Adoption of information and communication technologies and access to the Internet is expanding in Africa, but because of the rapid growth elsewhere, a Digital Divide between Africa and the rest of the world exists, and the gap is growing. In many sub-Saharan African countries, education and research sector suffers some of the worst deficiencies in access to the Internet, despite progress in development of NRENs - National Research and Education (cyber) Networks. By contrast, it is widely acknowledged in policy statements from the African Union, the UN, and others that strength in this very sector provides the key to meeting and sustaining Millennium Development Goals. Developed countries with effective cyber-capabilities proclaim the benefits to rich and poor alike arising from the Information Revolution. This is but a dream for many scientists in African institutions. As the world of science becomes increasingly Internet-dependent, so they become increasingly isolated. eGY-Africa is a bottom-up initiative by African scientists and their collaborators to try to reduce this Digital Divide by a campaign of advocacy for better institutional facilities. Four approaches are being taken. The present status of Internet services, problems, and plans are being mapped via a combination of direct measurement of Internet performance …

This report documents the efforts taken to develop a preliminary design for the first commercial-scale CO2 capture and sequestration (CCS) project associated with biomass power integrated into a pulp and paper operation. The Boise Wallula paper mill is located near the township of Wallula in Southeastern Washington State. Infrastructure at the paper mill will be upgraded such that current steam needs and a significant portion of the current mill electric power are supplied from a 100% biomass power source. A new biomass power system will be constructed with an integrated amine-based CO2 capture plant to capture approximately 550,000 tons of CO2 per year for geologic sequestration. A customized version of Fluor Corporation’s Econamine Plus™ carbon capture technology will be designed to accommodate the specific chemical composition of exhaust gases from the biomass boiler. Due to the use of biomass for fuel, employing CCS technology represents a unique opportunity to generate a net negative carbon emissions footprint, which on an equivalent emissions reduction basis is 1.8X greater than from equivalent fossil fuel sources (SPATH and MANN, 2004). Furthermore, the proposed project will offset a significant amount of current natural gas use at the mill, equating to an additional 200,000 tons of …

The project proposed a commercial demonstration of advanced technologies that would capture and sequester CO2 emissions from an existing hydrogen production facility in an oil refinery into underground formations in combination with Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR). The project is led by Praxair, Inc., with other project participants: BP Products North America Inc., Denbury Onshore, LLC (Denbury), and Gulf Coast Carbon Center (GCCC) at the Bureau of Economic Geology of The University of Texas at Austin. The project is located at the BP Refinery at Texas City, Texas. Praxair owns and operates a large hydrogen production facility within the refinery. As part of the project, Praxair would construct a CO2 capture and compression facility. The project aimed at demonstrating a novel vacuum pressure swing adsorption (VPSA) based technology to remove CO2 from the Steam Methane Reformers (SMR) process gas. The captured CO2 would be purified using refrigerated partial condensation separation (i.e., cold box). Denbury would purchase the CO2 from the project and inject the CO2 as part of its independent commercial EOR projects. The Gulf Coast Carbon Center at the Bureau of Economic Geology, a unit of University of Texas at Austin, would manage the research monitoring, verification and accounting (MVA) …

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Under its Industrial Carbon Capture and Sequestration (ICCS) Program, the United States (U.S.) Department of Energy (DOE) selected ConocoPhillips Company (ConocoPhillips) to receive funding through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) of 2009 for the proposed Sweeny Integrated Gasification Combined Cycle (IGCC)/Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) Project (Project) to be located in Brazoria County, Texas. Under the program, the DOE is partnering with industry to demonstrate the commercial viability and operational readiness of technologies that would capture carbon dioxide (CO{sub 2}) emissions from industrial sources and either sequester those emissions, or beneficially reuse them. The primary objective of the proposed Project was to demonstrate the efficacy of advanced technologies that capture CO{sub 2} from a large industrial source and store the CO{sub 2} in underground formations, while achieving a successful business venture for the entity (entities) involved. The Project would capture 85% of the CO{sub 2} produced from a petroleum coke (petcoke) fed, 703 MWnet (1,000 MWgross) IGCC power plant, using the ConocoPhillips (COP) proprietary and commercially proven E-Gas{trademark} gasification technology, at the existing 247,000 barrel per day COP Sweeny Refinery. In addition, a number of other commercially available technologies would be integrated into a conventional IGCC Plant in …

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Wolverine Power Supply Cooperative Inc, a member owned cooperative utility based in Cadillac Michigan, proposes to demonstrate the capture, beneficial utilization and storage of CO{sub 2} in the expansion of existing Enhanced Oil Recovery operations. This project is being proposed in response to the US Department of Energy Solicitation DE-FOA-0000015 Section III D, 'Large Scale Industrial CCS projects from Industrial Sources' Technology Area 1. The project will remove 1,000 metric tons per day of CO{sub 2} from the Wolverine Clean Energy Venture 600 MW CFB power plant owned and operated by WPC. CO{sub 2} from the flue gas will be captured using Hitachi's CO{sub 2} capture system and advanced amine technology. The capture system with the advanced amine-based solvent supplied by Hitachi is expected to significantly reduce the cost and energy requirements of CO{sub 2} capture compared to current technologies. The captured CO{sub 2} will be compressed and transported for Enhanced Oil Recovery and CO{sub 2} storage purposes. Enhanced Oil Recovery is a proven concept, widely used to recover otherwise inaccessible petroleum reserves. While post-combustion CO{sub 2} capture technologies have been tested at the pilot scale on coal power plant flue gas, they have not yet been demonstrated at a …

In this report we describe the development of the Environmental Risk Evaluation System (ERES), a risk-informed analytical process for estimating the environmental risks associated with the construction and operation of marine and hydrokinetic energy generation projects. The development process consists of two main phases of analysis. In the first phase, preliminary risk analyses will take the form of screening studies in which key environmental impacts and the uncertainties that create risk are identified, leading to a better-focused characterization of the relevant environmental effects. Existence of critical data gaps will suggest areas in which specific modeling and/or data collection activities should take place. In the second phase, more detailed quantitative risk analyses will be conducted, with residual uncertainties providing the basis for recommending risk mitigation and monitoring activities. We also describe the process used for selecting three cases for fiscal year 2010 risk screening analysis using the ERES. A case is defined as a specific technology deployed in a particular location involving certain environmental receptors specific to that location. The three cases selected satisfy a number of desirable criteria: 1) they correspond to real projects whose deployment is likely to take place in the foreseeable future; 2) the technology developers are …

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The project goals are: (1) Use three to five pressurized helium tubes with varying polyethylene moderators to build a neutron energy spectrometer that is most sensitive to the incident neutron energy of interest. Neutron energies that are of particular interest are those from the fission neutrons (typically around 1-2 MeV); (2) Neutron Source Identification - Use the neutron energy 'selectivity' property as a tool to discriminate against other competing processes by which neutrons are generated (viz. Cosmic ray induced neutron production [ship effect], [a, n] reactions); (3) Determine the efficiency as a function of neutron energy (response function) of each of the detectors, and thereby obtain the composite neutron energy spectrum from the detector count rates; and (4) Far-field data characterization and effectively discerning shielded fission source. Summary of the presentation is: (1) A light weight simple form factor compact neutron energy spectrometer ready to be used in maritime missions has been built; (2) Under laboratory conditions, individual Single Neutron Source Identification is possible within 30 minutes. (3) Sources belonging to the same type of origin viz., (a, n), fission, cosmic cluster in the same place in the 2-D plot shown; and (4) Isotopes belonging to the same source origin …

The objectives of this paper are: (1) Discuss organizational readiness for changes in an ergonomics program or intervention; (2) Assessing organizational readiness; (3) Benefits and challenges of change; and (4) Case studies of ergonomic programs that were 'not ready' and 'ready'.

A series of bimetallic core-shell-alloy type Au-Pt nanomaterials with various morphologies, aspect ratios and compositions, were produced in a heterogenous epitaxial fashion. Gold nanoparticles with well-controlled particle size and shape, e.g. spheres, rods and cubes, were used as 'seeds' for platinum growth in the presence of a mild reducing agent, ascorbic acid and a cationic surfactant cethyltrimethyl ammonium bromide (CTAB). The reactions take place in air and water, and are quick, economical and amenable for scaling up. The synthesized nanocatalysts were characterized by electron microscopy techniques and energy dispersive X-ray analysis. Nafion membranes were embedded with the Au-Pt nanomaterials and analyzed by atomic force microscopy (AFM) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) for their potential in direct methanol fuel cells applications.