U.S. National Labs Win With 21st Century Technologies

WASHINGTON, DC, July 14, 2004 (ENS) - From safe land mine clearance to the production of pure hydrogen at high temperatures, scientists at U.S. national laboratories have won 21 of the 100 annual awards given this year by R&D Magazine to honor products, materials or processes that show commercial promise. This year’s R&D 100 awards, often called the Oscars of Invention, will be presented October 14 during a black-tie dinner at the Navy Pier Convention Center in Chicago.

Scientists at the University of California's Los Alamos National Laboratory captured five of the R&D 100 Awards tied with the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory also managed by the University of California.

The five winning technologies from Los Alamos National Lab are:

10-Gigabit Ethernet
The 10-Gigabit Ethernet is a computer network card developed by the Los Alamos Lab and Intel Corporation that delivers information electronically at speeds 148,000 times faster than a modem connection and more than 23,000 times faster than a DSL connection. This innovation has the potential to vastly increase the speed of electronic transmissions and data transactions.

Clustermatic
Clustermatic is a revolutionary software suite for managing, monitoring, administering and operating clusters on network-connected computers running as a high-performance system. Clustermatic increases reliability and efficiency, enabling commodity-based cluster networks to compete with the higher-cost supercomputers.

Confocal X-Ray Fluorescence Microscope
The Confocal X-Ray Fluorescence Microscope is an analysis instrument capable of doing elemental depth profiles and three-dimensional elemental images of material composition. The microscope uses x-ray fluorescence to nondestructively measure concentrations of elements within a small area. The instrument could be used for crime scene evidence analysis, and the in situ analysis of fine-art paintings.

mpiBLAST
mpiBLAST is an open-source enhancement of BLAST, an open-source software package distributed by the National Center for Biotechnology Information that has become the most widely used genomic-sequencing tool in molecular biology. mpiBLAST reduces the search time of a genomic sequence from nearly 1,346 minutes, 22.4 hours, to less than seven minutes.

Plasma-Torch Production of Spherical Boron Nitride Particles
Crystalline boron nitride has the highest thermal conductivity of any ceramic The particles can be used as filler in integrated circuit packages, enabling electronic devices to run cooler and faster.

The plasma-torch method is useful for producing a variety of materials beyond spherical crystalline boron nitride, including carbon nanotube threads with high strength-to-weight ratio for ropes, metallic and carbon-coated nanoparticles for fast burning fuel components, and even oxide nanoparticles, that might be used for a next-generation class of armor.

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory researchers also captured five RD Top 100 awards for developing advanced technologies with commercial potential.

The five Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) technologies receiving R&D 100 awards this year are:

Solid State Heat Capacity Laser
Originally developed to destroy mortars and missiles in a short-range battlefield setting, the new diode-pumped pulsed laser can be used to uncover and safely neutralize buried land mines, which are a worldwide problem. Today, there are an estimated 100 million land mines spread across 70 nations.

The Solid State Heat Capacity Laser, originally developed to destroy mortars and missiles in a short-range battlefield setting, is now being used to uncover and safely neutralize buried land mines. (Photo courtesy LLNL)

The compact laser fits on a vehicle, allowing land mines to be safely neutralized from a quarter mile away without the need to expose it manually. Attempts to expose mines manually result statistically in one death for every 5,000 mines that are neutralized. Other laser-based mine-clearing approaches have had to rely on personnel to go out into the field and expose the mine before a laser or explosive means can be used.

This laser reduces the problem of false positives, since the object under examination - a land mine, rock or other debris - can be destroyed in seconds.

Autonomous Pathogen Detection System
For the second straight year, LLNL researchers have won an R&D 100 award for technologies to detect the airborne release of biological threat agents.

This year’s winner, the Autonomous Pathogen Detection System (APDS), has been in the works for five years. The automated, podium-sized instrument that can monitor the air for all three types of biological agents - bacteria, viruses and toxins.

The APDS can be deployed for a week without human intervention and can report any pathogen releases in its vicinity to operators at a central location.

The primary screening mechanism is for pathogen proteins to be detected with antibodies using advanced immunoassays. Positive results automatically trigger a DNA analysis test to provide an independent, complementary confirmation of agent identifications from antibody positives.

Inductrack Maglev Train System
Veteran fusion researcher Dick Post, an American, and Russian physicist and LLNL employee Dmitri Ryutov, have led the development of a magnetic levitation (maglev) system that uses new arrangements of permanent magnets to create its levitating fields.

Called Inductrack, the maglev system does not require the complex cryogenically cooled superconducting magnets employed in one of the present types of maglev trains, nor the servo-controlled, powered electromagnets used in the other developed type, both of which are expensive to build and operate. Inductrack employs unpowered arrays of permanent magnets beneath the vehicle. When the train is in motion, the magnetic field from these permanent magnets generates levitation by interacting with a “track” made up of conductors assembled in an array that resembles a ladder with close-packed rungs.

This R&D 100 award is shared by LLNL researchers and San Diego based General Atomics. Currently, a full scale, 400 foot long test track is nearing completion at General Atomics in San Diego, with a full-sized vehicle chassis and all associated power and control systems.

Chromium Graphics Software
A software architecture called Chromium was designed and developed by two LLNL computer scientists in collaboration with researchers from Stanford University, the University of Virginia, Charlottesville, and a commercial company, Tungsten Graphics.

This advanced architecture draws its name from the phrase "Clustered Rendering," or CR for short. CR also is the atomic symbol for the element Chromium, providing the project name.

Chromium provides a way for interactive two and three dimensional graphics applications to take full advantage of powerful distributed, graphics-enabled clusters of off-the-shelf or commodity personal computers.

Since its Open Source public release, the Chromium system has been popular, with more than 18,000 downloads of the software. The Chromium infrastructure forms the basis of a great deal of clustering research at national laboratories and other research institutions.

Silencing Genes
While ribonucleic acid (RNA) interference has only recently been discovered, the field has exploded and the technology has the potential to revolutionize biology, the "New England Journal of Medicine" wrote in 2002.

Now, a novel technology – called siHybrids – developed by LLNL biomedical researchers, offers a breakthrough tool for RNA interference, the gene-silencing technique that has revolutionized laboratory research and clinical therapy. Applications of the technology are envisioned for both basic research and in improving cancer therapies.

SiHybrids provide an increased gene silencing effect and duration to siRNA, the current nucleotide molecule used in the technique. The new LLNL technology also costs about half as much to produce as siRNA.

SiHybrids have the unique ability to be delivered into cells without the aid of a cytotoxic lipid vehicle, which demonstrates the technology’s promise for use in therapeutic agents.

Four technologies developed or co-developed at the Argonne National Lab in Illinois, operated by the University of Chicago, have been recognized with R&D 100 Awards.

Hydrogen Transport Membrane
This ceramic membrane provides pure hydrogen gas by selectively separating hydrogen from gas mixtures generated by fossil fuel-based processes.

Argonne Lab scientist Jack Picciolo holds a sample of the ceramic membrane material for hydrogen production. (Photo courtesy )

The membrane was patented in 2003, and development of the technology is underway with industrial partners Eltron Research, Inc., and ITN Energy Systems, Inc. The technology is expected advance the “hydrogen economy” by enabling the economical and environmentally friendly production of hydrogen from carbon-based feedstocks, permitting the highly efficient generation of electricity via fuel cells.

Grancrete Bonded Phosphate Ceramic Construction Spray-on Structural Cement
The Grancrete magnesium-phosphate cement powder would be mixed at a construction site with water and sand into a slurry that would be sprayed onto polystyrene foam sheets in frames and set as structural cement.

Within two to four hours, Grancrete system forms a rigid, long-lasting structural wall or ceiling that is permanently bonded to the panels. The resulting structures make it possible to offer long-lasting, easily maintained housing to a large segment of the world's population that could not previously obtain adequate shelter. A Grancrete structure of approximately 800 square feet, for example, would cost $6000 in labor and materials to construct.

Three-dimensional multiphase computer code to model glass furnace design and performance The code is used to generate a computer simulation that allows engineers to visualize critical heat transfer, flow and reaction patterns within the interior of a glass furnace. The simulation is used to conduct extensive experiments inexpensively on the computer.

Powertrain System Analysis Toolkit for Advanced Hybrid Vehicles
The computer simulation provides accurate performance, fuel economy and emissions simulations, allowing automotive and truck manufacturers and their suppliers to select appropriate advanced technologies, bringing them more quickly to the market in improved hybrid vehicle systems.

The Toolkit was released in 2003, and licensed not only to industry, including Ford Motor Co., DaimlerChrysler Corp., General Motors, Exxon/Mobil, and Lockheed Martin, and also to universities using the program to develop designs for student competitions.

Researchers and engineers at the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee have won three R&D 100 Awards.

Perchlorate Treatment System
Perchlorate, the primary ingredient of solid rocket propellant, is increasingly being discovered in soil and water. The chemical disrupts function of the human thyroid gland, which regulates metabolism in adults and physical development in children.

The Highly Selective, Regenerable Perchlorate Treatment system uses a unique, highly specific resin to trap the perchlorate destroy it, and regenerate itself so it can be reused.

The reaction in the ORNL treatment system that destroys the perchlorate also produces a chemical that regenerates the resin, breaking the perchlorate down into harmless chloride and water. The result is an 80 percent reduction in costs over other ion exchange procedures and elimination of the problem of secondary waste.

Advanced Heating System for High-Performance Aluminum Forgings
Using an optimized combination of radiant and convection heating for processing materials, the system reduces heating time and energy consumption and produces high-performance aluminum forgings with improved tensile and fatigue properties, compared to those heated by conventional techniques.

High performance aluminum forged components are lightweight and can serve as a less costly substitute for titanium and other expensive components in automotive and aerospace applications. The Advanced Heating System can be tailored to process steel, titanium and nickel-based alloys.

SniffEx
SniffEx is a compact, low-cost explosive vapor sensor for detecting and locating a variety of explosives, including plastic explosives. A micromechanical transducer, no wider than a human hair and with a mass of only a few nanograms, allows only explosive molecules to chemically adsorb to a sensor that can identify the molecule.

SniffEx is an improvement over other explosive detection products - such as gas chromatography/mass spectrometry and gas chromatography/surface acoustic wave devices - because of its sub-part-per-trillion sensitivity and high selectivity, direct vapor sensing, less than one-second response time, stability, compact size, and low cost. The instrument uses a nine volt battery. SniffEx will have applications in counterterrorism, law enforcement, airport safety and humanitarian efforts such as landmine removal.

Two technologies developed by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Golden, Colorado, operated by Midwest Research Institute and Battelle, made the RD Top 100.

Enzymatic Hydrolysis of Biomass Cellulose to Sugars
Transforming plant material into the sugars that can be used to make fuels and chemicals, this lower cost technology using enzymes is expected to allow a wide range of biomass resources to be used to produce energy and chemicals. It brings the nation closer to bio-refineries in which plant and waste materials are used to produce an array of fuels and chemicals.

Through this technology, the cost of converting cellulosic biomass into usable sugars can be reduced by more than 20 times per gallon of ethanol produced. The award is shared by NREL, Genencor International and Novozymes Biotech, Inc.

Thin-Film Solar Cell
Thin-film solar cells that produce sunlight directly from electricity have greater efficiency, and lighter and more flexible than previous devices. These copper indium gallium diselenide photovoltaic modules can be manufactured in various sizes and have a compact, foldable design that allows for easy deployment, transport and storage. Unlike rigid solar modules, these flexible modules have a higher initial efficiency that increases when the modules are exposed to light.

The modules have twice the power-to-weight ratio, and three times the power-to-size ratio as competing products. They are especially suited for military applications, portable power for consumer and public use, boating, bus shelters and in photovoltaic integrated roofing. The award is shared by NREL and Global Solar Energy, Inc.

Stan Bull, NREL associate director for science and technology, said, "It's particularly gratifying that the R&D 100 Awards this year include two NREL technologies that can enhance our nation's energy security and reduce our reliance on foreign sources of oil."

Two Sandia National Laboratories research teams in Albuquerque, New Mexico have won R&D 100 Awards. Sandia is a multiprogram laboratory operated by Sandia Corporation, a Lockheed Martin company.

Cantilever Epitaxy
A new process of growing gallium nitride on an etched sapphire substrate, called cantilever epitaxy, promises to make brighter green, blue, and white light emitting diodes (LEDS) for solid state lighting.

Sandia researcher Christine Mitchell looks through a substrate that was made for the new cantilever epitaxy growth process. (Photo by Randy Montoya courtesy Sandia)

"Our new process eliminates many of the problems that have limited the optical and electronic performances of LEDs, previously grown on sapphire/gallium nitride substrates," says Carol Ashby, one of the inventors on the project.

Trilinos Software Framework and Library
The software framework and library Trilinos provides broad, robust, and high-performance capabilities for solving numerical systems at the heart of many complex multiphysics engineering and scientific applications.

Trilinos provides a common enabling solution to one of the most difficult problems in creating these simulations: How can one solve the massive and complex systems of equations required, and do so in a way that "scales" all the way from laptop computers to the most powerful and complex parallel computers in the world?

Trilinos has become tremendously successful at addressing this "solver problem" and has become, for example, a critical enabler for the diverse simulation codes that support almost every major engineering discipline within The Department of Energy's Advanced Simulation and Computing program.

Meaning "string of pearls" in Greek, Trilinos has an architecture in which object-oriented packages, each of which provides a particular solver capability, are strung together like pearls on a necklace and represent more than the sum of the parts. Trilinos began as three packages, has expanded to 20, and continues to grow.

Computational researchers and software developers find Trilinos attractive because they need only focus on those aspects of development that are unique to their package. Trilinos offers a variety of ways for a particular package to interact with other Trilinos packages. It also offers developers a set of tools for building on multiple platforms, generating documentation, and multi-platform regression testing.

Trilinos, led by Mike Heroux, is under development at both Sandia New Mexico and Sandia California, with some 24 researchers involved in the project. Trilinos offers what is probably the largest and most complete scalable solver capability in the world, and it is freely available to the public.