Award Data

According to a 2014 study commissioned by the Department of Energy, hydropower from more than 3 million untapped streams in the United States could potentially generate 65 gigawatts of electricity and help to reduce greenhouse emissions and pollution. However, the development of hydropower has been limited by several obstacles, as described by the United States Geological Survey: most of the prime ...

Supercritical CO2 cycles have the potential to significantly improve efficiency and reduce emissions in power generation. However, the unique fluid dynamic properties of supercritical CO2 that enable these higher efficiencies also complicate the design and layout of the system, particularly its turbomachinery components. The problem stems specifically from the highly non-linear properties of CO2, ...

Letters from leading researchers of subsurface hydrobiogeochemical processes, including Department of Energy researchers, confirm the need for low-cost, rugged distributed temperature sensing. Temperature and thermal gradients are critical drivers and state variables in many important subsurface hydrobiogeochemical processes, as well as indicators of hydrologic phenomena. In addition to helping un ...

Tactical Air Control Party (TACP) personnel juggle disparate tasks simultaneously. Their task simultaneously require physically grueling output, instantaneous information processing, clear communication and instantaneous decision-making. The current system provides capabilities far beyond their predecessors but with drawbacks: an information-rich battlefield requires increased time looking at ches ...

There are imminent needs for improvements and advancements in the research and development of new sensor materials and measurements techniques for nuclear material control and accountability. Nuclear storage facilities for used fuel and electrochemical recycling facilities need more robust safeguards and security than ever. In addition, fuel monitoring must be done in a cost effective manner. How ...

Appareo Systems, LLC, proposes to develop a functional prototype head-mounted position and orientation system (HPOS). The HPOS will be capable of operating in electromagnetic fields of up to 200 volts/meter and will provide at least one degree of accuracy and at least one degree of resolution at a 60 Hz update rate while providing 3 degree of freedom (DOF) information on head orientation, includi ...

Hybrid Electric Vehicles (HEVs) and plug-in Hybrid Vehicles (PHEVs) require advanced technology capacitors, which must have low cost and the ability to operate at 150oC. However, current 150oC film capacitor solutions are expensive and have lower energy density compared to materials that operate at lower temperatures. Polypropylene Film Capacitors represent a potentially cost effective solution ...

Historically, remediation efforts at DOE contaminated sites have relied on numerical models to integrate laboratory and field characterization data, predict the fate and transport behavior of contaminant plumes, design remediation protocols to mitigate contaminant migration, and analyze data from field remediation results. Of particular concern is the effect of subsurface heterogeneities and thei ...

Standoff detectors are required to detect IEDs. These detectectors are needed to save the lives of American soldiers. QuantaSpec has developed patent pending methods for long-range, sensitive, and selective standoff detection of explosives. These methods have already demonstrated sensitive remote detection of explosive vapors under previous efforts. QuantaSpec's multidisciplinary team will dem ...

The design of turbomachinery components is a complex process requiring many steps and hundreds of minute decisions in an iterative process. The design proceeds from engine cycle performance and meanline design through 3D viscous flow calculations (CFD) and finite element structural analysis (FEA). Design studies may traverse this process many times, with routine tasks performed by engineers in a ...