The research objective of this project is to analyze the resolution of two different geophysical imaging techniques (electrical resistivity tomography and cross-borehole ground penetrating radar) for monitoring subsurface flow and transport processes within the vadose zone. This is being accomplished through a coupled approach involving large scale unsaturated flow modeling, petrophysical conversion of the resulting hydrologic properties to a geophysical property model and generation of synthetic geophysical data, followed by the inversion of the synthetic geophysical data. The resolution, benefits, and limitations of the geophysical techniques will then be ascertained through analysis and comparison of the images to the original hydrologic model. In addition, increasing levels of complexity will be added to the models as the project progresses through the addition of heterogeneity in the original hydrologic property model, and through uncertainty in the petrophysical relationship that couples the geophysical model to the hydrologic simulation.

This is the sixteenth Quarterly Technical Report for DOE Cooperative Agreement No: DEFC26-00NT40753. The goal of the project is to develop cost effective analysis tools and techniques for demonstrating and evaluating low NOx control strategies and their possible impact on boiler performance for boilers firing US coals. The Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) is providing co-funding for this program. During an unplanned outage, damage occurred to the electrochemical noise corrosion probes installed at the AEP Gavin plant; testing is expected to resume in August. The KEMCOP corrosion coupons were not affected by the unplanned outage; the coupons were removed and sent for analysis. BYU conducted a series of tests before the ISSR lab was relocated. Ammonia adsorption experiments provided clear evidence of the types of acidic sites present on catalyst surfaces. Data collected this quarter indicate that surface sulfation decreases Lewis acid site concentrations for all catalysts thus far studied, confirming that catalytic activity under commercial coal-based SCR conditions occurs primarily on Br{o}nsted acid sites and would be susceptible to basic impurities such as alkali and alkaline earth oxides, chlorides, and sulfates. SCR activity tests based on MS analysis showed that increasing sulfation generally increases NO reduction activity for both …

The visualization of large, remotely located data sets necessitates the development of a distributed computing pipeline in order to reduce the data, in stages, to a manageable size. The required baseline infrastructure for launching such a distributed pipeline is becoming available, but few services support even marginally optimal resource selection and partitioning of the data analysis workflow. We explore a methodology for building a model of overall application performance using a composition of the analytic models of individual components that comprise the pipeline. The analytic models are shown to be accurate on a testbed of distributed heterogeneous systems. The prediction methodology will form the foundation of a more robust resource management service for future Grid-based visualization applications.

The primary focus for the project during the quarter was shakedown testing of the large-scale coal preheater prototype in the CBTF with non-caking PRB coal. Additional pilot-scale tests were conducted in the PSCF in support of developing a preheating system design suitable for use with caking coals. Thirty-two additional pilot tests were conducted during the quarter with caking coal. These tests further evaluated the use of the air-bleed and indirect air-cooled liner designs to reduce or eliminate combustor plugging with caking coal. The air-bleed configurations tested used air injection holes perpendicular to the liner's longitudinal axis with the number, size and air flow though the air-bleed holes varied to determine the effect on combustor plugging. The indirect cooling configurations tested included a stainless steel liner with spiral fins in the annular space between the liner and the combustor wall, and a silicon carbide liner without fins. Continuous pilot operation was maintained for up to 30 minutes at a coal feed rate of 50 lb/h with the air-bleed liner. The best result achieved was for the stainless steel indirect air-cooled liner with 20 minutes of continuous operation at 126 lb/h of coal followed by an additional 20 minutes at 150 lb/h. …

The Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) has developed a slurry molding technology for the manufacture of porous, high surface area, carbon fiber composites molecular sieves, and carbon-carbon composite preforms. Potentially, this technology could be applied to the manufacture of a host of novel carbon materials including porous adsorbent carbons, low-pressure drop adsorbent carbon composites, ultra-fine-grained graphite, and carbon fiber reinforced graphite. New opportunities for high surface carbon fiber composite molecular sieve (CFCMS) materials are now emerging. Many of these opportunities are driven by increasingly harsh environmental pressures. Traditional granular activated carbon (GAC) is not suitable for many of these applications because of the difficulties encountered with attrition and in forming ''structures'' which have the necessary mechanical and physical properties. In addition, the electrical desorption of adsorbed species is not possible with GAC due to its low bulk electrical conductivity. Activated carbon fibers have been found to be useful in some applications. Work by ORNL has shown, for example, that CFCMS materials are capable of adsorbing various gases and desorbing them under electrical stimulation. For some applications these fibers have to be formed into a structure that can offer the desired mechanical integrity and pressure drop characteristics. To date, the work …

This report describes Coal Combustion Products Extension Program.

A pilot carbon dioxide miscible flood was initiated in the Lansing Kansas City C formation in the Hall Gurney Field, Russell County, Kansas. Continuous carbon dioxide injection began on December 2, 2003. By the end of June 2004, 6.26 MM lb of carbon dioxide were injected into the pilot area. Carbon dioxide injection rates averaged about 250 MCFD. Carbon dioxide was detected in one production well near the end of May. The amount of carbon dioxide produced was small during this period. Wells in the pilot area produced 100% water at the beginning of the flood. Oil production began in February, increasing to an average of about 2.5 B/D in May and June. Operational problems encountered during the initial stages of the flood were identified and resolved.

Thermal stability tests were conducted with a nitric acid (HNO3)/hydroxylammonium nitrate (HAN)/potassium fluoride (KF) solution. The solution has great potential for use in plutonium dissolution because of the small quantity of hydrogen and other offgases produced. Tests were carried out in a Reactive Systems Screening Tool (RSST). The RSST is a calorimeter equipped with temperature and pressure probes as well as a heater that can heat a liquid sample at a programmed rate. In most cases, the calorimeter was pressurized with nitrogen to reduce evaporation of the liquid sample during heating. For the proposed solution, an autocatalytic reaction occurred between 113 and 131 degrees Celsius with 300 psig or 50 psig nitrogen inside the RSST vapor space. At ambient pressure, the solution boiled at about 110 degrees Celsius. After extensive boiling, the concentrations of HNO3 and HAN increased and the autocatalytic reaction occurred. Tests were also conducted with 1000 ppm Fe present in the solution. The range of the autocatalytic reaction initiation temperature was reduced to 105-120.5 degrees Celsius. With iron at ambient pressure, boiling still occurred above 100 degrees Celsius prior to the autocatalytic reaction, which occurred at 108-109 degrees Celsius. These results demonstrated the stability of the proposed …

The Big Sky Carbon Sequestration Partnership, led by Montana State University, is comprised of research institutions, public entities and private sectors organizations, and the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes and the Nez Perce Tribe. Efforts under this Partnership fall into four areas: evaluation of sources and carbon sequestration sinks; development of GIS-based reporting framework; designing an integrated suite of monitoring, measuring, and verification technologies; and initiating a comprehensive education and outreach program. At the first two Partnership meetings the groundwork was put in place to provide an assessment of capture and storage capabilities for CO{sub 2} utilizing the resources found in the Partnership region (both geological and terrestrial sinks), that would complement the ongoing DOE research. During the third quarter, planning efforts are underway for the next Partnership meeting which will showcase the architecture of the GIS framework and initial results for sources and sinks, discuss the methods and analysis underway for assessing geological and terrestrial sequestration potentials. The meeting will conclude with an ASME workshop (see attached agenda). The region has a diverse array of geological formations that could provide storage options for carbon in one or more of its three states. Likewise, initial estimates of terrestrial sinks indicate …

This document reviews the work performed during the quarter April-June 2004. Task 1 (Site Preparation) had been completed 2003, along with three weeks of oxycombustion tests in Task 2 (experimental test performance) of the project. In current reporting period, the experimental testing has been completed: one additional week of tests has been performed to finalize the optimization of the combustion characteristics in O{sub 2}/CO{sub 2} environment ; two more days of testing were dedicated to mercury sampling in air-fired or O{sub 2}-fired conditions, and to characterization of heat transfer in O{sub 2} conditions vs. to air-blown conditions. Task 3 (Techno-Economic Study) has also been completed in current quarter: 250MWe, 500MWe and 1000MWe oxygen-fired PC unit have been simulated and quoted, and their performance and cost have been compared to same-capacity air-fired pulverized coal (PC) unit and IGCC. New and retrofit cases have been evaluated. The comparison has been completed in terms of capital cost, operating cost, cost of electricity and cost of CO{sub 2} avoided. The scope of task 4 (Conceptual Boiler Design) had been modified as per DOE request in previous quarter. Engineering calculations are currently in progress. Next steps include detail review of the experimental data collected during …

Geological disposal of the spent nuclear fuel uses often the concept of multiple barrier systems. In order to predict the performance of these barriers, mathematical models have been developed, verified and validated against analytical solutions, laboratory tests and field experiments within the international DECOVALEX III project. These models in general consider the full coupling of thermal (T), hydraulic (H) and mechanical (M) processes that would prevail in the geological media around the repository. For Bench Mark Test no. 1 (BMT1) of the DECOVALEX III project, seven multinational research teams studied the implications of coupled THM processes on the safety of a hypothetical nuclear waste repository at the near-field and are presented in three accompany papers in this issue. This paper is the first of the three companion papers, which provides the conceptualization and characterization of the BMT1 as well as some general conclusions based on the findings of the numerical studies. It also shows the process of building confidence in the mathematical models by calibration with a reference T-H-M experiment with realistic rock mass conditions and bentonite properties and measured outputs of thermal, hydraulic and mechanical variables.

Fall 2001: (September 29-30, 2001; Irvine, CA) This meeting focused on presentations and plans for two ad hoc projects sponsored by the committee?the burning plasma study and the partially ionized plasma proposals. Ongoing discussions with CHEDPP chair Ron Davidson were also included. Significant attention was given to FESAC and the Fusion Energy Snowmass meeting planned for Summer 2002. These discussions lead to continued development of the proposal for the burning plasma project. A science talk on plasma processing of materials from an industry perspective provided a backdrop for discussion of the partially ionized plasmas project. Spring 2002: (April 5-6, 2003; Washington, DC) This meeting included updates from the funding agencies (DOE, NSF, ONR, and NASA) and a discussion panel amongst them, a review of the burning plasma study proposal, and a discussion of the HED study?s progress. Future work items such as the plasma physics volume of the decadal physics survey and potential studies on computer modeling and simulation were also discussed. Fall 2002: (September 28-29, 2002; Irvine, CA) This meeting discussed the status of the then-recently started burning plasma study, heard the findings and recommendations of the HED study, and discussed the prospects for fusion in light of the …

During this reporting period, kickoff and planning meetings were held. Subcontracted experimental and modeling tasks were defined. Efforts to address the numerical stability problems that hamper FEM3A's applicability to low wind speed, stable atmospheric conditions were initiated. A detailed review of FEM3A code and its execution, required for development of an accessible user interface, was also begun. A one-day workshop on LNG safety models has been scheduled for September 2004. The goals of this project are to develop a national focal point for LNG safety research and technical dissemination and to develop the FEM3A dispersion model for application to general scenarios involving dispersion problems with obstacle and terrain features of realistic complexity. During this reporting period, the objectives and scope of the project and its constituent tasks were discussed at a project kickoff meeting in Morgantown. Details of the subcontracted experimental and modeling tasks were further defined at a separate meeting at the University of Arkansas. Researchers at the university have begun to modify the turbulence closure model used in FEM3A to insure numerical stability during simulation of low-wind-speed, stable atmospheric conditions. The university's wind tunnel is being prepared for upcoming experimental studies. GTI has begun a detailed review of …

Hydrogen can be produced from many feed stocks including coal. The objectives of this project are to establish and prove a hydrogen production pathway from coal-derived methanol for fuel cell applications. This progress report is the third report submitted to the DOE reporting on the status and progress made during the course of the project. This report covers the time period of April 1-June 30, 2004. This quarter saw progress in five areas. These areas are: (1) External evaluation of coal based methanol and the fuel cell grade baseline fuel, (2) Design, set up and initial testing of the autothermal reactor, (3) Experiments to determine the axial and radial thermal profiles of the steam reformers, (4) Catalyst degradation studies, and (5) Experimental investigations of heat and mass transfer enhancement methods by flow field manipulation. All of the projects are proceeding on or slightly ahead of schedule.

Coralline sponges have the potential to fill in gaps in our understanding of subsurface oceanographic variability. However, one disadvantage they have compared to hermatypic reef building coral proxies is that they do not have annual density bands and need to be radiometrically dated for an age determination. To elucidate growth rate variability we have measured radiocarbon in 1 mm increments from Astrosclera willeyana sponges collected off the Central and Northern Great Barrier Reef (GBR) and from Truk in the Caroline Islands and compared these radiocarbon profiles to independently dated coral radiocarbon records. Growth rates of the GBR sponges average 1.2 {+-} 0.3 and 1.0 {+-} 0.3 mm yr{sup -1}, north and central respectively but can vary by a factor of two. The growth rate of the Truk sponge averages 1.2 {+-} 0.1 mm yr{sup -1}. These growth rates are significantly faster to those measured for other GBR Astrosclera willeyana sponges (0.2 mm yr{sup -1}) by Calcein staining (Woerheide 1988).

Coralline sponges (sclerosponges) have been proposed as a new source for paleo subsurface temperature reconstructions by utilizing methods developed for reef-building corals. However unlike corals, coralline sponges do not have density variations making age determination difficult. In this study we examined multiple elemental rations (B, Mg, Sr, Ba, U) in the coralline sponge Astrosclera willeyana. We also measured skeletal density profiles along the outer ''living'' edge of the sponges and this data indicates significant thickening of skeletal material over intervals of 2-3 mm or 2-3 years. This suggests that any skeletal recovered environmental record from Astrosclera willeyana is an integration of signals over a 2-3 year period. Sponge Sr/Ca seemed to hold the most promise as a recorder of water temperature and we compared Sr/Ca from 2 sponges in the Great Barrier Reef and one from Truk in Micronesia to their respective sea surface temperature record. The correlations were not that strong ({approx} r=-0.5) but they were significant. It appears that the signal smoothing due to thickening or perhaps even some biologic control on Sr skeletal partitioning limits the use of Sr/Ca as an indicator of water temperature in Astrosclera willeyana.

Research is being conducted under United States Department of Energy (DOE) Contract DEFC26-03NT41865 to develop a new technology to achieve very low levels of NOx emissions from pulverized coal fired boiler systems by employing a novel system level integration between the PC combustion process and the catalytic NOx reduction with CO present in the combustion flue gas. The combustor design and operating conditions will be optimized to achieve atypical flue gas conditions. This approach will not only suppress NOx generation during combustion but also further reduce NOx over a downstream catalytic reactor that does not require addition of an external reductant, such as ammonia. This report describes the work performed during the April 1 to June 30, 2004 time period.

Pacific Northwest National Laboratory assisted CH2M Hill Hanford Group, Inc., (CHG) by providing estimates of recharge rates for current conditions and long-term scenarios involving disposal in the Integrated Disposal Facility (IDF). The IDF will be located in the 200 East Area at the Hanford Site and will receive several types of waste including immobilized low-activity waste. The recharge estimates for each scenario were derived from lysimeter and tracer data collected by the IDF PA Project and from modeling studies conducted for the project. Recharge estimates were provided for three specific site features (the surface barrier; possible barrier side slopes; and the surrounding soil) and four specific time periods (pre-Hanford; Hanford operations; surface barrier design life; post-barrier design life). CHG plans to conduct a performance assessment of the latest IDF design and call it the IDF 2005 PA; this recharge data package supports the upcoming IDF 2005 PA.

This report outlines the technical progress achieved for project DE-FC26-03NT41785 (Total Ore Processing Integration and Management) during the period 01 April through 30 June of 2004.

Medicaid, a means-tested federal/state program that provides health care coverage to certain groups of individuals, requires that states continue Medicaid benefits for certain low-income families who would otherwise lose coverage because of changes in their income. This continuation of benefits is known as transitional medical assistance (TMA). The law permanently requires four months of TMA for families who lose Medicaid eligibility due to increased child or spousal support collections, as well as those who lose eligibility due to an increase in earned income or hours of employment. Congress expanded work-related TMA under Section 1925 of the Social Security Act as part of the Family Support Act of 1988, and states currently must provide TMA to families who lose Medicaid eligibility for work-related reasons for at least six, and up to 12, months.

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The deflagration-to-detonation transition (DDT) was investigated for 1.874 g/cc (98.8 % of theoretical maximum density) LX-04 in moderate confinement (4340 steel tube at R{sub C} 32 with 1.020 inch inside diameter and 0.235 inch thick wall) at both ambient initial temperature (roughly 20 C) and at an initial temperature of 186 C. No transition to detonation was observed in a 295 mm column length for either case.

Can we demonstrate that subsurface storage is an effective method of reducing emissions of CO2 to the atmosphere? The Frio Brine Pilot Experiment is designed to test storage performance of a typical subsurface environment in an area where large-volume sources and sinks are abundant, near Houston, Texas, USA. We employed extensive pre-experiment characterization and modeling to identify significant factors that increase or decrease risk of leakage from the injection zone. We then designed the experiment to focus on those factors, as well as to test for presence or absence of events that are not expected. A fully developed reservoir model of heterogeneous reworked fluvial sandstones of the Frio Formation documents three-dimensional compartmentalization of the injection horizon by faulting associated with salt-dome intrusion and growth. Modeling using the TOUGH2 simulator showed that a significant source of uncertainty for subsurface performance of injected CO2 is residual CO2 saturation during storage. If initial displacement of water during injection is efficient and capillary effects create the expected residual saturation of 30 percent CO2, the volume occupied by the plume will be limited, and long-term storage can be expected even in an open system. If, however, during injection, CO2 moves out from the injection well …

This study is aimed at obtaining a better understanding of vadose zone flow and transport processes at the field scale and establishing defensible links between laboratory- and field derived transport parameters for conservative and reactive elements in the vadose zone. The study site (Vadose Zone Research Park [VZRP] at INEEL) provides a three-dimensional instrumentation array strategically surrounding new infiltration ponds, and the Big Lost River, and intermittent stream proximal to the infiltration ponds. The proposed research will utilize the infiltration ponds and the Big Lost River to study the effects of fluid flux, water chemistry and degree of saturation on contaminant transport in the vadose zone. Our research plan has four major objectives: (1) evaluate the transport of conservative and reactive solute and colloid tracers through the vadose zone and local perched water zones; (2) examine isotopic variations of U and Sr and compare these to introduced sorbing and non- sorbing tracers; (3) develop and calibrate a conceptual flow and transport model, and (4) examine the effects of flow and geochemical transients on tracer and colloid transport.