ENHANCED GRAPHENE OXIDE MEMBRANES AND METHODS FOR MAKING SAME
A method for making a graphene oxide membrane and a resulting free-standing graphene oxide membrane that provides desired qualities of water permeability and selectivity at larger sizes, thinner cross sections, and with increased ruggedness as compared to existing membranes and processes.
Methods and Systems for Acoustically-Assisted Hydroprocessing at Low Pressure
Hydroprocessing can be performed at low pressure using acoustic energy. For example, hydroprocessing a feedstock having one or more hydrocarbon compounds carried in, or mixed with, a transport gas involves flowing the feedstock through a reaction zone in a reactor that has a bulk pressure less than 68 atm and applying acoustic energy through the reaction zone. The hydrocarbon compounds are chemically reacted with a hydrogen source in the presence of a catalyst, wherein the reacting occurs in the reaction zone.
Thermal Energy Storage Apparatus, Controllers and Thermal Energy Storage Control Methods
Thermal energy storage apparatus, controllers and thermal energy storage control methods are described. According to one aspect, a thermal energy storage apparatus controller includes processing circuitry configured to access first information which is indicative of surpluses and deficiencies of electrical energy upon an electrical power system at a plurality of moments in time, access second information which is indicative of temperature of a thermal energy storage medium at a plurality of moments in time, and use the first and second information to control an amount of electrical energy which is utilized by a heating element to heat the thermal energy storage medium at a plurality of moments in time.
SYSTEMS FOR DIRECT GENERATION OF HIGH-PRESSURE HYDROGEN GAS AND METHODS THEREOF (VOIDED iEdison No. 0685901-23-0200, Reporting to be done by CIT iEdison No. 1073501-22-0055 )
The concept of this invention is to take a material that works for a specific application and modify it so that it can also be used for a new application simultaneously with the other existing capability. An example of this process would be to take a metal-loaded porous material that has demonstrated capacity for iodine gas capture (e.g., silver zeolite, silver aerogel, silver xerogel) and add functional groups to it so it can also be used to capture mercury gas at the same time. Functional groups that have been demonstrated to capture Hg gas include sulfur-containing species. These could be added using thiolation processes or by embedding elemental sulfur into the materials. Other materials could be used as well for these dual (or multi)-purpose applications.
Nanowire Synthesis from Vapor and Solid Sources
The main purpose of this invention is to develop alternative lithium-ion battery anodes based on amorphous silicon nanowires (SiNW) and nanorods. Silicon has one of the highest specific capacities (4,200 mAh/g) for anode materials, but it cannot be practically used because of the high volume change associated with lithium intercalation. Amorphous silicon nanostructures have the potential for a higher capacity when compared to carbon anodes, while demonstrating satisfactory cyclability and life because of improved mechanical and structural stability during charge and discharge. The amorphous silicon nanorods developed in this invention are expected to achieve a specific capacity greater than 600 mAh/g and a cyclability of more than 500 cycles with less than 20 percent degradation. The Vapor Induced Solid-Liquid-Solid (VI-SLS) approach has been developed to prepare nanowires. Conventional Vapor-Liquid-Solid (VLS) approach used vapor phase precursor to grow nanowires. Solid-Liquid-Solid (SLS) approach used solid precursor to grow nanowires. VI-SLS approach is a combination of VLS process (where nanowires grown from vapor source) and SLS process (where nanowire grown from solid source). VI-SLS approach requires presence of both vapor source and solid source. It is much more versatile and is suitable to be used to grow nanowires with multiple elements. In this approach, one or more external components from input gas (such as oxygen, carbon, nitrogen, or silicon etc.) are used to induce nanowire growth from a solid source.
TWO-STAGE CURRENT-LIMITING CONTROL STRATEGY FOR DIRECT-DROOP-CONTROLLED GRID-FORMING INVERTERS (iEdison No. 0685901-22-0109)
Existing studies of current limiting control for grid-forming inverters mostly focus on grid-forming inverters that use the multi-loop control structure. This paper describes a current limiting control for grid-forming inverters that use the single-loop control structure. The proposed current limiting control is implemented at the PWM control layer to guarantee the fast response. Once detecting the overcurrent caused by severe faults, the proposed control strategy immediately blocks relevant IGBTs using a hysteresis loop, ensuring the overcurrent can be limited within a few PWM cycles. After the fault is cleared, the inverter seamlessly transfers back to the droop control mode to maintain the stability. The current limiting control has been tested in a microgrid environment in the OPAL-RT platform. Study results show that the control strategy can effectively limit the overcurrent under both balanced and unbalanced faults, and the system transient stability can be maintained after the fault is cleared.
HIGH EFFICIENCY ELECTROLYTES FOR HIGH VOLTAGE BATTERY SYSTEMS
This invention is the design of a high efficiency electrolyte that enables the stable cycling of lithium cobalt oxide (LiCoO2, or LCO) layered cathode under high voltages (e.g. 4.5 V vs. Li/Li+). Due to the structural instability of LCO cathode materials under high voltages ( > 4.2 V), commercial Li-ion batteries (LIBs) using LCO cathode typically has a low cut-off charge voltage. The practical reversible capacity of LCO is only limited to ~140 mAh g-1. Nevertheless, in this new electrolyte, the LCO cathode could deliver a very high capacity about 190 mAh g-1 (at 0.1C) and realize excellent cycling stability under a charge cut-off voltage of 4.5 V, along with a cell Coulombic efficiency (CE) over 99.8%. In sharp contrast, in the conventional carbonate electrolyte (1 M LiPF6 in EC/EMC, 3:7 wt), the LCO cathode has a fast capacity fading (66% capacity retention after only 50 cycles) and a low cell CE about 97.5%. Therefore, this new electrolyte could significantly improve the energy densities and cycle lives of batteries with LCO cathodes.
ELECTROLYTE FOR STABLE CYCLING OF RECHARGEABLE ALKALI METAL AND ALKALI ION BATTERIES (incorporates 31452-E) (iEdison No. 0685901-18-0024)
This invention is related to novel electrolytes that are stable with alkali metal anode, graphite anode, silicon anode and various cathode materials in an electrochemical cell. Fluorinated orthoformate electrolytes are electrolyte containing fluorinated orthoformate compounds. In an electrolyte, fluorinated orthoformates has no or very poor solubility with lithium salts, but it can works as diluent with the most known electrolyte solvents (such as carbonates, ethers, phosphates or solvent mixtures, which has a high solvability for lithium salts) to form a localized high concentration electrolyte (LHCE) (which is also called localized superconcentrated electrolyte (LSE)) for lithium metal or lithium ion batteries. These fluorinated orthoformate containing electrolytes are stable with anode (such as lithium, sodium, other alkali metal, graphite, silicon and silicon/graphite anodes), cathode (including both ion intercalation and conversion compounds) and current collectors (such as Cu and Al). They are not only stable with anode by forming a high quality solid electrolyte interphase (SEI) layers, but also stable with high voltage cathodes, thereby improving long-term cycling stability of electrochemical cells. Furthermore, addition of fluorinated orthoformate solvent effectively decreases the electrolyte viscosity and improves the ionic conductivity and wetting ability of the electrolyte. This invention could be widely applied to a variety of electrochemical systems, including lithium (Li) metal batteries, Li ion batteries, Li-S batteries, Li-O2 batteries, sodium metal and sodium ion batteries, magnesium ion batteries, super capacitors, and sensors.
TRANSFORMATIVE REMEDIAL ACTION SCHEME TOOL (TRAST)
The transformative remedial action scheme tool (TRAST) can be applied to improve and validate the power system remedial action scheme (RAS), and further improve the performance of power system operation and control. This tool provides a full suite of advanced functionalities, which are given as follows: Advanced statistical data analysis; OPF-based automated power flow case generation; Customized dynamic simulation in HPC/cloud platform; Machine learning based RAS coefficient prediction; A reliable RAS validation strategy in multiple commercial platforms.
Electric power grid control using a market-based resource allocation system
Disclosed herein are representative embodiments of methods, apparatus, and systems for distributing a resource (such as electricity) using a resource allocation system. In one exemplary embodiment, a plurality of requests for electricity are received from a plurality of end-use consumers. The requests indicate a requested quantity of electricity and a consumer-requested index value indicative of a maximum price a respective end-use consumer will pay for the requested quantity of electricity. A plurality of offers for supplying electricity are received from a plurality of resource suppliers. The offers indicate an offered quantity of electricity and a supplier-requested index value indicative of a minimum price for which a respective supplier will produce the offered quantity of electricity. A dispatched index value is computed at which electricity is to be supplied based at least in part on the consumer-requested index values and the supplier-requested index values..