This technology pathway case investigates converting woody biomass using in-situ catalytic fast pyrolysis followed by upgrading to gasoline-, diesel-, and jet-range hydrocarbon blendstocks. Technical barriers and key research needs that should be pursued for this pathway to be competitive with petroleum-derived blendstocks have been identified.

Scenarios of new vehicle technology deployment serve various purposes; some will seek to establish plausibility. This report proposes two reality checks for scenarios: (1) implications of manufacturing constraints on timing of vehicle deployment and (2) investment decisions required to bring new vehicle technologies to market. An estimated timeline of 12 to more than 22 years from initial market introduction to saturation is supported by historical examples and based on the product development process. Researchers also consider the series of investment decisions to develop and build the vehicles and their associated fueling infrastructure. A proposed decision tree analysis structure could be used to systematically examine investors' decisions and the potential outcomes, including consideration of cash flow and return on investment. This method requires data or assumptions about capital cost, variable cost, revenue, timing, and probability of success/failure, and would result in a detailed consideration of the value proposition of large investments and long lead times. This is one of a series of reports produced as a result of the Transportation Energy Futures (TEF) project, a Department of Energy-sponsored multi-agency effort to pinpoint underexplored strategies for abating GHGs and reducing petroleum dependence related to transportation.

None

N/A

The Integrated Recycling Test is a collaborative irradiation test that will electrochemically recycle used light water reactor fuel into metallic fuel feedstock. The feedstock will be fabricated into a metallic fast reactor type fuel that will be irradiation tested in a drop in capsule test in the Advanced Test Reactor on the Idaho National Laboratory site. This paper will summarize the fuel fabrication activities and design efforts. Casting development will include developing a casting process and system. The closure welding system will be based on the gas tungsten arc burst welding process. The settler/bonder system has been designed to be a simple system which provides heating and controllable impact energy to ensure wetting between the fuel and cladding. The final major pieces of equipment to be designed are the weld and sodium bond inspection system. Both x-radiography and ultrasonic inspection techniques have been examine experimentally and found to be feasible, however the final remote system has not been designed. Conceptual designs for radiography and an ultrasonic system have been made.

None

None

This report presents a summary of the work performed by LG Fuel Cell Systems Inc. during the project LG Solid Oxide Fuel Cell (SOFC) Model Development (DOE Award Number: DE-FE0000773) which commenced on October 1, 2009 and was completed on March 31, 2013. The aim of this project is for LG Fuel Cell Systems Inc. (formerly known as Rolls-Royce Fuel Cell Systems (US) Inc.) (�LGFCS�) to develop a multi-physics solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) computer code (MPC) for performance calculations of the LGFCS fuel cell structure to support fuel cell product design and development. A summary of the initial stages of the project is provided which describes the MPC requirements that were developed and the selection of a candidate code, STAR-CCM+ (CD-adapco). This is followed by a detailed description of the subsequent work program including code enhancement and model verification and validation activities. Details of the code enhancements that were implemented to facilitate MPC SOFC simulations are provided along with a description of the models that were built using the MPC and validated against experimental data. The modeling work described in this report represents a level of calculation detail that has not been previously available within LGFCS.

DOE grant used for partial fulfillment of necessary laboratory equipment for course enrichment and new graduate programs in nanotechnology at the four institutions of the Connecticut State University System (CSUS). Equipment in this initial phase included variable pressure scanning electron microscope with energy dispersive x-ray spectroscopy elemental analysis capability [at Southern Connecticut State University]; power x-ray diffractometer [at Central Connecticut State University]; a spectrophotometer and spectrofluorimeter [at Eastern Connecticut State University; and a Raman Spectrometer [at Western Connecticut State University]. DOE's funding was allocated for purchase and installation of this scientific equipment and instrumentation. Subsequently, DOE funding was allocated to fund the curriculum, faculty development and travel necessary to continue development and implementation of the System's Graduate Certificate in Nanotechnology (GCNT) program and the ConnSCU Nanotechnology Center (ConnSCU-NC) at Southern Connecticut State University. All of the established outcomes have been successfully achieved. The courses and structure of the GCNT program have been determined and the program will be completely implemented in the fall of 2013. The instrumentation has been purchased, installed and has been utilized at each campus for the implementation of the nanotechnology courses, CSUS GCNT and the ConnSCU-NC. Additional outcomes for this grant include curriculum development for non-majors …

None

In 1971 and 1972 experimenters at the Oak Ridge Cr

The solvation and phase behavior of the model battery electrolyte salt lithium trifluoromethanesulfonate (LiCF3SO3) in commonly used organic solvents; ethylene carbonate (EC), gamma-butyrolactone (GBL), and propylene carbonate (PC) was explored. Data from differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), Raman spectroscopy, and X-ray diffraction were correlated to provide insight into the solvation states present within a sample mixture. Data from DSC analyses allowed the construction of phase diagrams for each solvent system. Raman spectroscopy enabled the determination of specific solvation states present within a solvent-“salt mixture, and X-ray diffraction data provided exact information concerning the structure of a solvates that could be isolated Thermal analysis of the various solvent-salt mixtures revealed the phase behavior of the model electrolytes was strongly dependent on solvent symmetry. The point groups of the solvents were (in order from high to low symmetry): C2V for EC, CS for GBL, and C1 for PC(R). The low symmetry solvents exhibited a crystallinity gap that increased as solvent symmetry decreased; no gap was observed for EC-LiTf, while a crystallinity gap was observed spanning 0.15 to 0.3 mole fraction for GBL-LiTf, and 0.1 to 0.33 mole fraction for PC(R)-LiTf mixtures. Raman analysis demonstrated the dominance of aggregated species in almost all solvent …

Battery electric vehicles (BEVs) offer the potential to reduce both oil imports and greenhouse gas emissions, but high upfront costs, battery-limited vehicle range, and concern over high battery replacement costs may discourage potential buyers. A subscription model in which a service provider owns the battery and supplies access to battery swapping infrastructure could reduce upfront and replacement costs for batteries with a predictable monthly fee, while expanding BEV range. Assessing the costs and benefits of such a proposal are complicated by many factors, including customer drive patterns, the amount of required infrastructure, battery life, etc. The National Renewable Energy Laboratory has applied its Battery Ownership Model to compare the economics and utility of BEV battery swapping service plan options to more traditional direct ownership options. Our evaluation process followed four steps: (1) identifying drive patterns best suited to battery swapping service plans, (2) modeling service usage statistics for the selected drive patterns, (3) calculating the cost-of-service plan options, and (4) evaluating the economics of individual drivers under realistically priced service plans. A service plan option can be more cost-effective than direct ownership for drivers who wish to operate a BEV as their primary vehicle where alternative options for travel beyond …

The publication is a compilation of various feature stories published on NREL's public website, nrel.gov, throughout Calendar Year 2012.

Central Piedmont Community College (CPCC), located in Charlotte, North Carolina, established the Carolinas Energy Career Center (Center) - a comprehensive training entity to meet the dynamic needs of the Charlotte region's energy workforce. The Center provides training for high-demand careers in both conventional energy (fossil) and renewable energy (nuclear and solar technologies/energy efficiency). CPCC completed four tasks that will position the Center as a leading resource for energy career training in the Southeast: • Development and Pilot of a New Advanced Welding Curriculum, • Program Enhancement of Non-Destructive Examination (NDE) Technology, • Student Support through implementation of a model targeted toward Energy and STEM Careers to support student learning, • Project Management and Reporting. As a result of DOE funding support, CPCC achieved the following outcomes: • Increased capacity to serve and train students in emerging energy industry careers; • Developed new courses and curricula to support emerging energy industry careers; • Established new training/laboratory resources; • Generated a pool of highly qualified, technically skilled workers to support the growing energy industry sector.

Wind has provided energy for thousands of years: some of the earliest windmill engineering designs date back to ancient Babylonia and India where wind would be used as a source of irrigation. Today, wind is the quickest growing resource in Americas expanding energy infrastructure. However, to continue to positively diversify Americas energy portfolio and further reduce the countrys reliance of foreign oil, the industry must grow substantially over the next two decades in both turbine installations and skilled industrial manpower to support. The wind sector is still an emergent industry requiring maturation and development of its labor force: dedicated training is needed to provide the hard and soft skills to support the increasingly complex wind turbine generators as the technology evolves. Furthermore, the American workforce is facing a steep decline in available labor resources as the baby boomer generation enters retirement age. It is therefore vital that a process is quickly created for supporting the next generation of wind technicians. However, the manpower growth must incorporate three key components. First, the safety and technical training curriculum must be standardized across the industry - current wind educational programs are disparate and dedicated standardization programs must be further refined and implemented. Second, …

In support of the Bioenergy Technologies Office, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) and the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) are undertaking studies of biomass conversion technologies to hydrocarbon fuels to identify barriers and target research toward reducing conversion costs. Process designs and preliminary economic estimates for each of these pathway cases were developed using rigorous modeling tools (Aspen Plus and Chemcad). These analyses incorporated the best information available at the time of development, including data from recent pilot and bench-scale demonstrations, collaborative industrial and academic partners, and published literature and patents. This pathway case investigates converting woody biomass using ex-situ catalytic fast pyrolysis followed by upgrading to gasoline , diesel and jet range blendstocks . Technical barriers and key research needs that should be pursued for this pathway to be competitive with petroleum-derived blendstocks have been identified.

The DOE theory group grew from 2009-2012 from a single investigator, Lawrence Krauss, the PI on the grant, to include 3 faculty (with the addition of Maulik Parikh and Tanmay Vachaspati), and a postdoc covered by the grant, as well as partial support for a graduate student. The group has explored issues ranging from gravity and quantum field theory to topological defects, energy conditions in general relativity, primordial magnetic fields, neutrino astrophysics, quantum phases, gravitational waves from the early universe, dark matter detection schemes, signatures for dark matter at the LHC, and indirect astrophysical signatures for dark matter. In addition, we have run active international workshops each year, as well as a regular visitor program. As well, the PI's outreach activities, including popular books and articles, and columns for newspapers and magazines, as well as television and radio appearances have helped raise the profile of high energy physics internationally. The postdocs supported by the grant, James Dent and Roman Buniy have moved on successfully to a faculty positions in Louisiana and California.

A broadly applicable methodology has been developed to prepare new single site catalysts on silica supports. This methodology requires of three critical components: a rigid building block that will be the main structural and compositional component of the support matrix; a family of linking reagents that will be used to insert active metals into the matrix as well as cross link building blocks into a three dimensional matrix; and a clean coupling reaction that will connect building blocks and linking agents together in a controlled fashion. The final piece of conceptual strategy at the center of this methodology involves dosing the building block with known amounts of linking agents so that the targeted connectivity of a linking center to surrounding building blocks is obtained. Achieving targeted connectivities around catalytically active metals in these building block matrices is a critical element of the strategy by which single site catalysts are obtained. This methodology has been demonstrated with a model system involving only silicon and then with two metal-containing systems (titanium and vanadium). The effect that connectivity has on the reactivity of atomically dispersed titanium sites in silica building block matrices has been investigated in the selective oxidation of phenols to benezoquinones. …

ASTRID is a fast reactor being designed by CEA to

Performance degradation due to filament fracture of Nb3 Sn cable-in-conduit conductors (CICCs) is a critical issue in large-scale magnet designs such as ITER which is currently being constructed in the South of France. The critical current observed in most SULTAN TF CICC samples is significantly lower than expected and the voltage-current characteristic is seen to have a much broader transition from a single strand to the CICC. Moreover, most conductors exhibit the irreversible degradation due to filament fracture and strain relaxation under electromagnetic cyclic loading. With recent success in monitoring thermal strain distribution and its evolution under the electromagnetic cyclic loading from in situ measurement of critical temperature, we apply FEMCAM which includes strand filament breakage and local current sharing effects to SULTAN tested CICCs to study Nb3 Sn strain sensitivity and irreversible performance degradation. FEMCAM combines the thermal bending effect during cool down and the EM bending effect due to locally accumulating Lorentz force during magnet operation. It also includes strand filament fracture and related local current sharing for the calculation of cable n value. In this paper, we model continuous performance degradation under EM cyclic loading based on strain relaxation and the transition broadening upon cyclic loading to …

None

This document highlights the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy's investments and impacts in the state of Colorado.

This document highlights the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy's investments and impacts in the state of Tennessee.