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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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13 records
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2025

Biomass to bio-energy supply chain: Economic viability, case studies, challenges and policy implications in India

Biomass supply chain (BSC) management is an integral part of renewable energy projects, which include biomass-harvesting, collection, storage, processing and transportation to the bio-energy plants. The sustainability concept identifies economy, environment, and society as the three principal pillars of bioenergy. With an effective BSC implemented, all three dimensions of sustainability can be attained. Although, there’s been extensive research on the environmental sustainability of BSC, the economic aspects are under-represented in existing literature. So, an elaborate analysis on the economic viability of BSCs developed worldwide and those in India is critical, and needs to be studied. This review conducts a detailed accounting of the economic aspects of a BSC which includes the existing challenges in designing an environmental-cum-economically efficient BSC and strategies to address the issues. The Indian context has been studied on the BSC models, highlighting their shortcomings, while encapsulating the essential insights from global BSC models for a cost-effective BSC-to-bioenergy in India. Here, this review also emphasizes the policies supporting the BSC in India and forecasts the future biomass demand and supply. This review will provide stakeholders with critical insights on BSC and related challenges and assist them to investigate and devise strategies for successful implementation of BSCs in India.

Biomass↗
DOE OSTI2021

Technoeconomic and Life Cycle Analysis for Bio-Energy with Carbon Capture and Storage (BECCS) Baseline

Bio-Energy with Carbon Capture and Storage (BECCS) is an attractive option from an environmental standpoint, as biomass regrowth removes CO 2 from the atmosphere, which offsets the emissions produced by burning the biomass. When combined with carbon capture, this produces a system that is capable of zero or even negative greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. This study examines the performance, environmental impact, and economics of co-firing biomass in pulverized coal (PC) power plants. The analysis is based on various plant configurations (with and without carbon dioxide [CO 2 ] capture) using hybrid poplar biomass at three levels of co-fire (20, 35, and 49 weight percent) with Illinois No. 6 coal. This study is an analysis of the overall performance and economics of the plant, which was used to determine the levelized cost of electricity (LCOE) and to perform a full environmental life cycle analysis (LCA) of greenfield PC plants co-firing biomass.

09 BIOMASS FUELS↗
NASA NTRS1982

Geographic Information Systems for Assessing Existing and Potential Bio-energy Resources: Their Use in Determining Land Use and Management Options which Minimize Ecological and Landscape Impacts in Rural Areas

A management construct is described which forms part of an overall landscape ecological planning model which has as a principal objective the extension of the traditional descriptive land use mapping capabilities of geographic information systems into land management realms. It is noted that geographic information systems appear to be moving to more comprehensive methods of data handling and storage, such as relational and hierarchical data management systems, and a clear need has simultaneously arisen therefore for planning assessment techniques and methodologies which can actually use such complex levels of data in a systematic, yet flexible and scenario dependent way. The descriptive of mapping method proposed broaches such issues and utilizes a current New England bioenergy scenario, stimulated by the use of hardwoods for household heating purposes established in the post oil crisis era and the increased awareness of the possible landscape and ecological ramifications of the continued increasing use of the resource.

Jackman, A. E.↗
DOE OSTI2022

Bio-Energy with Carbon Capture and Storage (BECCS): Achieving Net Zero and Beyond

This work evaluates the life cycle environmental performance of Bioenergy with Carbon Capture and Storage (BECCS) across different biomass types, processing technologies, and capture rates. Preliminary results suggest that carbon neutrality could be achieved if 35% biomass is co-fired with 90% carbon capture and sequestration.

Carlson, Derrick R.↗
DOE OSTI2022

Engineering Curcumin Biosynthesis in Poplar Affects Lignification and Biomass Yield

Lignocellulosic biomass is recalcitrant toward deconstruction into simple sugars mainly due to the presence of lignin. By engineering plants to partially replace traditional lignin monomers with alternative ones, lignin degradability and extractability can be enhanced. Previously, the alternative monomer curcumin has been successfully produced and incorporated into lignified cell walls of Arabidopsis by the heterologous expression of DIKETIDE-CoA SYNTHASE (DCS) and CURCUMIN SYNTHASE2 (CURS2). The resulting transgenic plants did not suffer from yield penalties and had an increased saccharification yield after alkaline pretreatment. Here, we translated this strategy into the bio-energy crop poplar. Via the heterologous expression of DCS and CURS2 under the control of the secondary cell wall CELLULOSE SYNTHASE A8-B promoter (ProCesA8-B), curcumin was also produced and incorporated into the lignified cell walls of poplar. ProCesA8-B:DCS_CURS2 transgenic poplars, however, suffered from shoot-tip necrosis and yield penalties. Compared to that of the wild-type (WT), the wood of transgenic poplars had 21% less cellulose, 28% more matrix polysaccharides, 23% more lignin and a significantly altered lignin composition. More specifically, ProCesA8-B:DCS_CURS2 lignin had a reduced syringyl/guaiacyl unit (S/G) ratio, an increased frequency of p-hydroxyphenyl (H) units, a decreased frequency of p-hydroxybenzoates and a higher fraction of phenylcoumaran units. Without, or with alkaline or hot water pretreatment, the saccharification efficiency of the transgenic lines was equal to that of the WT. These differences in (growth) phenotype illustrate that translational research in crops is essential to assess the value of an engineering strategy for applications. Further fine-tuning of this research strategy (e.g., by using more specific promoters or by translating this strategy to other crops such as maize) might lead to transgenic bio-energy crops with cell walls more amenable to deconstruction without settling in yield.

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2022

Chapter 11: Biochar Production

In production of biochar, thermochemical processes that can be used to treat biomass include pyrolysis, gasification, hydrothermal processing, and combustion. Each of these processes is defined by specific operating conditions (e.g., temperature, presence of oxygen) and feedstock requirements for optimal conversion to the product of primary interest. Each process results in varying fractions of gaseous, liquid, and solid products. Though other publications have emphasized the gaseous bio-energy products of such processes (e.g., bio-oil, synthesis gas or "syngas") with biochar as a co-product, in this discussion, we focus primarily on biochar as the In production of biochar, thermochemical processes that can be used to treat biomass include pyrolysis, gasification, hydrothermal processing, and combustion. Each of these processes is defined by specific operating conditions (e.g., temperature, presence of oxygen) and feedstock requirements for optimal conversion to the product of primary interest. Each process results in varying fractions of gaseous, liquid, and solid products. Though other publications have emphasized the gaseous bio-energy products of such processes (e.g., bio-oil, synthesis gas or "syngas") with biochar as a co-product, in this discussion, we focus primarily on biochar as the main product, with heat and electrical energy as co-products of secondary interest. The reasons for this are as follows: when producing biochar, heat is the simplest form of energy to capture and utilize, electrical energy can be generated from heat energy with a wide range of available technologies small and large; rather than immediately combusting the gases released from biomass, there is potential to refine the gases into bio-oil and syngas. However, much larger investments of capital are needed to build facilities for which gaseous fuel production is the primary goal, as compared to those focused on biochar production with heat and electrical energy co-products. While the economic viability of biochar production will be improved by production of high-value co-products (e.g., wood acids for use in pesticides), the simplest production scheme is one in which biochar and heat are the primary products. Here we aim to provide a broader overview of thermochemical processes and technologies most relevant to biochar production in its current state of commercialization. All biochar is a result of pyrolysis (the reaction) but not all biochar is made with a dedicated pyrolysis reactor (the technology type). Further, all biochar is the result of a lack of complete combustion (the reaction), even biochar produced in a combustion or gasification reactor (the technology type). This is an important distinction to acknowledge in the following sections in which we discuss both thermochemical conversion reactions and technology types.

biochar↗
DOE OSTI2022

Challenges and Opportunities Associated with the Municipal Solid Waste

Municipal solid waste (MSW) is one of the important challenges in today’s world. A continuous surge in population, increasing living standards, and rapid urbanization are generating an enormous quantity of MSW. Improper management of this MSW often leads to the release of greenhouse gases, emission of particulate matters, and formation of dioxins, which all ultimately contributes to climate change. Recycling these wastes via landfills with gas recovery and/or energy and material production via thermal and chemical conversions could be viable options to manage these challenges. Recycling of MSW is difficult because it is very heterogeneous in nature. The heterogeneity of MSW varies significantly from country to country and from one municipality to another. Such variation depends mainly on the waste management regulations and industrial structure of each region. The quantity and the quality of MSW are critical for determination of the handling and management. This presentation will discuss the statistics (e.g., source, quantity, quality, etc.) of MSW following by the current state-of-the-art technologies for handling those wastes. The key challenges handling those wastes and possible improvements of the handling processes will be discussed further. Finally, the potential opportunities for MSW, especially the contributions to the bio-energy field, will be discussed.

09 BIOMASS FUELS↗
DOE OSTI2020

Impacts of Climate Change on Energy Systems in Global and Regional Scenarios

A growing number of studies report the impact of climate change on the supply, demand, transport, and cost of energy. However, there is lack of comprehensive overview and understanding of climate change impacts on energy across technologies and scales. Here, we conduct a systematic assessment of results from 186 papers on potential impacts of climate change on energy. Results show that increased cooling demand and decreased heating demand is anticipated globally. Similarly, increases in bio-energy and hydro power and a possible decrease in thermal electricity supply is projected. Overall changes in heating and cooling demand, increased thermal cooling, and reduced hydropower supply in Europe, India and Latin America are projected 35 at the regional scale. Furthermore, our review revealed that studies use a wide range of inconsistent methods and data sources. To move forward, the study proposes a consistent multi-model assessment framework for a comprehensive understanding of climate impacts on energy.

Yalew, Seleshi G.↗
DOE OSTI2024

Seeing the forest for the trees: implementing dynamic representation of forest management and forest carbon in a long-term global multisector model

Abstract Studies have found that understanding forest management is critical in understanding the interaction between the carbon cycle and the integrated human-Earth system. This makes effectively representing forest management decisions such as planting and harvesting important. Here, we implement a novel dynamic forest harvest model in a global state of the art multi-sector dynamics model, namely the Global Change Analysis Model (GCAM). We implement an approach that explicitly tracks forest age and generates rotation ages for forest harvest that are responsive to changes in wood prices, changes in forest age and regional preferences for forest rotation. Furthermore, the forest sector in GCAM competes for investment with other land use types in the future years based on expected profit. Our baseline scenario results indicate that with the new forest harvest model, the current global wood product demand in GCAM can be met with minimal loss of old growth forest through the age-based harvest decisions. We find that economic pressure for deforestation and consequent loss of forest carbon is a bigger driver of global forest change than wood harvests, especially in developing regions. Under alternative scenarios where an economic value is placed on carbon across the terrestrial and energy systems, while there is an increase in forest plantations, there can be corresponding decreases in forest cover in some regions as forest land competes with land for bio-energy crops. When the carbon in forests is assigned a price, we find that the average rotation age for wood harvests can be reduced across regions to harvest forests in a more carbon efficient manner.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2024

Purple non-sulfur bacteria for biotechnological applications

Abstract In this review, we focus on how purple non-sulfur bacteria can be leveraged for sustainable bioproduction to support the circular economy. We discuss the state of the field with respect to the use of purple bacteria for energy production, their role in wastewater treatment, as a fertilizer, and as a chassis for bioplastic production. We explore their ability to serve as single-cell protein and production platforms for fine chemicals from waste materials. We also introduce more Avant-Garde technologies that leverage the unique metabolisms of purple bacteria, including microbial electrosynthesis and co-culture. These technologies will be pivotal in our efforts to mitigate climate change and circularize the economy in the next two decades. One-sentence summary Purple non-sulfur bacteria are utilized for a range of biotechnological applications, including the production of bio-energy, single cell protein, fertilizer, bioplastics, fine chemicals, in wastewater treatment and in novel applications like co-cultures and microbial electrosynthesis.

Morrison, Hailee M. (ORCID:0000000225121824)↗
DOE OSTI2023

Process Design and Techno-Economic Analysis of the Modular Staged Pressurized Oxy-Combustion (SPOC) Power Plant for Biomass

This work describes the process design and techno-economic analysis (TEA) of the modular stage pressurized oxy-combustion (SPOC) power plant for biomass firing and coal-biomass co-firing. The SPOC process was modelled using Aspen Plus®, and largely based on a previous model designed by this group for SPOC coal firing. To enable comparison with current National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL) Bio-Energy Carbon Capture and Storage (BECCS) studies, a 550 MWe SPOC power plant with a supercritical Rankine cycle (241 bar, 593°C, and 593°C), and 90% carbon capture was modeled, and hybrid poplar biomass was chosen. Two cases were evaluated, namely 100% biomass (carbon negative) and 25% biomass co-firing (carbon neutral), and the 100% Powder River Basin coal firing case was chosen for comparison purposes. In the SPOC process, oxygen is produced via a cryogenic air separation unit (ASU) and the heat generated from the compression of air is integrated into the steam cycle and utilized for boiler feed water regeneration. Unique to the SPOC process, the boilers are arranged in a series-parallel configuration, with minimized flue gas recirculation. The flue gas is cooled and scrubbed in the direct-contact cooler (DCC) column, and the water leaving the bottom of the DCC is at a sufficiently high temperature that it can be used for boiler feed water heating, improving plant thermal efficiency. The SPOC efficiencies were above the BECCS cases with capture, and no efficiency penalty on the SPOC plant was observed with an increase of biomass in the mix mostly due to the higher oxygen content in biomass that resulted in lower oxygen requirement from the ASU, and the higher moisture in biomass that due to the key benefit of the SPOC process can be partially recovered as latent heat.

Magalhaes, Duarte↗
NASA NTRS2015

A Framework for the Cross-Sectoral Integration of Multi-Model Impact Projections: Land Use Decisions Under Climate Impacts Uncertainties

Climate change and its impacts already pose considerable challenges for societies that will further increase with global warming (IPCC, 2014a, b). Uncertainties of the climatic response to greenhouse gas emissions include the potential passing of large-scale tipping points (e.g. Lenton et al., 2008; Levermann et al., 2012; Schellnhuber, 2010) and changes in extreme meteorological events (Field et al., 2012) with complex impacts on societies (Hallegatte et al., 2013). Thus climate change mitigation is considered a necessary societal response for avoiding uncontrollable impacts (Conference of the Parties, 2010). On the other hand, large-scale climate change mitigation itself implies fundamental changes in, for example, the global energy system. The associated challenges come on top of others that derive from equally important ethical imperatives like the fulfilment of increasing food demand that may draw on the same resources. For example, ensuring food security for a growing population may require an expansion of cropland, thereby reducing natural carbon sinks or the area available for bio-energy production. So far, available studies addressing this problem have relied on individual impact models, ignoring uncertainty in crop model and biome model projections. Here, we propose a probabilistic decision framework that allows for an evaluation of agricultural management and mitigation options in a multi-impactmodel setting. Based on simulations generated within the Inter-Sectoral Impact Model Intercomparison Project (ISI-MIP), we outline how cross-sectorally consistent multi-model impact simulations could be used to generate the information required for robust decision making. Using an illustrative future land use pattern, we discuss the trade-off between potential gains in crop production and associated losses in natural carbon sinks in the new multiple crop- and biome-model setting. In addition, crop and water model simulations are combined to explore irrigation increases as one possible measure of agricultural intensification that could limit the expansion of cropland required in response to climate change and growing food demand. This example shows that current impact model uncertainties pose an important challenge to long-term mitigation planning and must not be ignored in long-term strategic decision making

farmlands↗
DOE OSTI2025

Integration of LIBS with Machine Learning for Real-Time Monitoring of Feedstock in H 2 Gasification Applications

This project, funded by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) – Office of Fossil Energy under Award Number DE-FE0032177, aimed to assess the feasibility of an integrated Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (LIBS) system with advanced machine learning (ML) models for real-time characterization and potential control of hydrogen gasifiers running on waste materials as feedstocks. This was a multidisciplinary effort that encompassed the acquisition and standardized analysis of individual and blended feedstocks—comprising biomass, coal waste, and plastic waste, followed by the development of a dynamic LIBS bench system for material sample analysis and development of predictive ML models. Comprehensive laboratory testing enabled the creation of a robust elemental dataset that served as the foundation for ML model training. Techniques such as Random Forest, Gradient Boosting, Support Vector Regression, and Neural Networks were employed to predict key feedstock properties, including higher heating value (HHV), moisture content, thermal conductivity, and ash composition with high accuracy. The results were validated against experimental data and demonstrated strong potential for real-time application in gasifier control systems. The project concluded with a study on the integration of the LIBS+ML approach for gasifier control and a techno-economic analysis of the implementation of the approach into hydrogen (H 2 ) gasification systems. Dissemination of results was carried out at a DOE meeting. This work establishes a scalable framework for automated, in-line feedstock quality assessment, offering significant implications for process optimization and emissions reduction in hydrogen production.

01 COAL, LIGNITE, AND PEAT↗