This report provides a brief overview of the differentiating retail gasoline and diesel fuel prices, including the factors influencing the differences.

The Energy & Environmental Research Center (EERC) has pursued a research program for producing activated carbon from North Dakota lignite that can be competitive with commercial-grade activated carbon. As part of this effort, small-scale production of activated carbon was produced from Fort Union lignite. A conceptual design of a commercial activated carbon production plant was drawn, and a market assessment was performed to determine likely revenue streams for the produced carbon. Activated carbon was produced from lignite coal in both laboratory-scale fixed-bed reactors and in a small pilot-scale rotary kiln. The EERC was successfully able to upgrade the laboratory-scale activated carbon production system to a pilot-scale rotary kiln system. The activated carbon produced from North Dakota lignite was superior to commercial grade DARCO{reg_sign} FGD and Rheinbraun's HOK activated coke product with respect to iodine number. The iodine number of North Dakota lignite-derived activated carbon was between 600 and 800 mg I{sub 2}/g, whereas the iodine number of DARCO FGD was between 500 and 600 mg I{sub 2}/g, and the iodine number of Rheinbraun's HOK activated coke product was around 275 mg I{sub 2}/g. The EERC performed both bench-scale and pilot-scale mercury capture tests using the activated carbon made under various …

This study investigated potential biological effects of produced water contamination derived from occasional surface overflow and possible subsurface intrusion at an oil production site along the shore of Skiatook Lake, Oklahoma. We monitored basic chemistry and acute toxicity to a suite of standard aquatic test species (fathead minnow-Pimephales promelas, Daphnia pulex, Daphnia magna, and Ceriodaphnia dubia) in produced water and in samples taken from shallow groundwater wells on the site. Toxicity identification evaluations and ion toxicity modeling were used to identify toxic constituents in the samples. Lake sediment at the oil production site and at a reference site were also analyzed for brine intrusion chemically and by testing sediment toxicity using the benthic invertebrates, Chironomus dilutus, and Hyallela azteca. Sediment quality was also assessed with in situ survival and growth studies with H. azteca and the Asian clam, Corbicula fluminea, and by benthic macroinvertebrate community sampling. The produced water was acutely toxic to the aquatic test organisms at concentrations ranging from 1% to 10% of the whole produced water sample. Toxicity identification evaluation and ion toxicity modeling indicated major ion salts and hydrocarbons were the primary mixture toxicants. The standardized test species used in the laboratory bioassays exhibited differences in …

"This report addresses causes, prevalence, and consequences of violence against women (VAW). It provides examples of completed and ongoing U.S. activities that address VAW directly..." (from Summary)

This document is the final report for Cooperative Agreement DE-FC26-04NT42314, 'Kinetics Study of Mercury Reactions in FGD Liquors'. The project was co-funded by the U.S. DOE National Energy Technology Laboratory and EPRI. The objective of the project has been to determine the mechanisms and kinetics of the aqueous reactions of mercury absorbed by wet flue gas desulfurization (FGD) systems, and develop a kinetics model to predict mercury reactions in wet FGD systems. The model may be used to determine optimum wet FGD design and operating conditions to maximize mercury capture in wet FGD systems. Initially, a series of bench-top, liquid-phase reactor tests were conducted and mercury species concentrations were measured by UV/visible light spectroscopy to determine reactant and byproduct concentrations over time. Other measurement methods, such as atomic absorption, were used to measure concentrations of vapor-phase elemental mercury, that cannot be measured by UV/visible light spectroscopy. Next, a series of bench-scale wet FGD simulation tests were conducted. Because of the significant effects of sulfite concentration on mercury re-emission rates, new methods were developed for operating and controlling the bench-scale FGD experiments. Approximately 140 bench-scale wet FGD tests were conducted and several unusual and pertinent effects of process chemistry on mercury …

This document provides the algorithms for CHP system performance monitoring and commissioning verification (CxV). It starts by presenting system-level and component-level performance metrics, followed by descriptions of algorithms for performance monitoring and commissioning verification, using the metric presented earlier. Verification of commissioning is accomplished essentially by comparing actual measured performance to benchmarks for performance provided by the system integrator and/or component manufacturers. The results of these comparisons are then automatically interpreted to provide conclusions regarding whether the CHP system and its components have been properly commissioned and where problems are found, guidance is provided for corrections. A discussion of uncertainty handling is then provided, which is followed by a description of how simulations models can be used to generate data for testing the algorithms. A model is described for simulating a CHP system consisting of a micro-turbine, an exhaust-gas heat recovery unit that produces hot water, a absorption chiller and a cooling tower. The process for using this model for generating data for testing the algorithms for a selected set of faults is described. The next section applies the algorithms developed to CHP laboratory and field data to illustrate their use. The report then concludes with a discussion of the …

Weyerhaeuser operates the world's only commercial high-temperature black liquor gasifier at its pulp mill in New Bern, NC. The unit was started-up in December 1996 and currently processes about 15% of the mill's black liquor. Weyerhaeuser, Chemrec AB (the gasifier technology developer), and the U.S. Department of Energy recognized that the long-term, continuous operation of the New Bern gasifier offered a unique opportunity to advance the state of high temperature black liquor gasification toward the commercial-scale pressurized O2-blown gasification technology needed as a foundation for the Forest Products Bio-Refinery of the future. Weyerhaeuser along with its subcontracting partners submitted a proposal in response to the 2004 joint USDOE and USDA solicitation - 'Biomass Research and Development Initiative'. The Weyerhaeuser project 'Advancement of High Temperature Black Liquor Gasification' was awarded USDOE Cooperative Agreement DE-FC26-04NT42259 in November 2004. The overall goal of the DOE sponsored project was to utilize the Chemrec{trademark} black liquor gasification facility at New Bern as a test bed for advancing the development status of molten phase black liquor gasification. In particular, project tasks were directed at improvements to process performance and reliability. The effort featured the development and validation of advanced CFD modeling tools and the application of …

Daily newspaper from Altus, Oklahoma that includes local, state, and national news along with advertising.

Attachments to Pueblo of Laguna Renewable Energy Feasibility Study

The project, “Renewable Energy Feasibility Study” was designed to expand upon previous work done by the Tribe in evaluating utility formation, generation development opportunities, examining options for creating self-sufficiency in energy matters, and integrating energy management with the Tribe’s economic development goals. The evaluation of project locations and economic analysis, led to a focus primarily on solar projects.

In order to create a successful grid infrastructure, sites and resource providers must be able to publish information about their underlying resources and services. This information makes it easier for users and virtual organizations to make intelligent decisions about resource selection and scheduling, and can be used by the grid infrastructure for accounting and troubleshooting services. However, such an outbound stream may include data deemed sensitive by a resource-providing site, exposing potential security vulnerabilities or private user information to the world at large, including malicious entities. This study analyzes the various vectors of information being published from sites to grid infrastructures. In particular, it examines the data being published to, and collected by the Open Science Grid, including resource selection, monitoring, accounting, troubleshooting, logging and site verification data. We analyze the risks and potential threat models posed by the publication and collection of such data. We also offer some recommendations and best practices for sites and grid infrastructures to manage and protect sensitive data.

Daily newspaper from Baytown, Texas that includes local, state, and national news along with advertising.

The final report summarizes the accomplishments toward project goals during length of the project. The goal of this project was to integrate coal into a refinery in order to produce coal-based jet fuel, with the major goal to examine the products other than jet fuel. These products are in the gasoline, diesel and fuel oil range and result from coal-based jet fuel production from an Air Force funded program. The main goal of Task 1 was the production of coal-based jet fuel and other products that would need to be utilized in other fuels or for non-fuel sources, using known refining technology. The gasoline, diesel fuel, and fuel oil were tested in other aspects of the project. Light cycle oil (LCO) and refined chemical oil (RCO) were blended, hydrotreated to removed sulfur, and hydrogenated, then fractionated in the original production of jet fuel. Two main approaches, taken during the project period, varied where the fractionation took place, in order to preserve the life of catalysts used, which includes (1) fractionation of the hydrotreated blend to remove sulfur and nitrogen, followed by a hydrogenation step of the lighter fraction, and (2) fractionation of the LCO and RCO before any hydrotreatment. Task …

Southwest Research Institute{reg_sign} (SwRI{reg_sign}) has utilized its expertise in large-area vacuum deposition methods to conduct research into the fabrication of dense, freestanding Pd-alloy membranes that are 3-5 microns thick and over 100 in{sup 2} in area. The membranes were deposited onto flexible and rigid supports that were subsequently removed and separated using novel techniques developed over the course of the project. Using these methods, the production of novel alloy compositions centered around the Pd-Cu system were developed with the objective of producing a thermally stable, nano-crystalline grain structure with the highest flux recorded as 242 SCFH/ft{sup 2} for a 2 {micro}m thick Pd{sub 53}Cu{sub 47} at 400 C and 20 psig feed pressure which when extrapolated is over twice the 2010 Department of Energy pure H{sub 2} flux target. Several membranes were made with the same permeability, but with different thicknesses and these membranes were highly selective. Researchers at the Colorado School of Mines supported the effort with extensive testing of experimental membranes as well as design and modeling of novel alloy composite structures. IdaTech provided commercial bench testing and analysis of SwRI-manufactured membranes. The completed deliverables for the project include test data on the performance of experimental membranes fabricated …

A joint University of Idaho (UI) and Idaho National Laboratory (INL) University Nuclear Research Initiative (UNERI) was to initiated to extend initial INL efforts to develop doped molybdenum/niobium alloy High Temperature Irradiation Resistant Thermocouples (HTIR-TCs). The overall objective of this UNERI was to develop recommendations for an optimized thermocouple design for high temperature, long duration, in-pile testing by expanding upon results from initial INL efforts. Tasks to quantify the impact of candidate enhancements, such as alternate alloys, alternate geometries, and alternate thermocouple fabrication techniques, on thermocouple performance were completed at INL's High Temperature Test Laboratory (HTTL), a state of the art facility equipped with specialized equipment and trained staff in the area of high temperature instrumentation development and evaluation. Key results of these evaluations, which are documented in this report, are as follows. The doped molybdenum and Nb-1%Zr, which were proposed in the initial INL HTIR-TC design, were found to retain ductility better than the developmental molybdenum-low niobium alloys and the niobium-low molybdenum alloys evaluated. Hence, the performance and lower cost of the commercially available KW-Mo makes a thermocouple containing KW-Mo and Nb-1%Zr the best option at this time. HTIR-TCs containing larger diameter wires offer the potential to increase HTIR-TC …

Streamline-based assisted and automatic history matching techniques have shown great potential in reconciling high resolution geologic models to production data. However, a major drawback of these approaches has been incompressibility or slight compressibility assumptions that have limited applications to two-phase water-oil displacements only. We propose an approach to history matching three-phase flow using a novel compressible streamline formulation and streamline-derived analytic sensitivities. First, we utilize a generalized streamline model to account for compressible flow by introducing an 'effective density' of total fluids along streamlines. Second, we analytically compute parameter sensitivities that define the relationship between the reservoir properties and the production response, viz. water-cut and gas/oil ratio (GOR). These sensitivities are an integral part of history matching, and streamline models permit efficient computation of these sensitivities through a single flow simulation. We calibrate geologic models to production data by matching the water-cut and gas/oil ratio using our previously proposed generalized travel time inversion (GTTI) technique. For field applications, however, the highly non-monotonic profile of the gas/oil ratio data often presents a challenge to this technique. In this work we present a transformation of the field production data that makes it more amenable to GTTI. Further, we generalize the approach to …

Recital performed at the UNT College of Music Winspear Hall.

In order to meet DOE's goals of developing low-emissions coal-based power systems, PCI has further developed and adapted it's Rich-Catalytic Lean-burn (RCL{reg_sign}) catalytic reactor to a combustion system operating on syngas as a fuel. The technology offers ultra-low emissions without the cost of exhaust after-treatment, with high efficiency (avoidance of after-treatment losses and reduced diluent requirements), and with catalytically stabilized combustion which extends the lower Btu limit for syngas operation. Tests were performed in PCI's sub-scale high-pressure (10 atm) test rig, using a two-stage (catalytic then gas-phase) combustion process for syngas fuel. In this process, the first stage consists of a fuel-rich mixture reacting on a catalyst with final and excess combustion air used to cool the catalyst. The second stage is a gas-phase combustor, where the air used for cooling the catalyst mixes with the catalytic reactor effluent to provide for final gas-phase burnout and dilution to fuel-lean combustion products. During testing, operating with a simulated Tampa Electric's Polk Power Station syngas, the NOx emissions program goal of less than 0.03 lbs/MMBtu (6 ppm at 15% O{sub 2}) was met. NOx emissions were generally near 0.01 lbs/MMBtu (2 ppm at 15% O{sub 2}) (PCI's target) over a range on …

Photograph of a hypnotist and one of the participants on stage during his act. They are facing the audience and the girl is holding out her hands to count her fingers. Other participants are sitting in chairs behind them.

Photograph of a hypnotist and the participants on stage during his act. He is standing facing them and is holding a microphone and they are all slumped over in their chairs facing the audience. Some are folded all the way over and others simply have their heads down.

Photograph of participants on stage during a hypnotist's act. They are sitting down and are slumped over in chairs facing the audience while under the hypnotist's influence.

Photograph of students making a small personal pizza during an RHA event. One is molding the dough into its shape and there is sliced bell pepper, Cholula sauce, pizza sauce, and sausages to the sides. A fire-extinguisher is also on the wall beside them.

Photograph of participants on stage during a hypnotist's act. They are all sitting in chairs facing the audience and some are slumped over or at least in a more relaxed position.

Photograph of Tobye Rae Nelson on the second floor of a building on the UNT campus. She is meeting with other graduate-level students that are members of the Graduate Student Council. The office for the Radio, Television, and Film Department is visible behind her.