The Fossil R The Fossil R The Fossil Report

Oak Ridge National Laboratory Fossil Energy Program Fall 2003

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

IN THIS ISSUE

Carbon Materials Studied for Hydrogen Storage

New Oil Discoveries Possible in National New Oil Discoveries Possible in National

Petroleum Reserve

New On the w On the Web

Coal Gets Renewed Attention

Wyoming Provides Nation with Low-Sulfur

Coal

South From Alaska

Carbon Materials Studied for Hydrogen

Storage

by Nidia C. Gallego

Carbon Materials Technology Group

Metals and Ceramics Division

Oak Ridge National Laboratory

President Bush announced the Hydrogen Fuel Initiative in his January 2003 State of the Union Address,”so

that America can lead the world in developing clean,

hydrogen-powered automobiles.”

An adequate hydrogen storage technology is critical to

the success of the President’s initiative.

Current technologies for on-board hydrogen storage

include containers of compressed or liquefied H2, metal

hydrides, chemical storage, or gas-on-solid adsorption

(high-surface activated carbons).

However, at the

present time,

none of these

technologies

meets the performance requirements to

make hydrogen-powered

automobiles

competitive

with conventional vehicles.

Hydrogen storage in a carbon-based

material offers

significant advantages associNidia Gallego

See Carbon Materials - page 2

New Oil Discoveries Possible in

National Petroleum Reser oleum Reserve

Significant new oil reserves may be revealed in the

Northeast National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska, if exploration and development activities are allowed to proceed.

The Bureau of Land Management will hold six scoping

meetings in October to allow the public to comment on

an amended land use plan that would cover 4.6 million

acres in the northeast portion of the Reserve [see map].

It is believed that the areas in which exploration is not

currently allowed contain more than two billion barrels

See NPR - page 2

The Fossil Report is published quarterly by Paul

Theodore Carlson, Oak Ridge National Laboratory

Fossil Energy Program.

UNITED WE STAND
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THE FOSSIL REPORT FALL 2003

ated with its low mass density.

The experimental situation for hydrogen storage in carbon materials was initially promising, with results claiming high hydrogen storage capacities exceeding DOE

targets.

However, the experimental data obtained with different

methods for various carbon nanostructures show considerable scatter.

The Carbon Materials Technology Group of the Oak

Ridge National Laboratory Metals and Ceramics Division is involved in a comprehensive study of several forms of carbon,

from amorphous activated carbons to ordered

forms, such as graphite

and nanostructured carbons.

Measurements are being

performed in a gravimetric system at both room

and cryogenic temperatures, at pressures up to

300 psi.

It has been found that

carbon materials store

very little hydrogen (less

than 1 wgt %) at room temperatures, but considerable

amounts at cryogenic temperatures.

Efforts focus on understanding the variables that affect

hydrogen adsorption, and on tailoring these properties

to optimize storage to achieve the current target of 6.5

wgt % established by the Department of Energy.

Carbon source, surface area, pore size, dopants, and

degree of crystallinity are among the variables being

investigated.

For more information, contact Nidia Gallego, Oak Ridge

National Laboratory.

Carbon Materials from page 1

New On the w On the Web

A search engine has been added to the Home

page of the Fossil Energy Program Web site.

The purpose is to provide visitors quick access

to Program items, without having to perform a

wider search.

A listing of conferences and other events of interest to fossil energy researchers has been

added to the site and can be accessed from the

Home page.

of recoverable petroleum.

“This is a National Petroleum Reserve and we believe

that there are billions of barrels of oil that can be responsibly extracted from the northeast portion of this

area,” said BLM Alaska State Director Henri Bisson.

The problem lies in the fact that these areas have significant populations of caribou, waterfowl, and raptors.

The scoping meetings will present a revised plan which

would offer stipulations that would, at the same time,

protect native wildlife.

“For example, oil and

gas exploration is

planned in the same

area that has sensitive

wildlife habitat., and it

is possible to allow exploration in the winter

when the animals are

not present,” Bisson

said.

Courtesy of National

Petroleum Reserve,

Bureau of Land Management.

NPR from page 1
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THE FOSSIL REPORT FALL 2003

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visit the Fossil

Energy Program

Web site

Photos courtesy of Bureau of Land

Management Wyoming

Coal Gets Renewed

Attention

Sen. Joe Lieberman has recommended the launching of “an urgent, national program to find new

ways to use one of our oldest resources: coal” in a speech to the

Resources for the Future earlier

this year.

Lieberman maintains that we “are

literally sitting on the resources

we need to be energy independent.”

Federal Reserve Chairman Alan

Greenspan said, in congressional

testimony, that “Congress should

also look at ways to increase energy supplies from nuclear and coal.”

“The two sources together account for

about 70 percent of U.S. supply,”

Greenspan said.

The four major coal mining companies

reported that share prices are, on the

average, up 20% this year, reports

Money magazine.

This increase is roughly double the increase of the S&P 500 in the same

period of time.

Part of the explanation for the renewed

attention to coal is rapidly increasing

natural gas prices.

Gas prices have increased 75%

over the past year.

And, current thinking is that high

gas prices will be around for at

least the next few years.

In contrast, the price of coal, at

$1.46 per million BTU, is onefourth the cost of natural gas.

Wyoming Provides Nation with Low-Sulfur Coal Wyoming Provides Nation with Low-Sulfur Coal

Public lands in Wyoming, managed by the Bureau of Land Management, provide

the U.S. with significant amounts of clean-burning, low-sulfur coal.

In 2002, 368 million tons of coal was produced in Wyoming, with 96% of the coal

coming from the Powder River Basin and 97% used for electrical generation.

Source: Bureau of Land Management Wyoming
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THE FOSSIL REPORT FALL 2003

Photo courtesy of U.S. Bureau of

Land Management, Northern

Field Office

Map courtesy of solcomhouse

South Fr South From Alaska

Stretching nearly 800 miles south across Alaska from

Prudhoe Bay to the port of Valdez, the silver artery that

is the Trans Alaska

Pipeline continues

to deliver the lifeblood of our civilization after 26 years.

Without its precious cargo, oil, coaxed from the depths

of the earth, our life, as we know it, would be dramatically different.

The need for a

pipeline was born

in 1968 with the

discovery of the

largest oil field in

North America at

Prudhoe Bay at an

estimated ten billion barrels.

Construction on

the pipeline began

in March 1975.

During the peak of

the construction,

20,000 people

were employed on

what, at that time,

was the largest

construction project in the nation’s history.

The massive project was completed in 1977, with a total price tag of $8 billion, and the first shipment of North

Slope oil left the port of Valdez in early August 1977.

Oil travels through the pipeline at 5.5 miles per hour

and takes about 6 days to make the journey over Arctic

tundra, three mountain ranges, and 34 major rivers and

streams.

In the 26 years of its operation, over 13 billion barrels

of oil have moved through

the Trans Alaska Pipeline

System.

The Trans Alaska Pipeline

delivers approximately 17%

of the domestic oil production of the United States.

Photo courtesy of

Dalton Management

Unit, BLM Alaska