Award Data

Improved ignition methods are needed for advanced vehicle combustion systems, in particular those that allow reliable ignition of lean mixtures in gasoline engines at elevated pressures. Laser ignition is a candidate technology having the potential to address these needs. However, despite more than 40 years of laser ignition research, the technology is not yet in commercial use. A critical proble ...

Formic acid (FA, CH2O2) is the simplest carboxylic acid. It is mainly used as a preservative and antibacterial agent in livestock feed. A significant fraction of FA is used in the leather-processing, textile and rubber industries and a small fraction of formic acid is used as a cleaning agent replacing mineral acids. Aqueous FA is a promising liquid hydrogen-storage carrier with a hydrogen storage ...

DoEs recent emphasis on increasing fuel economy requires electrification of the vehicle powertrain, thus leading to extended range electric vehicles (EREVs), hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs), battery electric vehicles (BEV) and fuel cell electric vehicles (FCEV). All electric propulsion systems require high current, high-voltage (600 V-1200 V), low-loss power semiconductor switches. Present electri ...

Electrons play a very key role in plasma chemistry and dynamics of low temperature plasmas. Improved capability for measuring electron number density, ne, and electron energy distribution function, EEDF, in weakly ionized low temperature plasmas would benefit both fundamental study and application areas. For example, the capability would directly benefit emerging research targeted at modifying and ...

Proton exchange membrane (PEM) electrolysis is industrially important as a green source of high purity hydrogen, for chemical applications as well as energy storage. However, the energy required to manufacture these units is still high, due to the multi-step processes employed. Today, the majority of cost and energy use in PEM electrolyzer manufacturing is contributed by the cell stack manufacturi ...

Successful adoption of open frameworks such as perfSONAR in Science DMZs within DOE labs, universities, and small-businesses, and the emerging trends of software-defined cloud platforms that inherently require multi-domain performance transparency are major drivers for a new market. However, perfSONAR framework and other proprietary solutions developed by industry cannot be effectively integrated ...

Considerable progress has been made in developing promising subsystems for muon beam cooling channels to provide the great reduction of emittances required for an Energy-Frontier Muon Collider; but an end-to-end design is lacking. Meanwhile, the recent discovery of a Higgs-like boson has created interest in the high-energy physics community for a Higgs Factory to investigate whether its propertie ...

The laser plasma accelerator (LPA) is a very promising technology for generating gamma rays for the detection of contraband bulk nuclear materials, but is currently limited by the rate at which the beam can be pulsed. Erosion of the capillary plasma channel is the main limiting factor and can be mitigated through the use of artificial diamond to construct the channel. Computational modeling and ...

The economical use of hydrogen as a transportation and stationary power fuel remains a long-term DOE objective. Energy storage applications in Europe such as wind capture and improved biogas conversion efficiency are also driving significant interest in hydrogen production from renewable sources. New and efficient catalytic processes for hydrogen generation are therefore needed to achieve produc ...

Neutron scattering is one of the most useful methods of studying the structure and dynamics of matter. Therefore, a number of new large neutron facilities have recently being constructed, upgraded or planned around the world. Examples include the new, 1.4 billion-dollars Spallation Neutron Source (SNS) at DoE’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) and upgrades of ORNL’s High-Flux Isotope React ...