December 2005 Story Tips

Story ideas from the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory. To arrange for an interview with a researcher, please contact the Communications and External Relations staff member identified at the end of each tip.


Computing—Bandwidth challenge champs . . .

UltraScience Net transferred 164 terabytes of data -- the equivalent of 10 to 20 times the Library of Congress -- in 24 hours and helped the team led by Caltech take top honors in the bandwidth challenge at Supercomputing 2005 in Seattle. DOE's UltraScience Net was extended to the show floor at SC 05 by a team from Oak Ridge National Laboratory in just days to provide an aggregate bandwidth of 60 gigabits per second. Furthermore, UltraScience Net, developed over the last two years at ORNL, carried a significant portion of the data (164 of 400 terabytes) and provided a significant portion of the bandwidth that made the transfer possible by the winning team. Ultimately, the network will support high-performance computing at DOE facilities and universities and will make possible collaborative large-scale projects typical of today's research. [Contact: Ron Walli; 865.576.0226; wallira@ornl.gov]

Wireless—Pushing the boundaries . . .

Government agencies and private companies are turning to Oak Ridge National Laboratory for modeling, simulation and fine-tuning of their wireless sensor networks. The Extreme Measurement Communications Center (EMC2), headed by Wayne Manges of the Engineering Science and Technology Division, is focusing on advancing the use of wireless technology under extreme conditions typical of industrial settings. "Through EMC2, our resources are diverse and include parallel computing and measurement equipment for high-performance wireless and wired network characterization," Manges said. Ultimately, ORNL and several organizations will develop wireless network standards to be adopted by the Instrumentation, Systems and Automation Society and others. In addition to its work to develop a fault-tolerant communication infrastructure for the electric grid of the future, ORNL's EMC2 is involved in projects with Honeywell, Eaton and General Electric. [Contact: Ron Walli; 865.576.0226; wallira@ornl.gov]

Environment—Operation cleaner fuels . . .

Ships powered with low-sulfur diesel fuels may have cleaner emissions and actually perform better than when powered with other diesel fuels, according to findings by Oak Ridge National Laboratory and the Navy. The goal of the joint study, which looked at two-stroke marine engines operating on five types of fuel, was to determine engine performance and emissions of particulate matter and nitrogen oxide. While marine diesels produce 14 percent and 16 percent of global nitrogen and sulfur oxides, respectively, the emissions are of even greater concern along coasts and ports in such cities as Los Angeles, San Francisco, Houston and Boston. Furthermore, the Environmental Protection Agency and others are now regulating emissions from marine sources, and complying with these new regulations will require low-sulfur fuel and emission control. The study showed that the low-sulfur fuels had no negative effect on engine efficiency and there was some improvement associated with Fisher-Tropsch fuel. Although no improvements in nitrogen oxide emissions were noted, the study showed that some alternative fuels reduced particulate matter by up to 50 percent. The research was funded by the Navy and DOE's Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy State Partnerships Program. [Contact: Ron Walli; 865.576.0226; wallira@ornl.gov]