The Fossil R The Fossil R The Fossil Report

Oak Ridge National Laboratory Fossil Energy Program Spring 2003

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

IN THIS ISSUE

Efroymson Wins Distinguished Scientific

Achievement Award

Lara-Curzio Receives Fulrath es Fulrath Award

Fly Ash Tested f ested for Use in Carbon Sequestration

Fossil Energy Program Annual Report in Preparation

Armstrong Named Manager

Correction

Work At ARC Focuses on Improved Refractory

for Slagging Gasifiers

Hearings Held on Hearings Held on Arctic Leasing Program

The Fossil Report is published quarterly by

Paul T. Carlson, Oak Ridge National Laboratory

Fossil Energy Program

UNITED WE STAND

Lara-Curzio Receiv Lara-Curzio Receives Fulrath es Fulrath Award

The American Ceramic Society Richard Fulrath Jr.

Award for 2003 is being awarded to Edgar LaraCurzio for “outstanding contributions to ceramic science and engineering.”

The award was

presented at the

American Ceramic Society annual meeting in

Nashville, Tennessee, in late April.

Lara-Curzio is the

lead investigator

on the Fossil Energy Program

project, Reliability

of Materials and

Components for

Solid Oxide Fuel

Cells.”

He is also the head of the Mechanical Properties and

Mechanics group in the Oak Ridge National Laboratory Metals & Ceramics Division.

Efroymson Wins Distinguished Scientific Wins Distinguished Scientific

Achievement Award

Rebecca Efroymson, a member of the Oak Ridge National

Laboratory Environmental Sciences Division, was the recipient of the 2002 ESD Distinguished Scientific Achievement

Award.

Rebecca was recognized “for

her significant contributions to

advancing the science of ecological risk assessment.”

Efroymson has been a member of the Fossil Energy

Program for several years. Her work has focused on

improvement of tools and methods for ecological risk

assessment at petroleum-contaminated sites.

The development of an ecological framework for evaluation of the effects of the size and distribution of exploration and production disturbances on vegetation communities and on wildlife populations is an important part

of her current activities.
2

THE FOSSIL REPORT SPRING 2003

Correction

Recognition of the authors of two articles in the Winter 2002 issue of The Fossil Report was inadvertently omitted. It had been intended that bylines would

be placed under each of the titles.

The story on Page 1, entitled “New Work Focuses

on Materials Needs for USC Steam Cycle Turbine,” was written by Ian Wright, Oak Ridge National Laboratory.

The story on Page 4, entitled “New Technique For

Applying Thermal Barrier Coatings Under Development At ORNL,” was written by Ted

Besmann and Ian Wright, both of Oak Ridge National Laboratory.

The editor sincerely apologizes to the authors for the

oversights.

Fly Ash Tested f ested for Use in Carbon

Sequestration

By Anthony V. Palumbo

Oak Ridge National Laboratory

Collaborative work at Oak Ridge National Laboratory

and Pacific Northwest National Laboratory is investigating the use of fly ash amendments to soils to increase carbon sequestration.

Tony Palumbo, Suzanne Fisher, and Jizhong Zhou are

the investigators at ORNL. 

James Amonette and Jana Tarver are pursuing this research at PNNL.

As there is concern that toxic metals may be released

from fly ash and biosolid amendments, a series of experiments, designed to address this concern, were conducted through laboratory column leaching procedures.

Fly ash samples from five different sources were tested.

The focus of the experiments was to determine if leaching of potentially toxic materials was influenced by mixing of fly ash with soil and

biosolids and if the biosolids

could be a concern for release of metals.

Results from the simulated

leaching were examined using a standard biosensorbased measurement technique for testing toxicity of

water and soil.

The tests showed there was

little potential for leaching of

toxic metals from the mixtures.

For more information on this activity, please contact

Tony Palumbo, Oak Ridge National Laboratory.

This work in sponsored by the DOE Office of Fossil

Energy, National Energy Technology Laboratory.

Fossil Energ ossil Energy Program Annual Repor ual Report

in Preparation

The annual report of Oak Ridge National Laboratory

Fossil Energy Program is in preparation and will be

posted to the Fossil Energy Program Web site within

the next month.

This annual report presents will provide detailed summaries of the Program’s research activities over the

past twelve months.

Armstrong Named Manager Armstrong Named Manager

Tim Armstrong has

joined the Oak Ridge

National Laboratory Energy Efficiency and

Renewable Energy

Program office as Program Manager for Hydrogen, Fuel Cells, and

Infrastructure Technologies.

In this capacity,

Armstrong will be responsible for program

development and management of ORNL’s

R&D in hydrogen production and storage, infrastructure

technologies, and fuel cell science and technology for

both mobile and stationary applications.

Armstrong will continue to manage the Fuel Cells and

Functional Materials research for the Oak Ridge National Laboratory Fossil Energy Program.
3

THE FOSSIL REPORT SPRING 2003

Work At ARC Focuses on Impr ocuses on Improved

Refractor Refractory for Slagging Gasifiers or Slagging Gasifiers

By Cindy Dogan

Albany Research Center

Proof-of-concept characterization of the Albany Research Center’s improved refractory for slagging gasifiers is continuing, with expanded exposure and property analyses.

Results from recent rotary kiln exposure tests predict

improved performance by the ARC-developed brick, as

compared with commercial brick currently used by the

gasifier industry.

In the rotary kiln

test, a barrel, lined

with the test refractory materials, is

rotated around its

horizontal axis, exposing the brick to

a dynamic pool of

molten coal slag.

The kiln is heated

to a temperature of

1670o C.

Four types of highchromium oxide

refractories—three

commercial materials and

the ARC-developed material—were exposed to this environment for a total of five hours.

Post-test evaluation of the refractory materials indicated

little or no cracking in the ARC material, as compared

to extensive fracture in each of the commercial materials, as shown below.

Slag penetration was also minimized in the ARC material, to less than 20% of that observed in the commercial refractories.

Although the exposure conditions in the rotary kiln do

not exactly mimic those found in a working gasifier, the

test does simulate the same type of failure mechanisms

found in spent materials removed from gasifier service.

Thus, performance in

this test may be considered indicative of

performance in a commercial gasifier system.

The results of these

tests, along with tests

of the material’s mechanical and thermal

stability, are being used

to ensure satisfactory

performance of the ARC refractory prior to placing test

panels of the material in working gasifiers.

For more information on this activity, please contact

Cindy Dogan, Albany Research Center.

This work in sponsored by the DOE Office of Fossil

Energy, National Energy Technology Laboratory.

Extensive cracking seen in commercial materials.

Little or no cracking observed in ARCdeveloped material.
4

THE FOSSIL REPORT SPRING 2003

Map of northern Alaska and nearby parts of Canada showing locations of the Arctic National

Wildlife Refuge (ANWR), the 1002 area, and the National Petroleum Reserve—Alaska (NPRA).

Locations of known petroleum accumulations and the Trans-Alaska Pipeline System (TAPS) are

shown, as well as summaries of known petroleum volumes in northern Alaska and the Mackenzie

River delta of Canada. BBO, billion barrels of oil (includes cumulative production plus recoverable

resources); TCFG, trillion cubic feet of gas recoverable resources. Caption and image courtesy of

the U.S. Geological Survey. Click for more information.

Hearings Held on Hearings Held on Arctic Leasing ctic Leasing

Program

The House Committee on Resources held hearings in

early April on the Arctic Coastal Plain Domestic Energy

Security Act of 2003, introduced in the House in January 2003 by Rep. Don Young of Alaska.

The area of interest is the 1.55-million-acre coastal plain,

known as Area 1002, of the Arctic National Wildlife

Refuge, or ANWR.

The intent of the act is to establish and implement

a competitive oil and gas leasing program for environmentally sound exploration, development, and

production of the oil and gas resources of the Arctic Coastal Plain.

Specifically, the legislation stipulates that oil and gas

exploration and production activities will result in “no significant adverse effect on fish and wildlife, their habitat,

subsistence resources, and the environment.”

Typical view of the ANWR 1002 area coastal plain.

Courtesy of the U.S. Geological Survey.