The Fossil Report ossil Report ossil Report

Oak Ridge National Laboratory Fossil Energy Program Spring 2002

Energy Technology for the Future...and for the World

IN THIS ISSUE

Computer Simulations Offer Promise

of More Efficient Fluidized-Bed

Reactors

ORNL and SGL Carbon: A

Partnership for New Carbon

Materials

Cyanobacteria Illuminated with New

Hybrid Solar Collector

Assessing Electronic Needs for Solid

Oxide Fuel Cells

Largest Oil Deposit Ever in Gulf of

Mexico

New Technology Used for

Monitoring Metals in Gases and

Aerosols

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Paul T. Carlson

Editor and Publisher

Oak Ridge National Laboratory

Fossil Energy Program

Computer Simulations Offer

Promise of More Efficient

Fluidized-Bed Reactors

Fluidized-bed reactors are widely

used in the chemical industry for the

production of specialty chemicals,

such as petroleum, polymers, and pigments.

Fluidized-beds will also be widely

used in the next generation of power

plants, aiding the conversion of coal

to clean gas.

Our understanding of the complex,

multi-phase flows involved in the operation of these devices, however, is

still very limited.

The acquisition of real-time experimental data is problematic, as multiphase flows are very difficult to monitor and there is a lack of well-developed, non-intrusive diagnostic tools.

Computational approaches are an attractive alternative for the investigation of these complex processes. They

also enable the examination of issues

usually encountered when attempting

to scale up to industrial levels and

configurations.

Although computational techniques

have made great strides in singlephase flows, they are not fully mature

in the analysis of multi-phase flows.

See Simulations - page 3

Cyanobacteria Illuminated

with New Hybrid Solar

Collector

The Engineering Science and Technology Division at Oak Ridge National Laboratory has completed

the development of a one-squaremeter hybrid solar collector and

light distribution system for the

DOE Office of Fossil Energy. The

system illuminates cyanobacteria in

an engineered photobioreactor being developed by Ohio University.

[Please see the Spring 2001 issue

of The Fossil Report for a report

on cyanobacteria, entitled ìThe

Oldest Fossilsî.]

The system more than quadruples

the algae-growing surface area that

can be effectively illuminated by

direct, nondiffuse sunlight, virtually

eliminating the common problem

of photosynthetic saturation that

occurs in surface-based raceway

cultivators.

In the future, the ORNL system will

also provide needed electrical

See Cyanobacteria - page 2

ORNL and SGL Carbon: A

Partnership for New Carbon

Materials

SGL Carbon Group, a leading supplier of carbon, graphite, and related

materials for industrial, aerospace,

and defense applications, has joined

forces with Oak Ridge National Laboratory to apply slurry molding technology to the development of novel

carbon and graphite materials.

In recent years, ORNL has developed

a slurry molding technology for the

UNITED WE STAND

See Partnership - page 2
2

THE FOSSI L REPORT SPRING 2002

power to operate portions of the harvesting system in the engineered

photobioreactor by

separating and converting the infrared

portion of the solar

spectrum into electricity through

thermophotovoltaics.

The research team,

which includes Jeff

Muhs, Duncan Earl,

Curt Maxey, Dave

Beshears, Supriya

Jaiswal, and Mike

Cates, will testing

the light collection

and delivery system

in the coming weeks.

Several industrial

partners contributed

to the system design,

including 3M, Array

Technologies, Enhancement Electronics, and ROC

Glassworks.

This work is part of research to demonstrate the lab-scale feasibility of

using solar remote source lighting

systems to enhance the overall sunCyanobacteria from page 1

Hybrid solar collector and light

distribution system

light utilization and biomass production rates of photobioreactors.

The ultimate

objective is

to demonstrate that

low-risk

methods of

carbon dioxide mitigation, based

on the use of

existing biological organisms in an

optimal way,

are capable of

significant

carbon dioxide uptake

and offer a

valid nearterm solution

for carbon dioxide sequestration.

For more information on this research,

please contact Jeff Muhs, Oak Ridge

National Laboratory.

The work is supported by the DOE

Office of Fossil Energy, National

Energy Technology Laboratory.

Assessing Electronic

Needs for Solid Oxide

Fuel Cells

With fuel cells, particularly solid

oxide fuel cells, becoming more

and more prevalent in meeting

the power needs of small and

large technologies, there is an increasing need to understand and

predict needs related to the

power and electronic requirements of fuel cells themselves.

Even with tremendous advances

in power electronics technologies over the last few yearsówith

better devices, packaging, and

manufacturing processesóelectronics systems fall short of the

goals for reliability, performance,

cost, and suitability for certain

applications.

A number of these issues are

critical, technical barriers specific to solid oxide fuel cell applications

Researchers in Oak Ridge National Laboratoryís Power Electronics and Electric Machinery Research Center are seeking to close this gap.

Assessments of the specific

power electronics needs for solid

oxide fuel cells will form a large

part of the effort at PEEMRC.

An integral part of the assessments

will be evaluations of existing and

expected near-term, power electronics technologies to meet these needs.

For more information on this work, please

contact Don Adams, Oak Ridge National

Laboratory.

This work is supported by the DOE Office

of Fossil Energy, National Energy

Technology Laboratory.

manufacture of porous, high-surfacearea carbon fiber composite molecular sieves and carbon fiber preforms.

The joint effort is designed to see if

this technology can also be used to

manufacture porous adsorbent carbon materials, low-pressure-drop

adsorbent carbon composites, ultraPartnership from page 1 fine-grained graphite, and carbon-fiber-reinforced graphite.

To learn more about the work of this

exciting new partnership, please contact

Tim Burchell, Oak Ridge National

Laboratory.

This work is jointly sponsored by the DOE

Office of Fossil Energy, National Energy

Technology Laboratory and SGL Carbon

Group.
3

THE FOSSI L REPORT SPRING 2002

In particular, existing computer

simulations are not sufficiently

accurateóor rapidóto serve

as the primary approach to the

design, optimization, and control of industrial-scale fluidized-bed reactors.

Sophisticated, three-dimensional computer models, capable of accurately treating the

complex interactions between

different phases, would be an

important step toward the level

of simulation necessary for the design of new-generation, efficient fluidized-bed designs.

Two projects, led by Ed DíAzevedo

and Sreekanth Pannala in Oak Ridge

National Laboratoryís Computer Science and Mathematics Division, are

striving toward this goal.

In the one project, a multiphase computer model,

termed the Multiphase

Flow with Interphase

eXchanges (MFIX) Model,

developed at the DOE National Energy Technology

Laboratory, is capable of describing the hydrodynamics,

heat transfer, and chemical

reactions in fluid-solids systems.

MFIX calculations give transient data on the three-dimensional distribution of

pressure, velocity, temperature, and species mass fractions.

This first project is focused on tailoring the MFIX code for application

to the specific problem of industrialscale fluidized-beds. For example, one

enhancement will be to develop a

fast, parallel version of the MFIX

code.

In the second project, a low-order

bubble model, a model used for understanding bubble behavior in fluidized beds based on experimental observations of bubble interactions, will undergo further development. The aim is real-time diagnosis

and control of industrial-scale fluidSimulations from page 1

Ed DíAzevedo

Sreekanth Pannala

ized beds.

The insight obtained through the

low-order bubble model enhancement will lead to development of

component models for a full 3-D

simulation using the MFIX code.

The incorporation of simple component models into the MFIX code

will address the effects of unresolved scales in coarse, large-scale

fluidize-bed simulations. This approach will enable the efficient and

timely simulation of industrial-scale

beds.

This exciting new work, the development of high-performance simulation

tools in combination with carefully

designed experiments, will have a significant positive impact on energy

efficiency and, hence, competitiveness of U.S. chemical and energy industries.

For more information on this work, please

contact Ed DíAzevedo or Sreekanth

Pannala at the Oak Ridge National

Laboratory.

This work is sponsored by the DOE Office

of Fossil Energy and the DOE National

Energy Technology Laboratory.

Fluidized-Bed Steam Generator

- courtesy Foster Wheeler
4

THE FOSSI L REPORT SPRING 2002

New Technology Used for Monitoring Metals in Gases and Aerosols

Sensitive elemental measurement of gaseous and aerosol samples

can be made in-situ, and in real time, by using a recently-patented technology.

The technology, aerosol-focusing laser-induced plasma spectrometry, was developed under the leadership of Mengdawn Cheng

of Oak Ridge National Laboratoryís Environmental Sciences Division and will be used for continuous monitoring of the release

of metals in gas and/or in aerosol forms.

The focusing technology concentrates aerosol particles, forming a laser microplasma. The microplasma, in turn, is used as

the excitation energy for time-resolved laser emission spectroscopy, which then is used to identify and quantity the elemental

composition of the sample.

The small. portable system has a low duty cycle and low power

requirements. Field-testing and demonstration are ongoing.

For more information on this exciting new technology, please contact

Mengdawn Cheng, Oak Ridge National Laboratory.

This work was supported by the DOE Fossil Energy, National Energy Technology Laboratory, National Petroleum

Technology Office.

Mengdawn Cheng

Largest Oil Deposit Ever in

Gulf of Mexico

The energy independence of

the U.S. was given a big boost

in early 2001 with the discovery of a huge oil deposit in

the U.S. Gulf of Mexico.

The Thunder Horse Oil Field,

125 miles off the coast of New

Orleans, is the largest oil

field ever found in the

U.S. Gulf of Mexico. Experts now estimate that

there are upwards of 3

billion barrels of oil

waiting to be claimed.

ExxonMobil and BP have formed a

partnership to tap the huge deposit,

residing in two separate fields, five

miles apart.

Originally named

the Crazy Horse

Oil Field, in honor

of the Lakota warrior and spiritual

leader, BP recently

assigned the field

its current name,

after being

made aware

that, in

Lakota tradition, the use

of a name

outside of a

spiritual context is sacrilegious.

For anyone who has pulled up to the

pump in recent months, it is readily

apparent that we are susceptible,

more and more, to the uncertainties

in the world oil market.

The current conflict in the Middle

East, with threats from Iraq to embargo oil shipments to any country

sympathetic to Israel, and the fluctuation of the oil production ceilings

on the part of OPEC underscore the

need to capitalize on U.S.-derived oil.

Current estimates are for oil to start

flowing from the Thunder Horse

fields as soon as 2005, with predicted

pumping rates of 250,000 barrels per

day.

Drillship which carried out the

appraisal drilling of the Thunder

Horse Oil Field - courtesy Offshore

Technology