The Fossil Report ossil Report ossil Report

Oak Ridge National Laboratory Fossil Energy Program Spring 2001

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

IN THIS ISSUE

Sikka Named Corporate Fellow

ORNL Technology on the Frontlines of

Fuel Cell Development

Enzymes Being Used to Upgrade Crude

Oil

New Research to Produce Clean-Fuel

Processing

Enhanced Photosynthesis: A New

Pathway to Carbon Sequestration

COMING SOON

The Oldest Fossils

Langley Leaves Program

Conference Proceedings Now on Web

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the Oak Ridge National Laboratory Fossil

Energy Program.

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Paul T. Carlson

Editor and Publisher

Sikka Named Corporate

Fellow

Vinod K. Sikka, leader of the Metals Processing Group in the Metals and Ceramics Division and for years a prominent researcher and leader on the Fossil Energy

Program, has been named by Oak Ridge National Laboratory Director, Dr. Bill Madia,

an ORNL Corporate Fellow.

Designation as

a Corporate

Fellow is made

on a limited

basis to recognize exceptionally gifted individuals

throughout the

organization

for their technical achievement in science

or engineering.

Staff members

are honored for

excellence and

accomplishments in their professional careers.

Corporate fellowships characterize innovation, dedication, and significance of extraordinary contributions to research and

development.

These contributions have been acknowledged throughout the United

States as well as in other nations.

Sikka has earned a reputation as one of the world’s

leading scientists in the processing and properties of

materials, particularly intermetallic alloys. It is in

this area that he has contributed significantly to the success of the Fossil Energy

Program.

Madia indicated that

Sikka has “made significant contributions” in his field and continues “the

tradition of scientific excellence that

makes ORNL one of the world’s leading

research institutions.”

Sikka joined ORNL in 1974 and has been

leader of the Materials Processing Group

in the Metals and Ceramics Division since

1986.

He holds bachelor’s degrees in chemistry

and in metallurgical engineering, and master and doctorate degrees in metallurgical

engineering.

Sikka’s work has been featured in more than

150 publications.

He has been granted eight patents and has

received five R&D 100 Awards.

ORNL Technology on the

Frontlines of Fuel Cell

Development

ZeTek Power Corporation has established

a branch of its operations in East Tennessee, using technology licensed from Oak

Ridge National Laboratory and developed

by Rod Judkins, director of the Fossil Energy Program at ORNL and

Tim Burchell, leader of the Metals

and Ceramics Division Carbon

and Insulation Materials Technology

Group.

ZeT e k

Power

is the

sole European

fuel

cell

manufacturing

company and

the only company capable of

mass-producing fuel cells.

Plans are to employ 150 people within two

years at the former home of Advance Transformer in Morgan County, Tennessee. Production of fuel cells could begin in early

See ORNL Technology on page 2

Rod Judkins

Vinod Sikka Tim Burchell
2

THE FOSSI L REPORT SPRING 2001

2002

At the heart of ZeTek’s alkaline fuel cell system will be two ORNL technologies.

One removes carbon dioxide from the fuel

and from air. This technology avoids the

release of carbon dioxide into the environment.

The other technology is a method for

manufacturing the carbon elements (used

in the electrical swing adsorption) through

a slurry molding process.

The Carbon Fiber Composite Molecular

Sieve and electrical swing adsorption technologies will enable ZeTek to replace a nonregenerative chemical scrubbing system

that made its fuel cell less versatile.

ZeTek will have a nonexclusive license to

manufacture Carbon Fiber Composite Molecular Sieve systems and an exclusive license to use them in alkaline fuel cell systems.

This marks the first location of a company

in the region, as a direct result of technology developed by ORNL, since UT-Battelle

took over management of the Laboratory.

Judkins, himself a native of Morgan County,

observes that, “All of this could lead, one

day, to an entirely new way of generating

and distributing power.

“This could also help reduce greenhouse

gas emissions and lessen our dependence

on foreign oil.

“This endeavor is a great example of what

the private and public sector can do when

they work together.

“We have ZeTek bringing the innovation

and business spirit, the State of Tennessee

is helping with technical and capital assistance, ORNL is providing research and development, while the county brings the

ORNL Technology from page 1 work force and facility.

“I am hopeful that this will be a great partnership.”

This article was excerpted from articles written by Ron Walli, ORNL Public Relations, and

by Cathy Cheverton, Editor, The M&C Pipeline, Volume 10, Issue 1, Winter 2001. Their

Enzymes Being Used to Upgrade Crude Oil

Two major problems confront the oil industry in the processing of heavy crude

oils.

First, the presence of asphaltenes increases the viscosity of the oil, thereby making difficult the design of processing plants and economical processing schemes.

The precipitation of asphaltenes aggregates can cause problems such as reservoir plugging and wettability reversal.

Second, the heteroatom content of the oils contributes significantly to corrosion

and also results in the need for complex refinery scenarios.

The addition of hydrogen to aromatic and heteroatom molecules through biological means is an attractive method for the upgrading of crude oils.

In nature, hydrogen is added to both simple and complex compounds through

the use of hydrogenase enzymes. However, the enzymes which exist in nature

have evolved over millions of years to attack compounds which exist in nature.

They are not designed to attack hydrocarbons.

Abhijeet Borole is heading an effort in ORNL’s Chemical Technology Division to resolve this limitation in the use of enzymes to upgrade crude oil.

Biological processing has the dual advantage of low-temperature and low-pressure operation, as well as high specificity.

In order for the biological enzymes to work with the compounds found in crude

oils, it is necessary to create favorable binding interactions between the oil substrates and the enzymes.

In addition, the complex nature of crude oil makes necessary the design of

biocatalytic binding sites which are sufficiently flexible to accommodate a wide

variety of compounds.

This work is supported DOE Office of Fossil Energy, National Petroleum

Technology Office.

For more information on this work, contact Abhijeet Borole, Oak Ridge National

Laboratory.

contributions are gratefully acknowledged.

This work is supported DOE Office of Fossil

Energy, National Energy Technology

Laboratory.

For more information on this work, contact

Tim Burchell or Rod Judkins, Oak Ridge

National Laboratory.
3

THE FOSSI L REPORT SPRING 2001

COMING SOON

The Fossil Energy Program Annual Report for the

period ending March 2001 is in preparation and

will be posted to the Fossil Energy Program Web

site in near future.

New Research to Produce

Clean-Fuel Processing

David DePaoli of the Oak Ridge National

Laboratory Chemical Technology Division

is heading a new effort to develop ionic liquids to remove sulfur from gasoline and

diesel fuels and for the separation of carbon dioxide from natural gas.

Sulfur removal is needed, as the presence of

sulfur is incompatible with petroleum processing technologies and also has detrimental environmental ramifications.

The need to separate carbon dioxide from

natural gas is an important objective, in view

of global warming concerns.

Other organizations involved in this research are the University of Alabama, the

University of Texas, and Chevron.

Additional companies will be invited to

form an advisory committee to direct the

scope of the research and to assure that the

products resulting from this work will be

acceptable for industrial use.

Room-temperature liquid salts can act as

both solvent and catalyst, making possible

certain chemical reactions not possible

with other substances.

In addition, the materials can be easily separated and recycled, reducing the amount of

wastage and level of energy required by conventional solvent separations during fuel

processing operations.

The low vapor pressures of ionic liquids

also minimize the human health risk and

the risks to the environment usually associated with high-volatility compounds.

This work is supported DOE Office of Fossil

Energy, National Petroleum Technology

Office.

For more information on this work, contact

David DePaoli, Oak Ridge National

Laboratory.

Enhanced Photosynthesis: A New Pathway to Carbon

Sequestration

Cyanobacteria, the oldest known fossils with descendants which still very much

alive day, are being used in new work at Oak Ridge National Laboratory to sequester

carbon dioxide.

Cyanobacteria are aquatic, photosynthetic, and they can manufacture their own

food. They are the oldest known fossils—more than 3.5-million years old—and are

considered to be one of the most important bacteria still on planet earth.

Researchers in recent years have developed photobioreactors that utilize sunlightinduced photosynthesis to sequester carbon, using cyanobacteria. And,

photobioreactors are used to produce phototropic algae for use in aquaculture,

pharmaceutical, animal feed, and health food industries.

The principal hurdle to the scale-up of photobioreactors to achieve a commercial

viability is lighting limitation, both in terms of light delivery and distribution, and

energy expenditure.

Natural bioreactors commonly waste 90 to 95% of the incident photosynthetic

photon flux, making conventional photobioreactors very difficult to justify from cost

and performance perspectives.

Jeff Muhs of the Engineering Technology Division is investigating ways in which

cyanobacteria can be used to sequester carbon dioxide, through the development of

an optimized, enhanced photosynthesis system.

The enhanced system will separate various spectral regions of direct, non-diffuse

sunlight to maximize cyanobacteria growth.

The objective of the work will be to demonstrate that low-risk methods of carbon

dioxide sequestration, based on optimal use of existing organisms, are capable of

significant carbon dioxide uptake and offer a valid, near-term method of carbon

dioxide sequestration.

This work is supported DOE Office of Fossil Energy, National Energy Technology

Laboratory.

For more information on this work, contact Jeff Muhs, Oak Ridge National Laboratory.
4

THE FOSSI L REPORT SPRING 2001

The Oldest Fossils

The oldest known fossils, cyanobacteria, are more than 3.5 billion years old.

Perhaps even more remarkable is that cyanobacteria are still an active part of

life on earth today, and, in fact, are one of the most important groups of

bacteria in our ecosystem.

The oxygen in earth’s atmosphere was generated by numerous cyanobacteria

during the Archean and Proterozoic Eras. Before that time, the earth’s atmosphere was not capable of supporting life as it is know today.

Morphologies of cyanobacteria have remained the same for billions of years

and leave chemical products behind as well, in the form of breakdown products from pigments.

Many of the Proterozoic Era oil deposits result from the action of cyanobacteria.

Small concentrically-layered structures called pisolites are also due to the

action of ancient bacteria. Cyanobacteria have also been found in chert and

shale deposits.

The image at the left is of layered stromatolite, formed by ancient

cyanobacteria.

The layers were produced as calcium carbonate, precipitated over the growing mat of bacterial filaments. Photosynthesis in the bacteria depleted the

carbon dioxide in the surrounding water, initiating the precipitation.

The minerals, along with the grains of sediment precipitating from the water,

were trapped within the sticky mucilage surrounding the bacterial colonies,

which continued to grow upwards to produce a new layer. Layers of sediment

were produced as the process was repeated.

This process still occurs today. Stromatolite growths can be found along the

beaches of Shark Bay in Western Australia.

This article was excerpted from information provided by the University of

California, Berkeley, Museum of Paleontology.

Cyanobacteria from a chert deposit in Central

Australia, dating from the Late Proterozoic Era,

about 850 million years ago.

Conference Proceedings Now on Web

The Proceedings for the 14th Annual Conference on Fossil

Energy Materials is now on the Fossil Energy Program Web

site.

This interactive Acrobat document

highlights the presentations and

posters from the conference, sponsored by the Advanced Research

Materiels Program and held in

April 2000 in Knoxville, Tennessee.

Langley Leaves Program

Lorie Langley, Manager for Natural Gas and Carbon Sequestration, left the Fossil Energy Program on May 18 to

pursue other interests.

Lorie has been a valuable asset to the Program, developing

new areas of work in methane hydrate research and natural gas infrastructure, and contributing to the expansion

of activities related to carbon sequestration. She, as well

as her enthusiasm and contributions, will be missed.