Abstract: Systems and methods for providing regeneration heat to a sorbent material and subsequently recovering a significant portion of the heat are provided. The systems and methods are useful, for example, for energy-efficient direct capture of carbon dioxide (CO2) from the atmosphere or flue gases. The systems and methods include introducing steam generated by an evaporator into a reactor of the system to directly heat sorbent material in the reactor and to purge desorbed CO2 from the reactor using the steam. Water condensing within the reactor is drained and returned to the evaporator. The purged steam and CO2 from the reactor are directed to a vapor re-compressor to lift their temperature and then to a condenser or re-boiler where the water is condensed and separated from the CO2 and latent heat transferred to the cooling water is recovered, optionally via use of a jet ejector.

Abstract: Systems and methods for providing regeneration heat to a sorbent material and subsequently recovering a significant portion of the heat are provided. The systems and methods are useful, for example, for energy-efficient direct capture of carbon dioxide (CO2) from the atmosphere or flue gases. The systems and methods include introducing steam generated by an evaporator into a reactor of the system to directly heat sorbent material in the reactor and to purge desorbed CO2 from the reactor using the steam. Water condensing within the reactor is drained and returned to the evaporator. The purged steam and CO2 from the reactor are directed to a vapor re-compressor to lift their temperature and then to a condenser or re-boiler where the water is condensed and separated from the CO2 and latent heat transferred to the cooling water is recovered, optionally via use of a jet ejector.

Abstract: Systems and methods for providing regeneration heat to a sorbent material and subsequently recovering a significant portion of the heat are provided. The systems and methods are useful, for example, for energy-efficient direct capture of carbon dioxide (CO2) from the atmosphere or flue gases. The systems and methods include introducing steam generated by an evaporator into a reactor of the system to directly heat sorbent material in the reactor and to purge desorbed CO2 from the reactor using the steam. Water condensing within the reactor is drained and returned to the evaporator. The purged steam and CO2 from the reactor are directed to a vapor re-compressor to lift their temperature and then to a condenser or re-boiler where the water is condensed and separated from the CO2 and latent heat transferred to the cooling water is recovered, optionally via use of a jet ejector.

Abstract: Systems and methods for providing regeneration heat to a sorbent material and subsequently recovering a significant portion of the heat are provided. The systems and methods are useful, for example, for energy-efficient direct capture of carbon dioxide (CO2) from the atmosphere or flue gases. The systems and methods include introducing steam generated by an evaporator into a reactor of the system to directly heat sorbent material in the reactor and to purge desorbed CO2 from the reactor using the steam. Water condensing within the reactor is drained and returned to the evaporator. The purged steam and CO2 from the reactor are directed to a vapor re-compressor to lift their temperature and then to a condenser or re-boiler where the water is condensed and separated from the CO2 and latent heat transferred to the cooling water is recovered, optionally via use of a jet ejector.

Abstract: A control knob assembly to control an operation of an appliance comprises a skirt adapted to engage the appliance. The skirt has a side wall, and a front face which in use will face away from the appliance. The assembly has a knob adapted to engage with the skirt, the knob having a side wall, the knob being adapted to move axially relative to the skirt. A spring is located between the knob and the skirt, to bias the knob and the skirt away from each other. The skirt and/or the knob has a spring retaining means adapted to retain the spring.

Abstract: A control knob assembly to control an operation of an appliance comprises a skirt adapted to engage the appliance. The skirt has a side wall, and a front face which in use will face away from the appliance. The assembly has a knob adapted to engage with the skirt, the knob having a side wall, the knob being adapted to move axially relative to the skirt. A spring is located between the knob and the skirt, to bias the knob and the skirt away from each other. The skirt and/or the knob has a spring retaining means adapted to retain the spring.

Abstract: Thermocline storage tanks for solar power systems are disclosed. A thermocline region is provided between hot and cold storage regions of a fluid within the storage tank cavity. One example storage tank includes spaced apart baffles fixed relative to the tank and arranged within the thermocline region to substantially physically separate the cavity into hot and cold storage regions. In another example, a flexible baffle separated the hot and cold storage regions and deflects as the thermocline region shifts to accommodate changing hot and cold volumes. In yet another example, a controller is configured to move a baffle within the thermocline region in response to flow rates from hot and cold pumps, which are used to pump the fluid.

Abstract: An apparatus includes a closed loop circuit that has a concentrated solar receiver and a particulate thermal transfer media moveable through the closed loop circuit. The particulate thermal transfer media has a melting temperature of greater than 600° C./1112° F. A heat exchanger is in communication with the particulate thermal transfer media.

Abstract: An example space-based power generation panel arrangement includes a first reflective panel and at least one heat pipe configured to communicate thermal energy to the first reflective panel and a second reflective panel. The heat pipe is configured to hinge the first reflective panel to the second reflective panel.

Abstract: A pipelined execution unit incorporates one or more low power modes that reduce power consumption by dynamically merging pipeline stages in an execution pipeline together with one another. In particular, the execution logic in successive pipeline stages in an execution pipeline may be dynamically merged together by setting one or more latches that are intermediate to such pipeline stages to a transparent state such that the output of the pipeline stage preceding such latches is passed to the subsequent pipeline stage during the same clock cycle so that both such pipeline stages effectively perform steps for the same instruction during each clock cycle. Then, with the selected pipeline stages merged, the power consumption of the execution pipeline can be reduced (e.g., by reducing the clock frequency and/or operating voltage of the execution pipeline), often with minimal adverse impact on performance.

Abstract: A logic arrangement and method to support implied storage operation decode uses redundant target address detection, whereby target addresses of previous instructions are compared with the target address of the current instruction, and if equal, and the target addresses of previous instructions are not used as sources, the current instruction is decoded as a store instruction. This allows a redundant operation in an instruction set architecture to be redefined as a store instruction, freeing up opcodes normally used for store instructions to be used for other instructions.

Abstract: A circuit arrangement and method utilize a plurality of execution units having different power and performance characteristics and capabilities within a multithreaded processor core, and selectively route instructions having different performance requirements to different execution units based upon those performance requirements. As such, instructions that have high performance requirements, such as instructions associated with primary tasks or time sensitive tasks, can be routed to a higher performance execution unit to maximize performance when executing those instructions, while instructions that have low performance requirements, such as instructions associated with background tasks or non-time sensitive tasks, can be routed to a reduced power execution unit to reduce the power consumption (and associated heat generation) associated with executing those instructions.

Abstract: An example space-based power generation panel arrangement includes a first reflective panel and at least one heat pipe configured to communicate thermal energy to the first reflective panel and a second reflective panel. The heat pipe is configured to hinge the first reflective panel to the second reflective panel.

Abstract: A segmented parabolic concentrator includes a concave surface which extends from a central support, the concave surface defines a multitude of flat segments.

Abstract: Thermocline storage tanks for solar power systems are disclosed. A thermocline region is provided between hot and cold storage regions of a fluid within the storage tank cavity. One example storage tank includes spaced apart baffles fixed relative to the tank and arranged within the thermocline region to substantially physically separate the cavity into hot and cold storage regions. In another example, a flexible baffle separated the hot and cold storage regions and deflects as the thermocline region shifts to accommodate changing hot and cold volumes. In yet another example, a controller is configured to move a baffle within the thermocline region in response to flow rates from hot and cold pumps, which are used to pump the fluid.

Abstract: A circuit arrangement and method support instruction target history based register address indexing, whereby register addresses to be used by an instruction are decoded using a target history table of previous target register addresses, and an index into the target history table supplied by an index value in the instruction. An instruction may include at least one index value that identifies a previously used register address. During execution of the instruction, the index is retrieved from the instruction, and then a register address is retrieved from the target history table using the index.

Abstract: A logic arrangement and method to support implied storage operation decode uses redundant target address detection, whereby target addresses of previous instructions are compared with the target address of the current instruction, and if equal, and the target addresses of previous instructions are not used as sources, the current instruction is decoded as a store instruction. This allows a redundant operation in an instruction set architecture to be redefined as a store instruction, freeing up opcodes normally used for store instructions to be used for other instructions.

Abstract: A method for determining the correct result and the correct guard and sticky bits to obtain a more accurate result in floating point divide operations is presented. An intermediate divide result or quotient is obtained from a multiply-add hardware pipeline of a floating point processor. Remainders are calculated using the floating point numbers divided, the unit of least precision, and the unit of least precision plus one to determine where the infinitely precise result is with respect to the digital representation of the estimated quotient. Evaluating these remainders and the initial floating point numbers and comparing their signs and magnitudes leads to a selection of one of three choices as the most accurate representation of the infinitely precise result as calculated in the inventive rounding method: the intermediate result minus the unit of least precision; the intermediate divide result; or the intermediate divide result plus the unit of least precision.

Abstract: A circuit arrangement and method support instruction target history based register address indexing, whereby register addresses to be used by an instruction are decoded using a target history table of previous target register addresses, and an index into the target history table supplied by an index value in the instruction. An instruction may include at least one index value that identifies a previously used register address. During execution of the instruction, the index is retrieved from the instruction, and then a register address is retrieved from the target history table using the index.

Abstract: A solar-powered supercritical carbon dioxide turbine system includes a supercritical carbon dioxide turbine system and a solar heating system. The solar heating system has a molten salt heat transfer fluid for providing thermal energy to the supercritical carbon dioxide turbine system.