Oil, Gas, and Energy Commons^™

Slides: "Mitaku Oyasin" Means "We Are All Related", Bob Gough

Shifting Baselines and New Meridians: Water, Resources, Landscapes, and the Transformation of the American West (Summer Conference, June 4-6)

Presenter: Bob Gough, NativeEnergy, Inc.

72 slides

Environmental Response Management Application, Michele Jacobi, Nancy E. Kinner, Rob Braswell, Kurt Schwehr, Kimberly S. Newman, Amy A. Merten

Center for Coastal and Ocean Mapping

The Coastal Response Research Center (CRRC), a partnership between the University of New Hampshire (UNH) and NOAA's Office of Response and Restoration (ORR), is leading an effort to develop a data platform capable of interfacing both static and real-time data sets accessible simultaneously to a command post and assets in the field with an open source internet mapping server. The Environmental Response Management Application (ERMA™) is designed to give responders and decision makers ready access to geographically specific data useful during spill planning/drills, incident response, damage assessment and site restoration. In addition to oil spill and chemical release response, this …

An Assessment Of The Role Of Biofuels In The 21st Century, Erin C. Jolly, Walter S. Borowski

EKU Faculty and Staff Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Regional Co2 Sequestration Potential – Field Validation Tests, University Of North Dakota. Energy And Environmental Research Center

EERC Brochures and Fact Sheets

Fact sheet about the four field validation tests conducted by the Plains CO₂ Reduction (PCOR) Partnership to test the efficacy of CO₂ sequestration. The project was included in Phase II of the U.S. Department of Energy’s Regional Carbon Sequestration Partnership Initiative. [This item is an outdated or superseded version and retained for historical purposes only. It may no longer reflect current information, policies, or practices.]

Nuclear Energy, Steve Kraft

Native American Forum on Nuclear Issues

Abstract:

-Why Nuclear Energy?

-The lesson of the last 20 years in U.S. electricity policy:

– Diversified fuel and technology portfolio is essential

– All fuels and technologies (nuclear, coal, natural gas, renewables, efficiency) have a legitimate role

-The challenge for the future:

– Preserving/restoring diversified portfolio

– Ensuring resource adequacy, particularly in competitive markets

-Expanded use of nuclear energy is part of the answer

– Integrated used fuel management supports nuclear competitiveness

Energy Efficiency, Business Competitiveness, And Untapped Economic Potential In Maine, Charles S. Colgan, Samuel Merrilll, Jonathan Rubin

Regional Studies

The economic stresses on Maine’s businesses are growing. A slowing economy and rising input costs, particularly for energy, are increasing pressures in a state where concerns about the costs of doing business remain high. But there is much that businesses can do on their own to relieve some of these pressures. Even a quick examination of Maine’s energy situation shows that there are both real challenges and opportunities. Perhaps the single most effective action to enhance Maine’s business climate and economic competitiveness is to aggressively increase the energy efficiency of Maine’s economy.

Baselines Newsletter, No. 2, Spring 2008, University Of Colorado Boulder. Natural Resources Law Center

Baselines: The Natural Resources Law Center Newsletter (2007-2011)

No abstract provided.

Best Management Practices For Terrestrial Carbon Sequestration On Private Lands In The Prairie Pothole Region, University Of North Dakota. Energy And Environmental Research Center

EERC Brochures and Fact Sheets

Fact sheet about managing private lands in the Plains CO₂ Reduction (PCOR) Partnership region to promote effective carbon sequestration. Outlines how to maximize carbon sequestration across various landscapes. [This item is an outdated or superseded version and retained for historical purposes only. It may no longer reflect current information, policies, or practices.]

Co2 Sequestration Validation Test In A Deep Oil Field In The Williston Basin, University Of North Dakota. Energy And Environmental Research Center

EERC Brochures and Fact Sheets

Fact sheet about the Williston Basin Field Validation Test conducted by the Plains CO₂ Reduction (PCOR) Partnership. [This item is an outdated or superseded version and retained for historical purposes only. It may no longer reflect current information, policies, or practices.]

The Weyburn Oil Field – A Model For Value-Added Direct Co2 Sequestration, University Of North Dakota. Energy And Environmental Research Center

EERC Brochures and Fact Sheets

Fact sheet about the Weyburn Oil Field. Discusses CO₂ enhanced oil recovery (EOR) at Weyburn and research on combining EOR and CO₂ sequestration at the site. [This item is an outdated or superseded version and retained for historical purposes only. It may no longer reflect current information, policies, or practices.]

What Is Co2 Sequestration?, University Of North Dakota. Energy And Environmental Research Center

EERC Brochures and Fact Sheets

Fact sheet about the CO₂ sequestration and the Plains CO₂ Reduction (PCOR) Partnership. Defines CO₂ sequestration and lists Phase I partners. [This item is an outdated or superseded version and retained for historical purposes only. It may no longer reflect current information, policies, or practices.]

An Affordable, Practical Eco-House, Dave Fitzpatrick

Department of Environmental Studies: Undergraduate Student Theses

An eco-house or zero-energy house is not a new concept- houses with extremely low impact on their surroundings and good use of local resources have been around for centuries. This particular eco-house is designed to offer full modern services and comforts while consuming very low energy and few expensive building materials. Ideally, someone would be able to use this thesis as a blueprint for actual construction.

Pcor Partnership Phase Iii – Commercial-Scale Demonstrations Of Geologic Co2 Storage In The Northern Great Plains, University Of North Dakota. Energy And Environmental Research Center

EERC Brochures and Fact Sheets

Fact sheet on Phase III of the Plains CO₂ Reduction (PCOR) Partnership, conducted under the U.S. Department of Energy. Includes information on commercial-scale demonstrations of CO₂ geologic sequestration. [This item is an outdated or superseded version and retained for historical purposes only. It may no longer reflect current information, policies, or practices.]

Zama Acid Gas Eor, Co2 Sequestration, And Monitoring Project, University Of North Dakota. Energy And Environmental Research Center

EERC Brochures and Fact Sheets

Fact sheet about the Zama Field acid gas demonstration site, a Plains CO₂ Reduction (PCOR) Partnership CO₂ sequestration validation project. [This item is an outdated or superseded version and retained for historical purposes only. It may no longer reflect current information, policies, or practices.]

Projecting The Economic Impact Of The Fayetteville Shale Play For 2008-2012, Katherine A. Deck

Publications and Presentations

In 2006, the Center for Business and Economic Research released an economic impact study of the newly developing natural gas industry related to the Fayetteville Shale. The Fayetteville Shale is an unconventional gas reservoir located on the Arkansas side of the Arkoma Basin, ranging in thickness from 50 to 325 feet and ranging in depth from 1,500 to 6,500 feet. That study concluded that from 2005 to 2008, economic output of over $5.5 billion and 9,683 jobs would be generated as a result of investments in the Fayetteville Shale. Those estimates were based on the best information available when the …

Inside Unlv, Shane Bevell, Donna Mcaleer, David Ashley, Grace Russell, Michelle Mouton, Mamie Peers

Inside UNLV

No abstract provided.

Knowledge-Based Information Resource Management System For Materials Of Sodium-Cooled Fast Reactor, Sean Hsieh

Reactor Campaign (TRP)

In the development of advanced fast reactors, materials and coolant/material interactions pose a critical barrier for higher temperature and longer core life designs. For advanced burner reactors (sodium cooled) such as EBR-II and FFTF, experience has shown that the qualified structural materials and fuel cladding severely limits the economic performance. In other liquid metal cooled reactor concepts, advanced materials and better understanding and control of coolant and materials interactions are necessary for realizing the potentials.

Liquid sodium has been selected as the primary coolant candidate for Gen. IV nuclear energy systems. Global Nuclear Partnership (GNEP) Advanced Burned Reactor (ABR) has …

Residential Building Energy Consumption And Loss Reduction Methods, Edward J. Balthazar

Theses, Dissertations and Capstones

Home energy costs can be a large monthly expense for many people. Reduction of home energy consumption has multiple benefits – personal cost reduction, increased comfort, and global stewardship. The author embarked on a multi-year series of projects to reduce energy losses. The projects include plugging air infiltration gaps, installing further insulation layers, and buying an energy efficient heat pump. Data for natural gas and electricity use and local weather are presented, with heating as the major energy use. A linear correlation between cold weather conditions and natural gas consumption, and a cyclical annual weather-energy algorithm were both developed. Conductive …

Visualization Of Groundwater Flow Within Touching-Vu And Matrix Porosity In An Eogenetic Karst Aquifer, Lee J. Florea, Kevin J. Cunningham, Stephen Altobelli

Earth, Environmental, and Atmospheric Sciences Faculty Publications

In this study, we use an innovative, non-invasive technology, nuclear magnetic resonance imaging (NMRI), to visualize the direction and magnitude of groundwater flow in field samples of late Pleistocene limestone of the Biscayne aquifer. Specific goals of the first set of NMRI experiments are to map the advective velocity of water flowing at two rates of specific discharge (0.00025 and 0.00013 m/s) through a 10-cm-diameter cylindrical, epoxy-resin model. The model interior accurately reproduces a well-connected maze of ichnologically influenced, centimeter-scale, touching-vug macroporosity common within preferred flow zones in parts of the Biscayne aquifer. A second set of NMRI experiments investigates …

Focus Group On Karst Hydrology - Conceptual Models, Aquifer Characterization, And Numerical Modeling, Martin Sauter, Lee J. Florea, Others

Earth, Environmental, and Atmospheric Sciences Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Venezuela, Mary Finley-Brook

Geography and the Environment Faculty Publications

Venezuela is a major oil-producing state and a founding member of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC). Its leaders resist global efforts to accelerate cuts in carbon dioxide emissions, and the country's low-cost oil supply to Latin America and the Caribbean countries may stall regional transition to alternative energy sources. Venezuela has been criticized for encouraging energy inefficiency with oil subsidies, but new state environmental programs promote conservation.

Resources For The Future, Mary Finley-Brook

Geography and the Environment Faculty Publications

Resources for the Future (RFF) is a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization with headquarters in Washington, D.C. Founded in 1952 under the Truman Administration, RFF initially had a domestic focus, but has since shifted to include international affairs. With a variety of outlets for data dissemination, RFF provides intellectual leadership in environmental economics. Research methods are ·based in the social sciences and quantitative economic analysis, including cost-benefit trade-offs, valuations, and risk assessments. RFF. scholars compile core knowledge on a range of environmental topics, with the goal of contributing to scholarship, teaching, debate, and decision making. One major division of research is energy, …

Using Biosolids To Enhance Phytoremediation Of Oil-Contaminated Soil, Heather N. Markway, Duane C. Wolf, Kaaron J. Davis, Edward E. Gbur

Discovery, The Student Journal of Dale Bumpers College of Agricultural, Food and Life Sciences

While the plant rhizosphere and associated microbial processes have been shown to amplify the degradation rate of chemical residues in soils, phytoremediation can be a slow process. The objective of this greenhouse study was to determine if the addition of biosolids as an organic soil amendment would enhance growth of plants in oil-contaminated soil and thus potentially increase effectiveness of phytoremediation. Pearl millet (Pennisetum glaucum (L.) R. Br.) or sudangrass (Sorghum sudanense (Piper) Stapf (Piper)) was grown in a Captina silt loam (finesilty, siliceous, mesic Typic Fragiudults) contaminated with 5% crude oil (v/w) and amended with 24 g biosolids/kg soil. …

Life Cycle Analysis For The Cultivation And Combustion Of Miscanthus For Biofuel Compared With Natural Gas, Amanda Ashworth, Charles West, Michael Popp, Mireille Montrejaud-Vignoles, Caroline Sablayrolles, Gabrielle Benoit

Discovery, The Student Journal of Dale Bumpers College of Agricultural, Food and Life Sciences

As negative environmental and economic impacts of fossil fuels have escalated, so has the importance of renewable bioenergy crops whose feedstocks are noncompetitive with food supplies. Compared with fossil fuels, use of lignocellulosic feedstocks offers potential for greenhouse gas reduction and highly positive net energy returns because of low input demand and high yields per unit of land area, thus making them advantageous for the emerging biofuel industry. The aim of this study was to simulate environmental impacts of producing a biofuel grass for combustion use based on the inventory of inputs and their effects on eutrophication of surface waters; …

Implementation Of Uncertainty Propagation In Triton/Keno, Charlotta Sanders, Denis Beller

Reactor Campaign (TRP)

Monte Carlo methods are beginning to be used for three dimensional fuel depletion analyses to compute various quantities of interest, including isotopic compositions of used nuclear fuel. The TRITON control module, available in the SCALE 5.1 code system, can perform three-dimensional (3-D) depletion calculations using either the KENO V.a or KENO-VI Monte Carlo transport codes, as well as the two-dimensional (2-D) NEWT discrete ordinates code. To overcome problems such as spatially nonuniform neutron flux and non-uniform statistical uncertainties in computed reaction rates and to improve the fidelity of calculations using Monte Carlo methods, uncertainty propagation is needed for depletion calculations.

Development Of Integrated Process Simulation System Model For Spent Fuel Treatment Facility Design, Yitung Chen, Sean Hsieh

Separations Campaign (TRP)

The major objectives will lead to the creation of a framework that combines all the strengths of AMUSE’s complicated calculations, well-established commercial system process package, and ISOPro’s flexible parameter optimization modules. Development of the process simulation code can be done using the solvent extraction process at Argonne National Laboratory in collaboration with the research team from the Mechanical Engineering Department at UNLV.

Research accomplishments:

• Completed final version of the ISOPro User Manual associated with summarized ISOPro source codes.

• Redesigned and completed use case and design class diagrams (DCD) of the ISOPro package using ArgoUML.

• Improved ISOPro system …

Decoupling And Disturbance Rejection Control For Target Circulation, Jian Ma, Joon S. Lee, Woosoon Yim

Reactor Campaign (TRP)

The Target Complex loop TC-1 was originally conceived as part of an accelerator-driven system (ADS) pilot plant that was designed and developed by the Institute of Physics and Power Engineering (IPPE) and Experimental and Development Organization (EDO) “Gidropress” in Obninsk, Russia, under the International Science and Technology Center Project #559 in 1998. It was to be used as the target in a 1 MWth ADS experiment run off of the LANSCE proton accelerator at Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL). When the U.S. transmutation program changed priorities from accelerator-driven systems towards nuclear fission reactors, the TC-1 loop was brought to UNLV …

Modeling And Design Algorithms For Electromagnetic Pumps, Daniel P. Cook, Yitung Chen, Jian Ma

Reactor Campaign (TRP)

Electromagnetic (EM) induction pumps are used extensively in current and proposed nuclear power systems and industrial molten metal transfer operations. Although the Magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) theory that underlies the operation of these types of pumps has been studied extensively in the past few decades, the design of specific EM pumping systems for specific flow cases requires computational tools and expertise, which is lacking in the U.S. However, for the past two years, researchers at UNLV have been utilizing the TC-1 liquid metal loop system at UNLV and an Annular Linear Induction Pump (ALIP) to drive the liquid metal and to develop …

Thermal Transient Flow Rate Sensor For High Temperature Liquid Metal Cooled Nuclear Reactor, Yingtao Jiang, Jian Ma

Reactor Campaign (TRP)

In nuclear power plants and accelerator driven systems (ADS) for nuclear waste treatment, it is important to monitor the coolant flow rate in the reactor core and pipe-line. In such a strong irradiation, high pressure, and temperature environment, the existing flow measurement techniques (such as Electromagnetic flow meters, Ultrasonic flow meters, Turbine flow meters, etc.) are not accurate and reliable.

The measurement of flow rates (mass flow rates or volume flow rate) plays a notable role in monitoring and controlling the experimental conditions. The bulk flow rates can be obtained through direct methods, which measure the amount of discharged fluids …

Knowledge-Based Information Resource Management System For Materials Of Sodium-Cooled Fast Reactor, Sean Hsieh

Reactor Campaign (TRP)

In the development of advanced fast reactors, materials and coolant/ material interactions pose a critical barrier for higher temperature and longer core life designs. For sodium-cooled fast reactors (SFRs) such as the Experimental Breeder Reactors in Idaho and the Fast Flux Test Facility in Hanford, experience has shown that qualified structural materials and fuel cladding severely limits their economic performance.

Liquid sodium has been selected as the primary coolant candidate for the Advanced Burner Reactor (ABR) of the Global Nuclear Partnership (GNEP). Materials improvement has been identified as a major thrust to improve fast reactor economics. Researchers from universities, national …