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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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

Proposed designs for a Future Circular Collider (FCC) to collide protons with a center-of-mass energy of 100 TeV call for dipoles with fields up to 20 Tesla (T). This is significantly beyond the present technology and requires using High Temperature Superconductors (HTS). The recent Particle Physics Project Prioritization Panel (P5), organized by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), strongly supp ...

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 ...

Achieving a systems-level understanding of science associated with climate change is a key topic within the DOE mission. Light absorbing particles are an important atmospheric constituent and have a direct impact on climate. They also impact air quality and health and human activities play a major role in their abundance and distribution. There is a critical need for improved observational capacit ...

Terrorist use of radioactive nuclear materials via nuclear and/or radiological dispersion devices (dirty bombs) is a serious threat. Therefore, it is critical to detect the proliferation of nuclear material. Critical challenges facing this objective include: (a) high sensitivity detection of signature emissions (e.g., gamma rays) from common radioactive isotopes behind shielding, and (b) cost-effe ...

Additive Manufacturing (AM), where three-dimensional (3D) objects are created from a digital model by depositing and fusing successive layers of material, provides the ability to produce low-volume, customized products with complex geometries relatively quickly at a moderate cost. However, AM processes sometimes fail to produce acceptable parts, due to either geometric in- accuracy (e.g., shrinkag ...