Award Data

Density functional theory is used by many researchers funded by the Department of Energy as a method for predicting the behavior of chemicals and materials used in energy applications. However, results of these calculations are often not standardized and, even when they are, expert-level understand of the methods is needed in order to properly perform a simulation. The energy research community a ...

Density functional theory is used by many researchers funded by the Department of Energy as a method for predicting the behavior of chemicals and materials used in energy applications. However, results of these calculations are often not standardized and, even when they are, expert-level understand of the methods is needed in order to properly perform a simulation. The energy research community a ...

Tall towers and foundations for modern offshore and land-based wind turbines are too large to transport over roads or rail due to their extremely large dimensions. Existing “one-off” on-site construction methods are too expensive, and are too slow for manufacturing foundations and towers in the large numbers needed, especially for offshore components manufactured in ports with limited lay-down ...

New automotive engine technologies, such as direct injection with stratified charge combustion, are being explored under programs of the DOE and others that offer significant increases in efficiency and reductions in emissions. Research tools are needed to help determine how best to adequately control the combustion process throughout the engine operating envelope, to optimize combustion efficienc ...

There are currently no comprehensive computational design tools for developing photocathodes and the electron sources they support. Existing codes do not address the latest photocathode materials, nor do they provide the complete physics related to electron emission. This is complicating design of RF guns and photoinjectors for accelerators and light sources. Statement of how this problem or situa ...

Laser based advanced accelerators can achieve very high accelerating gradients, but their duty cycle is limited by the laser power availability and media recovery time. Inverse Free Electron Laser (IFEL) is a vacuum farfield laser accelerator scheme which does not rely on a medium (plasma) or a structure (metal or electric) and therefore is potentially capable of accelerating charged particles ver ...

Algae production in conjunction with wastewater treatment is a low-cost path to algae biofuels. Whole biomass is available for conversion to biofuel because algae biomass co-product sales are not required for good economics. Instead, added revenue is derived from wastewater treatment. Existing wastewater treatment pond facilities covering hundreds of acres are the only producers of microalgae ap ...

A key requirement for microalgae biofuels production is a very low cost harvesting technology. Commercially available solidliquid separation technologies applicable to microalgae, such as chemical coagulation, membrane separations and centrifugation, are too costly for biofuels production or other lowcost microalgae processes, such as wastewater treatment. A low cost harvesting process is bio floc ...

Quantifying atmospheric aerosol, clouds and precipitation processes are critical needs for understanding and interpreting Earth’s changing energy budget, is a DOE objective, and is of broader benefit to the public. Specifically, the formation of ice in the atmosphere depends on the nature and abundance of ice nucleating particles, and has major implications for precipitation and cloud interactio ...

Metrology is a multi-billion dollar industry that is an indispensable part of science and manufacturing. A variety of techniques including interferometric microscopes, scanning electron microscopes (SEM), X-ray, and atomic force microscopes (AFM) are used in X-ray mirror manufacturing. The performance of any tool directly depends on the ability to characterize and tune it ...