Testing on Naticoke Creek

A stream-sealing technique developed at DOE's National Energy Technology Laboratory is being tested in Naticoke Creek near Wilkes Barre, Pa., to prevent acid mine drainage. A 310-foot section will be injected with an environmentally benign grout, which expands to seal off subsurface fractures, preventing clean water from being contaminated by underwater mines. Terry Ackman, NETL mining engineer, says the grout eliminates the potential for environmental damage if spillage should occur, and will give, thus resisting cracking, should subsidence occur. NETL is monitoring the grout's performance and durability in a one-year project for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

[David Anna, 412/386-4646,
anna@netl.doe.gov]

Unlike gasoline engines, there isn't an economically viable technology that can sufficiently reduce air pollution-causing nitrogen oxides in the exhaust typical of diesel vehicles. Research at DOE's Pacific Northwest National Laboratory promises to change that. PNNL researchers have successfully reduced harmful oxides of nitrogen on an operating diesel engine by half via the combination of an electrically charged gas, or plasma, with a specialized catalyst. Laboratory results show even greater reductions are possible. These reductions are critical to meeting emissions requirements and fuel economy goals in diesel vehicles. A class of zeolite catalyst materials appears to be the key to nitrogen oxide reduction in this novel approach to controlling harmful vehicle exhaust emissions.

[Gayle O'Donahue, 509/375-2561,
gayle.odonahue@pnl.gov]

The Center for Transportation Technologies and Systems battery thermal management team at DOE's National Renewable Energy Laboratory will soon begin testing a 14-volt nickel hydrogen battery from ElectraStor to measure its power and energy capabilities and operation in extreme temperatures. This unique battery stores hydrogen in a separate hydride compartment when the battery is not in use, allowing for negligible amounts of self-discharge. NREL will use its calorimeter to test the battery under various charge/discharge cycles, as well as during numerous driving cycles to help in the design of a battery thermal management system.

[Sarah Holmes Barba, 303/275-3023,
sarah_barba@nrel.gov]

Photos taken over time capture changes, but the changes aren't always obvious. The new Change Detection System exposes inconspicuous differences from two photos taken minutes or even weeks apart. Developed at the DOE's Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory, this Windows NT-based system could reveal important medical information such as blood vessel growth or improve the consistency of mass-produced items in industry. Using any two photos similar in size and perspective, the CDS aligns them according to identical reference points in each view. The CDS then rapidly flips between the two, allowing the eye to detect previously unnoticeable differences-even footprints amid gravel.

[Kathy Gatens, 208/526-1058,
kzc@inel.gov]

 

Optical efficiency and the human factor

Michael Siminovitch

Lighting accounts for a fourth of the nation's electricity consumption, yet it's one of the simplest ways to save. Better lamps can't do the job alone, however, as Michael Siminovitch of Berkeley Lab's Environmental Energy Technologies Division learned. "You have to make people happy. It's the most important thing in persuading them to change."

While studying architecture at the University of Illinois, Siminovitch says, "The more I learned about light, the more I realized what a difference it could make in cost and livability."

With a Ph.D. in architecture and human factors from the University of Michigan, he found a home in the lighting research program at Berkeley Lab. "I like playing with the apparatus," he admits, and his lighting lab is chock full of it: the Spectro-Radiometer, the Gonio-Photometer, the Integrating Sphere. . . .

Technical developments include new uses for compact fluorescent lamps (CFLs), better task lighting for the US Postal Service, and improved lighting for beverage machines. Equally important are friendly designs. For example, a torchiere that uses a CFL instead of a hot halogen lamp puts out the same amount of light with a quarter the power-and it's cool enough to touch, reducing fire danger. A new table lamp allows up and down lighting to be controlled independently; at full power it's as bright as a 300-watt halogen torchiere and a 150-watt incandescent lamp combined, but consumes a quarter of the energy.

Siminovitch's personal life mirrors his work. For years he has dressed completely in black, at first because "I didn't want to be a photometric error" in measurements and later because "it makes buying clothes a lot easier." Which saves time for other projects: he and his wife are remodeling their home for maximum energy efficiency, with passive solar heating, superinsulation-and CFL torchieres in every room.