PITTSBURGH, PA - With new projects to study microbes
that can boost oil recovery to advanced ways of providing high-purity
hydrogen for fuel cells, the U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Fossil
Energy commemorates its 10th year of research support for Historically
Black Colleges and Universities and other minority institutions this week
with seven new grants.
For the last decade, the department's fossil energy program has provided
almost $1 million each year specifically to give blacks and other minority
students hands-on experience in conducting science and energy research.
This year, another $1 million will go to seven institutions for a wide
range of projects that tackle many of the nation's major energy concerns
- from generating reliable, clean electricity to producing more crude
oil and natural gas from domestic fields.
In four of the projects, the government's funding share of nearly $200,000
each will go to professor-student research teams. The other three projects
are for smaller scale efforts that will be led by students. For these
projects DOE will provide $20,000 grants.
The winning projects are:
Professor-Student Team Projects
- Prairie View A&M University, Prairie View, TX,
proposes to enhance oil recovery from low-volume oil wells by adding
microbes to long-chained molecules called polymers that can be injected
into oil reservoirs to force out more oil than can be typically recovered
by conventional technologies. The novel technology will study bacteria
that can produce both additional polymers and chemicals called "surfactants"
(substances that act like soap to make oil droplets move more easily
through the reservoir rock).
More effective microbially-enhanced polymers could extend the productive
life of many declining U.S. oil reservoirs. Laboratory investigation
of microbial processes, recovery experiments and simulation studies
compose the project. Bio-Engineering Inc., a small business, will
join Prairie View.
Project duration: 36 months
Project cost/DOE share: $199,373
Principal investigator: Jorge Gabitto, 936-857-2427
- Florida International University, Miami, FL, will
study the way fluids are distributed and flow through rock formations
where oil and natural gas are often trapped and rarely recovered. The
three-part project consists of mapping fractures, developing a model
for fracture architecture using data from an existing wells, and modeling
how oil and water flows through the fracture networks that are typical
of many reservoirs.
Project duration: 36 months
Project cost/DOE share: $199,004
Principal investigator: Michael R. Gross, 305-348-3932
- Hampton University, Hampton, VA, will continue research
pioneered in an earlier DOE grant for improving the durability of iron
catalysts used in a common chemical reaction that produces liquid fuels
from gases. The Fischer-Tropsch reaction is increasingly being studied
as a way to convert gases that can be made from coal, natural gas or
other energy resources into liquid fuels and chemicals, including transportation-grade
fuels. Iron catalysts, however, can wear down and break apart, sometimes
plugging equipment and fouling the chemical reaction. As the catalyst
wears away, it is also difficult to separate catalyst particles from
the waxy byproducts.
In this follow-on project, Hampton proposes to conduct further studies
on how these catalysts degrade and how sulfide ions and water affect
the catalysts' performance and resistance to attrition. SUD-CHEMIE
Inc., a commercial catalyst manufacturer, will provide guidance and
cost sharing.
Project duration: 36 months
Project cost: $199,997; DOE share: $181,997; participant share: $18,000
Principal investigator: Adeyinka A. Adeyiga, 737-727-5289
- North Carolina A&T State University, Greensboro, NC,
will develop a new type of alloy-based membrane for producing high-purity
hydrogen from liquid hydrocarbons for use in fuel cell-powered vehicles.
The project builds on earlier DOE-funded research, which produced a
palladium-ceramic composite membrane. In the new effort, researchers
will try to develop a palladium-silver alloy membrane that would be
mounted on microporous stainless steel to provide structural strength.
The membrane would be capable of simultaneously producing and separating
hydrogen in nearly pure form for use in fuel cells. The single-step
process could offer significant cost and energy savings. Collaborating
with North Carolina A&T will be the BP R&D Center in Naperville,
IL.
Project duration: 36 months
Project cost/DOE share: $199,981
Principal investigator: Shamsuddin Ilias, 336-334-7564
Student-Led Projects
- University of Texas at El Paso, El Paso, TX, plans
to enhance the design of pulverized coal burners and lower smog-forming
nitrogen oxide pollutants from these burners by studying the flow of
coal particles of various sizes and how they are dispersed in particle-laden
jets. Four faculty members and over 15 graduate and undergraduate students
from the College of Engineering are expected to participate.
Project duration: 12 months
Project cost/DOE share: $20,000
Professor: Ahsan R. Choudhuri, 915-747-6005
- University of Texas at Pan American, Edinburg, TX,
proposes to optimize natural gas swirl burners to reduce pollution emitted
from diesel engines, utility boilers, gas turbines and jet engines.
Student-teacher teams will study the effect the "swirl level"
has on temperature and pollution emissions. The swirl level helps to
stabilize flames by enhancing the mixing of air and fuel so that combustion
is more efficient.
Project duration: 12 months
Project cost: $59, 714; DOE share: $20,000; participant share: $39,714
Professor: Ala R. Qubbaj, 956-381-5220
- Clark Atlanta University, Atlanta, GA, will look
at the effect trace additives have on hydrogen in heavy oil by developing
an education and research program for chemistry and chemical engineering
students to study equilibrium thermodynamics. This involves enhancing
and expanding laboratory infrastructure and widening interdisciplinary
research by focusing on the fundamentals of hydrogen's solubility in
some liquids. All data from this project are to be made available on
the Internet.
Project duration: 12 months
Project cost/DOE share: $19,911
Professor: Jalal Abedi, 404-880-6938
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