Award Data

Political, economic, and environmental considerations require that the national dependence on petroleum-based transportation fuels, especially imported oil, be reduced by accelerating the development of domestic renewable alternatives. The United States has the potential to generate, sustainably, about 1.3 billion dry tons of biomass per year, and bio-oil derived from this renewable feedstock cou ...

Longer-lived stripper foils operating in present-day DOE accelerator facilities, with elements up to mass 100, would provide substantial operating savings and reduced radiation exposure to maintenance personnel. However, the next generation of rare isotope facilities would need even more robust stripper foils to survive exposure to higher-power density beams of even heavier elements, up to uraniu ...

Membrane reactors have the potential to improve the reactivity, productivity, and energy efficiency of various chemical syntheses including transesterification. To be of value, the membrane reactors must provide a higher use temperature, improved chemical resistance and better mass transfer. This project will evaluate the use of a high temperature, high mass transfer membrane system to enhance t ...

Refinery product streams, particularly those from Ultra Low Hydrodesulfurisation units, are prone to haze due to water emulsions. Hazy fuel cannot be used until the haze is removed, which creates costly scheduling and shipping delays. This project will develop a novel membrane process to rapidly remove fuel haze in real time. The process would be expected to operate on a once-through basis. Ph ...

In the electrical power, steel production, and aluminum production industries, flame retardant, phosphate-ester hydraulic fluids are used to minimize fires. Although these fluids accomplish the fire-minimization task, they are unstable, which causes performance to suffer with attendant losses in productivity. This project will develop novel, chemically-resistant high-flux membranes that can remo ...

Distillation is a major chemical unit operation and consumer of significant energy. Often, water or some other intermediate boiling component can become trapped within the distillation column and accumulate. This causes various operating difficulties such as flooding, slugging, cycling, instability, and off-spec product. This project will develop a chemically-resistant, non-porous, water-ventin ...

Membrane reactors have been proposed for a number of syntheses. However, to be competitive with conventional technologies, membrane reactors must provide better selectivity, permeability, and stability. This project will develop a novel platform with enhanced membrane permeability and stability, as needed for broad membrane reactor utilization. In Phase I, a chemically resistant membrane reacto ...

With the depletion of fossil fuel reserves and a global requirement to develop a sustainable economy, hydrogen-based energy is becoming increasingly important. In the transportation sector, on-board storage of pure hydrogen may be required at pressures up to 10,000 psi, with compression of the hydrogen fuel ranging to 12,000 psi or even higher. However, the level of maturity of current hydrogen ...

The efficiency of conventional pulverized coal power plant cycles is strongly related to operating temperature and pressure. Ultrasupercritical (USC) coal-fired boilers are being developed to operate with higher steam temperatures and steam pressures. However, the increasing temperatures and corrosive environment cause more severe oxidation and corrosion in USC boiler components. New surface mo ...

This project will develop a fast, automated, and accurate software processing package that will objectively yield striatal quantitative uptake values for evaluating Parkinson's disease (PD) diagnosis and progression. This fully automated, Objective Striatal Analysis (OSA) package will evaluate subjects referred for SPECT neuroreceptor imaging studies, with a sensitivity and specificity higher tha ...