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- Conventional Hydro
Modeling Fish Passage and Energetic Expenditure for American Shad in a Steeppass Fishway using a Computational Fluid Dynamics Model
Lead Companies
Montana State University
Lead Researcher (s)
- Kathryn Plymesser
Technology Application
Conventional Hydro
Research Category
Environmental and Sustainability
Research Sub-Category
Fish and Aquatic Resources
Status
complete
Completion Date
2014
- Conventional Hydro
Modeling Smart Microgrids for the Developing World with Probabilistic Supply and Demand Inputs
Lead Companies
Carnegie Mellon University
Lead Researcher (s)
- Jesse Thornburg
Technology Application
Conventional Hydro
Research Category
Interconnect Integration and Markets
Research Sub-Category
Future Grid
Status
complete
Completion Date
2018
- Marine Energy
Modeling the Path Forward for Marine Energy
Lead Companies
NREL
Lead Researcher (s)
- Levi Kilcher
- Elena Baca
Today’s marine energy industry is at an exciting turning point. Companies are testing out their early-stage prototypes—designed to harness the clean energy in ocean and river waves, currents, and tides—in their frst open-water trials. But while such trials are a necessary step toward commercialization, they can come with high costs and risk if the deployments do not go as planned. Luckily, experts at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) design tools to reduce the costs and risks of developing novel marine energy technologies. Free and publicly available, these software models provide data on a device’s potential performance, the resources (waves, tides, and currents) available at deployment sites across the United States, and costs associated with installing and operating marine energy technologies. With fast and accurate data, developers can learn how to optimize their designs—and reduce time, costs, and risks—before prototypes head into the water.
Technology Application
Marine Energy
Research Category
Technology
Research Sub-Category
Status
complete
Completion Date
2022
- Conventional Hydro
Modifications to the Runner Blade to Improve Off-Design Efficiencies of Hydraulic Turbines
Lead Companies
The Pennsylvania State University
Lead Researcher (s)
- Matthew Erdman
Hydroturbines are known to have very high efficiency at their best efficiency point (BEP). However, it has become increasing beneficial to run some hydroturbines at conditions that are significantly different than BEP. This is a direct result of volatile price fluctuations on the electric market, limited storage capabilities, and environmental rules and regulations. Running the hydroturbine at off-design conditions can result in a significant amount of residual swirl in the draft tube. The presence of this residual swirl is particularly detrimental to the performance of Francis hydroturbines since they rely on a pressure head to generate power. Previous research at The Pennsylvania State University numerically discovered that injecting water through the trailing edge of the wicket gates could change the bulk flow direction upstream of the runner blades. In this manner, the flow rate and swirl angle entering the runner blade could be altered to limit residual swirl in the draft tube. The research determined that properly tuned jets could result in a significant improvement in turbine efficiency when the hydroturbine was operating at low flow. However, this required pumping water through channels into a region of relatively high pressure. This pump requirement lessened the effectiveness of the wicket gate trailing edge injection. The concept of water jet injection was further explored in the present work. However, instead of injecting water into a region of relatively high pressure, water jets were placed at the trailing edge of the runner blades where there is a region of relatively low pressure. It was determined that, although this water jet injection improved the off-design efficiency of a low flow case by 0.8%, the hydroturbine now required a larger head in order to maintain the flow rate. The present work found no increase in efficiency for the high flow case with the added water jet injection technique.
Technology Application
Conventional Hydro
Research Category
Powerhouse Equipment
Research Sub-Category
Turbine
Status
complete
Completion Date
2016
- Conventional Hydro
Modular Helical Fish Passage for Low Head Applications
Lead Companies
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
Lead Researcher (s)
- Brett Pflugrath
Technology Application
Conventional Hydro
Research Category
Environmental and Sustainability
Research Sub-Category
Fish and Aquatic Resources
Status
ongoing
Completion Date
TBD
- Marine Energy
Modular Marine Energy Systems for Kelp Processing
Lead Companies
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
Lead Researcher (s)
- Mike Rinker
This document summarizes the results of a U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)-sponsored project conducted to understand, evaluate, and address the challenges related to kelp processing and alternative off-season use of the seafood industry capacity in Alaska, and address the potential use of marine renewable energy (MRE) systems to provide the necessary power for potential unit operations associated with kelp processing. The report describes potential energy conversion processes for kelp and fish waste followed by a techno-economic and life cycle analyses for these processes. An initial aquatic ecological assessment for Southwest Alaska that outlines location-specific aquatic ecologic assessments that will be required to address the influence of kelp farming on the marine ecosystem. A kelp compositional analysis was conducted on samples of several commercial food-grade kelp as well as local samples of Alaskan kelp. A world survey of kelp cultivation was included to provide information regarding the kelp industry around the world. Finally, an initial assessment of the co-development of marine renewable energy and kelp processing capabilities in Southwest Alaska.
Technology Application
Marine Energy
Research Category
Technology
Research Sub-Category
Hydrokinetic
Status
complete
Completion Date
2021
- Marine Energy
Modular NH3 Energy Storage for Ocean Exploration
Lead Companies
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
Lead Researcher (s)
- Jian Liu
Renewable power generated from wave energy has faced technological and cost barriers to entry into utility-scale electricity markets. As an alternative, the production of chemical fuels, such as ammonia (NH3) which has high energy density (11.5 MJ/L) and facile storage properties, may open wave energy to new markets including ocean exploration and transportation. The electrochemical method has been studied to synthesize NH3 from air and water at ambient conditions. Based on some recent work on the electrochemical synthesis of NH3, it is possible to achieve an overall conversion efficiency of 10% from wave energy to NH3 through an electrochemical reaction between air and water. If all the recoverable wave energy in the United States (1170 TWh/yr) is used to produce renewable NH3 fuel replacing hydrocarbon fuels, this can help reduce over 300 million tons of CO2 emission every year. Several potential application scenarios at sea have been proposed for renewable NH3 fuel including production and storage for marine shipping and seasonal energy storage for Arctic exploration. Liquefied NH3 has much higher energy density, both gravimetric and volumetric, than a variety of batteries but the energy efficiency of NH3 is lower than modern batteries such as Li-ion. The Levelized cost of storing NH3 prepared using electric energy is less than $0.2/kWh and the storage time can exceed 10,000 hours which indicates that NH3 can be a promising energy storage solution to make use of abundant wave energy. However, there are some safety and environmental concerns involved in the usage of NH3 at sea. The challenges in the electrochemical catalyst for the NH3 synthesis and how molecular simulation may help to screen electrocatalyst with high efficiency and selectivity were also briefly discussed.
Technology Application
Marine Energy
Research Category
Technology
Research Sub-Category
Wave
Status
ongoing
Completion Date
TBD
- Conventional Hydro
Modular Pumped-Storage Hydropower Feasibility and Economic Analysis
Lead Companies
Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL)
Lead Researcher (s)
- Scott DeNeale (denealest@ornl.gov)
To date, most global and domestic pumped-storage hydropower (PSH) development has focused on the construction of large (greater than 100 megawatts), site-customized plants. Industry and the research community have actively discussed the viability of alternative design paradigms for PSH technologies. This project aimed to analytically determine the technological feasibility and potential economic viability of modularizing the design of PSH units. This project aimed to produce (1) a rough characterization of the resource that can be tapped by modular PSH; (2) the design and cost characteristics of modularized design; (3) the current business case; and (4) a general evaluation of cost-reduction opportunities (if modular PSH appears feasible).
Technology Application
Conventional Hydro
Research Category
Research Sub-Category
Status
complete
Completion Date
2015
- Conventional Hydro
Monitoring Detritus Deposition and Scour Downstream of Minidoka Dam with Implications to Snake River Physa Snail Habitat and Irrigation Canals.
Lead Companies
Bureau of Reclamation
Lead Researcher (s)
- Daniel Dombrowski
This project will study the impact of sedimentation and detritus production on the endangered species Snake River Physa Snail (Physa). This snail lives in the spillway channel below Minidoka dam. It is theorized that deposition of detritus is creating anoxic conditions detrimental to survival of the species. The scope of proposed study includes a collaborative effort to monitor sediment entrainment and transport, measure local flow velocities, and relate the effects on the ecology to dam operations.
Technology Application
Conventional Hydro
Research Category
Environmental and Sustainability
Research Sub-Category
Fish and Aquatic Resources
Status
ongoing
Completion Date
2022
- Conventional Hydro
Monitoring Suspended Sediment: An Investigation Coincident with the Cherry Creek Reservoir Annual Flush
Lead Companies
Bureau of Reclamation
Lead Researcher (s)
- Daniel Dombrowski
The focus of this proposal is to address the need for more comprehensive suspended sediment monitoring by exploring the capabilities and limitations of emerging techniques for suspended-sediment surrogate monitoring using acoustic technology. The use of suspended-sediment surrogate methods, such as turbidity, laser-diffraction, and acoustic methods, offer the benefits of continuous temporal monitoring, lower cost, and safer implementation than conventional hand-held methods. The benefit of developing the capability may be widespread within Reclamation; the acquired data could be used to refine computational and theoretical tools, as well as gauge the sediment-related effects of reservoir operations including sedimentation rates and downstream water quality.
Technology Application
Conventional Hydro
Research Category
Environmental and Sustainability
Research Sub-Category
Water Resources
Status
ongoing
Completion Date
2022
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Have questions about WaRP?
Contact Marla Barnes at: marla@hydro.org