The Invention

A ​“smart” frequency-based charge controller (FBCC) system for electric vehicles and a method for implementing demand response and regulation services to power grids.

As plug-in hybrid electric vehicles and battery electric vehicles become more popular, they create additional demand for electricity. Their emergence also raises a host of issues regarding how, where and when car batteries should be charged—and the resulting load on the power grid.

Electric utilities strive to avoid large fluctuations in the power supply and keep the system’s frequency stable at 60 Hz. In this way, they maintain balance in supply and demand and avoid severe imbalances that could lead to a system blackout. Large numbers of cars needing a charge at the same time could potentially tax the power grid unduly.

To counter these challenges, Argonne’s system uses frequency-sensing charge controllers that provide automatic demand response and regulation service to the grid by reducing or turning the charging load completely off if the system frequency falls below given threshold, and turning it back on after the balance of supply and demand has been restored. The system minimizes the burden on the power grid and provides significant benefits to electric utilities by providing a frequency-responsive load.

Current systems that regulate electric power lie almost exclusively on the supply side, requiring utilities to constantly adjust the power output of their generating units to match consumer demand. By contrast, the Argonne-developed system operates from the demand side, relying on a highly responsive frequency-sensing charge controller. The controller continuously monitors power grid frequency and compares it to a predefined tolerance band, then applies it to a programmable logic controller. A charge controller and a switch connected to a battery charger receive respective identified control actions for managing the charger. The controller responds automatically to large drops in grid frequency by shedding the vehicle’s charging load, and resumes charging once the grid disturbance has passed. In this way, it turns the charging load of electric vehicles into a frequency-responsive load which helps regulate system frequency from the demand side and reduces the need for under-frequency shedding of other consumer loads.

Benefits

• Small, inexpensive to manufacture and easy to install
• Can be installed on a vehicle or its battery charger
• Requires no maintenance
• Operates automatically; does not need signals from the utility dispatch center 
• Permits better integration of intermittent renewable energy sources into the power grid by quickly compensating for their variability 
• Safe: not vulnerable to cyber attack or terrorist threat 
• Increases the reliability and security of the power supply and reduces the risks of power outages 

Applications and Industries 

• Power industry 
• Automotive industry 

Developmental Stage 

Ready for commercialization 

The Pt-cluster based catalysts outperformed the very best reported ODHP catalyst in both activity (by up to two orders of magnitude higher turn-over frequencies) and in selectivity. The results clearly demonstrate that highly dispersed ultra-small Pt clusters precisely localized on high-surface area supports can lead to affordable new catalysts for highly efficient and economic propene production, including considerably simplified separation of the final product. The combined GISAXS-mass spectrometry provides an excellent tool to monitor the evolution of size and shape of nanocatalyst at action under realistic conditions. Also provided are sub-nanometer gold and sub-nanometer to few nm size-selected silver catalysts which possess size dependent tunable catalytic properties in the epoxidation of alkenes.

Invented size-selected cluster deposition provides a unique tool to tune material properties by atom-by-atom fashion, which can be stabilized by protective overcoats.

Subnanometer and nanometer catalysts, method for preparing size-selected catalysts (ANL-IN-07-067)

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Presented here is a novel application of size-preselected metal-containing clusters under realistic high temperature catalytic conditions. More specifically, the invention produces and utilizes size selected sub-nanometer metal cluster-based catalysts and up to several nm size-selected nanoparticles for chemical conversions such as epoxidation and dehydrogenation.

Subnanometer and nanometer catalysts, method for preparing size-selected catalysts (ANL-IN-07-067B)

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The invention provides a catalytic electrode for converting molecules, the electrode comprising a predetermined number of single catalytic sites supported on a substrate. Also provided is a method for oxidizing water comprising contacting the water with size selected catalyst clusters. The invention also provides a method for reducing an oxidized moiety, the method comprising contacting the moiety with size selected catalyst clusters at a predetermined voltage potential.

A precursor solution of a transition metal based material is formed into a plurality of interconnected nanofibers by electro-spinning the precursor solution with the nanofibers converted to a catalytically active material by a heat treatment. Selected subsequent treatments can enhance catalytic activity.

A second gas at a second flow rate and a third gas at a third flow rate is inserted into the chamber to increase the chamber pressure to a second pressure greater than the first pressure. A chamber temperature is increased to a first temperature. The flow of the second gas and the third gas is stopped. The chamber is purged to a third pressure higher than the first pressure and lower than the second pressure. The pressure of the chamber is set at a fourth pressure greater than the first pressure and the third pressure. A fourth gas is inserted into the chamber at a fourth flow rate for a first time.

Benefits

• Optically transparent, CVD deposition of reduced graphene oxide film directly on the glass substrate 
• Wafer-scale synthesis in few mins 
• Pin-hole free deposition 
• Moderate sheet resistance at lower thickness 
• High thermal conductivity than Tin Oxide 

Nanocrystalline diamond coatings exhibit stress in nano/micro-electro mechanical systems (MEMS). Doped nanocrstalline diamond coatings exhibit increased stress. A carbide forming metal coating reduces the in-plane stress. In addition, without any metal coating, simply growing UNCD or NCD with thickness in the range of 3-4 micron also reduces in-plane stress significantly. Such coatings can be used in MEMS applications.

Benefits

• Excellent chemical, mechanical and electrical properties, low intrinsic stress gradient 
• Could be applicable in many fields, including bio-medicine, optics, and sensors and actuators for space applications 

A method of forming a p-n junction device comprises providing a base layer including a p-type diamond. A monolayer or few layer of a transition metal dichalcogenide (TMDC) is disposed on at least a portion of the base layer so as to form a heterojunction therebetween. The TMDC monolayer is an n-type layer such that the heterojunction between the intrinsic and p-type diamond base layer and the n-type TMDC monolayer is a p-n junction.

Benefits

• Efficient, p-n junction diodes for power electronics and rectification applications

The Invention 

Pulsed thermal imaging is widely used for nondestructive evaluation of advanced materials and components. Thermal imaging methods to analyze single-layer materials are well developed. However, a general method for analyzing multi-layer materials and coatings/films has not been developed due to the complexity of material systems and lack of an analytical solution. This technology provides a general method, test system including a filter, and numerical algorithm for automated analysis of thermal imaging data for multi-layer coating materials. 

Argonne’s pulsed thermal imaging-multilayer analysis method can accurately measure coating thermal conductivity and heat capacity (and/or thickness) distributions over an entire component’s surface. The method analyzes a temporal series of measured thermal imaging data to determine the properties for all coating layers based on a multilayer model. Argonne’s invention is currently the only method that can analyze coatings of more than one layer, is fully automated to produce 2D layer property images, and has validated high accuracy.

Argonne’s approach includes an infrared filter for flash lamps to eliminate the flash’s infrared radiation, ensuring accurate detection of surface temperature during pulsed thermal imaging tests. 

Key to Argonne’s thermal multi-layer analysis method is the numerical algorithm used for automated analysis of thermal imaging data for multi-layer materials, implemented in dedicated, Argonne-created software that allows for complete data-processing automation without the need of user intervention.

Benefits 

• Allows fast 2D imaging of multi-layer material properties of an object from one surface 
• All-in-one solution that includes method, optical filter, and analytical software for thermal multi-layer material analysis 
• Imaging is nondestructive and fast 
• Eliminates infrared radiation to assure data accuracy 
• Automated analysis of imaging data 

Applications and Industries 

• Multi-layer coating materials development 
• Manufacturing quality control 
• Coating degradation monitoring 
• Medical applications 

Developmental Stage 

Proof of Concept: the technology has been tested and proven to work for coated engine parts. 

Argonne Inventions 

• IN-05-125, Optical Filter for Flash Lamps in Pulsed Thermal Imaging View the patent.
• IN-14-032, Method and Apparatus for Material Thermal Property Measurement by Flash Thermal Imaging View the patent.
• IN-06-017, Method for Thermal Tomography of Thermal Effusivity from Pulsed Thermal Imaging View the patent

The Invention 

Gloveboxes are used in research, product development, process development, scale-up, testing and production labs across the world. They allow safe handling of materials such as nano powders, noxious chemicals, flammable vapors, radioactive materials, DNA/RNA snippets, battery materials and more. Gloveboxes are used to guarantee worker safety, experimental integrity and assure that testing batches are not contaminated. However, most gloveboxes today are task-specific and can only be used for one kind of scientific protocol; in addition, often material must be transported in or out of the glovebox without loss of containment. To meet these challenges, Argonne invented CURLS for gloveboxes, with the flexibility to apply to any containment system. 

CURLS is a ​“tunnel” that installs in an existing glove port along with various co-designed resource cartridges that allow easy and rapid change-over of resources without losing containment. With CURLS, when a different resource is required, the user merely inserts the specific resource cartridge into the CURLS tunnel until it engages, causing the used resource cartridge to drop into the glovebox — all while maintaining complete containment. 

The novel CURLS continuous sleeve ring revolutionizes material transfer in and out of gloveboxes. All CURLS resource cartridges are designed to break into several pieces so that used cartridges can be easily removed from the glovebox via ​“bag-out” so that used cartridges do not clutter the work space.

Benefits 

• No breach of containment or batch contamination 
• Quick change-over of resources 
• Allows gloveboxes to be ​“multi-tasking” and reconfigured ​“on the fly” 
• Fewer lost experiments and production batches 
• Simplifies containment procedures 

Applications and Industries 

• Nuclear industry 
• Material science, chemistry and physics laboratories 
• Pharmaceutical industry 
• Biotech industry 
• Semiconductor and battery industries 
• Any industry where containment systems are used

Developmental Stage 

Prototyping – demonstration unit already used to process 38 drums of plutonium powder-laced materials 

In particular, the invention relates to systems that utilize a stream-splitting environment MTD to counter cyber-attack attempts and network sniffing, data acquisition attempts. 

Description

Systems and methods for utilizing stream splitting Moving Target Defense (MTD) to provide enhanced computer system communication system security by splitting a data stream in to a plurality of paths is described. In some implementations, Stream splitting MTD, involves splitting a single data stream (e.g., TCP stream) into a plurality of discrete units, then sending and receiving those discrete units from and to different (ideally geographically disparate) receiving servers, with the stream being reassembled on the receiving end. The plurality of discrete units of data include resequencing data. The size of each discrete unit may vary depending on the specific implementation, even down to small unit sizes (e.g., a single packet)