Abstract: The invention provides a method and apparatus for producing a synthesis gas from a variety of hydrocarbons. The apparatus (device) consists of a semi-batch, non-constant volume reactor to generate a synthesis gas. While the apparatus feeds mixtures of air, steam, and hydrocarbons into a cylinder where work is performed on the fluid by a piston to adiabatically raise its temperature without heat transfer from an external source.
Type:
Grant
Filed:
October 2, 2002
Date of Patent:
September 21, 2004
Inventors:
K. David Lyons, Robert James, David A. Berry, Todd Gardner
Abstract: A process for removing uranium/vanadium-based contaminants from groundwater using a primary in-ground treatment media and a pretreatment media that chemically adjusts the groundwater contaminant to provide for optimum treatment by the primary treatment media.
Type:
Grant
Filed:
July 31, 2002
Date of Patent:
July 27, 2004
Assignee:
The United States of America as represented by the United
States Department of Energy
Abstract: A sorbent material is provided comprising a material reactive with sulfur, a binder unreactive with sulfur and an inert material, wherein the sorbent absorbs the sulfur at temperatures between 30 and 200° C. Sulfur absorption capacity as high as 22 weight percent has been observed with these materials.
Type:
Grant
Filed:
May 6, 2002
Date of Patent:
June 1, 2004
Assignee:
The United States of America as represented by the United
States Department of Energy
Abstract: A process for separating organic and inorganic particles from a dry mixture by sizing the particles into isolated fractions, contacting the sized particles to a charged substrate and subjecting the charged particles to an electric field to separate the particles.
Type:
Grant
Filed:
June 12, 2001
Date of Patent:
January 27, 2004
Assignee:
The United States of America as represented by the United
States Department of Energy
Inventors:
Thomas A. Link, Micael R. Schoffstall, Yee Soong
Abstract: The present invention relates generally to a gas sampling system, and specifically to a gas sampling system for transporting a hazardous process gas to a remotely located mass spectrometer. The gas sampling system includes a capillary tube having a predetermined capillary length and capillary diameter in communication with the supply of process gas and the mass spectrometer, a flexible tube surrounding and coaxial with the capillary tube intermediate the supply of process gas and the mass spectrometer, a heat transfer tube surrounding and coaxial with the capillary tube, and a heating device in communication the heat transfer tube for substantially preventing condensation of the process gas within the capillary tube.
Type:
Grant
Filed:
September 13, 2001
Date of Patent:
December 30, 2003
Assignee:
The United States of America as represented by the United
States Department of Energy
Abstract: A non-catalytic process for producing esters, the process comprising reacting an ammonium salt of a carboxylic acid with an alcohol and removing ammonia from the reaction mixture. Selectivities for the desired ester product can exceed 95 percent.
Type:
Grant
Filed:
February 22, 2002
Date of Patent:
June 24, 2003
Assignee:
The United States of America as represented by the United
States Department of Energy
Abstract: A membrane for separating hydrogen from fluids is provided comprising a sintered homogenous mixture of a ceramic composition and a metal. The metal may be palladium, niobium, tantalum, vanadium, or zirconium or a binary mixture of palladium with another metal such as niobium, silver, tantalum, vanadium, or zirconium.
Type:
Grant
Filed:
September 28, 2001
Date of Patent:
May 27, 2003
Assignee:
The United States of America as represented by the United
States Department of Energy
Inventors:
Stephen E. Dorris, Tae H. Lee, Uthamalingam Balachandran
Abstract: A new method for making low-cost CO2 sorbents that can be used in large-scale gas-solid processes. The new method entails treating a solid substrate with acid or base and simultaneous or subsequent treatment with a substituted amine salt. The method eliminates the need for organic solvents and polymeric materials for the preparation of CO2 capture systems.
Type:
Grant
Filed:
September 25, 2001
Date of Patent:
April 15, 2003
Assignee:
The United States of America as represented by the United
States Department of Energy
Inventors:
McMahan L. Gray, Yee Soong, Kenneth J. Champagne
Abstract: An apparatus and process for producing a homogeneous analytical sample from a heterogenous feedstock by: providing the mixed feedstock, reducing the temperature of the feedstock to a temperature below a critical temperature, reducing the size of the feedstock components, blending the reduced size feedstock to form a homogeneous mixture; and obtaining a representative sample of the homogeneous mixture. The size reduction and blending steps are performed at temperatures below the critical temperature in order to retain organic compounds in the form of solvents, oils, or liquids that may be adsorbed onto or absorbed into the solid components of the mixture, while also improving the efficiency of the size reduction. Preferably, the critical temperature is less than 77 K (−196° C.). Further, with the process of this invention the representative sample may be maintained below the critical temperature until being analyzed.
Type:
Grant
Filed:
September 21, 1999
Date of Patent:
June 4, 2002
Assignee:
The United States of America as represented by the Department
of Energy
Inventors:
Glenn Michael Doyle, Virgene Linda Ideker, James David Siegwarth
Abstract: A method for forming a periodic dielectric structure exhibiting photonic band gap effects includes forming a slurry of a nano-crystalline ceramic dielectric or semiconductor material and monodisperse polymer microspheres, depositing a film of the slurry on a substrate, drying the film, and calcining the film to remove the polymer microspheres therefrom. The film may be cold-pressed after drying and prior to calcining. The ceramic dielectric or semiconductor material may be titania, and the polymer microspheres may be polystyrene microspheres.
Type:
Grant
Filed:
January 5, 2000
Date of Patent:
January 15, 2002
Assignee:
The United States of America as represented by the United
States Department of Energy
Inventors:
Kristen Constant, Ganapathi S. Subramania, Rana Biswas, Kai-Ming Ho
Abstract: The invention is a ceramic membrane reactor for syngas production having a reaction chamber, an inlet in the reactor for natural gas intake, a plurality of oxygen permeating ceramic slabs inside the reaction chamber with each slab having a plurality of passages paralleling the gas flow for transporting air through the reaction chamber, a manifold affixed to one end of the reaction chamber for intake of air connected to the slabs, a second manifold affixed to the reactor for removing the oxygen depleted air, and an outlet in the reaction chamber for removing syngas.
Type:
Grant
Filed:
November 18, 1998
Date of Patent:
October 30, 2001
Assignee:
The United States of America as represented by the United
States Department of Energy
Inventors:
Uthamalingam Balachandran, Rodney L. Mieville
Abstract: Spherically or toroidally curved, double focusing crystals are used in a spectrometer for X-ray diagnostics of an extended X-ray source such as a hot plasma produced in a tokomak fusion experiment to provide spatially and temporally resolved data on plasma parameters using the imaging properties for Bragg angles near 45. For a Bragg angle of 45°, the spherical crystal focuses a bundle of near parallel X-rays (the cross section of which is determined by the cross section of the crystal) from the plasma to a point on a detector, with parallel rays inclined to the main plain of diffraction focused to different points on the detector. Thus, it is possible to radially image the plasma X-ray emission in different wavelengths simultaneously with a single crystal.
Type:
Grant
Filed:
May 21, 1999
Date of Patent:
July 10, 2001
Assignee:
The United States of America as represented by the United
States Department of Energy
Inventors:
Manfred L. Bitter, Ben Fraenkel, James L. Gorman, Kenneth W. Hill, A. Lane Roquemore, Wolfgang Stodiek, Schweickhard E. von Goeler
Abstract: This invention is directed to a process for treating the flow of anaerobic groundwater through an aquifer with a primary treatment media, preferably iron, and then passing the treated groundwater through a second porous media though which an oxygenated gas is passed in order to oxygenate the dissolved primary treatment material and convert it into an insoluble material thereby removing the dissolved primary treatment material from the groundwater.
Type:
Grant
Filed:
September 22, 1999
Date of Patent:
July 3, 2001
Assignee:
The United States of America as represented by the Department
of Energy
Abstract: An all dry method for producing solar cells is provided comprising first heat-annealing a II-VI semiconductor; enhancing the conductivity and grain size of the annealed layer; modifying the surface and depositing a tellurium layer onto the enhanced layer; and then depositing copper onto the tellurium layer so as to produce a copper tellurium compound on the layer.
Type:
Grant
Filed:
March 1, 2000
Date of Patent:
June 26, 2001
Assignee:
The United States of America as represented by the United
States Department of Energy
Abstract: A thermally conductive cement-sand grout for use with a geothermal heat pump system. The cement sand grout contains cement, silica sand, a superplasticizer, water and optionally bentonite. The present invention also includes a method of filling boreholes used for geothermal heat pump systems with the thermally conductive cement-sand grout. The cement-sand grout has improved thermal conductivity over neat cement and bentonite grouts, which allows shallower bore holes to be used to provide an equivalent heat transfer capacity. In addition, the cement-sand grouts of the present invention also provide improved bond strengths and decreased permeabilities. The cement-sand grouts can also contain blast furnace slag, fly ash, a thermoplastic air entraining agent, latex, a shrinkage reducing admixture, calcium oxide and combinations thereof.
Type:
Grant
Filed:
March 23, 1999
Date of Patent:
June 26, 2001
Assignee:
The United States of America as represented by the Department
of Energy
Abstract: An abrasion resistant coating is created by adding a ductile phase to a brittle matrix phase during spray coating where an Al—Cu—Fe quasicrystalline phase (brittle matrix) and an FeAl intermetallic (ductile phase) are combined. This composite coating produces a coating mostly of quasicrystal phase and an inter-splat layer of the FeAl phase to help reduce porosity and cracking within the coating. Coatings are prepared by plasma spraying unblended and blended quasicrystal and intermetallic powders. The blended powders contain 1, 5, 10 and 20 volume percent of the intermetallic powders. The unblended powders are either 100 volume percent quasicrystalline or 100 volume percent intermetallic; these unblended powders were studied for comparison to the others.
Type:
Grant
Filed:
June 25, 1999
Date of Patent:
June 5, 2001
Assignee:
The United States of America as represented by the United
States Department of Energy
Abstract: A bacterial gene which encodes an enzyme that is an acyl-CoA reductase. The acyl-CoA reductase is able to chemically reduce acyl-CoAs to their corresponding alcohols, via aldehyde intermediates.
Type:
Grant
Filed:
February 19, 1998
Date of Patent:
November 7, 2000
Assignee:
The United States of America as represented by the United States Department of Energy
Abstract: The invention relates to clean burning of fuel oil with air. More specifically, to a fuel burning combustion head using a low-pressure, high air flow atomizing nozzle so that there will be a complete combustion oil resulting in a minimum emission of pollutants. The inventors have devised a fuel burner that uses a low pressure air atomizing nozzle. The improved fuel burner does not result in the use of additional compressors or the introduction of pressurized gases downstream, nor does it require a complex design.
Type:
Grant
Filed:
September 28, 1998
Date of Patent:
August 15, 2000
Assignee:
U.S. Department of Energy
Inventors:
Thomas A. Butcher, Yusuf Celebi, Leonard Fisher
Abstract: A method is provided for detecting pathological macromolecules in a patient, comprising obtaining body fluid from the patient, pretreating the body fluid, subjecting the pretreated body fluid to size-exclusion chromatography to create an excluded fluid, and analyzing the excluded fluid to detect macromolecules having a predetermined molecular weight. The method also allows for comparing elution spectra with reference spectra of suspect pathologic proteins.
Type:
Grant
Filed:
January 19, 1996
Date of Patent:
May 16, 2000
Assignees:
The United States of America as represented by the United States Department of Energy, The University of Tennessee
Inventors:
Fred J. Stevens, Elizabeth A. Myatt, Alan Solomon