The Fossil Report ossil Report ossil Report

Oak Ridge National Laboratory Fossil Energy Program Summer 2002

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

IN THIS ISSUE

New Projects Added to ORNL Fossil

Energy Program in FY 2002

Removal of Sulfur from Fuel Gas

Objective of New Work

Status of FY 2003 Appropriations

Congress Working on Budget for FY

2003

National Greenhouse Gas Emissions

Inventory Act of 2002

Coal Facts

The Fossil Report is published

quarterly.

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Paul T. Carlson

Editor and Publisher

Oak Ridge National Laboratory

Fossil Energy Program UNITED WE STAND

New Projects Added to

ORNL Fossil Energy

Program in FY 2002

Several new activities were added to

the ORNL Fossil Energy Program in

FY 2002 in the Oil and Gas Research

and Natural Gas and Carbon Sequestration areas.

Oil and Gas and Natural Gas and Carbon Sequestration are the second and

third, respectively, largest areas of the

Program [graphic].

Heavy crude oils contain condensed

polyaromatic linkages, composed of

polyaromatic hydrocarbons and sulfur and nitrogen heterocycles. The existence of these materials makes the

refining of heavy crudes very difficult.

With support from the DOE National Petroleum Technology Office, Abhijeet Borole has undertaken

a study of the use of temperature-and

oil-tolerant enzyme catalysts to upgrade heavy crude oils. Catalysts with

such properties make them ideal as

oil bioprocessing catalysts. Previous

work at ORNL revealed that oxidative

enzymes are capable of attacking

polyaromatic compounds.

Joanna McFarlane, with support

from the DOE National Petroleum

Technology Office, is working on the

development of a computational tool

to predict the water-soluble organic

content in brines, associated with

deep-well oil production. The longrange goal of the work is a tool that

can be used for produced water

cleanup from production facilities,

resulting in cost savings and reduced

environmental impacts.

The Petroleum Risk Information Decision Evaluation System (PRIDES) is

the vision of a new project, supported

by the DOE National Petroleum

Technology Office and lead by Wilson McGinn, to provide risk guidance,

information, and tools to the fossil

energy community to protect human

health and the environment, while, at

the same time making cost-effective

See New Projects on page 2

Removal of Sulfur from Fuel

Gas Objective of New Work

Fossil fuels, still our most abundant

natural resource and the mainstay of

our country’s energy supply, continue

to suffer from the persistent problem

of sulfur contamination.

Whether the end product is coal gas,

liquid fuels, or natural gas, sulfur contamination is a critical hurdle to overcome for the environmentally-acceptable use and application of fossil fuels in a wide variety of emerging energy technologies.

Led by Tim Armstrong of Oak Ridge

National Laboratory’s Metals & Ceramics Division, in collaboration with

the DOE National Energy Technology Laboratory, a new project is

scheduled for FY 2003, which

willstudy an improved sulfur removal

technique for fuel gas.

The Selective Catalytic Oxidation of

Hydrogen Sulfide ( SCOHS) process

is a continuous sulfur removal techSee Sulfur Removal on page 4
2

THE FOSSI L REPORT SUMMER 2002

Oil & Gas

22%

Combustion

1%

Advanced 

Turbines

7%

Natural Gas & 

Carbon 

Sequestration

15%

Fuel Cells & 

Functional 

Materials

14%

Fuel Supplies 

Modeling

2% Materials 

Research

37%

Environmental 

Analysis

2%

decisions.

Tommy Phelps, with support from

the DOE National Energy Technology Laboratory, is working on the

characterization of the thermodynamics and kinetics of natural gas hydrate formation and dissociation. In

addition, sediments containing methane hydrates will be characterized.

The primary focus will be the analysis of samples derived from the Ocean

Drilling Program, Leg 204. [See the

January-February 2001 issue of The

Fossil Report for more on the work

of the Ocean Drilling Platform to reTHE ORNL FOSSIL ENERGY PROGRAM IN FY 2002

New Projects from page 1 veal methane hydrate deposits.]

Jim Blencoe, with support from the

DOE National Energy Technology

Laboratory, began work this year on

a study of the effects of temperature

and gas mixing on formation pressure, CO2

 sequestration, and methane

production in underground coal beds.

See the Winter 2001 issue of The Fossil Report for more on this activity.

Status of FY 2003 Appropriations

July 18, 2002: H.R. 5093 Placed on Senate Legislative Calendar.

July 11, 2002: House Committee on Appropriations Report 107-564 ordered to be printed.

June 28, 2002: Senate Committee on Appropriations Report 107-201ordered to be printed.
3

THE FOSSI L REPORT SUMMER 2002

-

5,000

10,000

15,000

20,000

25,000

30,000

35,000

40,000

Next Generation

Turbines

Innovations for

Existing Plants

Greenhouse Gas

Control

Materials Gas Hydrates Oil - Exploration &

Production

Oil -

Environmental

Protection

SPR

Thousands of Dollars

FY 2002 Appropriations FY 2003 House Mark FY 2003 Senate Mark

Congress Working on Budget

for FY 2003

As Summer draws to a close, the

House and Senate

are working on the

appropriations bill

for the coming year.

Each body has issued

a report containing recommendations

for funding levels for Fossil Energy

Program activities in FY 2003.

The above graphic shows the results

of the House and Senate reports, compared with FY 2002 levels.

The final conference report is expected sometime in the Fall, but a

general sense of the outcome can be

seen by the positions taken to date

by each of the legislative bodies.

Both the House and Senate voted increases in the Next Generation Turbines Program, over the FY 2002 level,

even though the overall funding for

the Turbines area decreased.

Only the

House has

recommended an

increase of

$1.7M for

Innovations for Existing Plants, with

the recommendation that the work

should focus on understanding mercury emissions for different types of

coal-fired power plants.

In addition,

the House

has recommended

that research on the control of mercury for,

specifically, the burning of lignite be

expanded and that studies be initiated

to understand the role of mercury in

coal power plant by-products.

Both the House and Senate support

appreciable increases to Greenhouse

Gas Control. However, the House has

added a recommendation that the

carbon sequestration program focus

more on carbon capture.

Recommendations for the Materials

Program in FY 2003 are for funding

levels of $9M and $10M under the

House and Senate reports, respectively.

Funding for Gas Hydrates is increased

in both the House

and Senate reports.

Recommendations in both reports

are for a decrease in Gas InfrastrucSee New Year on page 4

FY 2002 appropriations are compared with House and

Senate committee reports for FY 2003 funding.

Both the House and Senate support appreciable increases to

Greenhouse Gas Control.

Funding for Gas Hydrates is increased in both the House and

Senate reports.
4

THE FOSSI L REPORT SUMMER 2002

ture funding and for virtually level

funding for Gas Environmental Protection.

In the Petroleum area, recommendations are for decreased funding for Exploration and Production and for Environmental Protection.

The House has specifically recommended that pressure-pulse technology for enhanced oil recovery be pursued.

Although DOE has proposed that all

remaining balances of the Clean Coal

Technology Demonstration Program

be transferred to the Fossil Energy

Research & Development account,

both the House and Senate have deNew Year from page 3

National Greenhouse Gas Emissions Inventory Act of 2002

H.R.4611

Introduced: April 25, 2002

Latest Action: May 6, 2002: referred to the House Subcommittee of Energy and Air Quality

The National Greenhouse Gas Emissions Inventory Act of 2002 requires that the Environmental

Protection Agency establish and administer a national greenhouse gas emissions information system.

The function of the system is to compile lists, on an annual basis and by emitter, of greenhouse gas

emissions.

In addition, a national greenhouse gas registry would be established to collect voluntarily-reported

information on emissions reductions. An annual national greenhouse gas emissions inventory would

be published by the EPA.

In addition to he EPA, the Secretaries of Commerce, Agriculture, an Energy would also participate in

the development of methods to quantify, verify, and report emissions information.

clined to grant this request.

Support for Management of the Strategic Petroleum Reserve is decreased

from the FY 2002 level in both the

House and Senate reports.

nology, which is envisioned to be a

more compact, lower cost, and lowermaintenance method for the removal

of sulfur.

The SCOHS process also has the capability to remove sulfur in the partsper-billion level below 250C, and, at

the same time, produce a sulfur byproduct.

For more information on this new

activity, contact Tim Armstrong, Oak

Ridge National Laboratory.

This work is supported by the DOE

Office of Fossil Energy, National

Energy Technology Laboratory.

Sulfur Removal from page 1

Coal Facts

In a recent report, Jeff Goodell

writes that “...Coal generates

more than 50 percent of the

United States’ electricity...We

burn about a billion tons of it a

year—besides keeping our

lights on, it powers the $218-billion electric utility industry, the

third largest in the country (behind petrochemical and auto).

We also have the biggest reserves of coal in the world—an

estimated 275 billion tons still in

the ground.”