The purpose of this audit was to determine whether the Department of Energy's (Department) management of its contract with Ross Aviation, Inc. (Ross) provided reasonable assurance that the inventory of aircraft major spare parts at Ross was economical and efficient. The audit disclosed that approximately $447,000 (acquisition and interest carrying costs) of low-use major spare parts was excessive. Internal control deficiencies which fostered the excessive inventory included: (1) Ross had set stock levels without considering such factors as consumption or projected needs; and (2) the Department had not reviewed inventory quantities when appraising Ross' property management. The Albuquerque Operations Office (AL) agreed to take the corrective actions recommended in the report.

As society becomes more and more sensitive to the environment, and energy supplies become more scarce, the application of solar energy is expanding into new areas. The industrial sector is one of the most difficult for solar energy to impact because of its technical diversity and economic requirements. However, the opportunities are still abundant. The Department of Energy's Solar Industrial Program is dedicated to advancing the applications of solar energy in this sector. Research and technology development activities are currently focused in three areas: solar process heat, advanced materials manufacturing, and destruction of chemical wastes. The Solar Energy Research Institute manages these activities for DOE with close interactions with other federal agencies, private industry, and universities. 7 figs.

The activity in the cooling systems research involves research on high performance dehumidifiers and chillers that can operate efficiently with the variable thermal outputs and delivery temperatures associated with solar collectors. It also includes work on advanced passive cooling techniques. This report describes the work conducted to improve the durability of solid desiccant dehumidifiers by investigating the causes of degradation of desiccant materials from airborne contaminants and thermal cycling. The performance of a dehumidifier strongly depends on the physical properties and durability of the desiccant material. To make durable and reliable dehumidifiers, an understanding is needed of how and to what degree the performance of a dehumidifier is affected by desiccant degradation. This report, an account of work under Cooling Systems Research, documents the efforts to design and fabricate a test facility to investigate desiccant contamination based on industry and academia recommendations. It also discusses the experimental techniques needed for obtaining high-quality data and presents plans for next year. Researchers of the Mechanical and Industrial Technology Division performed this work at the Solar Energy Research Institute in FY 1988 for DOE's Office of Solar Heat Technologies. 7 refs., 19 figs., 1 tab.

This report consists of two parts. Part 1 describes the development of novel analytical methods needed to predict the BOM performance and the subsequent performance degradation of the mutually obstructed RTGs for the CRAF and Cassini missions. Part II applies those methods to the two missions, presents the resultant predictions, and discusses their programmatic implications.; The results indicate that JPL's original power demand goals could have been met with two standard GPHS RTGs for each mission. However, JPL subsequently raised both the power demand profile and the duration for both missions, to the point where two standard RTGs could no longer provide the desired power margin. Each mission can be satisfied by adding a third RTG, and in the case of the Cassini mission the use of three RTGs appears to be unavoidable. In the case of the CRAF mission, there appears to be a possibility that modest modifications of the RTGs' design and/or operating scheme and meet the missions' power demand without the addition of a third RTG. The potential saving in cost and schedule pressure prompted Fairchild to undertake a study of various obvious and not-so-obvious stratagems, either singly or in combination, to determine whether they would make …

The Fermilab 1990--1991 Fixed Target Program featured six experiments utilizing liquid hydrogen or liquid deuterium targets as part of their apparatus. Each design was optimized to the criteria of the experiment, resulting in variations of material selection, methods of refrigeration and secondary containment. Collectively, the targets were run for a total of 14,184 hours with an average operational efficiency of 97.6%. The safe and reliable operation of these targets was complemented by an increased degree of documentation and component testing. This operation was also aided by several key upgrades. All the systems were designed and fabricated under a set of written guidelines that blend analytical calculations and empirical guidance drawn from over twenty years of target fabrication experience. 3 refs., 4 tabs.

As scintillating plate calorimetry is a viable option for the SDC detector, it is imperative that the phase space of passive and active materials be explored in a systematic fashion. To this end, we have examined several different configurations of passive and active materials as a function of incident energy, to see what the resolution and e/h characteristics are of each of these configurations. These studies have been carried out using the CALOR89 Monte Carlo simulation package. 3 figs., 5 tabs.

In designs for fissile processes at Savannah River site, different approaches have been used to provide engineered margins of safety for criticality with containment and seismic resistance as additional requirements. These requirements are frequently at odds in engineered systems. This paper proposes a plan to take advantage of vessels with favorable geometry to provide seismic resistance and to support a glovebox for containment. Thin slab tanks, small diameter pencil tanks, annular tanks, and other novel designs have been used for criticality safety. The requirement for DBE seismic resistance and rigid control of dimensions leads the designer to consider annular tanks for meeting these requirements. The high strength of annular tanks may logically be used to support secondary containment. Hands-on access to all instruments, piping etc. within containment can be provided through gloveports, thus a specialized glovebox. This paper examines the advantages of using an annular tank design to provide favorable geometry, structural support and containment.

In designs for fissile processes at Savannah River site, different approaches have been used to provide engineered margins of safety for criticality with containment and seismic resistance as additional requirements. These requirements are frequently at odds in engineered systems. This paper proposes a plan to take advantage of vessels with favorable geometry to provide seismic resistance and to support a glovebox for containment. Thin slab tanks, small diameter pencil tanks, annular tanks, and other novel designs have been used for criticality safety. The requirement for DBE seismic resistance and rigid control of dimensions leads the designer to consider annular tanks for meeting these requirements. The high strength of annular tanks may logically be used to support secondary containment. Hands-on access to all instruments, piping etc. within containment can be provided through gloveports, thus a specialized glovebox. This paper examines the advantages of using an annular tank design to provide favorable geometry, structural support and containment.

The Long Trace Profiler (Takacs et al.) is a slope-measuring instrument which was introduced several years ago. Development of this instrument continues at Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory in improving both hardware design and software algorithms for turning the raw interference data (a sequence of intensity patterns) into properly interpreted representations of surface slope and height. This report presents a mathematical model of the interference pattern and methods of extracting the slope and height profile from such patterns. 9 refs.

The Long Trace Profiler (Takacs et al.) is a slope-measuring instrument which was introduced several years ago. Development of this instrument continues at Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory in improving both hardware design and software algorithms for turning the raw interference data (a sequence of intensity patterns) into properly interpreted representations of surface slope and height. This report presents a mathematical model of the interference pattern and methods of extracting the slope and height profile from such patterns. 9 refs.

This report describes the progress of the second year of a 3-year DOE grant DE-FG-02-87ER60522 for the fiscal period 1/1/91 to 12/31/91 as of July 1991. The overall goals of the grant are to develop novel instrumentation and techniques for the performance of biological and materials research and to apply the new developments to basic biological and materials research problems. Since the last progress report, dated July 1990, there has been significant progress on most of the originally proposed instrumentation and applications research. The overall research goals proposed for the next year have not changed from those originally listed. A prototype large area CCD x-ray detector was assembled and evaluated at the CHESS synchrotron facility. Fiber optic CCD coupling methods have been developed and are being applied to in-house detector needs. Novel detector control and calibration software was developed and refined. Novel high pressure x-ray diffraction and dilatometric apparatus were designed and built, and are being applied to the study of membrane-lipid phase behavior. A time-resolved x-ray diffraction study of lipid phase transitions was used to demonstrate that conventual calorimetry does not accurately determine the phase transition parameters. The elastic properties of amphiphilic layers were studied both theoretically and experimentally. …

Within the commercial sector, oil and natural gas are the predominant fuels used to meet the space-heating needs of schools, office buildings, apartment complexes, and other similar structures. In general, these buildings require firing rates of 1 to 10 million Btu/hr. The objective of this program is to demonstrate the technical and economic viability of a coal-fired combustion system for this sector. The commercial-scale coal-water slurry (CWS)-fired space heating system will be a scale-up of a CWS-fired residential warm-air heating system developed by Tecogen under contract to the Department of Energy, Pittsburgh Energy Technology Center. This system included a patented nonslagging combustor known as IRIS, for Inertial Reactor with Internal Separation. This combustion technology, which has demonstrated high combustion efficiency using CWS fuels at input rates of 100,000 Btu/hr, will be scaled to operate at 2 to 5 millon Btu/hr. Along with the necessary fuel storage and delivery, heat recovery, and control equipment, the system will include pollution control devices to meet targeted values of NO{sub x}, S0{sub 2}, and particulate emissions. In general, the system will be designed to match the reliability, safety, turndown, and ignition performance of gas or oil-fired systems.

Within the commercial sector, oil and natural gas are the predominant fuels used to meet the space-heating needs of schools, office buildings, apartment complexes, and other similar structures. In general, these buildings require firing rates of 1 to 10 million Btu/hr. The objective of this program is to demonstrate the technical and economic viability of a coal-fired combustion system for this sector. The commercial-scale coal-water slurry (CWS)-fired space heating system will be a scale-up of a CWS-fired residential warm-air heating system developed by Tecogen under contract to the Department of Energy, Pittsburgh Energy Technology Center. This system included a patented nonslagging combustor known as IRIS, for Inertial Reactor with Internal Separation. This combustion technology, which has demonstrated high combustion efficiency using CWS fuels at input rates of 100,000 Btu/hr, will be scaled to operate at 2 to 5 millon Btu/hr. Along with the necessary fuel storage and delivery, heat recovery, and control equipment, the system will include pollution control devices to meet targeted values of NO{sub x}, S0{sub 2}, and particulate emissions. In general, the system will be designed to match the reliability, safety, turndown, and ignition performance of gas or oil-fired systems.

Atmospheric transport and diffusion models have been developed for real-time calculations of the location and concentration of toxic or radioactive materials during an accidental release at the Savannah River Site (SRS). These models are based Gaussian distributions and have been incorporated into an automated menu-driven program called the WIND (Weather INformation and Display) system. The WIND system atmospheric models employ certain assumptions that allow the computations of the ground-level concentration of toxic or radioactive materials to be made quickly. Gaussian models, such as PF/PL and 2DPUF, suffer from serious limitations including the inability to represent recirculation of pollutants in complex terrain, the use of one stability class at a given time to represent turbulent mixing over heterogeneous terrain, and the use of a wind field computed at only one height in the atmosphere. These limitations arise because the fundamental conservation relations of the atmosphere have been grossly simplified. Three-dimensional coupled atmospheric-dispersion models are not limited by the over-simplifications of the Gaussian assumption and have been used in the past to predict the transport of pollutants in a variety of atmospheric circulations. The disadvantage of these models is that they require large amounts of computational time; however, technology has progressed enough …

Atmospheric transport and diffusion models have been developed for real-time calculations of the location and concentration of toxic or radioactive materials during an accidental release at the Savannah River Site (SRS). These models are based Gaussian distributions and have been incorporated into an automated menu-driven program called the WIND (Weather INformation and Display) system. The WIND system atmospheric models employ certain assumptions that allow the computations of the ground-level concentration of toxic or radioactive materials to be made quickly. Gaussian models, such as PF/PL and 2DPUF, suffer from serious limitations including the inability to represent recirculation of pollutants in complex terrain, the use of one stability class at a given time to represent turbulent mixing over heterogeneous terrain, and the use of a wind field computed at only one height in the atmosphere. These limitations arise because the fundamental conservation relations of the atmosphere have been grossly simplified. Three-dimensional coupled atmospheric-dispersion models are not limited by the over-simplifications of the Gaussian assumption and have been used in the past to predict the transport of pollutants in a variety of atmospheric circulations. The disadvantage of these models is that they require large amounts of computational time; however, technology has progressed enough …

One phase of improving understanding of the fundamental chemistry of coprocessing involves development of the ability to distinguish between products originating from coal versus those originating from petroleum resid. A primary objective of this project was to develop analytical techniques to determine the source (coal versus resid) of the various compound types found in coprocessing products. A corollary objective was to develop an expanded knowledge of the detailed composition of coprocessing products. Two approaches were evaluated for distinguishing between products originating from coal and those originating from petroleum resid. One was based on the use of carbon isotope ratios and the other was based on variations in compound classes in response to changes in the ratio of coal to resid in the coprocessing feed. Other researchers using carbon isotope ratios to determine the origin of products have typically examined distillation fractions. This project involved determination of the origin of chemical classes (e.g., saturates, neutral aromatics, phenols, indoles, etc.) rather than distillate classes. Maya resid and Illinois No. 6 coal (with coal feed varying from 2 to 40 percent) were coprocessed in a batch autoclave to obtain products for detailed analysis.

The overall objective of the contract is to improve understanding of the fundamental chemistry of coprocessing. A primary objective is to evaluate methods to distinguish between compound classes originating from coal versus those originating from petroleum resid while a corollary objective is to provide detailed knowledge on the composition of coprocessing products. This and the prior quarterly report summarize work conducted in support of the latter objective in which process development unit samples produced by HRI, Inc. were subjected to detailed analysis. Coprocessing resid samples selected for detailed analysis were made under constant conditions except for variations in coal concentration or in the coal (New Mexico subbituminous or Texas lignite). Separation of the resids into acid, base, saturate, and neutral-aromatic subtractions, separation of the neutral-aromatics by ring number and high temperature gas chromatography were discussed in the previous quarterly. This report includes results of nonaqueous titrations, elemental analyses and infrared spectroscopy. The hydrocarbon skeletons of saturated hydrocarbons in the coprocessing resids appear to be fundamentally different than those of aromatic species. Neutral-aromatic fractions contain minor levels of sulfur compounds, an unknown proportion of ether or other oxygen-containing species, and major concentrations of aromatic hydrocarbons containing from 3 to 7 aromatic …

The overall objective of this contract is to improve our understanding of the fundamental chemistry of coprocessing. This includes an evaluation of methods to distinguish between compound classes originating from coal versus those originating from petroleum resid. An objective of this project is to provide detailed knowledge of the composition of coprocessing products. This report reviews the study of variations in compound classes in response to changes in the coal/resid ratio in the feed as a means of determining the source of compound classes. Where there were significant trends in composition with changing, coal concentration, selectivity factors indicating the contribution of coal and resid to particular compound classes were determined. As an example, in middle and heavy distillates, both acids and bases increased with increasing coal concentration. Selectivity factors indicated that in the middle distillate, 91 percent of the acids and 12 percent of the bases would be derived from coal (with a 1:1 ratio of coal:resid in the feed). In the heavy distillate, coal continued to be the dominant source of acids and bases although to a lesser extent. Phenols tended to increase with increasing coal content while nitrogen acids (indoles, carbazoles) decreased. Nitrogen acids were more prominent in …

The first year of this grant has been devoted to the design and construction of an upgraded version of the University of Wisconsin High Spectral Resolution Lidar (HSRL). The new system incorporates additional data channels to measure depolarization and multiple scattering in the lidar return. Schematic diagrams describing the new configurations are attached to this report. Increases in optical efficiency and receiver aperture, coupled with improvements in the stiffness and the thermal stability of the mechanical system are expected to significantly improve the performance of the instrument. Most components of the system are nearly completed and system integration is about to begin. The HSRL is committed to participate in the NASA FIRE cirrus experiment during November and December of this year. Our progress is completing HSRL subsystems is outlined in the following paragraphs. 3 figs.

The objective of proposed research is development of catalysts with enhanced slurry phase activity and better selectivity to fuel range products, through a more detailed understanding and systematic studies of the effects of pretreatment procedures and promoters/binders (silica) on catalyst performance.

The objective of proposed research is development of catalysts with enhanced slurry phase activity and better selectivity to fuel range products, through a more detailed understanding and systematic studies of the effects of pretreatment procedures and promoters/binders (silica) on catalyst performance.

The primary objective of the study is to develop a computer model for a base line direct coal liquefaction design based on two stage direct coupled catalytic reactors. This primary objective is to be accomplished by completing the following: a base line design based on previous DOE/PETC results from Wilsonville pilot plant and other engineering evaluations; a cost estimate and economic analysis; a computer model incorporating the above two steps over a wide range of capacities and selected process alternatives; a comprehensive training program for DOE/PETC Staff to understand and use the computer model; a thorough documentation of all underlying assumptions for baseline economics; and a user manual and training material which will facilitate updating of the model in the future.

The primary objective of the study is to develop a computer model for a base line direct coal liquefaction design based on two stage direct coupled catalytic reactors. This primary objective is to be accomplished by completing the following: a base line design based on previous DOE/PETC results from Wilsonville pilot plant and other engineering evaluations; a cost estimate and economic analysis; a computer model incorporating the above two steps over a wide range of capacities and selected process alternatives; a comprehensive training program for DOE/PETC Staff to understand and use the computer model; a thorough documentation of all underlying assumptions for baseline economics; and a user manual and training material which will facilitate updating of the model in the future.

Implantation of yttrium and other reactive metals has been known to show significant effects on the oxidation behavior of Cr{sub 2}O{sub 3}-forming alloys. The oxide growth rate decreases by nearly a factor of ten, and the adhesion of oxide scales to alloys is greatly improved. To better understand the mechanisms by which these elements affect oxidation, it is important to know whether or not they are present in the metal ahead of the oxide layer. In this study, the diffusivity of implanted yttrium in a Ni-25 wt %Cr alloy and its distribution in the oxide scale after different oxidation times have been evaluated using secondary ion mass spectroscopy. It was found that only 17 ppm of yttrium was left in the alloy after just 20 minutes of oxidation at 1000{degrees}C. The implanted Y remained concentrated at the oxide/gas interface as the oxide thickened with time. Within the oxide layer, the Y concentration progressively dropped to zero at the scale/alloy interface. These results are discussed in relation to several important mechanisms proposed for the beneficial effects of reactive element additions on scale adhesion. 17 refs., 5 figs.