U.S. Department of Energy • Office of Fossil Energy

N a t i o n a l E n e r g y Te c h n o l o g y L a b o r a t o r y
NETL Accomplishments FY 2004 2

MESSAGE FROM THE DIRECTOR

It is my pleasure to present the National Energy Technology Laboratory’s (NETL’s)

Accomplishments Report for fiscal year 2004. The report responds to the

Government Performance and Results Act of 1993 by describing how NETL has

spent taxpayer funds. It emphasizes the results of NETL’s activities—not the

activities themselves. It demonstrates that NETL has upheld the trust of the

American taxpayer and has wisely used taxpayer funds to achieve meaningful

results that benefit the country.

This laboratory has been evolving for nearly 100 years. What was once a small

experimental laboratory near downtown Pittsburgh, is now a major research

laboratory with facilities in four states—Alaska, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, and

West Virginia—and research and technology-development projects in nearly every

state in the nation. Where it once narrowly focused on coal-mining safety

equipment and practices, NETL’s mission now is to conduct and implement wideranging research and technology development programs to ensure that fossil energy

resources can meet increasing demand for affordable energy, without

compromising the quality of life for future generations.

Innovative energy technologies are vital to fulfilling our mission. NETL is

developing these new and improved technologies through onsite and contracted

research focusing on the production, transmission, and utilization of fossil fuels—

coal, oil, and natural gas. These resources provide 85 percent of our nation’s energy

supply today, and will continue to supply the bulk of the nation’s energy needs for

decades to come. Our work provides new, affordable ways to produce, transport,

and use fossil fuels consistent with national environmental and energy security

objectives.

With funding from the Department of Energy’s Office of Fossil Energy, as well as

other Department of Energy offices and federal agencies, NETL is speeding the

development of energy solutions. We remain committed to turning taxpayer dollars

into science and technology advances, and these advances into energy systems that

improve the quality of life for all people.

Please take the time to browse through this accomplishments report. We believe our

achievements speak for themselves.

Carl O. Bauer

Acting Director

National Energy Technology Laboratory
NETL Accomplishments FY 2004 3

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Contributing to America’s Energy Future: An Overview ...................................... 4

NETL’s FY 2004 Accomplishments........................................................................... 7

COAL: America’s Most Abundant Fossil Fuel ......................................................................... 8

Technologies for Existing Coal-Fired Power Plants ........................................................................................ 9

Mercury ................................................................................................................................................... 9

Criteria Pollutants.................................................................................................................................. 11

Coal Utilization Byproducts.................................................................................................................. 13

The Water-Energy Interface .................................................................................................................. 14

Technologies for Future Energy Plants .......................................................................................................... 14

Coal Gasification ................................................................................................................................... 15

Combustion Turbines ............................................................................................................................ 16

Fuel Cells .............................................................................................................................................. 17

Carbon Sequestration ............................................................................................................................ 19

Hydrogen............................................................................................................................................... 22

Materials ................................................................................................................................................ 23

Clean Coal Demonstration Projects ............................................................................................................... 25

Modeling ........................................................................................................................................................ 27

NATURAL GAS: The World’s Fastest Growing Energy Source .......................................... 30

Gas Exploration and Production .................................................................................................................... 31

Methane Hydrate ............................................................................................................................................ 34

Gas Transmission, Distribution, and Storage ................................................................................................. 36

Gas Environmental Solutions ......................................................................................................................... 39

OIL: Lifeblood of America’s Economy.................................................................................... 40

Oil Exploration and Production ..................................................................................................................... 41

Fuels ............................................................................................................................................................... 46

Oil Environmental Solutions .......................................................................................................................... 47

Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy.............................................................................. 49

Energy Information ................................................................................................................. 51

Awards and Recognition ......................................................................................................... 54
NETL Accomplishments FY 2004 4

CONTRIBUTING TO AMERICA’S ENERGY

FUTURE: AN OVERVIEW

NETL—Who We Are, What We Do

The history of NETL dates back to 1910 when the Pittsburgh Experiment Station

opened as part of the newly created Bureau of Mines. The station developed

innovative coal-mining safety equipment and practices, and offered advanced

training for coal operators and miners in its experimental coal mine. By the 1940s,

the organizations that make up today’s laboratory were devising processes to

produce synthesis gas from coal, studying the thermodynamics of petroleum

compounds, and developing synthetic liquid fuels. In the 1970s, the organizations

began managing contracted research.

Today, NETL has four sites: in Fairbanks, AK; Morgantown, WV; Pittsburgh, PA;

and Tulsa, OK. The four sites share the same organizational structure and the same

mission: to resolve the environmental, supply, and reliability constraints of

producing and using fossil resources.

NETL’s Research Partners

NETL conducts its mission primarily through its work implementing coal, oil, and

natural gas programs for DOE’s Office of Fossil Energy, but the laboratory does

work for other DOE offices as well, including the Office of Energy Efficiency and

Renewable Energy and the Office of Energy Assurance.

NETL also works with other federal agencies—including the U.S. Environmental

Protection Agency (EPA), the U.S. Forest Service, and the Departments of Defense,

Homeland Security, and Transportation—and with various state groups, such as the

California Energy Commission, the Ohio Coal Development Office, and the

Interstate Oil and Gas Compact Commission. NETL’s portfolio of projects includes

activities with several Native American tribes and organizations.

NETL’s research and development activities are conducted on- and offsite through

partnerships, cooperative research and development agreements, financial

assistance, and contractual arrangements. Nearly one-half of NETL’s 1,400

research, development, and demonstration projects are carried out by private-sector

organizations. This emphasis on the private sector is essential to NETL’s mission.

The laboratory’s ultimate success comes when the advanced technologies emerging

from NETL’s research activities are commercialized by the private sector.

The National Energy

Technology Laboratory

(NETL) is a science,

technology, and energy

laboratory owned and

operated by the U.S.

Department of Energy

(DOE). As part of DOE’s

national laboratory system,

NETL supports DOE’s

mission to advance the

national, economic, and

energy security of the

United States.
NETL Accomplishments FY 2004 5

Our Research Focus

In choosing its portfolio of projects, NETL works closely with the DOE Office of

Fossil Energy and other research partners to meet national goals in three key areas:

clear skies, climate change, and energy security.

• Clear Skies—America has made dramatic progress reducing air emissions since

the first Clean Air Act was passed in 1970. Legislation has now been proposed

that would further cut power plant emissions of nitrogen oxides (NOx) and

sulfur dioxide (SO2), and would, for the first time ever, restrict emissions of

mercury from power plants. Developing technologies to control these emissions

while enabling the continued use of our nation’s abundant fossil resources will

protect human health and help ensure an adequate supply of affordable energy

to power our economy. NETL’s research portfolio includes projects that will

control these pollutants at existing plants today and in the power plants of

tomorrow.

• Climate Change—President Bush has committed America to reducing

greenhouse gas intensity—the ratio of greenhouse gas emissions to economic

output—by 18 percent by 2012. This puts the nation on a path to slow the

growth of greenhouse gas emissions and, as the science justifies, to stop and

then reverse that growth. Carbon sequestration—the long-term storage of carbon

in plants or in geologic formations such as depleted oil and gas reservoirs,

unmineable coal seams, and saline formations—holds great promise for helping

the nation meet this goal. NETL has spearheaded a number of projects to

sequester carbon dioxide (CO2) and slow the growth of greenhouse gas

emissions.

• Energy Security—Energy security is a vital component of national security.

Energy security is jeopardized by relying too much on any one energy resource

or depending too heavily on energy supplies beyond our borders. It is also at

risk when the nation’s energy infrastructure is vulnerable. NETL has taken an

active, two-pronged approach to energy security. On the one hand, NETL

develops technologies to ensure that the nation has abundant and diverse

supplies of clean energy from domestic resources. On the other hand, NETL

supports the DOE Office of Energy Assurance, the Department of Homeland

Security, and the Federal Emergency Management Agency, as well as local

agencies, to evaluate and protect America’s energy infrastructure.
NETL Accomplishments FY 2004 6

Product Successes

Through NETL’s onsite research and its various partnerships, a portfolio of product

successes is already bolstering America’s energy future:

• Clean Coal—Since the 1986 inception of the Clean Coal Technology Program,

NETL has sponsored demonstration projects to advance clean coal power

systems. That activity continues today through the Clean Coal Power Initiative.

During fiscal year 2004, NETL made the first four awards under the new

initiative and issued a solicitation for a second round of funding. Also this year,

a project selected under Round II of the Clean Coal Technology Program

surpassed $1 million in repayments, demonstrating how a government-industry

partnership can refund taxpayer investment while protecting the environment,

creating and preserving jobs, and advancing technology.

• Commercial Fuel Cell Plants—Using molten carbonate fuel cell technology

developed by FuelCell Energy with NETL support, the Los Angeles Department

of Water and Power developed an internationally recognized distributed

generation program demonstrating clean, efficient, and reliable onsite electric

power generation. This and other successes date back to 1976 when DOE issued

its first contract to begin fuel cell development. Fuel cells hold great promise for

use in dense urban areas that need additional sources of power.

• Clean Fuels from Coal and Gas—As DOE continues to support the

development of alternate sources of fuel, producing fuel from coal and gas

provides yet another option to traditional fuels. In an NETL-supported project, a

gas-to-liquids demonstration plant at the Port of Catoosa, near Tulsa, OK, is

providing ultra-clean synthetic transportation fuel for three buses in the fleet at

the pristine Denali National Park in Alaska.

• Drilling Technology—Advances in drilling technology facilitate access to hardto-reach gas and oil and reduce costs associated with the drilling process.

NETL-sponsored research has resulted in a commercially ready “bendable” drill

pipe made from carbon fiber that can follow sharp curves underground without

experiencing material fatigue. This new bendable pipe, used in conjunction with

horizontal drilling technology, will revitalize old wells that were near their

economic limit, or were plugged and abandoned.

• Advanced Turbines—NETL managed a number of advanced turbine project

successes through DOE’s former Advanced Turbine Systems Program. One of

those projects, at the Baglan Bay Power Station, in Cardiff, Wales, UK, was

selected by Power Engineering magazine as one of three 2003 “Projects of the

Year”—an award given to projects that “demonstrate technical excellence and

outstanding economic, social, and environmental benefits to power plant owners

and their customers.” Emblematic of advances in turbine technology, GE’s H

Class turbine is the first gas turbine combined-cycle system capable of achieving

60 percent thermal efficiency.
NETL Accomplishments FY 2004 7

2004 NETL’S FY 2004 ACCOMPLISHMENTS

In a speech to Congress in 1824, Daniel Webster explained the value of invention

by saying that “invention is the fruit of the human brain, industries grow in direct

proportion to invention, and government must aid in progress by fostering the

inventive genius of its citizens.” Although spoken more than 180 years ago, these

words apply to NETL today.

Most of NETL’s accomplishments are the result of partnerships created to foster the

inventive genius of America’s citizens and industries. While the end result of any

one accomplishment may be unclear, the result of all of them is crystal: it is

progress—toward energy security, an enhanced environment, and a robust

economy. It is progress toward NETL’s mission of resolving the environmental,

supply, and reliability constraints of producing and using fossil resources.

Since fossil resources are the focus of NETL’s mission, the bulk of NETL’s FY

2004 accomplishments are grouped around these resources—coal, oil, and natural

gas, which together provide 85 percent of America’s energy supply. The first three

of the six sections that list NETL’s accomplishments are—

• Coal: America’s Most Abundant Fossil Fuel

• Natural Gas: The World’s Fastest Growing Energy Source

• Oil: Lifeblood of America’s Economy

Each of these three sections has several subsections, and some of the subsections

are further divided. With each division, an introduction has been included to

explain program objectives and put individual accomplishments in context.

The last three of the six sections that list NETL’s FY 2004 accomplishments are—

• Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy

• Energy Information

• Awards and Recognition

NETL’s goals in these areas are not lesser goals, but because these areas represent

an extension of the laboratory’s capabilities beyond its fossil-fuel focus, fewer

resources are devoted to them. In fact, few resources are devoted to obtaining

awards and recognition, but they are included in this report because they recognize

accomplishments and speak to the value of NETL’s work. These final sections also

include introductions to put individual accomplishments in context.

Finally, please note that many accomplishments could have been listed in more

than one place; for instance, an R&D 100 Award for a modeling advance could

have been listed in the subsection for modeling as well as under Awards and

Recognition. This has not been done. It is hoped, however, that the reader will

understand the interconnectedness of NETL’s work, and will see how NETL’s

accomplishments build on each other, moving us toward the progress so eloquently

described by Congressman Webster.

“Invention is the fruit of the

human brain, industries

grow in direct proportion to

invention, and government

must aid in progress by

fostering the inventive

genius of its citizens.”

Daniel Webster

1824 speech to Congress
NETL Accomplishments FY 2004 8

COAL: AMERICA’S MOST

ABUNDANT FOSSIL FUEL

Coal is one of the true measures of

America’s energy strength. One

quarter of the world’s coal reserves

are found within the United States,

and the energy content of the

nation’s coal resources exceeds

that of all the world’s known

recoverable oil. Coal is also the

workhorse of the nation’s electric

power industry, supplying more

than half of the electricity

consumed by Americans. To

preserve this economically vital

energy foundation, the Office of

Fossil Energy’s Coal Program,

implemented by NETL, is

developing low-cost environmental

compliance technologies, efficiencyboosting innovations, and

technologies for future energy

plants with near-zero carbon

emission.
NETL Accomplishments FY 2004 9

Technologies for Existing

Coal-Fired Power Plants

NETL and its research partners

are developing environmental

control technologies for

retrofitting existing power plants,

with application to new plants as

well. Key areas of research

include controlling emissions of

mercury, NOx, SO2, and fine

particulate matter; beneficial uses

for coal utilization byproducts;

and innovations to minimize the

impact of fossil-fuel use on the

nation’s water resources.

Mercury

Coal-fired power plants are facing the first-ever caps

on mercury emissions to reduce risks to human

health. NETL research is intended to ensure timely

development of cost-effective mercury-control

technologies as emission limits are established. The

program includes large-scale field testing, pilot-scale

development of novel mercury-control concepts, and

research to provide a fundamental understanding of

mercury emissions, as well as the development of

“co-control” technologies that reduce mercury

emission while controlling other pollutants, such as

NOx and SO2.

NETL Licenses Mercury Removal Method—NETL has

issued an exclusive license to Powerspan Corporation for a

patented method to remove mercury from flue gas streams

using irradiation with ultraviolet light. The license is

limited to fossil-fueled power generation. The co-inventors

of the mercury removal method—Evan Granite and Henry

Pennline of NETL’s Office of Science, Technology, and

Analysis—each received a portion of the initial royalty fee.

Powerspan intends to offer this technology in conjunction

with its electrocatalytic oxidation technology and as a

stand-alone product. The potential market for the licensed

invention is estimated to be between $3 billion and

$7.5 billion. NETL is pursuing opportunities to license the

patent for applications in fields other than fossil-fueled

power generation.

Results from Mercury Field Tests—To address critical

questions related to the cost and efficiency of mercurycontrol technologies, NETL supports full-scale testing of

mercury control technologies at power plants across the

nation. The primary focus of the field-test program is

testing of two advanced technologies: sorbent injection and

enhanced wet scrubbing. The field-test program had the

following accomplishments this fiscal year:

• In NETL-sponsored field tests completed at commercial

facilities, investigators from ADA Environmental

Solutions LLC of Littleton, CO, evaluated several

approaches for controlling mercury emissions from

coal-fired power plants. Standard activated carbon

injected at the rate of 0.6 pounds per million cubic feet

into the flue gas stream captured 87 percent of mercury

at Unit 3 of Alabama Power Company’s Gaston Plant,

which burns a low-sulfur bituminous coal and controls

particulate emissions with a hot-side electrostatic

Coal Mercury Coal-Fired Power Plants
NETL Accomplishments FY 2004 10

precipitator in combination with a compact hybrid

particulate collector baghouse. Injecting halogen-treated

activated carbon for 30 days at a nominal concentration

of 1.2 pounds per million cubic feet captured, on

average, 91 percent of mercury from Sunflower

Electric’s Holcomb Station, which burns a Powder River

Basin coal and is equipped with spray dryer adsorbers

and fabric filters for air pollution control. Two other

mercury control approaches were tested at Holcomb

Station for shorter durations: blending a small amount of

western bituminous coal with the Powder River Basin

coal achieved mercury removal levels of almost

80 percent without the use of sorbent injection; and

adding a proprietary chemical developed by ALSTOM

Power enhanced the performance of standard activated

carbon, resulting in 86 percent mercury removal at a

carbon feed rate of 1.0 pounds per million cubic feet.

• During a month-long test at Basin Electric Power

Cooperative’s Leland Olds Plant in North Dakota,

researchers from the University of North Dakota Energy

and Environmental Research Center, working in

cooperation with NETL, investigated the effect of chemical

additives on mercury capture by activated carbon injection.

Average mercury removal was 63 percent with the

additives and less than 20 percent without. Additives

that enhance the effectiveness of activated carbon could

mean lower mercury-control costs for plants that burn

lignite, which typically has low chlorine and high

calcium concentrations that result in high levels of

difficult-to-remove elemental mercury in flue gas.

• In a month-long test conducted in cooperation with

NETL at Detroit Edison’s St. Clair Plant in Michigan,

researchers from Sorbent Technologies Corporation

demonstrated 94 percent mercury removal from

subbituminous coal by injecting brominated powdered

activated carbon into the plant’s flue gas stream at the

rate of 3 pounds per million cubic feet. High levels of

elemental mercury generated at the plant had made

previous tests with other sorbents less successful.

• Mercury removals ranging from 83 to 99 percent were

achieved with corn-char, bamboo, tire-derived, and

carbon soot in power plants fired with either Powder

River Basin subbituminous coal or a blend of low-sulfur

bituminous coal with petroleum coke. The novel sorbents

are expected to compete favorably with activated carbon

and other commercially available materials. The tests

were completed by Apogee Scientific Inc. at host facilities

of We Energies and Midwest Generation LLC as part of

an NETL-managed project.

Model Developed to Estimate Mercury Emissions from

Coal in China—Because of concerns over the global

mercury pool and the long-range transport of mercury

emissions from China to the United States, NETL initiated

a project to estimate total anthropogenic mercury emissions

in China. To better understand both the chemical

transformations of mercury in coal and the performance of

downstream emission-control technology in China, NETL

and Argonne National Laboratory developed a model

capable of estimating mercury emissions as a function of

the coal source, the boiler size and type, and any

downstream emission-control technology. The work

complements planned EPA efforts to monitor ambient

mercury levels in China and will be refined when NETL

collects emissions data from selected Chinese coal-fired

power plants. Other project partners include the U.S.

Geological Survey, Italy’s Rendi Institute, and researchers

at China’s Zhejiang University.

Plume Measurements Show Partial Conversion of

Mercury from Oxidized to Elemental Form—In

cooperation with multiple industrial partners, NETL

supported an innovative mercury measurement program at

Southern Company’s Plant Bowen in Georgia and We

Energies’ Pleasant Prairie Power Plant in Wisconsin.

Specially instrumented aircraft were used to measure

mercury concentrations and speciation within the power

plant plumes at various distances downwind from the

stacks at both plants. The data was compared with in-stack

mercury concentrations and speciation. Preliminary

analysis of the data suggests that a significant portion of the

oxidized mercury emitted from the stacks at both plants

was transformed to its relatively unreactive elemental form

very rapidly upon release; between 15 and 66 percent of

the initial oxidized mercury was converted to elemental

mercury at 5 miles downwind. The results have policy

implications because a regulatory approach allowing

mercury emissions trading will be more environmentally

acceptable if mercury from power plant emissions is mostly

in the elemental form.

Potential Cobenefit of Mercury Removal

Demonstrated—As part of DOE’s Mercury Control

Technology Program, CONSOL Energy Inc. completed an

assessment of the effectiveness of selective catalytic

reduction (SCR) and wet flue gas desulfurization (FGD) in

capturing mercury at American Electric Power’s Gavin

Power Plant in Cheshire, OH. Results of measurements

taken at the plant while burning an Ohio bituminous coal

indicated that the combination of SCR and FGD resulted in
NETL Accomplishments FY 2004 11

an 83–95 percent reduction in mercury emissions. SCR and

FGD are used to control NOx and SO2 emissions,

respectively, at the Gavin Station. The potential coremoval

of mercury across SCR/FGD systems is an important

component of the President’s Clear Skies Initiative. The

tests at the Gavin Plant were designed to provide greater

understanding of the influence of factors such as coal type,

catalyst degradation, and changes in load on the

effectiveness of SCR in oxidizing elemental mercury.

Multipollutant Control Achieves 84 Percent Mercury

Removal—Consol Energy obtained 84 percent mercury

removal at a 650-megawatt West Virginia power plant fired

with bituminous coal (4.7 percent sulfur) and equipped

with a suite of postcombustion flue-gas-cleanup systems: a

cold-side plate-type selective catalytic reduction system for

NOx control, an electrostatic precipitator for particulate

control, and a forced-oxidation, wet lime flue gas

desulfurization system for SO2 control. While not

conclusive for all power plant configurations, the finding

has important implications for multipollutant control under

the President’s Clear Skies Initiative because it supports the

hypothesis that elemental mercury can be oxidized by

selective catalytic reduction systems, resulting in greater

total mercury removal by downstream flue gas

desulfurization scrubbers. Tests at other sites under the

NETL-managed project will determine the role of coal

type, the effect of selective catalytic reduction system

modes of operation on mercury chemistry, and the efficacy

of different flue gas desulfurization technologies for

mercury capture.

Multipollutant Sorbent Successful in Test with

Mercury—A field test at DTE Energy’s 290-megawatt

plant in River Rouge, MI, showed up to 80 percent total

mercury removal and up to 97 percent removal of oxidized

mercury from a blend of Powder River Basin

subbituminous and eastern bituminous coals using

postcombustion injection of a regenerative manganeseoxide-based sorbent. The technology, originally developed

by EnviroScrub to control NOx and SO2, is effective in

removing these pollutants at nearly 100 percent and greater

than 95 percent, respectively. Conducted by the University

of North Dakota Energy and Environmental Research

Center in cooperation with NETL, the test showed that the

EnviroScrub regenerative sorbent can remove mercury at a

much lower injection rate than is typical with activated

carbon, and the result is motivating more comprehensive

tests with significant cost-sharing.

Membrane Collector Improves Cost-Effectiveness of

Multipollutant Control via Wet Electrostatic

Precipitators—NETL-sponsored testing at First Energy’s

Bruce Mansfield Plant confirmed that wet electrostatic

precipitators can achieve highly efficient removal of a

number of pollutants—fine particulates (96 percent),

sulfuric acid mists (93 percent), and oxidized mercury

(82 percent)—when placed after a flue gas desulfurization

scrubber as a final polishing device. Moreover, these tests

confirmed that inexpensive non-metallic membrane

materials can be used for highly effective collection

surfaces if properly designed. Membranes offer the

potential for cost savings for retrofit and new installation in

corrosive environments when compared to nickel-based

alloys. By requiring significantly less water while

providing more uniform coverage, the problems of wet-dry

interfacing and mist-related field disruptions are reduced,

leading to longer operating time between outages and

improved collection. Wet membrane electrostatic

precipitators thus offer an attractive option for plants

seeking to control emissions of fine particulates, acid

aerosols, and oxidized mercury.

Criteria Pollutants

NOx, SO2, and particulate matter are three of six

“criteria pollutants” the EPA uses as indicators of air

quality. Emissions of the three are currently regulated

from coal-fired power plants, and emission limits may

be further reduced in the future. NETL and its

research partners are developing advanced low-cost

technologies to address current and future limits on

NOx, SO2, and particulates, including difficult-tocontrol “fine particulates”—also called PM2.5—which

are solid or liquid particles 2.5 micrometers or

smaller in diameter.

NETL Investigates Source and Composition of Regional

Ambient Particulate Matter—By correlating weather

patterns with analyses of air samples, NETL scientists

collaborating with investigators at Carnegie Mellon

University have determined that the Ohio River Valley and,

possibly, regions further west act as a significant source of

fine particulates in the Pittsburgh area. Air samples were

obtained during various periods from October 1999

through September 2004 from a variety of continuous and

filter-based monitors located in the Pittsburgh area and sites

in Ohio. Chemical analysis of the samples indicated that

Criteria Pollutants Coal-Fired Power Plants Coal
NETL Accomplishments FY 2004 12

high concentrations of ammonium sulfate, which is

associated with stationary coal-fueled sources,

accompanied transitions from high-pressure to lowpressure regimes in advance of approaching frontal

systems. In contrast, fine particulate organic material,

which is associated with mobile petroleum-fueled sources,

appeared to be dominated by nearby sources. The

investigation is part of the EPA’s PM2.5 Supersite Program

designed to obtain extremely detailed characterizations of

ambient fine particulates in eight U.S. cities: Atlanta, New

York, Pittsburgh, Baltimore, St. Louis, Houston, Fresno,

and Los Angeles.

Experiments Investigate Toxicity of Coal Combustion

Emissions—NETL and the Electric Power Research

Institute (EPRI) are collaborating on a program to examine

the relative toxicity of particulate matter derived from coal

combustion and mobile-source (gasoline and/or diesel

engine) emissions. The NETL-sponsored portion of the

study involves onsite sampling, dilution, and aging of coal

combustion emissions at coal-fired power plants, followed

by animal exposures incorporating a number of

toxicological endpoints. The aging step transforms SO2 in

stack emissions to secondary sulfate particles, thereby

simulating the atmospheric processing that occurs

downwind of coal-fired power plants. Initial results suggest

that short-term exposure to coal combustion emissions at

realistic concentrations does not yield readily discernable

changes in typical indices of cardiopulmonary health.

Novel Device Demonstrates Practical Measurement of

Nitric Oxide—Under a University Coal Research Grant

administered by NETL, Texas A&M University developed

and demonstrated a diode-laser-based ultraviolet absorption

sensor that measures nitric oxide concentration in the

particle-laden exhaust stream of a laboratory-scale coal

combustor. The device produced accurate measurements

under real-world conditions, even when most (greater than

90 percent) of the ultraviolet beam was attenuated by

particulate loading and optical window fouling. Planned

modifications are expected to produce faster response times

and greater sensitivity. Highly sensitive, non-intrusive realtime measurements of nitric oxide exhaust are essential for

control systems that can minimize emissions while

optimizing combustion process efficiency.

Commercial Contract Renewed for NETL-Developed

Technology—Northeast Generation Services operated

Praxair’s patent-pending oxygen-enhanced combustion

system at the Mt. Tom Station in Holyoke, MA, during the

2004 ozone season. Throughout the 2003 ozone season, the

system demonstrated NOx emissions reductions at various

loads and with a variety of coals—restoring unit capacity

during hot days and providing enhanced flame stability,

and reduced loss-on-ignition and carbon monoxide

emission volatility. The system was developed in

cooperation with NETL to help utilities meet near-term

NOx limits while enabling advanced combustion

technologies that produce low pollutant emissions and

facilitate CO2 sequestration. The system is particularly

suited for retrofitting older, space-constrained units with

capacities of 300 megawatts or less. Such units represent

66 percent of boilers in the United States.

Training Completed Under U.S.–China Fossil Energy

Protocol—Nearly 200 Chinese engineers received training

on U.S. practices for the design, specification,

procurement, operation, and maintenance of flue gas

desulfurization (FGD) equipment for coal-fired power

plants. China has a set a target of 2005 to reduce SO2

emissions by 20 percent from 2000 levels, and has said that

emissions reduction equipment must be installed in 137 key

coal power plants to achieve this goal. Over the next 10

years, Asian utilities are expected to order about $13 billion

of flue gas desulfurization systems. The training was

designed to familiarize Chinese utilities with U.S. practices

and to help U.S. companies capture a larger share of the

projected market. Flue gas desulfurization experts from the

U.S. private sector delivered 2 weeks of training in China

through NETL under Annex I: Advanced Power Systems of

the Fossil Energy Protocol between DOE and China’s

Ministry of Science and Technology. The Chinese

Electricity Council assisted with organizing the course.

NETL Organizes U.S.–hina Industrial Boiler Workshop to

Address Energy Efficient Pollution-Control

Technologies—With assistance from the U.S. EPA, DOE’s

National Renewable Energy Laboratory, China’s National

Development and Reform Commission, and Tsinghua

University (China), NETL organized a June 2004 workshop in

Beijing to review technologies that control SO2, NOx, mercury,

fine particulate emissions, and CO2 and other greenhouse

gases. The workshop also facilitated business development

opportunities for U.S. manufacturers, engineering companies,

process control and other industry firms, and universities. The

workshop allowed U.S. delegates to showcase products and
NETL Accomplishments FY 2004 13

services to more than 80 organizations in China, and provided

opportunities to interact with representatives of the U.S.

Department of Commerce, United Nations, World Bank, and

other key organizations involved in ongoing energy and

environmental efforts, such as preparations for the 2008

Olympics in Beijing. The workshop was supported through an

Interagency Agreement between NETL and the EPA on the

Technology Cooperation Agreement Pilot Project, which is

designed to help developing and transitioning countries attract

investment in clean energy technologies. It followed a Chinese

delegation’s highly successful tour of U.S. facilities in 2002.

Coal Utilization Byproducts

Coal utilization byproducts are solid materials

produced by the combustion or gasification of coal. In

2002, 129 million tons of solid byproducts were

produced in the United States; about 35 percent of

the total was recycled in beneficial ways, while

65 percent ended up in landfills or impoundments. To

meet the DOE goal of increasing beneficial use to

50 percent by 2010, NETL supports the commercially

viable and environmentally sound recycling of coal

utilization byproducts through scientific research,

development, and field testing.

Initial Results Show Minimal Mercury Leaching or

Volatilization from Impounded Coal Utilization

Byproducts—Results of applied industrial research

conducted by NETL onsite researchers and NETL-funded

investigators show that the potential for release of mercury

from the byproducts of coal combustion or gasification

(ash, slag, and scrubber sludge) is minimal with typical

disposal or utilization procedures. Presented at the Combined

Power Plant Air Pollutant Control Mega Symposium in

Washington in September 2004, the preliminary results were

based on analysis of coal utilization byproducts produced

with and without the application of activated carbon

injection or wet flue gas desulfurization—the most likely

near-term approaches for removing mercury from coal

plant flue gas. By diverting flue-gas-borne mercury into

plant solids streams, such approaches could have posed an

increased risk of releasing mercury to the environment

through byproduct leaching or volatilization. However, the

amount of mercury leached from byproduct samples was

significantly lower than current standards for drinking

water and protection of aquatic life, and volatilization at

ambient temperatures was negligible.

Heavy Metals More Leachable from Integrated

Gasification Combined-Cycle Fly Ash—Results of

column leaching tests conducted at NETL show that most

metal ions (cobalt, nickel, iron, lead, and zinc) in fly ash

obtained from integrated gasification combined-cycle

power plants are more soluble in acidic, alkaline, and

neutral aqueous solutions than is the fly ash from

conventional pulverized coal power plants, while the acid

solubility of slag samples from both types of power plants

is comparable. Since they are recirculated within the

process, it is unlikely that fly ashes from integrated

gasification combined-cycle plants would have a

deleterious effect on the aquatic environment; however, the

higher leachability of some heavy metals could lead to a

buildup of these elements within the system, particularly in

the recirculated “grey” water.

NETL Takes Lead on Interlaboratory Leaching Study—

NETL’s Byproduct Utilization Research Group initiated an

interlaboratory comparison of four leaching methods that

apply to granular materials such as coal utilization

byproducts. The study is clarifying the environmental

safety of using or disposing of these materials under

various conditions, and will address whether data obtained

by different leaching methods is comparable—an issue that

is particularly important to environmental agencies. Other

organizations participating in the study include the

University of North Dakota Energy and Environmental

Research Center, West Virginia University’s West Virginia

Water Research Institute, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and

State University’s Department of Crop and Soil Environmental

Sciences, and the University of the Western Cape

Department of Chemistry in Cape Town, South Africa.

Coal Ash Provides Low-Cost Option for Stable,

Healthy Feedlot Soils—In cooperation with NETL, a

project team led by researchers from the University of

North Dakota Energy and Environmental Research

Center successfully demonstrated the engineering,

environmental, and technical feasibility of using fly ash

to improve soils in animal feeding operations. In addition

to improving the environmental stability of feedlot

surfaces, reducing stress on animals caused by wet soil

conditions, and increasing animal weight gain, the use of

coal ash in livestock facilities decreases the need for

landfill space and reduces the overall cost of electricity.

Because of this research, four regional coal ashes were

approved for use within pen areas at feedlot facilities

regulated by the North Dakota Department of Health.

Utilization Byproducts Coal-Fired Power Plants Coal
NETL Accomplishments FY 2004 14

The Water-Energy Interface

Water and energy are inextricably linked.

Because thermoelectric generation and fossilfuel extraction can impact water resources, it is

critically important to protect U.S. water

supplies while providing the energy needed to

power the nation. Through integrated water and

energy-related activities, NETL is responding to

this challenge.

Zebra Mussels Controlled Naturally—Results from

research conducted at the New York State Museum’s

Field Research Laboratory in Cambridge, NY, in

cooperation with NETL, show that bacterial cells

containing a toxin specific only against zebra mussels

can produce a kill rate close to 90 percent when fed

to these mussels. This discovery suggests an

alternative, potentially lower cost approach to

removing this invasive species from power plant

cooling water intakes. Dense colonization by these

mussels requires regularly scheduled plant downtime

for conventional treatments with chlorine.

Inadvertently introduced into the United States and

Canada in the late 1980s with ballast water from ships

passing through the St. Lawrence Seaway, these

mussels have cost the power industry nearly $2 billion

since 1990 in downtime and conventional treatments.

National Estimates of Water Needs for Projected

Thermoelectric Power Capacity Additions

Through 2025 Developed—Based on DOE Energy

Information Administration projections for

thermoelectric power capacity additions through 2025,

and prior work on the water requirements for

thermoelectric power generation, NETL has developed

estimates of required water access for cooling

applications. While it appears that sufficient quantities

of water should be available to meet projected capacity

additions on a national scale, the study showed that

increased generating capacity in the western United

States may be constrained by available water

resources. Because of the prominence of water-related

issues in the west, a more sophisticated regional

analysis has been initiated. Results of these analyses

are being used to support water-related activities at

NETL through the Innovations for Existing Plants

Program and through NETL’s participation in the

interlaboratory Energy-Water Nexus Initiative.

Coal Coal-Fired Power Plants Water-Energy Interface

Technologies for Future

Energy Plants

As NETL pursues innovations for

today’s power plants, the

laboratory is also developing the

technology base for the nearzero-emissions power plants of

tomorrow. The centerpiece of

these efforts is FutureGen, an

initiative to build the world’s first

integrated sequestration and

hydrogen production research

power plant. When operational, the

prototype power plant will

coproduce electricity and hydrogen

while preventing air pollutants and

greenhouse gases from being

released into the atmosphere.

Technologies under development

at NETL for future energy plants

include coal gasification,

combustion turbines, fuel cells,

carbon capture and sequestration,

hydrogen separation and storage,

and advanced materials.
NETL Accomplishments FY 2004 15

Coal Gasification

One of the cleanest and most versatile ways to

extract energy from coal, coal gasification is likely to

be a core technology for future power plants.

Gasification-based systems provide high efficiency

with near-zero pollutants and flexibility in the

production of a wide range of products including

electricity, fuels, chemicals, hydrogen, and steam.

NETL is working to improve coal gasifier systems by

lowering their cost and increasing their ability to

process different fuels.

Testing Significantly Advances Transport Gasifier

Technology—More than 1,500 hours of transport gasifier

tests at the power systems development facility (PSDF) in

Wilsonville, AL, under air- and oxygen-blown conditions

with three different coals (Illinois Basin bituminous,

Powder River Basin subbituminous, and high-sodium

Freedom Mine lignite) demonstrated an operating

flexibility unmatched by most of today’s commercial

gasifiers. Numerous design improvements implemented by

engineers and technicians from Southern Company

Services Inc., which manages and operates the PSDF in

cooperation with NETL, led to successful operation of the

transport gasifier at the highest pressure (260 psig) and

temperature (1,940 oF) to date.

Quality Synthesis Gas from Lignin—Results of benchscale tests completed in cooperation with NETL at the

University of North Dakota Energy and Environmental

Research Center show that lignin can be gasified

successfully in an air-blown continuous fluid-bed reactor,

converting up to 90 percent of the carbon and producing

fuel with heating values up to 144 Btu per standard cubic

foot (higher heating value). Cofiring 20 percent lignin with

subbituminous coal resulted in greater carbon conversion

(up to 95 percent) and higher fuel heating value (up to 207

Btu per standard cubic foot). Gasifying lignin, a waste

stream from the production of ethanol from switch grass,

would partially satisfy the energy needs of ethanol

production. Alternatively, cofiring lignin could lower the

feed cost and partially offset CO2 emissions for gasification

processes that use subbituminous coal.

Coal Gasification

Future Energy Plants

High-Efficiency Desulfurization of Synthesis Gas—

Working under a University Coal Research Grant

administered by NETL, researchers at Louisiana State

University in Baton Rouge developed a new hightemperature (600–800 °C) desulfurization sorbent that

would reduce hydrogen sulfide levels from coal gasification

process streams to less than 1 part per million. The ceriumzirconium sorbent can be easily regenerated, producing

marketable sulfur in elemental form. This technology may

also find application upstream of fuel cells and in certain

synthesis gas conversion processes.

Lower Cost Membranes for Separating Oxygen from

Air—Working with NETL under the Fossil Energy

Materials Program, scientists at Eltron Research Inc., a

small business in Boulder, CO, have developed a novel,

inexpensive way to synthesize membranes that separate

oxygen from air. The membranes have provided stable

performance over a period of 100 days, and will be

assembled into a multistack configuration for scale-up to

produce flows of commercial interest. Since air separation

typically accounts for 12–15 percent of the capital cost of

coal-based hydrogen production, the innovation could

favorably impact overall costs of a FutureGen plant.

Pumping-Up Coal—Stamet Inc. successfully completed

the first phase of its cooperative agreement with NETL by

pumping dry pulverized coal from atmospheric pressure to

300 psig at a rate of 150 pounds per hour. The Stamet coal

pump uses a simple rotary positive displacement principle

that is more reliable and efficient than currently available

dry-feed lock-hopper systems. Stamet’s next pressure

milestone is 500 psig. Success of this technology would

allow reliable and accurate continuous feeding of dry coal

to hydrogen-production processes and high-pressure

advanced gasification and combustion systems, overcoming

a major technical challenge.
NETL Accomplishments FY 2004 16

Combustion Turbines

Combustion turbines will be key components of

future coal-based combined-cycle plants. NETL is

developing new turbine technology to boost cycle

efficiency, reduce capital cost, and improve

environmental performance. The work includes

studies on supporting technologies such as

combustion instability, fuel versatility, and fluid and

particle dynamics.

Development of Turbine Blade Online Monitor Makes

Major Progress—For the first time anywhere, researchers

at Siemens Westinghouse have produced high-speed

infrared images of the first row of blades in a Westinghouse

501FD gas turbine under full operation. Once perfected,

online monitoring will detect the integrity of thermal

barrier coatings as they operate within the gas turbine. The

ability to detect coating failure at the earliest stage would

help operators identify problems and effect repairs before

the failure becomes catastrophic. NETL is working with

Siemens Westinghouse to develop this technology with an

overall goal of reducing maintenance costs for more than

600 large utility gas turbines—a savings estimated to be

about $600 million.

Longer Life for High-Temperature Turbine Parts—

Thermal barrier coatings are used to protect the blades in

turbines operating at the high temperatures needed for

better energy efficiency, power, and fuel economy.

However, impurities such as vanadium and sulfur,

increasingly found in lower cost opportunity fuels such as

coal and petroleum coke, can destabilize the coatings and

shorten turbine blade life. Through the NETL-managed

Fossil Energy Materials Program, researchers at the

University of Pittsburgh have devised a means to avoid the

destabilization of thermal barrier coatings using special

overlays applied by electron beam deposition. Materials

research and development is helping to meet the challenges

that future land-based turbine systems will face with

respect to cycle configuration, firing temperature, duty

cycle, and fuel type.

Novel Concept to Stabilize Low-Emission Flames Tested

Successfully at NETL—NETL researchers have

successfully tested a new concept that tunes the fuel

delivery systems of low-emission combustors to allow

turbine engines to operate with greater stability and

unprecedented low NOx emissions. Low-emission turbine

combustors are needed for future power plants that may use

hydrogen or coal synthesis gas. At low-emission operating

conditions, the heat release process in combustors can

excite acoustic vibrations that damage the combustion and

turbine hardware. The NETL concept involves adjusting

the acoustic properties of the fuel injectors to avoid strong

feedback among multiple flames. In tests conducted in a

laboratory combustor, NETL researchers were able to

produce wide variations in combustion-generated vibration

amplitudes, consistent with theoretical predictions. NETL

is working with Solar Turbines, under a cooperative

research and development agreement, to determine if this

new concept can be adapted to a practical engine.

Sensor Technology Successfully Tested—A combustor

designed and fabricated by Woodward Industrial Controls to

incorporate NETL’s combustion control and diagnostics sensor

(CCADS) was successfully tested during July 2004. The

novel sensor monitors several key combustion parameters

to identify abnormal operating conditions, such as

flashback and lean blow-off, as well as the presence of

large combustion oscillations that shorten the lifetime of

power turbine components. Close control of the combustion

process will be essential for reaching more stringent NOx

emissions targets with a wider range of fuel types, and doing so

with greater reliability and lower electricity costs. CCADS

technology development was initiated with an NETL patent on

flashback detection, and it continued through a cooperative

research and development agreement and a licensing

agreement with Woodward, which resulted in three

additional patent applications. Originally developed for

monitoring combustion in natural gas power turbines,

CCADS has also been demonstrated by NETL researchers

for synthesis gas combustion systems.

First Commercial Deployment of NETL-Developed Gas

Turbine Technology in North America—GE’s H Class

turbines, a new class of advanced gas turbines developed

under DOE’s former Advanced Turbine Systems Program,

leapfrog existing technology with a demonstrated potential

of 60 percent combined-cycle efficiency (when operating

with natural gas), single-digit NOx emissions, and 10

percent lower bus bar cost. Improvements embedded in H

Class turbines are being applied to turbines used in coalgasification systems. Deployment of H Class turbines helps

accelerate this technology migration. GE Energy announced

that two H Class gas turbines will be installed in a new 800-

megawatt Hydro-Quebec facility to be built at Beauharnois,

Quebec, for service in 2007. This will be the first launch of

GE’s H Class turbine technology in the 60-cycle

configuration design for the North American power market.

Combustion Turbines Coal Future Energy Plants
NETL Accomplishments FY 2004 17

Fuel Cells

Fuel cells are expected to play a major role in the

nation’s energy future by providing efficient,

environmentally friendly electrical energy while

extending the capacity of the nation’s fossil-fuel

supply. After helping to develop and introduce the

first fuel cells into the market, NETL is now working

on ways to dramatically lower their costs and expand

their use in stationary power generation, military

applications, and transportation.

Solid State Energy Conversion Alliance Progresses

Toward Program Goals—The Solid State Energy

Conversion Alliance (SECA), managed by NETL in

coordination with the Pacific Northwest National

Laboratory, is a unique alliance among government,

industry, and the scientific community. Its goal is to

accelerate the commercialization of low-cost solid oxide

fuel cells in the 3–10 kilowatt range as quickly as possible

over the next decade. SECA is organized into industrial

teams, which are developing prototype solid oxide fuel cell

systems, and a core technology program, which provides

focused research and development to overcome barriers

identified by the industrial teams. Breakthroughs from the

core technology program are made available to all

industrial teams. The SECA program and SECA

participants noted the following advances this fiscal year:

• The fuel cell designs of all SECA industrial teams

achieved fuel utilization values exceeding the interim

program goal of 60 percent. Fuel utilization is the

fraction of fuel entering the cell that reacts

electrochemically to produce electric power; higher fuel

utilization relates directly to higher efficiency and leads

to lower emissions. High fuel utilization is a key early

performance milestone for reaching SECA’s cost goal of

$400 per kilowatt and its system net-electrical-efficiency

goal of 40–60 percent by 2010.

• GE Hybrid Power Generation Systems of Torrance, CA,

exceeded its SECA Phase I cell module performance

target for solid oxide fuel cell development. With

modified electrode composition and microstructure, the

fuel cell module achieved 404 milliwatts per square

centimeter at 0.7 volts using a reformate composition

with 64 percent hydrogen as fuel. This represents a

49 percent improvement over last year’s best results

under the same test conditions.

 •SOFCo (McDermott International), a member of the

SECA industrial team led by Cummins Power

Generation, achieved 2,000 hours of uninterrupted,

steady-state operation while fueling a SECA fuel cell

with natural gas. The achievement was enabled by a new

catalytic partial-oxidation unit that prevents coking in

the catalyst through control of the oxygen-to-carbon

ratio rather than using water. The dry unit breaks down

the natural gas into primarily hydrogen and carbon

monoxide (a fuel for solid oxide fuel cells) with an

efficiency of 68–70 percent.

• As part of a cooperative agreement with NETL under

SECA, Delphi Automotive Systems LLC of Flint, MI, in

partnership with Battelle Columbus Laboratories,

successfully tested its 30-cell Generation 3 solid oxide

fuel cell stack with a fuel that simulated hydrogen-rich

gas derived from coal. The stack, which has half the

volume of its predecessor, produced nearly 1 kilowatt of

power at 21 volts. The test demonstrated the feasibility

of building a well-sealed fuel cell module from thin

metallic cassettes fabricated by high-volume

manufacturing processes such as stamping, brazing, and

laser welding used in the automotive industry.

• A residential-scale solid oxide fuel cell stack and

reformer developed by Siemens Westinghouse and

integrated by Fuel Cell Technologies under Fairbanks

Natural Gas sponsorship reached 5,000 hours of

operation in February 2004 and continued to perform

satisfactorily at the University of Alaska through the

fiscal year. Generating AC power from natural gas with

a conversion efficiency of approximately 40 percent, the

system demonstrated 100 percent reliability for the last

4,320 hours with no detectable power degradation—

characteristics that are critical for remote distributed

power applications.

• Thirty-nine scientists and engineers from industry,

national laboratories, and universities received training

on the state-of-the-art computational tools emerging

from the SECA core technology program. The 4-day

course included hands-on experience with

computational fluid dynamics and finite element

analysis codes that incorporate routines developed at

NETL and Pacific Northwest National Laboratory. The

training session transferred validated computer tools to

SECA industry team designers and engineers who will

use them to design reliable and optimized low-cost

commercial solid oxide fuel cell systems.

Direct FuelCell® Technology Advances—FuelCell Energy

of Danbury, CT, developed its patented Direct FuelCell®

technology in a research partnership with DOE that began

more than 25 years ago. While most fuel cells entering

Coal Fuel Cells Future Energy Plants
NETL Accomplishments FY 2004 18

commercial markets today are designed to use natural gas,

Direct FuelCells internally generate hydrogen from fossil

fuels and renewable sources. Although Direct FuelCells

remain expensive compared to other power generation

technologies, their use has mushroomed since the first

commercial unit was delivered in 2003; by October 2004,

more than 50 million kilowatt hours of electricity had been

generated from power plants incorporating Direct FuelCell

technology. With support from NETL, the technology

advanced on several fronts this fiscal year:

• FuelCell Energy showcased the world’s first fuel cell to

operate on coal mine methane at a dedication ceremony

in October 2003. The event at the Rose Valley coal mine

methane test site in Hopedale, OH, marked the kickoff

of a 6-month demonstration featuring a 200-kilowatt

Direct FuelCell. Successful demonstration could pave

the way for future use of fuel cells to mitigate coal mine

methane emissions while producing power at high

efficiency and very low emissions. Worldwide, coal

mine methane could produce more than 1,000

megawatts of power.

• FuelCell Energy completed testing a first-of-a-kind

power plant integrating a 250-kilowatt Direct FuelCell

with a 60-kilowatt Capstone microturbine in late 2003.

The results of these proof-of-concept tests will be used

to optimize the design of a submegawatt-class hybrid

power-generation unit to be demonstrated at the

University of Montana. Ultimately, the NETL-managed

project will design a megawatt-scale ultra-highefficiency hybrid power plant that meets the hybrid

module goals of DOE’s FutureGen program.

• Governor John G. Rowland offered remarks in a

December 2003 ceremony dedicating his state’s first

high-efficiency Direct FuelCell 300A power plant,

which will provide heat and power to Yale University’s

Environmental Science Center near the Peabody

Museum in New Haven, CT. The plant will supply

approximately 25 percent of the building’s electricity

needs, along with heat to maintain tight temperature and

humidity controls at the storage facility, where rare

bones and artifacts are preserved.

• Arizona-based Salt River Project (SRP) will become the

fifth municipal utility to own and operate a Direct

FuelCell power plant provided and serviced by FuelCell

Energy. SRP supplies electricity to nearly 800,000 retail

customers in the Phoenix area. The 250-kilowatt unit

will be the first SRP generator to provide clean,

efficient, and reliable base-load electricity without the

combustion of fuel.

• CSA International certified Direct FuelCell power plants

as complying with the new ANSI/CSA America FC 1-

2004 Standard covering the operation, construction, and

performance of packaged stationary fuel cell power

systems. The CSA certification applies to DFC300 and

DFC1500 self-contained commercial-grade power

plants that use natural gas to provide high-quality baseload electric power. The DFC300A power plant is also

certified for grid interconnection with investor-owned

electric utilities under California’s “Rule 21” standard,

and meets the California Air Resources Board’s

stringent distributed generation emissions standards for

2007. The certification will reduce the time, expense,

and complexity of marketing clean and efficient U.S.

products for distributed generation.

• FuelCell Energy will provide 16 additional 250-kilowatt

Direct FuelCell power plants to Marubeni Corporation,

one of Japan’s leading general trading and marketing

houses. Five Direct FuelCell power plants are currently

operating at four customer sites in Japan. This latest

order anticipates market stimulation by recently passed

government support for additional wastewater treatment

facilities throughout Japan. Wastewater treatment

facilities consume large amounts of electricity and heat,

but they also produce an excellent hydrogen-based fuel,

“tailor made” for fuel cells, from anaerobic digestion

processes. The current municipal and industrial

wastewater treatment market in Japan represents more

than 2,000 megawatts of potential electricity generation.

• FuelCell Energy announced it will provide four 250-

kilowatt Direct FuelCell power plants to Sierra Nevada

Brewing Company of Chico, CA, in 2005. The project

qualifies for incentive funding—40 percent of project

costs—offered by the California Public Utilities

Commission under the Self-Generation Incentive Program.

While gas-turbine power generation would have been less

expensive, brewery officials opted to keep the facility as

green as possible by using fuel cells. Moreover, the natural

gas fuel supply for the fuel cells may be supplemented with

brewery-generated anaerobic digester gas.

One-of-a-Kind Fuel-Cell/Turbine Hybrid System in Full

Operation—NETL successfully completed shakedown of

its hybrid performance (Hyper) facility in the spring of

2004. Combining fuel cells and turbines into hybrid power

systems is being investigated as an approach to meet DOE’s

high-efficiency power generation targets. The Hyper

facility will be used to develop and test the unique control

strategies required to maintain harmonious operation of

fuel cell and turbo-machinery under varying loads. The
NETL Accomplishments FY 2004 19

facility is open to external partners who wish to participate

in the advancement of this technology. Several industry and

academic partnerships are now in place, including support

from Woodward Governor Company, West Virginia

University, Georgia Institute of Technology, and others.

Russia’s First Commercial Fuel Cell Power Plant Begins

Operation—With technical and logistical support from

NETL and a U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) Climate

Change Grant, a 200-kilowatt phosphoric acid fuel cell

manufactured by UTC Fuel Cells Inc. of Windsor Locks,

CT, began supplying power to an industrial site near Moscow

in Russia. Demonstration of the upgraded fuel cell, originally

purchased in 1996 by Gazprom, has developed significant

market interest throughout Russia. Gazprom, the world’s

largest gas producer, is considering other potential

applications for U.S. fuel cells, and the current

demonstration provided a proof-of-concept foundation for

Russia’s first Targeted Initiative Program of the International

Science and Technology Center. The project supports the

Initiative for Proliferation Prevention, Nuclear Cities

Initiative, and the Russian-American Fuel Cell Initiative.

HiTEC Program Develops Fuel Cell Curriculum—

Graduate level courses in the science and engineering of

high-temperature fuel cells are now being offered at

Montana State University in conjunction with the university’s

High Temperature Electrochemistry Center (HiTEC) satellite

center. HiTEC is a research collaboration focused on the

scientific understanding and technical breakthroughs

needed to realize DOE’s vision for energy plants of the

future. The collaborative effort is managed by NETL in

coordination with Pacific Northwest National Laboratory.

West Virginia University Offers Graduate Course on

Fuel Cell Technology—Collaboration with NETL in fuel

cell education programs has produced the first graduatelevel introduction to fuel cell technology offered at West

Virginia University. Guest lecturers from NETL and fuel

cell companies will support the syllabus, which includes

principles of operation, electrochemistry, modeling and

analysis, materials, fuel processing, design, and

application. Students and faculty knowledgeable in the

principles of fuel cell technology will form the next

generation of engineers and technicians needed to design

and build fossil-fuel-fired power plants that have maximum

energy efficiency and minimum environmental impact.

Carbon Sequestration

“Carbon sequestration” describes a family of

methods for capturing and permanently isolating

gases that otherwise could contribute to global

climate change. In its core research program, NETL is

developing a portfolio of cost-effective,

environmentally sound technology options that could

ultimately lead to a reduction in greenhouse gas

emissions. NETL also supports DOE’s Regional

Carbon Sequestration Partnerships—alliances of

state agencies, universities, and private companies

that form a national network to determine the most

suitable technologies, regulations, and infrastructure

for carbon sequestration in different areas of the

country.

Regional Carbon Sequestration Partnerships Connected

Through National Database—The seven Regional Carbon

Sequestration Partnerships can now share information

through the web-based, password-protected National

Carbon Sequestration Database and Geographical

Information System (NATCARB). The digital spatial

database allows users to locate and estimate point sources

of CO2 (such as power plants and oil refineries) in relation

to available terrestrial and geologic features (oil and gas

fields, coalbeds, organic-rich shale, deep saline formations,

etc.) that could be used as CO2 reservoirs. Residing on a

server operated by the Kansas Geological Survey,

NATCARB provides national coverage by accessing data

from the Regional Carbon Sequestration Partnerships, the

Geological Survey Earth Resources Observation Systems

Center, the Geography Network, the DOE Energy

Information Administration, and the EPA. The system was

developed as part of a cooperative agreement with NETL

among the geological surveys of Illinois, Indiana, Kansas,

Kentucky, and Ohio.

Public Scoping Meetings Completed for Carbon

Sequestration Programmatic Environmental Impact

Statement—In a series of public meetings held at strategic

locations throughout the United States, stakeholders from

industry, academia, environmental groups, and the general

public provided input on a draft programmatic

environmental impact statement for the Office of Fossil

Energy’s Carbon Sequestration Program, managed by

NETL. Oral and written comments received at the meetings

will be used to prepare the draft statement by mid-summer

2005, with public release of the final statement anticipated

Carbon Sequestration Future Energy Plants Coal
NETL Accomplishments FY 2004 20

for July 2006. The programmatic environmental impact

statement will address potential environmental impacts of

the program and will provide the framework for decisions

regarding the implementation of field activities.

New Modular CO2 Capture Facility Commissioned at

NETL—The modular CO2 capture facility, which will be

used to test promising CO2 capture technologies under a

variety of operational parameters, began operation at

NETL’s Pittsburgh site in October 2003. The facility can

operate on natural gas, coal, or a combination of both to

simulate coal-fired combustion processes. Its inaugural

campaign was designed to determine the durability and

performance of a regenerable sorbent that removes CO2

from a flue gas stream.

No Significant Technical Roadblocks to Integrating

Carbon Capture with Oxygen-Fired Circulating

Fluidized-Bed Technology—Based on tests results

obtained at ALSTOM Power’s 2.9-megawatt multiuse

circulating fluid-bed facility, no significant technical

hurdles are foreseen that would preclude successful

integration of carbon capture and oxygen-fired circulating

fluidized-bed technologies. No bed agglomeration

problems occurred in the combustion furnace while

burning either petroleum coke or an eastern bituminous

coal at oxygen concentrations up to 70 percent; moreover,

NOx emissions were reduced nearly 50 percent compared

to air-firing. The technology, being developed in

cooperation with NETL, is expected to help reach the goals

of the President’s Clear Skies and Climate Change

Initiatives by reducing emissions of SO2, NOx and other

pollutants while providing a highly concentrated,

sequestration-ready stream of CO2 without costly separation.

NETL Research Takes Significant Step Toward Meeting

Important Sequestration Technology Target—

Researchers at NETL and The Pennsylvania State

University collaborated on the development of a computer

code for evaluating and ranking coal seams as potential

sites for CO2 sequestration. The code addresses one of

DOE’s major technology targets: to develop, by 2005, siteselection criteria and screening models for choosing

unmineable coal seams for CO2 sequestration projects.

Site-selection criteria may include amounts of CO2

sequestered, amounts of coalbed methane produced,

breakthrough times for appearance of CO2 at methane

production wells, capital investment, risk, and return on

investment. The work is highlighted in the September 2004

issue of the Journal of Petroleum Technology.

CO2 Seismic Imaging Project Gains Visibility—An

NETL-supported project revealed that CO2 movement in

thin, relatively shallow, mature carbonate reservoirs can be

reliably detected using seismic techniques, a discovery that

should increase ultimate oil recovery and help pave the way

for CO2 sequestration in geologic formations. Led by the

Kansas Geological Survey, the ongoing project involves

injecting CO2 in the Lansing-Kansas City oil reservoir in

central Kansas to assist in recovering more oil, and then

using seismic techniques to monitor the movement of the

CO2. High-resolution seismic images acquired before and

during the CO2 flood have highlighted changes consistent

with CO2 movement; the movement has been further

substantiated based on production data, fluid-injection

volumetrics, and reservoir simulations. Monitoring the fate

of CO2 belowground is essential to ensuring the

permanence of CO2 sequestration in depleted oil and gas

reservoirs or brine aquifers. Refinements to three-dimensional

high-resolution reflection imaging resulting from this study

could make seismic data a useful tool for monitoring

geologically sequestered CO2. In addition to the Kansas

Geological Survey and NETL, project partners include the

Kansas Department of Commerce, and Kansas oil companies

John O. Farmer Inc. and Murfin Drilling Company.

Weyburn Project Demonstrates Safety and Permanence

of Sequestration—A multinational project that includes

NETL has injected more than 110 billion cubic feet of

95 percent pure CO2 into the Weyburn oilfield in

Saskatchewan, near the North Dakota border, producing

more than 6 million barrels of oil. The effort, known as the

Weyburn Project, is expected to store about 22 million tons

of CO2 and produce 130 million barrels of oil over 20

years. Data from the project, combined with the well’s

historical data, is providing specific insights on which a

sound economic model of current and future sequestration

efforts of this type can be based. This and similar efforts

are expected to illustrate that combined enhanced oil

recovery and sequestration projects provide a viable and

environmentally safe way of storing CO2 while producing

oil that is difficult and expensive to extract through

traditional methods. Since its launch in 1999 by the

Petroleum Technology Research Centre in Regina,

Saskatchewan, and EnCana Resources of Calgary, Alberta,

the project has become a model of international

cooperation by attracting 15 sponsors from government and

industry—including DOE, Natural Resources Canada,

Alberta Energy Research Institute, Saskatchewan Industry

and Resources, and the European Community—and

10 industrial sponsors in Canada, the United States, and Japan.
NETL Accomplishments FY 2004 21

Columbia River Basalt Formation Could Store 20 Years’

Worth of U.S. Coal-Related CO2—Based on

supercomputer modeling, scientists at Pacific Northwest

National Laboratory, working in cooperation with NETL,

estimate that more than 100 gigatons of CO2—equivalent to

20 years of domestic coal-related CO2 emissions—could be

stored in the Columbia River Basalt Group. Basalt

formations have a unique chemical makeup that could

potentially convert injected CO2 to a solid mineral form,

thus isolating it from the atmosphere permanently. If

successful, project results will expand CO2 sequestration

options domestically and in developing countries such as

India and China, where major basalt formations exist.

Eighteen-Month Study of Geologic Sequestration

Completed—Representatives of the British Broadcasting

Company (BBC) visited American Electric Power’s

Mountaineer Plant near New Haven, WV, to get a first-hand

look at a DOE-sponsored field test assessing the potential

of deep geologic formations for storing CO2. In the NETLmanaged test, an injection well was drilled 9,200 feet deep

to evaluate several geologic formations that may have the

storage capacity needed to sequester CO2 emitted by the

large power plant on the Ohio River. Test results will be

used in a related DOE-sponsored project conducted by

researchers at Battelle Laboratories who are evaluating the

regional potential of the Ohio River Valley for geologic

storage of CO2. The concept of geological sequestration has

great potential in the United States where various deep

geological features, such as saline formations, unmineable

coal seams, and depleted oil and gas reservoirs, may be

suitable for storing large the volumes of CO2 that result

from power production.

First U.S. Effort to Evaluate CO2 Sequestration in Deep

Saline Formation—In cooperation with NETL and

multiple industrial and academic partners, the University of

Texas at Austin Bureau of Economic Geology drilled an

injection well into the Frio Formation, a deep saline

reservoir near Houston, as part of a feasibility study to

evaluate the potential of geologically sequestering large

quantities of CO2 collected from chemical, refinery, and

industrial sources in the Gulf Coast region. The Texas

Bureau of Environmental Quality approved drilling the

5,000-foot-deep well, which will be used to inject

3,000 tons of CO2 into the formation. NETL scientists will

conduct soil-gas sampling and near-surface monitoring for

CO2, CO2 tracers, and methane, and will model wellbore

leakage. Scientists at Lawrence Berkeley National

Laboratory will assist by modeling how the CO2 disperses

within the reservoir and any impacts it may have on

reservoir characteristics and features.

Interagency Collaboration Produces Comprehensive

Model for Terrestrial Carbon Sequestration—In

cooperation with NETL, researchers at Stephen F. Austin

University in Nacogdoches, TX, collaborated with personnel

from the U.S. Department of Agriculture Forest Service to

develop the Forest Management Optimizer (FORMOP), a

dynamic software program that analyzes millions of thinning

and harvesting combinations for maximum financial returns

from carbon sequestration credits, saw timber, and

pulpwood. FORMOP could be used to determine the

physical, biological, and economic potential for sequestering

carbon in any ecosystem in North America. Over the next 2

years, the researchers will model the major commercial tree

species in the United States to determine the optimum

management practices for a range of carbon prices.

Terrestrial Carbon Sequestration Imagery Completed—

Working under a cooperative agreement with NETL, The

Nature Conservancy and Winrock International have

completed a multispectral three-dimensional aerial digital

imagery survey of the Delta National Forest in the Lower

Mississippi Alluvial Valley. The technology is being

developed to reduce the time and cost of measuring carbon

in terrestrial systems. The digital imagery will be correlated

with available carbon storage data from the range of forest

classes of various ages contained in the Delta National

Forest. A significant benefit of the technology is the creation

of a historical record of the inventory survey. These historical

records can be reevaluated as the science of determining

carbon content from imagery improves, which is currently

not possible with manual forest inventories.

NETL-Supported Technology to Help Explore Mars—

Laser-based spectrometry developed through an NETLmanaged project at Los Alamos National Laboratory will

play a role in NASA’s Mars Rover Mission scheduled for

2009. Developed under the Office of Fossil Energy’s

Carbon Sequestration Program, managed by NETL, the

technology represents a leap forward for rapid and accurate

determination of elements in soil. Los Alamos National

Laboratory won a 2003 R&D 100 Award for a rugged, lowcost, lightweight, and compact field instrument that

employs the technology to measure organic and inorganic

carbon in soil, and can be used to verify and monitor the

effectiveness of terrestrial carbon sequestration projects.

Patent Application Filed for Novel Methane Upgrading

Process—Velocys Inc. filed a provisional patent

application focusing on system configurations for modular

microchannel process technology, designed to upgrade

methane streams from coal mines, landfills, and other
NETL Accomplishments FY 2004 22

subquality sources. The revolutionary approach, which

would enable compact, economic systems for upgrading

methane streams to pipeline quality, is being developed in

cooperation with NETL under the Office of Fossil Energy’s

Carbon Sequestration Program. Separation and purification

systems based on microchannel process technology have

the potential to reduce U.S. annual greenhouse gas

emissions by 23.5 billion kilograms of CO2 equivalent, and

to enable the cost-effective annual recovery of 3.5 trillion

cubic feet of natural gas. The technology employs small

process channels that greatly enhance heat and mass

transfer, reducing to seconds the cycle times that typically

last hours with conventional upgrading systems.

Hydrogen

Hydrogen is seen by many as the energy carrier of

the future, a clean and efficient fuel for use in

transportation and stationary power. NETL research

is hastening a future in which hydrogen is used to

power our cars, trucks, homes, and businesses with

no pollution or greenhouse gases. Areas of NETL

research include hydrogen separation membranes to

produce hydrogen at lower cost, and technologies to

address the challenges related to hydrogen storage

and distribution.

NETL Researchers Demonstrate Enhanced Hydrogen

Production—Researchers at NETL experimentally

validated their model predictions of enhanced hydrogen

production from the non-catalyzed water gas shift reaction

at gasification conditions. The reaction is important

because it produces additional hydrogen from carbon

monoxide and water, components of the synthesis gas

produced in a gasifier. Process modeling conducted at

NETL indicated that the economics of hydrogen production

could be improved by including a hydrogen-permeable

membrane as part of the reactor system; the membrane

would remove the hydrogen from the reactor as it formed,

shifting the equilibrium and causing more hydrogen to be

produced along with sequestration-ready CO2. NETL

researchers developed a novel membrane reactor—

consisting of a 3-foot length of thin-walled tube coiled into

a helix to maximize surface area—to conduct validation

tests. In experiments using the membrane reactor, hydrogen

production rates greater than equilibrium were observed.

When applied to a gasifier, this concept has the potential to

reduce operating costs by eliminating the need for catalysts

and gas pre-cooling of existing processes.

New Hydrogen Separation Membrane Demonstrates

Record Performance—Working under a cooperative

agreement with NETL, investigators at Eltron Research Inc.

have replicated several times the stable performance and

record hydrogen transport rate produced by its layered

composite membrane. The hydrogen transport rate exceeds

that reported for polymeric, inorganic porous, and protonconducting membranes by over an order of magnitude, and

that for palladium membranes by a factor of four. The

hydrogen product is essentially 100 percent pure, and a

preliminary cost estimate of $100–$120 per cubic foot of

membrane attests to the commercial viability of producing

hydrogen and sequestration-ready CO2 from coal as

envisioned in DOE’s FutureGen program. The production

rate reduces by 50 percent the capital cost of a membranebased hydrogen-separation device, and reduces the overall

separation-plant cost by approximately 3 percent.

Moreover, the higher hydrogen flux reduces process

equipment sealing and fabrication complexities, allows

process intensification via smaller plant footprint, and can

accelerate the timeframe for engineering-scale

demonstration of hydrogen production technology, making

the success a significant milestone toward a fossil-fuelbased hydrogen economy.

Minority Institution Makes Advances in Membrane

Science—Researchers at North Carolina Agricultural and

Technical State University, a historically black institution

located in Greensboro, NC, prepared palladium membranes

on porous stainless steel supports that produced a high flux

of pure hydrogen from coal-derived synthesis gas. The

preparation process for the highly selective, high

temperature, high strength, lower cost, novel composite

will be optimized to improve the fabrication rate for

commercial application. In addition to investigating a way

to provide hydrogen for FutureGen applications, the

NETL-managed project is providing minority students with

hands-on experience conducting energy research.

New Material Shows Promise for Hydrogen Storage—

NETL scientists have determined that a novel crystalline

material synthesized at Rutgers University has a higher

volumetric hydrogen storage density than other

formulations in the family known as microporous metal

organics materials. The new material was designed with

micropores that more closely match the dimensions of the

hydrogen molecule so that the interaction energy between

the pore walls and the adsorbed gas is maximized. Further

exploitation of this newly developed family of materials is

underway in pursuit of the programmatic targets for

onboard hydrogen storage in fuel-cell-powered

automobiles.

Coal Hydrogen Future Energy Plants
NETL Accomplishments FY 2004 23

Patent Pending for NETL-Supported Hydrogen

Separation Method—Researchers at ITN Energy Systems

of Littleton, CO, a small business working in cooperation

with NETL, are patenting a novel method for separating

hydrogen from coal- or natural gas-derived synthesis gas.

The patent application describes a composite material, one

side of which dissociates hydrogen into protons and

electrons for diffusion through an intermediate electrolyte

layer, and the other side of which recombines them into

neutral hydrogen molecules. Novel proton-conducting

materials within the electrolyte are also claimed in the

application. The technology significantly advances the state

of the art for producing high-purity hydrogen from coal,

natural gas, and certain opportunity feed stocks. Used with

gasification-based systems, the technology could become a

major source of low-cost hydrogen for use in transportation

and clean electricity production.

Novel Concept in Hydrogen Separation Membranes—

Researchers at Media & Process Technology Inc., a small

business in Pittsburgh, have developed a carbon molecular

sieve membrane that provides high hydrogen flux while

meeting a cost target of $100 per square foot. Unlike

palladium-based membranes, the material is inert to most

industrial gases, including sulfur compounds, making it

particularly well suited for hydrogen production from coalderived gas. Results of the investigation, completed under

the Office of Fossil Energy’s Hydrogen and Syngas

Program, managed by NETL, were presented at the 21st

Annual International Pittsburgh Coal Conference held in

Osaka, Japan, in September 2004.

Economical Fabrication of Hydrogen-Producing

Membranes—Working with the Office of Fossil Energy’s

Hydrogen and Syngas Program, managed by NETL, Media

& Process Technology Inc. has developed a method for

depositing defect-free hydrogen-selective inorganic

membranes on porous metallic supports made by Pall

Corporation. Inorganic membranes provide superior

thermal and chemical stability compared to commercially

available organic membranes, and find widespread use in

fossil energy systems, including hydrogen production from

coal. The advance will help overcome scale-up barriers

associated with production of hydrogen-selective

membranes. During the coming year, the project team will

use the new technique to fabricate a membrane reactor that

will enhance hydrogen production via the water-gas shift

reaction.

Materials

Future power plants and energy systems will require

new materials that can withstand increasingly higher

temperatures and corrosive environments. The goal

of the Fossil Energy Materials Program, managed by

NETL, is to ensure the success of these systems by

providing the needed materials technology base.

Current research is focused on developing hightemperature corrosion-resistant structural ceramic

composites and alloys, and materials that perform

specific functions in advanced fossil energy systems.

Materials Program Seeks to Extend Boiler Component

Life—Working in cooperation with the Fossil Energy

Materials Program, managed by NETL, a consortium of four

prominent boilermakers—ALSTOM Power, Babcock &

Wilcox, Foster Wheeler, and Riley Power—is evaluating and

developing advanced materials to allow the use of advanced

steam cycles in coal-based power plants. In contrast to

European and Japanese programs that target an operating

temperature of 1,300 °F, the U.S. consortium aims to extend

the operating temperature of future coal-fired boilers to

1,400 °F. The higher operating temperature will increase

boiler efficiencies from a current domestic fleet average of

about 35 percent to approximately 47 percent while reducing

CO2 and other fuel-related emissions by nearly 25 percent.

The consortium is also supported by Energy Industries of

Ohio, the Electric Power Research Institute, and Oak Ridge

National Laboratory. The consortium’s accomplishments this

year include the following:

• Investigators at Babcock & Wilcox have found that

carbon, boron, and chromium play a consistent and

significant role in the steamside oxidation behavior of

ferritic steels used in boiler components. The discovery

could lead to improved alloys for advanced boilers

operating in temperature regimes where oxidation is

accelerated and the likelihood of failure from metal

wastage is increased.

• Steam loops made of several candidate hightemperature alloys were installed at Dairyland Power

Cooperative’s John P. Magett Generating Station in

Alma, WI. The loops were tested at temperatures up to

1,400 °F in a low-sulfur coal unit. The test

complemented another test underway in a high-sulfur

coal unit at the Reliant Energy power plant in Niles, OH.

In the near term, results of steam-loop tests are expected

to guide retrofit decisions made by operators of existing

plants affected by fireside corrosion.

Coal Matertials

Future Energy Plants
NETL Accomplishments FY 2004 24

• University of Cincinnati researchers have found that

examination of microstructures after heat treatment

provides the insight needed to optimize the mechanical

strength of nickel-based super alloys. Results of their

investigation, completed in cooperation with NETL

under the Fossil Energy Materials Program, were

presented to the U.S. boilermakers consortium at a

meeting in Oak Ridge, TN, in March and April 2004.

• The boilermakers consortium successfully developed

welding procedures that do not compromise the material

properties of new alloys being considered for hightemperature applications. The consortium is considering

the new alloys for coal-fired boilers capable of operating

at much higher efficiencies than the current generation

of supercritical plants. The procedures will be validated

through tests under actual utility boiler conditions. Test

results should improve estimates of fabrication and

construction costs associated with the new alloys, and

aid ongoing conceptual design and economic studies of

advanced coal-fired plants.

• In tests conducted by Babcock & Wilcox in conjunction

with NETL, a new alloy developed at Japan’s National

Institute for Materials Science showed steam oxidation

resistance nearly 10 times superior to other ferritic

steels. The Japanese alloy steel will be further evaluated

for use in supercritical high-efficiency coal-fired power

plants designed to operate at higher pressure and

temperature than conventional plants, thus emitting

significantly less CO2. The collaboration could reduce

the overall costs and duration of similar research and

development efforts in both countries.

• Babcock & Wilcox investigators have, for the first time,

welded 3-inch-thick plates of a super alloy known as

Haynes 230. The technique could make possible

application of nickel-based alloys for high-temperature

coal-fired supercritical steam power-generation cycles

with significantly higher efficiencies and lower CO2

emissions than current plants. Extensive tests will be

performed to compare the mechanical strength of the

welded section to the parent material.

• Officials of First Energy, Cinergy, and Xcel Energy

agreed to host corrosion tests to be conducted under the

NETL-managed Fossil Energy Materials Program.

Corrosion probes made of various new alloys, coatings,

and weld overlays will be installed at selected power

plants fired by a range of domestic coals for long-term

exposure to temperatures typical for the reheater/

superheater of advanced plants.

• The consortium developed new cylinder design rules to

remove some of the over-conservatism in current design

codes, permitting the specification of thinner wall

thicknesses and/or use of materials with lower stress

tolerances. Adoption of the new formula in a standard

supercritical boiler design represents a 12.5 percent savings

in material costs. The savings amount to more than

$600,000 for a 600-megawatt 1,050 °F boiler. The group

will address questions arising from the new design formula

and will present a proposed revision of code language to

the American Society of Mechanical Engineers.

Significant Discovery Reported in Materials Program—

In an NETL-managed project, researchers at West Virginia

University have shown that spinel particles significantly

improve the mechanical properties of moly-silicide, a class

of materials that, with increased toughness and ductility,

could be applied at service temperatures near 2,700 °F. The

higher service temperatures would enable fossil energy

systems to operate with thermodynamic efficiency

significantly greater than can be achieved with nickel-based

super alloys, which are limited to approximately 1,900 °F.

Innovative Steam Turbine Blades Ready for Testing—In

an NETL-funded project, GE Energy has designed and

fabricated a prototype full-scale steel-hybrid last-stage

“bucket” (blade) with an advanced three-dimensional

aerodynamic shape. The 33.5-inch prototype is an

intermediate step in designing ultra-long full-speed laststage buckets that will improve overall Rankine cycle

efficiency up to 0.5 percent, reduce fuel consumption by 1

percent, and avoid the generation of 2 million tons per year

of CO2 for the next generation of low-pressure steam

turbines. Results from tests in August 2004 showed that the

bucket could be lightened by the removal of metal and

backfilled with low-density material to maintain the

aerodynamics. When fully tested, the prototype design will

be introduced with the next generation of GE low-pressure

steam turbines, while development of 54-inch steel-hybrid

and 62-inch titanium-hybrid last-stage bucket design

continues.
NETL Accomplishments FY 2004 25

Clean Coal Demonstration

Projects

Clean coal demonstration

projects showcase new energy

processes that sharply reduce

air emissions and other

pollutants compared to older

coal-burning systems. DOE’s

commitment to clean coal

demonstration projects dates

back to 1986, when the first of

five rounds of the Clean Coal

Technology Program was

initiated to combat emissions of

NOx and SO2, which contribute

to acid rain. DOE’s commitment

has continued through the 2001

Power Plant Improvement

Initiative and today’s Clean Coal

Power Initiative, with its

expanded focus on emissions of

mercury, fine particulates, and

greenhouse gases.

First Clean Coal Power Initiative Projects Awarded—

Since the first rounds of the Clean Coal Technology

Program in the 1980s, environmental concerns surrounding

the use of coal have expanded to include the potential

health impacts of trace emissions of mercury, the effects of

microscopic particles on persons with respiratory problems,

and the potential for greenhouse gases to alter the global

climate. These concerns have spurred the new Clean Coal

Power Initiative, which targets today’s most pressing

environmental challenges. Four awards, totaling more than

$300 million, were made during fiscal year 2004 under the

first round of the Clean Coal Power Initiative:

• Great River Energy and its research partners at the Coal

Creek Station in Underwood, ND, will demonstrate the

Lignite Fuel Enhancement System, a technology that

uses so-called “waste” heat from power plants to dry

coal before it is fed into the power plant boiler. After

developing a prototype to dry about one-sixth of the

coal fed to a 546-megawatt unit at the Coal Creek

Station, Great River Energy will design, construct, and

perform full-scale long-term operational testing on a

complete set of dryer modules for full power operation

at one of the 546-megawatt units. The coal will be dried

to several different moisture levels to measure the effects

of coal drying on plant performance, and to determine

optimum operating conditions. Successful commercial

application of this technology could boost the

generating capacity and efficiency of power plants that

burn high-moisture coal, thereby reducing emissions of air

pollutants and greenhouse gases.

• NeuCo Inc., the nation’s leading provider of

optimization software for electric power producers, will

design and demonstrate integrated online optimization

systems at Dynegy Midwest Generation’s Baldwin

Energy Complex located in Baldwin, IL, which has

three 600-megawatt coal-fired units. Two of the units are

cyclone-fired boilers with selective catalytic reduction

(SCR) and the third is a tangentially fired boiler. The

optimization modules to be developed will include

combustion, soot blowing, SCR operations, overall unit

thermal performance, and plant-wide profit optimization

at all three of the generating units. The system is built on

NeuCo’s ProcessLink® technology platform, which uses

neural networks, genetic algorithms, and fuzzy logic

techniques. Anticipated benefits of the $19-million,

cost-shared, 4-year project are reduced NOx emissions,

improved reliability, and increased fuel efficiency, which

will provide commensurate reductions in greenhouse

gases, mercury, and particulates.

Coal Demonstration Projects
NETL Accomplishments FY 2004 26

• We Energies of Milwaukee will design, install, operate,

and evaluate the Electric Power Research Institute’s

patented TOXECONTM multipollutant control process at

its Presque Isle Power Plant near Marquette, MI. By

injecting sorbents such as powdered activated carbon

upstream of a pulse-jet baghouse, but downstream of

existing particulate control devices, TOXECON is an

integrated approach to controlling emissions of mercury,

particulate matter, SO2, and NOx. The process is

potentially a low-cost retrofit option for achieving high

levels of mercury control at coal-fired power plants.

When completed in 2009, the $52.9 million, cost-shared

demonstration is expected to reduce mercury emissions

by 90 percent from three units of the nine-unit Presque

Isle plant. The multipollutant control strategy could also

reduce the already low SO2 and NOx emissions at the

plant by an additional 70 percent and 30 percent,

respectively. In addition, release of particulate matter

would be reduced to 0.01 pounds per million Btu.

• Western Greenbrier Cogeneration LLC will build a

demonstration plant in West Virginia that will use a

fluidized-bed combustor to coproduce industrial heat

and electricity enough to power 85,000 homes. The

power plant will use nearby waste coal to generate

electric power with ultra-low emissions of pollutants,

while concurrently producing combustion ash

byproducts and heat to support industrial activities. The

plant will serve as an anchor tenant for a new “eco-park”

site in Rainelle, WV, where low-grade waste heat from

the plant will heat greenhouses and fish ponds. The plant

will use a novel ALSTOM inverted-cyclone separator

for the capture and recirculation of solids. The design

has the potential to reduce boiler construction time by

up to 10 percent, and the boiler footprint by up to

40 percent. It should also reduce construction costs

compared to existing circulating fluidized-bed systems.

Solicitation for Second Round of Clean Coal Power

Initiative Issued—NETL issued a solicitation for the

second round of proposals under the Clean Coal Power

Initiative in February 2004. The solicitation provided

approximately $280 million in federal matching funds for

demonstrating barrier-breaking technologies that sharply

reduce, and ultimately eliminate pollution in coal-based

power plants. The call for proposals required that

prospective projects use coal for at least 75 percent of the

fuel energy input to the process, while electricity is at least

50 percent of the energy-equivalent output from the

technology demonstrated. Additionally, proposals had to

show the potential for rapid market penetration upon

successful demonstration of the technology. Priorities for

the second round of competition were advancements for

gasification-based electricity production, advanced mercury

control, and sequestration and sequestration-readiness.

NETL received proposals offering projects valued at nearly

$6 billion by the June 2004 submission deadline.

Clean Coal Demonstration Projects Continue to Reap

Benefits—The 35 projects selected under the Clean Coal

Technology Program and the eight selected under the

Power Plant Improvement Initiative continue to

demonstrate coal’s potential as a clean, abundant, and

affordable energy source. The projects are improving

power plant efficiencies, reducing emissions, lowering fuel

costs, and preserving jobs. Information about the projects is

available on an NETL-managed website that is accessed

hundreds of thousands times each year.

• Results from tests at Tampa Electric Company’s Power

Plant Improvement Initiative demonstration project,

conducted in cooperation with NETL, show that coalfired boiler efficiency can be increased 0.5–1 percentage

point and NOx levels reduced 10–20 percent by

integrating neural-network-based technology with stateof-the-art controls on soot blowers used to keep heat

transfer surfaces clean. Widespread commercial

application of this technology in the United States could

reduce NOx by almost 200,000 tons, SO2 by 30,000

tons, CO2 by 6 million tons, particulate matter by

1,500 tons, and fuel costs by about $67 million each year.

• Results from Bethlehem Steel Corporation’s Blast

Furnace Granular-Coal Injection System Demonstration

Project—selected under Round III of the DOE Clean

Coal Technology Program, managed by NETL—were

published in the January–March 2004 issue of the

prestigious peer-reviewed journal, Mineral Processing

and Extractive Metallurgy Review. The manuscript,

coauthored by NETL, Science Applications

International Corporation, and International Steel

Group, discusses the blast furnace granular-coal

injection technology demonstrated on furnaces at

Bethlehem Steel’s Burns Harbor Plant in Indiana.

Developed by British Steel/CPC-Macawber, the process
NETL Accomplishments FY 2004 27

utilizes granular coal as a fuel supplement to

decrease coke requirements. Replacing coke with

coal realizes a concomitant reduction in emissions

from coke production. Using granular rather than

pulverized coal saves further on the capital cost of

grinding equipment and approximately 60 percent

in grinding energy.

• The Advanced Flue Gas Desulfurization

Demonstration Project, selected under Round II of

the DOE Clean Coal Technology (CCT) Program,

managed by NETL, and completed in 1996 by

Pure Air on the Lake L.P., is the first CCT project

to accumulate over $1 million in repayments. The

project won national achievement awards from

POWER magazine and the National Society of

Professional Engineers, and helped to modify both

utility scrubber specifications and vendor

guarantees for compliance with the Clean Air Act

Amendments of 1990. Repayment derives mainly

from the sale of gypsum produced as a byproduct

of the project’s advanced desulfurization unit, and

represents more than half of all repayment funds

collected under the CCT program. The unit

continues to operate commercially, scrubbing

approximately 70,000 tons of SO2 annually at the

Northern Indiana Public Service Company’s

Bailly Generating Station near Chesterton, IN. The

less-expensive advanced flue gas desulfurization

byproduct also preserved 200 jobs by reducing

production costs at the nearby USG wallboard

plant, which otherwise would have been closed.

• Demonstrating the popularity and usefulness of

the NETL-managed Clean Coal Technology

Compendium website, users from more than 130

countries accessed the site an average of 16,000

times a month during 2003. The website offers

data from DOE Clean Coal Technology Programs,

the President’s Clean Coal Power Initiative, and

related clean coal information, and it provides

access to clean coal program documents even

before hard copies might be available. The most

frequently visited document during 2003 was The

Electric Utility Engineer’s Manual on Flue Gas

Desulfurization Process Design, while the most

accessed technology category was integrated

gasification combined-cycle.

Modeling

Computational modeling and

simulation are among the most

significant developments in the

practice of scientific inquiry in

the twenty-first century.

Scientific computing is

particularly important in solving

problems that are insoluble by

traditional approaches, are

hazardous to study in the

laboratory, or are timeconsuming or expensive to

solve by traditional means.

NETL uses modeling and

simulation to assist the

development of power plant

components and subsystems,

and to analyze the overall

performance and cost of

advanced energy systems.
NETL Accomplishments FY 2004 28

particularly important for sequestration in coal seams

where high pressures of CO2 will be used. Previous

attempts to describe high-pressure CO2 adsorption isotherm

data using conventional adsorption equations to model coal

behavior have been only partially successful.

Virtual Power Plant Performance Models a Reality—

Computational scientists at NETL developed the advanced

process engineering cosimulator (APECS) for seamlessly

integrating scientifically accurate models of devices such as

gasifiers, reformers, and fuel cells together with balance-ofplant simulators for advanced fossil energy systems. Such

integration, combined with advanced visualization and

high-performance computing, is a necessary step in the

development of “virtual” models that will enable design

engineers and other users to better understand and optimize

the fluid mechanics, heat and mass transfer, and chemical

reactions that drive overall power plant performance and

efficiency. The capability should speed technology

development by reducing pilot- and demo-scale facility

design time and operating campaigns, thereby lowering the

cost and technical risk in realizing high-efficiency, nearzero-emission power plants.

New Strategy for Producing Hydrogen from Coal—

Computer simulations completed under the Office of Fossil

Energy’s Transportation Fuels and Chemicals Program,

managed by NETL, show that a membrane reactor operating

at mild temperatures (200–250 oC) could produce hydrogen

from coal-derived gas through the water-gas shift reaction

taken to completion. Similar results usually require two

reactors operating in a much more energy-intensive process

scheme. Moreover, the new strategy would permit collection

of concentrated, sequestration-ready CO2 with minimum or

no parasitic energy consumption. Collaborators at the

University of Southern California and Media & Process

Technology Inc. conducted the simulations.

Coal Power with Sequestration Yields Lower Lifecycle

Greenhouse Gas Emissions than Photovoltaic System—

NETL analysts published results of a study showing that

integrated gasification combined-cycle with CO2 capture

gives lower lifecycle greenhouse gas emissions than a

prominent renewable technology. The article, published in

the peer-reviewed Journal of Infrastructure Systems,

describes two approaches for computing lifecycle

assessments: a traditional process-based approach and one

based on economic input-output analysis. These

environmental lifecycle assessments were used to compare

the greenhouse gas implications of various electricity

generation technologies. It was shown that the lowest

Coal Modeling

Understanding How Hydrogen Transport Membranes

Function—Working under DOE’s Advanced Research

Program, managed by NETL, University of Cincinnati

researchers developed a physics-based theory to explain how

hydrogen permeates through certain members of a family of

ceramic materials known as perovskites, of which strontiumcerium-oxide is an example. The group is using the theory to

synthesize new materials with improved hydrogen permeance

in support of affordable coal-based hydrogen production.

New Computer Modeling Center for SECA—The SECA

industry teams now have a powerful computational

platform on which to design and optimize solid oxide fuel

cell systems: a Silicon Graphics computer located at Pacific

Northwest National Laboratory, where some of the most

advanced solid oxide fuel cell software packages are

developed under the SECA Core Technology Program.

Negotiations are underway with software developer Fluent

Inc. to place software developed in collaboration with

NETL on the new system. The modeling center will

facilitate the efficient analysis and modification of existing

cell and stack designs to enhance both performance and

reliability. In addition, these tools may be used to define

precisely the safe operation envelope needed in planning an

effective system control strategy.

NETL-Developed Heat Transfer Simulation Attracts

Industry Interest—In an NETL-supported project,

researchers at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State

University have developed and verified computational

approaches for turbine blade cooling designs that are more

accurate and less expensive than previous methods. The

greater accuracy allows designers to specify more precise

cooling airflow paths and quantities, cutting both

aerodynamic losses and improving turbine performance.

Improved computer predictions for high rotational speeds

will also eliminate expensive testing and shorten product

development time. The development has caught the eye of

U.S. turbine manufacturers GE Energy, Siemens

Westinghouse, Pratt & Whitney, and Solar, who recognize

the outstanding progress and value achieved under DOE’s

University Turbine Systems Research Program. The turbine

manufacturers are members of the Industrial Review Board

for the University Turbine Systems Research Program, a

government-industry-academia collaboration managed by

the South Carolina Institute for Energy Studies at Clemson

University under a cooperative agreement with NETL.

NETL Model Significant for CO2 Sequestration—A

model developed by NETL researchers can be used to

describe coal’s effectiveness in adsorbing CO2. This is
NETL Accomplishments FY 2004 29

lifecycle emissions are achieved with hydropower and wind

farms, while an integrated coal-gasification combined-cycle

plant with 90 percent CO2 capture has lower lifecycle

greenhouse gas emissions than natural-gas combined-cycle

and solar photovoltaic systems.

Carbon Sequestration Model Now Publicly Available—

The Integrated Environmental Control Model–Carbon

Sequestration Edition (IECMcs) is available for public

download at www.iecm-online.com. IECMcs is a powerful

analytical tool developed by Carnegie Mellon University in

cooperation with NETL to rapidly characterize and evaluate

the impact of carbon capture and storage technologies on the

emissions, cost, and performance of pulverized coal, naturalgas combined-cycle, or integrated gasification combinedcycle power plants. Subsequent updates will incorporate new

information on multipollutant control options, advancements

in capture technology, and power systems with near-zero

emissions. IECMcs is free to utilities, state governments, and

other decisionmaking stakeholders to encourage the

voluntary reduction in carbon intensity called for by the

President’s Global Climate Change Initiative.

Integrated Gasification Combined-Cycle Plant

Improvements Identified—NETL analysts completed

process modeling studies of a novel concept that combines

two advanced technologies being developed for use in

integrated gasification combined-cycle processes for

generating electricity from coal: ceramic membranes for

oxygen separation from air, and the advanced transport

reactor, a high-efficiency gasifier. The concept involves

placing the membrane inside the reactor. This in situ

placement increases efficiency by using process heat

instead of synthesis gas to bring the membrane to its

operating temperature; capital costs are also reduced

because the oxygen is delivered directly to the reaction

zone. Five cases—employing various gasifier types,

oxygen preparation technology, and process

configurations—were modeled. The in situ configuration

was calculated to offer the highest thermal efficiency:

nearly 44 percent on a higher heating value basis.

NETL-Developed Technology Improves Integrated

Gasification Combined-Cycle Competitiveness—A study

by ChevronTexaco shows that an advanced gas-cleaning

technology developed by RTI International through an

NETL-managed project would reduce the capital cost of an

integrated gasification combined-cycle plant by at least half

of the $200 per kilowatt needed to make these plants

competitive in today’s power generation market. By

operating at mild process temperatures (500–700 °F), the

advanced sorbent-based technology would reduce the

capital cost of an integrated gasification combined-cycle

plant by approximately $125 per kilowatt (assuming all the

benefits are realized), increase plant efficiency 1–2.5

percentage points, and achieve an order of magnitude

reduction in sulfur emissions compared to a base-case plant

with conventional cold gas-cleanup technology.

Advanced Coal-Based Power Systems May Have Cost

Advantage—A preliminary analysis completed by a

consortium of U.S. boilermakers working in cooperation

with NETL under the Fossil Energy Materials Program

shows that advanced coal-fired power plants could generate

electricity at competitive rates while reducing CO2 and

other fuel-related emissions by nearly 25 percent. Although

extensive use of nickel-based super alloys would increase

capital costs for an ultra-supercritical boiler by 28 percent,

its elevated operating temperatures would increase energy

conversion efficiency from 35 percent (the current domestic

fleet average) to about 47 percent. Additional analyses will

be performed to determine if fabrication and erection costs

with the new super alloy materials would alter initial

conclusions.

Coal-Fired Steam Plants an Attractive Future Option—

A techno-economic study commissioned by NETL

concludes that significant improvements in steam cycle

efficiency, cost, and emissions can be achieved to make

coal-fired steam plants an attractive future energy option.

The study was conducted by ALSTOM Power, Parsons

Energy and Chemical Group, and American Electric Power.

Three configurations were compared—pulverized coal,

circulating fluid-bed, and circulating moving bed—each

with the higher steam cycle temperatures and pressures

needed to boost energy conversion efficiency upward from

the current domestic fleet average of about 35 percent. All

configurations were found capable of achieving the low

levels of pollutants contemplated for 2010, and the study

found that a significant reduction in the cost of electricity

can be expected with newer technologies. Technologies are

available today to construct higher efficiency pulverizedcoal-based cycles. Circulating fluid-bed steam cycles,

which are especially attractive for high-sulfur coals, are

likely to require another 3–5 years for commercialization.

Ultra-supercritical circulating moving bed technology, now

under development, is expected to reach the highest

efficiency (48 percent) in 10–15 years. These highly

efficient technologies, in combination with advanced tailend CO2 capture, may also offer an alternative approach for

near-zero-emission coal-fired power plants.
NETL Accomplishments FY 2004 30

NATURAL GAS: THE

WORLD’S FASTEST GROWING

ENERGY SOURCE

Clean-burning natural gas is one of

the nation’s principal sources of

energy. It supplies nearly a quarter

of U.S. primary energy and is the

world’s fastest growing energy

source. Its worldwide abundance,

coupled with its environmental

soundness and multiple

applications, means that natural

gas will play an increasingly

important role in meeting U.S.

energy demand. To ensure an

adequate supply of reasonably

priced natural gas for the American

consumer, NETL conducts research

in four broad areas: gas exploration

and production; methane hydrate;

gas transmission, distribution, and

storage; and gas environmental

solutions
NETL Accomplishments FY 2004 31

Gas Exploration and

Production

NETL’s gas exploration and

production activities help expand

domestic natural gas supply to

fuel the nation’s economy while

protecting the environment. New

supplies of natural gas must come

from sources that are more

complex, very remote, and much

deeper—resulting in higher

natural gas prices if new

technologies are not developed.

The program strives to produce

a balanced portfolio of projects

that address a wide range of

near- and long-term gas-supply

issues while decreasing the

impact to the environment.

IntellipipeTM System Successful in Commercial Test—A

revolutionary high-speed, downhole communications

network developed by Novatek Engineering Inc. of Provo,

UT, and Grant Prideco Inc. of Houston through a

cooperative agreement with NETL, was successfully tested

for the first time in a full-scale commercial well.

Approximately 6,400 feet of IntellipipeTM was deployed in

the Oklahoma well during 500 drilling hours. Except for

the lower two modules where conditions exceeded the

temperature rating of the electronics, all modules

established high-rate data communications links with

aboveground receivers during the test. The high-speed

communications link will allow operators five orders of

magnitude more data transmission than commonly

available technology, enabling real-time downhole sensor

data to more accurately control the drilling operation,

increasing drilling efficiency, and leading to safer, more

productive wells.

First Commercial Order Received for Composite Drill

Pipe—Integrated Directional Resources Inc. ordered 300

feet of a new type of flexible, lightweight drill pipe made

from space-age carbon fiber composites. Advanced

Composite Products and Technology Inc., a small business

in Huntington Beach, CA, whose major customers have

been the aerospace and automotive industries, developed

the 21⁄2-inch composite drill pipe in cooperation with

NETL. Because it can remain bent for extended periods

without suffering fatigue damage, composite pipe is

particularly suited to horizontal drilling, which allows

production from geologically complex formations, where

much of the nation’s oil and gas remains. Short-radius

horizontal drilling is especially useful in accessing these

formations from old wells, avoiding the environmental

impacts of drilling new ones. A 51⁄2-inch pipe under

development will include an electric wire embedded in the

composite material to support “smart drilling” systems.

Stripper Well Consortium Technologies

Commercialized—The Stripper Well Consortium offers

small, independent oil and gas operators—who account for

8 percent of the total natural gas and 27 percent of the oil

produced in the contiguous United States—the opportunity

to work with technology developers and researchers to solve

production problems. Managed by The Pennsylvania State

University, the consortium has more than 60 members, and

receives funding from NETL and the New York State Energy

Research and Development Authority. Two technologies

developed with funding from the Stripper Well Consortium

were offered commercially in fiscal year 2004:

Gas Exploration Gas
NETL Accomplishments FY 2004 32

• A line of electrical submersible pumps that can handle

solids- and gas-contaminated fluids, from heavy oil to

water, were offered by Smith Lift LLC, a subsidiary of

Smith International Inc. Developed by Pumping

Solutions Inc., now part of Smith Lift LLC, the

lightweight pumps can produce 50–400 barrels of fluid

per day using a third of the power required to drive a

conventional rod or centrifugal pump. Lower capital and

operating costs and higher production rates will allow

the pumps to extend the economic life of marginally

productive wells, particularly low-pressure gas wells,

horizontal or deviated wells, heavy oil wells, and wells

located in environmentally sensitive areas.

• Brandywine Energy and Development Company offered

its gas-operated automatic lift (GOAL) PetroPump for

sale to interested well owners and operators. The pump

uses the natural downhole pressure within well casings

to automatically lift fluids to the surface. The system is

unique in that it operates automatically using an on-tool

pressure-activated valve preset to retrieve and deliver a

fixed volume of fluid each run and return additional

fluid to the wellbore when required. The lowmaintenance pump is inexpensive to operate, as it

requires no external energy source and limited

manpower.

Study Shows How to Increase Gas Production—

A 5-year study completed by the New Mexico Institute of

Mining and Technology in cooperation with NETL shows

that changing the well placement pattern used in naturally

fractured, tight gas reservoirs of the San Juan Basin could

increase gas recovery 23–46 percent, depending on

reservoir conditions. The new pattern departs from the

normal square pattern that assumes a well is draining gas

radially. As a result of the study, Burlington Resources and

British Petroleum were granted permission by the New

Mexico Oil and Gas Conservation Commission to site wells

using the new pattern with closer well spacing.

Extrapolation of the results across the Mesaverde

producing area suggests that an additional 7.8 trillion cubic

feet of natural gas could be recovered by the new drilling

practice. The study has demonstrated a new methodology

and analytical procedures that will assist industry in

producing gas from tight reservoirs. Several independent

operators have already contacted the project team to

conduct similar work, without federal funding, in tight gas

sand basins of the Rocky Mountain area.

Technology Reduces Natural Gas Exploration and

Production Investment Risk—In an NETL-managed

project, Innovative Discovery Technologies LLC, of

Laramie, WY, constructed a basin-wide, three-dimensional

model that helps gas operators select optimum drilling and

completion sites in low-permeability formations of the

Wind River Basin. The technology decreases dry hole rates

and increases production from low-permeability formations

by offering operators a general sense of where to find gascharged compartments, and specifying targets worth a

closer look. The same methodology can be applied to other

tight gas basins. The technology is one reason why

Wyoming has been able to maintain positive gas production

while all other contiguous states and provinces of Canada

have been unable to do so.

New Method for Finding Gas Proves Successful—Using

an innovative method of predicting sweet spots in tight gas

formations, three test wells drilled in the San Juan Basin of

New Mexico during fiscal year 2004 came on line with

very strong initial production rates, and all continue to be

good producers. The new methodology, developed through

an NETL-managed project by Geospectrum Inc. of

Midland, TX, combines seismic attributes with

petrophysical data and production history to detect and

quantify areas of high natural-fracture density that are

likely to produce gas without artificial wellbore

enhancements. A fourth well, drilled in a location where

not all of the seismic attributes were favorable, had low

initial production, and lower current production. The

success of the first three wells, and the lower production

rate of the fourth, appear to validate the predictive capability

of the seismic methodology. Successful application of the

methodology should significantly increase gas reserves in

the San Juan Basin and other Dakota sandstone reservoirs by

bringing more high-end producing wells on line.

Stripper Well Technology Gets to the Heart of the

Matter—A spherical pump developed under a contract

with the Stripper Well Consortium to increase the

efficiency and economics of pumps in the oil and gas

industry, was called “ingenious” by Dr. Bud Frazier, Chief

of Cardiopulmonary Transplantation at the Texas Heart

Institute, who asked the pump’s designers to fabricate a

prototype for use as a human heart pump. The pump

displaces almost its entire liquid or gas intake in one

revolution, making it the most efficient pump ever created,

and it can even function in reverse as a fluid motor. If

successful, the model being fabricated for the Texas Heart

Institute will reduce fatalities from heart disease.
NETL Accomplishments FY 2004 33

Improved Measure-While-Drilling Telemetry

Successfully Tested—A novel electromagnetic telemetry

receiver developed by E-Spectrum Technologies of San

Antonio in cooperation with NETL was successfully fieldtested at the Halliburton Energy Services north test well in

Carrollton, TX. The unique receiver is designed primarily

for recovering very weak ultra-low-frequency signals from

measure-while-drilling sensors downhole near the drill bit

or from wireless well logging, even with the high ambient

electromagnetic noise associated with well drilling. The

innovative receiver combines the incoming electromagnetic

wave information from multiple receiver inputs, and

applies proprietary algorithms to reconstruct the original,

uncorrupted signal. When fully developed, the “throughthe-earth” telemetry system will provide relatively low-cost

data of an order of magnitude better quality without the

need for a special drill pipe.

Advanced Drill Bit Project Yields Significant Results—

A field test completed at the Gas Technology Institute’s

Catoosa test well shows that a hard rock drill-bit design

containing specially processed ENDURUSTM cutters,

developed by Technology International Inc. in cooperation

with NETL, successfully drilled hard and abrasive rock

without significant cutter wear. Controlled tests performed

at the TerraTek Drilling Laboratory in Salt Lake City to

simulate deeper drilling conditions (about 13,000 feet) have

shown the new bit design, with ENDURUS thermally stable

cutters, drilled at double the rate of penetration of a roller

cone bit. The improved cutters will increase drilling rate

and bit life in hard rock drilling applications, thereby

improving the economic development of these resources.

High-Speed Drilling System Tested—Results from the

first full-scale test of high-pressure jet-assisted drilling

show that the technique can penetrate various lithologies of

limestone and sandstone approximately three to seven times

faster than conventional drilling systems. The technique uses

high-pressure water to cut slots into rock, forming ledges

that are then removed by mechanical cutters. Maurer

Technologies of Houston conducted the test in cooperation

with NETL using a drilling rig modified to safely deliver

water at approximately 200 gallons per minute and 10,000

pounds per square inch to the vicinity of the drill bit.

Advanced Technology Could Produce More Gas and

Revenue—An analysis completed for NETL by Advanced

Resources International estimates that multiseam

completion technology could increase economically

recoverable coalbed methane in the Powder River Basin by

125 percent—providing an incremental 21.5 trillion cubic

feet of natural gas, and augmenting federal, state and local

revenues up to $8 billion. Unlike the current practice of

single zone completions, multiseam completion uses a

single well to recover methane from multiple coal seams,

improving production efficiency and economic

performance. The technology may become a necessity in

the future as development moves to the central and

northern portions of the basin where the coal seams are

deeper and thinner, respectively. Coalbed methane

contributes roughly 8 percent to the domestic supply of

natural gas and represents 10 percent of the U.S. proved

reserves. Nearly 1 billion cubic feet per day is produced

from the more than 12,000 wells in the Powder River Basin

of Montana and Wyoming.

Study: Hydraulic Fracturing Fluids No Threat to

Drinking Water—The EPA made public a final report

summarizing a multiyear evaluation of the potential threat

to drinking water from the use of hydraulic fracturing

fluids for enhanced production of coalbed methane. In the

hydraulic fracturing process, fluids are injected into the

ground to break up rock or coal formations, forcing the

release of methane. The report concludes that use of the

predominant water-based fracturing fluids poses little or no

threat to underground sources of drinking water, and that

additional study is not warranted at this time. Concurrently,

EPA secured a memorandum of agreement with the three

service companies that perform the vast majority of the

hydraulic fracturing projects in the United States to ensure

that fracturing fluids contain no diesel fuel. During the

study period, the Office of Fossil Energy advised EPA on

coalbed methane basins and production, reviewed multiple

documents, and participated in public dialogs and forums;

NETL produced white papers related to hydraulic

fracturing, one of which is appended to the final report.

Departmental involvement was essential for achieving the

positive outcome: continued development of needed energy

supplies while affording the environment additional

protection without more regulation.
NETL Accomplishments FY 2004 34

Methane Hydrate

Methane hydrate—molecules of

natural gas trapped in ice

crystals—is a mixed blessing.

Occurring naturally in marine

sediments and polar regions,

methane hydrate is a potentially

vast energy source, but it is also a

threat to deep-water drilling that

passes through overlying marine

hydrate deposits. NETL works in

both areas. NETL is developing

the knowledge and technology

base to enable commercial

production of methane from

domestic hydrate deposits, and it

is working to ensure the safety of

deep-water drilling operations

that pass through methane

hydrate.

Gas Upgrading Technology Successfully

Demonstrated at Full Scale—Approximately

90 billion cubic feet of sour gas has been processed

with no solvent-related problems using Morphysorb®

solvent technology at the Kwoen Plant, a new gasprocessing facility owned by Duke Energy Gas

Transmission Company near Chetwynd, British

Columbia. Morphysorb’s development was

cosponsored by NETL and the Gas Technology

Institute, which jointly owns the process with Uhde

GmbH, an international engineering firm.

Morphysorb removes 25 percent more hydrogen

sulfide and CO2—impurities that degrade the heating

value of natural gas and can adversely impact

distribution operations—than competing processes.

The improved process efficiency provides the Kwoen

Plant with a 50 percent capacity increase in acid gas

removal—the equivalent of a plant expansion worth

(U.S.) $25–$40 million.

NETL-Developed Technology Commercialized—

TDA Research Inc. of Wheat Ridge, CO, signed an

exclusive commercialization agreement with

SulfaTreat for its new direct oxidation technology

that removes sulfur from natural, landfill, and

synthesis gas. SulfaTreat, a business unit of M-I LLC,

is the market leader in hydrogen sulfide scavenging.

M-I publicly announced the commercialization

agreement in a January 2004 news release. An

independent economic analysis shows that the

process, developed under an NETL-managed Small

Business Innovation Research Grant, offers

significant cost savings over conventional sulfurrecovery processes, particularly at the scale of 1–

50 tons per day of sulfur, and in combination with a

tail gas treatment would provide greater than

99 percent sulfur recovery for the process.
NETL Accomplishments FY 2004 35

Large-Volume, High-Pressure View Cell Helps Fill Gaps

in Understanding Methane Hydrate Behavior—NETL

constructed and installed a 15-liter high-pressure view cell

able to replicate the diverse physical conditions that

encompass naturally occurring hydrate formations. With

this capability, NETL researchers can study the dissociation

of naturally occurring hydrates and investigate the physical

properties of pure methane hydrate and hydrates from

ocean or permafrost environments. The size of the new

view cell—one of the largest in the world—allows core

samples to be placed within it for study. This ability is

important because developing technologies to produce

methane from hydrates and accurately estimating

producible gas from various reservoirs will require data

from actual hydrate deposits.

Progress Toward Methane Hydrate Production—Results

of NETL-supported production tests conducted at the

Mallik well site in Northwest Territories, Canada,

conclusively demonstrated the technical feasibility of

producing methane from gas hydrates. The tests used a

simple process of thermal stimulation through the

circulation of hot water. Additional work at the site

continues to be discussed, including more extensive testing

of alternative production strategies and well designs.

First Methane Hydrate Prospects Defined—In the

Prudhoe Bay area of Alaska’s North Slope, a team

consisting of BP Exploration (Alaska), the University of

Alaska Fairbanks, the University of Arizona, the U.S.

Geological Survey, and NETL reviewed existing well and

seismic data to delineate the first drillable hydrate prospects

in the United States. More than a dozen prospects were

identified and characterized. Both reservoir- and economic

modeling indicate that several of the prospects are capable

of producing methane in economically viable quantities

with known production methods. The work is a key step in

bringing the ultimate resource potential of hydrates into

clearer focus.

Hydrate Modeling Capabilities Advance—Two NETLsponsored projects significantly advanced the capability to

conduct numerical simulations on methane hydrates in

natural environments. DOE’s Lawrence Berkeley National

Laboratory released the beta version of its Tough-Fx/

Hydrate Code, which provides a rigorous analysis of

hydrate dissociation and resulting product flows from all

currently conceivable production mechanisms. A team

working in conjunction with the BP Exploration (Alaska)

project on Alaska’s North Slope successfully conducted

simulation of hydrate production using a modified version

of the Canadian Modeling Group’s STARS simulator.

These tools will be an indispensable part of both the

analyses of data gathered in the field and the prioritization

of the remaining gaps in hydrate knowledge.

Alaskan Hydrate Well Produces Wealth of

Information—The “Hot Ice No. 1” well didn’t encounter

methane hydrate as expected, but it did produce a wealth of

geological and geophysical information that should help to

overcome the technical obstacles to the eventual

commercial production of methane from hydrate. The well

was drilled in 2003 and 2004 as part of a 2-year cost-shared

partnership among NETL, Anadarko Petroleum Corp.,

Maurer Technology Inc., and Noble Engineering and

Development. The well was expected to encounter a

methane hydrate accumulation suitable for production

testing; instead, researchers found free gas and water in the

target interval. The project successfully developed and

demonstrated for the first time a number of innovative

technologies, including Anadarko’s Arctic Drilling

Platform, a mobile hydrate core analysis laboratory, and a

new application of a continuous coring rig. The research

team also acquired a three-dimensional vertical seismic

profile at the well, which resulted in very high resolution

images of the subsurface and possible indications of

hydrate updip and east of the well site. Analyses of the

core, log, and seismic data from the well indicate that the

hydrate in this region occurs in patchy deposits and may

require a high methane flux from the subsurface in order to

form more continuous drilling prospects.

New Reservoir Mapping Technology Applied to

Methane Hydrate—A newly developed seismic signal

detector-processor was used to complete a threedimensional vertical profile on Alaska’s North Slope. The

technology, developed in cooperation with NETL by

Paulsson Geophysical Services Inc., consists of closely

spaced, high-frequency geophones lowered into existing

boreholes to acquire and record data from reflected seismic

energy. Data conversion to visual representation provides

images that have a resolution three- to fourfold greater than

currently available technology, and should reveal thin beds

within the hydrate stability zone. The technology is

designed to lower exploration and production costs by

reducing the investment in data acquisition, the number of

wells drilled, and the percentage of dry holes.

Methane Hydrate Gas
NETL Accomplishments FY 2004 36

Gas Transmission,

Distribution, and Storage

Delivering natural gas is an

enormous enterprise. The majority

of natural gas consumed in the

United States is produced at

remote sites and moved to

consumers through a vast system

of reservoirs, compressors, and

more than 1.4 million miles of

transmission and distribution

pipelines—all of which must be

efficient and reliable. The Office of

Fossil Energy’s Natural Gas

Program, implemented by NETL,

includes research and technology

development to solve the technical

challenges associated with efficient

and reliable gas transmission,

distribution, and storage.

Bishop Process Meets Critical Milestone—A full-scale

test of the energy-efficient heat exchanger critical to the

Bishop ProcessTM was initiated in April 2004 at the AGL

Resources liquefied natural gas (LNG) peak shaving

facility located near Canton, GA. Over several days, the

heat exchanger flawlessly processed LNG at a design flow

rate equivalent to 4 billion cubic feet per day. The process,

a novel method for unloading and regasifying LNG directly

from ocean tankers for storage in underground salt caverns,

is being developed in cooperation with NETL by

Conversion Gas Imports L.P. with 25 industry partners. The

salt-cavern-based design has the potential to revolutionize

the gas industry by providing LNG imports faster, cheaper,

and possibly more securely than conventional facilities.

New Offshore Mooring and Receiving Technology

Completes Subscale Tests—Bluewater Offshore

Production Systems tested the “Big Sweep” offshore

mooring and product transfer concept, one of four concepts

considered as a terminal option for the Bishop ProcessTM,

which would allow rapid unloading and regasifying of

liquefied natural gas (LNG) directly from ocean tankers for

storage in underground salt caverns. Test were completed in

April 2004 as part of a cooperative agreement with NETL

using a model basin (1:40 scale) located at the Oceanic

Consulting Corporation facility in St. John’s,

Newfoundland, Canada. The model basin tests were

designed to verify system operation with an LNG carrier

under normal conditions and under extreme (hurricane)

conditions without a carrier. The offshore terminal systems

being investigated by project leader Conversion Gas

Imports L.P. would allow all LNG receiving, transfer, and

storage activity to occur offshore, diversifying LNG

receiving capabilities in the United States.

Distribution, and Storage

Gas Transmission, Gas
NETL Accomplishments FY 2004 37

First Application of Bishop Process—HNG Storage

Company, an experienced developer, owner, and operator

of salt-cavern storage facilities, announced the Freedom

LNG Terminal project, an offshore, salt-cavern-based

receiving terminal for liquefied natural gas (LNG). The

project will use the Bishop ProcessTM for unloading and

regasifying LNG directly from ocean tankers for storage in

underground salt caverns. This is the first announced

application of the Bishop Process for which a full-scale

design was field-tested under an NETL cooperative

agreement. By eliminating aboveground cryogenic storage

tanks and replacing them with salt-cavern storage of

regasified LNG, the technology improves the scalability,

economics, and security of LNG receiving terminals in the

United States. The project will be designed to deliver up to

2 billion cubic feet per day of LNG with the capability of

doubling that amount through expansion. The terminal will

be located off the coast of Louisiana and is planned for

operation in 2008.

Innovative Process Holds Promise for Developing Gas

Storage Capacity—A feasibility study completed by

Clemson University researchers in cooperation with NETL

shows that gas storage caverns can be created by dissolving

carbonate rock with acid. The spent acid “waste” stream

can be used beneficially so there is no adverse

environmental impact. The novel process is economically

competitive with other methods of creating storage, avoids

the problem of brine disposal associated with salt caverns,

and could be applied in modular fashion by adding capacity

as needed. Strategically placed gas storage facilities would

help reduce price spikes during periods of peak demand.

Innovation for Improved Gas Delivery Reliability

Successfully Field-Tested—Colorado State University

researchers, working in cooperation with NETL, have

demonstrated an improved method for engine ignition on a

commercial natural gas pipeline compressor. The work was

performed in a field test conducted at the El Paso Window

Rock Compressor Station in Window Rock, AZ, using a

full-scale (2,500 horsepower) compressor fueled with

natural gas. The new ignition method employs small

amounts of distillate diesel fuel injected into the engine to

initiate combustion instead of using spark ignition. The

innovation may save fuel, improve engine performance,

and reduce emission of pollutants. The technology has

significant implications for the U.S. natural gas pipeline

industry, in which similarly designed compressors

represent a critical part of the natural gas delivery

infrastructure.

Improved Gas Delivery Infrastructure—As part of a

cooperative agreement with NETL, Southwest Research

Institute completed development of a “conformable array”

corrosion-evaluation system. By automating a process

currently performed manually, the system offers a faster,

cheaper, more accurate way of determining pipe strength.

The system will encourage widespread pipeline

inspections, allow on-the-spot repair/replace decisions to be

made, and ultimately produce a safer and more reliable gas

pipeline delivery system. The system uses an array of

sensors configured on a flexible substrate that conforms to

pipe shape to efficiently and effectively map and evaluate

the extent of corrosion with only limited surface

preparation. Clockspring Inc., a pipeline services company

and cofunder of the project, expressed strong interest in

commercializing the technology for incorporation in its

service program, and the company officially requested that

Southwest Research Institute provide the first commercial

prototype of the system.

Pipeline Leak Detection Technologies Tested—Six new

technologies for the remote detection of natural gas

pipeline leaks were demonstrated in September 2004 in a

real-world environment. The participating technologies

included four developed with NETL funding and one

funded by the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Office

of Pipeline Safety. Testing and demonstration were carried

out at the Rocky Mountain Oilfield Testing Center in

Casper, WY, over a 71⁄2-mile-long test course with multiple

leak sites capable of variable leak rates. The event—which

was attended by Senator Craig Thomas (R-WY) and

representatives for Senator Michael Enzi (R-WY) and

Representative Barbara Cubin (R-WY)—included the

testing and demonstration of remote leak-detection

technologies carried on aircraft, satellite, unmanned aerial

vehicles, and mobile ground-vehicle-based platforms. These

new technologies will enhance the reliability of the nation’s

1.3 million miles of natural gas pipelines, increase safety,

and lessen the environmental impacts of undetected leaks.
NETL Accomplishments FY 2004 38

Patent Issued for Natural Gas Delivery Reliability

System—A U.S. patent was issued to Automatika Inc.

for the data communications method at the heart of the

Gasline Sensor Network System (GASNET). GASNET

is being developed in cooperation with NETL by

Automatika in partnership with Northeast Gas

Association and associated utilities. The wireless system

is designed to transmit real-time radio-frequencyencoded data (flow, pressure, moisture, etc.) from

sensors distributed throughout an entire network to a

central control and monitoring station. The system

eliminates the need for costly communications

infrastructure, and significantly improves response time

to changes in supply and demand.

NETL-Developed System Detects Buried Plastic

Pipe—As part of a cooperative agreement with NETL,

the Gas Technology Institute completed prototype

development of a compact and inexpensive sensor that

can be placed on the ground to image objects embedded

in the soil. The capacitive tomography system is not

hindered by wet soils, can be produced at a lower cost

than ground-penetrating radar, and provides a much

more intuitive image that is easy to interpret without

extensive operator training. The Gas Technology

Institute is planning to take this technology from proofof-concept to a prototype more suitable for commercial

production. A compact, low-cost, widely available

sensor that can image objects through soil would avoid

costs associated with inappropriate excavations and

inadvertent pipe breakage.

Gas Storage Technology Consortium Adopts

Constitution, Initiates Research Program—Following

its formal launch in March 2004, when approximately

30 prospective members met in Houston to ratify a

constitution, the Gas Storage Technology Consortium

initiated a 5-year collaborative research program valued

at $6 million with the release of its first request for

proposals in April 2004. The consortium’s mission is to

assist in the development, demonstration, and

commercialization of technologies that improve the

integrity, flexibility, deliverability, and costeffectiveness of the nation’s underground natural gas

storage facilities. Led by The Pennsylvania State

University, in cooperation with NETL, the consortium

helps ensure a safe and reliable supply of natural gas to

meet domestic demand.
NETL Accomplishments FY 2004 39

NETL Surveys Produced Water in Wyoming—As part of

an assessment of the fate of produced water associated with

coalbed methane production, NETL arranged with Fugro

Inc. to fly an airborne electromagnetic survey of four

separate areas of the Powder River Basin, including two

that had been over-flown previously. NETL staff also

collected geophysical and hydrologic data to correlate with

the airborne data. The surveys have proven valuable in

establishing baseline information and identifying potential

problem areas related to water management. The NETL

team is also coordinating a hydro-geologic investigation

within one of the flight areas with the U.S. Geological

Survey and the U.S. Bureau of Land Management.

Western Governors Release Best Management Practices

Handbook—A best management practices handbook for

the production of coalbed methane that relies heavily on

NETL-sponsored work was released by the Western

Governors’ Association in April 2004. Announced at the

North American Energy Summit in Albuquerque, the

handbook focuses on coalbed methane production in

Colorado, Montana, New Mexico, Utah, and Wyoming. It

highlights issues and public perceptions surrounding

coalbed methane development, and it discusses the best

methods and technologies for minimizing the amount of

water produced along with coalbed methane and solving

produced-water problems. The handbook builds on work

that NETL sponsored to develop best practices for coalbed

methane production in the Powder River Basin.

Gas Environmental Gas Solutions

Gas Environmental Solutions

While many, if not most, of

NETL’s natural gas research

activities improve the

environmental performance of

natural gas, the projects in the

Gas Environmental Solutions

Program have regulatory

compliance and improved

environmental protection at their

heart. The goal of the program is

to provide low-cost technologies

to overcome the environmental

barriers that limit domestic gas

production.
NETL Accomplishments FY 2004 40

OIL: LIFEBLOOD OF AMERICA’S

ECONOMY

Oil supplies 40 percent of

America’s total energy needs and

more than 99 percent of the fuel

we use in our cars and trucks.

Directly or indirectly, oil makes

possible the functioning of nearly

every component of the U.S.

economy. With two thirds of

America’s discovered oil still in the

ground, innovative new technologies

are needed to economically access

this vital resource. The Office of

Fossil Energy’s Oil Program,

implemented by NETL, works to

resolve the environmental, supply,

and reliability constraints of

producing and using oil by investing

in research with clear and tangible

public benefits.
NETL Accomplishments FY 2004 41

Oil

Oil Exploration and

Production

DOE’s role in oil exploration

and production is to facilitate

the development of critical

technologies where a federal

presence is needed to achieve

national energy goals. Through

shared research with its

industry partners, NETL

develops technologies to

increase domestic oil

production and coordinates the

rapid transfer of innovations to

commercial use.

Kansas CO2 Field Demonstration Produces First

Incremental Oil—An NETL-supported project to

demonstrate the efficacy of CO2 flooding in a mature,

nearly abandoned oilfield produced its first incremental oil

shortly after CO2 injection began in December 2003; as of

September 1, 2004, 550 barrels of oil had been produced,

and incremental oil production was expected to rise

significantly as the CO2-rich oil bank neared the production

well. The location for this ongoing demonstration with the

University of Kansas is the Hall-Gurney Field near Russell,

KS. The site had produced several million barrels of oil

from primary and water-flood recovery since its discovery

the 1930s, but for several years it was considered

completely depleted. This field was chosen because it is

typical of the thousands of nearly depleted and soon-to-beabandoned oilfields throughout Kansas. The first 2 years of

the project were spent preparing the field for the CO2 flood

and performing reservoir engineering studies to optimize

CO2 injection and oil production. Injection of CO2 will

continue until CO2 production is excessive; then it will

convert to WAG (water alternating gas) injection. This is

the first use of CO2 for enhanced oil recovery in Kansas. If

the technology is proven technologically and economically

feasible, the estimated incremental oil production in the

state of Kansas is 100–160 million barrels over 20 years.

NETL Project Results in More Oil, Better

Environment—By reprocessing historic seismic data with

modern computer software and fracture analysis technology

developed at the University of Southern California, Venoco

Inc. enhanced existing maps detailing the South Ellwood

Field off the coast of Santa Barbara, CA. The result:

significantly greater oil production and the discovery of

80 million barrels of additional new oil reserves. Before the

NETL-supported project started in 2000, only 5 percent of

the 1-billon-barrel reservoir had been recovered because of

high water influx and well siting difficulty. New technology

has been successfully applied to cut water influx in half and

increase oil production by 800 barrels per day from existing

offshore Holly platform oil wells. The new maps also located

large open fractures from which natural gas has been seeping

for millions of years. During the late 1980s, an early attempt

to collect some of the escaping methane gas using submerged

concrete pyramid-shaped seep tents was successful; work to

clean up the rest of the gas seep is under review. All of the oil

and gas produced, plus the natural gas collected, has worked

toward stemming the flow of the greenhouse gas,

significantly reduced the sheen previously evident on the

water surface, reduced the amount of oil washed up on area

beaches, and, according to the nearby Marine Mammal

Institute, allowed local marine life to flourish.

Oil Exploration and

Production
NETL Accomplishments FY 2004 42

Native American Project Finds 9 Million Barrels of

Economically Recoverable Oil—Seismic and

aeromagnetic research completed by Advanced Resources

International in cooperation with NETL identified 11

specific leads for petroleum exploration under Lake

Sakakawea on the Fort Berthold Indian Reservation in

Montana. The previously unexplored area represents the

largest contiguous acreage block, about 50,000 acres, under

control of the Arikara, Mandan, and Hidatsa Tribes, which

have united to form the Three Affiliated Tribes. The

reservation is located approximately 15 miles east of the

center of the Williston Basin, and to the southeast of a

major structural feature and petroleum-producing province,

the Nesson anticline. The Three Affiliated Tribes are

marketing the leads—which have expected recoveries

ranging from 283,000 to 1.7 million barrels of oil each

(18.7 million barrels of oil total)—to independent

operators. Finding and development cost estimates range

from $6 to $15 per barrel.

Horizontal Drilling Technology Finds More Oil—Using

horizontal drilling technology in conjunction with

Intelligent Computing System (ICS) software, Luff

Exploration Company of Denver, CO, has increased proven

oil reserves in the Williston Basin of North Dakota by

6 million barrels and produced nearly 1 million barrels of

incremental oil. The technologies revitalized wells that

were near their economic limit or were plugged and

abandoned, and could produce similar results in known

oilfields throughout the United States. Developed through a

cooperative agreement with NETL, ICS is a set of internetbased, downloadable software tools with tutorials that aid

petroleum professionals in reservoir characterization and

risk assessment. The software uses geologic, seismic,

drilling, and production data to create a suite of maps that

can predict the production rates and remaining oil and gas

in any part of the reservoir, identifying drilling sites and

approaches that would maximize hydrocarbon recovery.

Nitrogen Injection Yields 30 Percent Increase in

Production from Oklahoma Oilfield—Using a flood of

cryogenically produced nitrogen and improved techniques

for injection and completion, Binger Operations LLC of

Cody, WY, increased oil production from each of six new

wells in the Marchand C tight sand reservoir in western

Oklahoma to 900–1,000 barrels per day. Only 10 percent of

the reservoir’s 104 million barrels of oil-in-place has been

recovered over more than 30 years of development. An

arrangement with a local power generator to exchange

natural gas for electricity makes the nitrogen injection costeffective. Conducted in cooperation with NETL, the project

demonstrates that improved nitrogen injection could be an

economically viable option for independent operators in

areas where CO2 is not readily available.

Enhanced Oil Recovery from Low-Permeability

Bartlesville Sandstone—Results of an study to test

horizontal water-flooding in the shallow Bartlesville

sandstone in Osage County, OK, were reported in

September 2004 issue of The American Oil & Gas

Reporter. The article summarized the goals and results of

the NETL-supported project, which was funded as a Native

American Initiative Grant. Mineral rights to the Bartlesville

reservoir in Osage County belong to the Osage Tribe,

which will benefit from the increased oil production.

Project objectives were to demonstrate the technical and

economic feasibility of horizontal water-flooding, to test

the viability of open-hole completions, and to demonstrate

that short-radius rotary steerable technology can drill

horizontal wells at low cost and without reservoir damage.

Simulation results and economic evaluation indicate that

the horizontal water-flood using 23-acre spacing will

generate $2.9 million over 6 years compared to

$1.4 million over 30 years for a typical five-spot pattern.

Increased Oil Recovery in Wyoming—Correlations

Company of Socorro, NM, found that combining neural

network analysis with data from laboratory imbibition tests

provides a valuable way to predict whether surfactant

stimulation will be beneficial in a particular oilfield, and

even for specific wells within a field. The method can also

be used to determine the optimal amount of surfactant to

inject. Applying the method to 23 wells in the Cottonwood

Creek Field resulted in an average oil production increase

of 15 percent from 6 months of surfactant injection. The

work was completed through a Small Business Innovation

Research Grant administered at NETL.
NETL Accomplishments FY 2004 43

New Well Completion Device Successful in Field Test—

In an NETL-managed project, Completion Concepts of

Katy, TX, successfully field-tested a new approach to well

completions for formations with limited stability or

integrity. The new technology consists of telescoping

perforations (teleperfs) arrayed around the outside of a

well-casing liner. When pressurized from within the liner,

the teleperfs project into the formation face, securing the

liner in place and providing entry ports for the formation

fluids. The devices include a sand exclusion medium to

limit entrainment of formation material and debris. The

new approach represents an alternative to jet perfs that are

“exploded” into place at the risk of reducing reservoir

permeability, and to gravel packs that require an oversize

wellbore and are often ineffective for controlling sand

entrainment. This device will increase well productivity

and sharply enhance well economics. As a result of a

successful field test in Bossier City, LA, British Petroleum

plans to employ the new approach for an injection well in

Alaska in 2005.

New Method for Direct Detection of Hydrocarbons

Developed—In an NETL-managed project, Houston-based

Rock Solid Images developed a greatly improved method

of predicting and quantifying oil and gas saturation

distributions by interpreting seismic attributes such as

velocity and impedance in terms of inelastic rock

properties. The technology is expected to provide more

accurate reservoir simulations, resulting in fewer dry holes

and lower production costs. Two U.S. patent applications

were filed covering various aspects of the technology.

NETL Study on Alaska’s North Slope Garners Media

Attention—The first scientifically based study to

determine when oil companies can transport equipment

over the Arctic tundra without damaging the fragile

ecosystem received a considerable amount of favorable

media coverage in 2004. The new ecological model is a

major improvement over the current 30-year-old ad hoc

standard that limits oil exploration and ice road

construction to times when there is a minimum of 12 inches

of frozen ground and 6 inches of snow on the tundra. In

addition to snow depth and ground hardness, the model

accounts for interactions between vegetation and soil that

protect the tundra from being compacted or deformed. The

scientific approach allows work to start earlier, and extends

the number of workdays without harming the environment.

Model Predicts Chemical Nature of Hydrocarbons

Within Geologic Basins—The California Institute of

Technology made public an advanced chemistry basin

model that can determine the source and migration

pathways of hydrocarbons within a geologic basin,

thereby reducing the risk of drilling dry holes. Produced

with Cornell University and GeoGroup Inc. in

cooperation with NETL, the new software tool is a userfriendly, graphically intuitive basin model that includes

an oil maturity indicator and maturation kinetic data set,

and a Microsoft Excel-compatible oil chemistry and

flash calculation tool. The software operates on a

personal computer, and simulates hydrocarbon

generation and migration, and the chemical changes that

can occur during migration, such as phase separation

and gas washing.

Energy Bill Safety Net Proposal Presented to U.S.

Bureau of Land Management Incentives Team—As

part of the U.S. Bureau of Land Management Incentives

Team, NETL has applied analytical modeling tools to

evaluate a series of potential safety net incentives that can

be put in place on federal lands to encourage oil and gas

production when product prices are low. Seven scenarios

were analyzed for comparison to the current effective

royalty as well as to a flat 12.5 percent royalty on each of

the 16,515 federal leases active in 2003. Results of the

analysis were presented at a spring 2004 meeting with

other team members—representing the Bureau of Land

Management, and U.S. Minerals Management Service,

the Office of Fossil Energy, and the States of California,

Wyoming, New Mexico, and Oklahoma—and resulted in

a revised energy bill safety net incentive. The Bureau of

Land Management is considering replacing the current

heavy oil incentive and the stripper well incentive with

some form of the safety net incentive, so the analysis must

determine the base price for the new incentives as well as

the price indexing mechanism for current incentives,

should they be reinstated.

Improved Resolution for Porosity Maps Made Possible

with New Inversion Algorithms—Researchers at the

University of Texas at Austin successfully completed a 3-

year, NETL-funded project to improve the efficiency of

inversion algorithms and to develop algorithms for direct

estimation of petrophysical parameters. Researchers

integrated seismic data, well data, and reservoir production

data using Bayesian Stochastic Inversion. A full-waveform

inversion algorithm of elastic properties was developed and

tested successfully, tremendously improving horizontal

resolution of porosity maps.
NETL Accomplishments FY 2004 44

Algorithms for Discriminating Lithology from Sonic

Data—In an NETL-supported project, Southwest Research

Institute created, processed, and tested algorithms to extract

wave attenuation and dispersion attributes from seismic

data. The procedure automatically corrects the data for

scattering, geometrical spreading, and borehole effects. The

algorithms have been tested and verified, and can be used

to process new and existing monopole full-waveform sonic

data. The borehole application demonstrated that results

can discriminate lithology and provide information on pore

structure when integrated with cores and logs. In highly

permeable formations, pore structure can be related to fluid

flow between the pore matrix and vugs.

Reservoir Modeling Identifies Infill Drilling as Best

Approach to Increase Oil Recovery—With assistance

from NETL, the Kansas Geological Survey and American

Energies Corporation demonstrated the application of lowcost tools and techniques to build a reservoir geomodel for

the Wellington West Field in south-central Kansas. The

work included the integration of petrophysical logs, cores

from analogous reservoirs, production histories, and well

tests. A spreadsheet-based log-analysis tool called

PfEFFER, developed at the Kansas Geological Survey, was

used to analyze well logs. Spreadsheet-based decline

analysis and material balance calculations were used to

refine the model, which formed the basis of reservoir

stimulation study. Permeability distribution and residual

saturation maps of the field were developed to select an

optimum field-management plan. The reservoir stimulation

study concluded that, because of permeability and

heterogeneity considerations, coupled with a strong

bottom-water drive, a water-flood in the field would not be

effective. However, evidence from the study led to the

strong support of infill drilling to recover oil in an area of

relatively high oil saturation.

Technology Transfer Project Supports Domestic Oil and

Gas Industry—Through a contract with NETL, the Texasbased Houston Advanced Research Center identified and

catalogued the first 20 of possibly 800 technologies

developed by the U.S. Navy that are suitable for supporting

maritime operations of the offshore oil and gas industry.

The Houston Advanced Research Center is a non-profit

organization cooperating with universities, industry, and

government agencies to address regional ecologic issues.

The technologies identified would complement those under

development by NETL to improve domestic oil and gas

supply. The center plans to make the information widely

available.

Popular Handheld PC Program for Oil and Gas

Operators Receives Upgrade—After receiving high

marks from oil and gas operators, an electronic tally sheet

program for Pocket PCs was upgraded and improved to

make it even more user friendly. The “Tally II” Pipe Tally

Sheet for Pocket PC allows users to conveniently build an

inventory or tally sheet for tubular products and downhole

tools. Developed by Maurer Technology Inc. with

assistance from NETL, the program saves time while

improving recordkeeping accuracy. Interest in the first

version of the program was very high, and feedback

received from users led to the current upgrades and

improvements. The Tally II software can be downloaded

for free from the Maurer Engineering and NETL websites.

Digital Play Portfolio for the Permian Basin Publicly

Available—A team of researchers at the University of

Texas at Austin Bureau of Economic Geology and the New

Mexico Bureau of Geology and Mineral Resources

released a new digital oil-play portfolio of the prolific

Permian Basin of west Texas and southeast New Mexico.

The portfolio includes a reservoir database, sorted by plays,

of all reservoirs in the Permian Basin that have produced

more than 1 million barrels of oil through 2000; maps in

geographic information system (GIS) format of each play,

showing the location of reservoirs in the play and the play

boundaries; and written summaries of each play and figures

illustrating the nature of the geologic heterogeneities that

characterize the play. The project was completed in

cooperation with NETL under DOE’s Preferred Upstream

Management Practices program to find new, more cost

effective ways to locate and recover oil remaining in

carbonate reservoirs in the Permian Basin and elsewhere in

the United States. The Permian Basin has produced oil for
NETL Accomplishments FY 2004 45

more than 80 years, and it is still one of the largest

petroleum-producing basins in the United States. It

contains an estimated 22 percent of proved oil reserves in

the United States, and it has the biggest potential for

additional oil production in the country, containing 29

percent of estimated future oil reserve growth.

Artificial Network Approach to Reservoir

Characterization for Independents—A study conducted

by Advanced Resources International with assistance from

ChevronTexaco and NETL found that using clustering

analysis to interpret porosity and permeability trends is an

effective low-cost decision making tool when time,

manpower, and economics preclude a full-scale, core-based

reservoir characterization of an oilfield. The goal of the

study was to determine the best way to use existing dataacquisition capabilities to improve vertical resolution and

reduce uncertainty in reservoir characterization.

Performance forecasting technologies using artificial

intelligence and clustering proved to be the most costeffective way to improve reservoir predictions. This

information should prove useful to small independent

operators.

Oil Well Stability Studies Lower Well Construction

Costs—Insight from oil well stability studies being

conducted by NETL and Sandia National Laboratories has

already saved millions of dollars in well construction costs

in the Gulf of Mexico. In a $3-million, 4-year project,

researchers at the laboratories are using sophisticated

computer models to determine how oil wells in the 1,000-

mile-wide Gulf can be stabilized while drilling in slabs of

salt thousands of feet thick. The research helps industry

determine stable locations where drilling can take place

through or near salt formations, and it provides essential

guidance to optimize well trajectories and casing designs.

Results of the work have been applied to the Thunder

Horse North and Mad Dog Fields, two of the five largest

oilfields in the Gulf of Mexico. The more aggressive wellcasing design implemented in the Thunder Horse North

Field resulted in estimated well construction cost

reductions of more than $30 million.

Cable-Suspended Submersible Pumps Reduce

Production Costs, Increase Ultimate Oil Recovery—

Enerdyne LLC, a small independent oil and gas producer,

and Pumping Solutions Inc., developer of a low-volume

electric submersible pump, re-established marginal oil

production from the Red Mountain Field in the San Juan

Basin in New Mexico by installing cable-suspended

electric submersible pumps in 17 existing wells. Objectives

of the NETL-supported project were to resume oil

production in the Red Mountain Reservoir by using the

pumping system; to determine if the system can reduce lift

costs, making it a cost-effective production system for

similar oilfields within the region; and, if warranted, to drill

additional wells to improve the economics. The average

Red Mountain well made eight barrels of fluid per day in

the first 4 weeks of production, with the pump operating

2 hours per day; the average oil cut was calculated at

15 percent. Potential oil production is estimated at 15–

20 barrels of oil per day once all 17 wells are allowed to

produce on a regular extended schedule.

Low-Cost Well-Monitoring Device Promises to Optimize

Production—A new, ultra-low-cost device for monitoring

marginal oil wells was successfully field-tested by Vaquero

Energy in the Edison Field near Bakersfield, CA.

Developed with support from NETL, the Marginal Expense

Oilwell Wireless Surveillance (MEOWS) system helps

improve the efficiency of rod-pumped oil wells and

promises to help rescue thousands of U.S. wells from an

early demise. The system allows daily, remote monitoring

of wells in real time at a significantly reduced cost, while

providing information that helps the operator improve the

efficiency of rod pumps controlled by timers. As a result of

the field test, preliminary patent searches on the new device

and application were initiated, followed by additional

patent-related investigations and discussions with patent

attorneys. The preliminary patent search was satisfactory,

and the project team anticipates successful application of

the low-cost device on pumping oil wells.
NETL Accomplishments FY 2004 46

NETL-Developed Technology Yields Heavy Oil Upgrading

Process—Western Research Institute of Laramie, WY,

developed a process to convert bitumen (heavy oil, oil sands,

etc.) into a residuum-free stock that meets or exceeds pipeline

specifications for density and viscosity. The Western Research

Institute Thermal Enhancement (WRITE) process, which

involves no addition of diluents, would save approximately

$2–$3 per barrel over current practice. The WRITE process—

an offshoot of the Western Research Institute’s patented

TaBoRR (tank bottom recovery and remediation) process,

which was developed in cooperation with NETL for

recovering salable petroleum products from oilfield sludge—

is ready for pilot-scale testing and field deployment.

Tests Confirm Performance of Reactor System for EarlyEntrance Coproduction Plant—ChevronTexaco completed

tests confirming the design basis for the Fischer-Tropsch

bubble column reactor central to CevronTexaco’s concept for

an early-entrance plant to coproduce electric power, clean

diesel fuel, and steam from petroleum coke, a low-cost

byproduct of oil refining. The tests also validated proposed

techniques for online catalyst withdrawal and addition,

catalyst rejuvenation, and catalyst regeneration. The project,

undertaken in cooperation with NETL, will provide the

necessary technical, economic, and environmental

information needed by industry to move the concept forward

to detailed design, construction, and operation.

Field Test and Evaluation of Ultra-Clean Diesel Fuel in

Denali National Park Buses Gears Up to Full Scale—In

an NETL-supported project, a gas-to-liquids demonstration

plant at the Port of Catoosa, near Tulsa, OK, is providing

ultra-clean synthetic transportation fuel for three buses in

the fleet at Denali National Park in Alaska. Researchers

from West Virginia University are comparing emissions

from six Denali buses—three using the ultra-clean fuel and

three others using the park’s normal fuel. This

demonstration project marks the first time that buses are

operating on Syntroleum’s Fischer-Tropsch fuel, and it is

happening in one of the most pristine places in the world.

The test vehicles will demonstrate that the fuel can be used

in diesel engines without excess wear, and there will be

lower emissions using this fuel. The synthetic fuel is

produced at the Port of Catoosa plant and provided to the

park under a cost-shared cooperative agreement between

NETL and Integrated Concepts and Research Corporation

(ICRC); Syntroleum is a subcontractor to ICRC. Using

Syntroleum’s advanced Fischer-Tropsch process, the plant

will, at full capacity, convert approximately 1 million cubic

feet per day of natural gas into 70 barrels per day of diesel

fuel containing virtually no sulfur, aromatic hydrocarbons,

or metals.

Fuels

To ensure a diverse and secure

domestic supply of energy and

lessen America’s dependence on

imported oil, NETL works with

its industry partners to develop

advanced alternative fuels.

Promising technologies include

processes to convert natural gas

into a liquid and innovations to

improve refinery efficiency,

thereby improving the economics

of upgrading heavy oils to desired

light oil quality.

Oil Fuels
NETL Accomplishments FY 2004 47

Oil Environmental Solutions

Just as most of NETL’s natural gas

research activities improve the

environmental performance of

natural gas, most of NETL’s oil

research activities improve the

environmental performance of oil.

And just as the projects in the

Gas Environmental Solutions

Program have regulatory

compliance and improved

environmental protection at their

heart, so it is with the projects in

the Oil Environmental Solutions

Program. In both cases, the

program goal is to provide lowcost technologies to overcome

the environmental barriers that

limit domestic production of

America’s fossil resources.

NETL-Supported Project Demonstrates Soil Restoration at

Tallgrass Prairie Preserve—With support from NETL, the

University of Tulsa is developing models and strategies to reduce

the likelihood of an accidental oil or brine release during oil

production and minimize ecosystem damage should one occur.

The work is being conducted in the Tallgrass Prairie Preserve in

Oklahoma, where more than 100 wells produce an average of

15–20 barrels per day of crude oil, and as much as 10 times that

volume of brine. The infrastructure in the preserve is aging and

requires maintenance, increasing the risk of environmental

damage in the ecologically sensitive setting should an equipment

failure occur. The project employs risk assessment techniques to

gauge the probability of damage to soil ecosystems from spills of

produced fluids such as oil and brine, to identify spill causes, and

to determine appropriate clean-up standards. The project will

enable better environmental protection with the limited resources

typical of operators of marginally producing wells.

Drilling Waste Management Information System

Published—The Drilling Waste Management Information

System (DWMIS) developed for DOE by Argonne National

Laboratory was highlighted in the August 2004 issue of Oil &

Gas Journal. Drilling waste management practices vary

throughout the world and are subject to legal requirements to

protect human health and the environment. With assistance from

NETL and industry partners Chevron-Texaco and Marathon Oil,

Argonne developed an interactive DWMIS website, which

provides comprehensive information of drilling-waste

management and summarizes applicable technologies and

regulatory information for individual states and federal agencies.

DWMIS will benefit operators by providing easy access to U.S.

regulations and waste management options. This information will

allow operators to select the options with the most environmental

and economic benefits. The journal article provides a background

description of drilling waste, the purpose of sound environmental

management, and the design and use of the DWMIS module,

which went on line in June 2004.

Oil Oil Envirommental

Solutions
NETL Accomplishments FY 2004 48

ENERGY EFFICIENCY AND

RENEWABLE ENERGY

NETL is the lead research and

development center for the Office

of Fossil Energy, but it shares its

wide-ranging expertise with other

offices and departments within the

federal government. NETL supports

the DOE Office of Energy Efficiency

and Renewable Energy (EERE) in

its mission to enhance energy

efficiency and productivity by

conducting relevant research on

site and managing external

research and development projects

for various EERE programs.
NETL Accomplishments FY 2004 49

Laser Ignition Lowers Engine NOx—Studies conducted

at NETL have suggested a way to improve reciprocating

engine performance to meet more demanding emissions

limits. Using a laser-spark ignition system, NETL

researchers increased the total operating margin (defined as

the interval between the knock and misfire regimes) of an

engine by 46 percent compared to conventional spark plug

ignition systems. The wider margin afforded by the laser

system permitted NOx reduction of 50 percent relative to

the spark plug system, with greater ignition system

durability and no degradation in thermal efficiency or

combustion stability. This technology was developed under

the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy’s

Distributed Energy Program.

NETL-Supported Project Produces Power from

Waste—In a project funded by NETL under the Office

of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy’s Biomass

Program, the Port of Tillamook Bay, OR, is converting

animal waste from an environmental liability into a

significant source of energy and profit. Anaerobic

digestion of cow manure allows the port to heat water,

produce grid-quality electricity, and recover fertilizer

and other marketable products while protecting

approximately 100 jobs in the local dairy industry.

Attendant profits are making the project selfperpetuating by financing additional digester

installations throughout Tillamook County.

Black Liquor Gasifier Commissioning Begins—

Commissioning of a black liquor gasifier being integrated

into Georgia-Pacific’s 100-year-old containerboard mill in

Big Island, VA, as part of an NETL-supported

demonstration project began in March 2004 with the first

injection of black liquor into the gasifier. Gasification of

black liquor, a papermaking byproduct that also serves as a

fuel for pulp and paper mills, transforms the byproduct into

value-added chemicals and synthesis gas, and it is a

promising alternative to the recovery boilers traditionally

used in paper manufacturing. Funded by the Office of

Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy’s Biomass

Program, the commercial-scale demonstration project is

illustrating the viability of black liquor gasification in the

forest products industry.

Energy Energy Efficiency and

Renewable Energy
NETL Accomplishments FY 2004 50

High-Efficiency Condensing Gas Water Heater Ready

for Market—The A. O. Smith Corporation, a leading

manufacturer of residential and commercial water heaters,

has set mid-2005 for the rollout of a high-efficiency

condensing gas water heater developed by TIAX under an

agreement with NETL. Final testing of the newly designed

water heater, which has a thermal efficiency greater than

90 percent, is being conducted by TIAX, A. O. Smith, and

the Gas Research Institute. A. O. Smith is re-tooling its

manufacturing facility and developing a marketing

campaign to target residential users and light-duty

commercial applications. The water heater was developed

with funding from the Office of Energy Efficiency and

Renewable Energy’s Building Technologies Program.

Advanced Microturbine Surpasses 2,000 Hours of

Testing—Capstone Turbine Corporation’s 200-kilowatt

microturbine surpassed 2,000 hours of pre-production

testing at the National Fuel Cell Research Center and

Combustion Lab at the University of California, Irvine. The

C200 microturbine was installed and commissioned, and

began continuous, full-load operation in May 2004.

Efficiency of the C200 averaged over 33 percent on a lower

heating value (LHV) basis; commercially available

microturbines operate well below 30 percent LHV

efficiency. The natural-gas-fueled microturbine was

developed with funding from the Office of Energy

Efficiency and Renewable Energy’s Distributed Energy

Program.

Operating Framework Developed for Project

Management Center—A full year of planning and

implementation led to the October 2004 opening of the

Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy

(EERE) Project Management Center. Consisting of nine

field implementation organizations—EERE’s Golden Field

Office, EERE’s six Regional Offices, NETL, and the State

Technologies Advancement Collaborative—the Project

Management Center is a virtual organization that manages

formula grants, research and development projects, and

projects funded from a variety of state and federal

programs. The center takes advantage of the resources and

capabilities of its members to manage projects using

common business practices, and it affords EERE the

flexibility to deal with uneven workflows.

Commercial Building Market Study Completed—

Innovologie LLC, formerly TecMRKT Works, has found

that great gains could be made in improving the energy

efficiency of commercial buildings by targeting the

relatively few major players in each of seven submarkets

(office, retail, food sales and service, lodging, healthcare,

warehouses, and education). Relying on data from the DOE

Energy Information Administration, the Commercial

Building Energy Conservation Survey, and other sources,

the study describes for each building submarket such

characteristics as building size, energy use, and ownership;

it also examines corporate, social, and cultural influences

on building design, construction, and renovation. The study

was completed for the Office of Energy Efficiency and

Renewable Energy’s Building Technologies Program in

cooperation with NETL to help develop research programs

and technology implementation strategies based on a

scientific analysis of the needs and operation of the

commercial new construction market.

Record-Setting Lighting Panel Developed, Delivered,

Displayed—By incorporating a number of innovative

technical advances, General Electric produced a 2-footsquare lighting panel that set a world record for light output

using organic light-emitting diode (OLED) technology.

Similar in appearance and function to a fluorescent lighting

fixture, the lighting panel produced 1,200 lumens, about

the same light output as an ordinary 100-watt incandescent

lamp. OLED technology employs ultra-thin films of

organic molecules that can be spread out over a large

surface, causing the entire surface to emit light when the

molecules are excited by an electric current. The

demonstration panel was delivered for display at DOE’s

Forrestal Building headquarters in February 2004 at the

conclusion of a 3-year, NETL-managed project aimed at

reducing the technical risks that are keeping the lighting

industry from embracing and developing this potentially

energy-saving technology. The project was funded by the

Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy’s

Building Technologies Program.
NETL Accomplishments FY 2004 51

ENERGY INFORMATION

Shared knowledge is the enabler of

scientific progress. Recognizing this,

DOE aims to be the definitive

source of energy-related

information and forecasts in the

United States. NETL contributes by

sharing its expertise within DOE

and outside the federal

government, in the United States

and around the world.
NETL Accomplishments FY 2004 52

Energy Energy Information

NETL Experts Contribute to Encyclopedia of Energy—

Guided by an international team of editors, approximately

400 authors participated in producing the “Encyclopedia of

Energy” released by Elsevier publishers in March 2004.

NETL experts contributed seven sections to the six-volume

set, including articles on the formation of coal resources,

the chemical and physical properties of coal, coal

transportation and storage, coal conversion, clean coal

technology, fuel and non-fuel uses of coal, and coal mine

reclamation and remediation. The publication has been

lauded as “an invaluable reference guide” by Faith Birol,

Chief Economist at the International Energy Agency, and a

“most thorough and up-to-date work” by T. Nejat

Veziroglu, President of the International Association for

Hydrogen Enery. Gerald Doucet, Secretary General of the

World Energy Council, noted that the publication contained

“authoritative articles from leading experts in all aspects of

energy.” The encyclopedia is expected to be internationally

referenced for decisionmaking and policy development.

NETL Provides Hurricane Assistance—During and in the

aftermath of Hurricanes Charley, Frances, Ivan, and Jeanne,

six NETL employees were deployed to field locations to

provide around-the-clock technical support to the

Department of Homeland Security’s Federal Emergency

Management Agency (FEMA). During federal emergencies,

DOE coordinates the provision of emergency power and

transportation fuels to support response operations, and it

coordinates the restoration of normal electrical power and

other energy supplies to the affected areas. In support of the

former DOE Office of Energy Assurance, NETL staff were

deployed to FEMA headquarters in Washington, FEMA’s

regional office in Atlanta, and state emergency operations

centers in Florida and Texas. Their primary responsibility

was to collect and share information on the status of energy

infrastructure, allowing FEMA to better coordinate

emergency response to the affected areas. In addition, the

NETL Energy Infrastructure and Security Research Group

played a vital role in providing deployed NETL staff with

accurate analytical and geospatial visualizations of possible

energy impacts and maps of after-hurricane energyrestoration status.

European Union Seeks NETL Expertise—Most mine

drainage problems are associated with mine voids rather

than mine waste, and with abandoned mines rather than

active operations, NETL’s Dr. Robert Kleinmann told a

group of mine water engineers from six European

countries, and representatives from three European Union

agencies, at a November 2003 meeting in Brussels.

Kleinmann discussed how remote sensing being developed

by NETL could be used to rapidly inventory problems

caused by abandoned mine sites, and illustrated how

technology has made it possible to remediate many

problem sites that could not be dealt with a decade ago.

Giving examples of how such efforts are being addressed

elsewhere, Kleinmann highlighted Pennsylvania’s

innovative approach of funding volunteer watershed

organizations to coordinate and conduct site remediation,

and how alkaline waste materials, such as coal combustion

byproducts, can be utilized. The group of engineers was

funded by the European Union to provide advice on needed

regulatory and policy changes. Dr. Kleinmann was asked to

attend the meeting to provide an independent perspective

on the issue and the experts’ recommendations.

NETL Technology Manager Invited Speaker at Major

International Conferences in Japan—In support of the

DOE-initiated International Partnership for the Hydrogen

Economy, Dr. Mark C. Williams, NETL’s Technology

Manager for Distributed Generation, delivered invited

lectures at the 56th Dokiya Memorial International

Symposium on Solid Oxide Fuel Cells in Tokyo, and the

15th World Hydrogen Energy Conference in Yokohama,

Japan. Dr. Williams discussed the latest developments in

hydrogen- and fuel-cell-based energy technologies; assessed

related research, development, and demonstration progress

and policy development in other countries; and identified

opportunities for collaboration, particularly the export and

demonstration of U.S. fuel cell technology abroad.

NETL Invited to Speak at Society of Petroleum

Engineers’ Advanced Technology Workshop—NETL

was invited to give a presentation on its Microhole

Technologies Program at the Society of Petroleum

Engineer’s Advanced Technology Workshop on “Leading

Edge Rigs” at Stateline, NV, in August 2004. The workshop

was attended by both operators and service companies

involved in construction of state-of-art drilling rigs for both

offshore and onshore operations. Although NETL is not

actually building such a rig, NETL’s microhole technology

concept supports rig developers, especially those involved

in drilling in environmentally sensitive areas. The “designer

seismic” concept made possible by microhole technology

was recognized as an enabling technology for pad and

platform drilling. The potential of the concept for use in

developing environmentally sensitive areas was especially

apparent in the presentation by Anadarko on its DOEfunded project for methane hydrate exploration and

development in environmentally sensitive Arctic areas.

Successes such as the Anadarko work are key milestones to

future oil and gas development in sensitive areas.
NETL Accomplishments FY 2004 53

NETL Researcher Participates in National Research

Council Review—Dr. Geo Richards, a researcher and

Focus Area Leader in NETL’s Office of Science,

Technology, and Analysis, was invited to participate in a

National Research Council review panel. The National

Research Council is widely recognized for providing

technical opinion and reviews of the highest technical

caliber, and panels are formed from the nation’s leading

scientists and engineers. Dr. Richards served as an

evaluator for proposed research in NASA’s Intelligent

Propulsion Systems Foundation Technology. The proposed

research covers the use of advanced sensors and controls to

operate high-efficiency propulsion turbines. The review

was conducted in Washington in August 2004.

NETL Shares Oil and Gas Data with DOE Energy

Information Administration—Under the terms of an

agreement with NRG Associates Inc., NETL shares data

with DOE’s Energy Information Administration about

virtually all known recoverable petroleum resources in the

United States. NRG databases allow NETL and the Energy

Information Administration to support a broad variety of oil

and gas analyses, including petroleum resource assessment,

production forecasting, basin and play evaluations,

acquisition studies, and upstream technology reviews.

These analyses are critical to DOE in developing and

reaching realistic goals and milestones in its oil and gas

program, and in evaluating the impact and benefits of

related research and development.

NETL Updates National Energy Modeling System

Costing Algorithm—A general costing algorithm for

estimating refinery capital and operating costs has been

developed by NETL analysts for the petroleum marketing

module of the DOE Energy Information Administration’s

National Energy Modeling System. The new algorithm is

similar to the algorithm used in the petroleum marketing

module for the 2004 Annual Energy Outlook, but it has

been updated and expanded to reflect the Energy

Information Administration’s current and future needs. In

addition, a number of changes have been made to make the

new algorithm conform to standard costing practices.

Capital and operating costs are used within the petroleum

marketing module to determine whether the capacity of

refinery processing units considered in the model should be

expanded in forecast years. The capital cost of an

individual refinery unit includes all inside battery-limit

equipment and installation. It is used to estimate total

project capital investment, which also includes outside

battery-limit and other one-time capital costs. A capital

recovery factor is then applied to calculate an annual

charge for the total unit investment less a tax credit for

depreciation. Non-labor-related fixed costs are also

estimated from the capital investment. Operating labor

costs are used in a similar fashion to estimate total laborrelated fixed costs. Variable operating costs are calculated

separately within the petroleum marketing module for each

process unit. The updated costing algorithm will provide a

more accurate representation of the current U.S. refining

industry.

NETL Staff Briefs White House Task Force—A January

2004 presentation on three-dimensional watershed profiling

technology was well received by the White House Task

Force on Energy Project Streamlining. The airborne

electromagnetic technology, which has a theoretical

capability of mapping groundwater as deep as 1,500 feet

below the earth’s surface, has been used to map the shallow

subsurface (approximately 75 feet) of Wyoming’s Powder

River Basin to determine the impact of produced waters

resulting from coalbed methane operations on groundwater,

streams, and irrigation systems. The project is part of

DOE’s effort to increase the nation’s energy supplies while

protecting and improving the environment.

DOE Joins U.S. Department of State in Training

Foreign Service Officers—For the fifth consecutive year,

NETL organized and conducted a weeklong course in coal

and power technologies for Foreign Service Officers in the

summer of 2004. The training covered—

• Electricity generation, transmission, and distribution.

• Coal mining, preparation, combustion, gasification, and

byproduct utilization.

• Natural-gas-based power generation using turbines,

microturbines, fuel cells, and other distributed

technologies.

• Hydrogen production.

• Carbon sequestration.

• FutureGen.

Participants included 19 representatives from the U.S.

Department of State, the U.S. Department of Commerce,

and NETL, with Foreign Service officers from posts in Abu

Dhabi, Bulgaria, China, Kazakhstan, Kosovo, Japan, and

Mexico. The Foreign Service identifies free market

opportunities abroad, and collaborates with international

institutions on global issues such as the environment. By

briefing the Foreign Service on capabilities and key

contacts within U.S. industry, the annual course supports a

number of National Energy Policy objectives.
NETL Accomplishments FY 2004 54

AWARDS AND RECOGNITION

NETL’s technologies, programs,

projects, and people received

awards and recognition from a

wide variety of stakeholders in

fiscal year 2004. External

recognition affirms the value of

NETL’s work, and acknowledges

NETL’s contribution to solving

America’s energy and

environmental challenges.
NETL Accomplishments FY 2004 55

Awards Awards and Recognition

NETL-Funded Technologies Win R&D 100 Awards—

Seven technologies developed by NETL researchers, or

with support from NETL, received prestigious R&D 100

Awards from R&D Magazine in 2004. The R&D 100

Awards—sometimes called “the Oscars of Invention”—

are given to the 100 most technologically significant

products and processes of the year. Recognized by

industry, government, and academia, an R&D 100 Award

provides an important boost to new products just

entering the marketplace.

• Aspen Plus-FLUENT Integration Toolkit—The Aspen

Plus-FLUENT Integration Toolkit couples Aspen Plus

process simulation software with FLUENT

computational fluid dynamics models using CAPEOPEN interfaces, the process industry standard. The

toolkit provides, for the first time, the level of detail

and accuracy needed for virtual power plant simulation.

NETL researchers developed the toolkit in cooperation

with computational scientists and engineers at Fluent

Inc., ALSTOM Power, Aspen Technology Inc., and West

Virginia University. Enductive Solutions sold the first

license and training agreement for its use to a major

chemical company in 2004.

• T-2749 Fluidized-Bed Desulfurization Sorbent—

Developed by RTI International with assistance and

funding from NETL, the effective, attrition-resistant,

regenerable zinc-based sorbent is used in fast

fluidized-bed reactors to remove gaseous sulfur

contaminants from the high-temperature synthesis gas

generated during coal gasification. Its invention may

also allow other feed stocks—including petroleum

coke, a waste product of the petrochemical industry;

black liquor, a waste product of the paper-pulping

industry; and municipal waste—to become viable

sources of clean energy. The technology may reduce

the capital costs of coal-based integrated gasification

combined-cycle plants by $60–$80 per kilowatt, and

should improve the thermal efficiency of the system

by up to 2 percentage points. The sorbent will also

achieve reductions in sulfur levels by over an order of

magnitude compared to conventional amine systems.

• Hydrogen Transport Membrane—A hydrogenselective membrane, developed at Argonne National

Laboratory in partnership with NETL, separates pure

hydrogen from gas mixtures generated by such

processes as the gasification of carbon-based feed

stocks and methane reforming. Because it can operate

at elevated temperatures and pressures without

becoming embrittled by hydrogen or poisoned by

sulfur, the dense-ceramic membrane could enable

direct production of hydrogen fuel from coal.

• Optical Fiber Sensor Technology—The Center for

Photonics Technology at Virginia Polytechnic

Institute and State University was honored for a fiber

optic sensor developed under an NETL grant.

Designed to operate under hostile downhole

conditions, the sensor allows efficient and economic

recovery of petroleum by providing reliable, costeffective, real-time measurement and monitoring of

key physical wellbore parameters such as pressure,

temperature, flow, and acoustic wave patterns. The

technology was successfully field-tested by

ChevronTexaco, and licensed to Tubel Technologies

for commercial development.

• SmartScreensSystemsTM—QRDC Inc. was recognized

for it SmartScreensSystems mining technology, which

uses a patented energy flow control system to transfer

energy from “smart motors” directly to the screening

medium, rather than to an entire vibrating screen

machine. Developed with support from NETL under

DOE’s Industrial Technologies Program, the system

dramatically reduces energy requirements and

equipment maintenance, as well as noise and

vibration.

• Radio Imaging Method System 4 (RIM-IV)—Stolar

Research Corporation was honored for its RIM-IV

radio frequency device, which generates highresolution tomographic images of features below the

surface of the ground. Locating geologic anomalies

and hazards ahead of mining operations improves

mine planning, lowers operating costs, and reduces

the risk of intersecting abandoned, potentially flooded

mines. Mining companies, construction firms, and the

military already have used the technology worldwide

as a safe and effective means of subsurface

exploration and extraction. The technology was

developed with support from NETL under DOE’s

Industrial Technologies Program
NETL Accomplishments FY 2004 56

• SageGlass® Smart Window Glazing—Developed by

SAGE Electrochromics Inc. with support from NETL

under DOE’s Building Technologies Program,

SageGlass technology provides important economic and

functional benefits, including thermal comfort,

elimination of glare on computer and television screens,

protection of interior furnishings and fabrics from

fading, enhanced security, and energy savings.

Moreover, extensive testing indicates service lifetimes in

excess of 20 years for SageGlass all-ceramic thin films.

NETL Project Helps Win “Top Plant” Recognition—

NETL provided technical assistance to a consortium of

private-sector Indian organizations to help establish and

commercialize a first-of-its-kind fuel management system.

The system, installed at the Dahanu Thermal Power Station

on India’s west coast, was instrumental in POWER

magazine listing this 500-megawatt power plant as one of

its “Top Plants of 2004.” India plans to double its installed

electrical generation capacity to more than

200,000 megawatts in the near future. The efficient

operation of the Dahanu plant demonstrates that advanced

technologies can meet high environmental standards. This

is important in the Indian market because it allows

electricity to be generated near cities, minimizing

transmission and distribution losses, which are currently

higher than 30 percent in some regions of the country.

NETL provided the technical assistance through a

Participating Agency Service Agreement with the U.S.

Agency for International Development.

“Projects of the Year” Award Goes to NETL

Technology—Development of H Class gas turbine

technology under DOE’s former Advanced Turbine

Systems Program, managed by NETL, culminated in the

installation and successful startup of a 400-megawatt

natural-gas-fired combined-cycle power plant in Baglan

Bay, Cardiff, Wales, UK. The plant received one of three

2003 “Projects of the Year” Awards from Power Engineering

magazine during the POWER-GEN International

convention in December 2003. This new class of advanced

gas turbines is manufactured by General Electric in

Greenville, SC. Low emissions with high efficiency support

the President’s Clear Skies and Climate Change Initiatives,

and will reduce consumption of natural gas.

NETL-Sponsored Project Wins Award for Innovation—

A new insulation material that will help make low-cost

solid oxide fuel cell power generation systems a reality

received the Stoel Rives “Utah Innovation Award.” The

nano-ceramic material, named CERCANAM, was

developed by Ceramatec Inc. of Salt Lake City with

support from a Small Business Innovation Research Grant

administered at NETL. A key advantage of this castable,

high-temperature, chemically stable material is that

insulation components for solid oxide fuel cell stacks can

be formed with a high degree of dimensional accuracy and

stability, minimizing costly machining operations.

Moreover, the material contains minimal silica, which

could react with the high-temperature fuel stream entering

the stack and have an adverse effect on performance. While

the material represents a significant advance toward the

SECA goal of developing cost-competitive, modular, 3- to

10-kilowatt solid oxide fuel cell systems by 2010, it can

also be used in a broad range of other applications, including

optical connectors and fire-retardant building materials.

NETL-Supported Fuel Cell Technology Receives EPA

Award—The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power,

the nation’s largest municipal utility, received the 2004

Environmental Achievement Award from the EPA for

leadership in environmental protection shown by the

utility’s Fuel Cell Demonstration Program. Using molten

carbonate fuel cell technology developed by FuelCell

Energy with NETL support, the Los Angeles Department of

Water and Power developed an internationally recognized

distributed generation program demonstrating clean,

efficient, and reliable onsite electric power generation. The

EPA Region 9 Environmental Awards acknowledge

individuals and organizations that contribute significantly

to environmental protection in California, Arizona, Nevada,

Hawaii, Guam, and tribal lands.

NETL-Supported Project Receives California’s Highest

Environmental Honor—At a ceremony held in

Sacramento in December 2003, California Governor

Arnold Schwarzenegger awarded the prestigious

Governor’s Environmental and Economic Leadership

Award to Inland Empire Utilities Agency (IEUA) for

deploying energy-conserving innovations in a new 66,000-

square-foot headquarters complex in Chino, CA. IEUA

serves more than 700,000 people in a 242-square-mile area,

distributing imported water and providing municipal and

industrial wastewater collection and treatment. The awardwinning innovations include utilization of methane gas

generated from anaerobic digestion processes, a technology
NETL Accomplishments FY 2004 57

developed and installed at the complex in partnership with

NETL under the Office of Energy Efficiency and

Renewable Energy’s Biomass Program. IEUA expects the

complex to become 100 percent energy self-sufficient

within 2 years, saving more than $800,000 per year in

energy costs alone, and demonstrating that such smart

project designs can save ratepayers money while improving

air and water quality.

Microdrilling Technology Reaches World Oil Magazine

Award Finals—A novel microdrilling technology

developed by researchers at Los Alamos National

Laboratory with support from NETL was selected as a

finalist for World Oil magazine’s 2004 New Horizons Idea

Award, which recognizes breakthrough thinking that will

help guide the next generation of oil industry professionals.

The miniaturization technology, which deploys a drill

motor and bit on the end of conventional coiled tubing,

could lead to rigless small-footprint drilling systems that

can be lifted into remote areas by helicopter, significantly

reducing environmental and visibility impacts. The

technology was featured in the November 2004 issue of the

Journal of Petroleum Technology, the flagship publication

of the Society of Petroleum Engineers, and it continues to

enjoy strong industry support as a lower cost approach to

shallow drilling and less environmentally risky exploration.

NETL Environmental Management System Receives

Enviro Star Award—The Allegheny County Health

Department in Pennsylvania recognized with a three-star

award the voluntary pollution prevention practices being

implemented through the environmental management

system at NETL. The award, the highest under the

department’s Enviro Star Program, was made in April

2004, as part of Earth Day celebrations in Pittsburgh. The

NETL environmental management system covers onsite

research and development, site operations, and

administrative support activities, and it conforms to

International Standards Organization Standard 14001

requirements. Built upon DOE’s Integrated Safety

Management System, the system has yielded many

improvements in pollution prevention, regulatory

compliance, waste minimization, and quality assurance/

control activities. NETL received a certificate signed by the

Allegheny County Chief Executive and the Director of the

Allegheny County Health Department, and a placard

signifying NETL’s role as a good neighbor and model for

the community in implementing sound pollution prevention

practices and programs.

NETL Earns Safety Awards—For the eighth consecutive

year, NETL was recognized for outstanding performance in

occupational safety and accident prevention. NETL

received the 2003 “Quality” Safety Performance Award

from the Western Pennsylvania Safety Council, a chapter of

the National Safety Council, at the 79th Annual Safety and

Health Conference in May 2004. In addition, NETL sitesupport contractors received the Outstanding Achievement

Award for a twelfth consecutive year. The awards were

made to organizations in western Pennsylvania that

maintained the lowest U.S. Occupational Safety and Health

Administration “lost workday case rates.” Having worked

579,107 person-hours, employees at the NETL Pittsburgh

site recorded a rate of only 0.34.

Patents Awarded for NETL Inventions—NETL scientists

and engineers received or shared patents for seven new

technologies during fiscal year 2004. Details about these

and other NETL patents are available in the “Business”

section of the NETL website:

• Process to Accomplish Autothermal or Steam

Reforming Via a Reciprocating Compression Device

• Low Temperature Sorbents for Removal of Sulfur

Compounds from Fluid Feed Streams

• Device and Method for Separating Minerals, Carbon,

and Cement Additives from Fly Ash

• Transpiration-Purged Optical Probe

• Gas Sampling System for a Mass Spectrometer

• Planar Solid Oxide Fuel Cell with Staged IndirectInternal Air and Fuel Preheating and Reformation

• Method to Remove Ammonia Using a ProtonConducting Ceramic Membrane

NETL Associate Director Receives Fuel Cell Award—

Citing his “vision, leadership, and guidance of SECA, a

new model for joint government and private industry

technology research and development,” the American

Society of Materials International presented Dr. Joseph P.

Strakey, Associate Director at NETL, with a Resolution of

Appreciation. Dr. Strakey received the award at a special

dinner held in his honor during ASM International’s

Materials Solutions 2003 conference held in Pittsburgh in

October. The citation also acknowledges the SECA

program as “a leader in the development and

implementation of fuel cell technology.”
NETL Accomplishments FY 2004 58

NETL Technology Manager Receives Pathfinder

Award—The Pathfinder Award, to be presented annually to

people outside the fuel cell industry who have contributed

significantly to the commercialization of fuel cells in the

United States, was inaugurated by the U.S. Fuel Cell

Council during the 2003 Fuel Cell Seminar in Miami

Beach, FL. Dr. Mark C. Williams, NETL’s Technology

Manager for Distributed Generation, was one of the first

four recipients of the award, and was recognized for

18 years of dedicated government leadership to the fuel cell

industry. The U.S. Fuel Cell Council is an industry

association of the world’s leading fuel cell developers,

manufacturers, suppliers, government agencies, and

customers. It offers technical advice and networking

opportunities, issues reports on the industry and industry

segments, promotes public awareness of fuel cells and their

potential, and establishes links among comparable activities

around the globe.

NETL-Supported Researcher Wins Lester C. Uren

Award—Dr. Alkil Datta-Gupta, Associate Professor of

Petroleum Engineering at Texas A&M University, received

the 2003 Lester C. Uren Award from the Society of

Petroleum Engineers for his research in reservoir

characterization and streamline-based flow simulation. Dr.

Datta-Gupta has been the principal investigator on several

research projects funded by DOE, the National Science

Foundation, and various oil companies. Presented at the

Annual Technical Conference and Exhibition of the Society

of Petroleum Engineers, the award recognizes distinguished

achievement in petroleum engineering technology by a

society member under the age of 45.

NETL Scientist Receives Mining and Reclamation

Award—The American Society for Mining and

Reclamation presented its most prestigious award, the

William T. Plass Award, to NETL’s Dr. Robert Kleinmann

for significant lifetime achievements and dedication to the

advancement of mine land reclamation science and

technology. Dr. Kleinmann, a division director in NETL’s

Office of Science, Technology and Analysis, developed

technology used to retard acid mine drainage formation in

coal mine refuse, and led pioneering research for predicting

and avoiding acid generation, and for treating acid mine

water less expensively. Active in the society for more than

20 years, he organized the society’s largest and most

successful conferences, and continues to serve as a

technical division chairperson, and as Editor-in-Chief of

the journal Mine Water and the Environment.

NETL Employee Honored as West Virginia’s

Outstanding Older Worker for 2004—Hugh D. Guthrie,

a Senior Management and Technical Advisor at NETL,

was selected as the 2004 Outstanding Older Worker for

the State of West Virginia by Experience Works, the

nation’s oldest and largest provider of older-worker

training and employment. Guthrie and the 51 other

recipients of the award—one for each state, Puerto Rico,

and the District of Columbia—were chosen for their

leadership, learning, mentoring, community service, and

contribution to their employers, following an extensive

grassroots nomination effort. With 41 years of technical

and management experience in private industry and

20 years in the federal government—including 3 years as

the Director of Oil and Gas for the Ford Administration—

85-year-old Guthrie has been variously described as “the

world’s leading technical expert on oil shale,” “a walking

encyclopedia,” and “the Energizer Bunny®.” In endorsing

his nomination as West Virginia’s Outstanding Older

Worker, NETL Director Rita A. Bajura noted his

“continuing significant contributions to the laboratory’s

mission,” and said Guthrie is “a true gentleman—both in

his professional and personal life.” The award winners

were honored during a week of high-visibility events,

including awards ceremonies and legislative hearings on

issues important to seniors, in Washington.

NETL Researchers Receive Best Paper Award at

International Gas Turbines Conference—A technical

paper coauthored by researchers at NETL and Woodward

Industrial Controls was selected as the best paper in

controls, diagnostics, and instrumentation at the American

Society of Mechanical Engineers TURBO EXPO 2003

conference. Entitled “Flame Ionization Sensor Integrated

into a Gas Turbine Fuel Nozzle,” the paper describes the

development and testing of the combustion control and

diagnostics sensor (CCADS), invented at NETL and

licensed to Woodward Industrial Controls. CCADS is

incorporated into the fuel nozzle of a turbine combustor,

and is used to monitor flashback, lean blow out,

combustion dynamics, and equivalence ratio. This

technology has been recognized by the international

turbines community as a significant technical advance in

real-time monitoring and diagnostics of turbine combustor

operation. CCADS offers the potential for improving

reliability, reducing emissions, and reducing the cost of

power generation. Representatives from Woodward

Industrial Controls and NETL attended the official

presentation and accepted the Best Paper Award at the

TURBO EXPO 2004 conference in June.
NETL Accomplishments FY 2004 59

NETL Research on Methane Hydrate Inspires AwardWinning Student Theses—Phil Tsunemori and Namit

Jaiswal of the University of Alaska at Fairbanks won first

place and third place, respectively, from the Society of

Petroleum Engineers for outstanding research in

connection with the BP Alaska Methane Hydrate Project.

BP Alaska, the University of Alaska at Fairbanks, and other

partners are investigating the commercial viability and

recoverability of methane hydrate and associated free-gas

resources from Alaska’s North Slope. Students at the

university are providing laboratory analysis and reservoirand economic-modeling support for the DOE-funded

effort. The students’ success demonstrates the important

role that DOE will play in the future of the oil and gas

industry, where it is estimated that 50 percent of all

professionals will retire over the next 5 years.

Leading Trade Magazine Features DOE’s University

Turbine Systems Research Fellows Program—The June/

July 2004 issue of Gas Turbine World featured an article on

the highly successful University Turbine Systems Research

Fellows Program, which provides undergraduate and

graduate engineering students a sense of the real world of

gas turbine engineering. Companies participating in the

program, which is administered by the South Carolina

Institute for Energy Studies in cooperation with NETL,

sponsor 10–12 week internships with leading gas turbine

manufacturing and service companies. Placing

approximately 15 interns each year, roughly 80 percent of

whom ultimately accept full-time positions with turbinerelated companies, the program contributes significantly to

the knowledge and skill base of the U.S. turbine industry.

NETL-Managed Project Featured in Industrial Heating

Magazine—Technological advances in the production of

very-fine-diameter silicon carbide fibrils achieved under

the NETL-managed Fossil Energy Materials Program were

reported in Industrial Heating magazine. Investigators at

ReMaxCo Technologies Inc. developed an innovative

process that greatly reduces the hazards associated with

fibril manufacture and could slash product costs from

nearly $2,000 per pound to $300 per pound. Used to

reinforce high-temperature metals and ceramics, the fibrils

may help meet materials challenges facing next-generation

energy systems by improving the creep strength of

combustion-chamber refractory tiles, producing hightemperature filter media for combustion gases, and

improving the toughness of refractory metals.

NETL Project Highlighted in Professional Journal—

Results of NETL’s project with the Utah Geological

Survey were reported in the October 2003 issue of the

Rocky Mountain Association of Geologists’ quarterly

magazine, The Mountain Geologist. The Utah Geological

Survey led a 4-year study of the lower and middle

members of the Eocene Green River Formation, a highly

oil-productive formation consisting of open- and

marginal-lacustrine rocks deposited in and around Lake

Uinta. The objectives of the study were to increase both

primary and secondary hydrocarbon recovery through

improved characterization of the reservoirs, thereby

preventing the premature abandonment of producing

wells. The project established an alphanumeric, log-based

correlation scheme and nomenclature that reflect, as near

as possible, time-correlative depositional cycles of the

lower and middle members of the Green River Formation.

The cycles are easily recognizable on geophysical well

logs and can be correlated throughout most of the central

Uinta Basin. Five intervals, each with distinct reservoir

properties, were identified.
National Energy

Technology Laboratory

626 Cochrans Mill Road

P.O. Box 10940

Pittsburgh, PA 15236-0940

3610 Collins Ferry Road

P.O. Box 880

Morgantown, WV 26507-0880

One West Third Street, Suite 1400

Tulsa, OK 74103-3519

539 Duckering Bldg./UAF Campus

P.O. Box 750172

Fairbanks, AK 99775-0172

Visit the NETL website at:

www.netl.doe.gov

Customer Service:

1-800-553-7681

U.S. Department of Energy

Office of Fossil Energy

Printed in the United States on recycled paper 

May 2005