This is the final technical/scientific report for a heavy ion research program on the PHOBOS experiment at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider at Brookhaven National Laboratory.

This document contains a project continuation plan for the National Security Technology Incubator (NSTI). The plan was developed as part of the National Security Preparedness Project (NSPP) funded by a Department of Energy (DOE)/National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) grant. This continuation plan describes the current status of NSTI (staffing and clients), long-term goals, strategies, and long-term financial solvency goals.The Arrowhead Center of New Mexico State University (NMSU) is the operator and manager of the NSTI. To realize the NSTI, Arrowhead Center must meet several performance objectives related to planning, development, execution, evaluation, and sustainability. This continuation plan is critical to the success of NSTI in its mission of incubating businesses with security technology products and services.

This brochure, part of the SEP Stellar Projects series, covers a federal load reduction test in California in May 2001. The purpose of the test was to quantify the amount of short-term reduction in power requirements could be achieved in the event of an emergency. With California electricity providers stretched to their limits last winter and spring, the California Energy Commission (CEC) wanted to test its new Automated Emergency Response System in the event of an electricity supply emergency. The system is designed to communicate with 1,000 city, county, and special districts in the event of an imminent (Stage 2 or Stage 3) emergency. CEC also wanted to see what federal and state facilities managers might contribute in conservation and energy efficiency measures. California has a large number of state and federal facilities, and their combined electricity demand is significant. The U.S.Department of Energy (DOE) offered to coordinate the federal agencies participating in the voluntary CEC test to see how much they could reduce electricity demand between 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. on May 24. Altogether, the test involved than 190 people from 115 facilities working for 20 different federal agencies.

A large solar thermal system installed at the Phoenix Federal Correctional Institution (FCI) in 1998 heats water for the prison and costs less than buying electricity to heat that water. This renewable energy system provides 70% of the facility's annual hot water needs. The Federal Bureau of Prisons did not incur the up-front cost of this system because it was financed through an Energy Savings Performance Contract (ESPC). The ESPC payments are 10% less than the energy savings so that the prison saves an average of$6,700 per year, providing an immediate payback. The solar hot water system produces up to 50,000 gallons of hot water daily, enough to meet the needs of 1,250 inmates and staff who use the kitchen, shower, and laundry facilities.

Alcoa completed an energy assessment of its Engineered Products aluminum extrusion facility in Plant City, Florida, in 2001. The company identified energy conservation opportunities throughout the plant and prepared a report as an example for performing energy assessments at similar Alcoa facilities. If implemented, the cost of energy for the plant would be reduced by more than$800,000 per year by conserving 3 million kWh of electricity and 150,000 MMBtu of natural gas.

This factsheet provides an overview of the current state of electrolytic hydrogen production technologies and an economic analysis of the processes and systems available as of December 2003. The operating specifications and hydrogen production costs of commercially available electrolyzers from five manufacturers, i.e., Stuart, Teledyne, Proton, Norsk Hydro, and Avalence, are compared.

In a ''green roof,'' a layer of vegetation (e.g., a roof garden) covers the surface of a roof to provide shade, cooler indoor and outdoor temperatures, and effective storm-water management to reduce runoff. The main components are waterproofing, soil, and plants. There are two basic kinds: intensive and extensive. An intensive green roof often features large shrubs and trees, and it can be expensive to install and maintain. An extensive green roof features shallow soil and low-growing, horizontally spreading plants that can thrive in the alpine conditions of many rooftops. These plants do not require a lot of water or soil, and they can tolerate a significant amount of exposure to the sun and wind. This Federal Technology Alert focuses on the benefits, design, and implementation of extensive green roofs and includes criteria for their use on federal facilities.

This report provides an overview of the current state of electrolytic hydrogen production technologies and an economic analysis of the processes and systems available as of December 2003. The operating specifications of commercially available electrolyzers from five manufacturers, i.e., Stuart, Teledyne, Proton, Norsk Hydro, and Avalence, are summarized. Detailed economic analyses of three systems for which cost and economic data were available were completed. The contributions of the cost of electricity, system efficiency, and capital costs to the total cost of electrolysis are discussed.

ADEPT Project: There is a constant demand for better performing, more compact, lighter weight, and lower cost electronic devices. Unfortunately, the materials traditionally used to make components for electronic devices have reached their limits. Case Western is developing capacitors made of new materials that could be used to produce the next generation of compact and efficient high-powered consumer electronics and electronic vehicles. A capacitor is an important component of an electronic device. It stores an electric charge and then discharges it into an electrical circuit in the device. Case Western is creating its capacitors from titanium, an abundant material extracted from ore which can be found in the U.S. Case Western's capacitors store electric charges on the surfaces of films, which are grown on a titanium alloy electrode that is formed as a spinal column with attached branches. The new material and spine design make the capacitor smaller and lighter than traditional capacitors, and they enable the component to store 300% more energy than capacitors of the same weight made of tantalum, the current industry standard. Case Western's titanium-alloy capacitors also spontaneously self-repair, which prolongs their life.

The Illinois State Geological Survey and the Midwest Geological Sequestration Consortium are conducting CO{sub 2} sequestration and enhanced oil recovery testing at six different sites in the Illinois Basin. The capital and operating costs for equipment to capture and liquefy CO{sub 2} from ethanol plants in the Illinois area were evaluated so that ethanol plants could be considered as an alternate source for CO{sub 2} in the event that successful enhanced oil recovery tests create the need for additional sources of CO{sub 2} in the area. Estimated equipment and operating costs needed to capture and liquefy 68 metric tonnes/day (75 tons/day) and 272 tonnes/day (300 tons/day) of CO{sub 2} for truck delivery from an ethanol plant are provided. Estimated costs are provided for food/beverage grade CO{sub 2} and also for less purified CO{sub 2} suitable for enhanced oil recovery or sequestration. The report includes preliminary plant and equipment designs and estimates major capital and operating costs for each of the recovery options. Availability of used equipment was assessed.

ADEPT Project: GeneSiC is developing an advanced silicon-carbide (SiC)-based semiconductor called an anode-switched thyristor. This low-cost, compact SiC semiconductor conducts higher levels of electrical energy with better precision than traditional silicon semiconductors. This efficiency will enable a dramatic reduction in the size, weight, and volume of the power converters and electronic devices it's used in.GeneSiC is developing its SiC-based semiconductor for utility-scale power converters. Traditional silicon semiconductors can't process the high voltages that utility-scale power distribution requires, and they must be stacked in complicated circuits that require bulky insulation and cooling hardware. GeneSiC's semiconductors are well suited for high-power applications like large-scale renewable wind and solar energy installations.

GRIDS Project: General Atomics is developing a flow battery technology based on chemistry similar to that used in the traditional lead-acid battery found in nearly every car on the road today. Flow batteries store energy in chemicals that are held in tanks outside the battery. When the energy is needed, the chemicals are pumped through the battery. Using the same basic chemistry as a traditional battery but storing its energy outside of the cell allows for the use of very low cost materials. The goal is to develop a system that is far more durable than today’s lead-acid batteries, can be scaled to deliver megawatts of power, and which lowers the cost of energy storage below $100 per kilowatt hour.

ADEPT Project: Georgia Tech is developing a cost-effective, utility-scale power router that uses an enhanced transformer to more efficiently direct power on the grid. Existing power routing technologies are too expensive for widespread use, but the ability to route grid power to match real-time demand and power outages would significantly reduce energy costs for utilities, municipalities, and consumers. Georgia Tech is adding a power converter to an existing grid transformer to better control power flows at about 1/10th the cost of existing power routing solutions. Transformers convert the high-voltage electricity that is transmitted through the grid into the low-voltage electricity that is used by homes and businesses. The added converter uses fewer steps to convert some types of power and eliminates unnecessary power storage, among other improvements. The enhanced transformer is more efficient, and it would still work even if the converter fails, ensuring grid reliability.

This Preliminary Public Design Report consolidates for public use nonproprietary design information on the Mountaineer Commercial Scale Carbon Capture & Storage project. The report is based on the preliminary design information developed during the Phase I - Project Definition Phase, spanning the time period of February 1, 2010 through September 30, 2011. The report includes descriptions and/or discussions for: (1) DOE's Clean Coal Power Initiative, overall project & Phase I objectives, and the historical evolution of DOE and American Electric Power (AEP) sponsored projects leading to the current project; (2) Alstom's Chilled Ammonia Process (CAP) carbon capture retrofit technology and the carbon storage and monitoring system; (3) AEP's retrofit approach in terms of plant operational and integration philosophy; (4) The process island equipment and balance of plant systems for the CAP technology; (5) The carbon storage system, addressing injection wells, monitoring wells, system monitoring and controls logic philosophy; (6) Overall project estimate that includes the overnight cost estimate, cost escalation for future year expenditures, and major project risks that factored into the development of the risk based contingency; and (7) AEP's decision to suspend further work on the project at the end of Phase I, notwithstanding its assessment that the …

ADEPT Project: CPES at Virginia Tech is finding ways to save real estate on a computer's motherboard that could be used for other critical functions. Every computer processor today contains a voltage regulator that automatically maintains a constant level of electricity entering the device. These regulators contain bulky components and take up about 30% of a computer's motherboard. CPES at Virginia Tech is developing a voltage regulator that uses semiconductors made of gallium nitride on silicon (GaN-on-Si) and high-frequency soft magnetic material. These materials are integrated on a small, 3D chip that can handle the same amount of power as traditional voltage regulators at 1/10 the size and with improved efficiency. The small size also frees up to 90% of the motherboard space occupied by current voltage regulators.

In this project, we proposed (i) identification of metal-reduction genes, (ii) development of new threading techniques and (iii) fold recognition and structure prediction of metal-reduction proteins. However, due to the reduction of the budget, we revised our plan to focus on two specific aims of (i) developing a new threading-based protein structure prediction method, and (ii) developing an expert system for protein structure prediction.

This report documents the results of Cooperative Agreement DE-FC26-05NT42613 between Siemens Energy and the U.S. Department of Energy for the period October 1, 2008 through September 30, 2010. The Phase I POCD8R0 stack test was successfully completed as it operated for approximately 5,300 hrs and achieved all test objectives. The stack test article contained twenty-four 75 cm active length Delta8 scandia-stabilized zirconia cells. Maximum power was approximately 10 kWe and the SOFC generator demonstrated an availability factor of 85% at 50% power or greater. The Phase II POCD8R1 stack test operated for approximately 410 hrs before being aborted due to a sudden decrease in voltage accompanied by a rapid increase in temperature. The POCD8R1 test article contained forty-eight 100 cm active length Delta8 scandia-stabilized zirconia cells arranged in an array of six bundles, with each bundle containing eight cells. Cell development activities resulted in an approximate 100% improvement in cell power at 900°C. Cell manufacturing process improvements led to manufacturing yields of greater than 40% for the Delta8 cells. Delta8 cells with an active length of 100 cm were successfully manufactured as were cells with a seamless closed end. A pressurized cell test article was assembled, installed into the pressurized …

GRIDS Project: Proton Energy Systems is developing an energy storage device that converts water to hydrogen fuel when excess electricity is available, and then uses hydrogen to generate electricity when energy is needed. The system includes an electrolyzer, which generates and separates hydrogen and oxygen for storage, and a fuel cell which converts the hydrogen and oxygen back to electricity. Traditional systems use acidic membranes, and require expensive materials including platinum and titanium for key parts of the system. In contrast, Proton Energy Systems’ new system will use an inexpensive alkaline membrane and will contain only inexpensive metals such as nickel and stainless steel. If successful, Proton Energy Systems’ system will have similar performance to today’s regenerative fuel cell systems at a fraction of the cost, and can be used to store electricity on the electric grid.

The MOGO project was initiated under in 2008 under the DOE Program Announcement for Software Development Tools for Improved Ease-of-Use on Petascale systems (LAB 08-19). The MOGO team consisted of Oak Ridge National Lab, Argonne National Lab, and the University of Oregon. The overall goal of MOGO was to attack petascale performance analysis by developing a general framework where empirical performance data could be efficiently and accurately compared with performance expectations at various levels of abstraction. This information could then be used to automatically identify and remediate performance problems. MOGO was be based on performance models derived from application knowledge, performance experiments, and symbolic analysis. MOGO was able to make reasonable impact on existing DOE applications and systems. New tools and techniques were developed, which, in turn, were used on important DOE applications on DOE LCF systems to show significant performance improvements.

ADEPT Project: Currently, charging the battery of an electric vehicle (EV) is a time-consuming process because chargers can only draw about as much power from the grid as a hair dryer. APEI is developing an EV charger that can draw as much power as a clothes dryer, which would drastically speed up charging time. APEI's charger uses silicon carbide (SiC)-based power transistors. These transistors control the electrical energy flowing through the charger's circuits more effectively and efficiently than traditional transistors made of straight silicon. The SiC-based transistors also require less cooling, enabling APEI to create EV chargers that are 10 times smaller than existing chargers.

ADEPT Project: Transphorm is developing transistors with gallium nitride (GaN) semiconductors that could be used to make cost-effective, high-performance power converters for a variety of applications, including electric motor drives which transmit power to a motor. A transistor acts like a switch, controlling the electrical energy that flows around an electrical circuit. Most transistors today use low-cost silicon semiconductors to conduct electrical energy, but silicon transistors don’t operate efficiently at high speeds and voltage levels. Transphorm is using GaN as a semiconductor material in its transistors because GaN performs better at higher voltages and frequencies, and it is more energy efficient than straight silicon. However, Transphorm is using inexpensive silicon as a base to help keep costs low. The company is also packaging its transistors with other electrical components that can operate quickly and efficiently at high power levels—increasing the overall efficiency of both the transistor and the entire motor drive.

The Department of Energy (DOE)/National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) Nuclear Explosion Monitoring Research and Engineering (NEM R&E) Program is dedicated to providing knowledge, technical expertise, and products to US agencies responsible for monitoring nuclear explosions in all environments and is successful in turning scientific breakthroughs into tools for use by operational monitoring agencies. To effectively address the rapidly evolving state of affairs, the NNSA NEM R&E program is structured around three program elements described within this strategic plan: Integration of New Monitoring Assets, Advanced Event Characterization, and Next-Generation Monitoring Systems. How the Program fits into the National effort and historical accomplishments are also addressed.

The 2nd Attosecond Physics conference was hosted by the J.R. Macdonald Laboratory group from July 28 to August 1, 2009, at Kansas State University,Manhattan, Kansas about 215 participants from all over the world attended this meeting. DOE provided support for U.S. graduate students and post doctoral fellows attending this meeting. No papers/proceedings were published from this conference.

Work under this grant focused on the use of photoelectron emission as a probe of deformation processes in metals, principally single crystal and polycrystalline aluminum. Dislocations intersecting the surface produce patches of low work function metal which emit electrons when illuminated with the appropriate ultraviolet radiation. We have shown that changes in the photoemission signals during deformation can be used to identify the onset of strain localization. In some systems, the photoelectron kinetic energy distribution reflects the distribution of surface orientations, which depends on the competition between grain rotation and slip. Photoemission electron microscope images of shape memory alloys and thin films show marked changes in intensity and surface topography as the materal passes through its transition temperature. Photoelectron emission provides important information on the temporal progress of deformation processes that complements the spatial information provided by other techniques.