Abstract: Hazardous and carcinogenic asbestos waste characterized by a crystalline fibrous structure is transformed into non-carcinogenic, relatively nonhazardous, and non-crystalline solid compounds and gaseous compounds which have commercial utilization. The asbestos waste is so transformed by the complete fluorination of the crystalline fibrous silicate mineral defining the asbestos.

Abstract: A fuel cell and gas turbine combined cycle system which includes dual fuel cell cycles combined with a gas turbine cycle wherein a solid oxide fuel cell cycle operated at a pressure of between 6 to 15 atms tops the turbine cycle and is used to produce CO.sub.2 for a molten carbonate fuel cell cycle which bottoms the turbine and is operated at essentially atmospheric pressure. A high pressure combustor is used to combust the excess fuel from the topping fuel cell cycle to further heat the pressurized gas driving the turbine. A low pressure combustor is used to combust the excess fuel from the bottoming fuel cell to reheat the gas stream passing out of the turbine which is used to preheat the pressurized air stream entering the topping fuel cell before passing into the bottoming fuel cell cathode. The CO.sub.2 generated in the solid oxide fuel cell cycle cascades through the system to the molten carbonate fuel cell cycle cathode.

Abstract: Durable zinc-oxide containing sorbent pellets for removing hydrogen sulfide from a gas stream at an elevated temperature are made up to contain titania as a diluent, high-surface-area silica gel, and a binder. These materials are mixed, moistened, and formed into pellets, which are then dried and calcined. The resulting pellets undergo repeated cycles of sulfidation and regeneration without loss of reactivity and without mechanical degradation. Regeneration of the pellets is carried out by contacting the bed with an oxidizing gas mixture.

Abstract: A powder evacuated thermal insulating panel using generally spherical and porous silica particles of a median size less than about 100 nanometers in diameter, a pour packing density of about 0.4 to 0.6 g/cm.sup.3 and an external surface area in the range of about 90 to 600 m.sup.2/ g is described. The silica powders are prepared by reacting a tetraakyl silicate with ammonia and water in an alcohol solvent, distilling the solution after the reaction to remove the ammonia and recover the alcohol. The resulting aqueous slurry was dried, ball-milled, and dried again to provide the silica particles with defined internal and external porosity. The nanometer size and the large external surface area of the silica particles along with the internal and external porosity of the silica particles provide powder evacuated thermal insulating panels with significantly higher R-values than obtainable using previously known silica powders.

Abstract: The invention is a process for direct conversion of solid radioactive waste, particularly spent nuclear fuel and its cladding, if any, into a solidified waste glass. A sacrificial metal oxide, dissolved in a glass bath, is used to oxidize elemental metal and any carbon values present in the waste as they are fed to the bath. Two different modes of operation are possible, depending on the sacrificial metal oxide employed. In the first mode, a regenerable sacrificial oxide, e.g., PbO, is employed, while the second mode features use of disposable oxides such as ferric oxide.

Abstract: A coal-fired gas turbine engine is provided with an on-site coal preparation and engine feeding arrangement. With this arrangement, relatively large dry particles of coal from an on-site coal supply are micro-pulverized and the resulting dry, micron-sized, coal particulates are conveyed by steam or air into the combustion chamber of the engine. Thermal energy introduced into the coal particulates during the micro-pulverizing step is substantially recovered since the so-heated coal particulates are fed directly from the micro-pulverizer into the combustion chamber.

Abstract: A process for depositing a diamond coating on a substrate at temperatures less than about 550.degree. C. A powder mixture of glassy carbon and diamond particles is passed through a high velocity oxy-flame apparatus whereupon the powders are heated prior to impingement at high velocity against the substrate. The powder mixture contains between 5 and 50 powder volume percent of the diamond particles, and preferably between 5 and 15 powder volume percent. The particles have a size from about 5 to about 100 micrometers, with the diamond particles being about 5 to about 30 micrometers. The flame of the apparatus provides a velocity of about 350 to about 1000 meters per second, with the result that upon impingement upon the substrate, the glassy carbon is phase transformed to diamond as coaxed by the diamond content of the powder mixture.

Abstract: An indirect-heated gas turbine cycle is bottomed with a fuel cell cycle with the heated air discharged from the gas turbine being directly utilized at the cathode of the fuel cell for the electricity-producing electrochemical reaction occurring within the fuel cell. The hot cathode recycle gases provide a substantial portion of the heat required for the indirect heating of the compressed air used in the gas turbine cycle. A separate combustor provides the balance of the heat needed for the indirect heating of the compressed air used in the gas turbine cycle. Hot gases from the fuel cell are used in the combustor to reduce both the fuel requirements of the combustor and the NOx emissions therefrom. Residual heat remaining in the air-heating gases after completing the heating thereof is used in a steam turbine cycle or in an absorption refrigeration cycle.

Abstract: A control loop and fluidization quality analyzer for a fluidized bed utilizes time varying pressure drop measurements. A fast-response pressure transducer measures the overall bed pressure drop, or over some segment of the bed, and the pressure drop signal is processed to produce an output voltage which changes with the degree of fluidization turbulence.

Abstract: A nondestructive method, and associated apparatus, are provided for determining the grain flow of the grains in a convex curved, textured polycrystalline surface. The convex, curved surface of a polycrystalline article is aligned in a horizontal x-ray diffractometer and a monochromatic, converging x-ray beam is directed onto the curved surface of the polycrystalline article so that the converging x-ray beam is diffracted by crystallographic planes of the grains in the polycrystalline article. The diffracted x-ray beam is caused to pass through a set of horizontal, parallel slits to limit the height of the beam and thereafter. The linear intensity of the diffracted x-ray is measured, using a linear position sensitive proportional counter, as a function of position in a direction orthogonal to the counter so as to generate two dimensional data. An image of the grains in the curved surface of the polycrystalline article is provided based on the two-dimensional data.

Abstract: An improved electrochemically active system and method including a plurality of electrochemical devices, such as fuel cells and fluid separation devices, in which the anode and cathode process-fluid flow chambers are connected in fluid-flow arrangements so that the operating parameters of each of said plurality of electrochemical devices which are dependent upon process-fluid parameters may be individually controlled to provide improved operating efficiency. The improvements in operation include improved power efficiency and improved fuel utilization in fuel cell power generating systems and reduced power consumption in fluid separation devices and the like through interstage process fluid parameter control for series networked electrochemical devices. The improved networking method includes recycling of various process flows to enhance the overall control scheme.

Abstract: A security barrier for placement across a passageway is made up of interconnected pressurized tubing made up in a grid pattern with openings too small to allow passage. The tubing is connected to a pressure switch, located away from the barrier site, which activates an alarm upon occurrence of a pressure drop. A reinforcing bar is located inside and along the length of the tubing so as to cause the tubing to rupture and set off the alarm upon an intruder's making an attempt to crimp and seal off a portion of the tubing by application of a hydraulic tool. Radial and rectangular grid patterns are disclosed.

Abstract: A compensation system for a computer-controlled machining apparatus having a controller and including a cutting tool and a workpiece holder which are movable relative to one another along preprogrammed path during a machining operation utilizes sensors for gathering information at a preselected stage of a machining operation relating to an actual condition. The controller compares the actual condition to a condition which the program presumes to exist at the preselected stage and alters the program in accordance with detected variations between the actual condition and the assumed condition. Such conditions may be related to process parameters, such as a position, dimension or shape of the cutting tool or workpiece or an environmental temperature associated with the machining operation, and such sensors may be a contact or a non-contact type of sensor or a temperature transducer.

Abstract: The regeneration of sulfur sorbents having sulfate forming tendencies and used for desulfurizing hot product gas streams such as provided by coal gasification is provided by employing a two-stage regeneration method. Air containing a sub-stoichiometric quantity of oxygen is used in the first stage for substantially fully regenerating the sorbent without sulfate formation and then regeneration of the resulting partially regenerated sorbent is completed in the second stage with air containing a quantity of oxygen slightly greater than the stoichiometric amount adequate to essentially fully regenerate the sorbent. Sulfate formation occurs in only the second stage with the extent of sulfate formation being limited only to the portion of the sulfur species contained by the sorbent after substantially all of the sulfur species have been removed therefrom in the first stage.

Abstract: A hot compression process for forming integral edge seals in anode and cade assemblies wherein the assemblies are made to a nominal size larger than a finished size, beads of AFLAS are applied to a band adjacent the peripheral margins on both sides of the assemblies, the assemblies are placed in a hot press and compressed for about five minutes with a force sufficient to permeate the peripheral margins with the AFLAS, cooled and cut to finished size.

Abstract: A real time ultrasonic surface contour mapping system is provided including a digitally controlled phased-array of transmitter/receiver (T/R) elements located in a fixed position above the surface to be mapped. The surface is divided into a predetermined number of pixels which are separately scanned by an arrangement of T/R elements by applying phase delayed signals thereto that produce ultrasonic tone bursts from each T/R that arrive at a point X in phase and at the same time relative to the leading edge of the tone burst pulse so that the acoustic energies from each T/R combine in a reinforcing manner at point X. The signals produced by the reception of the echo signals reflected from point X back to the T/Rs are also delayed appropriately so that they add in phase at the input of a signal combiner. This combined signal is then processed to determine the range to the point X using density-corrected sound velocity values.

Abstract: A staged fluidized-bed combustion and filter system for substantially reducing the quantity of waste through the complete combustion into ash-type solids and gaseous products. The device has two fluidized-bed portions, the first primarily as a combustor/pyrolyzer bed, and the second as a combustor/filter bed. The two portions each have internal baffles to define stages so that material moving therein as fluidized beds travel in an extended route through those stages. Fluidization and movement is achieved by the introduction of gases into each stage through a directional nozzle. Gases produced in the combustor/pyrolyzer bed are permitted to travel into corresponding stages of the combustor/filter bed through screen filters that permit gas flow but inhibit solids flow. Any catalyst used in the combustor/filter bed is recycled. The two beds share a common wall to minimize total volume of the system. A slightly modified embodiment can be used for hot gas desulfurization and sorbent regeneration.

Abstract: A system for damping oscillatory and spinning motions induced in an electromagnetically levitated material. Two opposed field magnets are located orthogonally to the existing levitation coils for providing a DC quadrupole field (cusp field) around the material. The material used for generating the DC quadrupole field must be nonconducting to avoid eddy-current heating and of low magnetic permeability to avoid distorting the induction fields providing the levitation.

Abstract: A shielded fluid-stream injector assembly is provided for particle bed reactors. The assembly includes a perforated pipe injector disposed across the particle bed region of the reactor and an inverted V-shaped shield placed over the pipe, overlapping it to prevent descending particles from coming into direct contact with the pipe. The pipe and shield are fixedly secured at one end to the reactor wall and slidably secured at the other end to compensate for thermal expansion. An axially extending housing aligned with the pipe and outside the reactor and an in-line reamer are provided for removing deposits from the inside of the pipe. The assembly enables fluid streams to be injected and distributed uniformly into the particle bed with minimized clogging of injector ports. The same design may also be used for extraction of fluid streams from particle bed reactors.

Abstract: A grate assembly for a coal gasifier of a moving-bed or fixed-bed type is provided for crushing agglomerates of solid material such as clinkers, tailoring the radial distribution of reactant gases entering the gasification reaction zone, and control of the radial distribution of downwardly moving solid velocities in the gasification and combustion zone. The clinker crushing is provided by pinching clinkers between vertically oriented stationary bars and angled bars supported on the upper surface of a rotating conical grate. The distribution of the reactant gases is provided by the selective positioning of horizontally oriented passageways extending through the grate. The radial distribution of the solids is provided by mounting a vertically and generally radially extending scoop mechanism on the upper surface of the grate near the apex thereof.