Award Data

As renewable resources such as wind and solar start to penetrate the electrical infrastructure, the transient behavior of these resources requires energy storage systems, such as batteries or flywheels, to buffer the fluctuations in output. Additionally, current silicon based semiconductor switches are limited in their ability to handle higher voltages and thus require large expensive ...

Energy Research Company (ERCo), Savannah River National Laboratory, and Los Alamos National Laboratory propose the development of a new sensor for tracking radioactive material during nuclear fuel reprocessing. Reprocessing spent nuclear fuel has significant safety and environmental advantages over the current predominant practice of storing the spent fuel in temporary facilities indefinitely. ...

In the proposed effort, we will leverage this extensive experience and capabilities to realize a frequency agile mmW radiometer that can cover the range of DC-110 GHz and can be scaled to DC-200 GHz under Phase II. Ours is a photonic system that multiplies and up-coverts a low-frequency reference signal onto an optical carrier (laser) using EO modulation, then uses the modulation sidebands to inj ...

To ensure safe and reliable power production by nuclear power plants, a wide variety of materials and components need to undergo inspections and maintenances at pre-determined intervals. Condition based maintenance is highly desirable because it can potentially avoid unnecessarily costly maintenance actions and associated error induced failures. Consequently, it can help achieve nearly all the mai ...

One of the key pieces of hydrogen fueling stations and hydrogen fuel vehicles are dependable detectors that are needed to ensure safe handling and use of hydrogen within transportation infrastructure. Hydrogen is a colorless and odorless gas, and its flame is virtually invisible in daylight. We propose a robust, reliable detector technology based on the tuning fork micro-resonance effect that can ...

Dimethyl carbonate (DMC) is a high value organic chemical with many potentially important applications. DMC can be made from CO2 directly or indirectly. With the development of CO2 capture and sequestration technology, huge amounts of low cost CO2 will be available as a feed stock. The conversion of CO2 to DMC will be an attractive chemical production investment. A major problem associated the D ...

One of the very important issues in many industries is bonding of dissimilar materials, since high bond resistance to high and rapid thermal and mechanical loads is required. The problems associated with the bond durability stem from fundamental differences in the coefficients of thermal expansion and thermal conductivity. For example, ceramic has a relatively low coefficient of thermal expansion ...

The increase in the ability of a wave energy converter (WEC) to capture energy from waves is critical to ensuring the viability and cost effectiveness of wave energy power devices. WECs absorb wave power by applying a back force to oppose the forces that waves exert on the system. The back force is implemented by the systems Power Takeoff and is typically chosen via a constant damping value (resis ...

The current hydrothermal power generation is about 1/2% of total US electricity demand, which is small compared to the potential geothermal power that could be developed using Enhanced Geothermal Systems (EGS). EGS depends on creating or enhancing a geothermal reservoir by well stimulation in a hot rock formation. The acoustic (or sonic) tool Perma Works is developing will measure the directiona ...

Conventional water wells use well logging cameras to inspect the well. Today, geothermal wells must be cooled before video inspection. Cooling the well by pumping cold water into the well is expensive and damaging to the well. The well casing undergoes extreme changes in stress when the well is temperature cycled; lose your casing lose your well. As such, the benefits of visually inspecting ...