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DOE OSTI2018

Automated Clean Chemistry for Bulk Analysis of Environmental Swipe Samples – Final Report

Sample preparation methods for mass spectrometry are being automated using commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) equipment to shorten lengthy and costly manual chemical purification procedures. This development addresses a serious need in the International Atomic Energy Agency’s (IAEA) Network of Analytical Laboratories (NWAL) to increase efficiency in the Bulk Analysis of Environmental Samples for Safeguards program with a method that allows unattended, overnight operation. In collaboration with Elemental Scientific Inc. (ESI), the prepFAST-MC2 was designed based on COTS equipment. It was modified for uranium/plutonium separations using renewable columns packed with Eichrom TEVA® and UTEVA® resins, with a chemical separation method based on the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) NWAL chemical procedure. Initial verification of individual columns yielded small elution volumes with consistent elution profiles and good recovery. Combined column calibration demonstrated ample separation without crosscontamination of the eluent. Automated packing and unpacking of the built-in columns initially showed >15% deviation in resin loading by weight, which can lead to inconsistent separations. Optimization of the packing and unpacking methods led to a reduction in the variability of the packed resin to less than 5% daily. Based on the initial experience at ORNL with the prepFAST-MC2, a second-generation model, the prepFAST-SR, was built by ESI. The newly designed prepFAST-SR has several upgrades compared with the original prepFAST-MC2. The upgrades largely addressed issues with the reliability of unpacking the Eichrom columns and with ventilation to ensure adequate removal of acid vapors. Both systems are currently installed in the Ultra-Trace Forensics Science Center at ORNL. Separations of mixed uranium and plutonium samples containing certified reference materials were analyzed by multi-collector inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry and yielded good results. Current efforts have demonstrated a wider applicability of the prepFAST system. Near-quantitative removal of metal interferences was achieved with the system in both uranium and plutonium separated fractions. Successful system validation was completed with several archived samples. Isotopic results from archived samples and certified reference materials were well within data quality limits for the IAEA NWAL. Additional COTS equipment has been evaluated for its potential to aid the prepFAST-SR system in reducing the time allotments and cleanroom infrastructure requirements for accurate separations. Overall, these efforts help ensure continued efficient and effective operation of the NWAL. Comparison of the amount of personnel time necessary for successful manual vs. automated chemical separations showed a significant decrease in hands-on time from 9.8 hours to 35 minutes for seven samples, respectively. This documented time savings and reduced labor translates to a significant cost savings per sample. Overall, the system will enable faster sample reporting times at reduced cost by limiting personnel hours dedicated to the chemical separation.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗

DOE OSTI2022

Demonstration and Evaluation of the Human-Technology Integration Function Allocation Methodology

There is an imminent need for the existing nuclear power plants to reduce their operating and maintenance (O&M) costs to remain economically viable. Digital technology, including automation, provides a significant opportunity for the existing nuclear power plant fleet to transform the way in which work is accomplished, reducing O&M costs, and allowing the fleet to remain economically competitive. One notable opportunity to significantly reduce O&M costs pertains to modifications to the plant equipment and main control room (MCR). Existing instrumentation and control (I&C) technologies in the MCR are highly analog, costly to operate and maintain, and demand a high cognitive and physical workload from plant staff (i.e., operators). Digitalizing the MCR has a range of broad economic benefits, including improved plant performance and reduced manual work. Further, digital I&C systems can fundamentally change the way in which plant staff operate the plant; this is the concept of operation. Human-technology integration is important to ensure that impacts to the concept of operation are done in a way that account for capabilities of people and technology. Human-technology integration employs human factors engineering (HFE) methods and principles to maximize the benefits of digital technology, reducing human error, improving overall decision-making and usability. The U.S. Department of Energy Light Water Reactor Sustainability Program is applying human-technology integration research to ensure digital technologies are safe, reliable, and efficient. This paper documents the demonstration of the human-technology guidance developed by the Light Water Reactor Sustainability Program from a first-of-a-kind digital I&C upgrade, specifically addressing function analysis and allocation for a new digital I&C system that included changes in automation levels. The program’s specific approach is included in this work, following lessons learned. This document serves as a resource for industry to follow in applying human-technology integration and HFE to digital modifications, specific to function analysis and allocation. The lessons learned should be considered in the planning and execution of HFE activities that support such digital modifications.

99 GENERAL AND MISCELLANEOUS↗

DOE OSTI2021

Brief Overview of the NCSP [Slides]

The mission of the NCSP is to provide sustainable expert leadership, direction, and the technical infrastructure necessary to develop, maintain, and disseminate the essential technical tools, training, and data required to support safe, efficient fissionable material operations within the Department of Energy. The vision of the NCSP is a continually improving, adaptable, and transparent program that communicates and collaborates globally to incorporate technology, practices, and programs to be responsive to the essential technical needs of those responsible for developing, implementing, and maintaining nuclear criticality safety.

2021 NCSP TPR Best Paper Award↗

DOE OSTI2020

Brief Overview of the NCSP [Slides]

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS↗

DOE OSTI2024

TinyTPC - A Test Stand for Photosensitive Dopants

Liquid argon time projection chambers (LArTPCs) are widely used to study accelerator neutrinos. Since LArTPCs are sensitive down to 10– 100 keV, neutrino experiments' physics programs could be extended to lower energies. However, in this scale, LArTPCs' energy resolution is significantly degraded because only charge is collected efficiently. One solution is the introduction of photosensitive dopants, which convert scintillation light to ionization yield. We have built a test stand (TinyTPC) with a LArPix pixelated anode plane and an active mass of 2.1 kg to study these charge enhancements. Our plan is to measure TinyTPC’s energy resolution with and without dopants using radioactive sources. This poster presentation will discuss TinyTPC's status and goals.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗

NASA NTRS1974

The total flow concept for geothermal energy conversion

A geothermal development project has been initiated at the Lawrence Livermore Laboratory (LLL) to emphasize development of methods for recovery and conversion of the energy in geothermal deposits of hot brines. Temperatures of these waters vary from 150 C to more than 300 C with dissolved solids content ranging from less than 0.1% to over 25% by weight. Of particular interest are the deposits of high-temperature/high-salinity brines, as well as less saline brines, known to occur in the Salton Trough of California. Development of this resource will depend on resolution of the technical problems of brine handling, scale and precipitation control, and corrosion/erosion resistant systems for efficient conversion of thermal to electrical energy. Research experience to date has shown these problems to be severe. Hence, the LLL program emphasizes development of an entirely different approach called the Total Flow concept.

Austin, A. L.↗

NASA NTRS1986

Space solar cell research: Problems and potential

The value of a passive, maintenance-free, renewable energy source was apparent in the early days of the space program, and the silicon solar cell was pressed into service. Efficiencies of those early space solar arrays were low, and lifetimes shorter than hoped for, but within a decade significant advances had been made in both areas. Better performance was achieved through improvements in silicon single crystal material, better device designs, and a better understanding of the factors that affect the performance of a solar cell in space. Chief among the latter, particularly for the mid-to-high altitude (HEO) and geosynchronous (GEO) orbits, are the effects of the naturally occurring particulate radiation environment. Although not as broadly important to the photovoltaic community at large as increased efficiency, the topic of radiation damage is critically important to use of solar cells in space, and is a major component of the NASA research program in space photovoltaics. A brief overview of some of the opportunities and challenges for space photovoltaic applications is given, and some of the current research directed at achieving high efficiency and controlling radiation damage in space solar cells is discussed.

Flood, D. J.↗

NASA NTRS2017

Three-Dimensional High Fidelity Progressive Failure Damage Modeling of NCF Composites

Performance prediction of off-axis laminates is of significant interest in designing composite structures for energy absorption. Phenomenological models available in most of the commercial programs, where the fiber and resin properties are smeared, are very efficient for large scale structural analysis, but lack the ability to model the complex nonlinear behavior of the resin and fail to capture the complex load transfer mechanisms between the fiber and the resin matrix. On the other hand, high fidelity mesoscale models, where the fiber tows and matrix regions are explicitly modeled, have the ability to account for the complex behavior in each of the constituents of the composite. However, creating a finite element model of a larger scale composite component could be very time consuming and computationally very expensive. In the present study, a three-dimensional mesoscale model of non-crimp composite laminates was developed for various laminate schemes. The resin material was modeled as an elastic-plastic material with nonlinear hardening. The fiber tows were modeled with an orthotropic material model with brittle failure. In parallel, new stress based failure criteria combined with several damage evolution laws for matrix stresses were proposed for a phenomenological model. The results from both the mesoscale and phenomenological models were compared with the experiments for a variety of off-axis laminates.

Aitharaju, Venkat↗

DOE OSTI2013

Rebuilding for Sustainability: Case Studies in the Making (Presentation)

NREL has made significant contributions to communities suffering from natural disasters since 2007 in terms of technical assistance regarding energy efficiency and renewable energy options. NREL's work has covered all aspects of energy, including energy opportunities in community planning, policy design, new program design, and specific project design and implementation for energy related to electricity generation, building energy use, and transportation. This presentation highlights work done in New Orleans following Hurricane Katrina; Greensburg, Kansas, following a devastating tornado; and New York and New Jersey following Hurricane Sandy.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗

DOE OSTI2013

Modeling and Simulation of HVAC Faulty Operations and Performance Degradation due to Maintenance Issues

Almost half of the total energy used in the U.S. buildings is consumed by heating, ventilation and air conditionings (HVAC) according to EIA statistics. Among various driving factors to energy performance of building, operations and maintenance play a significant role. Many researches have been done to look at design efficiencies and operational controls for improving energy performance of buildings, but very few study the impacts of HVAC systems maintenance. Different practices of HVAC system maintenance can result in substantial differences in building energy use. If a piece of HVAC equipment is not well maintained, its performance will degrade. If sensors used for control purpose are not calibrated, not only building energy usage could be dramatically increased, but also mechanical systems may not be able to satisfy indoor thermal comfort. Properly maintained HVAC systems can operate efficiently, improve occupant comfort, and prolong equipment service life. In the paper, maintenance practices for HVAC systems are presented based on literature reviews and discussions with HVAC engineers, building operators, facility managers, and commissioning agents. We categorize the maintenance practices into three levels depending on the maintenance effort and coverage: 1) proactive, performance-monitored maintenance; 2) preventive, scheduled maintenance; and 3) reactive, unplanned or no maintenance. A sampled list of maintenance issues, including cooling tower fouling, boiler/chiller fouling, refrigerant over or under charge, temperature sensor offset, outdoor air damper leakage, outdoor air screen blockage, outdoor air damper stuck at fully open position, and dirty filters are investigated in this study using field survey data and detailed simulation models. The energy impacts of both individual maintenance issue and combined scenarios for an office building with central VAV systems and central plant were evaluated by EnergyPlus simulations using three approaches: 1) direct modeling with EnergyPlus, 2) using the energy management system feature of EnergyPlus, and 3) modifying EnergyPlus source code. The results demonstrated the importance of maintenance for HVAC systems on energy performance of buildings. The research is intended to provide a guideline to help practitioners and building operators to gain the knowledge of maintaining HVAC systems in efficient operations, and prioritize HVAC maintenance work plan. The paper also discusses challenges of modeling building maintenance issues using energy simulation programs.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗

DOE OSTI2014

SUBTASK 3.12 – GASIFICATION, WARM-GAS CLEANUP, AND LIQUID FUELS PRODUCTION WITH ILLINOIS COAL

The goal of this project was to evaluate the performance of Illinois No. 6 coal blended with biomass in a small-scale entrained-flow gasifier and demonstrate the production of liquid fuels under three scenarios. The first scenario used traditional techniques for cleaning the syngas prior to Fischer–Tropsch (FT) synthesis, including gas sweetening with a physical solvent. In the second scenario, the CO2 was not removed from the gas stream prior to FT synthesis. In the third scenario, only warm-gas cleanup techniques were used, such that the feed gas to the FT unit contained both moisture and CO2. The results of the testing showed that the liquid fuels production from the FT catalyst was significantly hindered by the presence of moisture and CO2 in the syngas. Further testing would be needed to determine if this thermally efficient process is feasible with other FT catalysts. This subtask was funded through the EERC–U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Joint Program on Research and Development for Fossil Energy-Related Resources Cooperative Agreement No. DE-FC26-08NT43291. Nonfederal funding was provided by the Illinois Clean Coal Institute.

01 COAL, LIGNITE, AND PEAT↗

DOE OSTI2020

Energy Snapshot - British Virgin Islands

This profile provides a snapshot of the energy landscape of the British Virgin Islands (BVI), one of three sets of the Virgin Island territories in an archipelago making up the northern portion of the Lesser Antilles.

44 EE - Strategic Programs, Energy Transition Init↗

DOE OSTI2020

Alternative Fuels Data Center and Related Technology Integration Tools

The U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy's Vehicle Technologies Office (VTO) facilitates national coordination of the Clean Cities coalitions through its Technology Integration Program. VTO's Technology Integration Program supports a broad technology portfolio that can reduce transportation energy costs for businesses and consumers. Fleets, cities, and regions can use the tools featured in this guide to implement alternative fuels and advanced vehicles. Also learn how Clean Cities coalitions and their stakeholders across the country have used the tools.

AFDC↗

DOE OSTI2020

Alternative Fuels Data Center and Related Technology Integration Tools

47 OTHER INSTRUMENTATION↗

DOE OSTI2022

Observation of Current-Driven Features of 2.5 Mev Ion Bunch With Complete and Efficient 5D Measurements at the SNS Beam Test Facility

The SNS Beam Test Facility research program is focused detailed studies of beam distributions for medium-energy ion beams, with the goal of reconstructing realistic 6D bunch distributions to enable halo prediction. For complete characterization of the initial distribution, scan time scales exponentially with scan dimension. Currently, a full 6D measurement with ~10 points across most dimensions requires 30 hours. However, measurement of the 5D distribution f(x, x’,y,y’,w) can be done very rapidly using a hybrid slit/screen method. This approach requires ~4 hours to obtain at least 32 points/dimension, with very high resolution (0.5 keV) in the energy distribution. This presentation reports on the approach and results for 5D characterization of the initial RFQ-formed bunch. This includes higher-resolution views of previously reported transverse-longitudinal dependence and additional interplane dependencies that were not previously reported.

Ruisard, Kiersten↗

DOE OSTI2024

ReEDS Performance Improvement

The Regional Energy Deployment System (ReEDS) is an open-source, spatially explicit, long-term capacity expansion model for the bulk electric power system of the contiguous United States, encompassing multiple scenarios with technological and political assumptions (see https://github.com/NREL/ReEDS-2.0). With the increased needs for capabilities, higher temporal and spatial resolutions to model the evolution of the power system with modern technologies and low-carbon pathways, ReEDS' model solution times have increased significantly from 4-6 hours in 2018 to 18-48+ hours in 2023 . Also, the model size for commonly-run ReEDS scenarios reached 22 and 28 million equations and variables, respectively. These runtimes can be especially challenging under certain scenario settings (e.g., very high temporal or spatial resolution) or with limited computational power. In this presentation, we will discuss several methods we used to improve model runtime, including data preparation, model modification, and solver tuning. The implementation of these methods shrank the model size to 7.2 and 7.3 million equations and variables, respectively. Furthermore, this led to a 77% reduction in the model's run time for commonly-run ReEDS scenarios. We will discuss the process of identifying areas for solve time improvements and how the specific enhancements for the ReEDS model might be applied to other similar large-scale models.

ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY,MATHEMATICS A↗

DOE OSTI2022

‪A Novel Methodology for Longitudinal Studies of Home Thermal Comfort Perception and Behavior

Human-building interactions significantly influence building energy consumption and affect peak energy demand. For example, heating and cooling contribute 46% of daily peak residential energy demand. Grid-interactive efficient buildings (GEBs) can potentially increase energy-demand flexibility and accelerate the adoption of renewables. However, traditional demand response (DR) programs focused on shedding peak loads disregard the human-building interactions leading to occupant thermal frustration. Specifically, they do not model occupants’ ability to override thermostat controls, nor how indoor environmental conditions and sociocultural factors affect the timing and magnitude of overrides. Studies have found 20% of occupants override thermostat setpoints during DR events longer than 6 hours yet lack detail about the motivation that might guide more successful efforts. Balancing energy-demand flexibility with occupant thermal comfort requires understanding dynamic occupant behavior, the underlying psychophysiological drivers, in the context of homes. This paper presents methods for scalable longitudinal studies of residential occupant behavior dynamics to inform the development of psychophysiological occupant-centric building models. Smart sensors were installed to measure local environmental conditions in 20 homes in two regions of the United States. Just-in-time ecological momentary assessments (EMAs) provided qualitative data on occupant thermal comfort and local environmental conditions not captured in Internet-of-Things (IoT) based studies or existing datasets. Participant interviews provided insight into environmental attitudes, mental models, and the role of economics in comfort and behavior, which in turn may affect thermostat interactions. Based on these data, interventions in the next phase of the study will collect data and monitor occupant behavior during simulated DR events.

Kane, Michael↗

DOE OSTI2020

Design and Development of a High-Efficiency Single Cylinder Natural Gas-Fueled Jet Ignition Engine

The current energy climate has created a push toward reducing consumption of fossil fuels and lowering emissions output in power generation applications. Combined with the desire for a more distributed energy grid, there is currently a need for small displacement, high efficiency engines for use in stationary power generation. An enabling technology for achieving high efficiencies with spark ignited engines for such applications is the use of jet ignition which enables ultra-lean (λ > ~1.6) combustion via air dilution.This paper provides a comprehensive review of the development of a 390cc, high efficiency single cylinder natural gas-fueled jet ignition engine operating ultra-lean. The engine was developed as part of the Department of Energy’s Advanced Research Projects Agency–Energy (DOE ARPA-E) GENSETS program. Design choices for minimizing friction are highlighted as well as test results showing further friction reduction through downspeeding. Extensive hardware optimization of the combustion system has been performed and results are presented for air-flow path optimization and the jet igniter. The efficiency benefits related to enleanment and downspeeding are analyzed using an efficiency loss breakdown based on the First Law of Thermodynamics. Through optimization efforts a peak brake thermal efficiency in excess of 34% was achieved, representing an increase of greater than 20% over the current state-of-the-industry for comparably sized CNG engines.

Peters, Nathan↗