• Wendy Shaw, "Catalyst Biomimics: A Novel Approach in Catalyst Design," funded by the Office of Basic Energy Sciences,
• William Gustafson, "Reducing Scale Dependence of Physics Parameterization for Global Cloud Resolving Climate Models," funded by the Office of Biological and Environmental Research, and
• Uljana Mayer, "Targeted Imaging Probes for Systems Biology," funded by the Office of Biological and Environmental Research.

As part of the DOE's new Early Career Research Program, this new effort is designed to bolster the nation's scientific workforce by providing support to exceptional researchers during the crucial early years, when many scientists do their most formative work.
 
To be eligible for an award, a researcher must be an untenured, tenure-track assistant professor at a U.S. academic institution or a full-time employee at a DOE national laboratory, who received a Ph.D. within the past ten years.
 
Awardees were selected from a pool of 1,750 university- and national laboratory-based applicants.  Selection was based on peer review by outside scientific experts.

He will testify as part of a hearing titled "Geoengineering II: The Scientific Basis and Engineering Challenges."

Geoengineering is the intentional modification of the earth's climate. Specifically, Rasch will cover current scientific understanding of such aspects of solar radiation management as:

• How aerosol particles introduced into the lower and upper atmosphere might affect global warming and weather, both globally and locally

• The limitations of what scientists know and how to invest research dollars

• How much the methods might cost and how long the effects could last.

"I recognize that geoengineering is a very controversial and complex subject, and that there are many issues associated with it of concern to scientists and society," Rasch wrote in his prepared testimony. "Scientists interested in geoengineering want to be responsible and transparent. We care about doing the science right, and in a responsible way."

Rasch will discuss two methods of "managing solar radiation": 1) the production of sulfate aerosols in the upper atmosphere and 2) the possibility of spraying tiny drops of seawater near the surface of the earth. Sulfur dioxide injected into the upper atmosphere where clouds rarely form, called the stratosphere, reacts chemically with other gases up there and creates small sulfate particles. The particles scatter incoming sunlight and prevent it from warming the lower atmosphere.

The seawater tactic involves spraying seawater from specially designed ships into the sky. The salty water increases the number of cloud drops and decreases the size of each droplet in clouds in the troposphere — the part of the atmosphere down here that supports life. Clouds made up of more and smaller droplets reflect more sunlight than those with larger droplets.

He will discuss the effect that these approaches might have on atmospheric temperatures, local climate and weather, and how long they might need to be used to get the desired lowering of temperatures and also the risks associated with these strategies.

Rasch will also discuss the potential costs associated with deploying and monitoring the approaches. He will also point out areas where the scientific understanding is weak, and recommend how much research needs to be done. Rasch will also address how to clean up any environmental after-effects.

About Philip Rasch

Philip Rasch serves as the chief scientist for climate science at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory. He oversees more than 90 researchers who focus on climate, aerosol and cloud physics; global and regional scale modeling; integrated assessment of global change; and complex regional meteorology and chemistry. Rasch is particularly interested in the role of aerosols and clouds in the atmosphere, and on their impact on climate. For the last five years, he helped to lead the technical development team for the next generation of the atmospheric component of the Community Climate System Model Project, one of the major climate modeling activities in the United States. Rasch was a chair of the International Global Atmospheric Chemistry Program (IGAC, 2004‐2008), and participates on the steering and scientific committees of a number of international scientific bodies. He has contributed to scientific assessments for the World Meteorological Organization, NASA and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

The hearing was held in Room 2325 of the Rayburn House Office Building at 10 a.m. EST Thursday February 4. More information is available at http://science.house.gov/publications/hearings_markups_details.aspx?NewsID=2722

A PDF version of the testimony is available upon request.

The report, The Smart Grid: An Estimation of the Energy and CO₂ Benefits, shows a direct link between the smart grid and carbon emissions.  It evaluates how different functions of the smart grid could provide substantial reduction in energy use and carbon emissions - both directly by using new technology and indirectly by making renewable energy and efficiency programs more affordable and potentially larger.  

That means by fully utilizing a smart grid, the nation could prevent the equivalent of 442 million metric tons, or 66 typical coal power plants' worth, of carbon emissions from entering the atmosphere each year.  Those 66 power plants produce the equivalent amount of electricity needed to power 70 million of today's homes.   

"By making the grid smart, we make it more efficient and more accommodating of renewables, and  we're able to cut down on the amount of carbon we emit to generate the electricity we need," said Rob Pratt, PNNL research scientist. "This report suggests that we could substantially reduce emissions by deploying a smart grid."

"We wanted to show the additional benefits inherent in the smart grid's potential contribution to the nation's goal of mitigating climate change by reducing the carbon footprint of the electric power system," he said. 

Until recently, the fields of emissions research and smart grid research have been largely separate, even while both strive to secure the nation's energy future.  The report joins a growing body of literature that allows researchers, analysts, investors and policymakers to make a definitive link between the two areas of study - and defines the linkage as a legitimate area for further research and technology development by government.  It also informs the business case for smart grid investments by utilities and others.

"This report has significant implications for public and private sector interests engaging in future research, financial and policy decisions in this area," said Mike Davis, PNNL associate laboratory director for Energy and Environment. "Reducing our dependence on foreign oil and reducing our carbon footprint can go hand-in-hand and be profitable."

 Mechanisms considered

Pratt led a team of eight authors on the report.  They analyzed nine different ways, or mechanisms, by which the smart grid could reduce carbon emissions.  They also outlined recommendations for future and additional research in each of these areas to fulfill the Administration's goal of substantial reductions by the year 2030.  The DOE Office of Electricity Delivery and Energy Reliability's Smart Grid R&D Program funded the study.

Learn about the direct and indirect impacts of a smart grid.

Direct mechanisms reduce electricity and CO₂ emissions when smart grid functions are implemented.  Direct mechanisms include incorporating smart grid-enabled diagnostics in residential and commercial buildings; adding more plug-in hybrid electric vehicles to the market; and benefiting from the conservation effect of consumers being more aware about their own energy use - a mechanism that is made possible by a smarter grid. 

Indirect mechanisms are realized when smart grid capabilities are used to reduce the costs of deploying and operating efficiency and renewables.  These cost savings can be turned into carbon savings by reinvesting in carbon reductions down the road.  Using demand response and energy storage devices to bring renewable energy on the grid is one indirect mechanism that can reduce the need to build additional power plants to handle the increased reserve power renewables require.

"The importance of the direct and indirect reduction mechanisms is in their combined effect on reducing carbon emissions," said Pratt.  "Some mechanisms proved insignificant, and the larger ones each appear capable of providing about a 3 percent reduction.  In combination, they could reduce the electric grid's carbon footprint by a very substantial 12 percent or more." 

"This is very significant in light of future renewable portfolio goals of 20 to 30 percent set for the electricity sector in many states for the 2030 time frame, with even higher subsequent goals being contemplated as part of a national carbon policy," he said.

Full deployment

The estimates assume full deployment of a smart grid or virtually 100 percent penetration of smart grid technologies.  They can be scaled down in proportion to actual smart grid penetrations to estimate the potential reductions at any given level of deployment over time.

A smart grid incorporates multiple technologies into the existing electricity delivery system and enables more visibility and control of both the existing electricity infrastructure and new "smart" components, such as smart meters, automated demand response, plug-in electric vehicles and electricity storage devices.  The smart grid's much broader cost and operational benefits are provided through high-speed, two-way communication, sensing and real-time coordination of assets all the way down to the customer meter and other end use devices, such as smart appliances and thermostats.

A basic perspective of PNNL's analysis is that, during the next 20 years, smart grid technology will become pervasive in the U.S. because of the cost efficiencies and reliability improvements it provides for the electric power system.  Clearly, once purchased, this same infrastructure can be leveraged to provide the additional benefits identified in this report with little, if any, marginal cost. 

PNNL's recommendations include further analysis of some technical aspects of the mechanisms, further study of behavior-related mechanisms such as the impact of consumer information, and better accounting for the range of uncertainty for the reductions estimates, as more definitive analyses are conducted and better methods are tailored to estimate each mechanism's potential.

PNNL's report also analyzes a variety of existing research including related assessments by the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) and The Climate Group.   

"Hanford is still important to the Tri-Cities' economy, but not as much as it used to be," said Mike Scott, who conducted the analysis with fellow PNNL economist Richard Fowler. "Local employment, personal income and other economic factors have grown significantly in recent years, even though Hanford funding and employment leveled off through 2008."

The Tri-Cities' economy historically expanded and slowed with periodic changes at the Hanford Site, where plutonium was processed during World War II and the Cold War. But that started to change in the mid-1990s, the analysis indicates.

Scott presented the analysis, compiled in a PNNL report titled "Hanford and the Tri-Cities Economy: Historical Trends 1970-2008," today at the 2010 Tri-Cities Regional Economic Outlook in Pasco. The report discusses data through 2008, before the American Recovery & Reinvestment Act of 2009 brought an influx of Hanford cleanup funding. PNNL is a separate entity from Hanford.

"This analysis shows that the Tri-Cities is emerging with its own identity," said Carl Adrian, president of the Tri-Cities economic development organization TRIDEC. "People from Western Washington may be surprised to find that we're home to a diverse marketplace with many industries, including viticulture and technology. The Tri-Cities is a thriving, independent economy with a bright future that will stretch well after Hanford cleanup is completed."

Community leaders asked PNNL to compile the report after some businesses were considering locating in the Tri-Cities but thought the local economy was too Hanford-dependent.

Some of the report's notable findings are:

• There was a 30 percent increase in total local employment ("local" refers to Benton and Franklin counties) between 1994 and 2008. There were 115,350 total local jobs in 2008.
• There was a 33 percent increase in local non-agriculture employment between 1998 and 2008. There were 94,200 local, non-ag jobs in 2008.
• Health services has grown the most of all non-ag employment. In 2008, the area's three major health care facilities employed 2,900 people.
• There was a 50 percent increase in local total personal income between 1999 and 2007. Area residents earned an average of $30,385 in 2007.
• Less than 8 percent of all local jobs were with Hanford prime contractors in 2008. Hanford prime contractors employed 8,666 workers in 2008.
• That's half of the average 16 percent of area jobs being Hanford-related between 1970 and 1994. Hanford employment peaked at 14,462 jobs in 1994.

Employment

Total employment in Benton and Franklin counties - which are home to the Tri-Cities - has risen by 30 percent since 1994, the authors write. Employment with Hanford prime contractors dropped dramatically in the mid-1990s and has leveled off to an average of 7,770 workers per year since 1997. Prime contractors are companies that have contracts directly with the federal government for goods and services. Less than 8 percent of total local jobs were with Hanford prime contractors in 2008.

Some Hanford work was shifted to subcontractors - companies hired by prime contractors - in the mid-1990s. The report's employment statistics don't include subcontractor data because subcontractor employment figures weren't available for all the years discussed in the report.

Much of the area's employment growth is centered in the health care and food processing industries.  Non-agriculture employment in Benton and Franklin counties has increased by 33 percent, the authors note.  The greatest portion of that increase - 67 percent - comes from health services. The area's three major health care facilities employed 2,900 people in 2008. And between 2000 and 2007, the number of local food processing firms increased from 28 to 83, with food processing jobs increasing nearly 86 percent to 3,973.

PNNL is also helping the Tri-Cities' economy expand, the authors note. The research laboratory's employment increased 25 percent from 1997 to 2008, when 4,195 people worked at PNNL. A 2009 report by TRIDEC listed PNNL as the Tri-Cities' single largest employer. While PNNL has provided significant technical expertise for Hanford cleanup in the past, just 7 percent of the lab's work was Hanford-related in fiscal year 2009.

The authors note that before these changes, Hanford was historically the Tri-Cities' largest source of employment.

Income

While Hanford was downsized in the late 1990s, local personal income continued to rise. Between 1999 and 2008, personal income increased by 50 percent. Before that, personal income changes typically followed the Hanford budget's periodic fluctuations. 

"The trend in the general economy has shown significant decoupling from Hanford," the report states, adding local personal income has demonstrated "much less volatility than the Hanford budgets."

Population

The combined Benton and Franklin counties' population has also outpaced Hanford employment numbers. While several thousand positions were lost at Hanford between 1994 and 1998, the local population kept growing. From 1997 to 2008, the area population grew by 28 percent to 235,700, while Hanford prime contractor jobs grew only 18 percent to 8,666 workers.

Beforehand, population trends in Benton and Franklin counties historically mirrored growth and reductions at Hanford.

Housing

And local house sales continued rising after Hanford was significantly downsized in 1995, and Hanford prime contractor employment remained fairly flat, the authors write. Between 1996 and 2005, the number of residential sales increased 92 percent, and the average house price rose 69 percent to $190,800. But when adjusted for inflation, average home prices are similar to those in the late 1970s.

The area's real estate market previously kept pace with work at Hanford.

REFERENCE:  R.A. Fowler and Mike Scott. "Hanford and the Tri-Cities Economy: Historical Trends 1970-2008." http://www.pnl.gov/edo/resources/hanford-tri-cities-report.pdf

The 11^th annual Tri-Cities Regional Economic Outlook took place today at the TRAC Center in Pasco. More than 300 of the region's business leaders and government officials were expected to attend the event, which TRIDEC hosts.

Grant Johnson and Xiao Lin have been chosen as the first two distinguished post-doctoral fellows at PNNL.  As part of the selection process, both candidates presented independent research proposals and, through the fellowship program, will receive funding to conduct their proposed research at PNNL for the next two to three years.

"We believe strongly in building the next generation of scientists and in advancing the frontiers of science," said Steven Ashby, deputy director for science and technology at PNNL. "I'm pleased we'll be able to expose these scientists to the unique capabilities, instrumentation and experts at PNNL while we also learn from their new ideas."

Johnson completed his doctorate in chemistry in July 2009 from Pennsylvania State University. There, he focused on analyzing the use of different types of oxygen in reactions stemming from metal oxide catalysts. At PNNL, Johnson's research will focus on using mass spectrometry as a tool to create new catalytic materials.

Lin has most recently worked as a Humboldt Fellow at the Fritz Haber Institute of the Max Planck Society in Berlin, Germany. While at PNNL, Lin will develop a detailed molecular-level understanding of the reactivity of carbon oxides with different types of surface structures, which should have applications in understanding catalysts.

In 2009, PNNL created the Pacific Northwest Distinguished Post-Doctoral Fellowship to attract outstanding researchers and build the future of scientific leadership for the Laboratory. These distinguished post-doc fellows receive a competitive salary, benefits and relocation expenses, plus potential extra funding for travel and conferences. The application process for the 2010 fellowship has begun. Applications are due no later than January 31^st, and a preliminary review of current applicants has already begun.

More information can be found on the program website, http://www.pnl.gov/research/pnwpostdoc.asp. Questions may be referred to university.recruiter@pnl.gov.

PNNL also hired more than 90 post-docs in the past year. Those positions are separate from the distinguished fellowship program.

The Federal Laboratory Consortium has announced that PNNL won two awards in 2010 for Excellence in Technology Transfer. The consortium is a nationwide network that encourages federal laboratories to transfer lab-developed technologies to commercial markets. The announcement brings PNNL to a total of 71 FLC awards since the recognition program began in 1984, which is more than any other federal laboratory.

Pressurized system speeds up protein analysis

Analyzing proteins helps researchers learn how tissues and organisms work and could lead to better disease diagnosis and life-saving drugs. But one key step in their analysis - breaking proteins up into smaller parts by digesting them with enzymes - can take several hours, or even overnight. PNNL scientists discovered that putting proteins under high pressure dramatically sped up the process to just a few minutes. The quick turnaround allows scientists to do many more protein studies than was previously possible and reduces processing and analysis costs.

PNNL scientists used an instrument made by Pressure BioSciences, Inc. of South Easton, Mass. (NASDAQ: PBIO), to develop a pressurized process that quickly digests proteins. Pressure BioSciences contacted PNNL after the company heard of the new approach at a scientific conference. Six months later, Battelle, which operates PNNL, licensed the patent-pending process to the small, publicly traded company. PNNL continued to work with the company to help develop a specially engineered sample tube to hold proteins for the digestion process. The collaboration contributed to at least one new product line for Pressure BioSciences - the PCT MicroTube Adapter System - which is being sold to a variety of customers involved in life sciences research. PNNL and Pressure BioSciences are now developing an in-line high-pressure digestion system that allows proteins to be digested and analyzed in one step, instead of having to transfer proteins to analytical equipment after they're digested. This system should completely automate protein analysis by mass spectrometry.

Metal-forming dies last longer with new process

PNNL engineers teamed with LSP Technologies, Inc. of Dublin, Ohio, and Sandvik Special Metals, LLC, of Kennewick, Wash., to advance a metal treatment process that could reduce manufacturing costs for automakers and other industries. Special tools called pilger dies are used to reduce the circumference and wall thickness of metal tubes. But the tube reduction process results in frequent die failures, requiring the dies to be replaced and slowing production. LSP Technologies specializes in using lasers to improve material performance with a process called laser shock peening, which was invented in the 1970s by Battelle researchers in Columbus, Ohio. LSP Technologies and PNNL developed the method to extend steel die life. It deters die failure by using intense laser pulses to create deep, compressive residual stresses in the die's surface.

PNNL researchers working with auto manufacturers thought it could be used with high-strength steels, which carmakers are considering to reduce vehicle weight and increase fuel efficiency. Dies used by automakers are costly, which prompted PNNL to examine relatively inexpensive tube-reduction dies instead. PNNL partnered with LSP Technologies and tube manufacturer and die maker Sandvik to refine the method. They found dies treated with laser shock peening can last up to six times longer than normal dies. Sandvik and LSP Technologies are now working together to further advance the method. And PNNL and LSP Technologies are studying how the automotive, aerospace and internal combustion engine industries could benefit from the method.

The awards will be presented in April at the consortium's annual meeting in Albuquerque, N.M.

Business inquiries on these award-winning technologies or other PNNL innovations can be directed to 1-888-375-PNNL or techcomm@pnl.gov.

Chu funded the consortia with nearly $80 million of American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funds with the goal of bringing new biofuels to the market and developing a cleaner and more sustainable transportation sector, as well as reducing dependence on foreign oil sources, according to the announcement.

 "I'm proud that PNNL will play a role in both of these consortia and in the Department's pursuit of drop-in, infrastructure-compatible biofuels from plants and algae," said PNNL Director Mike Kluse.

PNNL will co-lead one consortium with the National Renewable Energy Laboratory and then play a large role in a second consortium led by the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center.

For more than 10 years, PNNL has advanced the science and technology for converting biomass into liquid transportation fuels, bioproducts and bioenergy. Its key focuses have been catalysis, environmental biotechnology and analysis. Biomass is biological material that comes from plants, wood, waste and other materials and can be converted into fuels and other products.

"We'll be calling upon our entire suite of disciplines and capabilities in our support to these consortia," said John Holladay, PNNL biomass manager. "We are positioned to address the entire spectrum of scientific challenges associated with developing a sustainable biofuels transportation sector - from fundamental research to applied processes."

PNNL is a world leader in proteomics, gasification and catalysis research - capabilities critical to better understanding the cellular dynamics of biomass materials and to more completely and economically converting biomass into fuel. The Lab will leverage expertise and capabilities at the Bioproducts, Sciences, and Engineering Laboratory, a facility located on the Washington State University Tri-Cities campus where PNNL and WSU researchers collaborate; the Institute for Interfacial Catalysis, which PNNL launched in 2005 to bridge the gap from fundamental catalysis research to process application; EMSL, the Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory, a DOE national scientific user facility located at PNNL;  and PNNL's Marine Sciences Laboratory, DOE's only marine research facility located in Sequim, Wash.

The Laboratory's roles include:

National Advanced Biofuels Consortium (NABC)

NABC's charter is to develop and demonstrate science and technology that is needed to produce biofuels made from plants that, most importantly, will work in existing infrastructure. PNNL is a co-lead with the National Renewable Energy Laboratory. This consortium will pursue six options for processing biomass - specifically, those from plants called lignocellulosics - to make fuels. Of those, PNNL will lead tasks associated with converting biomass into an intermediate oil that can go into a petroleum refinery to produce gasoline, diesel or jet fuel. PNNL's Holladay will serve as chief technology officer. Of the $33.8 million for NABC, PNNL will receive $7 million.

Washington State University, PNNL's partner in BSEL, will receive $620,000 for its research based at WSU Tri-Cities for NABC.

National Alliance for Advanced Biofuels and Bioproducts (NAABB)

NAABB will focus on developing and demonstrating methods to significantly increase production of biofuels from algae. In this project, systems biology - the study of complex biological interactions - will be critical to understanding how organisms, such as algae, work in order to produce sufficient amounts of molecules that store energy, called lipids, in real-world environments. PNNL scientists will carry out comprehensive proteomics analyses to determine the full set of proteins in a cell, and identify specific changes in protein abundance as lipids are produced. The Laboratory also leads in processes to convert whole algae biomass into biofuels. At PNNL's Marine Sciences Laboratory, scientists will be growing algae in a marine environment. Of the $44 million for NAABB, PNNL will receive $7.2 million, with about $2 million of that work being done at MSL.

WSU also will receive $495,000 for research based at WSU Pullman for its participation in NAABB. Genifuel is also a recipient of funds within NAABB. Last year, the company licensed a method developed at PNNL for converting algae into renewable natural gas. The University of Washington is another Northwest institution working within the NAABB.

Additional information on DOE's announcement, the consortia and the organizations involved in each consortium is available online at http://www.energy.gov/news2009/8519.htm. For more information on ARRA funds awarded to PNNL, visit its Recovery Act web site, http://www.pnl.gov/arra/.

The Juvenile Salmon Acoustic Telemetry System (JSATS) estimated the survival of young, ocean-bound salmon more precisely than the widely used Passive Integrated Transponder (PIT) tags during a 2008 study on the Columbia and Snake rivers, according to the results of a case study discussed in the paper. The paper also concludes that fish behavior is affected least by light-weight JSATS tags compared to larger acoustic tags.

"Fisheries managers and researchers have many technologies to choose from when they study fish migration and survival," said lead author Geoff McMichael of the Department of Energy's Pacific Northwest National Laboratory.

"JSATS was specifically designed to understand juvenile salmon passage and survival through the swift currents and noisy hydroelectric dams on the Columbia River," McMichael continued. "But other systems might work better in different circumstances. This paper demonstrates JSATS' strengths and helps researchers weigh the pros and cons of the different fish tracking methods available today."

Scientists at PNNL and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' Portland District co-authored the paper. PNNL and NOAA Fisheries began developing JSATS for the Corps in 2001.

JSATS is an acoustic telemetry system that includes the smallest available acoustic transmitting tag, which weighs 0.43 grams. Its battery-powered tags are surgically implanted into juvenile salmon and send a uniquely coded signal every few seconds. Receivers are strategically placed in waterways to record the signal and track when and where tagged fish travel. A computer system also calculates the precise 3-D position of tagged fish using data gathered by the receivers.

PIT tags are also implanted into juvenile salmon for migration and survival studies, but don't use batteries to actively transmit signals. Instead, PIT tags send signals when they become energized while passing by PIT transceiver antennas.

For the paper's case study, researchers implanted 4,140 juvenile Chinook salmon with both JSATS and PIT tags. They also placed just PIT tags inside another 48,433 juveniles. All of the case study's tagged fish were released downstream of Lower Granite Dam on the Snake River in April and May 2008.

A significantly greater percentage of JSATS tags were detected than PIT tags, the case study demonstrated. For example, about 98 percent of JSATS-tagged fish were detected at Ice Harbor Dam on the Snake River. About 13 percent of PIT-tagged fish were detected in the same stretch of river. As a result, studies using JSATS require using roughly one-tenth as many fish as those employing PIT tags, which helps further conserve the salmon population.

Survival estimates were similar between JSATS and PIT tags. Forty-eight percent of the JSATS-tagged fish were estimated to have survived migration between Lower Granite Dam and Bonneville Dam, which is the last dam on the Columbia before the Pacific Ocean. For PIT-tagged fish, 43 percent were estimated to have reached the same area.

Having flexibility in where receivers can be placed is advantageous, the authors reported. JSATS receivers can be located in both rivers and dams, while PIT antennas usually can only go inside fish bypasses at dams. Researchers can estimate fish survival for an entire river system when receivers are placed in more locations, the paper explains.

The team also compared JSATS' technical features with those of another acoustic telemetry system, the VEMCO system being used for the Pacific Ocean Shelf Tracking (POST) project along North America's West Coast. The VEMCO system is best suited for use in the slow-moving, open ocean when observing small numbers of large fish, the authors wrote. In contrast, JSATS was developed to study the migration of larger quantities of small juvenile fish in fast-moving rivers.

A key difference between the JSATS and VEMCO systems is dry tag weight. JSATS tags weigh 0.43 grams and are the smallest acoustic tags available. VEMCO tags that have been used in Columbia River juvenile salmon weighed 3.1 grams. Previous research shows fish can bear a tag that weighs up to 6.7 percent of their body weight without significant adverse survival effects. That means JSATS tags can be implanted into fish as light as 6.5 grams, while VEMCO tags should be used in fish that weigh no less than 46.3 grams.

Another advantage of JSATS is that it is non-proprietary and available for anyone to manufacture or use. Because several companies have been able to competitively bid for the opportunity to produce the system's components, its cost has dropped in recent years. JSATS tags, for example, have gone from $300 per tag in 2005 to $215 in 2008. And JSATS tags cost $40 to $135 less than other commercially available acoustic tags in 2008. Proprietary interests have hindered the development of acoustic telemetry equipment in certain areas, the team wrote.

"JSATS has helped us get a clearer, more complete picture of how salmon migrate and survive through the Columbia and Snake rivers to the Pacific Ocean," McMichael said. "But we're continuing to develop JSATS and hope others will find it useful in studies of other aquatic animals. There's an opportunity for all aquatic telemetry technologies to be improved."

REFERENCE: G.A. McMichael, M.B. Eppard, T.J. Carlson, J.A. Carter, B.D. Ebberts, R.S. Brown, M. Weiland, G.R. Ploskey, R.A. Harnish and Z.D. Deng. "The Juvenile Salmon Acoustic Telemetry System: A New Tool." Fisheries, Vol. 35, No. 1, January 2010. The report starts on page 9 of the full January issue, which is online at

www.fisheries.org/afs/docs/fisheries/fisheries_3501.pdf.

More JSATS information is available online at http://jsats.pnl.gov.

The PNNL honorees and the AAAS sections that elected them are: Scott Chambers, physics; Moe Khaleel, engineering; Yuehe Lin, chemistry; Philip Rasch, atmospheric and hydrospheric sciences; John Wacker, chemistry; and Sotiris Xantheas, chemistry.

Scott Chambers

Chambers researches crystalline oxide films that can be used in the semiconductors that enable most modern electrical devices. He's known for growing these films and exploring their structure. He examines the electronic and magnetic properties of crystalline films, or their ability to transform electricity from chemicals responding to light. These films have the potential to be used to make microelectronic devices, convert energy and make energy by splitting water. They're also studied for the field of spintronics, where scientists are trying to harness the magnetic properties of electrons.

Chambers is a PNNL laboratory fellow who works in interfacial chemistry and engineering at EMSL, a DOE national scientific user facility located at PNNL. He's also an American Vacuum Society fellow and an affiliate professor of chemistry, materials science and engineering at the University of Washington.

Yuehe Lin

Lin's research delves into nanotechnology, or devices made with tiny particles that are a hundred thousand times smaller than a human hair. He's developing chemical and biological sensors made with nanomaterials like protein cages, nanoparticles, graphene and carbon nanotubes that interact with enzymes, antibodies and DNA. The technologies he's developing can detect important molecules in biological systems, explosives and pesticides and could deliver drugs to fight diseases like cancer, among other uses.

Lin is a PNNL laboratory fellow at PNNL. He has edited and co-edited several books on nanotechnology. He also is the associate editor of the Journal of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology, as well as a member of the editorial advisory boards for several international scientific journals.

Moe Khaleel

Khaleel specializes in computational engineering, which involves designing and developing computational tools to solve engineering and scientific problems. He focuses on computational models for solid oxide fuel cells and advanced lightweight materials. He develops methods and computational tools that allow scientists and engineers to build and test fuels cells and their material components, which speeds up the development of energy technologies like fuel cells. He also created a cost-effective process for forming aluminum sheet materials that are now used to make lightweight vehicles.

Khaleel is a laboratory fellow who leads PNNL's Computational Sciences and Mathematics Division. He's also an adjunct professor of mechanical engineering and materials science at Washington State University and an American Society of Mechanical Engineers fellow.

Philip Rasch

Rasch is recognized for his contributions to climate modeling - or designing computational programs that mimic the atmosphere - and connecting cloud formation, atmospheric chemistry and climate. He has developed and improved many atmospheric circulation models, some of which simulate the movement of water vapor, sulfate and other tiny, unseen particles of gas, water and matter called aerosols. He also studies geoengineering, or the intentional manipulation of the atmosphere to counteract global warming.

Rasch is a laboratory fellow and chief scientist for climate science at PNNL. He has contributed to scientific assessments for the World Meteorological Organization, NASA and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

John Wacker

Wacker's insights into the field of nuclear signature analysis are highly sought-after by government and scientific leaders alike. Nuclear signatures, or chemical and radiological indicators of nuclear processing, are of particular interest to national security officials monitoring nuclear activities and in the emerging area of nuclear forensics. His research has supported the cleanup of radioactive contamination in the environment. He often serves as an advisor in radioanalytical chemistry and nuclear forensics for government leaders.

Wacker is a PNNL laboratory fellow and a nuclear materials technical advisor for DOE. He began his career in planetary science, for which he characterized and determined the origin of meteorites.

Sotiris Xantheas

Xantheas' highly accurate electron structure calculations on water-based molecular clusters are used widely in the physical chemistry community. He combines data gathered in the lab and with computer theories to refine scientists' understanding of aqueous systems and water. His work helps scientists better understand the structure of latticed hydrates in the ocean's floor that store the greenhouse gas methane, among many other applications.

Xantheas is a PNNL laboratory fellow. He's also a fellow of the American Physical Society and was given the Wilhelm Bessel Research Award from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation.

Ben Bond-Lamberty, a terrestrial ecologist for the Department of Energy's Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, will encourage more carbon modelers to account for such ecosystem changes as an invited speaker at a Dec. 18 session on the impacts of disturbance on the North American terrestrial carbon budget. He will also suggest that researchers reconsider assumptions that were made when carbon models were first developed.

It's increasingly challenging to predict the planet's cycle of carbon, the main component of climate-altering greenhouse gases, especially with natural disasters like forest fires and hurricanes and human-caused disturbances like land-use changes happening more frequently.

"Forests appear stable to us because we only live a handful of decades," said Bond-Lamberty. "But it's when you look at a longer time span or greater geographic area that you have to account for disturbances. Those disturbances make predicting the planet's carbon future difficult."

The carbon cycle starts when carbon is absorbed, or fixed, by plants through photosynthesis. When plants die or are eaten, the carbon is released back into the atmosphere. But if more plants die than usual, such as when trees are knocked down by a hurricane, the cycle can shift. The same happens if humans release large amounts of pollution.

Scientists first developed carbon models in the late 1970s and early 1980s with the understanding that the Earth's ecosystems would remain fairly stable. But that's increasingly not the case today. A Scripps Institute of Oceanography report says the average number of wildfires annually has increased four-fold in the Western United States. About twice as many Atlantic hurricanes form each year on average than did a century ago, according to the National Center for Atmospheric Research. And British Columbia, Canada, has lost at least 33 million acres of lodgepole pine forest because of the unprecedented mountain pine beetle outbreak, the New York Times reported last year.

Such sudden changes aren't reflected in many existing carbon models. As a result, Bond-Lamberty roughly estimates that regional and continental models could be off between three and 10 percent as a result. And larger errors are possible on smaller geographic or time scales, he said.

He will demonstrate this by discussing Canada's boreal forests. The large, woody swaths of land to the north help Canada serve as a carbon sink by taking in about 360 teragrams, or 360 trillion grams, of carbon each year. Woody debris left over from the region's frequent forest fires partly counteracts this. That decomposing debris gives off about 40 to 50 teragrams of carbon, which accounts for about 11 to 14 percent of the overall sink in Canada's forests.

"Carbon models work well, but they aren't perfect," Bond-Lamberty said. "And as world leaders consider their climate and carbon policies, scientists have a responsibility to provide them the best available data. Getting that reliable data isn't easy, but I'm confident ecosystem modelers are up for the challenge."

Many carbon models aren't frequently adjusted for disturbances like natural disasters, logging and land-use changes. But at least some changes are relatively easy to make, Bond-Lamberty said. In other cases, scientists can develop new algorithms to plug into their computational models.

This creates some problems, however. When Bond-Lamberty added such complex mathematical equations, other weaknesses in the models became evident. The models were designed to mimic a simpler world and used assumptions that can create unreliable results when disturbances are added.

For example, models typically assume that trees immediately fall down after a fire ravages a forest. But trees actually remain standing for another 10 to 20 years before they fall and decompose.  Models that assume trees will fall right away inaccurately predict a huge carbon flux after a disaster. In reality, carbon from trees will be released over a more gradual time span.

But while that example is fairly easy to fix, other assumptions are not. Updating such assumptions can be more complicated and time-consuming, Bond-Lamberty said. For example, one major disturbance in forest systems is human actions and models do not often take humans into account.  Bond-Lamberty wants more models to consider how people moving into forests affect the carbon cycle.

Over the last decade, more scientists have started adding disturbances into their carbon models, particularly regional models. But most global models don't account for such changes yet, Bond-Lamberty said.

Bond-Lamberty works at the Joint Global Change Research Institute, a partnership of PNNL and the University of Maryland, College Park.

REFERENCE: B.P. Bond-Lamberty, "Challenges (and annoyances) in modeling disturbance effects on terrestrial carbon cycling." 11:50 a.m. - 12:20 p.m., Dec. 18. Room 3018, Moscone West, Moscone Convention Center, San Francisco.

The presentation abstract is available online by clicking "plan your itinerary" at http://www.agu.org/meetings/fm09/program/index.php and searching for program "B52C-07."

Information about other PNNL research that will be highlighted at AGU can be found at PNNL's AGU website, http://www.pnl.gov/science/events/default.asp. 

The work improves climate scientists' understanding of how aerosols — tiny unseen particles that make up pollution — contribute to isolated thunderstorms and the climate cycle. How aerosols and clouds interact is one of the least understood aspects of climate, and this work allows researchers to better model clouds and precipitation.

"This finding may provide some guidelines on how man-made aerosols affect the local climate and precipitation, especially for the places where 'afternoon showers' happen frequently and affect the weather system and hydrological cycle," said atmospheric scientist Jiwen Fan of the Department of Energy's Pacific Northwest National Laboratory. "Aerosols in the air change the cloud properties, but the changes vary from case to case. With detailed cloud modeling, we found an important factor regulating how aerosols change storms and precipitation."

Fan will discuss her results Thursday, December 17 at the 2009 American Geophysical Union meeting. Her study uses data from skies over Australia and China.

The results provide insight into how to incorporate these types of clouds and conditions into computational climate models to improve their accuracy.

A Model Sky

Deep convective clouds reflect a lot of the sun's energy back into space and return water that has evaporated back to the surface as rain, making them an important part of the climate cycle. The clouds form as lower air rises upwards in a process called convection. The updrafts carry aerosols that can seed cloud droplets, building a storm.

Previous studies produced conflicting results in how aerosols from pollution affect storm development. For example, in some cases, more pollution leads to stronger storms, while in others, less pollution does. Fan and her colleagues used computer simulations to tease out what was going on. Of concern was a weather phenomenon known as wind shear, where horizontal wind speed and direction vary at different heights. Wind shear can be found near weather fronts and is known to influence storms.

The team ran a computer model with atmospheric data collected in northern Australia and eastern China. They simulated the development of eight deep convective clouds by varying the concentration of aerosols, wind shear, and humidity. Then they examined updraft speed and precipitation.

Storm Forming

In the first simulations, the team found that in scenarios containing strong wind shear, more pollution curbed convection. When wind shear was weak, more pollution produced a stronger storm. But convection also changed depending on humidity, so the team wanted to see which effect — wind shear or humidity — was more important.

The team took a closer look at two cloud-forming scenarios: one that ended up with the strongest enhancement in updraft speed and one with the weakest. For each scenario, they created a humid and a dry condition, as well as a strong and weak wind shear condition. The trend in the different conditions indicated that wind shear had a much greater effect on updraft strength than humidity.

When the team measured the expected rainfall, they found that the pattern of rainfall followed the pattern of updraft speed. That is, with strong wind shear, more pollution led to less rainfall. When wind shear was weak, more pollution created stronger storms and more rain — up to a certain point. Beyond that point, pollution led to decreased storm development.  (A previous version inaccurately stated that pollution led to fewer storms beyond a peak in weak wind shear.)

Additional analyses described the physics underlying these results. Water condensing onto aerosol particles releases heat, which contributes to convection and increases updraft speed. The evaporation of water from the cloud droplets cools the air, which reduces the updrafts. In strong wind shear conditions, the cooling effect is always larger than the heating effect, leading to a reduction in updraft speed.

Reference: Jiwen Fan, "Dominant Role by Vertical Wind Shear in Regulating Aerosol Effects on Deep Convective Clouds" in session A43F, Cloud Properties and Physical Processes, Including Aerosol-Cloud Interactions II on Thursday, December 17, 2009, at 2:10 PM, in Moscone West.

J. Fan, T. Yuan, J. M. Comstock, S. Ghan, A. Khain, L. R. Leung, Z. Li, V. J. Martins, M. Ovchinnikov, Dominant role by vertical wind shear in regulating aerosol effects on deep convective clouds, J. Geophys. Res., 114, D22206, doi:10.1029/2009JD012352..

This work was supported by PNNL's Aerosol Climate Initiative.

"World leaders are struggling to protect natural resources for future generations," said Jeff Ward, a senior research scientist at the Department of Energy's Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, which is managed by Battelle. "These tools help us sustainably use natural resources while balancing environmental, cultural and economic concerns."

Ward manages a project on behalf of Battelle that is helping to better predict the flow of the Dungeness River, near Sequim, Wash., with data collected by NASA instruments. The project started by creating a new model that predicts river flows in the river's surrounding valley.  It then expanded to help other communities in Kansas, Maine, Oregon and Washington state better manage their water and land resources with similar technologies.

The project  - called the North Olympic Peninsula Solutions Network -  is lead by the North Olympic Peninsula Resource Conservation & Development Council and supported by PNNL and others.

The project's results will be presented Dec. 16 at the 2009 fall meeting of the American Geophysical Union in San Francisco.

The project will help regional natural resource managers assess the abundance - or lack thereof - of the Dungeness River. The river model was developed to show how NASA technologies like satellites, sensors and computational models could be used to improve short-term stream flow predictions. The river model relies on snowpack and temperature data collected from satellites, as well as real-time snowpack and water data collected by various agencies.

The new Dungeness River model's calculations can tell what kind of flow to expect - from a trickle to a deluge  - on a daily and monthly basis. Before, resource managers primarily relied on either water levels physically measured at gauges or historical data to predict total expected water volume over two to six months. Neither method provided flow predictions as frequently as the new model.

Having more precise river flow predictions is especially important along the Dungeness River, where the towering Olympic Mountains create a drying rain shadow effect and steep slopes prevent above-ground water reservoirs. Sequim receives just 15 inches of rain annually. Water is so treasured that the agricultural city is home to a 114-year-old festival that celebrates a historic irrigation system.

"Improving the accuracy of stream flow predictions is important to a diverse group of water users, including irrigation-dependent farmers, planners making urban growth decisions and those concerned about salmon survival or water quality," said Clea Rome, North Olympic Peninsula RC&D coordinator. "Stream flow prediction tools can help us avoid a crisis by alerting us before droughts are in full effect, giving us enough notice to adjust water use."

But the practical use of NASA technologies isn't limited just to Sequim or river water.  The North Olympic Peninsula Solutions Network is helping four other resource, conservation and development councils tackle their unique problems.

Another resource - soil - has the Solomon Valley RC&D in north central Kansas concerned about agricultural tilling and erosion. Striking a balance between agriculture and forestry is critical for the Threshold to Maine RC&D in southwest Maine. The Wy'East RC&D is looking to better manage water supply and demand in north central Oregon.  And in Okanogan, Wash., the possibility of water shortages worries the North Central Washington RC&D.

"Space technologies can help us get the best science to the ground, to the decision makers here in the Okanogan Basin," said Samantha Bartling, North Central Washington RC&D coordinator. "We expect it'll help us more precisely predict water availability for a long time to come."

The four councils are working with North Olympic Peninsula Solutions Network leaders to determine how NASA technologies can best address their different challenges.

The project is funded by a $1.6 million grant from NASA. More information can be found at the North Olympic Peninsula Solutions Network website, http://pcnasa.ctc.edu/.

Other project partners include: the Department of Agriculture's Natural Resources Conservation Services; NRCS National Water and Climate Center; National Association of RC&D Councils; Idaho National Laboratory; Olympic National Park; Clallam County; The Dungeness River Management Team; The Elwha-Morse Management Team; Peninsula College and Pacific Northwest Regional Collaboratory.

REFERENCE: "NASA Water-Cycle Solutions Networks and Community of Practice Approaches to enhance Decision-making." Lucien Cox (NASA), Jeff Ward (PNNL) and Will Pozzi (WaterNet). 5:45-6 p.m., Dec. 16. Room 301, Moscone South, Moscone Convention Center, San Francisco.

The presentation abstract is available online by clicking "plan your itinerary" at http://www.agu.org/meetings/fm09/program/index.php and searching for program "IN34A-08."

Scientists at the Department of Energy's Pacific Northwest National Laboratory have created a Pandemic Influenza Planning Tool to model the spread of a disease through various age groups and geographic populations. It also allows decision-makers to carefully assess the benefit of their decisions for different scenarios in advance.

"No single approach provides an optimal strategy when battling the spread of a pandemic," said Robert Brigantic, PNNL operations research scientist, "But, the use of this tool can allow health officials to more accurately predict how a disease might evolve when various mitigation strategies are applied." 

These results could be valuable in developing an aggressive preventive strategy and deciding how best to use limited resources. 

Brigantic's tool allows officials to easily evaluate potential response options by manipulating modeling parameters and running different simulations.  For instance, officials could assess closing schools to decrease disease spread, initiate preventative media campaigns, or evaluate distributing antiviral medications to easily evaluate potential mitigation approaches.

In late September, PNNL demonstrated an early prototype of the tool during a Walla Walla County, Wash., Pandemic Influenza emergency exercise.  Officials simulated an H1N1 Swine Flu outbreak and used the tool to predict resource needs and shortfalls, such as the loss of critical staff and lack of hospital beds.

"The tool illustrated how essential services can fail when critical employees became ill," said Gay Ernst, director of emergency management in Walla Walla County. "Visualizing possible disease progression enables us to consider how many critical personnel may be unavailable at one time and plan accordingly."

To help users also understand and visualize the effects of potential scenarios, PNNL teamed with Purdue University to add a visual analytic element to the toolkit called PanViz.  It allows decision makers to visually track a simulation of spreading influenza on a video monitor.  Users can toggle on and off various decision measures and visually see and examine the impact of those modifications and how they may alter the spread of the outbreak over time across counties in a state.

PNNL has demonstrated the planning tool during its development to Washington State Public Health as well as emergency officials in Los Angeles County and in Indiana. Researchers are improving the system's infectious disease modeling capabilities by making underlying algorithms more sophisticated and precise.  Including more mitigation strategies and incorporating input from public health and emergency management experts is a priority as developers enhance the model.

This work was originally developed under a $50,000 subcontract with Purdue University to create the Pandemic Influenza Planning Tool for use by Indiana state as part of its pandemic influenza planning exercises. If additional funding is secured, Brigantic hopes to expand the model capabilities to see how additional social-distancing actions, such as telecommuting, cancelling social events and imposing quarantines might influence the virtual spread of a pandemic.  He also envisions incorporating additional social modeling and behavioral responses.

Brigantic and his team are also conducting related modeling and simulation analysis for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to establish effective and efficient screening of passengers arriving on international flights for pandemic influenza.

The protein ERK, which helps cells respond to growth factors, travels back and forth between the nucleus, where genes are turned on and off, and the cell proper, where proteins work together to keep the cell functioning. In the video, individual cells pulsate with green light as an engineered fluorescent ERK fills the nucleus, exits and re-enters again in cycles that take about 15 minutes. The researchers don't know if the oscillation affects the activity of other proteins in a regulatory fashion, they report in December 1 issue of Molecular Systems Biology, but find the oscillations to be regular and robust.

"True oscillations in biology are rare," said lead author Steve Wiley, chief biologist at EMSL, located at the Department of Energy's Pacific Northwest National Laboratory. "And that the oscillations of such a major growth regulator could go undiscovered for so long is extremely surprising."

ERK As Anchor

One possible function of the oscillations could be in regulating how ERK interacts with other proteins. Regardless of its biological function, ERK oscillations between compartments represent a new behavior that proteins can exhibit within cells.

Biomedical researchers need an accurate mathematical model in hand to test anti-cancer drugs. Adding ERK oscillations into the model allowed Wiley's group to make better predictions about how breast cells will respond to changes in their environment, such as the presence of growth factors or cancer drugs.

"Current models used in drug development behave very differently from the model we came up with," said Wiley. "The oscillations anchored our model in reality."

Round and Round

The meaning of the handful of oscillations found by researchers within cells has been controversial. Calcium levels cycle up and down in nerve cells, but scientists still debate why 20 years after the discovery. The production and destruction of the well-known cancer-related protein p53 continuously cycles, but its purpose is unclear. ERK is one protein in a long chain of command involved in cell growth. Because ERK gets repeatedly activated and deactivated by various proteins, Wiley and colleagues thought it might oscillate.

ERK has a role in human breast tissue, where the molecule epidermal growth factor, or EGF, sends a message from the cell surface to the rest of the cell in a carefully regulated manner that includes ERK. In breast cancer, that chain of command goes awry and cells grow out of control. Cancer drug researchers target players in the chain of command to control that growth.

For that reason, Wiley and his colleagues wanted to better understand EGF's chain of command, also known as its signaling pathway. Most researchers use cancer cells, which are easy to manipulate in culture, but Wiley studied healthy breast tissue to find out what goes on in normal cells. In addition, most research examines the population of cells on average, in which individual differences between cells can get lost. This work watched single cells.

Green Eggs

Researchers know a lot about what activates ERK and what shuts it down in the EGF signaling pathway. To follow ERK, the scientists engineered healthy, cultured breast cells to produce a green-glowing version of the protein. When EGF turns on the signaling pathway, the team verified that the green version of ERK is activated in the same way as the regular version is, by the addition of a chemical group. Other proteins deactivate ERK by removing the chemical group, and the process repeats.

To see what happens in the cells, the team put the culture dishes under a microscope that took pictures automatically once a minute. Then they removed EGF from the cells' culture and let them settle in and quiet down. The cells looked like fried eggs awash in light green.

When the team returned EGF to the culture dishes, the nucleus within cells — what looks like an egg yolk — brightened up with green, indicating the ERK proteins were flooding into the nucleus. After a few minutes, the green drained from the nucleus back into the cell proper, only to return again after some time. The oscillations in individual cells cycled about every 15 minutes, starting out in sync but losing that coordination over time.

Also, the time-lapse video showed that cell reproduction didn't seem to affect the cycling. The oscillations continued regularly throughout cell growth. Then the oscillations briefly stopped while one cell divided into two daughter cells. As cell division finished up, the oscillations resumed.

Additional experiments showed the oscillations required EGF in the cell culture and continued for up to ten hours, the longest period of time the researchers observed. In addition, the number of cells with oscillating ERK depended on how crowded the living conditions were. For example, the team found that at the lowest numbers of cells, all of them showed oscillating ERK. As the cells reproduced, fewer cells oscillated. By the time the cells filled the whole surface of their dish, virtually all of the cells lost their cycling ERK.

A Model ERK

One way scientists determine how well they understand the workings of a cell is to see if they can simulate it in a computer program. Wiley and his colleagues developed such a model that included the oscillating ERK, as well as most of the players in the chain of command from EGF receptor on.

To test the model, the team first used the model to predict how the oscillations would behave under conditions that kept ERK activated for a prolonged period of time. The model predicted the oscillations would die out if ERK stayed on. When the team performed a biochemical experiment in which they prevented ERK from de-activating, the percentage of cells oscillating dropped off, as the model predicted.

To further explore the biological significance of the ERK cycles, Wiley's group would like to test whether other growth factors cause ERK to oscillate in breast cells and whether different types of cells exhibit the same sort of oscillations. Ultimately, they would like to know if they can tweak the oscillation to see how things change inside the cell.

Reference: Harish Shankaran, Danielle L. Ippolito, William B. Chrisler, Haluk Resat, Nikki Bollinger, Lee K. Opresko and H. Steven Wiley, Rapid and Sustained Nuclear-Cytoplasmic ERK Oscillations Induced by Epidermal Growth Factor, Mol Syst Biol, DOI 10.1038/msb.2009.90 (http://www.nature.com/msb/index.html).

This work was supported by PNNL as part of its systems biology initiative and the National Institutes of Health.

Kristen Meyer, of West Richland, Wash., placed first in the life sciences division of the 2009 Science and Energy Research Challenge Poster Competition, which took place Nov. 8-9 in Oak Ridge, Tenn. The award included a $3,000 scholarship.

Now a junior studying chemistry at Washington State University Tri-Cities, Meyer spent this summer working with PNNL molecular biologist Kenneth Bruno. She developed a new, time-saving method to test specific genes in a black mold commonly found in soil, Aspergillus niger. The work could provide a way to use mold to make plastics and other chemicals from broken-down plant matter, called biomass.

"Kristen is very detail-oriented," Bruno said. "Sometimes she's even able to correct me. You can trust that her research will be precise."

She was one of five recent PNNL interns who participated in the competition. Another, Mike Larche, placed third in the energy division. Larche, of Pasco, Wash., is studying physics at Eastern Washington University.

Washington State University's full press release on Meyer's award can be found online.

In addition to leading the project, Battelle will use the Electricity Infrastructure Operations Center at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory to analyze field data collected during the project.  Battelle operates PNNL for DOE.

"We're thankful to Secretary Chu, the Department of Energy and to our project team members for the opportunity to bring transformational smart grid science and technology to life in a way that will benefit our nation for many generations to come," said Mike Kluse, a senior vice president at Battelle and PNNL director.

Read the entire news release here.

Understanding how the community of life responds to these varying conditions can help scientists use bacteria to clean up contamination, develop energy sources, protect our health and the health of our ecosystems. Researchers at EMSL will build a database of the proteins found in the lake's bacteria and archaea, another microbe found in extreme environments. Proteins are an organisms' toolkit, and Utah State University researchers will be able to use this information to monitor how the microbial community uses its toolkit to respond to changing conditions.

Click to read entire release posted by Utah State University.

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.

Click here to view or download the final report.

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.