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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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DOE OSTI2022

Convincing Clients to Make Zero a Reality: Preprint

As buildings are the largest end-users of carbon-intensive energy in the United States, it is critical that design and construction professionals implement energy-efficient and sustainable building designs and systems. Building owners seeking building energy performance improvements, either with new construction or retrofit of existing facilities, usually need the expertise of design and construction professionals to guide them through the process. These "trusted advisers" make the design decisions that ultimately result in the energy performance of the building. Members of the design and construction community have identified that clients' perception of cost associated with such designs and building upgrades have posed the most significant barrier to increased adoption. If solved, this would enable design and construction firms to better engage as trusted advisors along the lines of energy and carbon reduction of the built environment. NREL has developed a resource that helps design and construction professionals and their clients match their projects with financial incentives. A newly developed cohort of design and construction professionals, as part of the U.S. Department of Energy's Better Buildings Initiative, has brought real-world project experiences to the development process, contributing meaningful insights that have been critical to evaluating the successes of and providing direction to this much needed financial guide.

Better Buildings↗
DOE OSTI2026

Responsibility for emissions and mitigation capability should guide use of carbon removal offsets

M Gidden conducted this work prior to joining PNNL and no DOE OFFICE OF SCIENCE, OTHER DOE, OTHER FEDERAL, OR PNNL OVERHEAD FUNDING is being used. Stabilizing and then drawing down global temperature requires achieving net-negative CO2 emissions globally. Carbon removal is needed to offset “hard-to-abate” sectors that remain sources of emissions at net-zero and beyond. We argue the use of scarce carbon removal resources should be guided by the principles enshrined in the Paris Agreement.

Gidden, Matthew↗
DOE OSTI2025

Assessing the Impact of Energy Transition Initiatives on the Policy Cost of Saudi Arabia's Net-Zero Ambition

Saudi Arabia's ambitious goal to achieve a net-zero economy by 2060 offers a unique opportunity to diversify away from fossil fuels while fostering long-term economic resilience and sustainability. Crucial to this transition are energy policies that guide the Kingdom from a fossil fuel-based economy toward carbon neutrality. This study uses GCAM-KSA, a multi-sectoral integrated assessment model tailored to Saudi Arabia's economic and energy systems, to evaluate the impact of early energy transition initiatives on the policy costs of achieving the Kingdom's net-zero target. These initiatives include ongoing and proposed energy efficiency measures, renewable energy deployment, and fuel displacement targets. The study highlights that early implementation of these initiatives can significantly reduce barriers to adopting low-carbon technologies, ultimately lowering the economic burden of achieving the net-zero goal. Compared to a delayed implementation scenario, early action reduces long-term policy costs by 38–72% over the period from 2025 to 2060, driven by accelerated energy system transformation. These findings provide valuable insights into how Saudi Arabia's energy policies can mitigate economic challenges, promote economic diversification, and contribute to global emission reductions, reinforcing the Kingdom's transition to a sustainable net-zero economy.

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY↗
DOE OSTI2024

Provincial-scale assessment of direct air capture to meet China’s climate neutrality goal under limited bioenergy supply

China has large, estimated potential for direct air carbon capture and storage (DACCS) but its deployment locations and impacts at the subnational scale remain unclear. This is largely because higher spatial resolution studies on carbon dioxide removal (CDR) in China have focused mainly on bioenergy with carbon capture and storage. This study uses a spatially detailed integrated energy-economy-climate model to evaluate DACCS for 31 provinces in China as the country pursues its goal of climate neutrality by 2060. We find that DACCS could expand China’s negative emissions capacity, particularly under sustainability-minded limits on bioenergy supply that are informed by bottom-up studies. But providing low-carbon electricity for multiple GtCO 2 yr -1 DACCS may require over 600 GW of additional wind and solar capacity nationwide and comprise up to 30% of electricity demand in China’s northern provinces. Investment requirements for DACCS range from 330 to 530 billion dollars by 2060 but could be repaid manyfold in the form of avoided mitigation costs, which DACCS deployment could reduce by up to $6 trillion over the same period. Enhanced efforts to lower residual CO 2 emissions that must be offset with CDR under a net-zero paradigm reduce but do not eliminate the use of DACCS for mitigation. For decision-makers and the energy-economy models guiding them, our results highlight the value of expanding beyond the current reliance on biomass for negative emissions in China.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2022

The Energy in Modular (EMOD) Buildings Method: A Guide to Energy-Efficient Design for Industrialized Construction of Modular Buildings

Industrialized construction has immense potential to address the growing need globally to build and upgrade the building stock to be affordable, energy-efficient, and resilient. It can also help achieve the United States' goal of a 50% reduction in U.S. greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 2030. Despite this potential, and the ever-increasing push for electrification and decarbonization of households in the United States, industrialized construction has not yet been leveraged specifically to help address these challenges and accelerate the pathway to meet these goals. The National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) aims to claim this missed opportunity by focusing on delivering affordable, grid-efficient net-zero energy (NZE) modular buildings for underserved communities to ensure an equitable transition to the future of clean energy, accelerate decarbonization of the built environment, and support the development of a high-productivity construction and energy efficiency workforce. The Energy in Modular (EMOD) method is our approach to designing, producing, and delivering affordable, net-zero energy, low-carbon, and healthier buildings at scale. The following energy efficiency strategies are part of the scope of this guide: envelope thermal control, envelope infiltration control, mechanical, electrical, and plumbing systems, smart controls, and solar plus storage. We draw synergies between design for manufacturing and assembly, process optimization, retrofit technologies, and digitization. Our goal is to influence the improvement and production of buildings to increase performance, enhance energy efficiency, and reduce GHG emissions. This guide documents the research and development efforts initiated by a set of design objectives to "modularize" a set of energy efficiency and low-carbon strategies into a housing unit while preserving and enhancing energy efficiency benefits and decarbonization pathways. This guide is intended to serve as a framework for housing developers, housing agencies, architects, energy experts, and process engineers or factory operator personnel who are critical to today's modular builder teams. This guide focuses on specific energy efficiency strategies, decarbonization pathways, and associated processes as part of NREL's research efforts. Stakeholders may substitute other means, methods, and technologies for the ones evaluated in this study.

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY↗
DOE OSTI2022

Building a Sustainable Aviation Brain Trust: Key Insights From the 2022 NREL Partner Forum

Cross-sector collaboration is key for guiding the large, complex aviation industry over the emissions peak and quickly down the slope to net-zero - that theme was repeated regularly during the two-day 2022 NREL Partner Forum. With an expanding global economy, more people than ever want the convenience of air travel. That has made aviation the fastest-growing transportation sector, as well as a rising source of carbon emissions. How can the industry serve its customers while charting a course to net-zero in line with climate goals? Interest and momentum from public and private sectors are mounting to answer that question, a backdrop for the Partner Forum. The National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) brought 200 attendees to the whiteboard to find common goals, align interests, understand technologies, and discuss steps for safely and seamlessly decarbonizing aviation. This document captures the tenor of the conversations and provides a summary of the 1.5 day event for those who were not able to attend or who have interest in this area.

aircraft↗
DOE OSTI2026

Optimal Pathways from Alternative Carbon Feedstocks to Organic Commodity Chemicals

The use of biogenic and waste feedstocks is a promising strategy to improve the chemical sector's supply chain resiliency and carbon intensity. To help inform research efforts that transform these feedstocks into industrial chemicals, we used a systematic analysis framework to consistently evaluate the economics and environmental impacts of >200 alternative production pathways for 51 organic commodity chemicals in the United States under an optimistic future scenario that reflects the potential upper bounds of process scalability, energy availability, and carbon uptake. Lower-impact and lower-cost alternative pathways were identified for all but three chemicals, with 75% using thermochemical routes and half leveraging existing manufacturing infrastructure. Scenario analysis shows that the ranking of these pathways for half of the assessed chemicals is particularly sensitive to carbon uptake assumptions and criteria prioritization (i.e., cost only, environmental impact only, or both), with changes in electricity grid mix, hydrogen source, and underlying mass and energy flow data proving less influential. Implementing alternative pathways for just 11 chemicals could support a transition to net-zero greenhouse gas emissions from chemical production by 2050, with 11% lower cost than business as usual, similar water requirements, quadrupled electricity demand, and the use of most available woody biomass. These findings provide an exploratory guide toward a future chemical industry that harnesses alternative feedstocks.

09 BIOMASS FUELS↗
DOE OSTI2025

Roadmap to reach global net-zero emissions for developing regions by 2085

As climate change intensifies, determining a developing region’s role in achieving net-zero emissions worldwide is crucial. However, regional efforts, considering historical emissions, remain underexplored. Here, we assess energy system changes, technology adoption, and investments needed for developing regions, including five major- and minor-emitting nations. Our analysis, using an integrated assessment model, shows a large gap in regional efforts toward global net-zero emissions, stemming from the necessary shift of energy systems to low-carbon resources. The use of new technologies, like electric vehicles, hydrogen, and carbon capture, varies by region, with the highest adoption required between 2020 and 2030. Financing this shift needs an average gross domestic product (GDP) investment rise of 0.464% in minor-emitting regions and up to 2.1% in major-emitting regions by 2085. Our results could guide policies and support setting quantifiable targets for developing nations. The findings are key to facilitating strategic technology use and finance mobilization to achieve a carbon-neutral future.

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY↗
DOE OSTI2024

Markov Decision Processes for Intelligent, Risk-Informed Asset-Management Decision-Making

Advanced nuclear reactors are a promising option for aiding the world in achieving its net-zero carbon emission goals, however, there are significant challenges to attaining and maintaining economic competitiveness with other sources of electricity. To improve the economic competitiveness of advanced reactor designs, a project was initiated to explore the use of Markov Decision Processes (MDPs) to guide asset-management decision-making during advanced reactor operation. MDPs are a powerful tool for optimizing decision-making in complex environments and their application to advanced reactors can aid in planning maintenance and repair activities to minimize downtime and maximize generation. The described approach expands on previous work regarding the use of MDPs for operational decision-making through the direct incorporation of real-time plant information. The integral MDP analysis includes information from online component diagnostic tools and the plant’s real-time generation risk assessment (GRA) and probabilistic risk assessment (PRA), which evaluate plant risk from both an economic and safety perspective. The result is an asset-management optimization framework that is based on real-time data regarding plant component status and the current best-estimate of plant risk. The paper presents an overview of the theoretical framework to incorporate the different information pathways into an integral MDP analysis, along with example analyses.

Grabaskas, David↗
DOE OSTI2023

Scenarios for Future Energy Systems

Energy systems in the U.S. and globally have continuously changed and expanded over the past 200 years, from animal and biomass based energy to electricity and petroleum for heat, light, transportation, and industries of all kinds. The most recent two decades have experienced a significant increase in the use of natural gas, solar, and wind energy, as well as energy efficiency, due to both technology breakthroughs and public policy. With history as a guide, we can expect on-going transformation of our energy system in future decades, including increased electrification and advanced energy technologies, ideally helping meet societal goals of reducing pollution, improving quality of human life, and preserving ecosystems. Scenario modeling is an important tool for planning energy system transformations toward specific goals - such as net-zero greenhouse gas emissions, 100% renewable energy, or energy security - particularly when there are multiple options, conflicting objectives, and significant unknowns about a path forward. This presentation will review the history of energy transitions and the future policy and societal objectives on energy. Then it will summarize multiple scenario studies of future energy systems, with a focus on "100% studies" and the challenges to meeting those objectives. It will also outline of a few of the technologies being researched now that could advance the ongoing energy transition.

ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY,SOLAR ENERGY,↗
DOE OSTI2024

Sustainable Aviation Fuel State-of-Industry Report: Hydroprocessed Esters and Fatty Acids Pathway

Climate change is a pressing issue that requires immediate and decisive action to ensure a sustainable future. To reduce CO 2 emissions and speed up the transition to net-zero aviation, the Biden administration has launched the "Sustainable Aviation Fuels (SAF) Grand Challenge" to scale up production of SAF. The challenge aims to achieve 20% reduction in aviation emissions by producing 3 billion gallons per year (BGPY) of SAF by 2030 and to meet 100% of aviation fuel demand by producing 35 BGPY of SAF by 2050. In this report, we provide an overview of the current state of the hydroprocessed esters and fatty acids (HEFA) SAF industry, guided by the perspectives of the interviewed experts. Currently, the HEFA pathway is the only commercially deployed method to produce significant amounts of SAF. As a result, SAF produced via the HEFA pathway is expected to make the largest contribution to achieving the 2030 production target and play a key role in boosting and establishing the SAF market. Announced SAF's total capacity, including alcohol-to-jet, FT, and power-to-liquid facilities, is expected to reach 2 BGPY by 2030 (1), with the expected from HEFA. Total HEFA capacity, including construction and planned projects, is expected to reach about 9 BGPY by 2030; if completely executed, this would contribute to renewable diesel (RD) and SAF. The production ratio of SAF and RD will depend on market conditions, incentives, and the capabilities of facilities. While some stakeholders believe that the 2030 goal may be achieved solely via HEFA, others believe that overly relying on HEFA may be detrimental to the development of other necessary pathways to meet 2050 goals. Our conclusion is that the HEFA pathway alone will not be sufficient to reach the 2030 target. It is crucial to implement additional pathways to reach the goal. This report conducts a comprehensive analysis and evaluation of the HEFA SAF value chain. Our aim is to provide current status of the industry and to identify potential challenges that could hinder the commercial production and use of SAF produced through the HEFA pathway. We have had extensive discussions, consultations, and collaborative sessions with stakeholders in the HEFA SAF value chain, including HEFA feedstocks, potential volume of HEFA SAF, economic and sustainability metrics when compared to petroleum, and assessment of the HEFA SAF industry's ability to grow and contribute to achieving the "SAF Grand Challenge." Since the HEFA pathway produces both SAF and RD, this report compares both pathways: HEFA to SAF and HEFA to RD.

09 BIOMASS FUELS↗
DOE OSTI2022

Decarbonizing the grid: Utilizing demand-side flexibility for carbon emission reduction through locational marginal emissions in distribution networks

Decarbonization of the electric grid has become an important world-wide priority and is actively happening in many ways by introducing innovations and new technologies from the generation sectors to the demand sectors. In particular, one promising pathway toward such net-zero carbon emissions is to utilize the demand-side flexibility with the increasing number of flexible loads in distribution networks. In this paper, we explore a load shifting strategy with the emerging concept of location marginal emissions (LMEs) to reduce carbon emissions. LMEs measure the impact of carbon emissions including the locational aspect in more granular way and thus provide a novel mechanism for the system operator and load aggregators to design the LME-based load shifting strategy, which can efficiently guide consumers and thus adjust their consumption behaviors. Simulation case studies on the IEEE test networks are performed to validate the capability of the proposed load shifting method to reduce carbon emissions. We also compare this with other relevant strategies to discuss multiple scenarios and corresponding results. Finally, while each provides a different level of flexibility, all the explored strategies tested have led to solutions that have lower carbon emissions, indicating the great potential of demand-side flexibility in reducing carbon emissions for future distribution networks.

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY↗
DOE OSTI2024

INL High-Performance and Sustainable Building Strategy

High-performance buildings are reliable, cost effective, and sustainable structures that minimize energy and water use, reduce solid waste and pollutant emissions, and limit the depletion of natural resources. High-performance buildings also provide a thermally and visually comfortable working environment that increases productivity for building occupants. As Idaho National Laboratory (INL) is the nation’s premier nuclear energy research laboratory, the physical infrastructure requires continual updating and repurposing to help accomplish that mission. INL’s infrastructure must incorporate high-performance sustainable design features to be fiscally responsible and reflect an image of innovation to the public and prospective employees. INL is a large consumer of energy with annual energy costs exceeding $16M. This High-Performance and Sustainable Building Strategy will help engineering and construction project teams design sustainable facilities, reduce life cycle operating costs, and support the INL net-zero plan while providing INL employees with a safe and healthy working environment. With these goals in mind, the recommendations described in this document are intended to form INL’s foundation for sustainable and high-performance building standards. This strategy incorporates the latest federal and Department of Energy (DOE) orders and directives, including DOE Order 436.1A, “Departmental Sustainability,” the DOE Sustainability Plan (SP), the INL Site Sustainability Plan (SSP), and Code of Federal Regulations (CFR). This document identifies the requirements of the “Guiding Principles for Sustainable Federal Buildings” (Guiding Principles) and briefly highlights the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Gold certification. LEED Gold certification can be used to meet many of the requirements of the Guiding Principles.

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY↗
DOE OSTI2025

Hydrogen Applications for Energy Transition in Port and Airport Operations at the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey

The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey (PANYNJ) is focused on achieving meaningful reductions in emissions as part of its environmental sustainability efforts. To reach its 2030 target for reducing Scope 1 and Scope 2 carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e) emissions and its goal of net-zero emissions by 2050, PANYNJ is exploring a range of energy solutions, including hydrogen technologies. This report evaluates the potential role of hydrogen in reducing emissions across key operational areas: vehicles, equipment, stationary power, aviation propulsion, and marine propulsion. It examines hydrogen's technical feasibility, infrastructure needs, and economic implications within PANYNJ's operational context. The findings aim to inform decisions as PANYNJ transitions to cleaner energy sources and reduces environmental impacts. Based on the existing literature and stakeholders' feedback, the report outlines both opportunities and challenges associated with hydrogen integration, providing insights to guide PANYNJ's future sustainability initiatives.

33 ADVANCED PROPULSION SYSTEMS↗
DOE OSTI2022

Global Energy Policy to Achieve the United States’ Nationally Determined Contributions: Potential Pathway

In 2021, the United States declared its Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) in preparation for the COP26 climate summit, setting goals to achieve zero emission electricity by 2035, and reducing net emissions by 50–52% compared to 2005 levels. The current U.S. energy policies were found to not be adequate to meet these goals, thus it is necessary to draft a pathway to achieving these goals through policy changes. This study focused on foreign energy policies to analyze the most effective policies in a host of sectors. By identifying the most ambitious and effective policies from around the world in each sector, this study was able to suggest a policy pathway that can potentially achieve both of goals set in the NDC. In guiding the development of the proposed policy pathway, this study analyzed policies from Australia, Canada, California, China, Denmark, France, Germany, Japan, Russia, South Korea, Sweden, the United Kingdom, and the United States. This study found that the most drastic CO2 reductions came from low-carbon electricity policy, but contributions were also made from carbon capture, reforestation, hydrogen, energy efficiency, and climate smart agriculture.

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY↗
DOE OSTI2024

Cost-Benefit Analysis For Indonesia Building Sector: Whole-Building Cooling Solutions

The Net Zero World (NZW) Initiative Collaborative Work Program with the Government of Indonesia (GoI) includes technical assistance and investment mobilization facilitation to accelerate deployment of energy efficiency technologies and solutions for the building sector. A February 2023 U.S.–Indonesia Joint Workshop on Decarbonizing the Building Sector yielded a NZW Indonesia Building Decarbonization Working Group (NZW IBDWG) with four sub-working groups (SWG): SWG-A National Center, SWG-B Capacity Building, SWG-C Investment and Financing, and SWG-D Pilot Projects. Technical analysis of whole-building cooling solutions for tropical climates of Indonesia was conducted by SWG-A to quantify energy savings, carbon dioxide reductions, and comfort improvements offered by 12 passive or low-energy cooling strategies: ceiling fans with and without thermostat setbacks; cool roofs; cool walls; exterior awnings; exterior shades; interior shades; insulated roofs; insulated walls; low-e windows; solar window films; and natural ventilation. Leveraging the results from SWG-A, cost-benefit analysis (CBA) was conducted by SWG-C to assess the consumer and national costs and impacts associated with these 12 cooling solutions. The evaluation involved estimating life-cycle costs (LCC), payback period (PBP), net present values (NPV), annual electricity burden change for low-income households, and reduced national annual power-sector generation demand by 2030, 2040, 2050, and 2060. This evaluation can help guide Indonesia’s Just Energy Transition Partnership (JETP) investments in policies and programs to advance research, development, deployment, and commercial adoption (RDDCA) of efficient residential building sector cooling technologies and solutions in Indonesia. Four key energy conservation measures (ECM) have been identified to reduce air-conditioning (AC) energy demand in single-family housing in Indonesia: ceiling fan with temperature setback (to 28.1 °Celcius from 25 °C); insulated walls; insulated roof; and cool roof. This study found that low-income households with AC installations in Indonesia currently face a high energy cost burden of approximately 10%. However, by implementing a ceiling fan with temperature setback, this burden could decrease to 2.5% today and further reduce to 1.3% by the year 2060. The PBP for a ceiling fan with temperature setback is one year, indicating one of the lowest LCC and best NPV. In the planned upcoming phase of CBA, a series of building cooling improvement scenarios can be further defined, incorporating more than one ECM in combination with socio-economic factors evaluated in the initial CBA phase. Additionally, the analysis of ECM effects in multifamily housing can be expanded. This broader national analysis aims to encompass a holistic and comprehensive system-level perspective, including factors such as avoided power sector infrastructure investments, domestic job creation, domestic manufacturing job creation, and gross domestic product (GDP) growth.

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY↗
DOE OSTI2023

Engineering bimetallic interfaces and revealing the mechanism for carbon dioxide electroreduction to C 3+ liquid chemicals

Reduction reaction of CO 2 (CO 2 RR) to liquid C 3+ chemicals is a net-zero-carbon process and can increase local resiliency to power outages and fuel consumption. The mechanism and the catalyst design rules of CO 2 RR-to-C 3+ are unknown. Engineering bimetallic interface (e.g., Pd/Au) to tune the intermediate adsorption is promising for promoting C 3+ formation. Our density functional theory (DFT) calculations find that *CH 2 could be the key intermediate and C 1 -CH 2 coupling could be the rate-limiting step to generate C 3+ . High CO surface coverages can promote the bimetallic interfacial sites, lower the energetics of the C 1 -CH 2 coupling step, and enhance the C 3+ formation. We further construct a volcano plot of C 1 -CH 2 kinetics as a function of the binding strength of key intermediate *CH 2 via engineering the d-band center of the interfacial site. Our findings could guide the rational design of bimetallic interfaces and their near-surface microenvironment for enhancing CO 2 RR-to-C 3+ .

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗
DOE OSTI2024

System design and analysis of thermal power dispatch systems for boiling water reactors

Nuclear power plants are crucial to meeting net zero emission goals and achieving energy sustainability. Integrating these plants with clean energy technologies such as high-temperature steam electrolysis (HTSE) may improve the efficiency and economic competitiveness of these plants. Here, the current study investigates the design and operation of a thermal power dispatch (TPD) system for coupling boiling water reactors (BWRs) to HTSE plants. The TPD system extracts a portion of the steam from the reactor’s main steam line and transfers its thermal energy to an HTSE plant through a power transport loop. A TPD system for 5 % steam extraction has been designed and the system performance during steady and transient operations has been analyzed. The TPD system dispatched a total of 197 MW thermal energy to the HTSE plant under nominal design conditions. Saturated steam at 7.17 MPa from the BWR plant was condensed and subcooled to a temperature of 168 °C, while a mass flow rate of 91.1 kg/s of superheated steam was dispatched to the HTSE plant. Furthermore, the system performance during transient operation showed a continuous transition from the initial hot standby mode to the nominal power dispatch level. The transient simulation results emphasized the importance of investigating component level performance for the TPD system design. The current results will guide future works on the development of integrated energy systems for hydrogen production or process heat applications.

22 GENERAL STUDIES OF NUCLEAR REACTORS↗