Award Data

79590B Automobile engines generate significant waste heat, which could be recovered and converted to electricity to meet the growing demand for electric power. Thermionic emission allows waste heat to be converted, but traditional thermionic materials provide very low conversion efficiencies at the moderate temperatures (400-600°C) found in an automobile exhaust system. Thus, there is a need ...

79737B Only half of the estimated carbon delivered to the atmosphere by human activities in the 1990s remains there. The "missing" carbon was absorbed by terrestrial ecosystems and oceans, thus mitigating human perturbations to the carbon cycle. Carbon isotopes play a central role in understanding this terrestrial carbon sink at a variety of scales, but instrumentation to directly measure carbon ...

79369B Networking and security technology have grown inextricably linked as enterprises rely on computer networks for everyday operations. It is imperative to integrate several types of security technologies into the network to foil various kinds of attacks before they can do any damage. Generalized Multiple Protocol Label Switching (GMPLS) is used to provide the control plane for devices that c ...

78980B Dielectric wakefield acceleration is presently being studied intensively as a promising technique for advanced high-energy accelerators. Because the reduction of power attenuation is a fundamental issue for the efficiency of any accelerating structure, this project will develop a Multilayer Dielectric Loaded Accelerating (DLA) structure that will have dramatically improved attenuation comp ...

79509B The DOE is seeking new techniques for particle acceleration that are cost effective and efficient. This project will develop and verify one such concept, electron acceleration by a fullerene-based active medium. Phase I will investigate the chemistry of fullerenes in liquid crystal matrices. The composition of the materials will be optimized for maximum stored energy through the use of e ...

78794B The U.S. styrene industry (styrene and derivatives) is currently valued at $28 billion with over 6 million metric tons being consumed annually in the US. Current production routes involving dehydrogenation of ethylbenzene are energy intensive, requiring over 3 metric tons of steam per metric ton of styrene. The conventional technology to produce styrene is over 70 years old and relatively ...

78150B The catalytic reforming of diesel fuel in Solid Oxide Fuel Cell (SOFC) systems must overcome a number of challenging issues: (1) the deactivation of the catalyst by sintering and sulfur poising; (2) the requirement for a large fuel processing system as a result of high space velocity requirements; and (3) the lack of durability of the catalysts, which require frequent replacement due to "c ...

78925B “Clean energy” is attracting more and more interest, which in turn exerts cost pressure on photovoltaic (PV) manufacturers for more efficient solar panel production. This project will develop a cost-effective technology to produce PV-grade silicon wafers. In particular, a reuseable crucible will be developed for the production of high purity, low oxygen content crystalline silic ...

79798B The design of a high-resolution fragment separator for a facility such as the Rare Isotopes Accelerator (RIA) requires the use of magnets that offer special combinations of magnetic field, aperture, high order correction, and radiation resistance. Although optical designers can optimize the layout of the magnets and their characteristics, a complete optimization must account for other aspe ...

78730B The efficient and inexpensive production of hydrogen is essential for the hydrogen economy to become realized in the U.S. For the foreseeable future, most hydrogen will be produced from fossil fuels using a variety of processes. In order to fully utilize the hydrogen, efficient and inexpensive separation methods will be required. This project will develop a highly selective membrane for ...