to enable measurements of the propellant properties and engine performance. Venturis and orifices were used throughout the system to control the flow rates to the thrust chamber. Aside from providing propellants, the feed system provides pressure using nitrogen, and purges the lines during shutdown. The design process for this testing platform is described. A testing campaign on the hardware will be conducted by the Akronauts Rocket Design Team at the University of Akron in Spring 2023.

Dillon M. Petty↗
DOE OSTI2020

Damaged Fuel in the United States

Over the years of commercial nuclear power plant operations in the United States (U.S.), many fuel assemblies have lost the capability to perform all of their desired functions. These assemblies have lost the capability to be handled, stored, or transported to meet regulations resulting in them being classified as damaged fuel. The causes of these failed assemblies are diverse and plant-specific. The majority of these failed assemblies are contained in a damaged fuel can that will be used in conjunction with a storage and/or transportation system. The storage and transportation systems have a limit on how many slots can be filled with damaged fuel cans. A damaged fuel can is generally a stainless steel container that confines damaged SNF and is closed on its end by screened openings. These screened openings allow gaseous and liquid media to escape but minimize the dispersal of gross particulate material. Out of an abundance of caution a few reactors have loaded high burnup fuel into damaged fuel cans. Damaged fuel is not licensed for storage or transport in the U.S., because the regulations for storage and transport do not specify exactly how to classify damaged fuel. Instead the regulations license/certify packages that specify approved contents. Damaged fuel must be included in the approved contents to be a viable option. In many cases damaged SNF is encapsulated in a damaged fuel can to ensure it can confine gross fuel particles, debris, and or damaged assemblies to a known volume within a loaded cask. This damaged fuel can may then be utilized in the same way as an assembly in a storage and transportation design system. Some storage cask systems utilize top and bottom plugs to confine debris in damaged fuel. The most recent domestic documentation on damaged SNF was performed by the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) and used data from U.S. reactors concluding in June 30th 2013 to produce Form GC-859, “Nuclear Fuel Data Survey”. Based on this form there were 136,821 boiling water reactor (BWR) spent nuclear fuel (SNF) assemblies and 104,647 pressurized water reactor (PWR) SNF assemblies for a total of 241,468 SNF assemblies in the U.S. Out of these 241,468 SNF assemblies, 4,521 assemblies were classified as failed. Some assemblies were also disassembled and the fuel rods or pieces of fuel rods were combined together to make a consolidated assembly. A consolidated assembly may include damaged fuel, or it could have been consolidated as part of a demonstration project. The GC-859 data includes 2,550 consolidated assemblies containing between 0 and 264 whole fuel rods. These consolidated assemblies could be placed in single assembly canisters and stored in the spent fuel pool. For dry storage and transportation, a single assembly canister is generally placed in a damaged fuel can. In addition to the consolidated assemblies, 2,391 uncanistered fuel rod pieces exist, which were removed from 494 assemblies.

11 NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS↗
DOE OSTI2023

Progress Towards the Reality of Low-Temperature Critical Experiments with Low-Temperature TEX

Integral benchmarks for criticality safety do not exist below room temperature. Incredible support for below room temperature benchmarks is present across the international community. Validation of low-temperature neutron cross sections is necessary to verify any operation at temperatures below room temperature which is typically observed in environments far from the equator. For example, a fissile material transportation truck may routinely observe ambient temperatures down to -40°C, which is the lower temperature bound of the normal conditions of transportation defined in the United States Title 10 Code of Federal Regulations §71.71c2. Similarly, the IAEA, which contains 176 member states, has the same requirement for subcriticality for fissile material transportation. Additionally, sub-room temperature benchmarks can validate newly produced cross sections, that include novel thermal scattering laws, from North Carolina State University. A six-case experiment designed based off the TEX-HEU baseline experiments has been proposed utilizing a chilled vacuum chamber capable of cooling the HEU stack down to -50°C. The six proposed configurations span the entire neutron fission energy range and can be tested at intermediate temperatures between room temperature and -40°C. Of the six configurations, the fastest case utilizes nearly 135 kg of HEU. Understanding the system is required prior to critical experiment operations. In order to test the functionality of the system, testing with surrogate fuel materials has been conducted. The following discusses the design of the low temperature TEX (LT-TEX) experiment as well as the progress made via surrogate testing towards a reality in which low-temperature integral benchmarks exist in the International Criticality Safety Benchmark Evaluation Project (ICSBEP).

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2017

PEEL-AND-STICK SENSORS POWERED BY DIRECTED RF ENERGY

PARC, a Xerox Company, is developing a low-cost system of peel-and-stick wireless sensors that will enable widespread building environment sensor deployment with the potential to deliver up to 30% energy savings. The system is embodied by a set of RF hubs that provide power to automatically located sensor nodes, and relay data wirelessly to the building management system (BMS). The sensor nodes are flexible electronic labels powered by rectified RF energy transmitted by an RF hub and can contain multiple printed and conventional sensors. The system design overcomes limitations in wireless sensors related to power delivery, lifetime, and cost by eliminating batteries and photovoltaic devices. Sensor localization is performed automatically by the inclusion of a programmable multidirectional antenna array in the RF hub. Comparison of signal strengths while the RF beam is swept allows for sensor localization, reducing installation effort and enabling automatic recommissioning of sensors that have been relocated, overcoming a significant challenge in building operations. PARC has already demonstrated wireless power and temperature data transmission up to a distance of 20m with less than one minute between measurements, using power levels well within the FCC regulation limits in the 902-928 MHz ISM band. The sensor’s RF energy harvesting antenna achieves high performance with dimensions below 5cm x 9cm.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗