DecisionScience@ORNL encompasses an internal network of decision science and analysis experts from multiple, diverse directorates within Oak Ridge National Laboratory. Originally started in 2022 as a cross-cutting sub-effort of ORNL’s LDRD Transformational Decarbonization Initiative (TDI), the group’s initial focus was to align science and innovation outcomes with technology advancement pathways by bridging the gap between two groups: 1) experimentalists and technology developers, and 2) modelers and analysts.
During the original LDRD project, the group conducted various decision science activities, including techno-economic, life cycle, socioeconomic and other analyses of energy transition pathways, to support projects funded in the TDI. The effort seeded new analytical projects and strengthened the network of decision science experts and enthusiasts at ORNL, establishing groundbreaking analytical expertise across the laboratory and providing much-needed PI leadership opportunities for junior and mid-career staff.
The DecisionScience@ORNL community continues to evolve and grow within ORNL, encompassing researchers from numerous areas, including energy, climate, security, water, land, agricultural, forestry, health, demographics, and much more.
Goals
- Understand how new experimental designs potentially fit into the broader suite of technology deployment activities and assess where the opportunities and barriers may lie as the technologies scale up.
- Promote networking of decision science experts and enthusiasts at ORNL, including informing ORNL staff about the breadth and utility of decision science methodologies.
- Integrate decision science knowledge and tools throughout the laboratory's research portfolio, including establishing a pool of decision science experts who can quickly come together for proposals and awarded projects.
The project helped to build a synergy with ORNL chemists working on the method. It helped to understand the major factors impacting the viability of this technology, at an early stage of its development.
Accomplishments
- Launched 10 DecisionScience@ORNL analysis projects
- Built up an internal ORNL community of decision science and analysis experts and enthusiasts (140 members and growing) across the laboratory's multiple, diverse directorates
- Published 8 papers and technical reports
- Delivered over 20 presentations, keynote talks, and webinars
- Catalyzed over $1 million of new projects
- Mentoring and maturation of early-career staff from diverse disciplines and backgrounds
Analysis Projects
Life cycle Assessment of Low-energy, Carbon-neutral Concrete Alternatives: A Case Study of CCM-based Precast Panel
Assessing the Sustainability and Resilience of Distributed Direct Air Capture at the Urban Scale (UrbanDAC)
Membrane Contactor CO2 Separation Techno-economic and Lifecycle Evaluation
OR-SAGE for Siting Supercritical CO2 Reactors
Assessing Impacts of Atmospheric Conditions on Efficiency and Siting of Large-scale Direct Air Capture Facilities
Techno-Economic Analysis on Direct Air Capture with an Aqueous Amino Acid
Electrochemical Seawater Decarbonization Techno-economic and Lifecycle evaluation
Techno-economic Analysis and Life Cycle Assessment of Large-Scale Capture of Carbon Dioxide from Seawater using New Contactors
Process Analysis to Guide Research toward Achieving Economically Feasible and Sustainable Direct Air Capture Technology
Supporting Decarbonization Goals: A Mixed-Methods Approach to Developing a Multifaceted Siting Framework for Point-Source CO2 Capture Processes
