Low-cost small scale processing technologies for production applications in various environments—Mass produced factories
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bio-inspired↗
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Design standardization of unit operations for reducing the capital intensity and cost of small‐scale chemical processes
Abstract A methodology is proposed to reduce the cost and capital intensity of small‐scale chemical processes by creating new opportunities for economies of numbers through standardizing the equipment designs across multiple processes. We depart from asynchronous design of single‐processes and adopt a common‐functionality based simultaneous design of multiple processes that use similar unit operations. A generalized cost function is used to appropriately balance the trade‐offs between economies of scale and economies of numbers. An optimization‐based framework for design standardization is developed and illustrated using two case studies. The first involves the simultaneous synthesis of methanol and ammonia processes, and the second addresses the optimal synthesis of multi‐column natural gas liquid (NGL) fractionation processes for different natural gas sources. We observe that considerable reduction in capital intensity of small‐scale processes is possible through equipment standardization.
Arora, Akhil↗
Memory-based parameterization with differentiable solver: Application to Lorenz ’96
Physical parameterizations (or closures) are used as representations of unresolved subgrid processes within weather and global climate models or coarse-scale turbulent models, whose resolutions are too coarse to resolve small-scale processes. These parameterizations are typically grounded on physically based, yet empirical, representations of the underlying small-scale processes. Machine learning-based parameterizations have recently been proposed as an alternative solution and have shown great promise to reduce uncertainties associated with the parameterization of small-scale processes. Yet, those approaches still show some important mismatches that are often attributed to the stochasticity of the considered process. This stochasticity can be due to coarse temporal resolution, unresolved variables, or simply to the inherent chaotic nature of the process. To address these issues, we propose a new type of parameterization (closure), which is built using memory-based neural networks, to account for the non-instantaneous response of the closure and to enhance its stability and prediction accuracy. We apply the proposed memory-based parameterization, with differentiable solver, to the Lorenz ’96 model in the presence of a coarse temporal resolution and show its capacity to predict skillful forecasts over a long time horizon of the resolved variables compared to instantaneous parameterizations. This approach paves the way for the use of memory-based parameterizations for closure problems.
Mathematics↗
Approaches for the Simulation of Coupled Processes in Evolving Fractured Porous Media Enabled by Exascale Computing
Models have historically represented fractured porous media with continuum descriptions that characterize the media using bulk parameters. The impact of small-scale features is not captured in these models, although they may be controlling the performance of subsurface applications. Pore-scale models can simulate processes in small-scale features by representing the pore space geometry explicitly but are computationally expensive for large domains. The alternative multiscale approach entails the combination of pore-scale and continuum-scale descriptions in a single framework. We use Chombo-Crunch, a computational capability that discretizes complex geometries with an adaptive, embedded boundary method to contrast these two approaches. Chombo-Crunch takes advantage of recent computational performance and memory bandwidth improvements resulting from the emergence of exascale computing resources. These combined improvements enable the efficient simulation of reactive transport in fractured media with a high degree of fidelity and the ability to capture the control small-scale processes exert on the overall medium evolution.
42 ENGINEERING↗
Nonlinear evolution of the magnetized Kelvin-Helmholtz instability: From fluid to kinetic modeling
The nonlinear evolution of collisionless plasmas is typically a multi-scale process, where the energy is injected at large, fluid scales and dissipated at small, kinetic scales. Accurately modelling the global evolution requires to take into account the main micro-scale physical processes of interest. This is why comparison of different plasma models is today an imperative task aiming at understanding cross-scale processes in plasmas. We report here the first comparative study of the evolution of a magnetized shear flow, through a variety of different plasma models by using magnetohydrodynamic (MHD), Hall-MHD, two-fluid, hybrid kinetic, and full kinetic codes. Kinetic relaxation effects are discussed to emphasize the need for kinetic equilibriums to study the dynamics of collisionless plasmas in non trivial configurations. Discrepancies between models are studied both in the linear and in the nonlinear regime of the magnetized Kelvin-Helmholtz instability, to highlight the effects of small scale processes on the nonlinear evolution of collisionless plasmas. We illustrate how the evolution of a magnetized shear flow depends on the relative orientation of the fluid vorticity with respect to the magnetic field direction during the linear evolution when kinetic effects are taken into account. Even if we found that small scale processes differ between the different models, we show that the feedback from small, kinetic scales to large, fluid scales is negligible in the nonlinear regime. This study shows that the kinetic modeling validates the use of a fluid approach at large scales, which encourages the development and use of fluid codes to study the nonlinear evolution of magnetized fluid flows, even in the collisionless regime.
70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
High-Performance Simulation of Dynamic Hydrologic Exchange and Implications for Surrogate Flow and Reactive Transport Modeling in a Large River Corridor
Hydrologic exchange flows (HEFs) have environmental significance in riverine ecosystems. Key river channel factors that influence the spatial and temporal variations of HEFs include river stage, riverbed morphology, and riverbed hydraulic conductivity. However, their impacts on HEFs were often evaluated independently or on small scales. In this study, we numerically evaluated the combined interactions of these factors on HEFs using a high-performance simulator, PFLOTRAN, for subsurface flow and transport. The model covers 51 square kilometers of a selected river corridor with large sinuosity along the Hanford Reach of the Columbia River in Washington, US. Three years of spatially distributed hourly river stages were applied to the riverbed. Compared to the simulation when riverbed heterogeneity is not ignored, the simulation using homogeneous riverbed conductivity underestimated HEFs, especially upwelling from lateral features, and overestimated the mean residence times derived from particle tracking. To derive a surrogate model for the river corridor, we amended the widely used transient storage model (TSM) for riverine solute study at reach scale with reactions. By treating the whole river corridor as a batch reactor, the temporal changes in the exchange rate coefficient for the TSM were derived from the dynamic residence time estimated from the hourly PFLOTRAN results. The TSM results were evaluated against the effective concentrations in the hyporheic zone calculated from the PFLOTRAN simulations. Our results show that there is potential to parameterize surrogate models such as TSM amended with biogeochemical reactions while incorporating small-scale process understandings and the signature of time-varying streamflow to advance the mechanistic understanding of river corridor processes at reach to watershed scales. However, the assumption of a well-mixed storage zone for TSM should be revisited when redox-sensitive reactions in the storage zones play important roles in river corridor functioning.
Fang, Yilin↗
Small-scale dissipative processes in stellar atmospheres
The outer atmospheres of stars must be heated by some non-thermal energy flux to produce chromospheres and coronae. Processes are discussed which convert the non-thermal energy flux of organized, macroscopic motions into random, microscopic (thermal) motions. Recent advances in the description of the chromosphere velocity field suggest that the acoustic waves observed there transmit very little energy, and hence are probably incapable of heating the upper chromosphere and corona. The apparent failure of this long held mechanism and the growing appreciation of the importance of strong magnetic fields in the chromosphere and corona have led to hypotheses of heating by the dissipation of currents (both oscillatory and quasi-steady). This follows discoveries in laboratory and ionospheric plasmas and work on solar flares, that instabilities can concentrate currents into thin high current density filaments where they dissipate rapidly.
Leibacher, J. W.↗
Avalanches and the distribution of solar flares
The solar coronal magnetic field is proposed to be in a self-organized critical state, thus explaining the observed power-law dependence of solar-flare-occurrence rate on flare size which extends over more than five orders of magnitude in peak flux. The physical picture that arises is that solar flares are avalanches of many small reconnection events, analogous to avalanches of sand in the models published by Bak and colleagues in 1987 and 1988. Flares of all sizes are manifestations of the same physical processes, where the size of a given flare is determined by the number of elementary reconnection events. The relation between small-scale processes and the statistics of global-flare properties which follows from the self-organized magnetic-field configuration provides a way to learn about the physics of the unobservable small-scale reconnection processes. A simple lattice-reconnection model is presented which is consistent with the observed flare statistics. The implications for coronal heating are discussed and some observational tests of this picture are given.
Lu, Edward T.↗
Recovery of Mo in LEU-Modified Cintichem Process at Elevated Mo Concentrations
Argonne National Laboratory with support from DOE’s National Nuclear Security Administration Office of Material Management & Minimization (M 3 ) is helping SHINE Medical Technologies in developing domestic production of Mo-99. SHINE is planning to produce Mo-99 by fission of low enriched uranium-235 (LEU) in a subcritical aqueous solution using accelerator-based neutron generation. SHINE’s subcritical system can contain ~250L of LEU solution that is processed through a recovery titania-based column to recover Mo, while the remaining LEU solution can be available for another irradiation. The Mo-containing solution is then fed into another titania-based concentration column to further concentrate the solution to allow for the final purification step using the LEU modified Cintichem (LMC) process. The LMC process is a relatively small-scale process that was designed to work with 50mL volumes. By concentrating the Mo solution that feeds into the LMC process from ~250L to ~50mL, the actual chemical concentration of Mo becomes important. It is estimated that up to ~15mM Mo concentration could be present in the LMC feed. Since the LMC process was originally proposed for purification of Mo after dissolution of irradiated U solid targets, the chemical concentration of Mo was not a concern, due to presence of only trace amounts of Mo.
11 NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS↗
Life-Cycle Assessment of Alternative Pyrolysis-Based Transport Fuels: Implications of Upgrading Technology, Scale, and Hydrogen Requirement
In an effort to diversify liquid fuel supply and address climate change, there are ongoing studies on the use of biomass as a renewable source of energy. Bio-oil produced from fast pyrolysis of biomass is a promising substitute for fossil fuels that can meet climate change mitigation goals, spur rural economies, and diversify liquid fuel supply. However, for bio-oil to be used as a transportation fuel, it requires upgrading to remove oxygen present in the oil. Hydrodeoxygenation (HDO) is one means of upgrading fast pyrolysis oil, however, one of its main limitations is a large hydrogen requirement. We evaluate an alternative electrochemical deoxygenation (EDOx) method that uses catalytic electrode membranes on a ceramic, oxygen permeable support, to generate hydrogen in-situ for deoxygenation at the cathode and remove oxygen at the anode. We analyze the life cycle greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and scale effects of gas-phase upgrading pyrolysis oil (300 metric tons per day (MTPD)) using EDOx, which reduces energy needs for condensing the pyrolysis gas to bio-oil prior to deoxygenation. The dispersed woody biomass can be accessed and thus more efficiently used if a small scale process is used to densify and stabilize the bio-oil product. We evaluate two configurations of the small-scale deoxygenation, full electrochemical deoxygenation (EDOx), which removes 100% of oxygen present in the bio-oil and partial EDOx, which removes 96% of oxygen present in the bio-oil and compare them to the large scale (2000 MTPD) deoxygenation (HDO). The partial EDOx process has the lowest total GHG emissions of 4.95 gCO2 eq. and 7.43 gCO2 eq. per MJ of a vehicle operated with diesel and gasoline respectively compared to full EDOx (8.36 g CO2 eq. diesel, 10.86 g CO2 eq. gasoline) and HDO (39 gCO2 eq. per MJ for diesel and gasoline). In addition, with the EDOx processes, we can site 10 times more small-scale pyrolysis upgrading sites compared to HDO, suggesting that small-scale on-site partial or full deoxygenation can reach more inaccessible forest biomass resources.
bio-oil hydrotreating, Biomass, deoxygenation, sol↗
Importance of the Tectonic Motions on Ganymede
Voyager close up views of Ganymede reveal some provinces of old, cratered, dark terrains that are broken into polygons and cut through by light stripes of grooved terrains. The groove terrain unit and its relationships with the other units was studied at various scales because these features seem to relate at least to two main scales of processes. Minor displacements concerning only local features, i.e., large scale processes and major displacements concerning usually the major evolution of the surface, i.e., small scale processes. It appears that tectonic processes, at least in the studied areas, if playing a role in the formation of local or regional features, are very limited. The conclusions reached agree with those of Thomas et al. who show that post grooves basins reveal the presence of a primitive grid that is not disturbed by the grooved terrains.
Forni, O. P.↗
Observations of Aerosol, Cloud, Turbulence, and Radiation Properties at the Top of the Marine Boundary Layer over the Eastern North Atlantic Ocean: The ACORES Campaign
We report on the Azores Stratocumulus Measurements of Radiation, Turbulence and Aerosols (ACORES) campaign, which took place around Graciosa and Pico Islands/Azores in July 2017. The main objective was to investigate the vertical distribution of aerosol particles, stratocumulus microphysical and radiative properties, and turbulence parameters in the eastern North Atlantic. The vertical exchange of mass, momentum, and energy between the free troposphere (FT) and the cloudy marine boundary layer (MBL) was explored over a range of scales from submeters to kilometers. To cover these spatial scales with appropriate measurements, helicopter-borne observations with unprecedented high resolution were realized using the Airborne Cloud Turbulence Observation System (ACTOS) and Spectral Modular Airborne Radiation Measurement System–Helicopter-Borne Observations (SMART-HELIOS) instrumental payloads. Here, the helicopter-borne observations were combined with ground-based aerosol measurements collected at two continuously running field stations on Pico Mountain (2,225 m above sea level, in the FT), and at the Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) station on Graciosa (at sea level). First findings from the ACORES observations we are discussing in the paper are as follows: (i) we have observed a high variability of the turbulent cloud-top structure on horizontal scales below 100 m with local temperature gradients of up to 4 K over less than 1 m vertical distance, (ii) we have collected strictly collocated radiation measurements supporting the relevance of small-scale processes by revealing significant inhomogeneities in cloud-top brightness temperature to scales well below 100 m, and (iii) we have concluded that aerosol properties are completely different in the MBL and FT with often-complex stratification and frequently observed burst-like new particle formation.
54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
IONIZATION IN ATMOSPHERES OF BROWN DWARFS AND EXTRASOLAR PLANETS. III. BREAKDOWN CONDITIONS FOR MINERAL CLOUDS
Electric discharges were detected directly in the cloudy atmospheres of Earth, Jupiter, and Saturn, are debatable for Venus, and indirectly inferred for Neptune and Uranus in our solar system. Sprites (and other types of transient luminous events) have been detected only on Earth, and are theoretically predicted for Jupiter, Saturn, and Venus. Cloud formation is a common phenomenon in ultra-cool atmospheres such as in brown dwarf and extrasolar planetary atmospheres. Cloud particles can be expected to carry considerable charges which may trigger discharge events via small-scale processes between individual cloud particles (intra-cloud discharges) or large-scale processes between clouds (inter-cloud discharges). We investigate electrostatic breakdown characteristics, like critical field strengths and critical charge densities per surface, to demonstrate under which conditions mineral clouds undergo electric discharge events which may trigger or be responsible for sporadic X-ray emission. We apply results from our kinetic dust cloud formation model that is part of the DRIFT-PHOENIX model atmosphere simulations. We present a first investigation of the dependence of the breakdown conditions in brown dwarf and giant gas exoplanets on the local gas-phase chemistry, the effective temperature, and primordial gas-phase metallicity. Our results suggest that different intra-cloud discharge processes dominate at different heights inside mineral clouds: local coronal (point discharges) and small-scale sparks at the bottom region of the cloud where the gas density is high, and flow discharges and large-scale sparks near, and maybe above, the cloud top. The comparison of the thermal degree of ionization and the number density of cloud particles allows us to suggest the efficiency with which discharges will occur in planetary atmospheres.
79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
Expanding the representation of aerosol, cloud, and precipitation processes with graph network-based simulators
We explored a novel framework for simulating the small-scale processes that drive the evolution of aerosol, cloud, and precipitation particles, which are a critical gap in the predictive understanding of weather and climate. Particle-based methods have emerged as an effective tool for modeling aerosol-cloud-precipitation interactions, but existing particle-based models are computationally too expensive to simulate the large domains relevant for the atmosphere or to represent the full suite of relevant processes. The lack of a comprehensive and efficient reference model is a critical bottleneck in our understanding of cloud and precipitation processes and our ability to parameterize these processes for regional- and global-scale simulations. To address this need, we explored an approach to accelerate and expand particle-based models using a new machine learning approach, graph network-based simulators (GNS). Rather than modeling the evolution of the system by numerically integrating continuity equations, the GNS represents dynamics through learned message passing. Our aim was to develop fast and accurate surrogate models for particle-based simulations. We explored applying GNS to simulate cloud droplet transport, growth, and evaporation under turbulent conditions, but we found the GNS over-smoothed the simulations. We then applied the GNS to simulate aerosol dynamics through gas condensation and found the GNS was able to reproduce the benchmark, physics-based simulation with high accuracy.
54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
Simulating weather regimes: impact of model resolution and stochastic parameterization
The simulation of quasi-persistent regime structures in an atmospheric model with horizontal resolution typical of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change fifth assessment report simulations, is shown to be unrealistic. A higher resolution configuration of the same model, with horizontal resolution typical of that used in operational numerical weather prediction, is able to simulate these regime structures realistically. The spatial patterns of the simulated regimes are remarkably accurate at high resolution. A model configuration at intermediate resolution shows a marked improvement over the low-resolution configuration, particularly in terms of the temporal characteristics of the regimes, but does not produce a simulation as accurate as the very-high-resolution configuration. It is demonstrated that the simulation of regimes can be significantly improved, even at low resolution, by the introduction of a stochastic physics scheme. At low resolution the stochastic physics scheme drastically improves both the spatial and temporal aspects of the regimes simulation. These results highlight the importance of small-scale processes on large-scale climate variability, and indicate that although simulating variability at small scales is a necessity, it may not be necessary to represent the small-scales accurately, or even explicitly, in order to improve the simulation of large-scale climate. It is argued that these results could have important implications for improving both global climate simulations, and the ability of high-resolution limited-area models, forced by low-resolution global models, to reliably simulate regional climate change signals.
Meteorology & Atmospheric Sciences↗
Scalable and Quench-Free Processing of Metal Halide Perovskites in Ambient Conditions
With the rise of global warming and the growing energy crisis, scientists have pivoted from typical resources to look for new materials and technologies. Perovskite materials hold the potential for making high-efficiency, low-cost solar cells through solution processing of Earth-abundant materials; however, scalability, stability, and durability remain key challenges. In order to transition from small-scale processing in inert environments to higher throughput processing in ambient conditions, the fundamentals of perovskite crystallization must be understood. Classical nucleation theory, the LaMer relation, and nonclassical crystallization considerations are discussed to provide a mechanism by which a gellan gum (GG) additive—a nontoxic polymeric saccharide—has enabled researchers to produce quality halide perovskite thin-film blade coated in ambient conditions without a quench step. Furthermore, we report on the improved stability and durability properties inherent to these films, which feature improved morphologies and optoelectronic properties compared to films spin-coated in a glovebox with antisolvent. We tune the amount of GG in the perovskite precursor and study the interplay between GG concentration and processability, morphological control, and increased stability under humidity, heat, and mechanical testing. The simplicity of this approach and insensitivity to environmental conditions enable a wide process window for the production of low-defect, mechanically robust, and operationally stable perovskites with fracture energies among the highest obtained for perovskites.
14 SOLAR ENERGY↗
Collaborative Project. Understanding the effects of tides and eddies on the ocean dynamics, sea ice cover and decadal/centennial climate prediction using the Regional Arctic Climate Model (RACM)
The goal of this project is to develop an eddy resolving ocean model (POP) with tides coupled to a sea ice model (CICE) within the Regional Arctic System Model (RASM) to investigate the importance of ocean tides and mesoscale eddies in arctic climate simulations and quantify biases associated with these processes and how their relative contribution may improve decadal to centennial arctic climate predictions. Ocean, sea ice and coupled arctic climate response to these small scale processes will be evaluated with regard to their influence on mass, momentum and property exchange between oceans, shelf-basin, ice-ocean, and ocean-atmosphere. The project will facilitate the future routine inclusion of polar tides and eddies in Earth System Models when computing power allows. As such, the proposed research addresses the science in support of the BER’s Climate and Environmental Sciences Division Long Term Measure as it will improve the ocean and sea ice model components as well as the fully coupled RASM and Community Earth System Model (CESM) and it will make them more accurate and computationally efficient.
54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗