Numerous studies have been conducted to determine changes that occur in slag that cause a rapid change in viscosity, but these studies have been limited by the inability to characterize/identify the phases present in the slag. Rapid freezing of slag in entrained gasifiers and slagging combustion systems can cause a shutdown of the system. The reactions occurring in slag that result in rapid freezing of slags are not well understood. It is believed that electron backscatter diffraction (EBSD) can be used to analyze slags and aid in their characterization although its use has not been found in literature. The EBSD technique allows particle-by-particle mineralogy based on diffraction patterns generated by the electron beam when the sample is tilted to a high angle. The diffraction pattern (Kikuchi bands) can only come from crystalline phases, which makes this technique ideally suited to study crystal formation in slags where oftentimes the crystals are very small and a reasonable chemical analysis cannot be made by conventional energy-dispersive spectrometry (EDS) methods in the scanning electron microscope. The ability to have mineralogical data based on the crystalline structure of a phase rather than a chemical analysis by EDS allows much better interpretation of the temperature regimes …

The Advanced Monobore Concept--CFEX{copyright} Self-Expanding Tubular Technology Development was a successfully executed fundamental research through field demonstration project. This final report is presented as a progression, according to basic technology development steps. For this project, the research and development steps used were: concept development, engineering analysis, manufacturing, testing, demonstration, and technology transfer. The CFEX{copyright} Technology Development--Advanced Monobore Concept Project successfully completed all of the steps for technology development, covering fundamental research, conceptual development, engineering design, advanced-level prototype construction, mechanical testing, and downhole demonstration. Within an approximately two year period, a partially defined, broad concept was evolved into a substantial new technological area for drilling and production engineering applicable a variety of extractive industries--which was also successfully demonstrated in a test well. The demonstration achievement included an actual mono-diameter placement of two self-expanding tubulars. The fundamental result is that an economical and technically proficient means of casing any size of drilling or production well or borehole is indicated as feasible based on the results of the project. Highlighted major accomplishments during the project's Concept, Engineering, Manufacturing, Demonstration, and Technology Transfer phases, are given.

We have developed a forward modeling technique to retrieve rupture characteristics of small earthquakes (3<M<5), including rupture propagation direction, fault dimension, and rupture speed.

This final technical progress report describes work performed from October 1, 2004, through May 16, 2007, for the project, 'Aperture-Tolerant, Chemical-Based Methods to Reduce Channeling'. We explored the potential of pore-filling gels for reducing excess water production from both fractured and unfractured production wells. Several gel formulations were identified that met the requirements--i.e., providing water residual resistance factors greater than 2,000 and ultimate oil residual resistance factors (F{sub rro}) of 2 or less. Significant oil throughput was required to achieve low F{sub rro} values, suggesting that gelant penetration into porous rock must be small (a few feet or less) for existing pore-filling gels to provide effective disproportionate permeability reduction. Compared with adsorbed polymers and weak gels, strong pore-filling gels can provide greater reliability and behavior that is insensitive to the initial rock permeability. Guidance is provided on where relative-permeability-modification/disproportionate-permeability-reduction treatments can be successfully applied for use in either oil or gas production wells. When properly designed and executed, these treatments can be successfully applied to a limited range of oilfield excessive-water-production problems. We examined whether gel rheology can explain behavior during extrusion through fractures. The rheology behavior of the gels tested showed a strong parallel to the results obtained from …

While thermochemical syngas production facilities for biomass utilization are already employed worldwide, exploitation of their potential has been inhibited by technical limitations encountered when attempting to obtain real-time syngas compositional data required for process optimization, reliability, and syngas quality assurance. To address these limitations, the Gas Technology Institute (GTI) carried out two companion projects (under US DOE Cooperative Agreements DE-FC36-02GO12024 and DE-FC36-03GO13175) to develop and demonstrate the equipment and methods required to reliably and continuously obtain accurate and representative on-line syngas compositional data. These objectives were proven through a stepwise series of field tests of biomass and coal gasification process streams. GTI developed the methods and hardware for extractive syngas sample stream delivery and distribution, necessary to make use of state-of-the-art on-line analyzers to evaluate and optimize syngas cleanup and conditioning. The primary objectives of Cooperative Agreement DE-FC36-02GO12024 were the selection, acquisition, and application of a suite of gas analyzers capable of providing near real-time gas analyses to suitably conditioned syngas streams. A review was conducted of sampling options, available analysis technologies, and commercially available analyzers, that could be successfully applied to the challenging task of on-line syngas characterization. The majority of thermochemical process streams comprise multicomponent gas mixtures that, …

While thermochemical syngas production facilities for biomass utilization are already employed worldwide, exploitation of their potential has been inhibited by technical limitations encountered when attempting to obtain real-time syngas compositional data required for process optimization, reliability, and syngas quality assurance. To address these limitations, the Gas Technology Institute (GTI) carried out two companion projects (under US DOE Cooperative Agreements DE-FC36-03GO13175 and DE-FC36-02GO12024) to develop and demonstrate the equipment and methods required to reliably and continuously obtain accurate and representative on-line syngas compositional data. These objectives were proven through a stepwise series of field tests of biomass and coal gasification process streams. GTI developed the methods and hardware for extractive syngas sample stream delivery and distribution, necessary to make use of state-of-the-art on-line analyzers to evaluate and optimize syngas cleanup and conditioning. This multi-year effort to develop methods to effectively monitor gaseous species produced in thermochemical process streams resulted in a sampling and analysis approach that is continuous, sensitive, comprehensive, accurate, reliable, economical, and safe. The improved approach for sampling thermochemical processes that GTI developed and demonstrated in its series of field demonstrations successfully provides continuous transport of vapor-phase syngas streams extracted from the main gasification process stream to multiple, commercially …

A 200 kW Fuel Cell has been installed in the Lion House, Bronx Zoo, NY. The Fuel Cell is a 200 kW phosphoric acid type manufactured by United Technologies Corporation (UTC) and will provide thermal energy at 725,000 Btu/hr.

This report will serve as the final report on the work performed from the contract period October 2005 thru April 2007. The project 'A Built for Purpose Microhole Coiled Tubing Rig (MCTR)' purpose was to upgrade an existing state-of-the-art Coiled Tubing Drilling Rig to a Microhole Coiled Tubing Rig (MCTR) capable of meeting the specifications and tasks of the Department of Energy. The individual tasks outlined to meet the Department of Energy's specifications are: (1) Concept and development of lubricator and tool deployment system; (2) Concept and development of process control and data acquisition; (3) Concept and development of safety and efficiency improvements; and (4) Final unit integration and testing. The end result of the MCTR upgrade has produced a unit capable of meeting the following requirements: (1) Capable of handling 1-inch through 2-3/8-inch coiled tubing (Currently dressed for 2-3/8-inch coiled tubing and capable of running up to 3-1/2-inch coiled tubing); (2) Capable of drilling and casing surface, intermediate, production and liner hole intervals; (3) Capable of drilling with coiled tubing and has all controls and installation piping for a top drive; (4) Rig is capable of running 7-5/8-inch range 2 casing; and (5) Capable of drilling 5,000 ft true …

Kd values obtained on sediment samples from 200-UP-1 and 10-ZP-1 contribute to a larger Kd database that exists for other Hanford sediments, and contains significant desorption data for CCl4. Adsorption results presented here validate the use of a linear adsorption isotherm (Kd) to predict short contact time CCl4 adsorption to sediments in 200-UP-1 groundwater plume for a distinct ranges in CCl4 concentration. However, this does not imply that values of Kd will be constant if the groundwater chemical composition at 200-UP-1 changes with space or time. Additionally, results presented here suggest the potential significance of slower intraparticle diffusion on the long-term fate of CCl4 within the subsurface Hanford environment. Such behavior could afford prolonged desorption of CCl4 and serve as a long-term source of contaminant CCl4 to the aquifer. Further evaluation of possible bimodal sorption behavior for CCl4 and the mechanism of CCl¬4 sequestration should be the subject of future investigations to provide a thorough, mechanistic understanding of the retention and long-term fate of CCl4. Comparison of previous data with new results (e.g., from this study) will allow inferences to be made on how the 200-UP-1 Kd values for CCl4 may compare with sediments from other Hanford locations. This site-specific …

This project titled 'Demonstration of the New MorElectric{trademark} Technology as an Idle Reduction Solution' is one of four demonstration projects awarded by the US Department of Energy in 2002. The goal of these demonstration and evaluation projects was to gather objective in-use information on the performance of available idle reduction technologies by characterizing the cost; fuel, maintenance, and engine life savings; payback; and user impressions of various systems and techniques. In brief, the Caterpillar Inc. project involved applying electrically driven accessories for cab comfort during engine-off stops and for reducing fuel consumption during on-highway operation. Caterpillar had equipped and operated five new trucks with the technology in conjunction with International Truck and Engine Corporation and COX Transfer. The most significant result of the project was a demonstrated average idle reduction of 13.8% for the 5 truck MEI fleet over the control fleet. It should be noted that the control fleet trucks were also equipped with an idle reduction device that would start and stop the main engine automatically in order to maintain cab temperature. The control fleet idle usage would have been reduced by 3858 hours over the 2 year period with the MEI system installed, or approximately 2315 gallons …

The optical properties of aerosol particles are the controlling factors in determining direct aerosol radiative forcing. These optical properties depend on the chemical composition and size distribution of the aerosol particles, which can change due to various processes during the particles’ lifetime in the atmosphere. Over the course of this project we have studied how cloud processing of atmospheric aerosol changes the aerosol optical properties. A counterflow virtual impactor was used to separate cloud drops from interstitial aerosol and parallel aerosol systems were used to measure the optical properties of the interstitial and cloud-scavenged aerosol. Specifically, aerosol light scattering, back-scattering and absorption were measured and used to derive radiatively significant parameters such as aerosol single scattering albedo and backscatter fraction for cloud-scavenged and interstitial aerosol. This data allows us to demonstrate that the radiative properties of cloud-processed aerosol can be quite different than pre-cloud aerosol. These differences can be used to improve the parameterization of aerosol forcing in climate models.

The WECC load modeling task force has dedicated its effort in the past few years to develop a composite load model that can represent behaviors of different end-user components. The modeling structure of the composite load model is recommended by the WECC load modeling task force. GE Energy has implemented this composite load model with a new function CMPLDW in its power system simulation software package, PSLF. For the last several years, Bonneville Power Administration (BPA) has taken the lead and collaborated with GE Energy to develop the new composite load model. Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) and BPA joint force and conducted the evaluation of the CMPLDW and test its parameter settings to make sure that: • the model initializes properly, • all the parameter settings are functioning, and • the simulation results are as expected. The PNNL effort focused on testing the CMPLDW in a 4-bus system. An exhaustive testing on each parameter setting has been performed to guarantee each setting works. This report is a summary of the PNNL testing results and conclusions.

The U.S. nonproliferation policy 'to minimize, and to the extent possible, eliminate the use of HEU in civil nuclear programs throughout the world' has resulted in the conversion (or scheduled conversion) of many of the U.S. research reactors from high-enriched uranium (HEU) to low-enriched uranium (LEU). A foil fuel appears to offer the best option for using a LEU fuel in the High Flux Isotope Reactor (HFIR) without degrading the performance of the reactor. The purpose of this document is to outline a proposed conceptual fabrication process flow sheet for a new, foil-type, 19.75%-enriched fuel for HFIR. The preparation of the flow sheet allows a better understanding of the costs of infrastructure modifications, operating costs, and implementation schedule issues associated with the fabrication of LEU fuel for HFIR. Preparation of a reference flow sheet is one of the first planning steps needed in the development of a new manufacturing capacity for low enriched fuels for U.S. research and test reactors. The flow sheet can be used to develop a work breakdown structure (WBS), a critical path schedule, and identify development needs. The reference flow sheet presented in this report is specifically for production of LEU foil fuel for the HFIR. …

This project investigated the development and application of sensor networks to enhance building energy management and security. Commercial, industrial and residential buildings often incorporate systems used to determine occupancy, but current sensor technology and control algorithms limit the effectiveness of these systems. For example, most of these systems rely on single monitoring points to detect occupancy, when more than one monitoring point could improve system performance. Phase I of the project focused on instrumentation and data collection. During the initial project phase, a new occupancy detection system was developed, commissioned and installed in a sample of private offices and open-plan office workstations. Data acquisition systems were developed and deployed to collect data on space occupancy profiles. Phase II of the project demonstrated that a network of several sensors provides a more accurate measure of occupancy than is possible using systems based on single monitoring points. This phase also established that analysis algorithms could be applied to the sensor network data stream to improve the accuracy of system performance in energy management and security applications. In Phase III of the project, the sensor network from Phase I was complemented by a control strategy developed based on the results from the first …

Removal of hydrogen sulfide (H{sub 2}S) from coal gasifier gas and sulfur recovery are key steps in the development of Department of Energy's (DOE's) advanced power plants that produce electric power and clean transportation fuels with coal and natural gas. These plants will require highly clean coal gas with H{sub 2}S below 1 ppmv and negligible amounts of trace contaminants such as hydrogen chloride, ammonia, alkali, heavy metals, and particulate. The conventional method of sulfur removal and recovery employing amine, Claus, and tail-gas treatment is very expensive. A second generation approach developed under DOE's sponsorship employs hot-gas desulfurization (HGD) using regenerable metal oxide sorbents followed by Direct Sulfur Recovery Process (DSRP). However, this process sequence does not remove trace contaminants and is targeted primarily towards the development of advanced integrated gasification combined cycle (IGCC) plants that produce electricity (not both electricity and transportation fuels). There is an immediate as well as long-term need for the development of cleanup processes that produce highly clean coal gas for next generation power plants. To this end, a novel process is now under development at several research organizations in which the H{sub 2}S in coal gas is directly oxidized to elemental sulfur over a …

This report summarizes work during the 30 month time period of this project. This was planned originally for 3-years duration, but due to its financial limitations, DOE halted funding after 2 years. The California Institute of Technology continued working on this project for an additional 6 months based on a no-cost extension granted by DOE. The objective of this project is to improve the performance of aqueous phase formulations that are designed to increase oil recovery from fractured, oil-wet carbonate reservoir rock. This process works by increasing the rate and extent of aqueous phase imbibition into the matrix blocks in the reservoir and thereby displacing crude oil normally not recovered in a conventional waterflood operation. The project had three major components: (1) developing methods for the rapid screening of surfactant formulations towards identifying candidates suitable for more detailed evaluation, (2) more fundamental studies to relate the chemical structure of acid components of an oil and surfactants in aqueous solution as relates to their tendency to wet a carbonate surface by oil or water, and (3) a more applied study where aqueous solutions of different commercial surfactants are examined for their ability to recover a West Texas crude oil from a …

Mechanically alloyed oxide dispersion strengthened (ODS) Fe-Cr-Al alloy thin walled tubes and sheets, produced via powder processing and consolidation methodologies are promising materials for eventual use at temperatures up to 1200 C in the power generation industry, far above the temperature capabilities of conventional alloys. Target end-uses range from gas turbine combustor liners to high aspect ratio (L/D) heat exchanger tubes. Grain boundary creep processes at service temperatures, particularly those acting in the hoop direction, are the dominant failure mechanisms for such components. The processed microstructure of ODS alloys consists of high aspect ratio grains aligned parallel to the tube axis, a result of dominant axial metal flow which aligns the dispersoid particles and other impurities in the longitudinal direction. The dispersion distribution is unaltered on a micro scale by recrystallization thermal treatments, but the high aspect ratio grain shape typically obtained limits transverse grain spacing and consequently the hoop creep response. Improving hoop creep in ODS-alloy components will require understanding and manipulating the factors that control the recrystallization behavior, and represents a critical materials design and development challenge that must be overcome in order to fully exploit the potential of ODS alloys. The objectives of this program were to …

The primary goal of this project was to demonstrate a new and novel approach for high resolution, 3D reservoir characterization that can enable better management of CO{sub 2} enhanced oil recovery (EOR) projects and, looking to the future, carbon sequestration projects. The approach adopted has been the subject of previous research by the DOE and others, and relies primarily upon data-mining and advanced pattern recognition approaches. This approach honors all reservoir characterization data collected, but accepts that our understanding of how these measurements relate to the information of most interest, such as how porosity and permeability vary over a reservoir volume, is imperfect. Ideally the data needed for such an approach includes surface seismic to provide the greatest amount of data over the entire reservoir volume of interest, crosswell seismic to fill the resolution gap between surface seismic and wellbore-scale measurements, geophysical well logs to provide the vertical resolution sought, and core data to provide the tie to the information of most interest. These data are combined via a series of one or more relational models to enable, in its most successful application, the prediction of porosity and permeability on a vertical resolution similar to logs at each surface seismic …

A detailed study of the catalyst composition, preparation and activation protocol of Fe-based catalysts for the Fischer-Tropsch Synthesis (FTS) have been carried out in this project. We have studied the effects of different promoters on the catalytic performance of Fe-based catalysts. Specifically, we have focused on how their sequence of addition dramatically influences the performance of these materials in the Fischer-Tropsch synthesis. The resulting procedures have been optimized to improve further upon the already unprecedented rates and C{sub 5+} selectivities of the Fe-based catalysts that we have developed as part of this project. Selectivity to C{sub 5+} hydrocarbon was close to 90 % (CO{sub 2}-free basis) and CO conversion rate was about 6.7 mol h{sup -1} g-at Fe{sup -1} at 2.14 MPa, 508 K and with substoichiometric synthesis gas; these rates were larger than any reported previously for Fe-based FTS catalysts at these conditions. We also tested the stability of Fe-based catalysts during FTS reaction (10 days); as a result, the high hydrocarbon formation rates were maintained during 10 days, though the gradual deactivation was observed. Our investigation has also focused on the evaluation of Fe-based catalysts with hydrogen-poor synthesis gas streams (H{sub 2}/CO=1). We have observed that the Fe-based …

Identifying vulnerabilities in power networks is an important problem, as even a small number of vulnerable connections can cause billions of dollars in damage to a network. In this paper, we investigate a graph theoretical formulation for identifying vulnerabilities of a network. We first try to find the most critical components in a network by finding an optimal solution for each possible cutsize constraint for the relaxed version of the inhibiting bisection problem, which aims to find loosely coupled subgraphs with significant demand/supply mismatch. Then we investigate finding critical components by finding a flow assignment that minimizes the maximum among flow assignments on all edges. We also report experiments on IEEE 30, IEEE 118, and WSCC 179 benchmark power networks.

The overarching goal of the project was to develop luminescent materials using aerosol processes for making improved LED devices for solid state lighting. In essence this means improving white light emitting phosphor based LEDs by improvement of the phosphor and phosphor layer. The structure of these types of light sources, displayed in Figure 1, comprises of a blue or UV LED under a phosphor layer that converts the blue or UV light to a broad visible (white) light. Traditionally, this is done with a blue emitting diode combined with a blue absorbing, broadly yellow emitting phosphor such as Y{sub 3}Al{sub 5}O{sub 12}:Ce (YAG). A similar result may be achieved by combining a UV emitting diode and at least three different UV absorbing phosphors: red, green, and blue emitting. These emitted colors mix to make white light. The efficiency of these LEDs is based on the combined efficiency of the LED, phosphor, and the interaction between the two. The Cabot SSL project attempted to improve the over all efficiency of the LED light source be improving the efficiency of the phosphor and the interaction between the LED light and the phosphor. Cabot's spray based process for producing phosphor powders is able …

The concept of using a dry, density-based separator to achieve efficient, near-face rock removal, commonly referred to as deshaling, was evaluated in several applications across the U.S.. Varying amounts of high-density rock exist in most run-of-mine feed. In the central Appalachian coalfields, a rock content exceeding 50% in the feed to a preparation plant is commonplace due to high amounts of out-of-seam dilution made necessary by extracting coal from thin seams. In the western U.S, an increase in out-of-seam dilution and environmental regulations associated with combustion emissions have resulted in a need to clean low rank coals and dry cleaning may be the only option. A 5 ton/hr mobile deshaling unit incorporating a density-based, air-table technology commercially known as the FGX Separator has been evaluated at mine sites located within the states of Utah, Wyoming, Texas, West Virginia, Virginia, Pennsylvania and Kentucky. The FGX technology utilizes table riffling principles with air as the medium. Air enters through the table and creates a fluidized bed of particles comprised of mostly fine, high density particles. The high density particle bed lifts the low-density coal particles to the top of the bed. The low-density coal moves toward the front of the table due …

The long-term economic potential for enhanced oil recovery (EOR) is large with more than 300 billion barrels of oil remaining in domestic reservoirs after conventional technologies reach their economic limit. Actual EOR production in the United States has never been very large, less than 10% of the total U. S. production even though a number of economic incentives have been used to stimulate the development and application of EOR processes. The U.S. DOE Reservoir Data Base contains more than 600 reservoirs with over 12 billion barrels of unrecoverable oil that are potential targets for microbially enhanced oil recovery (MEOR). If MEOR could be successfully applied to reduce the residual oil saturation by 10% in a quarter of these reservoirs, more than 300 million barrels of oil could be added to the U.S. oil reserve. This would stimulate oil production from domestic reservoirs and reduce our nation's dependence on foreign imports. Laboratory studies have shown that detergent-like molecules called biosurfactants, which are produced by microorganisms, are very effective in mobilizing entrapped oil from model test systems. The biosurfactants are effective at very low concentrations. Given the promising laboratory results, it is important to determine the efficacy of using biosurfactants in actual …

Development of Self-Expanding Idealflo{trademark} Sandscreen Technology was a successfully executed design-by-analysis through field demonstration project. This final report is presented as a two-part progression of concept development and manufacturing activities. The first part, conceptual development activities, discusses novel specifications creation and non-linear analytical design generation. The second part, manufacturing, contains achievement related information for detailed-design, fabrication, mechanical testing, and field demonstration activities.