Report of Foreign Travel of Environmental Sciences Research Staff, October 1990 (open access)

Report of Foreign Travel of Environmental Sciences Research Staff, October 1990

BIOMOVS (BIOspheric MOdel Validation Study) is an international cooperative study initiated in 1985 by the Swedish National Institute of Radiation Protection to test models designed to calculate the environmental transfer and bioaccumulation of radionuclides and other trace substances. The objective of the symposium and workshop was to synthesize results obtained during Phase 1 of BIOMOVS (the first five years of the study) and to suggest new directions that might be pursued during Phase 2 of BIOMOVS. The travelers were an instrumental part of the development of BIOMOVS. This symposium allowed the travelers to present a review of past efforts at model validation and a synthesis of current activities and to refine ideas concerning future development of models and data for assessing the fate, effect, and human risks of environmental contaminants. R. H. Gardner also visited the Free University, Amsterdam, and the National Institute of Public Health and Environmental Protection (RIVM) in Bilthoven to confer with scientists about current research in theoretical ecology and the use of models for estimating the transport and effect of environmental contaminants and to learn about the European efforts to map critical loads of acid deposition.
Date: November 7, 1990
Creator: Blaylock, B. Gordon; Hoffman, F. Owen & Gardner, Robert H.
System: The UNT Digital Library
Bioechnology of indirect liquefaction (open access)

Bioechnology of indirect liquefaction

The project on biotechnology of indirect liquefaction was focused on conversion of coal derived synthesis gas to liquid fuels using a two-stage, acidogenic and solventogenic, anaerobic bioconversion process. The acidogenic fermentation used a novel and versatile organism, Butyribacterium methylotrophicum, which was fully capable of using CO as the sole carbon and energy source for organic acid production. In extended batch CO fermentations the organism was induced to produce butyrate at the expense of acetate at low pH values. Long-term, steady-state operation was achieved during continuous CO fermentations with this organism, and at low pH values (a pH of 6.0 or less) minor amounts of butanol and ethanol were produced. During continuous, steady-state fermentations of CO with cell recycle, concentrations of mixed acids and alcohols were achieved (approximately 12 g/l and 2 g/l, respectively) which are high enough for efficient conversion in stage two of the indirect liquefaction process. The metabolic pathway to produce 4-carbon alcohols from CO was a novel discovery and is believed to be unique to our CO strain of B. methylotrophicum. In the solventogenic phase, the parent strain ATCC 4259 of Clostridium acetobutylicum was mutagenized using nitrosoguanidine and ethyl methane sulfonate. The E-604 mutant strain of Clostridium …
Date: May 7, 1990
Creator: Datta, R.; Jain, M. K.; Worden, R. M.; Grethlein, A. J.; Soni, B.; Zeikus, J. G. et al.
System: The UNT Digital Library
Bioechnology of indirect liquefaction. Final report (open access)

Bioechnology of indirect liquefaction. Final report

The project on biotechnology of indirect liquefaction was focused on conversion of coal derived synthesis gas to liquid fuels using a two-stage, acidogenic and solventogenic, anaerobic bioconversion process. The acidogenic fermentation used a novel and versatile organism, Butyribacterium methylotrophicum, which was fully capable of using CO as the sole carbon and energy source for organic acid production. In extended batch CO fermentations the organism was induced to produce butyrate at the expense of acetate at low pH values. Long-term, steady-state operation was achieved during continuous CO fermentations with this organism, and at low pH values (a pH of 6.0 or less) minor amounts of butanol and ethanol were produced. During continuous, steady-state fermentations of CO with cell recycle, concentrations of mixed acids and alcohols were achieved (approximately 12 g/l and 2 g/l, respectively) which are high enough for efficient conversion in stage two of the indirect liquefaction process. The metabolic pathway to produce 4-carbon alcohols from CO was a novel discovery and is believed to be unique to our CO strain of B. methylotrophicum. In the solventogenic phase, the parent strain ATCC 4259 of Clostridium acetobutylicum was mutagenized using nitrosoguanidine and ethyl methane sulfonate. The E-604 mutant strain of Clostridium …
Date: May 7, 1990
Creator: Datta, R.; Jain, M. K.; Worden, R. M.; Grethlein, A. J.; Soni, B.; Zeikus, J. G. et al.
System: The UNT Digital Library
Arbitrary function generator for APS injector synchrotron correction magnets (open access)

Arbitrary function generator for APS injector synchrotron correction magnets

The APS injector synchrotron ring measures about 368 m in circumference. In order to obtain the precision of the magnetic field required for the positron acceleration from 450 Mev to 7.7 Gev with low beam loss, eighty correction magnets are distributed around its circumference. These magnets provide the vernier field changes required for beam orbit correction during the acceleration phase of the injector synchrotron cycle. Because of mechanical imperfections in the construction, as well as installation of real dipole and multi-pole magnets, the exact field correction required at each correction magnet location is not known until a beam is actually accelerated. It is therefore essential that a means is provided to generate a correction field that is a function of the beam energy from injection until extraction for each correction magnet. The fairly large number of correction magnets in the system requires that the arbitrary function generator design be as simple as possible yet provide the required performance. An important, required performance feature is that the function can be changed or modified ``on the fly``, to provide the operator with a real-time feel during the tune up process. The arbitrary function generator described in this report satisfies these requirements.
Date: November 7, 1990
Creator: Despe, O.D.
System: The UNT Digital Library
Thermally Induced Structural Changes in Coal Combustion (open access)

Thermally Induced Structural Changes in Coal Combustion

The project objectives are (1) to measure the effect of devolatilization temperature and time on properties of the char and (2) characterize and quantify the effect of thermal annealing on char reactivity during char burnout under conditions of pulverized combustion. Coal devolatilization runs continued during the reporting period. Elemental analysis and N{sub 2} BET surface areas measurements were carried out on the three chars produced in the devolatilization runs. The results are presented. Experiments in the electrodynamic balance during the reporting period were focused on developing ways to measure the particle mass loss and, therefore, the reaction rate directly. This work is summarized in the attached Appendix. 4 refs., 1 fig., 1 tab.
Date: December 7, 1990
Creator: Gavalas, G. R. & Flagan, R. C.
System: The UNT Digital Library
16 Channel ECL repeater (open access)

16 Channel ECL repeater

This paper describes the circuits of a 16 channel CL repeater. (LSP)
Date: March 7, 1990
Creator: Graupman, Dan
System: The UNT Digital Library
Characterization of rocket propellant combustion products: Description of sampling and analysis methods for rocket exhaust characterization studies (open access)

Characterization of rocket propellant combustion products: Description of sampling and analysis methods for rocket exhaust characterization studies

A systematic approach has been developed and experimentally validated for the sampling and chemical characterization of the rocket motor exhaust generated from the firing of scaled down test motors at the US Army's Signature Characterization Facility (ASCF) at Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville, Alabama. The overall strategy was to sample and analyze major exhaust constituents in near real time, while performing off-site analyses of samples collected for the determination of trace constituents of the particulate and vapor phases. Initial interference studies were performed using atmospheric pressure burns of 1 g quantities of propellants in small chambers at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. Carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide were determined using non-dispersive infrared instrumentation. Hydrogen cyanide, hydrogen chloride, and ammonia determinations were made using ion selective electrode technology. Oxides of nitrogen were determined using chemiluminescence instrumentation. Airborne particulate mass concentration was determined using infrared forward scattering measurements and a tapered element oscillating microbalance, as well as conventional gravimetry. Particulate phase metals were determined by collection on Teflon membrane filters, followed by inductively coupled plasma and atomic absorption analysis. Particulate phase polynuclear aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH) and nitro-PAH were collected using high volume sampling on a two stage filter. Target species were extracted, and quantified …
Date: June 7, 1990
Creator: Jenkins, R.A.
System: The UNT Digital Library
A systematic study of actinide production from the interactions of heavy ions with sup 248 Cm (open access)

A systematic study of actinide production from the interactions of heavy ions with sup 248 Cm

Production cross sections for heavy actinides produced from the interactions of {sup 12}C, {sup 31}P, {sup 40}Ar, and {sup 44}Ca ions with {sup 248}Cm were measured at energies ranging from 0.98 to 1.35 X Coulomb barrier. The recoiling reaction products were collected in copper or gold catcher foils located near the {sup 248}Cm target. Separate fractions of Bk, Cf, Es, Fm, and Md were obtained from a radiochemical separation procedure. For the {sup 12}C system, a He/KCl jet was used to transport the recoiling No activities of interest to a rotating wheel system. The isotopic distributions of the actinide products were found to be essentially symmetric about the maximum with full-widths-at-half-maximum of approximately 2.5 mass units. Isotopic distributions of the {sup 12}C, {sup 31}P, {sup 40}Ar, and {sup 44}Ca systems were found to be very similar to the {sup 40,48}Ca systems studied previously. The maxima of the isotopic distributions generally occurred for those reaction channels which involved the exchange of the fewest number of nucleons between the target and projectile for which the calculated excitation energy was a positive quantity. Additionally, the maxima of the excitation functions occurred at those projectile energies which were consistent with the calculated reaction barriers …
Date: September 7, 1990
Creator: Leyba, J.D.
System: The UNT Digital Library
Chloride anion exchange coprocessing for recovery of plutonium from pyrochemical residues and Cs sub 2 PuCl sub 6 filtrate (open access)

Chloride anion exchange coprocessing for recovery of plutonium from pyrochemical residues and Cs sub 2 PuCl sub 6 filtrate

Continuing studies of plutonium recovery from direct oxide reduction (DOR) and electrorefining (ER) pyrochemical process residues show that chloride anion exchange coprocessing is useful and effective. Coprocessing utilizes DOR residue salt as a reagent to supply the bulk of chloride ion needed for the chloride anion exchange process and to improve ER residue salt solubility. ER residue salt and ER scrapeout can be successfully treated, either alone or together, using coprocessing. In addition, chloride anion exchange at 2.0M acidity results in improved process performance by greatly reducing disproportionation of plutonium(IV), eliminating restrictions on oxidation time compared to operation at 1.0M acidity. Laboratory-scale experiments show that below-discard effluent plutonium losses are obtained. Resin capacity was 30 g Pu/{ell} or greater. Furthermore, it is feasible to perform chloride anion exchange recovery of plutonium from filtrate resulting from precipitation of dicesium hexachloroplutonate (Cs{sub 2}PuCl{sub 6}, an oxidant salt to be used in the molten salt extraction process) and integration of its preparation with recovery of DOR salts. 10 refs., 9 figs., 10 tabs.
Date: December 7, 1990
Creator: Muscatello, A. C. & Killion, M. E.
System: The UNT Digital Library
Bench-scale co-processing (open access)

Bench-scale co-processing

The objective of this current is to extend and optimize UOP's single-stage slurry-catalyzed co-processing scheme, which has developed under previous Contract AC22-84PC70002. Particular emphasis is given to defining and improving catalyst utilization and costs, evaluating alternative and disposable slurry-catalyst systems, and improving catalyst recycle and recovery techniques. The work during this quarter involved a series of bench-scale runs using a new Mo-based slurry catalyst. The results of bench-scale Runs 24 and 25 are discussed in the following report. 7 refs., 4 figs., 3 tabs.
Date: March 7, 1990
Creator: Nafis, D.A.; Gatsis, J.G.; Lea, C. & Miller, M.A.
System: The UNT Digital Library
Spectroscopic study of coal structure and reactivity (open access)

Spectroscopic study of coal structure and reactivity

Work done during this period (December 15, 1989 to March 14, 1990) covered two of the three primary areas of study of this project. The first involved the continuing development a of step-scanning interferometer for the photoacoustic depth-profiling of materials whose composition varies in the spatial region between 5 and 50 {mu}m from its surface. The second covered the initial construction of an on-line interface between a supercritical fluid chromatograph (SFC) and a Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) spectrometer for monitoring the composition of coal extracts. 5 refs., 8 figs.
Date: September 7, 1990
Creator: Rabenstein, D.L.
System: The UNT Digital Library
Spectroscopic study of coal structure and reactivity (open access)

Spectroscopic study of coal structure and reactivity

The aim of this project is to perform quantitative analysis of the Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) spectra of coals and coal extracts. The major difficulty encountered in the analysis of the FT-IR spectra of coals is the complexity of the bands, which consist of many closely overlapped peaks. Two techniques that are commonly used for the quantitative analysis of complex FT-IR spectra are deconvolution and curve-fitting. Deconvolution is a mathematical technique that narrows the speaks in a spectrum, thereby improving the effective resolution. Curve-fitting optimizes a set of ban parameters, using a least squares criterion, to simulate the true spectrum. We have recently completed work on optimizing the combination of these two techniques with the aim of applying this to the spectra of coals and coal extracts. Two types of deconvolution were investigated in this context: Fourier self-deconvolution (FSD) and maximum likelihood restoration (MLR). It was concluded that for noisy spectra MLR gave superior results. 3 refs., 7 figs.
Date: September 7, 1990
Creator: Rabenstein, D.L.
System: The UNT Digital Library
Corrosion of copper in Mound's single-pass potable water systems (open access)

Corrosion of copper in Mound's single-pass potable water systems

An increase in the number of copper plumbing failures at Mound prompted a thorough analysis of the failed components. Most of the components were elbow joints. All of these parts exhibited the same type of accelerated deterioration. The failed parts were analyzed optically and by scanning electron microscopy. Water chemistry, solder, and soldering fluxes were evaluated to determine their possible roles in the accelerated attack. Cross-sectioning of the elbow joints revealed residual soldering flux and cutting burrs on the inside of the elbows. Water analysis showed Mound's water was rated as corrosive. Recommendations for improved workmanship and design are presented. Testing of potable water at a regular basis was also recommended. 8 refs., 10 figs., 3 tabs.
Date: December 7, 1990
Creator: Schleitweiler, Patrick M. & Miller, Pamela S.
System: The UNT Digital Library
Qualitative results from a beamstrahlung flight simulator (open access)

Qualitative results from a beamstrahlung flight simulator

A simulation code for beam-beam deflections and beamstrahlung fluxes for tilted and elliptic beams is presented. Some qualitative features of beamstrahlung scans are discussed. 8 refs., 11 figs.
Date: December 7, 1990
Creator: Ziemann, V.
System: The UNT Digital Library
Biological Processes in the Water Column of the South Atlantic Bight: Zooplankton Responses (open access)

Biological Processes in the Water Column of the South Atlantic Bight: Zooplankton Responses

The goal of the Fall Removal Experiment 1987 was to determine the processes affecting the dependent and fate of low salinity coastal water and of biological material therein during fall when winds are mainly south-to westward. Five zooplankton taxa, Acartia tonsa, (A. tonsa) Paracalanus species (sp), Temora turbinata (T. turbinata), Oncaea sp, and Sagitta enflata were examined. Data on the distribution of all five taxa were presented, and distribution over time was also studied. The abundance of A. tonsa decreased tenfold over the 13 day sampling period, Paracalanus varied twofold and T. Turbinata showed little variability. The A. tonsa decrease was postulated to result from food abundance or predation, although the possible role of size distribution, water displacement and chlorophyll distribution will be examined in the future. A possible role of turbulence in zooplankton abundance is being examined. 8 refs., 5 figs.
Date: February 7, 1990
Creator: unknown
System: The UNT Digital Library
Petroleum marketing monthly, August 1990 (open access)

Petroleum marketing monthly, August 1990

The Petroleum Marketing Monthly (PMM) is designed to give information and statistical data about a variety of crude oils and refined petroleum products. The publication provides statistics on crude oil costs and refined petroleum products sales for use by industry, government, private sector analysts, educational institutions, and consumers. Data on crude oil include the domestic first purchase price, the f.o.b. and landed cost of imported crude oil, and the refiners' acquisition cost of crude oil. Sales data for motor gasoline, distillates, residuals, aviation fuels, kerosene, and propane are presented. 12 figs., 49 tabs.
Date: November 7, 1990
Creator: unknown
System: The UNT Digital Library
Praise enhancements to include general strain hardening exponents and mid-life residual stress and water chemistry changes (open access)

Praise enhancements to include general strain hardening exponents and mid-life residual stress and water chemistry changes

The purpose of this document is to describe some recent changes made to the PRAISE Code to provide some additional capabilities. The major changes are associated with the new capability to analyze cases where there is a mid-life change in residual stresses and/or water chemistry. Such changes have been proposed as a means of improving the reliability of BWR piping by reducing the oxygen content of the coolant (or other favorable chemistry changes) or altering the residual stresses near welds to provide a stress distribution less favorable to crack initiation and growth. Induction heating stress improvement (IHSI) and mechanical stress improvement process (MSIP) are considered, with the time at which the process is implemented defined by the user. As-welded residual stresses are considered to be present prior to the stress imrovement treatment. Improved pre- and post-processors were also developed and are described, which should be particularly useful to users of the PC version of PRAISE. In addition, improved J-integral solutions are incorporated that allow a treatment of general Ramberg-Osgood strain hardening, rather than the specific values of the strain hardening exponent included in earlier versions of the PRAISE Code. This document discusses only the new additions to the code and …
Date: June 7, 1990
Creator: unknown
System: The UNT Digital Library
Short-term energy outlook (open access)

Short-term energy outlook

The Energy Information Administration (EIA) presents future scenarios of quarterly short-term energy supply, demand, and prices for publication in February, May, August, and November in the Short-Term Energy Outlook (Outlook). An annual supplement analyzes previous estimate errors, compares recent scenarios with those of other forecasting services, and discusses current topics of the short-term energy markets. (See Short-Term Energy Outlook: Annual Supplement, DOE/EIA-0202.) The principal users of the Outlook are managers and energy analysts in private industry and government. The scenario period for this issue of the Outlook extends from the fourth quarter of 1990 through the fourth quarter of 1991. Some data for the third quarter of 1990 are preliminary EIA estimates of actual data (for example, some petroleum estimates are based on statistics from the Weekly Petroleum Status Report) or are derived from internal model simulations using the latest exogenous information available (for example, some electricity demand estimates are based on recent weather data). 11 figs., 13 tabs.
Date: November 7, 1990
Creator: unknown
System: The UNT Digital Library