11-99/Ethanol Acronyms, Glossary, Authors i

UCRL-AR-135949 Vol. 4

Acronyms, Glossary, and Authors
11-99/Ethanol Acronyms, Glossary, Authors ii
11-99/Ethanol Acronyms, Glossary, Authors 1

Acronym List

2D-GC Two-dimensional gas chromatography

3-D Three-dimensional

A

ACE American Coalition for Ethanol

AED Atomic emission detector

AFDC Alternative Fuels Distribution Center

API American Petroleum Institute

AQMD Air Quality Management District

AST Above-ground storage tank

B

BG Block group

BOD Biochemical oxygen demand

BPJ Best professional judgement

BRP Blue Ribbon Panel

BTEX Benzene, toluene, ethyl benzene, and xylene

BTX Benzene, toluene, and xylenes

C

CAA Clean Air Act

CalCVRWQCB California Central Valley Regional Water Quality Control Board

CAL-DHS California Department of Health Services

CAL-DWR California Department of Water Resources

CAL-EPA California Environmental Protection Agency

CARB California Air Resources Board

CAS Chemical Abstract Service

CBG Cleaner Burning Gasoline (Program)

CEC California Energy Commission

COC Contaminant of concern

COD Chemical oxygen demand

CRFA Canadian Renewable Fuels Association

D

DL Detection limits

DOE U.S. Department of Energy
11-99/Ethanol Acronyms, Glossary, Authors 2

F

FHC Fuel hydrocarbon

FID Flame ionization detectors

FP Free product

G

GC Gas chromatography

GC/FID Gas chromatography with flame ionization detection

GC/MS Gas chromatograph with a mass spectrometer

GEIMS Geographic Environment Information Management System

GIS Geographic Information System

H

HOC Hydrophobic organic compound

I

IFT Interfacial tension

L

LC50 Lethal concentration for 50% of a population

LLNL Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory

LNAPL Light nonaqueous phase liquid

LOD limit of detection

LPA Local primary agency

LUST Leaking underground storage tank

LUSTIS Leaking Underground Fuel Tank Information System

M

MC Monte Carlo

MCI Maximum contaminant level

MCL maximum contaminant levels

MIR Maximum Incremental Reactivity

MRI Magnetic resonance imaging

MS Mass spectrometer

MTBE Methyl tertiary butyl ether

N

NAPL Nonaqueous phase liquids

NDEQ Nebraska Department of Environmental Quality

NESCAUM Northeast States for Coordinated Air Use Management

NIST National Institute of Science and Technology

NFP Non-free product

NOM Natural organic material
11-99/Ethanol Acronyms, Glossary, Authors 3

NRTL Non-random-two-liquid (model)

NSTC National Science and Technology Council

O

OCWD Orange County Water District

OEHHA Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment

ONWR Outstanding National Water Resource

P

PAH Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon

PCB Polychlorinated biphenyl

PDF Probability distribution function

PICME Permitting, Inspections, Compliance, Monitoring, and Evaluation

(database)

Q

QA Quality assurance

QC Quality control

R

RFA Renewable Fuels Association

RFG Reformulated gasoline

RVP Reid vapor pressure

RWQCB Regional Water Quality Control Board

S

SB Senate Bill

SCVWD Santa Clara Valley Water District

SPCC Spill prevention and containment contingency

SPME Solid-phase microextraction

SRC Syracuse Research Corporation

SWRCB State Water Resources Control Board

T

TCE Tri-chloroethylene

TNC Transient non-community

TPH Total petroleum hydrocarbons

TRG Tahoe Research Group

TRPA Tahoe Regional Planning Agency

U

UNIFAC UNIQUAC functional-group activity coefficients

UNIQUAC Universal quasi chemical

UNR University of Nevada at Reno
11-99/Ethanol Acronyms, Glossary, Authors 4

US EPA U.S. Environmental Protection Agency

USGS U.S. Geological Survey

V

VFA Volatile fatty acid

VOA Volatile organic analysis

VOC Volatile organic chemicals (BTX, etc.)

W

WQM Water Quality Monitoring (database)
11-99/Ethanol Acronyms, Glossary, Authors 5

Ethanol Glossary

Accuracy The agreement between the measured value and the accepted or

“true” value.

Activation The conversion of nontoxic chemicals to products harmful to

humans, animals, plants, or microorganisms

Advection The principal means of transporting hydrocarbons horizontally

away from the gasoline-pool boundary with the flowing

groundwater

Aerobic Living or active in the presence of free oxygen; and aerobic

process is one taking place in the presence of free oxygen. A

state in which oxygen dissolved in water acts as an oxidizing

agent.

Analyte The specific component or element measured in a chemical

analysis.

Anaerobic Living or active in absence of oxygen. The remaining oxygen

may be combined in the form of some organic or inorganic

compound. Sulphate-reducing bacteria, though present in rivers,

are normally inhibited by the presence of dissolved or free

oxygen.

Biodegradation The process of destruction or mineralization of either natural or

synthetic materials by the microorganisms of soils, waters, or

wastewater treatment systems.

Bioremediation Use of indigenous microorganisms (or the catalysts that they

produce) to degrade the target pollutants

Constitutive enzymes Enzymes that are always produced (at some level) regardless of

environmental conditions

Conventional gasoline refers to gasoline used nationwide before 1995. Conventional

gasoline typically does not contain any oxygenates, except in

quantities of about 2 to 3% by volume, when refiners have

chosen to add them as octane boosters. Conventional gasoline

typically has higher benzene content than reformulated gasoline.

Desorption The release of ions, molecules, or atoms from the surface of a

solid.

Dispersion The process whereby concentration of a dissolved chemical is

reduced by dilution, and the contaminant front spreads faster

than the average rate of ground water movement.

Detection limit The minimal concentration of a substance which analytical

techniques can detect with some degree of accuracy in various

environmental samples, such as ground water. A detection level

varies between substances, environmental conditions, samples,

and laboratory equipment and technique.
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Diffusion The movement of suspended or dissolved particles from a more

concentrated to a less concentrated region as a result of the

random movement of individual particles; the process tends to

distribute them uniformly throughout the available volume; a

transport process.

Epilimnion The relatively warm, upper layer of water in a body of water

False negative An error where the incorrect decision is made that an analyte is

not present (is not detected) when, in fact, it is present.

False positive An error where the incorrect decision is made that an analyte is

present (is detected) when, in fact, it is not present.

Flame Ionization

Detector (FID)

A sensitive, general-purpose detector for most organic

compounds.

Free convection the process where bulk fluid flow occurs as a result of an

unstable condition created when the fluid density increases

vertically upwards. It occurs when a density gradient exists

within a single fluid. If the gradient is such that the fluid is less

dense near the bottom, a physically unstable fluid profile is

created. As a result, a convective flow is established within the

fluid, typically as “fingers,” thereby blending the high and low

density portions of the fluid.

Gas chromatography An analytical technique that employs separation of components

of a gas phase mixture by passing the mixture through a column.

Gasohol Gasoline containing alcohol, such as ethanol.

Groundwater All subsurface water that occurs beneath the water table in rocks

and geologic formations that are fully saturated.

Henry’s law constant A mathematical description of the propensity for a compound to

volatilize to air from water, or conversely, to enter water and

remain in the water phase.

Hydrophobicity Lacking an affinity for, repelling, or failing to adsorb or absorb

water.

Hydrodynamic

dispersion

The principal means for vertical transport away from the

gasoline pool.

Hypolimnion The colder, denser water layer at the bottom of a body of water.

In situ In the original location.

Inducible enzymes Enzymes that are produced only when an inducer (for example,

toluene) is present at a higher concentration than the minimum

threshold for induction

Intrinsic

bioremediation

Natural conditions at contaminated sites meet all the essential

environmental requirements so that bioremediation can occur at

high rates without human interference

Isotherms Mathematical relations between the concentration of a

compound dissolved in water and its equilibrium concentration

sorbed to a solid.
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Mass-transfer velocity The rate with which a compound moves from water to air as a

function of its physicochemical properties and environmental

conditions, such as water velocity of a stream, water

temperature, and wind velocity.

Oxygenates Organic molecules that contain oxygen. Oxygenates are

typically alcohols (such as ethanol) or ethers (such as MTBE).

The main purpose for adding oxygenates to fuels is to promote

more efficient combustion under adverse conditions in the

engine, such as cold starts or fuel-rich operations, when a

substantial amount of fuel may escape the engine unburned. The

extra oxygen in the fuel helps to convert carbon monoxide (CO,

a product of incomplete combustion) to carbon dioxide. To a

lesser extent, the extra fuel-bound oxygen may help to convert

hydrocarbons, also formed as products of incomplete

combustion, to carbon dioxide and water.

Oxyfuels Oxygenated fuels that contain oxygenates at concentrations on

the order of 10 to 15% by volume.

pH Water with pH values between 0 and 7 is acidic; with pH value

of 7 is neutral; with pH values between 7 and 14 is alkaline.

Plume A visible or measurable discharge of a contaminant from a given

point of origin. A plume can be visible or thermal in water.

Precision A measure of data reproducibility. It is assessed by replicate

measurements of reference materials, samples, or method

performance samples

Reformulated gasoline

(RFG)

RFG differs from conventional gasoline with respect to several

fuel parameters.

RFG is intended to reduce automotive pollutant formation,

especially evaporative emissions and exhaust emissions of

photochemical ozone precursors. The most important targeted

ozone precursors are volatile organic compounds (VOCs). RFG

is also intended to reduce air toxic emissions, specified in the

Clean Air Act Amendments as benzene, 1,3-butadiene,

formaldehyde, and acetaldehyde. Compared to conventional

gasoline, RFG has reduced vapor pressure (to lower evaporative

emissions), reduced sulfur content (to prevent poisoning of

catalytic converters), and reduced aromatic and benzene content

(to decrease evaporative and exhaust emissions of these

compounds). Reformulated fuel may or may not include

oxygenated compounds; the term “reformulated gasoline” does

NOT itself imply the presence of oxygenates.

Sorption Temporary retention of the contaminant on soil and sediment

particles

Substrates In biochemistry, the substance with which an enzyme reacts.
11-99/Ethanol Acronyms, Glossary, Authors 8

Surface water Natural water bodies, such as rivers, streams, brooks, and lakes,

as well as artificial water courses, such as irrigation industrial

and navigational canals, in direct contact with the atmosphere.

Volatile fatty acids Produced by anaerobic metabolism of ethanol

Volatilization The loss of a substance to the air from a surface or from solution

by evaporation.

Xenophores Organic compounds (Cl, NO2, CN, and SO3) that make the

molecule difficult to be recognized by these pathways

References

Gilpin, Alan (1976). Dictionary of Environmental Terms. University of Queensland Press, St.

Lucia, Queensland, Australia.

Parker, Sybil P. (1989). Dictionary of Scientific and Technical Terms. 4th edition. McGrawHill, New York, NY.

Sullivan, Thomas F. P. (1993 ). Environmental Regulatory Glossary. 6th edition. Government

Institutes, Inc., Rockville, MD.
11-99/Ethanol Acronyms, Glossary, Authors 9

Authors

Brant C. Allen (Staff

Research Associate) and

John E. Reuter

(Research Faculty)

have a combined experience of over 30 years of research and

monitoring at Lake Tahoe. They have been active in MTBE

research in surface waters since 1996 and published the first

comprehensive scientific journal article on the sources and fate and

transport of MTBE in Donner Lake, CA. They played key roles in

the University of California’s document, “Health & Environmental

Assessment of MTBE,” which was requested by the California

Legislature (Senate Bill 521) and presented to the Governor in 1998.

Each author has given numerous talks to state and national groups

on this topic and are currently working with colleagues in the

University of California at Davis Department of Civil &

Environmental Engineering to develop a set of guidelines for

recreational activities in surface drinking water supplies based on

marine engine emissions and lake hydrodynamic modeling.

Pedro J. Alvarez holds a B.Eng. degree in civil engineering from McGill University,

and M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in environmental engineering from the

University of Michigan. He is an Associate Professor of civil and

environmental engineering at the University of Iowa, where he also

serves as Associate Director for the Center for Biocatalysis and

Bioprocessing.

His research interests are related to the implications and

applications of biological treatment processes to remove hazardous

substances from contaminated water, wastewater, and soil. Current

projects include catabolic enzyme expression under various

substrate and electron-acceptor conditions; degradation kinetics; fate

and transport of toxic chemicals in aquifer systems; reductive

treatment and biogeochemical interactions with zero-valent iron; and

phytoremediation. His teaching interests include biological

treatment processes, environmental microbiology, and biotic and

abiotic transformations of xenobiotic compounds.

Dr. Alvarez is a P.E. (registered in Michigan and Iowa), a

certified groundwater professional, and a Diplomate of the

American Academy of Environmental Engineers with Diplomate

status (DEE). His honors include the Collegiate Excellence in

Teaching Award from the University of Iowa (1998); the Alejo

Zuloaga Medal from the Universidad de Carabobo, Venezuela

(1996); a Career Award from the National Science Foundation

(1995); the Best Paper Award from the EPA/HSRC for Regions 7

and 8 (1995); and the Outstanding Achievement Award in

Environmental Engineering from the University of Michigan (1991).
11-99/Ethanol Acronyms, Glossary, Authors 10

Jeffrey I. Daniels is the Risk Sciences Group Leader in the Health & Ecological

Assessment Division of the Earth & Environmental Sciences

Directorate at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL).

He received his doctorate in environmental science and engineering

(D.Env.) from the University of California at Los Angeles in 1981.

He also holds a B.S. in biology and a M.S. in microbiology.

Dr. Daniels recently served on two National Academy of Sciences

and Institute of Medicine committees that addressed medical

response to chemical and biological terrorism and reviewed risk

assessment methodologies for determining reference doses to

chemical warfare agents.

Dr. Daniels is the co-author of a report for the U.S. Department of

Energy that assesses the potential human health risks from

groundwater contaminated by radioactivity introduced at the Nevada

Test Site, and a journal article describing a bases for secondary

standards for residual radionuclides in soil. He has been invited by

the Swedish Government to attend and present at international

meetings focusing on the use of multimedia, multipathway exposure

assessment and risk analysis as a prognostic and diagnostic tool for

selecting strategies to deal with hazardous waste. In 1995,

Dr. Daniels served as a consultant to the Harvard Institute for

International Development. In that capacity he was an instructor at

the Risk Assessment Workshop held at the Gorbachev Institute in

Moscow, Russia, that was organized and sponsored by the U.S.

State Department for scientists from the Newly Independent States

(former Soviet Union). His general interests include risk analysis,

multimedia-multipathway exposure assessment, and microbiology.

Dr. Daniels is a member of the Health Physics Society (HPS), Sigma

Xi, and the American Association for the Advancement of Science

(AAAS), and is a Past President of the Northern California Chapter

of the Society for Risk Analysis (NCCSRA).

Brendan P. Dooher is a systems analyst and risk assessor with Lawrence Livermore

National Laboratory (LLNL). He received his Ph.D. in mechanical

engineering in 1998 from the University of California at Los

Angeles, where he studied probabilistic risk assessment and

environmental systems under the direction of Professor Bill

Kastenberg and Daniel M. Tellep, Distinguished Professor of

Engineering.

Dr. Dooher has worked extensively with California public

agencies to assess the threat to public water supplies and resources

from leaking underground fuel tank sites and methyl tertiary butyl

ether (MTBE). He has helped create the interactive Geographic

Information System site, GeoTracker, to help regulators, responsible

parties, and the public to assess the vulnerability of water supplies

more cost effectively and to develop a “living groundwater model”

for California.
11-99/Ethanol Acronyms, Glossary, Authors 11

Stephen E. Heermann holds a M.S. in hydrology from the New Mexico School of Mining

and Technology and a B.S. in geology from the University of

Maryland. He is a doctoral candidate in the environmental

engineering program at Clarkson University in New York state. For

his dissertation, Mr. Heermann is studying the potential for ethanol

in gasoline to enhance the groundwater transport of aromatic

gasoline compounds following an accidental release of gasohol into

the subsurface. He is investigating a number of physiochemical

processes governing the fate and transport of ethanol and gasoline

compounds in the subsurface, including cosolvency effects, the mass

transfer of ethanol and gasoline compounds between gasoline and

ground water, and the transport of ethanol and gasoline compounds

via ground water.

Mr. Heermann previously worked as a hydrogeologist for

S.S. Papadopulos and Associates and Bechtel Corporation.

Craig S. Hunt is a post-doctoral researcher with the Civil and Environmental

Engineering Department of the University of Iowa. He received a

Ph.D. in environmental engineering in 1999 from the University of

Iowa. He studied the effects of supplementary substrates on the

biodegradation of monoaromatic hydrocarbons under the guidance

of Associate Professor Pedro J. Alvarez. He has co-authored two

papers in this area. Currently, Dr. Hunt is investigating the effect of

ethanol on the bioremediation of underground gasoline

contamination with the use of aquifer column and chemostat studies.

Carolyn J. Koester, Ph.D., is a research chemist with Lawrence Livermore National

Laboratory (LLNL). She received a doctorate in analytical

chemistry in 1991 from Indiana University, where she studied the

atmospheric fate and deposition of chlorinated dioxins and furans

under the direction of Distinguished Professor Ronald A. Hites.

During a postoctoral appointment with Trent University and Ontario

Ministry of Environment and Energy, she studied environmental

applications of liquid chromatography/mass spectrometry and ion

trap mass spectrometers.

Dr. Koester’s current interests include the study of extraction

and mass spectrometric techniques for the determination of trace

concentrations of polar organic compounds, including methyl

tertiary butyl ether (MTBE), perchlorate, and various pesticides, in

water. She has co-authored 13 papers in the area of environmental

chemistry, including four recent “Environmental Analysis” review

articles for Analytical Chemistry.
11-99/Ethanol Acronyms, Glossary, Authors 12

David Layton is the Division Leader of the Health and Ecological Assessment

Division at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL).

During the early part of his 24-year career, his research focused

on the health and environmental impacts of geothermal energy

development in the western United States. Later, he led a major

assessment of the information available on conventional ordnance

(i.e., explosives and propellants) in order to support studies of the

impacts of weapons demilitarization. He was also one of the lead

investigators of a U.S. Department of Defense–funded project to

revise the field–water quality standards used by the U.S. military.

After these projects, his research emphasis gradually shifted to

the development of quantitative risk assessments of environmental

contaminants. He has prepared risk assessments of hazardous gas

releases, residual groundwater contamination at a Superfund site,

plutonium-contaminated soils, heterocyclic amines in cooked foods,

and nuclear wastes dumped in the Arctic Ocean. In addition, he has

worked to improve exposure parameters for use in risk assessments.

For example, he developed a metabolically-based method for

determining breathing rates and conducted research on the

resuspension of particles indoors. More recently, he has initiated

projects dealing with the assessment of additives for transportation

fuels.

Walt W. McNab, Jr., Ph.D., is an environmental scientist with Lawrence Livermore

National Laboratory (LLNL). He received his doctorate in

hydrogeology in 1995 from the University of California at Berkeley,

where he studied reactive transport modeling through groundwater

systems under T.N. Narasimhan.

Dr. McNab has worked on projects involving the analyses of

multi-site groundwater contamination data. These have included

serving on an expert panel convened by the U.S. Department of

Defense, Petroleum Hydrocarbon Cleanup Demonstration Program.

This project assessed the role of bioattenuation in limiting the risks

posed by subsurface fuel releases at California military. Dr. McNab

has also been the data analysis task leader for U.S. Department of

Energy/LLNL’s chlorinated hydrocarbon historical case analysis

initiative. He has authored a number of papers on issues related to

groundwater contamination, including articles in Environmental

Monitoring and Assessment, Ground Water, and Water Resources

Research, which discussed modeling and statistical approaches for

understanding fuel hydrocarbon bioattenuation signatures in

aquifers.
11-99/Ethanol Acronyms, Glossary, Authors 13

Alfredo A. Marchetti is a research chemist with Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory

(LLNL). He received a License in Analytical Chemistry from the

University of Buenos Aires, Argentina, in 1984, and a Ph.D. in

nuclear chemistry in 1991 from the University of Maryland.

Since 1992, he has worked in LLNL’s Health and Ecological

Assessment Division. He is the LLNL principal investigator in a

collaborative project addressing the Hiroshima neutron dose

discrepancy. He has been a key contributor to the Chernobyl

radiiodine dose reconstruction project. He has devised methods of

iodine analysis in biological and soil samples using gas

chromatography. He has developed the target chemistry for the

determination by accelerator mass spectrometry of nickel-63,

technetium-99, iodine-129, and chlorine-36 in a variety of

environmental matrices. He is co-author in 17 peer-reviewed

publications and is a member of the American Chemical Society.

Susan E. Powers is an Associate Professor in the Department of Civil and

Environmental Engineering at Clarkson University in upstate New

York. She received her Ph.D. in environmental engineering from

the University of Michigan in 1992, where she studied the

dissolution of nonaqueous phase liquids (NAPLs) entrapped within

porous media under the guidance of Drs. Walter Weber and Linda

Abriola. She received a B.S. and a M.S. in chemical engineering and

environmental engineering, respectively, from Clarkson University.

Dr. Powers’s current research focuses on understanding the

physical and chemical phenomena associated with multiphase flow

and contaminant transport in subsurface systems, with specific

emphasis on the fate, transport, and remediation of NAPLs in

complex systems. Her current research projects include the

complexities associated with aquifer heterogeneities and nonideal

chemical mixtures, such as coal tars and oxygenated gasoline.
11-99/Ethanol Acronyms, Glossary, Authors 14

David W. Rice is the Environmental Chemistry and Biology Group Leader for the

Environmental Protection Department at Lawrence Livermore

National Laboratory (LLNL). He is an expert in the fate and

transport of contaminants in subsurface sediments, groundwater, and

the marine environment. Mr. Rice has a B.A. in biology and a Life

Secondary Education Credential from San Jose State University, and

a M.A. in marine biology through the California State University

Moss Landing Marine Science Institute.

During his 23 years at LLNL, Mr. Rice has participated in the

management of the LLNL Superfund sites and directed and

performed research on environmental decision-making, information

management, and the application of natural process to

environmental remediation. Mr. Rice has acted as Project Director

for Chlorinated VOC Historical Case Analysis Initiative,

Department of Defense Petroleum Hydrocarbon Cleanup

Demonstration Program, and the Revision of California Leaking

Underground Fuel Tank Cleanup Process. He is presently the

Project Director for evaluating the potential surface and ground

water impacts that may result from the use of ethanol as a

replacement for MTBE in gasoline.

Mr. Rice has authored or co-authored over 50 publications. He is

a member of the World Federation of Scientists Monitoring Panel on

Water and Pollution and the Scientific Advisory Board for the

Association for the Environmental Health of Soils. He is a recipient

of the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory Director’s

Performance Award.