Transportation

Precision Combustion Inc. (PCI) will develop a process-intensified, multi-functional SOFC architecture that permits a power dense, lightweight design and fast start-up for transportation applications. PCI will combine advanced concepts, process intensification, and additive manufacturing to develop a cost-effective and readily manufacturable SOFC system. It is analogous to a scalable electrochemical chip.

The University of Nebraska-Lincoln (UN-L) team will use their unique technology extrapolation domain (TED) framework to select agricultural sites to measure, aggregate, and validate local and regional environmental outcomes, including greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. The team will provide a proof of concept leveraging data from SMARTFARM Phase 1 projects case studies, including soil organic carbon data, topographical data, soil pH, remote imagery, and other data collected by soil sensors, soil chambers, and eddy flux covariance towers.

The freight rail industry faces pressure to reduce its greenhouse emissions. Currently there is no tool to rigorously identify realistic decarbonization pathways. NC State will quantify the potential of battery-electric, hybrid, and hydrogen-fuel motive power to achieve deep decarbonization over a 30-year planning horizon. The team will develop the Achieving Sustainable Train Energy Pathways (A-STEP) open-source software tool to account for train dynamics, propulsion, energy storage, multi-train interactions, energy delivery, and storage infrastructure.

Kelson will continue developing simulation tools and methods for accurate and efficient design of U.S. macroalgae farms, building on the work done under the University of New England MARINER award. To maximize the impact of this effort, Kelson will implement these simulation methods in an open-source software tool that will be uniquely capable of analyzing the hydro-structural performance of offshore macroalgae farms.

The University of Wisconsin-Madison aims to develop an integrated process to convert CO2 and renewable H2 into molecules that can be blended with liquid transportation fuels or used in various chemical applications. The project eliminates CO2 release in the production of chemicals by integrating the unique and efficient capabilities of two microorganisms. The first produces acetate from CO2 and H2 while the second upgrades acetate to higher-value chemical products. The CO2 released in the upgrading process is recycled internally to produce more acetate.

The Ohio State University is designing, modeling, and constructing synthetic microbial groups consisting of three bacterial species. Lactic acid bacterium, a carboxydotrophic acetogen, and a solventogenic clostridium are grown in a consortium that produces n-butanol, an advanced biofuel and industrial chemical used in plastics, polymers, lubricants, brake fluids, and synthetic rubber. The bacteria will react with lignocellulose sugars (mainly glucose and xylose) and formate (from CO2 produced by electrochemical reduction) in a biorefinery.

This project will develop a unique, fully integrated, Python-based open-source software tool to evaluate strategies for deploying advanced locomotive technologies and associated infrastructure for cost-effective decarbonization. ALTRIOS will simulate energy conversion and storage dynamics, locomotive and train dynamics, meet-pass planning (detailed train timetabling), and freight-demand-driven train scheduling in a Pareto optimization.

Oak Ridge National Laboratory, with project co-funder National Energy Technology Laboratory, will conduct a Geographical Information System (GIS) spatial analysis to identify locations that (1) are within geological saline basins with potential for CO2 injection, (2) are close to existing NG pipelines or NG users for potential blending of RNG with NG, and (3) meet site-specific suitability criteria (e.g. slope, population density, and exclusion of protected lands, landslide and flood hazard, and EPA non-attainment areas).

The Harvard University team will draw from efficient infrastructures for cheap sugar supply, maturing gas fermentation technology, and sophisticated strategies to engineer fatty acid metabolism. Current bioproduction platforms are limited regarding to carbon efficiency, product versatility or productivity. These platforms have left legacies that will aid Harvard in developing the next generation of carbon-efficient bioproduction, however.

Environmental drivers that cause the production and flux of nitrous oxide (N2O) and spatial and temporal variability of soil carbon stocks create challenges to cost-effectively quantify N2O emissions and soil carbon stock changes at scale. Dagan aims to build, validate, and demonstrate an integrated system to reliably and economically measure field-level soil carbon and N2O emissions.