Travel Notes: Washington DC, Feb 26-29, 1996

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1. Technology Partnering Conference

This 1 1/2 day event sponsored by McGraw-Hill’s Federal Technology Report., featured top management speakers from DOD, NASA, NIST, DOE and Congress, discussing the historical background and major new developments in the federal government’s role and approach to working with industry.

The bipartisan trend that had been developing for many years to increase links between federal labs and agencies and private industry was suddenly reversed by the new Republican Congress, as a part of its drive to reduce spending. Robert Walker, head of the House Science & Technology Committee (who is retiring the end of this year) attacks what he calls “corporate welfare”, but what others view as vital programs to put federal technology into the hands of industry so it can be successfully commercialized.

Congress has proposed to zero out the large and well-regarded multi-agency programs such as the Advanced Technology Program (ATP) run by NIST and the Technology Reinvestment Program (TRP) run by ARPA/DOD. The Clinton administration, however, is standing firm in its support, particularly for ATP. TRP will morph into the “Dual Use Applications Program”, explicitly focused on the needs of DOD, and under the Office of Defense Research and Engineering instead of ARPA.

The terminology is shifting from “technology transfer” to “Technology Partnering” and government agencies like DOE, NASA and DOD are to focus entirely on their own specific objectives. The rationale for partnering is that these agencies need industry to commercialize the technology they’ve developed, so they can then purchase and use it more cost effectively in the accomplishment of their own respective missions.

For example: DOD is the world’s largest customer for “low-rate production”, which says they have a strong interest in having industries that are highly capable at “agile manufacturing”, which coincidentally is the trend in the competitive world economy. Thus benefits flow both ways.

One of the risks of the budget cuts is that the Labs may become viewed as “unreliable” business partners if they have to curtail or reduce their funding of CRADAs, a reputation they’ve been struggling with some success to overcome.

One particularly interesting presentation was by John McTague, VP of Technical Affairs at Ford Motor Co. and advisor to DOE. He pointed out the well known behavior of large organizations to become bureaucratic and process/rulemaking oriented — when they lose track of what they’re supposed to be producing, or don’t have competitors. (Sound familiar?) DOE is attempting to reverse this trend, especially at the Labs, but old habits are hard to change, as are all the rules and procedures that have accumulated (many thanks to Congress).

As is often the case, networking during the breaks was particularly fruitful. Among other contacts, I’ll have more to report soon on a nifty new program between Dayton Power & Light and the Air Force’s Wright Lab to help DP&L’s major customers.

Also, thanks to a coincidental encounter, I arranged to meet later in the week with the DC office of the National Tech Transfer Center (NTTC), which has responsibility for tech transfer for the Ballistic Missle Defense Organization (BMDO), a separate DOD branch which has the huge technology repository of the entire SDI (Starwars) effort. They have taken a particular interest in reaching out to electric utilities, and UFTO may be in the right place at just the right time. More on this at a later date–please don’t tell anyone about it just yet.

I’ll be getting a copy of the conference proceedings, with all the papers and presentations. I’ll make additional information available to UFTO members on request.

2. DOE — Fossil Energy (FE) Patricia Godley, Assistant Secretary

The reorganization to a “lines-of-business” structure that has been in the works for over 2 years is to go into effect in April, if Congress approves. Cross-cutting teams will address advanced research, communications, and environment, health and safety.

I met with Victor Der (301-903-2700), who is proposed to head the “Power” business,and who is in very much a learning mode about the implications of utility industry restructuring for new fossil capacity additions and for potential changes in the Federal role in fossil energy more generally.

At the DOE level, as part of the ongoing effort to reinvent the agency, four strategic alignment areas have been defined: National Security (nuclear materials), Environment, Energy, and Administration. “Energy” is to be overseen by the “Energy Resources Board” headed by Kyle Simpson who reports to Charles Curtis, and including Fossil, Energy Efficiency, the Energy Information Administration, and with Energy Research represented on the Board.

The FE domestically is focused heavily on the commercialization of the Clean Coal technology, and internationally on helping to increase volumes and lower costs for “appropriate” technology to help US firms export. Fossil O&M is not addressed in the program , except as it underlies many of the development goals for new technology.

Fuel Cells continues to be a major program area.

Contacts are Charlie Pax (301-903-2832) or Ed Beyma (301-903-2828.)

FE is responsible for the high temperature technologies (PEM work is handled in the Office of Transportation Technologies), and the work is administered from Morgantown Energy Technology Center (METC). Mark Williams is the Product Manager for Fuel Cells (304-285-4747). (Incidentally, there are plans to merge the 3 FE Tech Centers into a single “Federal Energy Institute”. Details yet forthcoming.)

– Phosphoric Acid (PA): DOD is providing partial cost rebates for the installation of ONSI 200kw units. Lots of people are in line for it. Other PA players include H Power and Fuel Cell Corp. of America, which bought the Westinghouse design. This technology is getting users familar with fuel cells, with operational availability over 95%.

– PEM: Conventional wisdom is that the low temperature and relatively lower efficiency (using natural gas) makes this uncompetitive for stationary power generation (and cogenerations) applications, however it’s high current densities and the possibility of earlier mass production may throw that view into contention for smaller units.

– Molten Carbonate — DOE is supporting work by ERC and MC Power.

– Solid Oxide–DOE is supporting only the Westinghouse tubular design, and Southern California Edison is testing a 25 kw “logistic” unit for the DOD at its Fuel Cell Test Center (“logistic” means with diesel and jetfuel.) Westinghouse will do a 100kw unit with utilities in the Netherlands soon. DOE has no planar SO program (Congress “picked a winner”?), though several smaller firms are doing work on this.

– In conjunction with the IEEE Power Engineering Society, DOE is sponsoring a series of regional Fuel Cell Technology Forums. Proceedings available (May ’95, Boston; Nov ’95, Santa Clara CA; Nov ’96 Houston ) Local host utility involvement is welcomed. Contact Sam Biondo, (301-903-5910)

FE Communications is headed by Bob Porter (202)586-6503. FE published about 150 new “Fact Sheets” last year, and currently is updating and adding to them. These will all appear on FE’s Internet WWW page. Later this year, information will be added on all 600 active R&D projects, along with full text of technical reports.

There is also a “Fax-on-Demand” service (call 202-586-4300), and a less well-known “Fax-Out” service, which sends announcements and news on chosen topics to whoever is on the list.

3. DOE/EE — Office of Utility Technologies (OUT)

Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EE), headed by Assistant Secretary Christine Irvin, has four major program areas: Utility (OUT), Transportation (OTT), Building (OBT), and Industrial (OIT).

Karl Rabago left on March 1 as Deputy Assistant Secretary for OUT, and Allan Hoffman, his associate, is currently acting in that capacity.

Generally, OUT is downsizing and restructuring, essentially eliminating the “Office” layer of management (though some titles remain), and dealing with major budget cuts. Initiatives to reorganize and rationalize the division names and missions are no longer at the fore. The mood is one of considerable uncertainty. The divisions of OUT are Wind, Hydro & Ocean; Geothermal; Photovoltaics; Solar Thermal and Biomass Power; Utility Systems, and Advanced Utility Concepts.

 

Photovoltaics Division, Jim Rannels, 202-586-1721

There are some noteworthy developments in the solar PV.

– The Enron-Amoco-Solarex project in to build a 3+ MW solar PV plant in Hawaii is moving forward, with the building of a new factory in Virginia to make the cells.

– C-Star, Las Vegas NV, set up by DOE and the state of Nevada, and headed by Rose Mckinney-James, is reviewing 5 major bids to solar install projects at the Nevada Test Site. Plans call for as much as 500 MW of capacity of a number of diverse solar technologies.

– Cells and modules are getting cheaper all the time, with the current emphasis on new thin fim technology and mass production. Expect local home supply stores to be selling modules with integral inverters that can plug right into the household circuit, and slow or reverse the meter. Utilities better be planning how they’re going to respond.

– United Solar, Troy MI, will put PV roofing shingles on the market in about one year. These will be featured along with many other innovations in the Atlanta Energy Showcase House, to coincide with the Olympics. Oak Ridge has the lead — contact Pat Love at 423-576-7942.

– Also at the Olympics, Georgia Tech and Georgia Power are putting in a major installation of PV panels on a 100 ft. high stadium roof. Expect very high profile nationally and internationally, with TV camera views from the blimp. This might well result in a resurgence of interest and inquiries about solar which utilities should consider preparing for–and possibly taking advantage of. Utilities would do well to make a conscious decision about this, and not get caught off guard.

– The Utility PV Group (UPVG), with 86 utility members, is a formally constituted independent organization set up 4 years ago with DOE’s help at the request of a small group of utilities. It serves as a major forum for program development and interactions among utilities, PV developers and DOE. (Most but not all UFTO members are in UPVG. For $2000/year, it would seem a very cost-effective way to keep abreast of new developments.)

Utility Systems Division, Robert Brewer (202-586-2828)

This group handles T&D, EMF and district heating and cooling. Budget cuts have zeroed out the T&D program entirely, and with the new emphasis on renewables, they are looking for ways to contribute in that arena.

The work at Oak Ridge on “High-Phase Order” Transmission was completed and published — found to be a valid approach. A commercial demonstration has been operational in upstate NY since 1992. A 1.5 mile three phase circuit was converted to six-phase, and offered a 73% increase in line capacity.

Real Time control studies are continuing, in particular the wide-area measurement work at PNNL with BPA and WAPA. The idea is tovalidate power system computer models so they can be relied upon to operate the transmission system closer to the margin.

Oak Ridge has developed a new advanced Resonant Snubber Inverterwith considerably improved part load performance. (Inverter development had been focused on HVDC, but now the effort is shifted to lower voltages.) While part load performance is less of an issue in many applications, it can be quite significant in solar and electric vehicles, where the system operates at part load much of the time. Adjustable speed drives may also benefit from this technology.The ORNL inverter is 80% efficient at low speeds and 98% at high speeds, vs. more typical performance of 60-70% and 94%. The device is much smaller and should be cheaper than conventional inverters and have much reduced waveform distortion and interference. Jason Lai is the inventor of this “resonant snubber” inverter. Contact Frank Juan 423-576-8540.

Sandia has looked at inverters that have failed in use, and DOE is continuing to support the work at PNNL on the multi input inverter, which interestingly was first developed for MHD.

ORNL also has just completed a study of “Electric Power Ancillary Services” (e.g. voltage and frequency control, spinning reserve, reactive power, etc.), examining who will provide these services in a restructured industry and how they will be priced. Brendon Kirby and Eric Hirst have a new report published Feb ’96 (ORNL/CON-426. To request a copy call Ethel at 423-576-0071.)

Interestingly, the work on Distributed Utilities (DU) was never a line item in the DOE budget, and was done largely with internal lab directed funds at NREL and PNNL. DOE has traditionally emphasized generation and supply, and not the overall “system”.

In T&D asset management, DOE (and Oak Ridge) take the position that the industry (utilities, vendors, EPRI) have the responsibility for near term real-time Operations & Maintenance improvements and techniques, and that DOE should take the broader long-term view. We encountered this idea at ORNL some time back, and discussed their “understand the basic physics and chemistry first” approach vs. a more pragmatic phenomenological approach (i.e., look at field data and use AI technniques, etc.)

4. Office of Industrial Technologies (OIT)

Denise Swink, Deputy Assistant Secretary, 202-586-9232

OIT has a wide ranging series of programs to support the development of efficient industrial technologies and process systems, to help U.S. industrial productivity and competitiveness. OIT funds R&D at the national labs, universities and industry in bioprocessing, catalysis, separations (membranes), sensors, CFCC’s, combustion, materials, cogeneration, and solar industrial technology, and in processes for each of the industries listed below. This technical work forms the basis of a vigorous outreach through “partnering” programs. Utilities could be very effective in bringing these resources to the attention of their industrial customers. Contact Marsha Quinn, 202-586-2097, Director, Technology Access

– Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Clearinghouse: 1-800-DOE-EREC

– Internet: http://www.eren.doe/industry/

– To receive the quarterly newsletter “Benefits and Breakthroughs”, contact Nicki Malenfant, NREL, 303-275-3632. The first (Summer ’95) issue gives a good overview of programs.

– “Impacts” (October ’95 ) catalogs what is available from the results of OIT funded projects, and there are also a new series of product sheets called “Bottom Line”.

Industries of the Future Program focuses on seven industries where technology can yield the biggest returns: Petroleum refining, chemicals, pulp and paper, steel, aluminum, foundries and glass. It brings together the technical resources of all the national labs in what is called a “virtual lab” concept, and works with those industries to develop “vision” statements, and establishes plans to solve their important problems and opportunities.

Contacts: Kurt Sisson, Acting Director 202-586-0139

Bruce Cranford, Chemicals 202-586 -9496 Tom Foust, Pulp & Paper 202-586 -0198
Douglas Kaempf, Metal Casting 202-586 -5264 Susanne Leonard, Glass 202-586-6108
Matt McMonigle, Aluminum 202-586 -2082 Dan Wiley, Refineries 202-586 -2099

The Motor Challenge Program has enrolled over a thousand industrial partners, who get easy access to product and system information and technical resources, such as fact sheets, “Motor Master” software, conferences and technical assistance.

Contact Paul Scheiling, 202-586-7234, or call the Hotline 1-800-631-3832.

Climate Wise helps U.S. industry partners reduce emissions while increasing profitability. This is a voluntary program paralleling the Climate Challenge program which many utilities participate. Members agree to come up with plans to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions. Firms like AT&T, Coors, DuPont, GM, and Weyerhauser have already signed up. Regional workshops have led to the formation of local area groups. Some funding may be available for smaller companies. Contact Marsha Quinn, 202-586-2097.

NICE3 (National Industrial Competiveness through Energy, Environment and Economics) awards grants to teams of state agencies and local industry to support demonstration of technologies that reduce energy consumption and pollution.

Contact Alan Schroeder, 202-586-1641

Industrial Assessment Centers (formerly Energy Analysis and Diagnostic Centers) at 30 universities around the country provide free audits and waste assessment services to small and medium industrial companies. This program has been in place for nearly 20 years, providing experience for engineering students as well. Recently ten IAC-State Office partnerships were awarded to encourage local industrial community links.

Contact Chuck Glaser, 202-586-1298 or Rolf Butters, 202-586-0984

International Development helps with the DOE trade missions, and is involved in work with China, India, Pakistan, South Africa, Mexico and the Ukraine, to introduce appropriate and more efficient industrial technologies into these fast growing economies as their energy demands expand. Contact Peter Salmon-Cox, 202-586-2380

Bulletin #18

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UFTO Bulletin #18

February 2, 1996

To: UFTO Members:

. . in this issue: . . . . . . . . .

Filemaker progress Cold Fusion Tech Nuggets

Where has January gone?

1. Enclosed is an updated UFTO roster. Note some new/changed email addresses. Also, a page from the current version of the new Subscriber Briefing, listing the key themes of UFTO in Year #2.

2. Update on the “By-Topic” mission:

– The Filemaker database is taking shape. We should have virtually all of our information to date loaded in an “alpha” version this month, which will enable me to do topical cut & pastes on request. Still a few bugs to work out, but it’s looking good. If anyone wants a copy of the database, we can do that, so long as it’s clearly understood that it won’t be “commercial grade” software.

– “Breakthrough Technology Conference” (Electrotechnology) in Tampa, April 24-6 —
See enclosed ad from Electrical World. I hope you and someone from your marketing group will attend. We’ll hold an UFTO group meeting in conjunction with this event. See attached questionnaire, and encourage your industrial technology/customer rep types to send someone.

— 2nd Topical Conference — PNL has offered to work with us on arranging some kind of a meeting–and even to host it. Please indicate any prefences about time, place and topic — see questionnaire. [How about Delivery — T&D? Or Environment?]

[PLEASE– fill out the attached questionnaire and fax it back to me, if you haven’t already. Thanks.]

3. I attended a one day conference in Cambridge MA in January, onCold Fusion and related developments, and am making a number of contacts as a result. This is in the category of “early warning radar”, though there are indications this whole business may be farther along than we think. See the enclosed “UFTO Comment.” (Also see UFTO Faxgram, March 25, 1995, for another discussion of “way out” technology.)

4. The Capstone turbogenerator story is moving very fast. They’re in contact with literally 100’s of utilities world wide, and signing up several a week as distributors. The usual utility industry time scales don’t apply. This situation will not wait for people watching from across the action gap who plan to look into it “soon”.

5. I have additional info on the PNL/Viatec waste acid detox and reclamation process, for metal-bearing spent acids in iron and steel, electroplating, galvanizing, and semiconductor industries. Any size of operation can be accommodated. They report paybacks of 6 months to 2 years. The company can be reached at 509-375-3268

6. I plan to attend the Technology Partnering workshop in Washington, February 26-27, sponsored by McGraw Hill, and featuring a number of high level government and industry speakers. Let me know if you or anyone from your company might be there.

7. You will get a copy of the Sandia U.S.-Russian Fuel Cell Conference proceedings sent directly to you in another month or two. I’ve given Sandia your name and address. Also, I’ve obtained some interesting material on fuel cell work in Europe. Let me know if you’d like copies.

Quote of the day: “To ask permission is to seek denial” Scott Neally, CEO, Sun Microsystems
 

UFTO Technology Nugget

February 2, 1996

• The International Utility Efficiency Partnerships (IUEP) is an industry wide initiative of the Climate Challenge, which is the partnership between utilities and the DOE to promote reductions in CO2 and greenhouse gases. The IUEP is overseen by EEI, and now has a WWW page at http://www.ji.org.

Contact: Michael Rucker, 202-508-5510, michree@eei.org.

• The United BioEnergy Commercialization Association (UBECA) encourages the development of biomass resources. Membership includes electric utilities, power producers, EEI, APPA, NRECA, EPRI and DOE. They are currently developing a national and international initiative to be cofunded by federal and private money. (One UFTO member is already participating.)

Contact: Amy Van Horn, UBECA, 202-296-8663

• The Reliability Analysis Center (RAC) in Rome NY is sponsored by the DOD Defense Technical Information Center and is operated by the IIT Research Institute. They provide an extensive array of publications, training courses and technical support. RAC is a focal point for reliability, maintainability and quality of components and systems, serving both the the DOD and commercial industry. They collect, analyze and publish databases on quality and reliability and evaluates and publishes information on engineering techniques and methods.

Contact: Michael Rossi, RAC Deputy Director, 315-339-7087

WWW home page is at: http://iitri.com/RAC/

A Product Catalog available. Call Gina Nash at 800-526-4802. Also ask for their video, and get their free quarterly “RAC Journal” sent to the right people in your company.

• A partnership consisting of American Superconducting, Lockheed Martin, Southern California Edison, and Los Alamos National Laboratory have demonstrated a 2.4-kilovolt high-temperature superconducting (HTS) current limiter prototype. The demonstration was funded by DOE’s Superconductivity Partnership Initiative program (described in the 9/94 UFTO reports on Argonne and Oak Ridge National Lab). American Superconductor expects to commercialize HTS current limiters by the end of the decade.

Tests performed at SCE indicated that all performance goals for this device were met. In addition, tests of the prototype demonstrated two other attractive features for utilities — this new, fully automated device can be used as an extremely fast circuit breaker and can interrupt multiple faults. One of the unique components of this new fault current limiter is its high temperature superconducting coil that is connected into the electric power grid using a solid-state switch.

Contacts: Gary Dishaw, Southern California Edison
Eddie Leung, Project leader, Energy & Power Systems (E&PS),
Lockheed Martin, San Diego, CA

• The state of the art in home insulation has advanced considerably in recent years. A comprehensive overview appears in the current issue (Feb/March 1996) of Fine Homebuilding magazine. It was written by Alex Wilson, editor of Environmental Building News, a bimonthly newsletter, $127/year, on environmentally sustainable design and construction. May be a good complement to E-Source and materials from the National Labs. 802-257-7300.

Bulletin #17

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UFTO Bulletin #17

January 2, 1996

To: UFTO Members:

. . in this issue: . . . . . . . . .

Happy NEW YEAR Topic Resource Files

 

Happy New Year! I hope your holidays were great.

1. We have a new member of UFTO. Pacificorp has decided to join. Welcome!

2. There’s progress in the high priority “By-Topic” mission we’ve set for this year. Enclosed is another cut & paste “Topic Resource File 1.0” report, this time on “Distributed Utilities”. Please pass it along as appropriate (note the upgraded format).

I’ve been fortunate to identify Fourth Floor Databases, a local company that’s been helping me to assemble the reports and to sort through alternatives for a long range solution

As you know, the two “1.0” reports were experiments to see what would be involved in cutting UFTO information along topical lines. The UFTO data is now in the form of a dozen separate word processing files (which I can send you if you want them–in MAC or PC format). This makes it awkward to search, scan and assemble topical subsets of the information. We basically did it “by hand” to make the 1.0 reports.

The approach that’s taking shape is a Filemaker database, where each record will contain a portion of text from the UFTO Reports and Bulletins, along with fields for source (lab), date, contact person and phone number. We’ll transform current text into discrete data records. The entries in “Distributed Utilities 1.0” are prototypes.

Filemaker works on either PCs and MACs, it’s easy to use, and it’s inexpensive. It also provides excellent searching capabilities. This will give us what I’m visualizing as an “automated cut & paste” capability. I can use it here to keep an up-to-date file of all the UFTO information, to produce Topic Resource Files at will, or simply to pull up every item on a given subject. If you want the capability at your desk, that will be easy to arrange.

How does this sound to you?

PLEASE– fill out the attached questionnaire and fax it back to me. Thanks

3. “Breakthrough Technology Conference” (Electrotechnology) in Tampa, April 24-6 — I hope you and someone from your marketing group will attend. We will hold an UFTO group meeting in conjunction with this event. See attached questionnaire.

4. 2nd Topical Conference — PNL has offered to work with us on arranging some kind of a meeting–and even to host it. Please indicate any prefences about time, place and topic — see questionnaire.

EdB

 

FYI Oak Ridge National Lab (ORNL) has a new AREA CODE — 423 (replaces 615)

UFTO Member Survey — Federal Technology by Topic

Jan 2, 1995

 

Name: Fax to: Ed Beardsworth at 415-328-5675

Company: By January 9.

 

Reactions/comments — Topic Resource File reports: (useful? format ok? info sufficient?, etc.)

“Fossil 1.0”:

 

 

 

“Distributed Utilities 1.0”:

 

Filemaker database concept:

Sounds promising-on the right track

We’re likely to use the database ourselves

We’ll want more UFTO “Topic Resource File” hardcopy reports **

** Highest priority subject areas are: __________________________________________

Ideas, thoughts reactions:

 

 

 

“Breakthrough Technology Conference” (Electrotechnology) in Tampa, April 24-6 —

I or a representative (corporate/UFTO):

__ Will be there ___ Won’t be there ___ Hope to be there — ____ % chance

Someone representing our industrial marketing (subject expert):

__ Will be there ___ Won’t be there ___ Hope to be there — ____ % chance

Comments:

 

2nd Topical Conference: (Think in terms of a 1-2 day meeting hosted by a lab or UFTO utility, with representatives from a number of labs.)

Preferred timing (between now and August) _________

Topic/Format: suggestions:

 

Other thoughts and suggestions:

 

 

Company (corporate/UFTO) representation: _____ Likely _____ Possible _____ Unlikely

Company (subject area expert) representation: _____ Likely _____ Possible _____ Unlikely

Electrotechnology Conference

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TO: UFTO Members..
FROM: Ed Beardsworth
SUBJECT: ELECTROTECHNOLOGY CONFERENCE -APRIL 96 – FL
I’ll be out of town Dec 2-8, visiting Brookhaven, Savannah River, and several utilities. Meanwhile, the conference organizers need our input by Dec 8. I won’t be available to pass your ideas along, so go directly to them by fax or phone (and please send me a cc).
The conference that UFTO is cosponsoring is called:
BREAKTHROUGH TECHNOLOGIES CONFERENCE
April 24-26, 1996
TECO’s Elec Technology Resource Center TAMPA FL
and the Holiday Inn Tampa Busch Gardens
Utility Sponsors (to date)
Basin Electric, FP&L, KCP&L, SCE, TECO, Utilicorp, and Virginia Power
Federal Lab Sponsors:
Oak Ridge, Pacific Northwest, Sandia and Savannah River
Other Sponsors:
Elec. Council for the Economy, Electrotechnology Report,
Cambridge Reports, CHI Research, McGraw Hill Electrical World,
NTH Power, S East Resources Alliance, NIST-MEP, and UFTO (!!)
***IF YOU WANT TO RECONSIDER BECOMING A SPONSOR, CALL
MARK MILLS 301-718-9600
***
Ads will appear in Electrical World in January, highlighting
sponsors.
******************************************
WANTED: Session moderators. Must be generally knowledgeable about
****** the technology and able to summarize technologies covered and
coordinate discussion….
Topic areas (not session titles) include:
– Air Emission Technologies
– Entrepreneur’s Perspective -case studies and lessons learned
– Environmental Remediation Technologies
– Food Processing Technol
– Residential Technol
– Manufacturing Technol
– Medical Sector Technol
– Non-Road Transportation Technol.
– Process Industry Technol
– Water Related Technol
*********
WANTED #2 Ideas and leads for products, technologies or companies that
********* should be invited to to participate. Display space will be
available.
******
ACTION: Fax suggestions to Byrne Burns, 301-718-7806 or call him at 718-9600.
**************************

Bulletin #16

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UFTO Bulletin #16

December 18, 1995
To: UFTO Members:

. . in this issue: . . . . . . . . .

Happy Holidays

Just a few items for now, with much more to come early in the New Year:

1. I made visits to Brookhaven and Savannah River Site in early December. SRS was a surprise. Most people don’t know anything about the place (I sure didn’t). They’ve got some tremendous capabilities and facilities, and they’re motivated. They emphasize that they solve problems, and they’re “not a national lab” and they don’t do R&D. As a no longer secret (tritium production facility), they’ve come late to the tech transfer industrial/partnering game, and are making up for lost time.

2. We’re very close to announcing a new member utility in UFTO, and one or two others are strong possibilities. I’ll let you know as soon as it’s official.

3. Plans are proceeding nicely for the “Breakthrough Technologies Conference”, April 24-6, Tampa. Did you make any suggestions for moderators or technologies? We’ll plan for an UFTO group meeting, so please be sure it’s on your calender, and line up someone from your industrial marketing group to attend (and to be a moderator?).

4. Tech Nuggets — one update and one new item:

• Turbogenerator — I mentioned finding this at the NASA Tech 2005 conference, and have learned more about it (24 kw; 165 lb; $2000; natural gas, gasoline or diesel fuel). It appears to be as good as it sounds. — rugged and reliable, low emissions, excellent part load performance, and cogen ready. Well funded company poised for takeoff and looking for distributors. A number of utilities are already lining up. Southern Calif Edison has ordered a number of units for test. This may turn out to be the distributed generator of choice. I have a flyer I can send you, or call:

Capstone Turbine Corp., Tarzana CA, tel 818-774-9600, Mike Irvine, VP of marketing.

• Nickel Hydrogen Batteries have been used in space for decades ,and are known for extreme reliability. Ergenics Inc. has basic patents for a “segmented Ni H battery” concept that should make it practical for terrestial uses. They’re building a prototype for ARPA for a military hybrid vehicle, and can make them as small as a laptop computer battery.

– It uses metal hydride to store the hydrogen outside the battery cell, thus eliminating self-discharge, most if not all safety concerns, and heat transfer issues. Most important, it’s low pressure, unlike usual Ni H batteries, which require a high pressure tank. A key advantage over Ni metal-hydride batteries is long life because the hydride is isolated from corrosion producing chemicals of the battery cell. Also, the hydrides materials are cheaper. Overall, costs should be competitive, especially on a life-cycle basis.

– The company is also developing hydride-based heat pumps, auto air conditioners, and an instant heater for auto emissions catalyst. They need capital, and haven’t yet focused on applications in UPS and utility storage systems. This may turn out to be quite competitive with the other forms of storage that everyone is working so hard on, and it could be an opportunity for a strategic technology edge. Call me for more info.

Have a wonderful Holiday. See you next year, all fired up with New Year’s resolve to bridge the Action Gap and make great things happen at your company.

EdB

INEL NDE Method

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SUBJECT: INEL NDE method applies to Fossil too!
A quick note to emphasize that the method described in the note I just sent you ALSO APPLIES TO NON-IRRADIATED COMPONENTS and therefore is a candidate for evaluating anything on a fossil plant. Many of you identified a major concern with high-energy steam piping….maybe we really have something here if it checks out.
SUBJECT: Possible breakthru — In-situ NDE of Nuclear components
(INEL HAS JUST PROVIDED THIS TO UFTO–LOOKS LIKE IT COULD BE VERY SIGNIFICANT. PLEASE REVIEW AND PASS ALONG TO APPROPRIATE PEOPLE IN YOUR COMPANY. FEEL FREE TO MAKE DIRECT CONTACT WITH THE INEL PEOPLE NAMED BELOW…LET ME KNOW IF ANYTHING COMES OF IT. THANKS, EDB)
“In Situ Nondestructive Examination Method for Characterization of Material Damage in Nuclear Power Plant Components”
Idaho National Engineering Laboratory November 1995
Capability and Relevance
The Idaho National Engineering Laboratory (INEL) is developing a unique application of a nondestructive examination method for aging assessment and life extension of nuclear power plant primary pressure boundary components.
A specific application is being developed for direct in situ measurements of fatigue damage in the components without knowing the prior operational history. The initial laboratory results show that this method can estimate fatigue damage ranging from a few percent to about 60 to 80 per cent of the fatigue life. We are now expanding the scope of this application to in situ estimate of radiation embrittlement damage in the pressure vessel steel materials (base metal, weld, heat affected zone) and of radiation damage in the stainless steel and Alloy 600 vessel internals.
What do we need from utilities?
We are seeking cooperative research and development agreements with nuclear power plant utilities for performing measurements to validate the capabilities and limitations of this application. The measurements would
also help to establish the correlations between the measurements and the mechanical properties of the irradiated pressure vessel materials.
Specific measurements to be performed include the following:
1. In situ measurements of fatigue damage in the light water reactor primary pressure boundary components, including primary coolant piping,
surge and spray line, other branch lines in PWR plants, and feedwater piping and nozzles in BWR plants.
2. In situ measurements of radiation embrittlement damage at the outside surface of reactor pressure vessel.
3. Measurements of radiation embrittlement damage in the surveillance capsules. These measurements will be correlated with the available measured data from the utility for reference nil-ductility transition temperature, Charpy upper shelf energy, and fracture toughness.
Contact Persons – Dr. V. N. Shah (Aging and Life Extension,
Lockheed Martin Idaho Technol Materials Characterization)
Idaho Falls, ID 83415-3870
Tel. No. (208)526-8639
Mr. D. W. Akers (NDE Method)
Lockheed Martin Idaho Technologies
Idaho Falls, ID 83415-2114
Tel. No. (208)526-6118

Bulletin #15

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UFTO Bulletin #15

October 31, 1995
To: UFTO Members:

. . in this issue: . . . . . . . . .

Many many things – please review carefully

1. “Fossil 1.0” — This is a first very rough start at the “sort-by-topic” objective of Year 2 of UFTO. I’m calling it a “Topic Resource File”. It’s a simple cut & paste from all previously released UFTO reports, showing any material that might be interesting to somebody in the fossil generation business. Try it out on your fossil people.
– Is this helpful?
– What more/different should we try next (in terms of format, editting and content)?
– What other “Topics” would you like to see?

We’re also considering various electronic schemes. Please think about how you want to use/file/store/distribute UFTO information, and let me know what you think might work for you, and any suggestions or ideas you have on the subject. (What do your information specialists suggest? Are there any new tools and techniques?)

2. Speaking of Topics — UFTO is co-sponsoring an”Electrotechnologies Conference”, March 27-29, 1996 in Tampa FL, with Electrical World and the ElectroTechnology Marketing Group. I sent you an email about this on October 30, to see if any of you want to be a utility sponsor. The deadline for first ad to appear in the December issue of Electrical World is Nov. 1. If you want more details now, let me know.

This is a great opportunity to learn about electrotechnologies that are out there, and to promote your own. It’s also a great way for us to do one of our UFTO “topical conferences”. We can have our own session the day before or the day after…. thoughts? reactions?

3. “Technology Strategy Benchmarking” — A couple of our member utilities have asked me to do a study of how various utilities are handling new technology, and where it fits in their business strategies. (Note that we did not say “R&D Benchmarking”!) They wondered if any of their fellow UFTO members would like to cofund it.

This would be along similar lines to the project I did for PG&E two years ago (now out-of-date, with so many changes since then) that you’ve all seen. How are efforts funded, organized and measured, and what is their business purpose? The survey will draw from a variety of primary and secondary sources, and will not rely primarily on interviews. Results to be delivered by early December.

This project is separate from UFTO* . If you are interested in cofunding it and sharing in the results, the cost will be $2000, which can be offset by designating some of your utility’s individual UFTO consulting time and/or by contributing “in-kind” information. Please let me know by 11/6 if you want to participate.

*(Unless there’s a unanimous vote to include it in place of other UFTO activities)

4. Technology 2005 — I attended the big NASA sponsored tech transfer conference in Chicago last week, and used the opportunity to begin to figure out how to tackle the Dept of Defense, NASA and the Dept. of Agriculture, and to determine key contacts and information resources for each of them. Manyinteresting technologies were there to be discovered. See the attached sampler.

Other highlights of the show–numerous innovative transportation technologies, such as new engines, injectors and turbine designs from Australia. DOE Ames Lab may turn out to have some things we’ll want, like a way to reduce transformer core losses that’s much easier than amorphous metal, and practical magnetic refrigeration. The Nevada Test Site wants your business with its unique remote indoor and outdoor test facilities and sensor and detector systems. The Kansas City Plant excels at manufacturing, and is starting a new initiative called Factory America–they’re sending more information.

5. Sandia’s Russian-U.S. Fuel cell conference in September was a huge success. The Russians have an operating 100kW PEM powered vehicle. Gazprom is funding development of a small PEM unit to be placed along its gas pipelines for cathodic protection. A U.S. company is quietly negotiating for rights to the PEM technology (and it’s not Ballard or GRI!). Another company is going after some of the Russian Solid Oxide work. Proceedings from the conference should be available in a few weeks.

6. INEL Fuel Cell — INEL has a unique approach to Solid Oxide Fuel Cells…They weren’t quite ready to talk about this item when we released the INEL report…..

INEL Solid Oxide Fuel Cells

Several novel innovations have been demonstrated with the goal of making a 20-100 kW solid oxide fuel cell for disbursed power applications such as remote ranches, factories and homes. The innovations are a cell interconnect layer and fuel manifold that is also a catalyst for internal reforming of hydrocarbon fuels, furnace brazing between cells, and layered thin film fabrication via liquid injected plasma. Several patents have been filed, but a fairly low profile has been maintained vis a vis the fuel cell community.

INEL is looking for cooperative research partners who will assist in funding research. INEL has not licensed any intellectual property or distribution rights. These would go to CRADA partners.

Contact Paul Lessing, Principal Investigator 208-526-8776 or Dennis Cheney 208-526-9557.

7. I’ll be going to Brookhaven and Savannah River in the next 4-6 weeks.

Administrative Stuff

a. Lab Contacts: Both of our original contacts at Argonne have left, and our man at Livermore changed jobs. An updated list will go out in the next mailing. Stand by for more changes in the days ahead.
b. Contacts at PNL — Please check your copy of the PNL report to see if there’s a Page 14 “Contacts”. I’ll send you one if it’s missing.

 

UFTO TECHNOLOGY SAMPLER 11/1/95

• AMTEC (alkali metal thermal to electric conversion) has been under development by NASA Lewis for a long time. With a sealed unit as small as a D-cell, or much larger, a startup company says it’s ready for bonafide commercial applications, starting with remote power generation (replacing less efficient thermoelectric units). Put them in a gas furnace, and homes could stay warm in spite of blizzard-caused power outages.

• CO to CO2 catalyst operates at room temperature. NASA needed to save the power used to heat catalysts on satellites. It also forms the basis of a very cheap CO sensor. A startup seeking funds has exclusive rights for sensors, firefighter masks and other key applications, and a possible shot at automotive exhaust. Rochester Gas & Electric has the rights for air treatment. (Think about smart buildings applications.)

• Bolt Analyzer — Patented PC notebook based system using commercially available load sensor and torque wrench attachments. . NASA Goddard is looking for a commercializer. Analyzes bolted joint coeff. of friction and stress, does non-destructive testing of threaded fasteners, and can verify lubricants, etc, reducing preload error in bolt tightening.

• Ultrasonic Leak Detector — handheld unit used by NASA during pre launch, distinguishes high frequency acoustic signature of jet-type leaks (non-laminar flow) from noisy background. NASA looking for a commercializer.

• Fiber-Optic radiation dosimeter — Naval Research Lab developed this for naval reactors, and wants to it to the commercial world. Excellent for hot cells, confinement, and storage monitoring.

• Oil Dialysis — electrostatic oil cleaning has applications in lubricating, hydraulic, insulating, and fuel oil. Units are on the market. It gets oil cleaner than new, removing submicron particles. Oil lasts longer, reducing disposal volume. Already tested in tap changers by two utilities. Can decontaminate radioactive oil. Business plan/offer memo available.

• Turbogenerator — a 24 kW unit weighs only 165 lbs. and could be mass produced for $2000. The turbine and the generator are on the same rotor shaft (the only moving part), and it burns diesel, natural gas or gasoline. Low emissions. Orginally designed for a hybrid vehicle application, it may represent a breakthrough for distributed generation. A number of units are in operation. There are a few unanswered questions, e.g. longevity, reliability, and variable duty performance.

(Disclosure: I have or may seek a finders agreement with some of these companies. EB)

Technology Transfer Opportunities – Idaho National Engineering Laboratory

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UFTO

PROPRIETARY

Final Report

Technology Transfer Opportunities in the National Laboratories

Idaho National Engineering Laboratory

Idaho Falls, ID

October 1995

Prepared for:

Utility Federal Technology Opportunities (UFTO)

By:

Edward Beardsworth

Consultant

 

This report is part of a series examining technology opportunities at National Laboratories of possible interest to electric utilities

 

Contents:
1. Summary
1 INEL Overview & Organization
3. INEL Technologies & Programs
17. INEL Contacts

Summary

This report details findings about technology and technology transfer opportunities at the Idaho National Engineering Laboratory (INEL) that might be of strategic interest to electric utilities. It is based on a visit to INEL in August 1995, as part of the UFTO multiclient project.

Background

Noting the tremendous scope of research underway in the research facilities of the U.S. government, and a very strong impetus on the government’s part to foster commercial partnering with industry and applications of the technology it has developed, the UFTO program has been established as a multi-client study of the opportunities thus afforded electric utilities.

INEL Overview

INEL began as the National Reactor Testing Station in 1949, to provide an isolated location where various kinds of nuclear reactors and support facilities could be built and tested. By the early 50’s, they could build a reactor and have it operating in 1 – 2 years. A total of 52 reactors have been built, 3 of which are still in operation. It was renamed as a national laboratory in 1974, to reflect its expanding application of applied science and engineering to non nuclear research. The corporate culture emphasizes practical applied engineering approached with a strong “can-do” attitude.

INEL occupies nearly 900 sq. miles of eastern Idaho. The INEL Research Center is close to downtown Idaho Falls, and the main “Site” some 47 miles to the west. Total staffing is 7,500 people, nearly 3000 of which have engineering or science degrees. INEL has evolved into a multi-purpose laboratory, and no longer is focused exclusively on reactors, spent fuel and waste processing, though these continue to major driving forces.

Until October 1994, INEL was managed under parallel contracts with Westinghouse, EG&G and Babcock & Wilcox. When the contracts came up for renewal, INEL was part of the growing trend to put these contracts out for bid (most notably Sandia, which went from 25 years under AT&T to Martin Marietta the previous year).

Lockheed assembled a team called LITCO (Lockheed Idaho Technology Co.) that included Lockheed, Duke Engineering & Services, Rust International, Parsons Environmental Services, Thermo Electron Corp., Babcock and Wilcox, and Coleman Energy and Environmental Services, each bringing specialized experience to the table. Their winning proposal offered a dramatic shift from the traditional cost+fee structure to an incentive fee based on performance measures. One of these measures creates the strongest financial incentive yet seen in a federal lab for the commercialization and spin-off of technology. A lot of money is at stake — Lockheed will have a profit or loss depending on how well they perform.

In January of 1995, Lockheed’s merger with Martin Marietta created Lockheed Martin, putting the management of Oak Ridge, Sandia, and INEL all in one firm. LITCo became Lockheed Martin Idaho Technologies (LMIT — which they do not want pronounced “limit” — I suggested “ell-mitt”).

In mid July, Lockheed Marietta announced the formation of a new “Energy and Environment Sector”, bringing into one group all of its DOE lab and facility management activities. This move is expected to have the three labs working much more closely together.

Technology Transfer at INEL

INEL/LMIT is pioneering some dramatically more aggressive approaches to technology transfer. Thermo Technology Ventures (TTV) is a new independent corporation, formed as part of the Lockheed proposal, by LMIT and Thermo Electron Corp, which is well known for its success in spinning off technology startup companies. (See October 9th issue of Forbes for story on Thermo Electron.)

TTV has two distinct roles: one is as a subcontractor to LMIT to do market assessments, entrepreneurial training, and initial business plans. In their second role, they will invest their own money, licensing INEL technologies, obtaining rights, and causing startups and ventures to happen. In a new twist, DOE has an opportunity for an equity interest in TTV. Also, LMIT can take an equity stake in a spinoff, along with license fees or royalties, some of which go to individual inventors.

Perhaps even more dramatic, INEL now has the Technology Exploitation Pilot Project (TEPP), designed to speed the flow of technology into the marketplace. Lockheed Martin was granted flexibility to operate beyond the constraints of current DOE policy and will seek flexibility to operate beyond the constraints of Federal policy and statutes to address contractor requirements for such things as speed, independence and continuity in partnering with American industry. INEL is the onle DOE laboratory implementing TEPP.

INEL Organization

LMIT/INEL’s organizational units include Environmental Operations, Nuclear Operations, Site Services, Business Administration, Human Resources, the President’s Office, and the Applied Engineering Development Laboratory. AEDL, the main focus of this report, has approximately 1400 people most of whom report administratively to the “Chief Engineer”, and are matrixed into “directorates”:

Systems Engineering Alternative Energy & Natural Resource Products

System Analysis & Simulation Products Research Products

End-Use Energy Efficiency Products Sensor Products

Environmental & Life Sciences Products Data Access Products

Advanced Nuclear Energy Products

AEDL also has a chief engineer and a chief scientist. Note the heavy use of the term “Products”. There is a strong emphasis at INEL on knowing who the “customer” is and defining the “product”.

• Alternative Energy & Natural Resource Products
Shirley Sandoz, Director, 208-526-4589

This group’s mission is to initiate and execute product programs in energy generation and distribution and natural resource management. It encompasses many of the items discussed in this report, and covers Sustainable Resources, Renewable Energy, Advanced Fossil Fuel, Power Systems, Agriculture and Food Products, and Mining and Mineral Products.
• Technology Transfer Office
This expanded group is headed by soon-to-be-announced vice president who comes from GM, and has three subunits: Technology Administration (TTV, patents, market research, technology evaluation, etc.); Partnerships (client development, licensing, CRADA negotiations, etc.); and the ORTA ( outreach). Contact: Steven Borror, Account Executive, 208-526-3883


INEL Technologies & Programs

Covered in this report:

Page

• Power System Engineering — Reliable Power Systems, Optical PT 4
• Intelligent Distribution Management System 5
• Advanced Fossil Fuel Products 6
• Industrial Biotechnology 7
• Environmental Assessment Technologies 8

Environmental Remediation

Characterization: Vegetation Mapping (GIS), Assessment Guide

• End-Use Energy Efficiency Products 9

Demand Control Ventilation System — “smart” ventilation

Software Tools for Flywheel Design

• Energy and Resource Recovery 9

Fluidized Bed User Test Facility

Re use of radioactive scrap metal

Supercritical Water Oxidation

CerMet filter catalytic destruction of NOx
• Risk Analysis and Management 10
• Human Factors 11
• Visualization 11
• Systems Engineering 12
• Applied Mechanics: Seismic and Structural Analysis Technology 13
• Materials/NDE 14
• Sensors 15
• Systems Dynamic Modeling 16

General Telephone # is (208) 526-0111

• Power System Engineering
Todd Renak, 208-526-8706

Develop, plan, design, test, etc. of electric power systems and associated control and data acquisition systems, supporting the INEL’s own power needs and those of military installations, together with work for DOE, NRC and private utilities.

Operation of the INEL’s power T&D system involves preventive and predictive maintenance, troubleshooting and repair, and design and implementation of major upgrades.

Reliable Power & Alternate Energy Systems Principally for DOD installations, provide technical support for safety and reliability of critical power supply systems, often in extreme remote locations. Design and specify UPS, control systems, integrated/renewable systems. One-of-a-kind engineering analysis and design. Most notable- for the USAF Space Command’s 50 early warning radar stations, which are responsible for first alert and can’t tolerate even the shortest outage, INEL does infrastructure planning and reliability assessments. Designed standby power system at Cape Canaveral. Did turn-key wind farm upgrade for Ascension Island. Gary Seifert, 208-526-9522

Optical PT — High Voltage meter is past proof of concept, and patent application is being prepared, so details are not available just yet. Works by measuring the electric field. Laser light passes through a length of optical fiber located adjacent to the conductor. The sensor package can be quite distant from the associated electronics, connected only by fiber optic cable. The basic idea is well known, but they’ve overcome major practical obstacles by finding a way to cancel out errors. They are also working on a DC version for use in electric vehicles. Contact Todd Renak, 208-526-8706, or Tom Sauerbrun, 208-526-8151.

Transformer Acoustic Emissions — INEL did experimental research on this for the US Naval Civilian Engineering Lab several years ago, and was able to detect acoustic emission correlated with partial discharge in a cast coil transformer. They are seeking funding internally to continue with this work.

While the original work was done on cast coil units, the sensors that were developed could be used just as well to monitor other systems. They would be cheap to make and could be made part of an integrated comprehensive substation monitoring system (i.e. IDMS).

Contact: Doug Freund, Principal Engineer 208-526-8062

• Intelligent Distribution Management System

The Intelligent Distribution Management System (IDMS) is a graphical control and management system used to automate power delivery at electrical substations, distribution equipment, and distributed generation sources from one or more centralized locations. This is a major advancement in supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA), offering many more capabilities and functions than existing systems. The IDMS is designed specifically to provide useful and real time information to dispatch operators, managers, billing department, and any operational support personnel who are responsible for operational improvements.

The IDMS combines essential SCADA features, new information technologies, and intelligent controls and diagnostics to provide these functions:

• Cheap reliable integrated system upgrade for substation monitoring and control, capable of unmanned remote operation, and able to use equipment currently in place,
• Supervisory control of remote distribution and generation equipment,
• Rapid detection, location, and isolation of faulted equipment without field personnel,
• Simplification and prioritization of system alarm data during upset conditions,
• Automated set point change control of protective relays and tap changer where required for diverse load and stability profiles,
• Establish distribution equipment performance signatures and anticipated failure trending,
• Schedule preventative maintenance based upon degraded performance signatures,
• Load trending and forecasting,
• Automated metering and billing,
• Transparent interfaces with existing corporate information systems,
• PC-based system suitable for long term (>10 year) manufacturer/maintenance support,
• Easy interfaces with a wide variety of equipment from different manufacturers .

 

The IDMS provides all of the functionality associated with conventional SCADA systems plus real time access to maintenance management information. The base IDMS is comprised of:
• Graphical user interface software,
• A suite of embedded control software applications,
• A suite of expert system and neural network diagnostic applications integrated to operate on PC-based operator interface stations, and with commercially available field control equipment (i.e., programmable logic controllers, remote terminal units, or imbedded controllers with attached field equipment).

The Idaho National Engineering Laboratory (INEL), with its own distribution system and SCADA , is very knowledgeable about power control technologies, and has developed new technology for DOE and US Air Force to overcome existing product deficiencies. Hence, the INEL developed the IDMS to replace its own aging SCADA system. The system controls and monitors the 138kV (60 MVA total, 40 MVA peak) transmission and distribution system at the INEL via seven substations, spread over 895 square miles of high desert (4900 ft) and severe and variable weather conditions.

The INEL has targeted the Intelligent Distribution Management System as a candidate for commercialization by industry. The INEL development team is also interested in forming a private spin-off company to provide computer system integration services in support of the IDMS. Discussions are under way with several major electrical equipment suppliers who are interested in this technology as a new product offering for the electrical utility industry.

Doug Freund, Principal Engineer 208-526-8062 fax 208-526-2818 FCD@inel.gov
Todd Renak, Product Manager 208-526-8706 fax 208-526-2818 TWR@inel.gov
Tom Sauerbrun, Program Manager 208-526-8151 fax 208-526-4313 TS6@inel.gov

 

• Advanced Fossil Fuel Products

Richard Rice, Manager, 208-526-1992 David Weinberg, 208-526-4274

This is a relatively new program at INEL, formed in recent years to pull together a number of related activities across the lab, with increasing connections in the oil & gas industries. Principal areas are:

Oil & Gas Exploration and Production — downhole tools, sensor and measurement systems, strategic studies and enhanced recovery — cross well seismic tomography (increasing the number of receivers to 100 from the currently typical three to five); gas-to-liquids conversion of North Slope production (to dilute heavy crude and keep the pipeline full); microbially enhanced oil recovery.

Refineries — LIFE EXTENSION and operating cost reduction, based on INEL’s long experience in doing this for their own reactors. NOTE: refineries have very similar problems and goals as power plants — extend life, improve efficiency, minimize wastes, increase reliability and reduce operating costs. Oil companies are beginning to embrace these goals more actively. See discussion below on applicability of INEL capabilities to power plants and other complex systems.

Other refinery related work deals with processing, e.g. handling heavier higher sulfur fuels, separations, improved catalysts, process modeling. Also measurements and control, e.g. measurement of feedstock chemical composition in real time (directly relevant to power plants, especially coal), leak detection, multi phase metering, and in-service inspection techniques.

Natural Gas Conversion to liquid — to make gas reserves in remote areas economically transportable. Lab results of unique thermal plasma/rapid quench process demonstrate 90% single-pass conversion of methane to acetylene (2x the next-best technology), which can then be catalytically upgraded to higher fuels. Contact: Dick Rice 208-526-1992

Upgrade Process for Heavy Oil and Residuum — uses novel submerged arc. Lab demo of cracking with H2 and CH4. CRADA with Philips. Studying energy balance and economics.

Natural Gas Vehicles — technology to accelerate deployment of NGVs. Evaluating LNG hardware reliability and utility, developing fleet performance data, identifying R&D needs. Demo fleet of converted INEL vehicles & LNG buses. Testbed for compressors and liquifiers. Starting with CNG portable fleet scale fueling system. Contact: Dick Rice 208-526-1992

Inorganic Membranes — INEL has developed a line of inorganic polymer membranes called polyphosphazenes, based on nitrogen and phosphorus rather than carbon, which have better chemical resistance and can operate at higher temperature than organic polymer membranes. These materials have a very versatile chemistry and can be customized for a wide range of applications, such as dehydrating organic liquids, recovering textile dyes from alcohol solutions, and possibly separating SO2 from N2, CO2 from methane, or H2S from methane.

Contact Mark Stone, 208-526-8664

• Industrial Biotechnology

LaMar Johnson, Manager, Biotechnologies Dept., 208-526-1157

Over 60 scientists and engineers, and extensive laboratory and engineering test facilities. Active with agriculture, chemical manufacture, energy, food processing, forest products, mineral processing, mining and transportation industries.

Bioprocessing of Coal — direct attack on the inorganic pyrite sulfur, applying a commercialized “bug” used for desulfurizing oil and coal. Italy has a pilot scale plant, but US coal companies not interested in doing test scale project. INEL has 100 lb./day test facility, but it’s difficult and expensive to do a bioreactor cheaply enough to be practical ($2-10 per ton). Utility interest might get it going again.

Solubility and Depolymerization of Coal — with biocatalysts to convert it to a more valuable fuel and feedstock. Microbial alkali-mediated solubilization would be particularly applicable to lignites. Microorganisms also can remove metal ions and make the coal more soluble in water. Depolymerization could conceivably turn coal into a feedstock for ethanol production, analogous to the bioprocessing of cellulosic biomass.

Biofiltration of NOx and SOx from combustion gases, passing vapors thru a glorified compost. Temperature is critical. Experimental benchtop stage. NOx effort already in a CRADA with a vendor and a utility. Biocube (tm) is an “R&D 100” winner, commercialized by EG&G ROTRON gas phase bioprocessor converts organic (e.g. gasoline) vapors with microbes to CO2 and H2 up to 50 m3/minute. Contact: Bill Apel, 208-526-1783

Biofuel Feedstocks — INEL is part of a 4 lab consortium with ORNL, NREL and ANL. INEL’s role emphasizes economic projections and genetic engineering of microbes, with emphasis on feedstocks for producing higher value products (i.e. not just ethanol!).

Contact: Bill Apel, 208-526-1783

• Environmental Assessment Technologies

INEL espouses a systems approach to natural resource management, and has developed a concept for partnerships with federal and state agencies to bring consistency and integration to data gathering and analysis that feed into policy development and management programs.

Environmental Remediation — The goal is to develop technology to reduce costs by resolving environmental issues, in bioremediation, biofiltration, water treatment, sensor systems and modeling. Some highlights:

Restore Soils/solids contaminated w/ organic compounds using benign solvents. Separate organics from soils, gravel, sludges. Best for heavy oils and MFG sites. Low cost, efficient, modular, on-site. Commercialization is in process for a truck mounted system.

Contact: Greg Bala 208-526-8178

Passive Soil Vapor Extraction uses a check valve on a well head, and makes use of changes in atmospheric pressure to speed removal. For use at a site after vacuum extraction. Cheap and easy. In one current test, 2,300 cu. ft/day of soil gas containing 300 grams/day of solvent are being vented. The full scale demonstration started in FY96. Currently looking for additional sites. Contact: Wayne Downs 208-526-0754

Phytoremediation uses plants to absorb contaminants (e.g. salts) from the soil.
Contact: Melanda Hamilton, 208-526-0948

Characterization: (Center for Integrated Environmental Technologies)
Contact Bob Breckenridge 208-526-0757

Vegetation Mapping (GIS) — includes principal component analysis of Landsat data and integration with USGS maps, with field verification to do some reclassifications. Useful for long term monitoring and assessment of habitat diversity, extent and condition, and for planning management strategies.

Site Assessment and Restoration — a practical approach has been developed to identify important environmental concerns that need to be addressed during exploration, development and restoration of a site. It also can be applied to previously developed sites, and should improve the relationship between developers and regulators. It incorporates understanding of important ecological and environmental concepts, working to maximize the ecological potential rather than attempt to restore a site that has been denuded of native ecological resources.

In one major application on Air Quality in Class 1 Wilderness Areas in the Northwest (for the “Western Energy Storage and Transmission Consortium” involving which includes several utilities), a Kepner-Tregoe decision technique was used to develop criteria and evaluate indicators to assess potential associations between utility emissions and the air quality and condition of ecological resources in Class I wilderness areas. The significance of this is that by-the-book compliance with all monitoring requirements would be both absurdly expensive and unproductive, and a more pragmatic and scientifically credible program would be far preferable for all concerned.

• End-Use Energy Efficiency Products

Demand Control Ventilation System (DCVS) — “smart” ventilation

Indoor Air Quality is a growing concern to commercial/industrial customers and building owners, and the current ASHRAE standard 62-89 is energy intensive and has high first and operational costs, as the only way currently to meet standards is with high air-change rates.

Using internal R&D funds, INEL has begun an initiative to develop systems of hardware, software, sensors and controls that would monitor actual levels of CO2, NO2, SO2, VOCs, humidity, etc., and thereby set ventilation rates to control actual air quality rather than at arbitrary high rates. Also, other specific countermeasures can be undertaken.

INEL is looking for HVAC and other industrial partners and utility collaborators, to help advance this concept as a new aspect of “smart buildings”.

Contact is: Jane Clemmensen, 208-526-2915

Software Tools for Flywheel Design — INEL is proposing to develop special application of finite element analysis and flywheel design optimization software, to reduce design and prototyping costs. INEL would license the software to flywheel developers and use it in-house, as part of a positioning strategy to become an independent test lab. Jane Clemmensen, 208-526-2915

• Energy and Resource Recovery, John Collins, Manager, 208-526-3372

Fluidized Bed User Test Facility — INEL’s process steam plant (135,000 lb/hr) is the only test facility of its size and type in the DOE system. In partnership with NREL, RW Beck and Solid Waste Integrated Systems, they’ve done test cofiring of pelletized waste paper with coal. Extensive capabilities exist to perform test burns for other alternative fuels. Private users can contract to do burn characterization and emission studies.

Re use of radioactive scrap metal — DOE has over 200,000 tons, and utilities could generate as much as 200,000 tons over the next 20 years. In 8/94, INEL formed the Northwest Consortium with PGE (Trojan) and SMUD (Rancho Seco) to reduce the cost of decommissioning. They have developed a process of melting the material, with most radiative components going into slag. The recovered metal is fabricated into low level waste containers, multi-purpose canisters and other applications where residual radioactivity is not an issue. Overall costs for disposal of irradiated metal should be dramatically lower than other disposal options. In fact, utilities could form a consortium to use INEL’s own scrap metal!

Supercritical Water Oxidation — Water at 3200 psi and 700 F is used to destroy organic materials. INEL has a benchscale unit, and several commercial companies have pilot plants. Some practical problems remain to be solved. INEL has led the DOE effort to develop this technique to treat hazardous mixed waste. With INEL’s unique off gas treatment, the processes boasts near zero discharge (“closed cycle”), and is being actively pursued for application for pulp and paper sludge, halogenated hydrocarbons, and radioactive organic resins. An international symposium sponsored by DOE/EM and organized by INEL was held in Florida in February, and proceedings are available.

CerMet filter catalytic destruction of NOx — at bench-scale research stage, in collaboration with a paper company, to remove corrosive fly ash which fouls black liquor recovery boilers. Being tested to catalytically destroy NOx and SOx generated by these boilers. The filters, made of intermetallics and ceramic oxides, will be cheap to make and have high thermal shock and oxidation resistance.
• Risk Analysis and Management

Tim Leahy, Manager, Nuclear Risk Management Technologies, 208-526-4944

Probabilistic Risk Assessment (PRA) — INEL is internationally known and respected for its work in risk assessment, which applies equally well to non-nuclear facilities as to nuclear ones. INEL does all PRA training for the NRC and DOE. PRA involves the identification of plant vulnerabilities and potential safety enhancements, distinguishing what is important. This helps build risk-basedarguments to work with regulators to, for example, avoid a shutdown on a technicality, and to develop less costly ways to reach a given level of safety.

Reliability, Availability, Maintainability (RAM) Analysis — Reduces the time that critical systems are non-operable. INEL has a package of methods and software tools for RAM Engineering, most of which are not licensed to nuclear utilities (Yet! — ways will be found to handle the potential conflict of interest, as this work is chiefly done for the NRC.) In the meantime, there’s nothing to stop application by utilities to non-nuclear facilities.

RELAP5 is an exception, in that there is widespread use by utilities (the utility user’s group costs $5K/year) as well as by the NRC and groups around the world. Developed at INEL, it predicts thermal hydraulic behavior in power plants (transient multiphase, multi-component flow and energy transfer in complex piping and vessel systems, with additional modules for pumps, turbines, valves, etc.). It has even been used to model blood flow, and is a later version of EPRI’s RETRAN code.

Safety and Hazards Assessment — chemical, physical, machinery — identify accident sequence precursors.

Increased Capacity Factors — is the goal of several ongoing programs. INEL is collaborating with MIT in a Chemistry Consortium, doing research on increasing the time between refueling outages of nuclear plants. There is also work in reactor physics to find ways to modify surveillance intervals and technical specifications, and then to work with regulators to change regulations.

Plant Life Extension — INEL has extensive experience, especially having dealt with its own special purpose reactors. PRAISE is probabilistic fracture mechanics software. LWR aging studies. (see below)

Operator licensing exams – In the past, INEL has always done this for NRC, however the responsibility is now being turned over to licensees. INEL maintains a question bank, specific to each reactor type in the country, and could continue to support this activity directly

RELAP5 Simulator — In current training simulators, the modeling of extreme accidents is not as detailed as it might be, and can lead to unrealistic situations. INEL is forming a CRADA with a vendor to develop a simulator that would use RELAP5, with SCDAP severe accident code taking over the simulation of the plant behavior after a fuel melt. Utilities could get involves early in this program. Contact Jim Bryce, 208-526-8231.

There is a significant trend towards risk-based regulation, and towards a more collaborative and less confrontational relationship between plant operators and regulators. Licensees/ operators who understand this and learn how to make it work for them will save money. INEL is a technical advisor to the NRC, which has done two policy papers outlining this concept. Licensees have an opportunity to maximize the value of this to themselves, and to propose new maintenance plans based on their recent IPEs (individual plan examination)

• Human Factors Contact: Harold Blackman, 208-526-0245

INEL has 15 human factors professionals on staff, who do programs for the NRC, DOE, DOD, Coast Guard, NASA and increasingly for industry, especially oil & gas. The key is to define the human’s role and optimize his performance in “Human-Centered Systems Analysis.” Other tasks include design and evaluation of the human-machine interface, and the development of selection and training criteria for specific jobs. It is very much multi-disciplinary, involving psychology, industrial engineering (ergonomics), organizational development, life sciences, criminology, and nuclear and systems engineering.

Principal research topics at INEL include interface (GUI) design, human reliability/error analysis, incident investigations, and study of the effects of advanced technology on human performance.

NUCLARR (Nuclear Computerized Library for Assessing Reactor Reliability), is a database for probabilistic risk assessment that includes human error probabilities as well as hardware failure data, and allows full treatment of human performance along with hardware performance in PRAs. Originally funded by the NRC, it is now owned by INEL, which maintains it on behalf of a paying user’s group of utilities and engineering firms. Contact is Wendy Reece, 208-526-9933

Also for the NRC, programs include risk impact of new technologies (e.g. are new technologies necessarily better?), modeling and evaluation of human performance in medical applications, and detailed human factors events investigations at commercial nuclear power plants.

For DOE there is work in safety analysis at DOE facilities, display design and development, and human reliability analysis. For the US Coast Guard, INEL developed taxonomies and methods for event investigations, and for the Air Force, they applied verbal protocol analysis in the development of cognitive models for pilot situation awareness.

Human-computer interface design, there is experience and knowledge that can make an important difference towards optimizing performance. For example, dark lettering on a light background is far preferable to the reverse, which nevertheless is too often used. INEL provides guidance in the design of CRT displays and the design of the control room for the advanced test reactor.

• Visualization Eric Greenwade, 208-526-1276

Visual presentation of data is a tool for communication which attempts to take advantage of the very high “bandwidth” of human vision and thereby present information in a meaningful way and permit “data exploration” of large amounts of data. Visualization is thus a data reduction process in itself. INEL has developed an Integrated Visualization Environment (IVE) which allows the rapid building of visual interface applications into systems.

• Systems Engineering Finis Southworth 208-526-8150

Lockheed’s proposal to DOE to manage INEL presented two major themes: one was commercialization, and the other was systems engineering. Systems Engineering is at the heart of Lockheed Martin’s entire approach to management. It has a long history as a codified set of practices, and is common in the aerospace industry. When Lockheed took over at INEL, a Systems Engineering Directorate was set up, drawing together pockets of expertise from around INEL and bringing in some talent from Lockheed itself.

Why do it? In INEL’s own words:
1. So we never do anything without a reason (and have traceability)
2. So we do what we’re required to do, and know what’s in and out of scope (so the customer knows exactly what to expect)
3. So we do a complete system version of the job (dealing with everything that can affect the main focus)
4. So we emphasize only important factors and influences
5. So we “control” all factors which affect success or failure (control all inputs and outputs, and understand all risks to success)

 

What are the Steps?
1. Define requirements (customer needs)
2. Define Functional system
3. Synthesize/Create Approaches
4. Trade off risks and benefits of different approaches
5. Validate by measuring how well each requirement was met

As practiced by Lockheed and now by INEL, Systems Engineering would appear to be very similar to the standard sorts of project management techniques, but on closer inspection it clearly goes much further.

One major success– In 1988 the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board got the job to oversee DOE’s nuclear facilities. It’s tiger teams made visits and put together the review report “94-1 Stabilizing Nuclear Fuels.” But DOE had no way to respond to the recommendations. At that point, DOE was given the lead responsibility, and INEL was hired to do a systems engineering analysis. Their Technical Requirements Document was issued in mid 1995, and a process is now on track. This performance led to INEL being selected recently to perform a similar function following the issuance of “94-2” on Low Level Nuclear Waste.

INEL has recently been contacted by several major utilities to look into the feasibility of applying systems engineering principles instrategic planning during deregulation.

Activity Based Costing (ABC)

ABC is another basic management tool which enjoys growing popularity among many of the largest corporations. In simplest terms, it identifies core business processes, activities and tasks, and then determines their cost. It then goes on to identify the products and services provided to customers by each process, and then determines the value added content, outputs, and cost drivers for each. Importantly, it cuts across organizational boundaries. One very interesting feature is the careful distinction it provides between mandated, vs. non-mandated, and value-adding vs. non-value-adding activities. Non-mandated non-value-adding activities should be the first candidates for elimination in any cost cutting or re-engineering program.

INEL has a methodology and analysis software to support ABC, and is currently supporting several studies and has responded to requests by utilities who want to reduce non-value added costs.
• Applied Mechanics: Seismic and Structural Analysis Technology

A. G. (Jack) Ware, Principal Engineer 208-526-1267

R. L. Bratton, Staff Engineer, 208-526-1579

Staff of 25 engineers with range of expertise and experience for structural evaluation. All engineering mechanics analysis techniques, both fluid and solid. Structural and stress analyses applicable to concrete, steel, foundations, explosions, earthquake effects, bridges, buildings and components. Frequent participants in national standards committees.

Design and Analysis — capabilities for design and project management. Tools include solids modeling (state of the art finite element models, visualization, interference assessment), thermal and stress modeling (linear and nonlinear, large and small deformation, high temperature, fracture mechanics, finite element models e.g. ABAQUS).

Field portable vibration test equipment used in U.S., Germany and Taiwan. Played a key role in changing pipe damping parameters ins the ASME code, reducing the requirements for piping hardware. Array of experimental mechanics test equipment, such as shaker tables, etc.

Capabilities have been applied to blasts (e.g. armor vs. ordnance) fatigue, seismic, preservice qualification, failure analysis, NDE and other consulting activities.

NRC Fatigue Action Plan — INEL reviewed fatigue analyses of critical components in 7 nuclear power plants, applied newly developed curves accounting of environmental effects, and was able to remove conservatisms in some instances, and evaluate implications for plant life extension.

Seismic — design, analysis and test of fuel storage racks, plant walkdowns around the world, and seismic qualification. Damage assessment and prevention. Regulatory compliance.

Failure Analysis and prevention — root cause analysis for steam explosive pipe rupture, predicting bearing failure through condition monitoring, vibration failures of small pipes.

 

• Materials/Non-Destructive Evaluation (NDE)

James Seydel, Manager, Materials Physics Dept., 208-526-600

NDE at INEL involves the application of a wide variety of techniques (acoustic, optical, vibration, etc.) to systems ranging from buildings to a textile fiber.

Laser Acoustic Sensors — Non-contact ultrasound and vibration sensing via laser can examine hot pipes, tanks, etc. in process. Can measure depth of molten metal pool (patented). Working with oil companies to look at corrosion and fracture phenomena; with EPRI in pipe inspection; and with the steel industry in the intelligent processing of castings, on-line inspection of slabs and coils, measuring temperature continuously in massive steel melts, and detecting slag carryover during basic oxygen furnace tapping.

Lifetime Extension — INEL has extensive experience beginning with the operation of their own reactor facilities under conditions different from design, and extending to the Advanced Test Reactor, commercial plants, and oil refineries. The approach begins with a detailed review of all components and systems, followed by a prioritization based on importance (cost of repair, impact on safety and availability, etc.). The next phase examines all that is known about these components (operating history, records, NDE, etc.) and an analysis of possible failure mechanisms. When specific data is lacking, e.g. for old materials, proxy data are sought. All degradation processes are considered (embrittlement, fatigue, corrosion, erosion, etc.), along with whatever processes were not considered in the original design.

The research approach to plant life extension involves:
– Quantify of fracture toughness as result of time-at-temperature
– Correlate changes in fracture toughness with NDE results or sample measurements
– Develop procedures for predicting end-of-life
– Establish weld repair practices for aged materials
– Develop NDE sensing techniques for use on-line (high temperature) and during scheduled maintenance to monitor aging materials, as noted earlier. They pioneered automated transducer systems in the 1970’s, and commercialized the AMDATA system with EPRI in the 80’s

INEL has long experience with Lifetime Extension Sensors development, e.g. for on-line crack propagation, fracture toughness measurement, and large components and structures

Welding Vision System — novel way to diagnose welding problems. A very short ( 10 microsec.) laser pulse swamps out the welding arc, and a synchronized video camera gets a clear view of the weld spot.

NDE — INEL reviews utilities’ Section 11 plans for the NRC, so they can’t work directly for commercial nuclear power plants, but the expertise is applicable in other areas, such as fossil power. Extensive programs are underway with the oil industry, whose refineries have many of the same issues as power plants — aging equipment and a need to reduce costs, increase reliability and safety, and extend operating life. INEL’s capability may be less well known than they should, as they tend to publish in journals not typically read in the utility industry.

• Sensors

Jack Slater, Department Manager, Optical and Plasma Physics, 208-526-7544

This group works on Optical measurement and sensing, and on plasmas for waste stream processing and corrosion/wear resistant coatings.

Optical sensing uses colormetic coatings for process control when the chemical of interest is known; spectroscopy for general chemical analysis, and interferometry for positional measurements, e.g., for stress field visualization. Optical sensors have some very desirable characteristics: they can be used in-situ and in real time; they can withstand harsh environments, and tend to be self calibrating. The overlap of INEL’s capabilities with the needs of the utility industry include: air emissions monitoring, T&D sensors (see above optical PT), incipient failure sensors, large sensor arrays, and material degradation history.

Oil Leak Detector uses an optical fiber that can be distributed over a large area or distance and detect the presence and location of an oil leak. Initiated for oil pipeline applications, it promises high sensitivity, and should be considered for use with oil-filled cable, transformers and other equipment.

Moiré Interferometry — novel technique can visualize stress field and history of a sample

Particulate Analysis — system identifies chemical composition and size of dust particles — will be demonstrated at a buried waste remediation site to provide immediate indication of the presence of heavy metals.

High Speed Gas Spectrometer — all solid state system developed for DOE’s Energy Management program for use during remediation digs, is being demoed at the Mound Site. There are no commercialization plans as yet for this all solid state portable system.

• Systems Dynamic Modeling
Michael Bray, Manager, Infrastructure Analysis Products 208-526-4714
Donald Sebo, 208-526-4467

Systems Dynamics, first popularized in the 70’s by Forrester at MIT and more recently by Peter Senge in the “Fifth Discipline”, analyzes behavior over time of a system as a whole, rather than as isolated parts.

In complex systems, obvious solutions often fail to produce intended results and may produce unintended side effects; cause and effect may not be closely related in time; the effects of feedback over time are not intuitive, and there is resistance to change often resulting from feedback loops. Policy formation requires an understanding of these dynamics–an archtypical example–building freeways to relieve traffic congestion has the opposite effect.

The system modeling process proceeds from a statement of the problem and definition of its scope, customers and stakeholders and their decision frameworks. A causal loop diagram is developed based on the system and its dynamic drivers — those influences that impact its current and future behavior.

Often, the diagram “model” is sufficient to bring important new insights and identify strategies, however it is also possible to mathematize the model and create a “simulation” to get detailed predictions and scenarios. Of course, “soft” variables can be difficult to quantify. There are a number of generic software packages that INEL uses, depending on the application.

INEL has applied these techniques to revitalization of nuclear power, spent nuclear fuel, and intermodal transportation at the Port of Lewiston, and have done simulations for INEL’s own transportation/fleet systems, waste streams, and EIS alternatives. They’ve also studied the national high level waste issue and alternate fuel vehicles.

Success depends on realizing that simulations are best used for learning rather than precise predictions; that model building is a process and not something to produce “answers”; that the users/customers must be involved in the process; and that everyone must keep biases and assumptions clearly in mind.

Applications in the Utility Industry — there are many areas that could benefits from this kind of analysis, such as customer retention, impact of regulatory changes, vehicles fleet standards, impact of new technologies (fuel cells, alternate fuels, etc.), distributed generation, and corporate re-engineering.

Interestingly, the DOE Idaho Field Office is working with DOE headquarters in an attempt to get a handle on the possible outcomes of utility industry competition and restructuring, but they’re having a hard time getting a clear picture. Different utility companies have dramatically different outlooks and plans for their own strategic directions, and industry observers likewise have widely ranging views of what is and will be happening. The results of the study will be used in part to determine what research projects will be funded by DOE in future years. This effort offers utilities a way to input their ideas about DOE research priorities!

Larry Redd, DOE Idaho Operations Field Office, 208-526-5288.

INEL Contacts (general phone # is 208-526-0111)
The primary contacts for UFTO are:
Tom Sauerbrun, Utility Program Manager,
208-526-8151, fax 208-526-4313, ts6@inel.gov

Technology Transfer:
Steven Borror, Account Executive, Technology Transfer Office
208-526-3883, fax 208-526-0953, swb@inel.gov

Information Source Contacts:
Office of Public Affairs : Greg Ossmann, 208-526-4436

This report is proprietary and confidential. It is for internal use by personnel of companies that are subscribers in the UFTO multi-client program. It is not to be otherwise copied or distributed except as authorized in writing.