Award Data

Replacement of petroleum based vehicles with fuel cell electric vehicles operating on hydrogen produced from domestically available resources would dramatically decrease emissions of greenhouse gases and other pollutants as well as reduce dependence on oil from politically volatile regions of the world. One major inhibitor to a hydrogen society is the lack of infrastructure, which requires hydroge ...

Liquid-metal coolants are one of the most promising solutions for the challenges of advanced high temperature nuclear reactor systems.They optimize heat transfer, neutronics, safety, and compactness of the reactor systems.Molten lead and lead-bismuth eutectic (LBE) are the primary coolant candidates due to their unique thermo-mechanical and neutronics properties.However, they are highly corrosive ...

The power output of the high power lasers used in physics research is limited by the materials available for making gain media. Future increases in power require new and better materials. Operation at high power creates great thermal stresses that can lead to birefringence, thermal lensing or physical damage to the host. Effective cooling and small temperature gradients are critical for achieving ...

In order to make large scale commercial production of microalgae based commodity food and fuel products, significant strides in algal productivity need to be achieved. With current regulatory guidelines, large scale outdoor cultivation of microalgae for these products restricts the use of transgenic algal strains, which in the laboratory thus far have been the primary strategy taken to effectively ...

Indium tin oxide (ITO) films are currently the most widely used transparent conductor in optoelectronic applications. However, ITO suffers from several major technological and economic limitations for large area applications such as inadequate performance, high cost, and brittleness. The primary objective of this Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) Phase I/Phase II project is to develop the ...

Vast amounts of impaired waters are produced in gas and oil wells. Energy-efficient desalination systems are needed to treat these waters to produce fresh water and concentrated brines. Mineral recovery systems can also yield valuable critical materials as byproducts. Savengy Technologies and University of Central Florida (UCF) will develop and commercialize an energy efficient system to treat sha ...

Tristructural isotropic (TRISO) fuel is a key component of advanced small modular nuclear fission reactors due to its inherent safety at high temperatures and irradiation levels and decreased proliferation risk relative to current reactor fuels. A more efficient cooling method for TRISO fuel compacts would increase heat transfer, allow for an increase in fuel density, and further improve accident ...

DOE is trying to develop accident tolerant fuel and structural materials for future light water reactor (LWR). TREAT irradiation vehicle will be testing new accident-tolerant fuel for nuclear reactors. TREAT irradiation vehicle needs 718 alloy pressure vessel. Fabrication of pressure vessel by additive manufacturing 718 alloy is needed. But 100% dense component by AM fabrication process is difficu ...

Reliable, safe, and robust storage of CO2 beneath the surface is important today and is expected to become even more critical in the coming decades. Safe storage requires knowledge regarding the dynamics and evolution of subsurface CO2 reservoirs. Temperature, pressure, and potentially other sensors are used to monitor important subsurface zones at various depths. An effective and relatively conve ...

It is attractive therefore to turn Carbon dioxide (𝐶𝐶𝑂𝑂2) which is typically considered a pollutant, into a valuable industrial resource. Plasma has long been known as an attractive method of treating 𝐶𝐶𝑂𝑂2 in order to produce other industrial feedstocks such as CO. For this process to be industrially viable, plasma treatment of 𝐶𝐶𝑂𝑂2 must be improved to minimiz ...