TECHNOLOGY TRANSFER
This article also appears in the Oak Ridge National Laboratory
Review (Vol. 26, No. 1), a quarterly research and development
magazine. If you'd like more information about the research
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SUPERCOMPUTING CENTER DEDICATED AS PART OF CRADA WITH INTEL
In the political community and now in the academic community, there
can be no doubt that Tennessee has a seat at the table among the
leaders of the world." That's how Billy Stair, senior policy
advisor to Tennessee Governor Ned McWherter, characterized the
importance of ORNL's Center for Computational Sciences (CCS) at its
November 10, 1992, dedication ceremony.
Ed Masi, president of Intel Corporation, echoed Stair's optimism,
declaring "While supercomputing is advancing in cycles of two to
two-and-a-half years, there is a chance to dazzle the world and to
provide Tennessee with a unique opportunity to become a global
player in supercomputer technology."
The CCS is one of only two Department of Energy high-performance
computing research centers dedicated to exploring applications of
state-of-the-art computer systems to areas of scientific, economic,
and environmental importance. The other center is at Los Alamos
National Laboratory. DOE's latest efforts in supercomputing come in
response to the presidential initiative on high-performance
computing, which is the result of the High-Performance Computing
Act of 1991, cosponsored by Albert Gore, former Tennessee senator
and now vice president of the United States.
The dedication of the CCS was accompanied by the long-awaited
startup of the Paragon XP/S supercomputer, custom-designed for ORNL
by the Intel Corporation of Beaverton, Oregon. Installation of the
Paragon is the latest phase of a three-year cooperative research
and development agreement (CRADA) between ORNL and Intel in support
of the CCS.
Researchers will use the Paragon to build detailed models of the
world's climate, predict movement of hazardous waste in
groundwater, and design state-of-the-art metals and ceramics on the
molecular level. Later, ORNL scientists will collaborate with
university researchers to investigate other complex scientific
problems called "grand challenges," such as mapping the human
genome and superconductor modeling.
Many of these problems require manipulating huge amounts of
data--so many data, in fact, that they simply couldn't be addressed
in sufficient detail with less powerful computers.
The Paragon meets this avalanche of data head-on with a concept
called "massively parallel processing." In other words, instead of
routing all of the data through a single processor, the Paragon
divides its work among 2048 smaller processors. The analytical
power supplied by this computational juggernaut is equal to that of
15,000 typical desktop workstations, enabling the Paragon to add,
subtract, multiply, or divide 150 billion times every second,
making it one of the fastest computers in the world.
The center will be the intellectual home for a collaborative effort
among three DOE facilities--ORNL, Ames Laboratory, and Brookhaven
National Laboratory--and seven major universities, including UT,
Vanderbilt University, Rice University, State University of New
York at Stony Brook, Texas A&M University, and the University of
South Carolina. ORNL researchers will also work with Sandia
National Laboratories on supercomputer-based mathematics and
science education programs.
To ensure that collaborators across the country have access to the
Paragon, it will also be connected to the proposed National
Research and Education Network, a federal computer network linking
high-performance computing resources nationwide.
--Jim Pearce
NEW OAK RIDGE CRADAS FOR SDI OPTICAL SYSTEMS
The high-tech weaponry of the nation's Strategic Defense Initiative
Organization (SDIO) owes much of its accuracy to optical systems
that use light to locate, track, and intercept targets. In 1988,
the SDIO asked ORNL to help private industry find the best ways to
manufacture high-precision optical components. The result was the
Optics Manufacturing Operations Development and Integration
Laboratory (MODIL), an interdisciplinary project involving ORNL,
the Oak Ridge Y-12 Plant, and the Oak Ridge K-25 Site. It enables
private companies to keep up with the latest in manufacturing
techniques to meet stringent SDIO requirements and deadlines for
delivering components. Because of its mission to work with
industry, the Optics MODIL (through Martin Marietta Energy Systems,
Inc.) has entered into several CRADAs with industrial partners.
In space-bound surveillance systems, high-precision mirrors track
enemy missiles and reflect the image to detectors. The detectors,
in turn, signal interceptor systems to fire an optically guided
missile to destroy the target missile. Baffles within the optical
systems act as light traps, absorbing stray light so that false
readings are minimized; the detector "sees" only the light coming
from its target.
Scientists and technicians at the Optics MODIL are now working with
Martin Marietta Missile Systems, based in Orlando, Florida, through
a CRADA to develop quicker, more efficient, and less costly methods
to make better baffles and mirrors from beryllium, a commercially
available metal.
Optical baffles must be lightweight to help minimize launch costs,
sturdy enough to endure the stress of lift-off, and resistant to
flaking when handled to maintain their surface texture.
"Surface features, one of the most important aspects of baffles,
influence optical performance and fragility," says Roland Seals, a
project manager at the Optics MODIL. Baffles, with their porous
surface texture, keep unwanted light from bouncing or scattering
onto the mirror and into the detector of the optical system. The
scattered light should be evenly dispersed, with low but equal
amounts of energy in all directions.
"Surface texture of baffle components influences the amount and
distribution of light scatter within the optical system," Seals
said. "We are optimizing the coating and texturing process to get
a sturdy material that still has excellent optical
characteristics."
Improving the processes for manufacturing beryllium mirrors is
another goal of the Optics MODIL group. The scientists hope to
eliminate some time-consuming steps while increasing quality.
To make the mirrors, technicians first machine the unit to a
precise shape having the exact amount of curvature needed to
properly reflect and guide light through the optical system to
detectors. After machining, a reflective coating is applied in a
vacuum chamber through a process called sputtering. An ion beam
bombards a piece of beryllium, called a target, knocking off the
outer layer of atoms. These atoms are deposited onto the body of
the mirror. Diamond-tipped tools are then used to machine the
finish to a precise smoothness.
"We are trying to eliminate the need for the mirror-polishing phase
for optical systems required by SDIO systems," Seals said. "The
SDIO program has strict deadlines, and the polishing process is
time consuming and very difficult to predict. The sputtering and
machining processes we are working on will help private contractors
meet those deadlines."
The precise methods developed and tested at the Optics MODIL will
also increase manufacturers' ability to repeat the processes the
same way every time. According to Seals, this repeatability, which
has proved to be nearly impossible for private manufacturers, is
crucial to the SDIO program because thousands of optical components
are used.
--Wayne Scarbrough
SECOND OPTICS MODEL CRADA WITH UTOS
Energy Systems has also signed a CRADA with United Technologies
Optical Systems (UTOS) to determine the best procedures for making
high-precision mirrors from silicon carbide, a widely used
industrial ceramic compound. The mirrors will be prototypes of
those to be tested for use on the high-tech weaponry of SDI.
SDI tracking and surveillance systems use light to detect enemy
launch sites on the earth and to focus on warheads as they arc
through space. Meticulously machined mirrors, formed to have an
exact curvature, are situated within the SDI optical systems to
guide the light to detectors that signal interceptor systems to
destroy enemy targets.
The joint work on the new mirrors is being performed by the Optics
MODIL. This is the second CRADA that Energy Systems has signed with
UTOS involving the Optics MODIL.
Keith Kahl, an ORNL researcher and a project manager at the Optics
MODIL, said that until now, silicon carbide has been an
underutilized material for making optical surfaces, such as
high-precision mirrors, because of its brittle nature. "Optical
surfaces need to be as smooth as possible," he said. "Brittle
materials often leave cracked or pitted surfaces and subsurface
damage after being machined."
To machine the material to a desired shape, it is placed on a lathe
and then ground using a wheel that is surfaced with very fine,
almost dustlike, diamond grit. The grinding wheel is positioned at
an angle against the material's surface so that a very thin layer
is peeled away as the lathe turns.
Silicon carbide has specific properties that make it attractive as
a mirror-producing material. Because it is very strong, certain
grades of the compound can be used to manufacture stiff,
lightweight structures.
The UTOS-made silicon-carbide material that Kahl and his colleagues
are using at the Optics MODIL poses an additional challenge in that
it is actually a two-phase material.
It has a structure that in some ways resembles a microscopic filter
of silicon carbide whose spaces are filled with a softer silicon.
"The cutting depth must be kept very shallow so that this brittle,
two-phase material can essentially be ground away by the diamond
grit without causing any cracking," Kahl said.
The Energy Systems and UTOS researchers also hope to lower costs
and reduce production time with their advanced manufacturing
methods.
Milling techniques available at the Optics MODIL should enable
technicians to more quickly produce a mirror that is very close to
a desired figure before final finishing is needed. Current
commercial techniques yield first-stage-production mirrors that are
within about 3% of their final, desired shape. Optics MODIL
techniques are expected to bring that figure down to around 0.1%.
This vast improvement may allow technicians and scientists to
eliminate the lengthy and expensive polishing phase of mirror
production, which will further reduce manufacturing costs and time.
--Wayne Scarbrough
DIAMOND TOOLS EVALUATED FOR SDIO MIRRORS
The high-precision mirrors used on SDIO's tracking and surveillance
weaponry must be machined to near perfection in terms of shape and
reflective finish. Intercepting high-speed missiles at great
distances requires bright, distortion-free images.
To obtain a smooth, uniform surface that is devoid of microscopic
flaws, technicians rely on high-accuracy natural diamond tools.
Therefore, the quality of a mirror's surface depends on the quality
of the tool.
To evaluate new high-accuracy natural diamond tools, Energy Systems
has teamed with Contour Fine Tooling, Inc., a private manufacturer
of high-quality diamond tools. The work is being performed at the
Optics MODIL under a CRADA.
"We are now able to produce tools better than our ability to
measure within our facilities," said Allen Lake, a representative
of Contour Fine Tooling, Inc. "We guarantee the waviness of the
tools' edge to within 10 millionths of an inch. At the Optics
MODIL, we have been able to inspect the edge to around 5 millionths
of an inch, so we're well within our specifications."
Art Miller, manager of the MODIL's Productivity Validation Test
Bed, in which manufacturing equipment and tools are tested using
methods unavailable to many private manufacturers, explained that
if waves or bumps are present on the edge of the tool, these flaws
will be imprinted into the material being machined. "The Optics
MODIL," he says, "has the most accurate commercially available
diamond-turning machine equipment in this country, and it is being
used to evaluate this new diamond tool."
Miller and colleagues at the Optics MODIL will be cutting sample
mirrors to demonstrate the accuracy of the tools. "We will evaluate
the tool's edge, the produced mirror, and the way the mirror
scatters light, which is one indicator of surface quality."
If the new Contour Fine Tooling tools are successful, he added, the
reliability of the diamond-turning process and the quality of the
resulting mirrors should be economically improved.
--Wayne Scarbrough
CRADA TO DEVELOP CERAMIC MACHINING TECHNIQUES
The Oak Ridge Y-12 Plant and ORNL have begun a new collaborative
research effort with a Delaware firm to help the company develop
new, more efficient means of manufacturing ceramic composites for
automotive use. The CRADA is expected to help Lanxide reduce future
manufacturing costs.
This collaboration with the Lanxide Corporation of Newark,
Delaware,uses the precision machining capability developed at the
Y-12 Plant in the manufacture of nuclear weapons components as well
as the extensive expertise of ORNL in the development and analysis
of advanced materials.
Lanxide makes components from a broad range of proprietary
composites of ceramic and metal. These composites are lightweight
but very strong materials that have ideal properties for many
applications. However, because of their hardness and wear
resistance, they can be difficult to machine.
The purpose of the collaborative effort is to develop
cost-effective machining techniques for these composites. Work also
will be done on establishing process control and material
characterization techniques. The high cost of machining is
considered to be a principal barrier to the use of
ceramic-containing composites in the automotive industry.
Initial work will be conducted at the Y-12 Plant during
establishment of the Ceramic Manufactur-ability Center in the High
Temperature Materials Laboratory (HTML). The HTML, which is open to
industrial users, houses a unique collection of state-of-the-art
equipment for analyzing and studying ceramic materials. The Ceramic
Manufacturability Center, which is being established under a
cooperative program for Cost-Effective Machining of Ceramic
Components, is its most recent addition.
Cooperative research and development projects under CRADAs such as
this one with Lanxide and earlier agreements with Coors Ceramics
Company and the Detroit Diesel Corporation will help U.S. industry
to maintain a position of leadership in the machining of precision
components and manfacturing advanced materials. It is expected that
additional CRADAs will be forthcoming from other U.S. companies.
Specific objectives of this project include improving the accuracy
and consistency of critical workpiece dimensions that are generated
by processes such as threading, drilling, grinding, honing,
cutting, broaching, turning, and milling. The initial focus of the
project will be development of techniques and tooling for the
cost-effective machining of metal matrix composite connecting rods
and brake calipers and rotors.
The existing Lanxide machining processes will be characterized and
test bed activities will be conducted in Oak Ridge to demonstrate
the feasibility of applying Y-12 Plant manufacturing technology.
Test pieces will be provided by Lanxide for the evaluation and
feasibility demonstration. Characterization of machined test pieces
will be shared by Lanxide and Oak Ridge.
Lanxide Corporation represents the world's largest development and
commercialization effort devoted to ceramic and metallic
composites, according to Marc S. Newkirk, president and chief
executive officer.CRADA with GM on Nickel Aluminide Components
ORNL and General Motors (GM) Corporation are working under a CRADA
to develop longer-lasting, heat-resistant assemblies for
heat-treating furnaces used in producing automotive parts. The
collaboration focuses on using nickel aluminide alloys developed at
ORNL to manufacture assemblies consisting of trays, support posts,
and fixtures. These assemblies will be used to hold automotive
components as they are being heat treated in specialized furnaces.
The goals of the CRADA for GM are a more energy-efficient
manufacturing process for producing automotive parts, an increase
in component throughput, and a reduction in cost stemming from
longer tool life. To achieve these goals, the ORNL and GM
researchers must develop an improved casting process, characterize
and modify the alloy to optimize its manufacturability and
performance under typical heat-treating furnace operating
conditions, and test and evaluate specimens and prototype parts.
ORNL, B&W Team Up on Fuel Studies
A collaborative study between ORNL and the Babcock and Wilcox, Inc.
(B&W), Alliance Research Center in Alliance, Ohio, may help
electric utilities increase the efficiency of some power plants
while reducing pollution.
Researchers from the two organizations have teamed up to study the
combustion of certain coal-derived solid fuels, called chars. They
hope to use the results to determine the effectiveness of using
chars as fuels in steam-driven power plants.
Char is a residue from the production of coal liquids by mild
gasification. The liquids are being investigated for use as
supplemental engine fuels. However, after gasification, most of the
coal's fuel energy value remains in the char, says Stuart Daw of
ORNL's Engineering Technology Division. "We want to find an
effective use for the chars," he adds, "so that no waste is
produced."
Not all chars are the same, and with different types of char come
various burning characteristics. Understanding these differences
will aid utility operators in selecting the best type of char for
use in steam plants.
"Several different techniques are available for mild gasification
of coal," Daw says. "Different types of char are produced depending
on which technique and which parent coal is used. We want to see
how one char differs from another, particularly in the way they
burn," he said. "The longer a char takes to burn in the combustion
chamber, the greater chance there is for some of it to escape,
which means some of the energy value is lost." Also, he said, a
chars that burns uniformly, without hot and cool spots, could
result in reduced output of pollutants, such as nitrogen oxides.
The information gathered during these studies will be put into an
existing data base for comparing the burning abilities of chars and
other solid fuels. "This information," Daw says, "can help us
determine if char products can compete with other solid fuels on
the market,"
Another goal of the cooperative effort is to identify better ways
to produce practical alternative fuels by identifying the mild
gasification technique that yields the optimum split of liquid fuel
and char.
Additionally, B&W will use the information generated in the studies
to determine how char fuels will perform in pressurized
fluidized-bed combustors in power plants. Fluidized beds are one
type of boiler in steam-producing power plants. Some operate at
normal, or ambient, atmospheric pressure, and others are
pressurized to about 10 times that amount. Daw said that a good
foundation for determining chars' burning characteristics in
ambient-atmosphere fluidized beds already exists. B&W will use the
new data to extend that foundation to see how chars burn in a
pressurized environment. This approach, Daw said, is a notable step
in developing more efficient, less polluting boilers.
Pressurized fluidized beds are more efficient than conventional
boilers in converting the energy potential of coal into electricity
because they produce both steam and pressurized gases to drive
several turbines.
Fluidized beds help reduce polluting emissions by treating them at
the source. The boilers contain limestone that traps much of the
sulfur released when coal or char burns. This method of treatment
eliminates the need for flue-gas scrubbers, which are expensive
cleaning mechanisms required by conventional boilers.
The studies were funded as part of DOE's fossil energy research and
developmment program.
--Wayne Scarbrough
CRADA ON MICROBES TO REMOVE URANIUM
A technology that uses microorganisms to remove uranium and other
toxic heavy metals from waste streams is the goal of a CRADA
between Energy Systems and Ogden Environmental and Energy Services
Company, Inc., of Fairfax, Virginia, working through its German
subsidiary. This is the first international CRADA involving a
national laboratory.
The environmental remediation technology will involve use of
bioreactor columns containing microorganisms (e.g., bacteria or
fungi) selected for their ability to remove uranium, arsenic, and
other heavy metals from waste streams. The microorganisms will be
immobilized within beads the size of pinheads. The beads will be
suspended in the bioreactors through which aqueous wastes
containing dissolved metals will be pumped. As a result, the metal
contaminants will then be adsorbed onto the microbial biomass.
After the technology is developed at ORNL, Ogden will demonstrate
its use in the remediation of contaminated water in flooded uranium
mines in eastern Germany. The mines were formerly operated for the
East German and Soviet governments by WISMUT (a private corporation
that was once part of the government). Ogden's German subsidiary,
Ogden Umwelt und Energie, will assist with management of the
project.
If successful, the technology may be used for various cleanup
projects at DOE sites in the United States, including Oak Ridge. It
may also "enhance the competitiveness of the U.S. environmental
industry in the international market," says Clyde Frank, deputy
assistant secretary for Technology Development for the Department
of Energy.
It has long been known that certain microorganisms adsorb heavy
metals, but only recently have researchers considered the
possibility of using this capability for waste management and
environmental cleanup.
Brendlyn Faison, principal investigator for the CRADA and a
researcher in ORNL's Chemical Technology Division, has been
successful in identifying organic material that adsorbs strontium
and cesium from waste streams. For the CRADA she and fellow
division researchers Jeanne Bonner, Gene Bloomingburg, John Norman,
Brian Davison, and Mark Reeves along with Howard Adler, former
Biology Division director now with Oak Ridge Associated
Universities, will try to identify naturally existing
microorganisms that can remove heavy metals from metal-contaminated
water samples at ORNL that simulate the contents of the German
pond. These microorganisms, she said, will not be modified by
genetic manipulation.
"Our role at first will be to identify the best medium to
accomplish the removal of the heavy metals under the conditions at
the German demonstration site," Faison said. "The medium probably
will be a patented gel developed by Charles Scott and his
colleagues at ORNL. Such gels are made from substances from natural
sources such as seaweed."
Up to 37 liters (10 gallons) of beads, held in a column less than
a meter in diameter and more than a meter tall, can reduce the
metal in 3700 liters (1000 gallons) from an initial concentration
of 50 parts per million to no more than 50 parts per billion.
According to Faison, the water leaving the column may not have to
be handled as waste. Thus, the residual waste material would be
only a fraction of the volume of the original waste stream and
could be handled in one of two ways.
By altering their chemical environment, the organisms could be
forced to release the metal, which could then be retrieved. Or, the
beads could be discarded and replaced with new ones. Because the
microorganism and gel material in the beads are mostly water, the
discarded material could be dried, reducing the mass by more than
80%, or it could be incinerated, leaving only metal compounds.
Different microorganisms have an affinity for different families of
heavy metals. Thus, the gel beads containing bacteria that remove
uranium may not be equally effective in removing arsenic. However,
by combining microorganisms on gel beads, a bioreactor could be
tailored to remove several waste constituents at the same time.
Ogden's program manager for this CRADA is senior vice president
Kenneth Darnell. Principal participants on Ogden's team include
Luke Williams, the project manager, and Leslie Dole, director of
technology in Ogden's office in Oak Ridge and a former ORNL
researcher.
The costs of the $2-million, three-year CRADA will be shared by
Ogden and DOE's Office of Technology Development. Technology
Transfer Awards for Hypochlorite Removal Process
Four Energy Systems employees have been presented awards for
excellence in technology transfer by the Federal Laboratory
Consortium (FLC). They were recognized for inventing, developing,
licensing, and commercializing a process for removing potentially
toxic chlorine from waste streams.
Alicia L. Compere and William L. Griffith, both of ORNL's Chemistry
Division, William P. Huxtable of the company's Engineering
organization, and John Googin of the Oak Ridge Y-12 Plant
Development Division received recognition at the FLC's recent
National Technology Transfer Meeting in Indianapolis, Indiana. The
FLC consists of representatives from more than 700 research and
development laboratories and centers representing 16 government
agencies. Consortium participants seek to enhance the transfer of
federal technology results to domestic users in industry, state,
and local governments.
The recipients were among 38 winners selected by the FLC from among
3500 entries. They were honored for developing a simple, safe
method for catalytically dechlorinating wastewater streams. The
resulting patented Cl2EAN OUTTM process under pilot development
employs a catalyst to convert toxic hypochlorite (chlorine bleach)
to salt and oxygen (see schematic at right).
The inventors of the process also received the International Hall
of Fame's Advanced Technology Award.
DOE has exclusively licensed the invention to R&D Solutions, Inc.,
based in Oak Ridge. The president of this company is Chet Thornton
of ORNL's Plant and Equipment Division.
R&D Solutions, Inc., received the Hall of Fame's Environmental
Award for its efforts in developing the process.
Cl2EAN OUTTM is expected to contribute to a safer environment
because current studies show that it has the potential to decrease
stream concen-trations of chlorine, which can be toxic to aquatic
organisms. It also could be used to dechlorinate swimming pools and
cooling towers for building air-conditioning units.
Compere, Griffith, and Huxtable developed the hypochlorite
degradation process in the early 1980s, assisted by Googin, a
senior corporate fellow of Energy Systems.
(keywords: supercomputing, optical systems, ceramic machining,
ceramics, alternative fuels, bioremediation, chlorine,
dechlorination)
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Date Posted: 1/26/94 (ktb)