Research
Highlights...
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Once
penniless, Sandia researcher is 'most promising'.
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| Number 91 |
September 24, 2001 |
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Design, marketing critical
to 'green' success
A new
study by DOE's National Renewable
Energy Laboratory identifies key factors for ensuring the
success of "green pricing" programs and ranks programs nationwide
for their relative effectiveness. The study
found that the design and marketing of the "green power" product
is a critical element of success. Other key factors include whether
the program creates "personal value" for customers and the extent
to which a utility partners with the community and other outside
groups to publicize the program.
[Sarah
Holmes Barba, 303/275-3023,
sarah_barba@nrel.gov]
Excess
equipment benefits other DOE lab
DOE's
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
has donated $1 million worth of former magnetic fusion equipment
to Argonne National Laboratory. Argonne scientists intend to use
the three compressors, two helium liquifiers and one purifier
in Argonne's Atlas Facility. Livermore had decommissioned the
equipment several years ago and the equipment was sitting in a
building unused. A former LLNL employee who is now an Argonne
technician knew about the unused equipment and spoke with a former
co-worker and friend LLNL. "This is a good use for the equipment
to go from a national security lab to a basic science program
at Argonne," said LLNL physicist Peter Barnes.
[Anne
M. Stark, 925/422-9799,
stark8@llnl.gov]
Labs'
data sets validate efficiency models
The National
Energy Technology Laboratory and Sandia
National Laboratory are working on producing high-quality
data sets to help validate a computer model that would predict
the environmental performance of natural gas turbines using
coal or biomass fuels. The project entails defining detailed
temporal, spatial measurements in tightly controlled conditions
to determine the accuracy of Large Eddy Simulation computer
codes. The effort supports development of new simulation methods
that can handle the complex flow and chemistry that occur when
fuels are burned in gas turbines. If successful, this effort
could allow for low-cost evaluation of innovative concepts needed
to meet emissions targets for various fuels.
[David
J. Anna, 412/386-4646,
anna@netl.doe.gov]
New
technology treats dairy wastes, odors
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| The
InStreem™ technology, shown here at a Washington state
dairy, cleans waste lagoons by enhancing naturally occurring
biological activity. |
An unconventional
treatment method for cow manure has been brought to Northwest
dairies, where a demonstration project is showing it can convert
waste lagoons into treatment facilities. The lagoons have
traditionally been used to store large amounts of manure and
liquid effluents from dairy herds until the wastes can be
pumped onto fields where crops utilize the manure's nutrients.
InStreem, developed by Battelle
and brought to the region by DOE's Pacific
Northwest National Laboratory, transforms lagoons into
extended aeration systems, establishing conditions favorable
for both aerobic and anaerobic degradation of wastes. In addition,
InStreem can reduce an annoying problem common to all dairies—odor.
[Dawn White,
509/375-3688,
dawn.white@pnl.gov]
NREL's
team continues work with Avant!
At DOE's National
Renewable Energy Laboratory, the Center for Transportation
Technologies and Systems' battery thermal management (BTM)
team is working with integrated-circuit software maker Avant!
to incorporate lithium-ion, NiMH, and lead-acid battery models
in Saber, a computer program used to model electrical circuits.
The BTM team plans to develop a battery pack model in Saber
capturing individual battery behaviors such as voltage, state
of charge, capacity, power, and temperature. The team will
use the Saber battery models in conjunction with the vehicle
systems simulation tool ADVISOR to evaluate the impact of
battery to battery variability on vehicle performance. Results
are expected by the end of October.
[Sarah Holmes
Barba, 303/275-3023,
sarah_barba@nrel.gov]
Spinach
protein offers hope for blind
Spinach, touted
by Popeye for its ability to strengthen the body, may prove
even more valuable for restoring vision. Researchers at DOE's
Oak Ridge National Laboratory
and the University of Southern California hope to learn whether
a protein from spinach could replace a non-functioning light
receptor in the eye. The
project is geared toward people who suffer from age-related
macular degeneration or retinitis pigmentosa. Although the
neural wiring from the eye to brain is intact in people with
these diseases, their eyes lack photoreceptor activity. The
researchers propose replacing these non-functioning photoreceptors
with a spinach protein that gives off a small electrical voltage
after capturing the energy of incoming photons.
[Ron Walli,
865/576-0226,
wallira@ornl.gov]
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Once
penniless, Sandia researcher is 'most promising'
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Alfredo
Morales
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When Alfredo Morales arrived in Los Angeles from Nicaragua
in 1985, he was 16, broke, and spoke no English.
On Oct. 13, at a black-tie dinner in El Paso, Texas, the
former penniless immigrant—now bilingual and degreed,
with eight patents applied for and one granted—will receive
the 2001 "Most
Promising Scientist" award from the Hispanic Engineer
National Achievements Award Conference.
"In my 29 years at Caltech, I consider Alf one of the two
or three best undergraduates I have worked with," says his
undergraduate research mentor, Professor John Bercaw. Morales
graduated from the California Institute of Technology with
a grade-point average of 4.0.
At Harvard, where Morales earned his PhD in chemistry, he
discovered how to make nanowires at a controlled cross-sectional
dimension and length. In 1997 he joined a group at DOE's Sandia
National Laboratories that makes micromachines, he says,
because "I wanted to work with short-term deliverables" rather
than on projects with results expected somewhere in the far
future.
Morales's other work at Sandia includes recent funding to
start a nanotechnology project investigating super lattices
of organic molecules and polymers, improvements in LIGA mask-making
techniques, and participation in Sandia's Center for the Study
of Emerging Threats.
In helping summer students at Sandia, he emphasizes developing
a model of the system being studied not only to get an idea
of expected behavior but of what could go wrong. "The interesting
science you read about isn't planned. It's almost always totally
unexpected. Something happened in an experiment and someone
realized, because of the model they had made, that it shouldn't
have happened. Because of that awareness, a discovery is made."
His research philosophy, he says, is, "Make, measure, or
explain something no one else has made or measured before;
learn to talk about it; and surround yourself with the best
people, even if they're smarter than you."
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