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DOE OSTI2023

Throughfall-Reduction Drying Effects on Gravimetric Soil Moisture at Two Depths in Four Lowland Panamanian Forests from 2015-2022

Objectives: Climatic drying is predicted for many tropical forests, yet effects on soil properties across moisture and soil gradients within tropical forests remain poorly characterized, hampering predictions of forest-climate feedbacks. We hypothesized that drying would suppress soil CO2 fluxes (i.e., respiration) in already-drier tropical forests by further reductions in soil moisture, but increases CO2 fluxes in wetter tropical forests by alleviating anaerobiosis and soil saturation. We measured soil CO2 fluxes, soil moisture, soil temperature, and forest floor biomass during wet-dry cycles (2015 – 2022) in four Panamanian forests that vary in rainfall and soil fertility. We also surveyed all tree species and identified to species in 2018 and 2019.Results: We found that soil moisture peaked in the wet season and declined in the dry season. Measured soil CO2 fluxes declined in the dry season and peaked in the early wet season ahead of peak soil moisture, resulting in a lower soil moisture optimum for respiration than previously modeled. Chronic throughfall exclusion also suppressed soil moisture across the four forests to 20cm depths, and also initially suppressed soil CO2 fluxes across forests. There was sustained suppression of soil CO2 fluxes after four years in the wettest forest only (-28 ± 4% during the dry season), but elevated soil CO2 fluxes in a fertile forest after four years (+75 ± 28% during the late wet season). The unexpected negative drying effect in the wettest, most infertile forest could have resulted from reduced vertical flushing of nutrients into soils, as the drying effect increased with time. Including hydro-nutrient interactions in ecosystem models could improve predictions of tropical forest-climate feedbacks (results presented in Cusack et al. 2023). Datasets included: Datasets included here include .csv and .xls files for gravimetric soil moisture (weight/weight). Soil moisture was collected on a quarterly basis from 0-10 cm and 10-20 cm depths using hand-held constant-volume soil corers. Data are on ~3 month timescales from 2015-2022 with some gaps. There is also a .kml file that includes coordinates for all 32 plots included in the study of four forests (n = 4 throughfall reduction and n = 4 control plots per site). No special software is needed to open these files.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

DOE OSTI2026

Complete the Design, Cost Estimate, Assembly Plan, and Operating Instructions for a Bench-Scale Packed-Bed Tubular Methanol Catalyst Testing System

This report details the design of a test stand that converts carbon dioxide and hydrogen into methanol via a two-step process. The first step is a reverse water-gas shift reaction, carried out at 600°C and 25 bar to reduce carbon dioxide to carbon monoxide, and the second is a synthesis reaction that forms methanol at 260°C and 75 bar. The purpose of the system is to test catalysts for each of these steps. The test stand produces approximately 1.5 gallons of crude methanol (methanol mixed with water) per day, and recycles unreacted syngas for increased efficiency. At peak recycle, the stand is expected to consume 0.29 cylinders per day of carbon dioxide and 1.43 cylinders per day of hydrogen. It is planned to be built next to the Blue Star electrolysis unit in the Energy Systems Laboratory (ESL) and includes future plans of acquiring hydrogen from that stand rather than gas cylinders. At this phase of research, three key documents have been produced, as summarized in Table 1. These documents are primarily intended to describe the system and its operation, demonstrate that selected components are appropriate for the intended application, identify potential hazards, safeguards, and mitigation strategies, and ensure that the system is designed to appropriate standards. The body of the report and its appendices provide a narrative of the work completed in FY25. The parts required to build the test stand will be procured and assembled in FY26. Testing will be conducted in the final quarter.

10 - SYNTHETIC FUELS↗

DOE OSTI2022

Split HPWHs as an Efficient Solution for Multifamily Buildings with In-Unit Water Heaters: Preprint

A quarter of all housing units in the country are found in multifamily buildings but few efficiency innovations have been made to improve electric water heating systems in this building type. Domestic hot water in multifamily buildings can either be provided by a large central water heater or smaller in-unit water heaters. Integrated heat pump water heaters that are installed in single family homes are often a poor fit for individual multifamily units since the water heaters are often located in small internal closets. This confined space can limit the air flow to the heat pump and the cold exhaust air can cause discomfort and reduced efficiency. Split CO2 HPWHs separate the tank from the heat pump, which allows for installation location flexibility. Further, CO2 heat pumps can operate under colder ambient conditions, making them a better fit for multifamily units across a wide range of climate regions. As part of a larger project to characterize split HPWH performance, we evaluated the feasibility of installing an additional, parallel tank that could provide hot water to a second housing unit using a single CO2 heat pump. This approach would reduce the first costs of these more expensive units. Based on the high draw volume that we imposed on both tanks, the same heat pump may be able to support more tanks, depending on hot water usage. This paper will describe the split CO2 HPWH technology, how the two-tank system was controlled, and results from our laboratory evaluation.

CO2 HPWH↗

DOE OSTI2022

Split HPWHs as an Efficient Solution for Multifamily Buildings with In-Unit Water Heaters

A quarter of all housing units in the United States are found in multifamily buildings, but few efficiency innovations have been made to improve electric water heating systems in this building type. Domestic hot water in multifamily buildings can either be provided by a large central water heater or smaller in-unit water heaters. Integrated heat pump water heaters that are installed in single-family homes are often a poor fit for individual multifamily units because the water heaters are often located in small internal closets. This confined space can limit the airflow to the heat pump, and the cold exhaust air can cause discomfort and reduced efficiency. Split CO2 HPWHs separate the tank from the heat pump, which allows for installation location flexibility. Further, CO2 heat pumps can operate under colder ambient conditions, making them a better fit for multifamily units across a wide range of climate regions. As part of a larger project to characterize split HPWH performance, we evaluated the feasibility of installing an additional, parallel tank that could provide hot water to a second housing unit using a single CO2 heat pump. This approach would reduce the first costs of these more expensive units. Based on the high draw volume that we imposed on both tanks, the same heat pump may be able to support more tanks, depending on hot water usage. This paper will describe the split CO2 HPWH technology, how the two-tank system was controlled, and results from our laboratory evaluation.

CO2 HPWH↗

DOE OSTI2023

A complete spectroscopic catalogue of local galaxies in the northern spring sky: Gas properties and nuclear activity in different environments

With the aim of providing the complete demography of galaxies in the local Universe, including their nuclear properties, we present SPRING, a complete census of local galaxies limited to the spring quarter of the northern sky (10h < RA < 16h; 0° < Dec < 65°). The SPRING catalogue is a flux- and volume-limited sample (r < 17.7 mag, cz < 10 000 km s -1 ) of 30 597 galaxies, including the Virgo, Coma, and A1367 clusters. Images and spectra were individually examined to clear the sample from unwanted entries. To inspect possible secular and environmental dependencies of the various nuclear excitation properties (star-forming versus active nuclei), we performed a multi-dimensional analysis by dividing the total sample according to: (i) their position in the (NUV - i) versus M star diagram, (ii) the local galaxy density, (iii) the stellar mass, (iv) the halo mass of the group to which galaxies belong, and (v) the neutral hydrogen content. We present a new calibration of the optical diameter-based H I-deficiency parameter H I def , employing a reference sample of isolated galaxies extracted from SPRING. At intermediate distances between Virgo and Coma, we identify a ring-like structure of galaxies constituted by three large filaments, each with a length of approximately 20h -1 Mpc, mostly composed of blue-cloud galaxies with stellar masses M star ≲ 10 10 M ⊙ . The fraction of H I-deficient galaxies within the filament (~30%) suggests that filaments are a transitioning environment between lower- and higher-overdensity environments in terms of H I content, as we find a clear progression from field galaxies to the filament and cluster galaxies for an increasing H I def parameter. We classify the nuclear spectra according to the four-line Baldwin-Phillips-Terlevich (BPT) and the two-line EWHα versus [NII]/Hα (WHAN) diagnostic diagrams, and investigate the variation in the fraction of active nuclei hosts with stellar mass, as well as their colours and environments. We observe that the fraction of low-ionisation nuclear emitting regions (LINERs) is a steep function of stellar mass, for example, it is consistent with zero up to M star ≲ 10 9.5 M ⊙ and becomes ~40% for M star ≳ 101 0.5 M ⊙ , whereas, for M star ≲ 10 9 - 9.5 M ⊙ , almost the entire spectroscopic sample is constituted of galaxies with star-forming nuclei. We investigate whether the nuclear-excitation fractions depend predominantly on the stellar mass or, conversely, on the galaxy environment. In general, we observe that the mass dependence of the fraction of Seyfert nuclei is not very sensitive to the galaxy environment, whereas the fraction of star-forming nuclei is a steeper function of stellar mass in lower-density environments and in blue-cloud galaxies. We find that the fraction of LINERs depends on galaxy colour and, for M star ≳ 10 9.5 - 10 M ⊙ , increases in galaxies belonging to the green valley.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

DOE OSTI2022

Core Design of the Holos-Quad Microreactor

The Holos-Quad micro-reactor concept, developed by HolosGen LLC, is equipped with a 22 MWt (Mega-Watt thermal) core and an integral power conversion system converting the core thermal energy into approximately 10 MWe (Mega-Watt electric). This design can be configured to support a wide range of applications. It is a very innovative high-temperature gas-cooled reactor concept using TRI-structural ISOtropic particle fuel (TRISO) distributed in graphite hexagonal blocks, cooled with helium in a direct Brayton cycle independently executed by four Subcritical Power Modules (SPMs) fitted into a hardened 40-foot container whose dimensions are in compliance with ISO shipping containers requirements. In FY2019 HolosGen LLC was awarded by the Department of Energy Advanced Research Project Agency-Energy (DOE ARPA-E) under the MEITNER funding program. As part of the MEITNER award, the Argonne National Laboratory (ANL) contributed expertise through two specialized teams: The “Design Team” and the “Resource Team”. The Design Team was dedicated to validate feasibility of the Holos-Quad core and to optimize its core design through neutronics analyses. The Resource Team was dedicated to feasibility verification via high-fidelity codes of Holos-Quad thermal-hydraulic, heat transfer, shielding, and structural aspects. This report summarizes the activities conducted by ANL Design Team. A rigorous design approach based on multi-criteria optimization and code-to-code comparison involving stochastic and high-fidelity deterministic solutions was developed and employed at several evolutionary stages of the Holos-Quad design. Several generations of the Holos-Quad core were designed within this project before converging to the current full-scale Gen 2+ design that is detailed in this report. Figure EA-1 illustrates a cross-sectional view of Gen 2+ Holos-Quad core configuration, and Figure EA-2 provides a simplified perspective view of 1-of-4 SPMs. The Holos-Quad uses four thermal-hydraulically independent SPMs locked into stationary positions during power operation, surrounded by BeO reflector and structural component fully comprised within the dimensional constraints represented by traditional ISO containers. One of the benefits of this approach is to enable transportation of each SPM promptly after irradiation in shielded containers. The core is designed to operate for approximately 8 full-power years while the reactivity controls and power conversion system enable load-following operations. The reactivity controls are represented by independent, diversified, and redundant reactivity control systems based on control drums and redundant sets of shutdown rods. The high-fidelity simulation tools were used to assess detailed power and flux distributions of the three-dimensional full-core or quarter-core of the Gen 2+ configuration. Single-physics and multi-physics simulations of the neutronics code PROTEUS and the thermal-hydraulic code System Analysis Module (SAM) were performed to analyze the Holos design configurations with detailed high-fidelity solutions. The design work performed confirmed feasibility of the Holos-Quad concept, provided realistic design description for detailed design of the operational system, and identified several core design improvements to be further considered for future reactor development activities.

22 GENERAL STUDIES OF NUCLEAR REACTORS↗