Directions in Engineering Research An Assessment of Opportunities and Needs (1987) / Chapter Skim
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4. Energy, Mineral, and Environmental Systems Research in the United States: An Overview
4. Energy, Mineral, and Environmental Systems Research in the United States: An Overview
Pages 142-181
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From page 142... ...
Environmental quality is determined to a large extent by the way in which energy and mineral resources are recovered and used, and as a result, environmental considerations often play a major role in the development of energy and rn~neral resources. It is thus essential that a sufficient level of fundamental engineering research be maintained in these three resource areas so that the United States will be in a stronger position to cope with crises and needs as they arise.
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From page 143... ...
As a first priority, such increases should go to universities in order to preserve their dual role in long-term fundamental engineering research and in educating tomorrow's research talent. A commitment needs to be made within mission agencies, as well as within the National Science Foundation (NSF)
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From page 144... ...
Critical areas for energy research are those that conic enable the United States to become reasonably self-sufficient in energy, so as to insulate it from the disastrous consequences of a loss of imported energy for any reason. A comprehensive program of continued engineering research fundamental as well as applied— must be maintained to better develop and utilize all indigenous energy sources, including coal, oil, shale, nuclear and solar power, and natural gas.
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From page 145... ...
The d~ velopment of integrated environmental control systems addressing liquid, solid, and gaseous effluents from coal utilization technology is also essential. The most critical area of engineering research for mineral resources is on processes for the economic recovery of minerals from low-grade ores.
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From page 146... ...
In turn, the quality of these environmental resources increasingly depends on how we use the nation's energy and mineral resources. v' In a very real sense, energy, mineral, and environmental resources form the base on which virtually all economic activities are built.
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From page 147... ...
As is true of petroleum, support for research on the extraction of minerals is also influenced by market forces and by changing degrees of access to mineral resources in international markets. Given the varied quantity and quality of domestic supplies, the United States currently imports certain strategic minerals, along with many others of broad commercial importance.
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From page 148... ...
to provide an information base and methods for assessing tradeoffs among resource utilization, environmental protection, and economic development; . on alternatives to petroleum as an energy source, including nuclear fission and fusion, other fossil fuels, solar power, and other renewable energy resources; ~ on new or improved technologies for petroleum recovery, including economical assisted-recovery techniques; ~ on new or improved technologies for the production, distribution, and storage of electric power; .
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From page 149... ...
, there Is still a demonstrable direct correlation between the consumption of electrical energy and the GNP (Whittaker, 1984~. At the same time, the mix of basic energy resources available to support economic activity and growth may change.
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From page 150... ...
Prudence thus demands that vigorous R&D continue on alternative energy sources (including nuclear fusion and solar power) , to ensure as wide a range of future options as possible.
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From page 151... ...
Although it may be politically attractive to Force feeds selected areas of research in hopes of achieving quick fixes, national interests in energy, mineral, and environmental resources will be best served by a national commitment to a long-term, stable research environment. The crises that frequently stimulate engineering research in these fields may be so compeDing that, for political reasons, they cannot be ignored.
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From page 152... ...
must be resisted. The importance of this issue has been confirmed in many recent reports, including a series of studies by the Energy Research Advisory Board of the U.S.
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From page 153... ...
In energy research, primary objectives are focused on improving the scientific and technical understanding of energy conversion processes in order to: develop a wider range of alternative energy resources, increase energy efficiency, lower costs, and reduce environmental impacts and other hazards of energy use. Research objectives are similar with respect to mineral and environmental research: that is, greater cost-effectiveness and safety in extraction and processing, better and less expensive means for controlling pollutants and reducing risks to the health of the environment (including human health)
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From page 154... ...
Improvement of existing fossil fuels and nuclear power systems is a common focus, along with the effort to develop alternative energy sources. Most of the laboratories also pursue some research on the mitigation of the environmental impacts due to energy generation through use of environmental control technology and on the technologies that permit the development and conservation of water and energy resources.
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From page 155... ...
Figure 1 illustrates one example of the impact of this policy on funding. In general, nondefense R&D expenditures by the DOE have decreased significantly since 1980, with R&D on fossil fuels, nuclear fission, energy conservation, and solar power being curtailed most sharply [National Research Council, 1984; Science, 1985~.
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From page 156... ...
1,380.1 1,810.1 1,868.2 3 Energy supply R&D 2,059.9 1,833.2 1,669.6 -9 Supporting research and technical analysis 342.4 446.9 426.6 -4 Magnetic fusion 469.1 434.0 390.0 -10 Nuclear fission 697.7 416.3 371.8 -11 Environment 229.4 230.9 228.3 -1 Solar power and other renewables 218.8 211.8 175.6 -17 Other 102.5 93.3 77.3 -17 General science and research 634.6 728.3 685.4 -6 Fossil R&D 342.4 347.1 242.7 -30 Conservation R&D 176.6 176.0 145.1 -18 Total 4,593.6 4,894.7 4,611.0 -6 SOURCE: Chemical and Engineering News, February 18, 1985, p.
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From page 157... ...
Under the new organization of the Engineerir~g Directorate at the NSF, funding for environmental engineering is provided within the Division for Fundamental Research 275 250 225 200 175 at o 150 125 100 75 50 25 /' Consent \ 1976 Dollars \ Current Dollars \\ _ O 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1976 1977 1978 1979 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 YEAR FIGURE 2 Environmental Protection Agency obligations for research, FY76-FY85. (SOURCE: National Science Foundation, 1985.)
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From page 159... ...
These figures reflect primarily research on the characterization, properties, and behavior of materials, rather than on the extraction and processing of mineral resources. At NSF, with the reorganization of the Engineering Directorate, minerals engineering research has been split into three programs under two of the new divisions.
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From page 160... ...
Given its already limited support, fundamental research is often cut to very low absolute levels when funding is reduced. Yet this is precisely the type of research that is necessary to build the knowledge base needed to address future problems in energy, minerals, and the environment.
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From page 161... ...
For example, whereas overall undergraduate enrollment in engineering increased by 16 percent from 1979 to 1984, civil engineering enrollment (a common training ground for entrants into environmental engineering) decreased 14 percent over the same period; environmental engineering majors dropped by 19 percent, and nuclear engineering enrollments fell
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From page 162... ...
Metallurgical and materials engineering enrollments increased 3 percent, but this was slight in comparison to overall undergraduate engineering enrollment increases (Engineering Manpower Commission, 1985~. Similar trends are seen in graduate study for most of the sum ject fields.
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From page 163... ...
The decline in student interest underscores the importance of long-term stable research funding to counteract the negative signals given by the market. A stable research environment is essential to attract and train the best minds and talent in a given field, and to ensure its continued well-lbeing.
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From page 164... ...
was charged with identifying "important or emerging research needs~ in the energy, mineral, and environmental fields. The research topics we have identified, which are presented in the following sections, represent a combination of these two criteria.
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From page 165... ...
Both conditions derive from the introduction of waste materiab into the environment, and both have major adverse impacts on critical national resources. All manufacturing industries, inclu~ling high-technology as well an the chern~cal, electrical power, fuel, and mineral processing industries, contribute in a significant way to the widely felt damages from uncontrolled hazardous and toxic waste materials.
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From page 166... ...
Important opportunities in these areas—combustion technology, biological processes, evaluation of the environment's assimilative capacity, and sensors and measurement methods for monitoring contaminants are discussed in the following subsections. COMBUSTION Combustion is an extremely important area for future research, as it has a direct impact on a wide variety of environmental problems as wed as on energy conversion.
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From page 167... ...
ASSIMILATIVE CAPACITY OF THE GLOBAL ENVIRONMENT Although the natural capacity of the environment to assimilate hazardous chemicals ~ limited and can be easily overwhelmed, research directed toward understanding the movement, fate, and effects of chemicals in the environment is most important in developing control strategies, identifying those areas of research that are likely to be fruitful, and assessing the ability of the env~ronment itself to deal safely untie contaminants. Indeed, biological and
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From page 168... ...
As a rn~nimum, the fundamental objectives of energy research should be to ensure for the nation the following: an adequate and reliable supply of energy to support economic development, a diversity of energy sources to minimize undue dependence on any single source and reduce vulnerability to political embargo, and efficient and economic energy conversion systems that limit environmental impacts to acceptable levels.
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From page 169... ...
fuel energy other than nuclear energy. Research on photovoltaic devices aimed at higher efficiences over their useful life and lower manufacturing costs could result in their more extensive use as a replacement for fossil fuels.
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From page 170... ...
INTEGRATED ENVIRONMENTAL CONTROL SYSTEMS Environmental control technology for fossil fuel power plants generally has been treated as an "add-on" to basic energy conversion systems, rather than as an integral part of the process design. As these systems have grown more numerous and complex, the need to consider air pollution, water pollution, and solid waste control systems as key components of energy conversion technology has become increasingly apparent.
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From page 171... ...
, fossil fuels (engines, boilers, chemical processes, etc.) , and solar energy is essential.
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From page 172... ...
EXTENDING PLANT LIFETIMES An important emerging area of energy-related engineering research is the issue of extending the lifetime and upgrading the performance and reliability of existing energy conversion and power generation facilities. In the face of increasingly higher costs for new facilities, there are strong incentives to seek ways of modifying, repowering, or upgrading existing plants with the goal of extending their useful lifetimes by 2~30 years (i.e., beyond the nominal historical lifetimes of about 35-45 years)
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From page 173... ...
Mineral resource recovery generally involves extracting the material out of the earth, cornminut~ng it to a size such that the mineral grains are liberated from each other, and then separating the valuable mineral particles from the waste rock. With complex, fine-grained ores, very fine particles that resist treatment are often produced.
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From page 174... ...
There is a similar need for sensors in computer control of all mineral processing operations, including grinding, classification, flotation, flocculation, and electrowinning. In addition, we need to develop a better understanding of the physicochemical behavior of particles, aggregates, and dissolved species of minerals as well as the impurities in process streams.
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From page 175... ...
SIZE REDUCTION METHODS Similar problems exist in developing efficient techniques for comminuting the mineral to the fine size range suitable for the abo~rementioned processes. The notoriously poor efficiency of communition processes in terms of energy consumption and indiscriminate intragranular fracture continues to be the most serious hindrance for the effective processing of mineral raw materials.
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From page 176... ...
Research Priorities for Advanced Fossil Energy Technologies. National Research Council, Energy Engineering Board, 1984.
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From page 177... ...
Almost all recommendations on this topic dealt with the environmental problems associated with sulfur and nitrogen in coal as it relates to acid rain, and emphasized the need for better ways to clean coal or to remove oxides of nitrogen and sulfur after coal combustion.
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From page 178... ...
O Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory NASA Ames Research Center NASA Goddard Space Flight Center NASA Langley Research Center NASA Lewis Research Center National Center for Atmospheric Research Oak Ridge National Laboratory Office of Naval Research Pittsburgh Energy Technology Center (DOE)
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From page 179... ...
For similar reasons, energy conservation, efficiency in energy conversion, and better methods for storing and transporting energy were frequently mentioned. The majority of respondents noted that environmental concerns were associated with the development of most major forms of energy, and that energy development had to go hand-in-hand with
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From page 180... ...
Associated with this need was the need for research on hazardous waste control and management, and chemicals associated with acid rain and groundwater contarn~nation. A frequent recommendation was for research on combustion processes associated with burning coal, hazardous wastes, and other materials, as well as in vehicle transportation.
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From page 181... ...
ENERGY, MINERAL, AND ENVIRONMENTAL SYSTEMS 181 Many of the research needs and issues of policy and health addressed by the respondents were similar to those noted by pane! members.
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