Effect of 5% and 10% coal solids loadings was studied in two types of bench scale bioreactors and in chemostat cultures. The bench scale reactors used were rotating biological contactor (RBC) and upflow bioreactors. In RBC, Texas lignite was loaded at 0% and 5% (w/v), while in the upflow and chemostat reactors at 0%, 5% and 10%. Methane, total gas production, soluble carbon and volatile fatty acid production (VFA), as well as microbial growth (measured as cell protein) were monitored. Gas analysis of the headspace from the above mentioned reactors showed higher CO[sub 2] production in experiments with 5% and 10% coal solids (for example, Figure 1). This indicates that acetate degraded into CO[sub 2] but there was not enough hydrogen to carry out the reaction to convert CO[sub 2] to CH[sub 4]. These data obtained confirmed our previous results from laboratory scale reactors, that at coal solids loadings higher than 1%, methane production does not enhance significantly. This phenomena could be due to the production of higher quantities of inhibitory compounds or depletion of factors necessary for methanogenesis.

Effect of 5% and 10% coal solids loadings was studied in two types of bench scale bioreactors and in chemostat cultures. The bench scale reactors used were rotating biological contactor (RBC) and upflow bioreactors. In RBC, Texas lignite was loaded at 0% and 5% (w/v), while in the upflow and chemostat reactors at 0%, 5% and 10%. Methane, total gas production, soluble carbon and volatile fatty acid production (VFA), as well as microbial growth (measured as cell protein) were monitored. Gas analysis of the headspace from the above mentioned reactors showed higher CO{sub 2} production in experiments with 5% and 10% coal solids (for example, Figure 1). This indicates that acetate degraded into CO{sub 2} but there was not enough hydrogen to carry out the reaction to convert CO{sub 2} to CH{sub 4}. These data obtained confirmed our previous results from laboratory scale reactors, that at coal solids loadings higher than 1%, methane production does not enhance significantly. This phenomena could be due to the production of higher quantities of inhibitory compounds or depletion of factors necessary for methanogenesis.

The board considers technical and policy issues pertaining to computer science, telecommunications, and associated technologies. Functions include providing a base of expertise for these fields in NRC, monitoring and promoting health of these fields, initiating studies of these fields as critical resources and sources of national economic strength, responding to requests for advice, and fostering interaction among the technologies and the other pure and applied science and technology. This document describes its major accomplishments, current programs, other sponsored activities, cooperative ventures, and plans and prospects.

The board considers technical and policy issues pertaining to computer science, telecommunications, and associated technologies. Functions include providing a base of expertise for these fields in NRC, monitoring and promoting health of these fields, initiating studies of these fields as critical resources and sources of national economic strength, responding to requests for advice, and fostering interaction among the technologies and the other pure and applied science and technology. This document describes its major accomplishments, current programs, other sponsored activities, cooperative ventures, and plans and prospects.

The objective of Phase 1 of this program is to develop a novel low NO{sub x} pulverized coal burner, which offers near-term commercialization potential, uses preheated combustion air of up to 1000{degree}F, and which can be applied to high-temperature industrial heating furnaces, chemical process furnaces, fired heaters, and boilers. In the low NO{sub x} coal burner concept, the flue gas is recycled to the burner by jet pump action provided by the momentum of the primary air flow. The recycled flue gas is used to convey the pulverized coal to the jet pump where mixing with the primary air takes place. Ignition occurs downstream of the jet mixing section. The recycled flue gas is at high temperature. When the pulverized coal is entrained, it is heated by conduction from the flue gas. The coal is pyrolyzed to a large extent before being mixed with the primary air. These pyrolysis products are the source of energy for the downstream flame. In this process, the fuel nitrogen associated with pyrolysis products can be converted to molecular nitrogen in the pyrolysis flame if the oxygen is held to substoichiometric concentrations based upon the burning species (pyrolysis products and some char). Pyrolysis products combustion …

The objective of this report is to describe results obtained during the first year of funding that will lead to the development of an artificial neural network (ANN) fault - diagnostic system for the real - time classification of operational transients at nuclear power plants. The ultimate goal of this three-year project is to design, build, and test a prototype diagnostic adviser for use in the control room or technical support center at Duane Arnold Energy Center (DAEC); such a prototype could be integrated into the plant process computer or safety - parameter display system. The adviser could then warn and inform plant operators and engineers of plant component failures in a timely manner. This report describes the work accomplished in the first of three scheduled years for the project. Included herein is a summary of the first year's results as, well as individual descriptions of each of the major topics undertaken by the researchers. Also included are reprints of the articles written under this funding as well as those that were published during the funded period.

The objective of this report is to describe results obtained during the first year of funding that will lead to the development of an artificial neural network (ANN) fault - diagnostic system for the real - time classification of operational transients at nuclear power plants. The ultimate goal of this three-year project is to design, build, and test a prototype diagnostic adviser for use in the control room or technical support center at Duane Arnold Energy Center (DAEC); such a prototype could be integrated into the plant process computer or safety - parameter display system. The adviser could then warn and inform plant operators and engineers of plant component failures in a timely manner. This report describes the work accomplished in the first of three scheduled years for the project. Included herein is a summary of the first year`s results as, well as individual descriptions of each of the major topics undertaken by the researchers. Also included are reprints of the articles written under this funding as well as those that were published during the funded period.

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Document issued by the Office of the Attorney General of Texas in Austin, Texas, providing an interpretation of Texas law. It provides the opinion of the Texas Attorney General, Dan Morales, regarding a legal question submitted for clarification; Status of "recess gubernatorial appointees who are replaced by other nominees before the senate has had the opportunity to conform or reject them in a regular or special session (RQ-490)

Document issued by the Office of the Attorney General of Texas in Austin, Texas, providing an interpretation of Texas law. It provides the opinion of the Texas Attorney General, Dan Morales, regarding a legal question submitted for clarification: Whether section 142.005 of the Health and Safety Code applies to nonprofit `corporations and related questions (RQ-491)

A weekly publication, the Texas Register serves as the journal of state agency rulemaking for Texas. Information published in the Texas Register includes proposed, adopted, withdrawn and emergency rule actions, notices of state agency review of agency rules, governor's appointments, attorney general opinions, and miscellaneous documents such as requests for proposals. After adoption, these rulemaking actions are codified into the Texas Administrative Code.

Has any progress been made on understanding and predicting the 13 parameters which describe the observed masses and mixing angles of the quarks and leptons? Arguments are given in favor of pursuing schemes in which grand unified and family symmetries provide many relations among these 13 parameters. A sequence of simple assumptions leads to a supersymmetric SO(10) theory with 8 predictions: tan {beta}, M{sub t}, V{sub cb}, M{sub s},M{sub s}/M{sub d}, M{sub u}/M{sub d}, V{sub ub} and the amount of CP violation J. These predictions are presented, together with experiments which will test them.

Research at Virginia Tech led to two complementary concepts for improving the removal of inorganic sulfur from much of the Eastern US coals. One controls the surface properties of coal pyrite (FeS[sub 2]) by electrochemical-.potential control, referred to as the Electrochemically Enhanced Sulfur Rejection (EESR) Process: The second controls the flotation of middlings, i.e., particles composed of pyrite with coal inclusions by using polymeric reagents to react with pyrite and convert the middlings to hydrophilic particles, and is termed the Polymer Enhanced Sulfur Rejection (PESR) Process. These new concepts are based on recent research establishing the two main reasons why flotation fails to remove more than about 50% of the pyritic sulfur from coal: superficial oxidization of liberated pyrite to form polysulfide oxidation products so that a part of the liberated pyrite floats with the coal; and hydrophobic coal inclusions in the middlings dominating their flotation so that the middlings also float with the coal. These new pyritic-sulfur rejection processes do not require significant modifications of existing coal preparation facilities, enhancing their adoptability by the coal industry. It is believed that they can be used simultaneously to achieve both free pyrite and locked pyrite rejection.

Research at Virginia Tech led to two complementary concepts for improving the removal of inorganic sulfur from much of the Eastern US coals. One controls the surface properties of coal pyrite (FeS{sub 2}) by electrochemical-.potential control, referred to as the Electrochemically Enhanced Sulfur Rejection (EESR) Process: The second controls the flotation of middlings, i.e., particles composed of pyrite with coal inclusions by using polymeric reagents to react with pyrite and convert the middlings to hydrophilic particles, and is termed the Polymer Enhanced Sulfur Rejection (PESR) Process. These new concepts are based on recent research establishing the two main reasons why flotation fails to remove more than about 50% of the pyritic sulfur from coal: superficial oxidization of liberated pyrite to form polysulfide oxidation products so that a part of the liberated pyrite floats with the coal; and hydrophobic coal inclusions in the middlings dominating their flotation so that the middlings also float with the coal. These new pyritic-sulfur rejection processes do not require significant modifications of existing coal preparation facilities, enhancing their adoptability by the coal industry. It is believed that they can be used simultaneously to achieve both free pyrite and locked pyrite rejection.

CIRCE is an efficient beam dynamics code developed to facilitate the design and analysis of heavy-ion accelerators. The code combines an envelope description of the beam transverse dynamics with a fluid-like treatment of longitudinal dynamics, and terms are included to account for the effects of space charge, emittance, and image forces. CIRCE is currently being adapted to model the Induction Linac Systems Experiments (ILSE) facility, a proposed heavy-ion accelerator designed to test aspects of an inertial-fusion driver. The numerical model in the code is discussed, and changes needed for modeling ILSE are outlined. Preliminary work is presented on beam matching along the ILSE lattice and on transport around the ILSE achromatic bend.

The author studied the first four moments (center of mass, standard deviation, skew, and kurtosis) of the Doppler spectra in ambient regions of LLNL-Hughes real aperture radar data collected during WCSEX91--92. The goal was to correlate trends in the moments with wind velocity and direction. Although the center of mass appears to increase when the wind is blowing into the radar antenna, no other conclusions have been drawn from the higher order moments.

Primary purpose is to establish under thermal and catalytic reaction conditions whether hydrogen transfer occurred between cycloalkane type structures present in resids and aromatics present in coal and liquefied coal. Idea was to determine if hydrogen could be transferred from the cycloalkane to the atomatic in a hydrogen atmosphere, which is always present in co-processing. This document gives an extensive literature review, as well as a brief account of the experimental work. 3 tabs, 26 refs.

Primary purpose is to establish under thermal and catalytic reaction conditions whether hydrogen transfer occurred between cycloalkane type structures present in resids and aromatics present in coal and liquefied coal. Idea was to determine if hydrogen could be transferred from the cycloalkane to the atomatic in a hydrogen atmosphere, which is always present in co-processing. This document gives an extensive literature review, as well as a brief account of the experimental work. 3 tabs, 26 refs.

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A weekly publication, the Texas Register serves as the journal of state agency rulemaking for Texas. Information published in the Texas Register includes proposed, adopted, withdrawn and emergency rule actions, notices of state agency review of agency rules, governor's appointments, attorney general opinions, and miscellaneous documents such as requests for proposals. After adoption, these rulemaking actions are codified into the Texas Administrative Code.

Accurate calculation of hyperfine structure of (d+s)[sup n] states involves dealing with both relativistic and correlation effects in a multi-reference framework (all (d+s)[sup n] states of fixed n,J treated at once). The algorithms were improved (BCB and REDUCE methods) and applied to the hfs of Zr II for (d+s)[sup 3] states. The fs intervals were determined to within 0.075 eV, and the hfs was only 17% in error; this represents the first time that all of the (d+s)[sup n] fs levels have been accurately determined by ab initio theory. Calculations for Nb III, La I, and Hf II [J=1.5] will be published when the J=0.5 calculations are complete. 9 refs, 1 tab.

Accurate calculation of hyperfine structure of (d+s){sup n} states involves dealing with both relativistic and correlation effects in a multi-reference framework (all (d+s){sup n} states of fixed n,J treated at once). The algorithms were improved (BCB and REDUCE methods) and applied to the hfs of Zr II for (d+s){sup 3} states. The fs intervals were determined to within 0.075 eV, and the hfs was only 17% in error; this represents the first time that all of the (d+s){sup n} fs levels have been accurately determined by ab initio theory. Calculations for Nb III, La I, and Hf II [J=1.5] will be published when the J=0.5 calculations are complete. 9 refs, 1 tab.

Ultra-shallow, box-like impurity profiles are produced using Gas Immersion Laser Doping (GILD) and then analyzed by spreading resistance profilometry (SRP) and secondary ion mass spectrometry (SIMS) to determine the impurity distribution. At high concentrations, the profiles obtained by SRP exhibit the expected box-like shape over the entire range of junction depths: The measured concentration within the junction region is uniform while the dopant gradient at the junction exceeds 0.5 decades/nm. In comparison, the same profiles analyzed by SIMS show a broader transition at the metallurgical junction. Caused by knock-ons and ion mixing during the sputtering process, this inaccuracy is reduced, but not eliminated by lowering the acceleration energy of the primary Cs{sup +} ion beam. At lower concentrations (< 10{sup 19}/cm{sup 3}), profiles analyzed by SRP exhibit shallower junctions than expected. Electrical measurements of diodes and Hall structures show that high-quality, ultra-shallow n{sup +}p, np and pn are fabricated with good dose control using GILD. For complete characterization of GILD, accurate measurement of both chemical and electrically-active dopant profiles are required. At present, neither SIMS nor SRP provides an entirely accurate impurity profile.

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