Bureau of Mines, solar and geothermal research 

 responsibilities of NSF, and some alternative auto- 

 motive-power work of the Environmental Protec- 

 tion Agency (EPA). 290 



Origins 



The oldest Government research program that 

 ERDA administered was fossil fuel research, 

 which dates back to the Navy's pre-Civil War 

 sponsorship of measurements of the heat of com- 

 bustion of coal. -91 Similar measurements initiated 

 coal research in what later became the Bureau of 

 Mines. A fuel testing laboratory was established 

 in Pittsburgh and a technologic branch was made 

 part of the Coast and Geodetic Survey in 1907. 

 The budget of this branch reached $500,000 in 

 1909 and the following year the branch became 

 the nucleus of the new Bureau of Mines. Testing 

 of fuel was a $100,000 program at the Bureau in 

 1911, growing slowly to $135,000 by 1918. Petro- 

 leum and natural gas research began in 1915. Ten 

 mining experiment stations were funded that same 

 year, the number increasing to 13 by 1921.-92 



ERC's 



In 1974, when ERDA was established, the Bu- 

 reau of Mines had five laboratory complexes 

 which conducted research and engineering related 

 to fossil fuels. These laboratories were trans- 

 ferred to ERDA, where they became known as 

 Energy Research Centers (ERC"s). ERDA states 

 in its section of Part I that it has not reported any 

 of the work of the ERC's as basic research in its 

 annual report to NSF, but that much of it would 

 be included in its internal "basic/fundamental re- 

 search" category. It is likely that at least some of 

 the work was reported as basic research when 

 those laboratories were under the Bureau of 

 Mines. 293 



In its early days the Pittsburgh ERC did impor- 

 tant research on explosives and began programs 

 of basic research on the nature of coal and on the 

 fundamentals of combustion. Since coal is a mix- 

 ture of minerals, each of which is extremely com- 

 plex chemically, understanding its composition is 

 especially important before trying to alter it. The 

 basic research included employment of many ana- 

 lytical techniques, including hydrogenation, to 

 make coal soluble and thus to make possible the 

 determination of an average molecular weight. 



The justification for doing this basic research is 

 demonstrated by its application to coal carboniza- 

 tion, liquefaction, and gasification. Results of 

 many years of important research in combustion 

 by Bernard Lewis and Guenther Von Elbe at Pitts- 

 burgh are contained in their classic reference book 

 Combustion Flames and Explosions of Gases, pub- 

 lished in 1961. Combustion research provided the 

 complete characterization of the various oxides of 

 nitrogen; this information is important for air pol- 

 lution research. Another basic research program of 

 great importance at Pittsburgh has been studies in 

 catalysis. 



Another ERC with a long history of basic re- 

 search is in Bartlesville, Okla. One research group 

 has specialized in the preparation of ultra-pure 

 hydrocarbons and the precise determination of 

 their thermodynamic properties. The Bartlesville 

 laboratory developed the rotating bomb calorime- 

 ter, now widely used, and techniques for using 

 large pore materials for gas chromatography. 

 Another program of the laboratory was the charac- 

 terization of crude oils and brines. The Bartlesville 

 data and those of other researchers were put in 

 computer form as an international data bank. A 

 major basic research effort in recent years has 

 been the study of surfactants and the development 

 of techniques for their evaluation. Surfactants are 

 chemical compounds used in the secondary and 

 tertiary recovery of oil. 



The Laramie ERC in Wyoming is a former 

 branch of the Bartlesville laboratory. In a pro- 

 gram jointly sponsored by the American Petro- 

 leum Institute and the Bureau of Mines, the Lara- 

 mie laboratory synthesized a series of nitrogen 

 and sulfur compounds to be used as standards. 

 Laramie has also done extensive research on the 

 characterization of asphalt. Its most significant 

 work has been on oil shale. It has studied its geo- 

 logic history, occurrence, physical and chemical 

 characteristics, and behavior under chemical or 

 thermal attack, and observed the nature of its 

 decomposition products. These studies led to in- 

 teresting discoveries, such as identifying large 

 quantities of the relatively uncommon minerals 

 nahcolite and nordstrandite in the very large 

 Green River formation. Nahcolite is natural so- 

 dium bicarbonate which can be used to burn high- 

 sulfur western coal relatively cleanly. The nords- 

 trandite and the much more plentiful dawsonite in 

 this formation provide a potential source of alumi- 

 num. 294 



-''^^ United Sliiles Government Miinuul l')76/77. op. cil., pp. 



476-47S. 



2'*iDuprcc, pp. 50- .SI. 



"2powell, F. W,, op. cit., pp. 2-6. 



-■"ERDA assistance was requested so that the information in 

 Powell (ibid.) could he updated. Information in the following 

 paragraphs was provided to NStJ statT directly from the ERC's. 



-''•'In addition to a private communication to NSB staff from 

 I>. Howard Jensen of the Laramie ERC. considerable informa- 

 tion on this subject is contained in "Oil Shale Technology." 

 Hearings, Subcommittee on Energy, Committee on Science 

 and Astronautics, U.S. House of Representatives, 2nd Session 

 (May 1974), especially pp. 4«.'i-504. 



358 



COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS AND HISTORICAL TRENDS 



