This report summarizes the work carried out at the Nuclear Physics Laboratory of the University of Colorado during the period November 1, 1977 to November 1, 1978, under Contract EY-76-C-02-0535.A002 between the University of Colorado and the United States Department of Energy. The research activities of the Laboratory spanned a broad range of interests over the past year. Numerous topics in charged-particle spectroscopy and reaction studies, neutron time-of-flight measurements, and gamma-ray investigations performed at the cyclotron laboratory are covered in this report. In addition, several items in intermediate energy nuclear physics as studied at Los Alamos and Indiana University by members of the Laboratory are reported. The efforts in nuclear theory include studies in nuclear reaction mechanisms and pion scattering as related to the experimental program. Information is also included on apparatus and facility development, cyclotron operation, outside users, publications, and reports. Separate abstracts were written for thirty items in this report having significant amounts of data. (RWR)

The objective of this work is to investigate, in the laboratory, the parameters associated with a chemically assisted in situ recovery procedure, using hydrogen chloride (HCI), carbon dioxide (CO{sub 2}), and steam (H{sub 2}0), to obtain data useful to develop a process more economic than existing processes and to report all findings. The technical progress of the project is reported. The project status is that the progress is being made towards being able to run meaningful experiments.

We proposed to demonstrate the effectiveness of a catalytic membrane reactor (a ceramic membrane combined with a catalyst) to solely produce methanol by partial oxidation of methane. Methanol is used as a chemical feedstock, gasoline additive, and turbine fuel. Methane partial oxidation using a catalytic membrane reactor has been determined as one of the promising approaches for methanol synthesis from methane. In the original proposal the membrane was used to selectively remove methanol from the reaction zone before carbon oxides form, thus increasing the methanol yield. Methanol synthesis and separation in one step would also make methane more valuable for producing chemicals and fuels. The cooling tube inserted inside the membrane reactor has created a low temperature zone that rapidly quenches the product stream. Both ceramic and metal membranes were tested in this study and similar results were obtained. This membrane reactor system has proved effective for increasing methanol selectivity during CH{sub 4} oxidation. We are currently using this non-isothermal non-permselective membrane reactor, and evaluating modifications to further improve performance. Metal membrane was used to avoid the membrane breakage problem. A series of experiments were carried out in order to optimize the operation of the process. A methanol yield of …

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Work carried out at the Nuclear Physics Laboratory of the University of Colorado from November 1, 1979 through October 31, 1980 is summarized. Emphasis was on light ion reaction studies with the AVF cyclotron. The high resolution magnetic spectrometer has allowed studies of nucleon transfer, scattering, and charge exchange reactions throughout the periodic table. More experiments have been run with solid state counters this year than has been the case recently, as a broad range spectra of the light nuclei where only moderate resolution is demanded were examined. Several of these experiments were undertaken for more detailed studies of excitations seen with higher energy probes. Multiple coincidence measurements with neutron and gamma-ray counters have opened a new program in pre-equilibrium reactions and provided a new signature for the study of neutron-deficient final nuclei. The neutron time of flight program has expanded to higher excitation and to use of the (d,n) and (..cap alpha..,n) direct nucleon transfer reactions. Three important experiments were completed at the EPICS pion scattering facility at LAMPF, and other low energy pion scattering data were obtained at TRIUMF. Several (p,d) runs at high energies were accomplished, some with polarized beams at TRIUMF. High-lying structures in medium mass …

To provide detailed and accurate electric fields in the ion source-puller region and at the dee dummy-dee gap for a cyclotron, a relaxation method solution of Laplace's equation has been used. A conventional difference equation with variation in mesh size and relaxation factor as well as different schemes for boundary corrections have been developed to achieve roughly 1 percent accuracy for a thre-dimensional domain with 10/sup 6/ mesh points. Although the computation requires considerable computer time, it is much less expensive than electrolytic tank analogue methods for measuring field distributions around complex electrode configurations.

We proposed to demonstrate the effectiveness of a catalytic membrane reactor (a ceramic membrane combined with a catalyst) to selectively produce methanol by partial oxidation of methane. Methanol is used as a chemical feedstock, gasoline additive, and turbine fuel. Methane partial oxidation using a catalytic membrane reactor has been determined as one of the promising approaches for methanol synthesis from methane. In the original proposal, the membrane was used to selectively remove methanol from the reaction zone before carbon oxides form, thus increasing the methanol yield. Methanol synthesis and separation in one step would also make methane more valuable for producing chemicals and fuels. The cooling tube inserted inside the membrane reactor has created a low temperature zone that rapidly quenches the product stream. This system has proved effective for increasing methanol selectivity during CH{sub 4} oxidation. The membranes broke during experiments, however, apparently because of the large radial thermal gradient and axial thermal expansion difference. Our efforts concentrated on improving the membrane lifetime by modifying this non-isothermal membrane reactor.

The objective of this work is to investigate, in the laboratory, the parameters associated with a chemically assisted in situ recovery procedure, using hydrogen chloride (HCI), carbon dioxide (CO{sub 2}), and steam (H{sub 2}O), to obtain data useful to develop a process more economic than existing processes and to report all findings. Quarter summary: all modifications previously planned where completed and a reaction experiment was run. A couple design flaws were discovered, improvements were designed, and all parts are expected in the first week of July. Experiment {number_sign}6 is expected to run the following Monday. Barring further mishap, experiments will be run one each week thereafter. The project is behind schedule, but the project is well positioned to make significant and considerable progress.

This report summarizes the work carried out at the Nuclear Physics Laboratory of the University of Colorado during the period November 1, 1975 to November 1, 1976. The low energy nuclear physics section is dominated by light-ion reaction studies which span a wide range. These include both two-neutron and two-proton transfer reactions, charge exchange and inelastic scattering, as well as single nucleon transfer reactions. The nuclei studied vary widely in their mass and characteristics. These reaction studies have been aided by the multi-use scattering chamber which now allows the energy-loss-spectrometer beam preparation system (beam swinger) to shift from charged particle studies to neutron time-of-flight studies with a minimum loss of time. The intermediate energy section reflects the increase in activity accompanying the arrival of LAMPF data and the initiation of (p,d) studies at the Indiana separated-sector cyclotron. The nucleon removal results provided by the ..pi.. beam at EPICS previous to completion of the spectrometer have shown that nuclear effects dominate this process, so that the widely used free interaction picture is inadequate. The section entitled ''Other Activities'' reveals continuing activities in new applications of nuclear techniques to problems in medicine and biology. Reactions important to astrophysics continue to be investigated …

From Abstract: "For about 1500 spectral lines of diatomic molecules observed by coherent radiation techniques, measured frequencies, assigned quantum numbers, and newly computed intensities are given."

We proposed to demonstrate the effectiveness of a catalytic membrane reactor (a ceramic membrane combined with a catalyst) to selectively produce methanol by partial oxidation of methane. Methanol is used as a chemical feedstock, gasoline additive, and turbine fuel. Methane partial oxidation using a catalytic membrane reactor has been determined as one of the promising approaches for methanol synthesis from methane. In the original proposal, the membrane was used to selectively remove methanol from the reaction zone before carbon oxides form, thus increasing the methanol yield. Methanol synthesis and separation in one step would also make methane more valuable for producing chemicals and fuels. However, all the membranes tested in this laboratory lost their selectivity under the reaction conditions. A modified non-isothermal, non-permselective membrane reactor then was built and satisfactory results were obtained. The conversion and selectivity data obtained in this laboratory were better than that of the most published studies.

Silicalite-1, a pure silica zeolite, was deposited on a tubular, asymmetric, {gamma}-alumina support. Single gas permeation experiments with N{sub 2}, CH{sub 4}, and CO{sub 2} were carried out on the membrane. Separation experiments for N{sub 2}/CH{sub 4} mixtures were also conducted. Single-gas permeation of H{sub 2} and separation of H{sub 2}/SF{sub 6} mixture were also carried out with the membrane. Composite membranes of silicalite and Ni-SAPO-34 were also fabricated, but no CO{sub 2}/H{sub 2} selectivity was found. It is proposed to use these membranes for methanol synthesis and separation, and for separating H{sub 2} from gasification products for use as fuel cell fuel, etc.

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