Meeting time-varying peak demand poses a key challenge to the U.S. electricity system. Building-based electricity storage – to enable demand response (DR) without curtailing actual appliance usage – offers potential benefits of lower electricity production cost, higher grid reliability, and...

Plugin and hybrid vehicles have been shown to offer possible reductions in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, depending on grid-carbon-intensity, range and thus life-cycle battery emissions and vehicle weight, and on trip patterns. We present a framework that enables GHG comparisons (well-to-wheel...

Demand response (DR) is one of many approaches to address temporal mismatches in demand and supply of grid electricity. More common in the commercial sector, DR usually refers to reducing consumption at certain hours or seasons, thus reducing peak demand from the grid. In the residential sector,...

type="main" <title type="main">Summary</title> <p>Life cycle assessment (LCA)-based analyses of company value chains can inspire profound modifications to products’ design, material procurement, manufacturing, energy/water use, distribution, use, and disposal. However, such modifications often create trade-offs, improving...</p>

An analysis of thermodynamic constraints shows that the low concentration of carbon dioxide in ambient air does not pose stringent limits on air capture economics. The thermodynamic energy requirement is small even using an irreversible sorbent-based process. A comparison to flue gas scrubbing...

Abstract Fossil fuels play a crucial role in satisfying growing world energy demands, but their continued use could cause irreparable harm to the environment. Unless virtually all anthropogenic carbon dioxide is captured, either at the source or subsequently from the air, and disposed of safely...

To improve the sustainability of transportation, a major goal is the replacement of conventional petroleum-based fuels with more sustainable fuels that can be used in the existing infrastructure (fuel distribution and vehicles). While fossil-derived synthetic fuels (e.g. coal derived liquid...