Two Corning monoliths and a non-carbon-based material have been identified as potential additives for mercury capture in syngas at temperatures above 400°F and pressure of 600 psig. A new Corning monolith formulation, GR-F1-2189, described as an active sample appeared to be the best monolith tested to date. The Corning SR Liquid monolith concept continues to be a strong candidate for mercury capture. Both monolith types allowed mercury reduction to below 5-μg/m3 (~5 ppb), a current U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) goal for trace metal control. Preparation methods for formulating the SR Liquid monolith impacted the ability of the monolith to capture mercury. The Energy & Environmental Research Center (EERC)-prepared Noncarbon Sorbents 1 and 2 appeared to offer potential for sustained and significant reduction of mercury concentration in the simulated fuel gas. The Noncarbon Sorbent 1 allowed sustained mercury reduction to below 5-μg/m3 (~5 ppb). The non-carbon-based sorbent appeared to offer the potential for regeneration, that is, desorption of mercury by temperature swing (using nitrogen and steam at temperatures above where adsorption takes place). A Corning cordierite monolith treated with a Group IB metal offered limited potential as a mercury sorbent. However, a Corning carbon-based monolith containing prereduced metallic species similar …

SiOnyx has developed an enhanced thin film silicon photovoltaic device with improved efficiency. Thin film silicon solar cells suffer from low material absorption characteristics resulting in poor cell efficiencies. SiOnyx’s approach leverages Black Silicon, an advanced material fabricated using ultrafast lasers. The laser treated films show dramatic enhancement in optical absorption with measured values in excess of 90% in the visible spectrum and well over 50% in the near infrared spectrum. Thin film Black Silicon solar cells demonstrate 25% higher current generation with almost no impact on open circuit voltage as compared with representative control samples. The initial prototypes demonstrated an improvement of nearly 2 percentage points in the suns Voc efficiency measurement. In addition we validated the capability to scale this processing technology to the throughputs (< 5 min/m2) required for volume production using state of the art commercially available high power industrial lasers. With these results we clearly demonstrate feasibility for the enhancement of thin film solar cells with this laser processing technique.

This report provides an overview of selected issues related to the Deepwater Horizon incident and is not intended to be comprehensive.

Video of Muhibuddin describing (in Urdu) a traditional Burusho house in the village Sultanabad, Gilgit.

This project was undertaken to demonstrate the viability of using hydrogen as a fuel in an internal combustion engine vehicle for use as a part of a mass transit system. The advantages of hydrogen as a fuel include renew-ability, minimal environmental impact on air quality and the environment, and potential to reduce dependence on foreign energy sources for the transportation sector. Recognizing the potential for the hydrogen fuel concept, the Southeast Michigan Congress of Governments (SEMCOG) determined to consider it in the study of a proposed regional mass transit rail system for southeast Michigan. SEMCOG wanted to evaluate the feasibility of using hydrogen fueled internal combustion engine (H2ICE) vehicles in shuttle buses to connect the Detroit Metro Airport to a proposed, nearby rail station. Shuttle buses are in current use on the airport for passenger parking and inter-terminal transport. This duty cycle is well suited to the application of hydrogen fuel at this time because of the ability to re-fuel vehicles at a single nearby facility, overcoming the challenge of restricted fuel availability in the undeveloped hydrogen fuel infrastructure. A cooperative agreement between SEMCOG and the DOE was initiated and two H2ICE buses were placed in regular passenger service on …

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

This report presents the results of an evaluation of overwintering summer steelhead (Oncorhynchus mykiss) fallback and early out-migrating steelhead kelts downstream passage at The Dalles Dam (TDA) sluiceway and turbines during fall/winter 2009 through early spring 2010. The study was conducted by the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Portland District (USACE). The goal of this study was to characterize adult steelhead spatial and temporal distributions and passage rates at the sluiceway and turbines for fisheries managers and engineers to use in decision-making relative to sluiceway operations. The study was from November 1, 2009 to April 10, 2010. The study was divided into three study periods: Period 1, November 1 - December 15, 2009 for a fall/winter sluiceway and turbine study; Period 2, December 16, 2009 - February 28, 2010 for a turbine only study; Period 3, March 1 - April 10, 2010 for a spring sluiceway and turbine study. Sluiceway operations were scheduled to begin on March 1 for this study; however, because of an oil spill cleanup near the sluice outfall, sluiceway operations were delayed until March 8, 2010, therefore the spring study period did not commence until March 8. The study …

This report summarizes technical progress achieved during the cooperative agreement between Concurrent Technologies Corporation (CTC) and U.S. Department of Energy to address the need for a for low-cost monitoring and inspection sensor system as identified in the Department of Energy (DOE) National Gas Infrastructure Research & Development (R&D) Delivery Reliability Program Roadmap.. The Instrumented Pipeline Initiative (IPI) achieved the objective by researching technologies for the monitoring of pipeline delivery integrity, through a ubiquitous network of sensors and controllers to detect and diagnose incipient defects, leaks, and failures. This report is organized by tasks as detailed in the Statement of Project Objectives (SOPO). The sections all state the objective and approach before detailing results of work.

An experimental program was set forth to study fuel cell performance at pressure and under various compositions. Improvement in cathode electrode performance is on the order of 33-40% at pressures of 6.4 Bara compared to atmospheric pressure. Key cathode operational parameters are the concentration and partial pressure of O2, and temperature. The effect of partial pressure of oxygen (PO2) decreases the activation polarization, although there appears to be a secondary effect of absolute pressure as well. The concentration of oxygen impacts the diffusion component of the polarization, which is largely insensitive to absolute pressure. The effect of pressure was found to reduce the total polarization resistance of full fuel-cells beyond the reduction determined for the cathode alone. The total reduction in ASR was on the order of 0.10 ohm-cm2 for a pressure increase from 1 to 6.5 Bara, with about 70% of the improvement being realized from 1 to 4 Bara. An important finding was that there is an effect of steam on the cathode that is highly temperature dependent. The loss of performance at temperatures below 850 C was very large for the standard LSM + YSZ cathodes.

The project which extended from November 2005 to May of 2010 demonstrated the application of Low Temperature Combustion (LTC) with engine out NOx levels of 0.2 g/bhp-hr throughout the program target load of 12.6bar BMEP. The project showed that the range of loads could be extended to 16.5bar BMEP, therefore matching the reference lug line of the base 2007 MY Navistar 6.4L V8 engine. Results showed that the application of LTC provided a dramatic improvement over engine out emissions when compared to the base engine. Furthermore LTC improved thermal efficiency by over 5% from the base production engine when using the steady state 13 mode composite test as a benchmark. The key enablers included improvements in the air, fuel injection, and cooling systems made in Phases I and II. The outcome was the product of a careful integration of each component under an intelligent control system. The engine hardware provided the conditions to support LTC and the controller provided the necessary robustness for a stable combustion. Phase III provided a detailed account on the injection strategy used to meet the high load requirements. During this phase, the control strategy was implemented in a production automotive grade ECU to perform cycle-by-cycle …

Minutes of the Texas Society of the Sons of the American Revolution (TXSSAR) Board of Managers meeting covering the general sessions, held July 31-August 1, 2010 at the Holiday Inn, in Austin, Texas. It includes information about the committees and business covered by the attending members.

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

Work is reported on nanopatterning of ceramic oxides; microstructure tailoring, control and versatility of nanopatterned oxides; and characterization and localized properties of nanopatterned oxides.

This report presents the results of the evaluation of three ultrasonic sensors for detecting critical velocity during slurry transfer between the Hanford tank farms and the WTP.

Officer Reports for the Texas Society, Sons of the American Revolution, compiled for the July 31, 2010 Board of Managers meeting.