At Los Alamos, ocean models are a primary component of the climate prediction system.

Energy Research in Progress: What the Labs Are Doing

June / July 2004 Volume 2 Number 3

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Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory

Fusion: A key goal throughout LLNL's three-decade history of developing the world's most advanced and highest energy lasers has been to achieve thermonuclear fusion in the laboratory using the process of inertial confinement fusion (ICF). In ICF, lasers are focused onto small targets containing spherical fusion capsules. The intense energy of the lasers creates X-rays, which implode the target, creating temperatures of tens of millions of degrees and billions of atmospheres of pressure. Under these conditions light nuclei can be made to fuse together, liberating more energy than is required to initiate the fusion reactions. Harnessing nuclear fusion using deuterium and tritium isotopes derived from hydrogen has the potential to create a virtually inexhaustible, economical, safe, and environmentally friendly energy source.

The National Ignition Facility (NIF), now under construction at LLNL, is a 192-beam laser system that is 60 times more energetic than any laser system ever built. In addition to research on fusion ignition, NIF's unprecedented ability to produce conditions approaching those in stars and exploding nuclear weapons makes it a key component of the National Nuclear Security Administration's Stockpile Stewardship Program, whose mission is to maintain the safety, reliability, and effectiveness of the nation's nuclear stockpile without underground nuclear testing.

Livermore has also pioneered research on magnetic confinement fusion, in which a superheated electrically charged plasma containing fusion fuel is contained in a specially shaped magnetic field long enough to achieve fusion burn and energy release (see related article, page 11).

Fission: Livermore contributes to the continued availability of safe, reliable nuclear power by working to solve technical problems associated with the production, storage, transportation and disposal of nuclear fuels and radioactive waste. The lab designed the waste package and barrier system for the proposed nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain, Nev., and it is helping design small-scale fission reactors that improve reactor safety, economics, waste management, and proliferation resistance.

Hydrogen: Production of low-cost hydrogen is a key element in the development of a "hydrogen economy." Twenty years ago, Livermore developed an underground coal gasification process known as CRIP (Continuous Retraction Injection Point) that efficiently produces synthetic gas from underground coal seams, providing a promising pathway to economical and environmentally acceptable hydrogen production. In Livermore's proposed approach, the synthetic gas, which is more than one-third hydrogen, would be brought to the surface and processed to remove particulates and carbon dioxide and to convert carbon monoxide, methane, and higher hydrocarbons into more hydrogen. This approach, which would produce about 112 kilograms of hydrogen from each ton of coal processed, would be about 25 per cent less expensive than above-ground coal gasification and conversion, and significantly less expensive than current gasoline production.

The lab is also working on new technologies for using hydrogen fuel for transportation. An onboard hydrogen storage system for automobiles combines cryogenics and high pressure and can safely and simultaneously accommodate three forms of hydrogen fuel. Since at fixed pressure all gases occupy less volume at colder temperatures, compressed hydrogen can be stored more compactly when cryogenically cooled, enabling vehicles using cryogenic hydrogen to greatly extend their driving range.

Fossil Fuels: An important goal of Livermore's energy research is to find ways of mitigating the potentially adverse environmental effects of burning fossil fuels—€”especially the greenhouse gases (primarily carbon dioxide) that may be contributing to global climate change. Livermore is developing an advanced, low-cost membrane technology to capture carbon dioxide from the flue gas of coal-fired power plants. The process creates uniform, ultra-thin film membranes that require significantly lower power to separate carbon dioxide from flue gases than conventional membranes, with much greater separation selectivity. The new membranes will capture 90 per cent of the carbon dioxide at an estimated cost of $42 per ton of carbon—€”one-third the cost of conventional chemical separation. Further material and system advancements have the potential to reduce capture costs to $20 per ton of carbon.

Fuel Cells: Fuel cells, which convert the chemical energy of a fuel directly to usable energy without combustion, are a clean, quiet, efficient and compact source of energy. The lab's direct-carbon-conversion fuel cell uses an electrochemical process to convert carbon particles from fossil fuels directly into electricity, with a conversion efficiency of 80 percent.

Engine Efficiency: Livermore engineers are studying an efficient vehicle engine design called the homogeneous charge compression ignition (HCCI) engine. In the HCCI engine, fuel is homogeneously premixed with air, as in a spark-ignited engine, but with a high proportion of air to fuel. When the piston reaches its highest point, this lean fuel-air mixture autoignites (spontaneously combusts) from compression heating, as in a diesel engine, enabling the HCCI engine to burn cooler than spark-ignited and diesel engines and thus produce low nitrogen-oxide emissions. HCCI engines show promise of being as efficient as diesels; they also use simple catalysts to clean up unburned hydrocarbons, making them as clean as today's spark-ignited engines. HCCI technology could be scaled to virtually every size and class of transportation engines, from small motorcycles to large ships.

Renewables: Livermore is investigating an innovative approach to achieving better load control in wind turbine systems, improving their efficiency and durability, by adding "microtabs" to the trailing edges of turbine blades.
Actuation of the microtabs can quickly change the lift of wind turbine blades to reduce blade stresses from wind gusts. And Geobotanical Remote Sensing technology is being used to discover hidden geothermal energy resources by identifying plants stressed by geothermal activity.

Los Alamos National Laboratory

Climate Science: Global warming will impact environmental cycles and energy planning in highly uncertain ways. Los Alamos is working to understand these impacts and develop adaptation and mitigation strategies. The foundation of this effort is its program in global ocean modeling. Ocean models are a primary component of the nation's foremost climate prediction system, and they have also been used to study ocean carbon cycling.

Carbon Management: Fossil fuels are an abundant and inexpensive source of domestic energy, but rising levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide, caused by fossil fuel combustion, are challenging their continued use. To manage carbon emissions and keep fossil fuels viable, Los Alamos is working to store large volumes of carbon dioxide safely and permanently with minimal environmental impact; separate carbon dioxide from mixed-gas streams; decrease the CO2 emissions per energy unit produced, and elucidate the complex interplay between carbon cycles and climate. Los Alamos's research in carbon storage encompasses terrestrial (plants and soil), geologic (underground repositories and mineralization), and ocean approaches.

Infrastructure Security: The lab performs basic and applied research to secure the nation's energy infrastructure. Central to this research is the development of large scale, but detailed, models of energy industries and infrastructures. Macro models and micro simulations quantify the physical, operational and economic behavior of energy networks and non-energy infrastructures important to energy security, such as transportation, water, communications and public health.

Hydrogen and Fuel Cells: The nation needs advanced, clean energy sources to meet growing energy needs in an environmentally sustainable manner. Hydrogen shows great promise for providing the cleanest possible energy cycle. Los Alamos has been building on this idea since 1977, when it began researching hydrogen as a renewable domestic energy carrier that would reduce pollution and decrease the nation's dependence on foreign oil. Hydrogen and fuel cell researchers have made significant advances in polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells, direct methanol fuel cells, and related technologies. With laboratory advances, these technologies may now be used in a variety of civilian power applications including portable electronics, transportation, and combined heat and power for buildings.

Nuclear Fuel Cycle: The lab applies its nuclear expertise to such civilian needs as nuclear energy technology for fission and fusion systems; advanced nuclear fuel cycle; nuclear power for space exploration; radioisotopes for disease diagnostics and treatment; safety of the nation's 100 operating reactors, and security of nuclear reactors against terrorist attacks or sabotage. Keeping nuclear power viable requires advanced, safe methods to reduce long-lived radionuclides in used fuels and to ensure the highest level of security against nuclear proliferation.

Water Security: National security and a strong economy depend on sustainable supplies of energy and water and these two critical resources are inextricably linked. Energy producers withdraw more water than any other sector of society, including agriculture. A shortage of water could mean a shortage of electricity and skyrocketing energy costs. Los Alamos addresses water issues on multiple scales, from atoms to oceans, and works to ensure adequate water resources through its research in atmospheric, surface and subsurface water. The research applies high-performance computing, modeling and simulation, and decision analysis to understand hydrologic cycles, assess water security risks, and predict the impacts of demographic shifts on water demands.

Sandia National Laboratories

Wind: Sandia has been researching wind energy since the 1970s, but it's only now that the alternative energy source has become economical enough to find widespread use. Over the past ten years the cost of wind energy has fallen dramatically to between 2.5 and 5 cents a kilowatt-hour in the most windy sites.
However, further cost reductions in critical subcomponents in design, manufacturing, and system integration are necessary to move wind energy more into the mainstream. Today the most popular commercial wind turbines, which produce about 1.5 megawatts each, have 35-meter blades on towers that are 65 to 80 meters tall. Sandia is researching building stronger blades for turbines that would operate in less windy sites and sites with widely varying wind conditions.
Sandia's research will analyze and design blades while dealing with issues such as fiber material form, degree of carbon/glass hybridization, manufacturability and other traditional issues like aerodynamics, structural strength, and reliability.

Biomass: Biomass is organic material that has stored sunlight in the form of chemical energy. Biomass fuels include wood, wood waste, straw, manure, sugar cane and many other byproducts from a variety of agricultural processes. When burned, the chemical energy is released as heat. Biomass fuel sources offer the promise of renewability, low emissions, and zero net greenhouse gas emissions. Unfortunately, their low mass density and low energy density make economic fuel handling and transport very difficult, limiting their contribution to electricity production. One of the more attractive means of using biomass fuels is to co-fire them with coal in existing power plants. The DOE's Biomass Power Program is supporting a number of demonstration projects in which different biomass sources are being co-fired in full-scale boilers. Research at Sandia/California's Multi Fuel Combustor is supporting these demonstration projects by investigating the formation mechanisms of NOX and of fine particulate matter during the co-combustion of coal and biomass.

Solar: Sandia has a number of collaborative efforts in solar energy with industry and utilities, including a long-term relationship with Arizona's Salt River Project for solar thermal domestic water heaters. Sandia's fundamental solar energy work includes development and testing of receiver facilities, dishes and engines, solar furnaces, parabolic troughs and photovoltaic (PV) systems. Sandia and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory have combined their expertise in concentrating solar power in an R&D program called SunLab.

Geothermal: Sandia's geothermal research programs concentrate on high-temperature instrumentation, acoustic telemetry, and hard-rock drilling.
With the cost of the well equaling 40-70 percent of the cost of the power generating plant, plant operators need to be certain that the wells will produce. In the 1970s and 1980s, Sandia had a catalytic role in the development of polycrystalline diamond compact (PDC) drill bit technology for soft-rock drilling. Current work focuses on advanced synthetic-diamond products for hard-rock drilling in formations characteristic of those typically found at geothermal sites.

Fossil Fuels: In oil and gas technologies, Sandia collaborates with the research divisions of major energy companies in developing improved methods for locating, producing and processing oil and gas. Work in just the past decade has included 3-D seismic imaging, predicting the physical properties of hydrocarbons, reservoir fracture-imaging technologies, coupled rock and fluid dynamics numerical simulations, advanced telemetry for downhole monitoring, sand production modeling, methods for heating subsurface formations, drill bit development and modeling deep-water oil and gas wells.

Fuel Cells: The Laboratory Directed Research and Development (LDRD) program is the source of discretionary funding for cutting-edge science. Six projects in fuel cell technologies are currently funded by the program and are showing early, positive results. One project, addressing novel catalysts for hydrogen fuel cell applications, is exploring replacements for platinum, given that the high cost and scarce supplies of platinum are important barriers to the commercialization of fuel cells. In another project, an entirely new class of lightweight hydrides has been discovered that have reversible hydrogen storage capacities that make them nearly four times lighter than commercial metal hydrides. These projects and the others funded by the LDRD program are expected to lead to collaboration and commercialization opportunities that will make a significant impact in realizing a hydrogen-based economy.