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At least 1,693 records · Page 94

Computational and Experimental Characterization of Aluminum Nitride-Silicon Carbide Thin Film Composites for High Temperature Sensor Applications

A number of important energy and defense-related applications would benefit from sensors capable of withstanding extreme temperatures (>300°C). Examples include sensors for automobile engines, gas turbines, nuclear and coal power plants, and petroleum and geothermal well drilling. Military applications, such as hypersonic flight research, would also benefit from sensors capable of 1000° C. Silicon carbide (SiC) has long been recognized as a promising material for harsh environment sensors and electronics. Yet today, many advanced SiC MEMS are limited to lower temperatures because they are made from SiC films deposited on silicon wafers. Other limitations arise from sensor transduction by measuring changes in capacitance or resistance, which require biasing or modulation schemes that can withstand elevated temperatures. We circumvented these issues by developing sensing structures directly on SiC wafers using SiC and aluminum nitride (AlN), a high temperature capable piezoelectric material, thin films.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

Consumptive Water Use in the Production of Ethanol and Petroleum Gasoline — 2018 Update

The production of energy feedstocks and fuels requires substantial water input. Not only do biofuel feedstocks like corn, switchgrass, and agricultural residues need water for growth and conversion to ethanol, but petroleum feedstocks like crude oil and oil sands also require large volumes of water for drilling, extraction, and conversion into petroleum products. Moreover, in many cases, crude oil production is increasingly water dependent. Competing uses strain available water resources and raise the specter of resource depletion and environmental degradation. Water management has become a key feature of existing projects and a potential issue in new ones. This report examines the growing issue of water use in energy production by characterizing current consumptive water use in liquid fuel production. As used throughout this report, “consumptive water use” is the sum total of water input less water output that is recycled and reused for the process. The estimate applies to surface and groundwater sources for irrigation but does not include precipitation. Water requirements are evaluated for five fuel pathways: bioethanol from corn, ethanol from cellulosic feedstocks, gasoline from Canadian oil sands, Saudi Arabian crude, and U.S. conventional crude from onshore wells. Regional variations and historic trends are noted, as are opportunities to reduce water use.

02 PETROLEUM↗

Results of Temporary Shutdown Testing and Groundwater Pump-Testing at Agra, Kansas, February-September 2016 and march 2017, and Assessment of Groundwater and Contaminant Migration

In 2005, the Commodity Credit Corporation/U.S. Department of Agriculture (CCC/USDA) conducted a comprehensive investigation of potential contaminant source areas on, and in the vicinity of, the former CCC/USDA grain storage facility in Agra, Kansas (Argonne 2006). The data collected during this investigation identified three primary source areas for carbon tetrachloride contamination. One source is located on the former CCC/USDA property, and the other two (western and eastern) sources are located on adjacent property owned by Pro-Ag Marketing. The soil source located at the western end of the Pro-Ag property has been identified as the sole source of carbon tetrachloride contamination to the groundwater in this portion of the Agra site, and is not associated with any grain storage activities on the former CCC/USDA property. In 2008-2009, to address the carbon tetrachloride contamination detected on its former property, the CCC/USDA initiated source area cleanup as an interim measure (IM). The cleanup employs five large-diameter boreholes (LDBs) that were excavated by auger drilling. The purposes of these borings were to (1) physically remove soils impacted by carbon tetrachloride from the most contaminated area for treatment by onsite land farming and (2) provide locations for the installation of coupled soil vapor extraction (SVE) and air sparging (AS) wells to facilitate in-situ treatment of the carbon tetrachloride in the soils and underlying groundwater. With the approval of the KDHE, operation of the SVE/AS systems began in May 2009, and has generally continued with minimal interruption since that time. Land farming operations to treat contaminated soil excavated from the LDBs were successfully completed in October 2010.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

Review of Time-Series Data for the Agra Interim Measure, Fall 2013

The Commodity Credit Corporation of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (CCC/USDA) operated a grain storage facility at Agra, Kansas, from the 1950s to the early 1970s. No structures remain on the property, and the land is used for agricultural purposes, specifically wheat production. The property is currently owned by the Kyle Railroad Co. and is leased to Mr. Herb VanEaton. The Pro-Ag Marketing grain storage facility is directly south of the former CCC/USDA facility. In 1985, carbon tetrachloride was detected in groundwater samples collected from Agra public water supply wells PWS-3 and PWS-4, located approximately 2,000 ft south of the former CCC/USDA facility and approximately 1,800 ft south of the Pro-Ag Marketing Facility, at levels below the maximum contaminant level of 5.0 μg/L. In 1986, in response to an increase in carbon tetrachloride to 12 μg/L in well PWS-3, the city was required to remove both PWS-3 and PWS-4 from service. The Agra public water supply system is served by three other wells (PWS-1, PWS-2, and PWS-5) that are outside the area of contamination. In 2005, the Environmental Science Division of Argonne National Laboratory conducted a comprehensive investigation of potential contaminant source areas at Agra, on behalf of the CCC/USDA. Data collected during the 2005 investigation identified three primary source areas for the carbon tetrachloride contamination (Argonne 2006). One source is located on the former CCC/USDA property, and the other two sources are on property owned by Pro-Ag Marketing. In 2008-2009, to address the carbon tetrachloride contamination detected on its former property, the CCC/USDA initiated source area cleanup as an interim measure (IM) in accord with the document Interim Measure Work Plan/Design for Agra, Kansas (IMWP/D; Argonne 2008). The cleanup employs five large-diameter boreholes (LDBs) that were excavated by auger drilling. The purposes of these borings were to (1) physically remove soils impacted by carbon tetrachloride from the most contaminated area for treatment by onsite land farming and (2) provide locations for the installation of coupled soil vapor extraction (SVE) and air sparging (AS) wells to facilitate in situ treatment of the remaining carbon tetrachloride in the soils and groundwater. Construction data for the SVE wells, the AS wells, and groundwater and soil gas observation points installed to monitor the progress of the cleanup (as reported on the Kansas Review of Time-Series Data for the Agra Interim Measure 1-2 Version 01, 10/24/13 WWC-5 forms for these installations) are summarized in Table 1.1. The locations of the wells are shown in Figure 1.1. The IMWP/D was approved by the Kansas Department of Health and Environment in November 2008 (KDHE 2008), and operation of the SVE/AS systems began in May 2009. With the approval of the KDHE (2009), landfarming operations to treat the contaminated soils excavated from the LDBs were completed on October 12, 2010. Since start-up, the IM activities have been documented periodically (Argonne 2009a,b,c; Argonne 2010a,b,c,d, 2011a,b,c, 2012, 2013a,b), in accord with the requirements of the KDHEapproved IMWP/D (Argonne 2008). Each of the reports primarily summarizes the operations and maintenance of the SVE and AS equipment and the results of sampling of the groundwater, soil gas, and system effluents for analyses for volatile organic compounds (VOCs) over a specific 3- to 6-month period. Hence, the focus is the incremental performance of the IM. To complement these documents, this report provides a broader perspective by examining the collective data acquired since start-up on May 29, 2009, and through June 2013. The objectives of this approach are to evaluate possible longer-term trends in (1) the operational characteristics of the remedial systems and (2) the corresponding responses in the subsurface environment and their potential relationships to the progress of the cleanup. To facilitate this investigation, time-series diagrams have been developed to illustrate key parameter data for the SVE and AS systems, as well as sampling and additional supporting data obtained from the monitoring program. An overview of the information compiled is in Section 2. In Section 3, observations drawn from these data are discussed. The principal findings of the evaluation and recommendations for consideration are summarized in Sections 4 and 5, respectively.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

Electrogenerative Reactors for Process Intensified Cogeneration of Power and Liquid Fuel from Shale Gas

With the abundance of natural gas and its primary components of methane, ethane and propane, there is the opportunity to convert these light alkanes to higher-value products. The growth in natural gas supply in the U.S. has increased substantially since the mid-2000s due to advances in horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing. As petroleum prices are volatile, natural gas resources are progressively attractive as alternative fuel sources. However, many of these shale gas wells are in regions of the U.S. that are remote and costly to transport to petrochemical and refining centers. In addition, much of this shale gas is “wet gas” that contains condensable amounts of ethane. While dedicated ethane gas pipelines have been built to get a small fraction of this gas to market, they are very capital intensive and compete for existing land use. As a result of this Phase I project, we developed a process to convert ethane to a transportable liquid fuel. This was achieved by implementing process intensification for this gas-to-liquids approach; we use novel eletrogenerative reactors in a two-step process rather than multi-step well-known technologies such as Fisher-Tropsch synthesis. These reactors borrow on well proven solid oxide fuel cell technology. Therefore, when produced in mass will be a very low-cost modular chemical reactor. This project demonstrated that EcoCatlaytic’s catalysts are highly selective towards ethylene and are compatible with anode materials. These integrated catalysts with the anode were able to maintain stable activity under ethane. Process simulations demonstrate an energy savings while producing gasoline and electricity for a modular system that produces 1,000 bbl/day gasoline. The system, not only produces gasoline, but also generates electricity which is a very valuable commodity in the remote shale gas facilities. This process could potentially allow remote natural gas producers to upgrade their feedstock to valuable gasoline on-site rather than flaring.

03 NATURAL GAS↗

Deep Borehole Emplacement Mode Hazard Analysis (Rev. 1)

This report outlines a methodology and provides resource information for the Deep Borehole Emplacement Mode Hazard Analysis (DBEMHA). The main purpose is identify the accident hazards and accident event sequences associated with the two emplacement mode options (wireline or drillstring), to outline a methodology for computing accident probabilities and frequencies, and to point to available databases on the nature and frequency of accidents typically associated with standard borehole drilling and nuclear handling operations.

42 ENGINEERING↗

Leveraging a Fundamental Understanding of Fracture Flow, Dynamic Permeability Enhancement, and Induced Seismicity to Improve Geothermal Energy Production

This project focused on assessment and discovery of fluid-rock interaction in geothermal reservoirs. We accomplished work in four main areas: 1) fracture formation and the relationship between fluid flow and shear failure, 2) assessment of fracture geometry and fluid permeability using novel acoustic measurements, 3) an improved understanding of how drilling, injection and geothermal production influence local seismicity, and 4) development of process based models for using induced seismicity to assess the critical stress-state in Earth’s crust. The majority of the work involved laboratory experiments and analysis of laboratory and numerical results. We created shear fractures under true triaxial stresses designed to mimic the stress state of a geothermal reservoir and we measured fracture permeability as a function of stress state and fluid pressure under these conditions. Our work shows that fracture permeability can be altered by transient changes in stress and fluid flow. We find that fluid pressure has an unexpectedly larger impact on permeability than does applied stress and we interpret that result in terms of fracture contact area and the law of effective stress. We employ elastic waves to image fractures in the lab and develop the theory to apply our work to geothermal reservoir scale. Our work documents changes in elastic wave speed prior to earthquake-like failure in the lab and we show how the frequency magnitude distribution of microseismic lab earthquakes can be used to assess the critical stress state around faults prior to failure.

15 GEOTHERMAL ENERGY↗

Abstract for CRADA between the Japan Oil, Gas, and Metals National Corporation (JOGMEC) and NETL (AGMT-0671)

The US Department of Energy’s National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL) and the Japan Oil, Gas, and Metals National Corporation (JOGMEC) have long-established gas hydrate R&D programs and both have identified an extended duration scientific field test of depressurization as a key requirement in advancing critical science and technology development objectives. Both Parties recognize that the Alaska North Slope (“ANS”) is the most feasible location on Earth to conduct such a test and that a proven ANS Operator should be engaged to carry out the desired scientific drilling and testing field programs in full compliance with all regulations. Given the unpredictable nature of field programs conducted in harsh operating environments, the parties have executed this CRADA to clearly establish a basic framework of the project goals, and to articulate roles, responsibilities, and decision-making protocols prior to the initiation of a field program. Therefore, this CRADA establishes a project “Steering Committee” to guide major project decision points and allocation of resources; an “R&D Committee” to jointly develop field program technical and scientific plans designed to achieve program objectives; and “Field Representatives” to enable effective, real-time, and collaborative decision making during field programs.

03 NATURAL GAS↗

Quantifying EGS Reservoir Complexity with an Integrated Geophysical Approach-Improved Resolution Ambient Seismic Noise Interferometry

The primary goal of the project was met, as improved resolution (from kilometers to tens/hundreds of meters and to a depth of at least 3 km) was added to the seismic interferometry-estimated parameters relative to the work reported in AltaRock Energy Inc. (2014) for the Dixie Valley Geothermal Wellfield. A procedure for initial fault identification, using seismic interferometry, was developed. The project team further improved, and applied a new, cost-effective, and non-invasive exploration method, developed and validated since 2010, during two previous experiments, at Dixie Valley and Soda Lake, Nevada. The method, initially designed for hydrothermal exploration, was adapted to EGS exploration conditions, which require deeper crustal information. Regions of elevated energy for both the 2-7 Hz and 5-15 Hz frequency bands are located above intersections of multiple faults. Thus, an unprecedented, innovative seismic field deployment and ambient seismic noise and signal processing were successfully used to estimate crustal structure and to identify fault locations at depths up to 3 km, at a cost per kilometer of survey that in some cases may be as much as ten times less than the cost of a controlled-source survey. Based on valid and useful seismic data collected and analyzed during Phase I, in Phase II the team has further quantified statistically the advantage of using seismic analysis, in combination with other geological and geophysical techniques, for EGS target identification. A power spectral density analysis of the passive-seismic empirical Green’s functions reveals significantly higher power recorded over the exploration area at the power plant, and in the drilling area, near the BB station 10201, especially on the horizontal components. In this study, the most important relationship observed during the prior report, namely the one between velocity and temperature was explored. The areas that show anomalously high predicted temperature in the geostatistics occur where multiple faults intersect. Not surprisingly, such areas span between the Dixie Valley range front fault and the basin-ward Piedmont faults, in the vicinity of numerous wells. These locations also fall in the area of high EGS favorability from the prior 2014 study. The anomalies also coincide with the high power spectral density values. The result of altering all favorability criteria for the new data reached a maximum of 1/8th of a point and were not large enough to change any favorability value reported in the 2014 study. The new data reinforce the results obtained from the previous 2014 study. The current high-resolution ambient seismic noise project provided excellent results in defining faults in the wellfield. As such the identification of known faults by the project demonstrated the utility of this method for identifying faults at an exploration stage in geothermal development. Such fault identification, while extremely useful in exploration investigation, has not added sufficient new data for the generation of significantly different DVGW favorability maps in the current project. We believe the cost savings of our passive-seismic technique for EGS, over common industry active-source survey techniques, may have a minimum of 30%, and a maximum of 90%. There are many significant non-cost benefits of passive seismic surveys. Our passive-source method provides an environmentally-friendly seismic survey with minimal to negligible impacts. The economic benefit is greater EGS project feasibility.

15 GEOTHERMAL ENERGY↗

Benchmarking of Wellhead Safety Zone Criteria for Underground Gas Storage Facilities

Underground natural gas storage facilities are a vital part of the U. S. national infrastructure. However, the concept of hazard zones from fires and explosions at these facilities is not nearly as well defined as it is for natural gas transmission pipelines. This report will take a safety area predicted for underground gas storage facilities called the Wellhead Safety Zone or WSZ and benchmark it against the observed damage zone from the drill rig accident near Rama, Louisiana on November 15, 2007. When combined with earlier accidents, this new benchmark indicates the WSZ formula gives an accurate indication of the hazard radius from underground gas storage facility accidents over a wide range of casing sizes and pressures.

03 NATURAL GAS↗

Large Diameter Deep Borehole (LDDB) Disposal Design Option for Vitrified High-Level Waste (HLW) and Granular Wastes

This study considers the feasibility of large diameter deep boreholes for waste disposal. The conceptual approach considers examples of deep large diameter boreholes that have been successfully drilled, and also other deep borehole designs proposed in the literature. The objective for large diameter boreholes would be disposal of waste packages with diameters of 22 to 29 inches, which could enable disposal of waste forms such as existing vitrified high level waste. A large-diameter deep borehole design option would also be amenable to other waste forms including calcine waste, treated Na-bonded and Na-bearing waste, and Cs and Sr capsules.

12 MANAGEMENT OF RADIOACTIVE AND NON-RADIOACTIVE W↗

Figures of merit for production HPC

This report summarizes a set of figures of merit of interest in monitoring the hardware and hardware usage in a Sandia high performance computing (HPC) center. These figures are computable from high frequency monitoring data and other non-metric data and may aid administrators and customer support personnel in their decision processes. The figures are derived from interviews of the HPC center staff. The figures are in many cases simplistic data reductions, but they are our initial targets in creating dashboards that turn voluminous monitoring data into actionable information. Because simplistic reductions may obscure as well as reveal the situation under study, we also document the necessary 'drill-down' and %60exploration' views needed to make the data better understood quickly. These figures of merit may be compared to dashboarding tools documented by other HPC centers.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

Unique Science from a Coordinated LSST-WFIRST Survey of the Galactic Bulge

NASA’s WFIRST mission will perform a wide-field, NIR survey of the Galactic Bulge to search for exoplanets via the microlensing techniques. As the mission is due to launch in the mid-2020s, around half-way through the LSST Main Survey, we have a unique opportunity to explore synergistic science from two landmark programs. LSST can survey the entire footprint of the WFIRST microlensing survey in a single Deep Drilling Field. Here we explore the great scientific potential of this proposal and recommend the most effective observing strategies.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

From Modules to Atoms: Techniques and Characterization for Identifying and Understanding Device-Level Photovoltaic Degradation Mechanisms

This report documents how degraded modules are analyzed for the characterization of cell-level performance reduction. The primary degradation topics presented here are 1) potential-induced degradation, 2) defect metastability and impurity diffusion, and 3) partial-shading-induced reverse-bias breakdown. Imaging techniques, such as electroluminescence imaging, photoluminescence imaging, and lock-in thermography provide spatial information of full modules on the meter scale. Area of interest can then be imaged with higher spatial resolution by zooming in with fields of view near the mm scale. We document procedures for coring cell samples from selected regions of interest using mechanical drilling. The small samples are then of suitable size for various microscopic analyses using techniques such as scanning electron microscopy, time-of-flight secondary ion spectrometry, atomic force microscopy, electron beam induced current, transmission electron microscopy, and atom probe tomography, which can provide chemical, structural, and electrical characterization down to the atomic scale.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗

Development of a Generalized Residual Stress Inversion Technique

Residual stress is a common result of manufacturing processes, but it is one that is often overlooked in design and qualification activities. There are many reasons for this oversight, such as lack of observable indicators and difficulty in measurement. Traditional relaxation-based measurement methods use some type of material removal to cause surface displacements, which can then be used to solve for the residual stresses relieved by the removal. While widely used, these methods may offer only individual stress components or may be limited by part or cut geometry requirements. Diffraction-based methods, such as X-ray or neutron, offer non-destructive results but require access to a radiation source. With the goal of producing a more flexible solution, this LDRD developed a generalized residual stress inversion technique that can recover residual stresses released by all traction components on a cut surface, with much greater freedom in part geometry and cut location. The developed method has been successfully demonstrated on both synthetic and experimental data. The project also investigated dislocation density quantification using nonlinear ultrasound, residual stress measurement using Electronic Speckle Pattern Interferometry Hole Drilling, and validation of residual stress predictions in Additive Manufacturing process models.

42 ENGINEERING↗

Deep Direct-Use Geothermal Feasibility Study for Hawthorne NV

The Hawthorne Nevada, deep direct-use geothermal study is a two-year effort funded by the U.S. Department of Energy to determine the techno-economic feasibility of implementing a large-scale, direct-use facility for the Hawthorne Army Depot (HAD) and the public facilities of the city of Hawthorne and Mineral County. The approach links a production side analysis (PSA) and a demand side analysis (DSA) into a whole-system analysis (WSA) to provide an integrated assessment of the resource and the probability of delivering economically viable direct-use energy to Hawthorne. Hawthorne, Nevada is in the western part of the Basin and Range province and has been the focus of geothermal investigations for over 40 years. Over the last 15 years, several studies completed by the U.S. Navy Geothermal Program Office (GPO) in conjunction with industry professionals quantified the existence of several low temperature geothermal prospects, the most promising of which is called Prospect A. The promise of Prospect A is based on drilling and flow testing that produced ~100 °C water at flow rates of up to 31 l/s (500 gallons per minute). Measured productivity indexes range from 40-85 l/s/MPa, suggesting a warm and productive heat source. Despite the promise of the resource, uncertainties in its spatial extent and long-term sustainability mean that techno-economic analyses must include probabilities of the sustainability of the resource under different operating scenarios. Here, the PSA is conducted by integrating a wide range of disparate data to estimate lognormal P90, P50, and P10 resource capacities. These capacities are used as input to a thermal-hydrologic (T-H) model to estimate thermal drawdown for each capacity estimate for several different DSA scenarios. Using a systems-based approach, the WSA links the dynamic T-H simulations of the PSA/DSA combinations with the techno-economic model GEOPHIRES to account for both the temporal dynamics and uncertainties in the system to produce probabilistic distributions of several performance metrics including the levelized cost of heat (LCOH) and the return on investment (ROI). This report is the final delivery for the project and documents the study's activities and results.

15 GEOTHERMAL ENERGY↗

Advanced Simulation and Experiments of Strongly Coupled Geomechanics and Flow for Gas Hydrate Deposits: Validation and Field Application. Final Report

The objectives of the proposed research are (1) to investigate geomechanical responses induced by depressurization experimentally and numerically; (2) to enhance the current numerical simulation technology in order to simulate complex physically coupled processes by depressurization and (3) to perform in-depth numerical analyses of two selected potential production test sites: one based on the deposits observed at the Ulleung basin UBGH2-6 site; and the other based on well-characterized accumulations from the westend Prudhoe Bay. To these ends, the recipient will have the following specific objectives: 1). Information obtained from multi-scale experiments previously conducted at the recipient’s research partner (the Korean Institute of Geoscience and Mineral Resources (KIGAM)) that were designed to represent the most promising known Ulleung Basin gas hydrate deposit as drilled at site UBGH2-6 will be evaluated (Task 2). These findings will be further tested by new experimental studies at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) and Texas A&M (TAMU) (Task 3) that are designed capture complex coupled physical processes between flow and geomechanics, such as sand production, capillarity, and formation of secondary hydrates. The findings of Tasks 2 and 3 will be used to further improve numerical codes. 2) Develop (in Tasks 4 through 6) an advanced coupled geomechanics and non-isothermal flow simulator (T+MAM) to account for large deformation and strong capillarity. This new code will be validated using data from the literature, from previous work by the project team, and with the results of the proposed experimental studies. The developed simulator will be applied to both Ulleung Basin and Prudhoe Bay sites, effectively addressing complex geomechanical and petrophysical changes induced by depressurization (e.g., frost-heave, strong capillarity, cryo-suction, induced fracturing, and dynamic permeability).

02 PETROLEUM↗

UT-GOM2-1 Hydrate Pressure Coring Expedition Volume

From 2-May-2017 to 22-May-2017, the UT-GOM2-1 Hydrate Pressure Coring Expedition drilled two wells in Green Canyon Block 955 (GC 955) in the deepwater Gulf of Mexico: Hole GC 955 H002 (H002) and Hole GC 955 H005 (H005). 21 10 ft (3.05 m) pressure cores were attempted in and near the methane hydrate reservoir. In the first hole, H002, 1 of the 8 cores were recovered under pressure and there was 34% recovery of sediment (both pressurized and depressurized). In the second hole, H005, 12 of the 13 cores were recovered under pressure and there was 72% recovery of sediment. The pressure cores were imaged and logged under pressure. Samples were quantitatively degassed either on-board or on-shore to determine the hydrate concentration and the gas composition. Pore water analyses were performed on depressurized samples, and sediment samples were collected to enable characterization of the microbial community. 21 3.3 ft (1 m) vessels containing pressure core sections were returned to the University of Texas for storage, distribution, and further analysis. These cores will provide a foundation for scientific exploration by the greater hydrate research community.

03 NATURAL GAS↗