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Search indexed NASA NTRS and DOE OSTI research on propulsion, heat transfer, battery materials and energy systems. Follow report and document links to the original sources.

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At least 1,063 records · Page 59

Finding Fingerprints of Selection in Poplar Genomes

Jerry Tuskan of Oak Ridge National Laboratory and the DOE JGI talks about poplar trees as models for selective adaptation to an environment. This video complements a study published ahead online August 24, 2014 in Nature Genetics.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

Finding Balance Between Biological Groundwater Treatment and Treated Injection Water

At the U.S. Department of Energy’s Hanford Site, CH2M HILL Plateau Remediation Company operates the 200 West Pump and Treat which was engineered to treat radiological and chemical contaminants in groundwater as a result of the site’s former plutonium production years. Fluidized bed bioreactors (FBRs) are used to remove nitrate, metals, and volatile organic compounds. Increasing nitrate concentrations in the treatment plant effluent and the presence of a slimy biomass (a typical microorganism response to stress) in the FBRs triggered an investigation of nutrient levels in the system. Little, if any, micronutrient feed was coming into the bioreactors. Additionally, carbon substrate (used to promote biological growth) was passing through to the injection wells, causing biological fouling of the wells and reduced specific injectivity. Adjustments to the micronutrient feed improved microorganism health, but the micronutrients were being overfed (particularly manganese) plugging the injection wells further. Injection well rehabilitation to restore specific injectivity required repeated treatments to remove the biological fouling and precipitated metal oxides. A combination of sulfamic and citric acids worked well to dissolve metal oxides and sodium hypochlorite effectively removed the biological growth. Intensive surging and development techniques successfully removed clogging material from the injection wells. Ultimately, the investigation and nutrient adjustments took months to restore proper balance to the microbial system and over a year to stabilize injection well capacities. Carefully tracking and managing the FBRs and well performance monitoring are critical to balancing the needs of the treatment system while reducing fouling mechanisms in the injection wells.

Carlson, Mark A.↗

Energy Efficiency in Small Server Rooms: Field Surveys and Findings

Fifty-seven percent of US servers are housed in server closets, server rooms, and localized data centers, in what are commonly referred to as small server rooms, which comprise 99percent of all server spaces in the US. While many mid-tier and enterprise-class data centers are owned by large corporations that consider energy efficiency a goal to minimize business operating costs, small server rooms typically are not similarly motivated. They are characterized by decentralized ownership and management and come in many configurations, which creates a unique set of efficiency challenges. To develop energy efficiency strategies for these spaces, we surveyed 30 small server rooms across eight institutions, and selected four of them for detailed assessments. The four rooms had Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE) values ranging from 1.5 to 2.1. Energy saving opportunities ranged from no- to low-cost measures such as raising cooling set points and better airflow management, to more involved but cost-effective measures including server consolidation and virtualization, and dedicated cooling with economizers. We found that inefficiencies mainly resulted from organizational rather than technical issues. Because of the inherent space and resource limitations, the most effective measure is to operate servers through energy-efficient cloud-based services or well-managed larger data centers, rather than server rooms. Backup power requirement, and IT and cooling efficiency should be evaluated to minimize energy waste in the server space. Utility programs are instrumental in raising awareness and spreading technical knowledge on server operation, and the implementation of energy efficiency measures in small server rooms.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗

Earthquake Simulator Finds Tremor Triggers

Using a novel device that simulates earthquakes in a laboratory setting, a Los Alamos researcher has found that seismic waves-the sounds radiated from earthquakes-can induce earthquake aftershocks, often long after a quake has subsided. The research provides insight into how earthquakes may be triggered and how they recur. Los Alamos researcher Paul Johnson and colleague Chris Marone at Penn State have discovered how wave energy can be stored in certain types of granular materials-like the type found along certain fault lines across the globe-and how this stored energy can suddenly be released as an earthquake when hit by relatively small seismic waves far beyond the traditional “aftershock zone” of a main quake. Perhaps most surprising, researchers have found that the release of energy can occur minutes, hours, or even days after the sound waves pass; the cause of the delay remains a tantalizing mystery.

58 GEOSCIENCES↗

Sustainable Technologies: Finding Success the Second Time Around

Presentation provides background on how to identify and quantify improvements for advanced vehicle technology and commercial fleet operations. It gives examples of next generation technology improvements that have been implemented within commercial fleets.

33 ADVANCED PROPULSION SYSTEMS↗