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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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At least 19 records
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2021

Environmental and cost benefits of multi‐purpose buffers in an agricultural watershed for biomass production

Abstract The cost‐benefit of riparian buffers to landowners has not been fully understood despite its ecosystem benefits. This study investigates the environmental and economic value of multi‐purpose buffers for biomass production under alternative land‐management scenarios at the watershed scale. The work incorporates the Soil and Water Assessment Tool with a field‐scale tool, the Agriculture Conservation Practice Framework, and cost‐benefit analysis. Our work took place in the agriculturally dominant Raccoon River watershed (RRW) in Iowa. The cost analysis includes implementing and harvesting the switchgrass buffers, the value of nitrogen and phosphorus fertilizer, and the forgone income of cropland to determine the net return under 12 alternative feedstock scenarios. We estimated that 14 603 Mg of nitrogen and 2563 Mg of phosphorus runoffs can be intercepted by riparian buffers in the RRW, representing a nutrient loss reduction of 11% of nitrogen and 26% of phosphorus. These nutrients are valued at $1.31 million (M) for phosphorus and $1.24 M for nitrogen as fertilizers. The trapped nutrients account for 12% of the riparian buffers’ total cost. We found that net economic returns increase with biomass market price, increase with maintenance fertilizer application, and decrease with the cropland areas that are converted to buffers. Under current land management, a biomass market price at $60 per dry ton of biomass would be economically viable at the sub‐basin level when maintenance fertilizers are applied. At $80 per dry ton, all 108 sub‐basins in the RRW would be profitable up to $517 a year. The results highlight the trade‐offs between water quality and profitability. Published 2021. This article is a U.S. Government work and is inthe public domain in the USA. Biofuels, Bioproducts and Biorefining published by Society of Industrial Chemistry and John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

09 BIOMASS FUELS↗
DOE OSTI2022

Adoption of biofuels for marine shipping decarbonization: A long‐term price and scalability assessment

Abstract This study assessed the long‐term annual biofuel production capacity potential and price in the United States and shed light on the prospect of biofuel adoption for marine propulsion. A linear programming model was developed to assist the projections and provide insightful analyses. The projected long‐term (2040) maximum annual capacity of biofuels in the United States is 245 million metric tons (Mt) or 65 billion gallons of heavy fuel oil gallon equivalent (HFOGE) when based on the median feedstock availability. Between 2022 (near‐term) and 2040, the potential biofuel capacity increases by over 40%, attributed to increased feedstock availability. At a price range up to $500/t, biodiesel is the main product, and the annual capacity (12 Mt) is limited to feedstock availability constraints. Biodiesel and corn ethanol are the main biofuels at a price range up to $750/t. At a higher price point (above $750/t), the biofuel types and annual capacities increase substantially (218 Mt per year). Biofuels above this price include gasoline‐, jet‐, and diesel‐range blendstocks, as well as bio‐methanol, bio‐propane, and biogas. This study concludes that the US domestic feedstock availability coupled with advanced conversion technologies can produce substantial amounts of biofuels to achieve a critical mass and be impactful as alternative marine fuels. There is also a need to improve the biofuel price for marine shipping adoption. Policies and economic incentives that provide temporary financial support would help facilitate maritime biofuel adoption. © 2022 Alliance for Sustainable Energy, LLC. Biofuels, Bioproducts and Biorefining published by Society of Industrial Chemistry and John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

09 BIOMASS FUELS↗
DOE OSTI2022

Effect of biomass liquefaction on glucose and xylose prices predicted by National Renewable Energy Laboratory biochemical sugar model

Abstract The National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) published a model in 2017 that enables the minimum selling price of lignocellulosic sugar to be calculated. The model can be modified to suit any biomass feedstock and operational design. In the present case, the model is used to understand the economics of a process configuration that incorporates liquefaction as a preprocessing step in corn‐stover‐fed biorefinery. This study demonstrates a quantitative approach utilizing an existing biorefinery setup to simulate the biomass liquefaction technique while estimating the price of the resulting sugar product. The objective is to understand whether the addition of liquefaction methodology – and the substitution of acid pretreatment – can reduce the cost of lignocellulosic sugars. The reason for setting up a liquefaction unit at the start is to reduce the yield stress of biomass slurry so that the flow remains unrestricted downstream. The liquefaction process is also unique because it uses no chemicals and saves the cost of pretreatment. The pretreatment step is bypassed because the output of liquefaction can be fed into enzyme hydrolysis just after simple cooking. The liquefaction process can be performed in three modes: enzyme, enzyme mimetic, and a combination of enzyme and enzyme mimetic. The results from the BC1707 model indicate the minimum cost for the enzyme liquefaction route. © 2022 The Authors. Biofuels, Bioproducts and Biorefining published by Society of Industrial Chemistry and John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

09 BIOMASS FUELS↗
DOE OSTI2022

Techno‐economic assessment of single‐stream feedstock logistics supply chain for corn stover and grain

Abstract The state‐of‐technology for corn stover harvest is a multi‐pass system that collects the stover after grain harvest. An alternative is a single‐stream system where the grain and stover are harvested as a bulk material co‐stored and preserved by anerobic fermentation, and finally, co‐transported to a biorefinery. In the present work, four single‐pass whole‐plant bulk systems were compared with a conventional multi‐pass bale system. The single‐stream systems consisted of the harvest of corn grain and a portion of the stover fraction. Four machine configurations were simulated. This work predicted that a multi‐pass bale system would result in a material cost of 111.80 $2021 Mg –1 stover DM delivered to the biorefinery gate. Alternatively, the lowest cost single‐stream system was the self‐propelled forage harvester (SPFH) configured with the whole‐plant header, which delivered feedstock for 74.76 $2021 Mg stover DM –1 . In addition to machine configuration, a sensitivity analysis was performed to understand important drivers of feedstock cost. These analyses revealed that feedstock cost increased with moisture content, fertilizer price, and biorefinery size, and decreased with harvest season length, crop yield, and grower participation. This work demonstrated that single‐stream systems could reduce corn stover feedstock costs in comparison with state‐of‐technology systems. © 2022 The Authors. Biofuels, Bioproducts and Biorefining published by Society of Industrial Chemistry and John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

09 BIOMASS FUELS↗
DOE OSTI2023

Effects of soybean varieties on life-cycle greenhouse gas emissions of biodiesel and renewable diesel

This study presents a life-cycle analysis (LCA) of the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions of biodiesel (BD) and renewable diesel (RD) produced from soybean varieties with altered oil profiles and meal composition. The varieties evaluated include those with high oleic oil content (78% of oil being oleic oil vs. the current content of 25%), high lipid content (25% vs. the current content of 19%) or high protein content (45% vs. the current content of 35%). The results suggest that high-oleic soybean oil could reduce GHG emissions of RD by 1 g CO 2 e/MJ by reducing hydrogen consumption in the hydro-treating stage of RD production. With the default allocation method (mass-based allocation between oil and meal), changes in lipid and protein contents have negligible impacts on GHG emissions of BD/RD pathways. Since high-protein soybean meal has a higher nutrient value, we employed the market-based allocation for sensitivity analysis. Assuming a market price of $1.17/dry kg and an average of two substitute feeds with similar protein contents (corn gluten and fish meal), the allocation factor for soybean meal increases from 63 to 81%. Compared with the results for the case with commodity soybean using mass allocation, GHG emissions could be 1.9 and 1.8 g CO 2 e/MJ lower for BD and RD, respectively. In addition to product-level LCA, we employed a land-based LCA to evaluate the effect of soybean properties on product slates with the same land area and the associated displacement of conventional products. The results suggest that high-lipid soybeans may offer more GHG savings than other varieties as the higher BD/RD yield replaces more fossil diesel. © 2023 UChicago Argonne, LLC, Operator of Argonne National Laboratory and Northrup, Ag. Biofuels, Bioproducts and Biorefining published by Society of Industrial Chemistry and John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

09 BIOMASS FUELS↗
DOE OSTI2023

Roles of mineral matter in biomass processing to biofuels

Abstract Minerals in biomass have a significant impact on both biofuel quality and yield. This is especially true for current thermochemical biomass conversion processes. However, the roles of plant minerals in biochemical conversion have not been studied extensively, even though they are generally considered to lower the sugar yield because they reduce the feedstock proportion of carbohydrates. A successful strategic solution is thus necessary to overcome the challenges caused by the minerals in biomass, which include (1) decreased quality of biomass feedstocks; (2) reduction of process efficiency; and (3) reduction of the product quality and quantity from biomass conversion. This review summarizes the roles of plant minerals in a biorefinery, focusing on these key challenges. The discussion covers many issues related to plant minerals in biofuel production, including their sources, functions, and distribution in plant biomass, methods of characterizing them, their influence in a biorefinery, and the strategic handling required to manage their occurrence in biomass, based on reported studies. It could inspire better strategies to deal with the variance of mineral content in biomass feedstocks to increase process efficiency and reduce costs while supporting the concept of a circular bioeconomy. © 2023 The Authors. Biofuels, Bioproducts and Biorefining published by Society of Industrial Chemistry and John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

09 BIOMASS FUELS↗
DOE OSTI2023

Proxy quality control of biomass particles using thermogravimetric analysis and Gaussian process regression models

Abstract The temperature experienced by reactants during preparation in a reactor is a key component in determining the yield and homogeneity of usable chemical products such as biomass particles. Thermocouples with sensors can be used to monitor spatial temperature gradients within reactors but these sensors are often too expensive and/or invasive. The present work proposes a strategy to identify optimal machine learning models to infer the maximum effective temperature experienced by particles during oxidative biomass torrefaction using key thermochemical combustion parameters. The maximum rate of weight loss, the corresponding temperature, and fixed carbon content on a dry‐ash‐free basis are used as literature‐based predictor variables obtained from thermogravimetric analysis. The evaluation of 24 machine‐learning models using the standard tenfold cross‐validation method suggests that the exponential Gaussian process regression (GPR) model is the most effective, followed by other GPR models. These high‐performing GPR models were also utilized to predict the effective preparation temperature distribution of reactor‐produced biomass particles under eight conditions of varying residence time and air‐to‐biomass ratio. The effective preparation temperature and residence time of individual biomass particles were then encoded into the torrefaction severity factor and used to estimate the energy yield of the reactor output as a novel quality control method. © 2023 The Authors. Biofuels, Bioproducts and Biorefining published by Society of Industrial Chemistry and John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

09 BIOMASS FUELS↗
DOE OSTI2022

Plastic glut down a microbial gut

Enzymes sequestered from microbes have demonstrated the ability to readily digest amorphous regions of polyethylene terephthalate (PET) in ambient conditions. Although nascent, enzymatic depolymerization can soon vie for commercialization and provide monomeric feedstock at rates comparable to petrochemical feedstock for repolymerization, achieving the coveted goal of cradle-to-cradle recycling. © 2022 The Authors. Polymer International published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of Society of Industrial Chemistry.

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2022

Synthesis and acoustic properties study of castor‐oil‐based polyurethane foams with the addition of graphene‐oxide‐modified straw fibers

Abstract Polyurethane foam (PUF) can absorb sound by air friction and structural vibrations of cell walls. It is widely used as acoustic material in the automotive industry. According to existing studies, graphene oxide (GO) can improve the acoustic properties of PUF. However, GO tends to coalesce inside PUF. In this paper, straw fibers were modified with different concentrations of GO solution to embed GO on the surface of plant fibers. The GO was dispersed in the PUF using straw fibers. In addition, some studies show that the wrinkled morphology of the GO surface is believed to play a mechanical interlocking role in improving interfacial bonding, thus enhancing the stress transfer between the plant fibers and the polyurethane (PU) matrix and improving the mechanical properties of the PU composites. The acoustic and mechanical properties of the modified PU materials were observed by treating plant fibers with appropriate amounts of GO solution. The experimental study shows that the sample modified with 1 g L −1 GO solution reaches a maximum average sound absorption coefficient of 0.5838 when the straw fiber content reaches 0.5 g, and the sample modified with 2 g L −1 GO solution reaches a maximum transmission loss of 10.5333 when the straw fiber content reaches 1 g. © 2022 Society of Industrial Chemistry.

Yang, Keyao↗
DOE OSTI2023

Reaction‐induced morphology control in block copolymers

Abstract Controlling the self‐assembly behaviors of block copolymers (BCPs) is a focal point of many research thrusts due to their broad use in various applications. While BCP molecular weight, volume fraction, and chemical identities are key thermodynamic parameters to determine their morphology, an emergent method in this area is through reaction‐induced changes to the characteristics of a BCP in situ , which provides access to multiple morphologies and domain sizes from a single parent polymer, as well as enabling the formation of metastable morphologies which may be difficult to attain otherwise. This work provides a focused review about the current state of reaction‐induced morphology control in BCPs in both solution and solid states. Furthermore, we provide a forward‐looking perspective on the future opportunities of understanding and employing reaction engineering to manipulate and advance BCP self‐assembly. © 2023 Society of Industrial Chemistry.

Robertson, Mark↗
DOE OSTI2021

An Iron-Based Dehydration Catalyst for Selective Formation of Styrene

In this work, we report the synthesis and crystal structure of [Fe(OTf) 2 (FOX)] (A). This robust iron(II) complex was successfully applied as a homogeneous catalyst for the dehydration of 1-phenylethanol to styrene. Even at low catalyst loadings and moderate reaction temperatures, A showed a high catalytic efficiency. It was found to selectively activate the benzylic alcohol group of 1-phenylethanol. This is challenging since the vinyl system of styrene is highly reactive. In contrast to most of the other dehydration processes, the use of a Brønsted acid was not necessary. Furthermore, mechanistic insights into this E 1 -type transformation and its competing S N 1-type side reactions are reported. [Fe( c HexOH)(OTf)(FOX)][OTf] (B), an alcohol adduct of A, [Fe(H 2 O) 2 (FOX)][OTf] 2 (C), the completely hydrated derivative of A, and [μ-O{Fe(OTf)(FOX)} 2 ][OTf] 2 (D), a dinuclear oxidation product of A, were also characterized and are discussed.

02 PETROLEUM↗
DOE OSTI2023

Comparing the Effect of Anthropogenically Amplified Halogen Natural Emissions on Tropospheric Ozone Chemistry Between Pre-Industrial and Present-Day

Reactive halogens (X + XO, X = I, Br or Cl) catalytically destroy a fraction of tropospheric ozone under present-day (PD) conditions, however, their distribution and potential impact on tropospheric ozone under pre-industrial (PI) conditions remain largely unexplored. This study uses the Community Atmosphere Model with Chemistry (CAM-Chem) to investigate the effect of anthropogenically amplified natural emissions of halogenated species and their subsequent chemistry on tropospheric ozone under PI and PD atmospheric conditions. Model results show that the global tropospheric ozone depletion due to natural halogens is slightly more sensitive in PI than PD, with percentage changes in tropospheric ozone burden (TOB) of -14.1 ± 0.6% for PI and -12.9 ± 0.6% for PD. Individually, the role of iodine and chlorine in ozone depletion is equivalent in both periods (ΔTOB I : ~-7% and ΔTOB Cl : ~-2.5%), while bromine plays a larger role in PI (ΔTOB Br : -5.5 ± 0.6%) versus PD (ΔTOB Br : -4.3 ± 0.7%). The increase in anthropogenic ozone precursor emissions from PI to PD has amplified the natural emission of inorganic halogens and led to a shift in the partitioning of inorganic halogens from reactive to reservoir species. Consequently, halogen-driven ozone depletion from the surface to the free troposphere is larger in PI than PD. In contrast, in the upper troposphere, the ozone depletion is larger in PD influenced mainly by stratospheric intrusion of reactive halogens from long-lived species. This study highlights the importance of including a complete chemical coupling of natural halogens and atmospheric pollutants in chemistry-climate models to adequately assess their effects on tropospheric ozone in a changing climate.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2020

Chemoinformatic-Guided Engineering of Polyketide Synthases

Polyketide synthase (PKS) engineering is an attractive method to generate new molecules such as commodity, fine and specialty chemicals. A significant challenge is re-engineering a partially reductive PKS module to produce a saturated β-carbon through a reductive loop (RL) exchange. In this work, we sought to establish that chemoinformatics, a field traditionally used in drug discovery, offers a viable strategy for RL exchanges. We first introduced a set of donor RLs of diverse genetic origin and chemical substrates into the first extension module of the lipomycin PKS (LipPKS1). Product titers of these engineered unimodular PKSs correlated with chemical structure similarity between the substrate of the donor RLs and recipient LipPKS1, reaching a titer of 165 mg/L of short-chain fatty acids produced by the host Streptomyces albus J1074. Finally, expanding this method to larger intermediates that require bimodular communication, we introduced RLs of divergent chemosimilarity into LipPKS2 and determined triketide lactone production. Collectively, we observed a statistically significant correlation between atom pair chemosimilarity and production, establishing a new chemoinformatic method that may aid in the engineering of PKSs to produce desired, unnatural products.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗
DOE OSTI2020

Current Needs in Radiochemistry

There are a number of current needs in the development of the Pu and Am separations that underpin larger interest areas including nuclear waste issues, nuclear weapons, nuclear forensics, nuclear fuels and similarly related fields. In the large areas of interest, there are a number of sub-fields that include corrosion chemistry, pyrochemistry, solution-phase chemistry, rapid separations, environmental speciation, and other similar efforts. However, in all of the these fields it is important to realize that the underlying chemistry that underpins these efforts is similar in that Pu and Am are bound to ligands that can be in the solid, aqueous, or gas phase and separations occurs due to the preferential binding of the ligand to Pu or Am based on a number of factors that include pH, concentration, oxidation state, etc. In the past, most of the Pu and Am chemistry has occurred in limited scope within universities where micro-scale and bench-top scale chemistry are the dominate investigative theme. At US national laboratory and their international counterparts, larger scale reactions have been attempted such that industrial scale chemistry has been completed. Some of this technology has been harnessed in radiopharmaceuticals and nuclear fuel reprocessing. However, such bench-top research is expensive to due to the safety and security that is concerned when dealing with Pu, and scale-up of reactions is even more resource intensive. In an effort to offset this expensive, it would be of interest to explore the ability to predict selectivity based on the computational modeling of actinide chemistry. This has historically been limited by the abilities of large supercomputers, but with the emphasis on developing exascale computers within the US and similar efforts by other countries this predictive modeling has potential to produce significant results that would yield improved understanding of actinide chemistry.

38 RADIATION CHEMISTRY, RADIOCHEMISTRY, AND NUCLEA↗