Much of the discussion around China's options for significantly limiting carbon dioxide emissions has been all or nothing - that the country either continue increasing its domestic use of coal with parallel increases in greenhouse gas emissions or that it stop using coal completely and endure the economic consequences.

The new study shows there is a much-needed third option for addressing these twin challenges — large-scale deployment of carbon dioxide (CO₂) capture and storage technologies. The study identifies enormous and widely distributed deep geologic CO₂ storage formations in China that could allow for cost-effective, large-scale deployment of capture and storage technologies for at least 100 years.

Click here to view of summary of the report's findings.

 "For the first time ever, we have quantified the potential for future large-scale carbon capture and storage deployment within China," said Bob Dahowski, lead scientist for this research at the Department of Energy's Pacific Northwest National Laboratory. "Our work suggests that CO₂ capture and storage can provide a key element of China's portfolio of options for cost effectively reducing greenhouse gas emissions."

Until now, the scientific community had a limited understanding of the potential magnitude for large-scale deployment of CO₂ storage in China. PNNL teamed with scientists from the Chinese Academy of Sciences' Institute of Rock and Soil Mechanics (IRSM) in this five-year study. The team's key findings include:

• China has enough deep geologic CO₂ storage capacity to meet anticipated demand for up to 100 years and potentially more - specifically, the capacity to store as much as 2,300 billion metric tons of CO₂;
• There are more than 1,620 large stationary CO₂ emission sources in China. They include coal-fired power plants, cement kilns, steel mills, refineries and other industrial facilities.
• These sources collectively emit more than 3.8 billion metric tons of CO₂ each year — 70 percent of these large point source emissions are from coal-fired power plants.
• More than 90 percent of these power plants and CO₂-emitting facilities are located within 100 miles of a potential carbon storage reservoir. This close proximity means that CO₂ capture and storage technologies could be widely deployed across most regions of China with little need to build extensive long-distance CO₂ pipelines.
• The close proximity also means that the expense of transporting, storing and ensuring the long-term fate of the injected CO₂ within these storage reservoirs should be less than $10 per ton for most projects. These estimates are exclusive of the costs of capture, compression and dehydration, which will be considered in future iterations of this work.
• An initial evaluation of potential offshore storage options suggests that offshore basins may be able to safely store as much as 780 billion metric tons of CO₂.

The team surveyed China's candidate deep geological carbon dioxide storage reserves onshore and offshore; mapped locations of the largest stationary CO₂ emissions sources; assessed CO₂ pipeline infrastructure needs; and evaluated the economics of deploying CO₂ transport and storage technologies to China's large and well-distributed deep geologic CO₂ storage formations.

These findings are important as the international community looks for ways to balance economic growth and the resulting demands for energy with the need to reduce and mitigate greenhouse gas emissions globally. 

In fact, this week the Carbon Sequestration Leadership Forum (CLSF) awarded the team its Recognition Award for this project during its 3^rd Ministerial Meeting in London. The CSLF is a Ministerial-level international climate change initiative focused on development of carbon capture and sequestration technologies. The award was presented to the research team comprised of PNNL, IRSM and Leonardo Technologies, Inc.

"We're proud of how productive this collaboration with our Chinese colleagues has been and that we now have a fundamentally better understanding of how carbon dioxide capture and storage technologies - a key climate mitigation technology option - could work in such a large and growing economy as China's," Dahowski said. "We're honored by the CSLF's recognition of our work."

Support for this research has been provided by the Department of Energy's Office of Fossil Energy, Leonardo Technologies, Inc. and the Global Energy Technology Strategy Program.

The final report for this study will be available in November and can be requested by sending email and mailing address information to pnl.media.relations@pnl.gov.

Preliminary findings were presented at the GHGT9 International Greenhouse Gas Conference in November 2008 and later published in Energy Procedia.

A preliminary cost curve assessment of carbon dioxide capture and storage potential in China
Energy Procedia, Volume 1, Issue 1, February 2009, Pages 2849-2856
R.T. Dahowski, X. Li, C.L. Davidson, N. Wei, J.J. Dooley, R.H. Gentile

This project will focus on capture technology developed by Fluor Corporation (NYSE: FLR) and will take place at Boise's pulp and paper mill near Wallula, Wash.  The seven-month study was funded by the DOE's Office of Fossil Energy and managed by the National Energy Technology Laboratory. It was one of 12 projects totaling $21.6 million in American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA) funding that DOE awarded recently for large-scale industrial carbon capture and storage.

Successful completion of the study could pave the way for pulp, paper and other industries to use technology that captures carbon dioxide (CO₂).

"This study provides us an opportunity to assess the feasibility of safely and permanently storing CO₂ in deep underground basalt formations for a commercial-scale operation," said Pete McGrail, Laboratory Fellow at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory and chief scientist for the project.  Battelle operates PNNL for DOE.

In Phase One, the team will develop a conceptual design for a sequestration system integrated with Fluor's capture system technology that could support injecting about 720,000 tons a year of CO₂ into a deep flood basalt formation.

"This project will evaluate the potential for an enhanced competitive position for our Boise Wallula mill, and this feasibility study fits squarely within our broader companywide strategy to reduce carbon emissions," said Nick Nachbar, Boise's Wallula mill manager.  The company has made voluntary commitments to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions.

Coupling the capture system with permanent geologic sequestration of the CO₂ represents an opportunity for Boise - and the pulp and paper industry in general - to seek a potentially new revenue source from carbon credits that would be generated once a fully functional U.S. market for carbon credits has developed.

Fluor will design a customized version of its Econamine FG Plus^SM carbon capture technology for operation with the specialized chemical composition of exhaust gases produced from combustion of black liquor fuels.  Fluor will determine whether any special modifications are needed to accommodate flue gas produced at the mill, including potential side benefits of reducing emissions of sulfur compounds, which produce odors.  The technology has been commercially proven on numerous industrial facilities for more than 20 years.  This will be the first use on flue gas for the paper industry.

"Deep flood basalts can play a key role in helping meet global CO₂ emissions targets," said McGrail.  "Flood basalt formations exist in several locations of the U. S. and in other countries worldwide, such as India."

According to DOE, projects will be subject to further competitive evaluation in 2010 after successful completion of their Phase One activities.  Projects that best demonstrate the ability to address the agency's mission needs will be in the final portfolio that will receive additional funding for design, construction and operation.

Should the Phase One feasibility evaluation be successful, project partners may propose a second-phase, commercial-design study with funding that could exceed $100 million.  Both phases - if awarded - could be supported under the ARRA, which allocates a total of $1.4 billion in funding for carbon capture and storage from industrial sources.

During the Phase One assessment there will be no construction, drilling, field characterization or CO₂ injection.  Battelle and Boise are conducting a separate field research project exploring the ability of basalt formations to sequester carbon on that site.  The field study is part of a DOE-funded program administered by the National Energy Technology Laboratory through the Big Sky Carbon Sequestration Partnership to facilitate commercial testing and deployment of carbon capture and storage.

Battelle has completed conceptual designs for more commercial-scale carbon capture and sequestration systems than any organization in the world.

About Boise Inc.

Headquartered in Boise, Idaho, Boise Inc. (NYSE: BZ) manufactures packaging products and papers including corrugated containers, containerboard, label and release and flexible packaging papers, imaging papers for the office and home, printing and converting papers, newsprint, and market pulp.  Visit www.BoiseInc.com.

Boise Inc. has set voluntary goals to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions through the Environmental Protection Agency Climate Leaders partnership.  The company has also joined the Chicago Climate Exchange, the world's first and North America's only voluntary, legally-binding integrated greenhouse gas emissions reduction, registry, and trading system.

About Fluor Corporation

Fluor Corporation (NYSE: FLR) designs, builds and maintains many of the world's most challenging and complex projects.  Through its global network of offices on six continents, the company provides comprehensive capabilities and world-class expertise in the fields of engineering, procurement, construction, commissioning, operations, maintenance, and project management.  Headquartered in Irving, Texas, Fluor is a FORTUNE 200 company and had revenues of $22.3 billion in 2008.  For more information, visit www.fluor.com.

The award, which is sponsored by AgustaWestland North America, Inc., also comes with a $25,000 prize.

In naming Thomas its 2009 winner, the foundation noted Thomas has been recognized internationally for his work, including transferring technology to the marketplace, and has served as a science advisor to government agencies, and academic and industrial institutions.

Thomas was specifically recognized for his leadership of the Department of Homeland Security's National Visualization and Analytics Center, which is located at PNNL.  NVAC was established in 2004 to provide scientific guidance and coordination for the research and development of new tools and methods that DHS has identified as required for managing, visually representing, and analyzing enormous amounts of diverse data and information.  Development of these visualization tools enables analysts to more effectively identify signs of terrorist intent or attacks in their earliest stages and ultimately to prevent terrorist plots before they occur.

While visual analytics is being used to detect, predict, prevent and respond to acts of terrorism, the emerging scientific field also has a broader role to play beyond homeland security, says Thomas. 

"Visual analytics can be used wherever there's a need to sort through a staggering amount of information or complex data, or where there's a need to uncover hidden relationships within the data," he said.  "It helps you detect the expected and discover the unexpected."

"For example, emergency responders and health officials can use visual analytics to reduce effects of natural disasters, companies and government organizations can protect against cyber attacks and it can be used by customs, law enforcement and other officials to improve public safety."

"Jim has had the rare opportunity to be the leader in developing the new science field of visual analytics," said Kimberly Owens, foundation chair.  "Jim has been instrumental in crafting collaborative agreements between the United States, Canada and Germany, and he has inspired degree and certificate programs so future generations will carry on the work he has begun."

Thomas will be honored at an Oct. 13 evening ceremony in the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C.

Congress established the Christopher Columbus Fellowship Foundation in 1992 to "encourage and support research, study and labor designed to produce new discoveries in all fields of endeavor for the benefit of mankind."  Each year, the foundation honors American citizens who improve the world through scientific endeavors.  Since 2003, the foundation has awarded Homeland Security Awards to citizens or companies "that are making a measurable and constructive contribution related to basic and/or advanced research in the area of homeland security which will result in a significant and positive benefit to society."  Recipients are selected from hundreds of nominations and are chosen by a panel of science, policy and other experts.

Thomas is the fourth PNNL staff member to be recognized by the Christopher Columbus Fellowship Foundation.  In 2007, Doug McMakin won the foundation's Homeland Security Award for his leadership in developing a security system that detects concealed metallic and nonmetallic items and is being used globally for security at borders, airports and other facilities.

In 2004, PNNL's Aaron Diaz was named one of four Columbus Scholars for his scientific research and engineering developments that led to advanced ultrasonic nondestructive examination measurement, imaging and analysis technologies.  The work resulted in the Acoustic Inspection Device, which is used by custom officers at ports of entry and by other law enforcement officials for counterterrorism and drug interdiction activities.

In 2001, Richard Craig received the Christopher Columbus Foundation Award and a $100,000 fellowship for his work on the Timed Neutron Detector, which quickly and inexpensively locates metal and plastic landmines by recognizing the presence of hydrogen in mine casings.

The $75 million facilities represent the first new buildings on PNNL's campus since 1995. The buildings will primarily support research in biological systems science and data-intensive computing for DOE, the Department of Homeland Security, the National Institutes of Health and other organizations.

"These buildings represent the future of the Laboratory - providing us advanced equipment and tools needed to have an even greater impact," said PNNL Director Mike Kluse. "We have some great scientists, and these facilities will provide them the equipment and tools they need to advance science and deliver science-based solutions."

More than 300 PNNL staff will work in these buildings -- called the Biological Sciences Facility (BSF) and the Computational Sciences Facility (CSF).

"This is an important step in the modernization of the Laboratory and will move scientists out of Cold War-era facilities to buildings that will enable a new generation of discovery and advancement," said Mike Weis, manager of the Pacific Northwest Site Office. PNNL needed to vacate laboratory and office space it was using on the south end of the nearby Hanford Site by 2011 as part of DOE's environmental cleanup efforts there.

In the BSF, scientists will focus on gaining a fundamental understanding of biological systems that are needed to more effectively use microorganisms for renewable bioenergy and carbon sequestration; prevent contaminants from moving through groundwater; and improve our systems-level understanding of how low-dose radiation and other factors affect human health. BSF will house state-of-the-art analytical equipment and powerful computing capabilities that enable scientists to combine experimental and computational approaches. For example, scientists are studying communities of microbes in hopes of predicting their behavior and then manipulating them to produce a valuable product or process such as renewable bioenergy.

In the CSF, scientists will develop solutions for the growing challenge of data overload -common to the scientific and national security communities. For example, a single scientific experiment can produce a terabyte of data - too much for a person to interpret. Intelligence analysts face similar challenges collecting and processing real-time data streams - from video to audio to text -they must analyze to better predict and detect threats. PNNL researchers are leaders in the development of data-intensive computing solutions - a way to capture, manage, analyze and help users understand massive amounts of data using innovative computing hardware and software technologies. CSF includes 10,000 square feet of raised floor space to accommodate data-intensive and high-performance computing hardware and data storage solutions.

CSF is home to the Center for Adaptive Supercomputing Software, which provides solutions for improving the execution speed of irregular, data-intensive applications like power grid analysis and bioinformatics. PNNL researchers who support the National Visualization and Analytics Center will also work in CSF. NVAC is a Department of Homeland Security program operated by PNNL that is helping local and state emergency responders and government analysts understand and address terrorist threats.

The Cowperwood Company, a real estate development company headquartered in New York City, privately financed the buildings and will lease them to Battelle, which operates PNNL for DOE.

CTL Capital, an investment banking firm based in New York City, structured the financing for these facilities. And the Seattle office of KMD Architects, based in San Francisco, designed the buildings. D.E. Harvey Builders, based in Houston, served as the general contractor and led construction. Ground was broken in June 2008.

Another new facility - the Physical Sciences Facility (PSF) - is being built to replace capabilities that currently reside in buildings set for demolition on the Hanford Site. Construction began on PSF in 2007 and will be complete in 2010. The PSF comprises three main buildings - Radiation Detection, Materials Science & Technology, and Ultra-Trace - as well as a high bay for research, a laboratory located 40 feet below the surface, and a radiation portal monitoring test track. These facilities will house about 450 staff who support national security and energy research missions. DOE's Office of Science, the National Nuclear Security Administration and the Department of Homeland Security are funding the 200,000-square-foot, $224 million facility

About Cowperwood

Cowperwood headquartered in New York City, designs, builds and leases office and associated laboratory and classified space to the private sector and federal government. They currently own and manage more than two million square feet of general office and associated space for the General Services Administration, and private sector research and engineering companies performing federal contracts.

About KMD Architects

Founded in 1963 as Kaplan McLaughlin Diaz, KMD Architects has eight offices and 190 employees. The firm opened its Seattle office in 1992 after KMD was retained to design the expansion of Harborview Medical Center.

About D.E. Harvey Builders

D.E. Harvey Builders is a full-service general contractor with offices in Houston, Austin and Washington, D.C. They provide general contracting, pre-construction, design-build and construction management services.

Unfortunately, because of the high volume, PNNL staff are unable to respond personally.

Potential candidates are encouraged to consult PNNL's Jobs site, http://jobs.pnl.gov/, and formally apply for positions for which they meet the minimum requirements.

PNNL has more than 100 positions open - of those, more than 50 would support the Laboratory's energy and environment mission. In the buildings research area, which was mentioned in the AP article, PNNL is hiring senior buildings engineers, junior buildings engineers, senior commercial buildings energy analysts, senior residential buildings energy analysts, and building energy modelers.

Other openings cross the science and technology spectrum, in areas as diverse as electricity infrastructure, nuclear engineering, biology and information technology.

The media is invited to attend the ceremony and afterward to participate in a brief tour of laboratory and office space. Please see Special Instructions below for information on tours. A reception will follow the ceremony.

When:

9 a.m. Friday, Oct. 9, with arrival required by 8:45 a.m. The ceremony is expected to last at least 30 minutes.

Where:

Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (Please see Directions below)

Speakers include:

• Roland Hirsch, DOE Office of Science, Biological and Environmental Research
• U.S. Congressman Doc Hastings

With additional remarks by Mike Kluse, PNNL director; Mike Weis, Pacific Northwest Site Office manager; and John Harvey, president of Cowperwood.

Special instructions:

There will be parking reserved for members of the media. Please watch for signs directing you to reserved parking. Additionally, media must arrive no later than 8:45 a.m. and be set up by 9 a.m. to limit disruptions of the program. Late arrivals will not be guaranteed access to audio equipment or to the media stage.

Media who wish to receive a tour must contact Katherine Morra (509-375-3776) by 2 p.m. on Thursday, Oct. 8, 2009 to secure an access badge. Only reporters with access badges will be allowed to participate in tours.

The Human Proteome Organization, or HUPO, honored Smith with its annual Discovery Award. HUPO is an international scientific organization dedicated to promoting proteomics. As the workhorses of cells, proteins take the instructions coded in a chromosome's genes and turn them into a functioning organism. Proteomics seeks to understand what proteins are functioning in healthy tissues — and when — and how dysfunction leads to disease. Proteomics researchers want to use this information to enable both better detection of diseases and to understand what is needed to develop better cures.

In receiving this award, Smith gave a special address to the 8th Annual HUPO World Congress on Proteomics and Human Health: Environment and Disease. In his presentation, Smith described some of the proteomics developments that earned him this recognition, concluding with a description of a new platform that analyzes samples at least ten times faster than its predecessor. Smith has received dozens of patents while leading the creation of these instruments that can separate and identify proteins and other molecules with higher sensitivity, accuracy and resolution for biological and biomedical applications.

Smith leads a team of a couple dozen physicists, biochemists, engineers and computer scientists at PNNL and EMSL, DOE's Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory on PNNL's campus. Their instruments are based on separation methods that include liquid chromatography and ion mobility in combination with mass spectrometry.

A flash of light turns graphene into a biosensor

Disease diagnosis, toxin detection and more are possible with DNA-graphene nanostructure

Biomedical researchers suspect graphene, a novel nanomaterial made of sheets of single carbon atoms, would be useful in a variety of applications. But no one had studied the interaction between graphene and DNA, the building block of all living things. To learn more, PNNL's Zhiwen Tang, Yuehe Lin and colleagues from both PNNL and Princeton University built nanostructures of graphene and DNA. They attached a fluorescent molecule to the DNA to track the interaction. Tests showed that the fluorescence dimmed significantly when single-stranded DNA rested on graphene, but that double-stranded DNA only darkened slightly - an indication that single-stranded DNA had a stronger interaction with graphene than its double-stranded cousin. The researchers then examined whether they could take advantage of the difference in fluorescence and binding. When they added complementary DNA to single-stranded DNA-graphene structures, they found the fluorescence glowed anew. This suggested the two DNAs intertwined and left the graphene surface as a new molecule.

DNA's ability to turns its fluorescent light switch on and off when near graphene could be used to create a biosensor, the researchers propose. Possible applications for a DNA-graphene biosensor include diagnosing diseases like cancer, detecting toxins in tainted food and detecting pathogens from biological weapons. Other tests also revealed that single-stranded DNA attached to graphene was less prone to being broken down by enzymes, which makes graphene-DNA structures especially stable. This could lead to drug delivery for gene therapy. Tang discussed this research and some of its possible applications in medicine, food safety and biodefense. (Contact: Franny White, 509-375-6904)

This research was funded by PNNL as part of its Transformational Materials Science Initiative.

Reference: Zhiwen Tang, Biofunctionalization of Graphene for Biosensing and Imaging, Tuesday, Sept. 22, 2009 Micro Nano Breakthrough Conference, Portland, Ore.

A splash of graphene improves battery materials

Thin carbon sheets enhance titanium dioxide-based batteries

Researchers would like to develop lithium-ion batteries using titanium dioxide, an inexpensive material. But titanium dioxide on its own doesn't perform well enough to replace the expensive, rare-earth metals or fire-prone carbon-based materials used in today's lithium-ion batteries. To test whether graphene, a good conductor on its own, can help, PNNL's Gary Yang and colleagues added graphene, sheets made up of single carbon atoms, to titanium dioxide. When they compared how well the new combination of electrode materials charged and discharged electric current, the electrodes containing graphene outperformed the standard titanium dioxide by up to three times. Graphene also performed better as an additive than carbon nanotubes. Yang discussed this work and provided an overview of the field of electrical storage materials. (Contact Mary Beckman, 509-375-3688)

This research was funded by PNNL.

Reference: Jun Liu, Multifunctional materials from self-assembly for energy storage, Tuesday, Sept. 22,2009 Micro Nano Breakthrough Conference, Portland, Ore. NOTE: Gary Yang spoke in place of Jun Liu.

The study shows that aluminum atoms in the supporting material thirsty for another bond grab and anchor platinum. The anchors allow platinum atoms to group into rafts that float above the supporting surface, providing ample space for catalytic reactions.

Researchers in the Institute for Interfacial Catalysis at the Department of Energy's Pacific Northwest National Laboratory and at DOE's Oak Ridge National Laboratory performed the analysis of the industrial catalyst known as aluminum oxide-supported platinum. Such precious metal and oxide combinations are the most common kinds of industrial catalysts. The new work will help engineers control the preparation of the catalyst, which will lead to performance improvements.

"We've been able to specifically identify an important site for the anchoring of platinum on the aluminum oxide surface that's formed during synthesis," said PNNL chemist Chuck Peden and coauthor of the study. "Although platinum rafts have been observed before, this is the first time we've had a clear molecular-level view of the processes that create them."

Supporting Role

In these catalysts, the oxides are merely a surface on which the precious metals sit while the metals break and form bonds in other molecules, such as those found in automobile exhaust. The most efficient catalysts spread the precious metals evenly over the surface of the oxide. Inefficient ones have precious metal atoms balled up in clumps, with the interior atoms unavailable to do their job on incoming molecules.

Chemists working with gamma-aluminum oxide supports and platinum metal knew that under some conditions, rafts of platinum atoms could form on the oxide surface. Unlike balls of atoms, rafts present most of their resident atoms to incoming molecules, making them desirable structures. But to control production of the rafts, the team had to learn how they formed.

To find out, the team used powerful instruments at EMSL, DOE's Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory on the PNNL campus, and the High Temperature Materials Laboratory at ORNL. The team prepared gamma-aluminum oxide under typical catalyst synthesis conditions and examined the supporting material before and after adding platinum.

Fabulous Five

First, they examined the chemical nature of the support at EMSL, which houses one of the world's largest instruments of its kind — a 900-megahertz nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectrometer. The NMR provided unprecedented resolution of the aluminum oxide support, which allowed the team to identify aluminum atoms with certain properties. By their chemical nature, aluminum atoms prefer to be bound to either four or six atoms. The team found, in the absence of platinum, that some were bound to an uncomfortable five.

Adding platinum to the mix, however, caused the number of aluminum atoms with five bonds to decrease, and the number of atoms with six bonds to increase. The number of four-bonded atoms stayed constant, suggesting that platinum atoms anchor at sites with come-hither, five-bonded aluminum atoms, so-called penta sites.

The team found they could increase the number of penta sites by raising the temperature during catalyst synthesis. More penta sites meant more platinum atoms bound to the support.

Having found anchor points, the team zoomed in with the JEOL 2200FS aberration-corrected microscope, which could discern individual platinum atoms, at HTML. At low concentrations of the metal, individual platinum atoms showed up as bright spots scattered across the dark surface. At higher concentrations, the telltale image of platinum rafts could be seen above the aluminum oxide.

Penta Pontoons

Lastly, the team showed that penta-aluminum atoms were needed for the rafts to form. Alpha-aluminum oxide does not contain penta sites. When the researchers looked under the microscope at catalyst material formed with alpha-aluminum oxide, platinum atoms formed balls that tottered around on the surface instead of tidy rafts.

Theoretical analysis that took into account all the experimental data yielded a model of how the catalyst material forms. The results provide insight into how they could produce a better performing catalyst.

"This understanding we've gained suggests some additional tricks one could play to get better dispersion of the platinum atoms," said Peden. "For example, if we can find conditions at which we can add the platinum at higher temperature on a larger scale than this experiment, then we would have more anchoring sites available."

Finding the conditions that will allow the chemists to control the number and distribution of penta sites will be the subject of future research.

Reference: Ja Hun Kwak, Jianzhi Hu, Donghai Mei, Cheol-Woo Yi, Do Heui Kim, Charles H.F. Peden, Lawrence F. Allard and Janos Szanyi, Co-ordinatively unsaturated Al³⁺ centers as binding sites for active catalyst phases on γ-Al₂O₃, Science, DOI 10.1126/science.1176745.

This work was supported by the U.S. Department of Energy's Basic Energy Sciences and Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy.

The largest non-industrial catalysis research organization in the U.S., the Institute for Interfacial Catalysis facilitates collaborative research among scientists and engineers across the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory campus and around the globe. Researchers explore a fundamental understanding of catalytic materials and the chemical reactions occurring on catalyst surfaces. This understanding is put to use in developing industrial and environmental solutions to address a secure energy future.

The exercise is part of a pilot demonstration funded by the Department of Homeland Security Domestic Nuclear Detection Office to evaluate radiation detection sensors and operational protocols for the small vessel maritime environment. Small vessels are considered watercraft under 300 gross tons such as recreational boats, yachts and small commercial vessels.

Pacific Northwest National Laboratory coordinated activities with the Coast Guard and Customs and Border Protection, and many other state, local and tribal agencies for the two-day event.  Team members used radiation detection equipment ranging from portable hand-held sensors to boat-mounted systems. 

The Puget Sound was selected for the pilot demonstration because it is home to the third largest commercial and naval port in the U.S, hosts the nation's largest ferry system, and sees significant small vessel traffic regularly entering U.S. waters across the 125 miles of open maritime border.  Increased boat traffic on the Sound is anticipated during the Winter Olympics games to be held in Vancouver, British Columbia, in 2010.

"Our goal was to coordinate efforts by DHS and regional partners to prevent illicit radiological or nuclear materials from entering Puget Sound waterways by way of small vessels," said PNNL Maritime Project Manager Bill Peterson.  "The exercise allowed us to operationally assess these advanced technology systems and protocols."  The pilot directly supports the DHS Small Vessel Security Strategy, which serves to reduce potential security and safety risks on our waterways and at our nation's many ports. 

DHS's Domestic Nuclear Detection Office invested $3.5 million in equipment and training for state and local personnel in preventive radiological detection for the Puget Sound pilot. 

"Our objective is to safely identify and interdict radiological materials as far away as possible from populated areas and critical facilities," said Captain Dave Crowley, USCG at DNDO.  "And, while this improves the region's security, it's essential our efforts cause minimal impact to routine commercial and recreational boating activities."

During the event, PNNL worked with DNDO to coordinate with various federal, state, tribal and regional maritime partners to provide guidance on operational protocols, equipment, equipment training and exercise development for the pilot. 

While authorities stress that no known current threat exists, the opportunity did provide DNDO and its partners a chance to conduct the exercise under real world conditions.  The partnering agencies assessed the geographic layout of the ports and designed a method to maximize detection and interdiction opportunities away from populated areas and critical infrastructure. 

"This week's effort shows we can add another layer of defense and security to Puget Sound waters with minimal impact to law abiding small vessel operators," said Peterson.

Pilot participants included the U.S. Coast Guard (Sector Seattle, Group Port Angeles, CG Auxiliary), Customs and Border Protection (Office of Air and Marine Operations, Field Operations), Federal Bureau of Investigation, Puget Sound Area Maritime Security Committee, Washington State Emergency Management Division, Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, Washington State Patrol, Washington Department of Health, Washington State National Guard 10^th Civil Support Team, Whatcom County Sheriff, Skagit County Sheriff, Snohomish County Sheriff,  Seattle Police, Port of Seattle Police, Seattle Fire, Tacoma Police, Edmonds Police, Everett Police, Port Orchard Police, Bainbridge Island Police, Suquamish Tribal Police and the Port of Everett.

In September 2007, DNDO announced the creation of a three-year West Coast Maritime Pilot program.  It provided an opportunity for state and local authorities in Washington's Puget Sound and in the San Diego, California, area to better understand the current prevention and detection capabilities and to develop a concept of operations on how to detect and interdict potential threats on small vessels.  It also provided an avenue to interact and participate with various federal, state and regional maritime, technical and law enforcement entities.

The award, which comes with a $1.5 million, five-year grant, recognizes researchers early in their careers. Qian has been studying proteomics — or the proteins that make organisms work — at PNNL only since 2002 but has already published more than 60 scientific papers. NIH selected projects that show creativity and are considered high-risk ventures but with the potential to make a significant impact.

"This is great news for Wei-Jun and highlights the significant instrument development capabilities at PNNL," said Doug Ray, director of Fundamental & Computational Sciences at PNNL. "Not many DOE researchers earn such a prestigious NIH award. For his first grant, this is a major achievement."

Qian earned this honor for his proposal to increase the ability of research tools to detect diagnostic molecules in blood or tissue enough so they can replace conventional tools. When patients enter clinics now, they donate up to an ounce or two of blood so that multiple tests can be done. Each test — for cholesterol, liver health, or cancer markers — is generally performed separately. A slate of 20 tests is far more labor and time intensive than just one. Qian would like to develop a single test for 20 markers.

Research laboratories such as those found in EMSL, DOE's molecular sciences laboratory on the PNNL campus, have instruments called mass spectrometers that can identify hundreds of proteins and other molecules floating in a drop of that ounce of blood. Although much faster, the instruments aren't sensitive and accurate enough to compare with the clinical lab tests done one at a time.

"We are aiming to increase the sensitivity of our instrument so that we can detect proteins whose concentrations in blood are very low, and at the same time accurately measure their concentration for hundreds of different proteins — perhaps up to a thousand," said Qian. "We hope this platform will lead to a paradigm change in how clinics do their testing."

Qian's plan will pull together tools that have been in development by the proteomics team at PNNL and EMSL for several years, but it will also require developing new technologies. The complete instrument identifies molecules in a sample such as blood by first separating them by size and shape and then measuring their mass as they flow past a detector.

Because different molecules can have the same mass, the technique breaks down molecules and identifies smaller pieces, which computer programs then recognize as belonging to certain molecules. Different molecules of the same mass will break into different pieces, much as the pieces of a 30-pound bike will be different from those of a 30-pound coffee table.

To improve the instruments' ability to detect rare molecules, Qian and his group have to increase the percentage of molecules in the sample that make it into the instrument at the beginning, as well as how many can be identified individually near the end. To improve the identification of individual molecules, Qian proposed that breaking down fragments into even more pieces will increase the resolving power of the detector.

"Eventually, the instrument will find a piece that is so unique we know which molecule it had to come from," Qian said.

Although such an instrument might replace current clinical tests someday, it will be equally valuable in the research laboratory, enabling scientists to screen many samples much faster than they are capable of now. This will cut down the time to find biomarkers — proteins in the blood that indicate disease. For example, breast cancer researchers have identified almost 1000 proteins that show up or disappear, depending on the protein, when cancer is present. This technology could speed up the experiments needed to determine which of those are important for diagnosing illness.

More than 50 researchers received the NIH Director's New Innovator award this year and they join more than 60 previous winners. Qian is one of the first DOE researchers to receive the New Innovator honor.

More information on the New Innovator Award is at http://nihroadmap.nih.gov/newinnovator.

A complete list of the 2009 recipients' research plans is available at http://nihroadmap.nih.gov/newinnovator/Recipients09.asp.

Who:  Media are invited to attend presentation and demonstration activities.

What: Representatives of participating agencies will discuss the exercise and how it was designed to develop and enhance maritime preventive radiological and nuclear detection and response capabilities.

Demonstrations of several detection systems will be given on the dock and on law enforcement boats.

When:  8:30 a.m. to 10:00 a.m., Thursday, September 24, 2009

Where: U.S. Coast Guard Base Pier 36,1519 Alaskan Way S.,Seattle, WA 98134

Special parking arrangements are available for attending media.  RSVP recommended by contacting Geoff Harvey, (509) 372-6083 or cell (509) 308-9275 by 5:00 p.m. Wednesday, September 23.  Additional information and directions are available up to the morning of the event.

Migration '09 will focus on recent developments in the fundamental chemistry of radioactive elements known as actinides from the molecular level to field scale. Researchers will present new ways of imaging the interface of minerals and water, and new computational approaches will be a theme running through the conference. The presentations include:

Stuck at Five: Uranium gets stuck at an intermediate point when magnetite converts it between oxidation states

Uranium takes several forms under conditions commonly found in contaminated earth. Uranium (VI) can move around a lot underground. But if uranium is converted to another oxidation state known as uranium (IV), the contaminant will stay in place. Researchers want to use ferrous iron, which permeates soils and the subsurface, to help in this conversion. However, laboratory work has suggested that using the ferrous iron-containing mineral magnetite doesn't always convert uranium (VI) to uranium (IV). PNNL researcher Eugene Ilton will present research showing that, under some conditions using magnetite, reduction of uranium (VI) gets hung up at uranium (V), a seemingly unusual oxidation state of uranium for systems that contain water. Although little is known about how easily this intermediate oxidation state of uranium travels through the subsurface, Ilton will discuss conditions that might stabilize it.

Reference: Eugene S. Ilton, John Bargar, Andrew R. Felmy, On the role of U^V in the heterogeneous reduction of U^VI to U^IV, Monday Sept. 21, 4:45 pm at the Three Rivers Convention Center

Charging Forth: Controlling how plutonium gets around

Under ground, where water is present, plutonium travels by forming colloids -- nanometer-sized particles of plutonium dioxide covered in negatively charged ions suspended in water. Because these ions on the particle's surface make it more or less mobile, Argonne National Laboratory chemist Richard Wilson and colleagues explored the surface's chemical nature. Wilson will present data showing that the negatively charged ions can be manipulated on the surface, resulting in particles of a different charge. The particles' chemistry in solution can also be altered. Wilson will discuss how these results can be exploited to control plutonium's movement or possibly clean up the contaminant from certain environments. 

Reference: Richard E. Wilson and Lynda Soderholm, The reactivity of the plutonium colloid surface: Implications for environmental transport, Tuesday Sept. 22, 2:45 pm at the Three Rivers Convention Center

From the beginning: Learning from the Hanford Site

One of the pioneer locations of nuclear technology, Hanford presents a unique environment in which to study nuclear contamination. The six presentations in this session will address issues such as the state of contamination in the soils and subsurface, what chemical and geochemical processes control the migration of contaminants, and the characterization of sludge in storage tanks.

Reference: Hanford Special Session, Wednesday Sept. 23, 8:30 a.m. to 10:55 a.m. at the Three Rivers Convention Center

Elsewhere: How other nations handle nuclear waste

Researchers will discuss the waste disposal programs in other countries besides the United States, including China, Korea, Sweden and Russia. These nations are considering different alternatives for the final disposal of their wastes -- including engineered barrier and other systems that aim to keep radioactive contaminants apart from soils and water systems. Researchers from these countries will discuss the progress they've made in these areas, including the processes such as diffusion that transport ions in the subsurface.

Reference: International Research Programs, Friday Sept. 25, 10:50 a.m. to 12:10 p.m. at the Three Rivers Convention Center

For more information see Migration '09.

Migration '09 is being organized by Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, EMSL (the Department of Energy's Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory), and Washington State University. Each of these entities is known for their expertise and capabilities related to radionuclide fate and transport. Migration is also supported by the European Commission, Bundesministerium für Wirtschaft und Technologie (BMWi), Germany, Forschungszentrum Karlsruhe, Germany, and Energiewerke Baden-Württemberg (EnBW), Germany.

A team of Northwest researchers are examining the unusual life cycle of the Clearwater's fall Chinook salmon to find out why some of them spend extra time in the cool Clearwater before braving the warm Snake. The Clearwater averages about 53 degrees Fahrenheit in the summer, while the Snake averages about 71. The confluence is part of the Lower Granite Reservoir — one of several sections of slow water that are backed up behind lower Snake and Columbia river dams — that could reduce fish's cues to swim downstream.

The delayed migration could also mean Clearwater salmon are more robust and survive better when they finish their ocean-bound trek, said Billy Connor, a fish biologist with the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service.

"It may seem counterintuitive, but the stalled migration of some salmon could actually help them survive better," Connor said. "Juvenile salmon may gamble on being able to dodge predators in reservoirs so they can feast on the reservoirs' rich food, which allows them to grow fast. By the time they swim toward the ocean the next spring, they're bigger and more likely to survive predator attacks and dam passage."

Scientists from the U.S. Geological Survey, the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, the Department of Energy's Pacific Northwest National Laboratory and the University of Washington are wrapping up field studies this fall to determine if water temperature or speed encourage salmon to overwinter in the confluence and in other reservoirs downstream. The Bonneville Power Administration is funding the research to help understand how Snake and Columbia River dams may affect fish.

USGS and USFWS are tracking fish movement by implanting juveniles with radio tags, which are more effective in shallow water. PNNL is complementing that effort with acoustic tags, which work better in deeper water. PNNL is also contributing its hydrology expertise to measure the Clearwater and Snake rivers' physical conditions. UW is providing the statistical analysis of the tagging.

"Fall Chinook salmon on the Clearwater River have a fascinating early life history that may contribute to their successful return as adults," said PNNL fish biologist Brian Bellgraph. "If we can support the viability of such migration patterns in this salmon subpopulation, we will be one step closer to recovering the larger fall Chinook salmon population in the Snake River Basin."

Scientists used to think all juvenile fall Chinook salmon in the Clearwater River migrated to the ocean during the summer and fall after hatching in the spring. But researchers from USGS, USFWS and the Nez Perce Tribe began learning in the early 1990s that some stick around until the next spring. Similar delays have also been found in a select number of other rivers, but this is still the exception rather than the rule. The Clearwater is unique because a high number — as much as 80 percent in some years — of its fall Chinook salmon don't enter the ocean before they're a year old.

To better understand how fish react to the river's physical conditions, scientists are implanting juvenile salmon with the two types of small transmitters that emit different signals. The transmitters — commonly called tags — are pencil eraser-sized devices that are surgically implanted into young fish 3.5 to 6 inches in length. Specially designed receivers record the tags' signals, which researchers use to track fish as they swim. The gathered data helps scientists measure how migration is delayed through the confluence.

Radio tags release radio waves, which are ideal to travel through shallow water and air. And acoustic tags emit higher-frequency sounds, or "pings," that more easily move through deeper water. The acoustic tags being used are part of the Juvenile Salmon Acoustic Telemetry System, which PNNL and NOAA Fisheries developed for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

Together, fish tagged with both acoustic and radio transmitters help create a more comprehensive picture of how the river affects fish travel. The location data can also indicate how well fish fare. If a tag's signal stops moving for an extended period, the fish in which it was implanted might have died. Researchers examine the circumstances of each case to determine the fish's fate.

This study is a unique example of how both tag technologies can jointly determine the survival and migration patterns of the relatively small juvenile fall Chinook salmon. The size of transmitters has decreased considerably in recent years; further size reductions would allow researchers to study even smaller fall Chinook salmon. This could provide further insight into this mysterious migration pattern.

Beyond the fish themselves, researchers will also examine water temperature and flow to determine what correlation the river's physical conditions may have with the fish movement. Salmon use water velocity and temperature as cues to guide them toward the ocean. But the Lower Granite Dam's reservoir, which extends about 39 miles upriver from the dam to Lewiston, makes the water in the Clearwater River's mouth move slowly. Researchers suspect the slow water may encourage some fall juvenile Chinook salmon to delay their journey and spend the winter in the confluence.

To test this hypothesis, PNNL scientists take periodic velocity measurements in the confluence from their research boat. Submerged sensors have recorded water temperatures every few minutes between about June and January since 2007. Both sets of information will be combined to create a computational model of the fish's river habitat.

This study's results could be used to modify river water flow to improve fish survival. The Clearwater's Dworshak Dam already helps manage water temperature by strategically releasing cool water toward the Snake. The waters form thermal layers - with the Snake's warm water on top and the Clearwater's cool liquid below - that fish move through to regulate their body temperatures.

The Nez Perce Tribe began studying fall Chinook salmon in the lower Clearwater River in 1987. USGS and USFWS joined the effort in 1991, when the Snake River Basin's fall Chinook salmon were first listed under the Endangered Species Act. PNNL and UW joined the study in 2007. The Bonneville Power Administration is paying for the study.

More information about the Juvenile Salmon Acoustic Telemetry System can be found at the JSATS webpage.

PNNL was ranked 210th in the annual InformationWeek 500 list that was revealed yesterday by the technology magazine InformationWeek. This is the third year in a row that the magazine has recognized PNNL. Other notable companies in this year's list include Hewlett-Packard Co. (No. 12), Google Inc. (No. 32) and Motorola Inc. (No. 215).

The laboratory was also recognized with a CIO 100 award earlier this year for creating the same collaborative project management software, Project Central. The software is designed to provide a central framework for managers and staff to measure, monitor and report on the progress of their projects.

"Project Central is valuable tool that creates one key place for managers to keep tabs on their ever-changing projects," said PNNL CIO Jerry Johnson. "It can consolidate isolated computer applications and allow PNNL researchers to concentrate on what they do best - develop and deploy science and technology that addresses big challenges in energy, the environment, national security and basic science."

PNNL staff integrated three existing commercial software systems that the laboratory uses — Oracle Business Intelligence, Hewlett-Packard TRIM and Microsoft SharePoint — to create the one-of-a-kind software application. Project Central is designed specifically to streamline management for the approximately 3,000 research, development and other projects that PNNL does each year. The software should dramatically decrease the need for physical document storage and enable quicker access to important records.

Until May, Project Central was used at PNNL on a pilot project basis. The laboratory then began incrementally rolling out the software for wider use at the end of May and expects to have most new projects managed with Project Central during the next fiscal year, which begins Oct. 1.

The complete InformationWeek 500 list can be found online.

She testified before an open hearing titled "Biological Research for Energy and Medical Applications at the Department of Energy Office of Science."

Campbell's testimony discussed how EMSL projects that focus on the events occurring at the level of molecules contribute to the DOE's missions in developing biologically inspired fuels, understanding the climate, and cleaning up or repairing Earth's ecosystems. These explorations include:

• Uncovering new genes involved in photosynthesis, nature's method of converting the sun's energy into more useful forms,
• Examining how bacterial communities in the ocean contribute to the cycling of nutrients through the Earth's air, water and soil,
• Studying the molecular steps that proteins in the eye take to transform light into sight, 
• Developing tools to study the physiology of living cells in real time,
• Investigating how bacteria slow or stop radioactive contaminant migration in the soil.

"New understanding in the biological sciences is driven by transformational approaches that allow scientists to view chemical and biological systems — from single molecules or organisms to complex structures or communities, from static to dynamic processes, and from laboratory test tubes to the internal world of living organisms," said Campbell. "EMSL brings together theoreticians with expertise in computer modeling of molecular processes and experimentalists from the physical and life sciences to work side-by-side on these problems."

Campbell discussed how more than 10,000 researchers from around the world have used EMSL. She discussed who these users are and what kind of scientific results they have produced. In addition, Campbell described how EMSL is able to develop technologies in-house, such as in creating DOE's premiere computational chemistry software known as NWChem, which runs on EMSL's high-performance supercomputer called Chinook, and EMSL's world-class mass spectrometry capability for the study of proteins. EMSL is located on PNNL's campus in Richland, Wash.

Other witnesses included Anna Palmisano, DOE Associate Director of Science for Biological and Environmental Research; Jehanne Simon-Gillo, Director of Facilities and Project Management of the Office of Science's Office of Nuclear Physics; Jay D. Keasling, Acting Deputy Laboratory Director of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and CEO of the DOE Joint BioEnergy Institute; and Aristides A. N. Patrinos, President of Synthetic Genomics.

About Allison A. Campbell:
Trained as a physical chemist, Campbell joined PNNL in 1990 as a postdoctoral researcher. Her research interests in such topics as bioactive coatings and bone substitutes reveal a passion for structures and surfaces - for example, how to promote or inhibit mineral growth, or how a surface's chemistry affect how molecules rest there. She has been EMSL's director since May 2005.

See Campbell's full testimony below. A PDF version of the testimony is available upon request.

STATEMENT OF DR. ALLISON A. CAMPBELL
DIRECTOR OF EMSL - THE ENVIRONMENTAL MOLECULAR SCIENCES LABORATORY

BEFORE THE SUBCOMMITTEE ON ENERGY AND ENVIRONMENT COMMITTEE ON SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY, U.S. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

REGARDING "BIOLOGICAL RESEARCH FOR ENERGY AND MEDICAL APPLICATIONS AT THE DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY OFFICE OF SCIENCE" SEPTEMBER 10, 2009

Thank you, Chairman Baird, Ranking Member Inglis, and Members of the Committee for the opportunity to appear before you to provide testimony on "Biological Research for Energy and Medical Applications at the Department of Energy Office of Science." In 1990, I became affiliated with the Department of Energy's (DOE's) national laboratory system as a post-doctoral chemist at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) in Richland, Washington. Since that time, I have spent nearly 20 years at PNNL as a senior research scientist, a technical group leader and, as of 2000, the Associate Director of EMSL - the Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory. In May 2005, I was named EMSL Director.

Today, my testimony will focus on three objectives: (1) introducing you to EMSL, its mission, its users, and the science it enables; (2) articulating the role of EMSL in supporting the biological research efforts of DOE's Office of Biological and Environmental Research (BER) and other agencies; and (3) describing future opportunities that will accelerate scientific discovery at EMSL.

History of EMSL

Located at PNNL, EMSL is a BER-funded national scientific user facility. The concept of EMSL began in 1986, when then-PNNL Director Dr. William R. Wiley and his senior managers met to discuss how PNNL could respond to the scientific challenges that faced DOE. Dr. Wiley and his senior leadership team, knowing of the tremendous advances made in the ability of the research community to characterize, manipulate, and create molecules, believed that molecular-level research would be instrumental to solving significant challenges in the environment, energy, and health arenas. The resulting concept was a center for molecular science research that would bring together experimentalists from the physical and life sciences and theoreticians with expertise in computer modeling of molecular processes.

Dr. Wiley's vision was realized in July 1994 when construction began on the William R. Wiley Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory, as it came to be called, and the building was dedicated in October 1996, shortly after he passed away unexpectedly. The doors of EMSL opened to the user community on October 1, 1997.

The Uniqueness of EMSL

Today, Dr. Wiley's vision continues to be embodied in EMSL's mission to provide researchers worldwide with integrated experimental and computational resources for scientific discovery and technological innovation in the environmental molecular sciences to support the needs of DOE and the nation. EMSL is unique in that if offers users a problem-solving environment that integrates scientific expertise with transformational capabilities to enable the highest-impact scientific results possible. These capabilities include, under one roof, high-performance computing tools that advance molecular science in areas such as aerosol formation, bioremediation, catalysis, climate change, and subsurface science; high-resolution microscopes that enable scientists to visualize molecules and molecular processes; and worldleading nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) and mass spectrometry capabilities that allow researchers to characterize complex systems such as microbial communities.

Many of these capabilities are built in house, another feature that sets EMSL apart from other facilities. For example, the EMSL-developed NWChem, DOE's premier computational chemistry software, runs on systems such as EMSL's high-performance, third-generation supercomputer, Chinook-an HP system that can reach 163 teraflops in peak performance. Researchers apply NWChem to run highly scalable, parallel computations to gain understanding of large, challenging scientific problems such as the biological activity of reactive sites in proteins, providing insight into how they carry out critical functions such as DNA repair. Another example is EMSL's STORM — an optical microscope that allows users to observe biological systems in natural environments at electron microscopy resolution, without altering the material from it natural state as required by electron microscopy.

However, world-class instruments are only one component of a world-class facility. The most important aspect of EMSL is the cadre of leading scientific and technical experts. EMSL scientists have been recognized with the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientist and Engineers, and they have been elected as Fellows in a variety of professional societies such as the American Chemical Society and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. They serve as editors on scientific journals, have patented several new technologies, and publish their work in leading scientific journals. Our researchers have dedicated their careers to building new and innovative technologies, pushing the limits of scientific discovery and advancing the science of our users.

These capabilities and scientific expertise are focused to support DOE's missions in energy and environment and address complex challenges within EMSL's three science theme areas: (1) Biological Interactions and Dynamics, (2) Geochemistry/Biogeochemistry and Subsurface Science, and (3) Science of Interfacial Phenomena.

Biology Research within BER and other Federal Agencies

DOE's Office of Science is the single largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences in the United States, providing more than 40 percent of total funding for this vital area of national importance. Within the Office of Science, BER sponsors, supports, and advances world-class biological and environmental research programs and scientific user facilities to drive fundamental science discoveries and to meet its mission priorities to:

• Develop biofuels as a major secure national energy resource
• Understand relationships between climate change and the Earth's ecosystems, and assess options for carbon sequestration
• Predict fate and transport of subsurface contaminants
• Develop new tools to explore the interface of biological and physical sciences.

In addition to DOE's Office of Science, the National Science Foundation (NSF) and National Institutes of Health (NIH) fund research programs in the biological and health sciences. Scientists funded by these programs advance their research with the help of DOE's national scientific user facilities, such as EMSL. EMSL is particularly well positioned to foster discovery in the biological sciences for these researchers because of its strong focus on providing transformational capabilities. Such capabilities at EMSL offer researchers new approaches to view chemical and biological systems — from single molecules or organisms to complex structures or communities, from static to dynamic processes, and from ex-situ systems to in-situ observation. These capabilities and EMSL's world-leading scientists are helping researchers unravel complex biological problems such as the following.

• Understanding the light path to bioenergy. Using EMSL's world-leading high-throughput proteomics resources, a team led by researchers from Washington University in St. Louis discovered a novel cluster of genes that encode proteins essential for photosynthesis. This discovery is providing insight into how nature converts light into energy, a reaction of interest because future clean energy sources will rely heavily on this conversion.

• Understanding how oceanic microbial communities are optimized for nutrient uptake. EMSL's world-leading proteomics resources were critical to pioneering research in which EMSL users from Oregon State University, the University of California and PNNL, for the first time, measured protein expression in microbial communities from the Sargasso Sea. The insight afforded by this research into oceanic microbial communities is important because such bacteria heavily influence biogeochemical cycles, affecting the concentrations of elements such as carbon - and therefore the greenhouse gas, carbon dioxide -in the Earth's air, water, and soil.

• Fundamental studies give insight into ocular function. The eyes house the elegant machinery that responds to light and triggers the neural impulses that allow us to visualize our surroundings. Researchers from the University of Washington have used EMSL's NMR spectrometers and sophisticated probe technologies to gain new knowledge about the complex visual system at the molecular level. The team is the first to determine a high-resolution structure of a photoreceptor domain that affects how quickly the eye can see. Studies such as this one are the first steps toward a fundamental understanding of the how the visual system works and how to fix it when it goes awry.

• Identifying newly found proteins that may indicate if breast cancer cells will resist treatment. Researchers from Erasmus Medical Center Rotterdam combined EMSL's mass spectrometry capabilities with EMSL expertise in proteomics to identify 55 proteins that vary in abundance between patients responsive to the breast cancer treatment tamoxifen and those who are not, indicating that a biomarker for resistance to this drug might exist.

• Developing new tools to aid in understanding the physiology of live cells. A research team from PNNL, The J. Craig Venter Institute, and Merck Co., Inc., used EMSL resources to develop a first-of-its-kind MRI biochamber that provides accurate metabolic information for live cells maintained in a controlled growth environment. This new capability is helping researchers understand the processes employed by microorganisms under different conditions, an important step in using these microbes to manufacture biofuels and other valuable chemicals from waste.

• Investigating how bacterium immobilizes subsurface contaminants. An international team used EMSL's surface science and imaging capabilities to determine the location, with nanoscale resolution, of two proteins on the surface of the bacteria, Shewanella oneidensis. These proteins help Shewanella exchange electrons with minerals in the subsurface, which can affect the migration of environmental contaminants. Understanding the role of these proteins in electron exchange may lead to enhanced bioremediation methods. The team was comprised of participants from The Ohio State University; PNNL; Corning Incorporated, Johannes Kepler University of Linz, Austria; Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, Switzerland; and Umeå University, Sweden.

Future Opportunities

BER continues to make significant investments in EMSL to keep the user facility unique and state of the art. Perhaps the greatest vote of confidence in EMSL and our ability to serve the user community is BER's recent investment of $60 million in American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funds, which will accelerate planned recapitalization activities and condense the effort from more than 5 years to 18 months. This investment represents a "game changer" for EMSL in that it allows us to push forward critical, cutting-edge capabilities for in situ chemical and biological imaging, ultra-high resolution microscopy, near-real-time integration of theory and experiment, and characterization of molecular dynamic processes. These new high-end capabilities will bolster and refresh our user program and our users' research and allow EMSL to attract and retain vital scientific leadership. Our efforts are under way, and the instruments will be in our facility by December 31, 2010.

We are also collaborating with the National High-Field Magnetic Laboratory at Florida State University and the Atomic and Molecular Physics Institute in the Netherlands to develop the world's highest-field Fourier Transform-Ion Cyclotron Resonance mass spectrometer. This high-field magnet would make the scientifically impossible possible through increased analytical performance — sensitivity, dynamic range, accuracy, resolution, and speed/throughput. Such a system has the potential to revolutionize our biomolecular understanding of how organisms function and how microbial systems cooperate as communities by allowing our users to qualitatively identify and measure intact proteins, the machinery of life. The magnet would also allow our users to better investigate complex environmental samples such as fossil fuels and atmospheric aerosols. New knowledge garnered from this instrument would have applications to energy and environment problems of national significance. For example, it would help enable biofuel development and foster better-informed technical and policy decisions affecting environmental remediation, waste processing, energy production, and associated health impacts.

In concert with the unique instrumentation at EMSL, BER has provided the user facility with much needed critical infrastructure support. They are making investments for the development a radiochemistry capability that will serve a broad and growing base of users who require instrumentation in a radiological environment to further their studies of chemistry and biogeochemistry of actinides, fission products, and the use of radiotracers for biological research. In addition, EMSL will build a new space that will house ultra-high-resolution instruments for providing physical and chemical information at unprecedented spatial or energy resolution. Called the Quiet Wing, it will house new microscopy capabilities that require extremely low electromagnetic field and vibrational interference as well as high-temperature stability.

EMSL Users

Of course, EMSL would not exist without its user base. Users can access EMSL to perform either nonproprietary or proprietary research. There is no charge for access to EMSL if the research is considered non-proprietary, meaning that researchers will publish the results in the open literature and acknowledge EMSL's contribution. However, if the research is proprietary — the results are to be confidential - the user will pay full-cost recovery of the facilities used, which includes, but is not limited to, labor, equipment use, consumables, materials, and EMSL staff travel.

During our 12 years of operation, we have hosted more than 10,000 scientists from all 50 states and more than 60 countries, including many countries from Asia, most European countries, and Australia. Many of these users — nearly half — come from the university system.

Another large user set of EMSL capabilities is scientists from the government sector, including the DOE national laboratory system, NASA, the Department of Defense, and the Department of Agriculture. Finally, members of industry comprise a much smaller sector of EMSL's user base due mostly to the proprietary nature of their research. These entities include, for example, Bayer Polymers, 3M, Ford Motor Company, and Dow Chemical Company.

In terms of agencies that fund the projects of EMSL users, most — nearly 45 percent — are funded by DOE; and one third of these DOE projects are funded by BER. The NIH and NSF fund approximately 25 percent of projects at EMSL, and the balance is funded from a variety of sources, such as the Department of Defense, Department of Agriculture, and private industry.

EMSL users range from undergraduate and graduate students to post-doctoral fellows and research scientists and engineers. EMSL strives to bring in the best and brightest users to conduct the highest impact science possible. We have counted among our users 160 distinguished scientists — including 11 National Academy members, 32 endowed chairs, 2 Nobel laureates, and 131 authors who are considered top publishers over a 10-year span.

We have had many users from the states that the members of this committee represent; for example, during the history of EMSL, we count among our users more than 20 researchers representing the University of South Carolina and Westinghouse Savannah River. Nearly 120 of our users call Texas their home and represent institutions such as University of Texas at Austin, Texas A&M, and Baylor College of Medicine. From Illinois, 90 researchers from institutions such as Argonne National Laboratory, the University of Illinois, and the University of Chicago have benefited from use of EMSL's capabilities and expertise. And in our home state of Washington, EMSL has been an excellent scientific resource for more than 2,300 researchers not only from PNNL, but also institutions such as the University of Washington, Washington State University, and the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center.

We continue to conduct outreach activities to grow our user base. This is done through colleague-to-colleague interaction, contact at professional society meetings, and development of programs such as the Wiley Visiting Scientist Fellowship and EMSL Distinguished User Seminar Series, among others.

Scientific and Technological Output

Since Fiscal Year 2007 alone, EMSL-based research and discoveries have been the subject of nearly 1,000 papers in peer-reviewed journals, with 57 percent of them in top-10 journals and 13 of them in toptier journals such as Science, Nature, and Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Since that time, research at EMSL by our users and staff has been featured on more than 30 journal covers, including Science, Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics (PCCP), ACS Nano, Nanotechnology, and Proteomics. These statistics help illustrate the broad scientific impact enabled by EMSL.

Concluding Remarks

To summarize, with continued support and investment from BER in the user program, EMSL will continue to bring Dr. Wiley's vision to fruition by providing the scientific community worldwide with the unique ability to integrate capabilities and staff expertise for achieving the highest-impact science.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman, for providing this opportunity to discuss EMSL and DOE's biological research programs. This concludes my testimony, and I would be pleased to answer any questions you might have.

The EOS will work with key partners, including DOE's Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) and the Washington Society of Professional Engineers, to develop a regional CCS technology training and certification program by 2012.

"We will need substantially more trained personnel - scientists, engineers, technicians, operators, regulators and others in this field - to maximize the promise of carbon capture and storage technology and address climate change," said Mike Davis, associate laboratory director for Energy and Environment at PNNL.

Through a series of courses and on-site training, students will be able to learn about the fundamentals of geologic sequestration, and the technologies required for site development, operations and monitoring of commercial CCS projects.

Curriculum offerings will include lectures on approximately 14 CCS-related topics; several three-day CCS combined short courses; and tours of CCS research laboratories, including an active sequestration test site near PNNL's Richland headquarters. The project organizers also plan to make lectures and other relevant course material available on the Web for students who cannot attend in person, which will reduce the program's overall carbon footprint.

A first round of students could enroll in the program as early as 2010.

"The CCS certificate program will provide real-life training and hands on experience from world-class experts in this field," said Erick McWayne, executive director of the EOS. "We hope to draw a majority of students from the Pacific Northwest so they can immediately apply new skills to where they live and work."

PNNL is conducting laboratory and field research in the Pacific Northwest to assess the feasibility of permanently storing carbon dioxide in basalt, a type of igneous rock common in eastern Washington, Oregon and parts of Idaho. This research is part of a DOE-funded program administered by the National Energy Technology Laboratory to evaluate the suitability of various types of geologic formations and to advance technologies for future carbon capture and storage in different areas of the country. PNNL's research provides students with a unique opportunity to add to their skill sets and to learn firsthand the opportunities and challenges of geologic carbon sequestration in the Pacific Northwest.

Funding for the EOS training project is part of more than $8.4 million recently awarded by DOE Secretary Steven Chu for regional sequestration technology training programs.

The Environmental Outreach and Stewardship Alliance (EOS) fosters an ecologically sustainable world through education, conservation, and restoration. EOS provides green jobs and workforce development, home energy audits and weatherization, efficiency retrofits for buildings, habitat restoration, civic leadership training, youth environmental education, and technical environmental training. EOS is based in Seattle with programs serving approximately 7,000 people per year across the United States and Canada.

The Washington Society of Professional Engineers (WSPE) is a state society of the National Society of Professional Engineers (NSPE). WSPE is governed by a board of trustees and is organized by geographically located chapters. WSPE performs an important function in society by seeking to protect the public safety and the licensure of professional engineers in Washington State.

Scientists have long known that molecules dance about as the temperature rises, but now researchers know the exact steps that water takes with a certain molecule. Results with small, electrically charged cyanide ions and water molecules reveal that water zips around ions to a greater extent than expected. The findings improve our understanding of a chemical interaction important in environmental and atmospheric sciences.

"One of the cornerstones of Department of Energy nuclear cleanup missions and climate research is a fundamental understanding of water and ions, one of the most common chemical interactions in the environment," said chemist Xue-Bin Wang of the DOE's Pacific Northwest National Laboratory and Washington State University.

"We've developed a new instrument to probe the dynamics of ions in water," Wang said. "And we've combined theory and modeling to make sense of those experiments, giving us a deeper fundamental understanding of what is happening with this ubiquitous molecule - water."

Wang, PNNL physical chemist Sotiris S. Xantheas, physical chemist Lai-Sheng Wang of PNNL and WSU, and their colleagues published the results in the Journal of Physical Chemistry A. The journal featured their work on the cover of its September 3 issue.

Thirst for Details

Environmental scientists want to know how contaminants move through watery environments below ground, and atmospheric scientists want to know how small particles flutter through water vapor in the sky. To get at the basics, they study a simpler interaction: water and ions, small atoms or molecules that have a slight electrical charge and exist everywhere in nature.

For example, when common table salt — sodium chloride — dissolves in water, the negatively charged chloride ions (Cl^-) and the positively charged sodium ions (Na⁺) each interact separately with the water molecules.

Previous work with chloride ions and water has yielded conflicting results about how a water molecule (which is shaped like a boomerang) and a chloride ion (shaped like a ball) face each other. Other groups study barbell-shaped cyanide ions because many molecules found naturally in the environment contain cyanide. The chemical interactions of water and either chloride or cyanide are influenced by the charge and the shape of the molecules, as well as the temperature at which they find themselves.

But directly observing temperature's role in how water and cyanide ions interact has been difficult. So, the team developed a unique instrument that allowed them to precisely control the temperature down to almost absolute zero, or the temperature at which everything freezes. The team used "temperature-controlled photoelectron spectroscopy" in EMSL, the DOE's Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory on the PNNL campus, to determine how tightly one cyanide ion and one to three water molecules interact at the very low temperature of -438 F (12 Kelvin) and again at ambient temperature of 80 F (equivalent to 300 Kelvin).

Unexplained Energy

The team measured the molecules' "electron binding energy" at low and high temperatures. This energy is an indication of how tightly the molecules hold onto their electrons — the tighter the hold, the stronger the bonds that will form between molecules. The team found that ones at low temperature exhibited higher electron binding energy than the ones at high temperatures, as they had expected. However, the difference between the two scenarios was greater than the team expected.

To explore the unexpected difference in energy, the researchers ran computer simulations on the Chinook supercomputer in EMSL. This also let them determine how the boomerang-shaped water and barbell-shaped cyanide faced each other. First they estimated how much energy the molecules used to take different configurations. Then they compared the computer-based estimates to the data they collected in their unique instrument at different temperatures.

The team found that the molecules behaved differently at cold and warm temperatures. At lower temperatures, the boomerang-shaped water held still while the cyanide teetered at the end of one of water's two arms. There, the cyanide flipped, sometimes pointing its carbon (C) atom towards the water's arm, and sometimes pointing its nitrogen (N). At the coldest temperature tested, -438 F, the molecules froze, with cyanide pointing its nitrogen end at the water.

Hot to Trot

At ambient temperatures, however, the barbell-shaped cyanide held steady while the water molecule rocked and flipped around the cyanide. Although the researchers were surprised at how much the water moved, the many positions water could take explained why they saw less electron binding energy than they expected at room temperature: A wiggly water means that the bond between molecules isn't that tight.

"Water can interact with cyanide's carbon or nitrogen and rock back and forth on one atom," said Wang. He added that the detail they get with this instrument is impressive. "Scientists have known for years that atoms move around when temperature rises. Now they can determine the most probable position that the molecule is in at different temperatures."

The results also explain the conflicting results with chloride ions and water, the researchers said, because of the importance of temperature on that interaction as well.

The researchers plan to follow up with studies that include many water molecules and ions at once, as well as with more complex ions than cyanide.

Other authors include PNNL's Karol Kowalski and Alfred Laubereau and Jasper Werhahn from the Technical University of Munich at Garching.

Reference: Xue-Bin Wang, Jasper C. Werhahn, Lai-Sheng Wang, Karol Kowalski, Alfred Laubereau, and Sotiris S. Xantheas, Observation of a Remarkable Temperature Effect in the Hydrogen Bonding Structure and Dynamics of the CN-(H2O) Cluster, J. Phys. Chem. A, DOI 10.1021/jp9034002.

This work was supported by the Department of Energy's Office of Basic Energy Sciences within the Office of Science.

PNNL’s Dr. Scott Baker is part of an international team of scientists with the DOE’s Joint Genome Institute (JGI), the French applied research center IFP, and the Vienna University of Technology (TU Vienna) providing the first genome-wide look at what these mutations are in order to understand just how cellulase production was first improved using T. reesei, and how the process can be further improved.

The bulk of the funding - $3.45 million, or $1.15 million per year - allows PNNL to lead a project that will examine the environmental impacts of marine and hydrokinetic power. Marine power includes power harnessed from the flux of ocean tides and waves, while hydrokinetic refers to power generated from flowing freshwater without dams. The project will prioritize the risks that these kinds of power generation can have on the environment and wildlife; conduct laboratory and field experiments to further investigate certain risks; and predict the long-term impact of full-scale energy installations.

"Understanding how harnessing marine and hydrokinetic energy can affect the environment is key," said Charlie Brandt, director of PNNL's Marine Sciences Laboratory in Sequim, Wash. "This work will help remove the roadblocks that currently prevent developers from putting tidal-, wave- and current-powered machines in the water."

Some of the issues researchers will examine include how fish and marine mammals are directly affected by water power devices - including induced electromagnetic fields, noise and blade strike - and whether producing these kinds of power could create "dead zones" by interfering with the ocean's circulation and nutrient patterns.

Staff from PNNL's offices in Seattle, Richland and Sequim, Wash., and Portland, Ore., will work together on the project. The study will also be done in collaboration with Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Sandia National Laboratories, the Northwest National Marine Renewable Energy Center (to which Oregon State University and the University of Washington belong), the University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth and Pacific Energy Ventures, an Oregon renewable energy consulting firm.

DOE's Office of Energy Efficiency & Renewable Energy also announced that PNNL would support four other advanced water power technology projects being led by other national laboratories. For two of the projects, PNNL will partner with the National Renewable Energy Laboratory and Sandia National Laboratories to use computational fluid dynamic models to develop and evaluate marine and hydrokinetic power devices. PNNL will also work with Argonne National Laboratory on advanced water flow forecasting to optimize the efficiency and environmental performance of hydroelectric power plants. And, finally, PNNL will team with Oak Ridge National Laboratory to increase fish passage safety and power production at existing dams, study how fish and wildlife are affected by the variable stream flows from dams, and measure and predict greenhouse gas emissions from dam reservoirs.