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July-August, 2002
VOLUME 1, NUMBER 4
QUICK NEWS

Proposals and Awards

On August 9th a kick-off meeting was held for a newly-funded DoE project entitled "Premium Fuel Production from Mining and Timber Waste Using Advanced Separation and Pelletizing Technologies." In attendance were B.K. Parekh, Darrell Taulbee (CAER); Daniel Tao, Rick Honaker (Dept. of Mining Engineering); and Geoff Young (Kentucky Division of Energy).

Meetings & Special Presentations

A Technical Program Committee meeting for the 2003 International Ash Utilization Symposium was held at the Four Points Sheraton to plan for the Symposium. Jim Hower chaired the meeting. In addition to CAER staff, representatives from the following organizations attended: Kentucky Department for Surface Mining; Illinois Clean Coal Institute; Ohio State; Kentucky Coal Utilization Conference; U.S. Geological Survey; Tennessee Valley Authority; Louisville Gas & Electric; and the U.S. Dept. of the Interior's Office of Surface Mining.

Personnel Accolades

Kevin Henke is a new employee in the CAER's Environmental and Coal Technology (ECT) group. He brings expertise in mercury and water treatment.

Travel

Burt Davis attended a NSF Workshop on Converting Waste Products into Saleable Products, on August 17th in Boston.

Outside Organization Interactions

Work with the team drafting the Kentucky Energy Policy continued. Ari made a presentation to the Governor's Advisory Board on July 25 and CAER staff also participated in associated sub-committee work.

On August 15th Ari attended a DoE workshop together with representatives from the Dept. of Mining Engineering. At the workshop, which was well attended by industry representatives, a road map and research priorities were drawn up in the area of advanced separations technology.

Representatives from the Gasification Technology Institute (GTI) in Chicago visited CAER on August 28, together with staff from East Kentucky Power Cooperative. GTI is considering further development work in gasification and productive discussions were held to consider possible future collaboration.

Outreach

The CAER has begun an exciting new educational outreach program at the elementary school level. We are partnering with Russell Cave Elementary School to strengthen their science curriculum by introducing hands-on experiments and demonstrations. CAER scientists go into the fourth grade classes and lead experiments that compliment the science curriculum being studied in the fourth-grade classes. This program will last throughout the school year with the aim of continuing the following year.

The CAER hosted two scientific tours for young people involved in summer educational programs at universities. A group from the UK Engineering's Young Women in Science program toured the lab as did members of the NSF-funded Summer Minority Students program, located at Kentucky State University in Frankfort.

The eighth group of CAER High School Interns worked at the lab this summer. This group was here July 8-19th and was comprised of two students from Franklin County High School and a student from Paul Laurence Dunbar High School in Lexington.

General CAER News

Rodney Andrews and David Jaques have filed a patent application entitled "Process for the Continuous Production of Aligned Carbon Nanotubes."

Two new web sites were launched during August. One is the site for the 2003 International Ash Utilization Symposium (http://www.flyash.org/2003/). The other is the unique new "Ash Library" (http://www.flyash.info/). As a forum for gathering and disseminating information, the CAER's International Ash Utilization Symposia series has biennially brought together experts from around the world. The papers on this website were presented at the 1999 and 2001 symposia for which authors have given permission for placement on this website. No other web site like this is in existence.

Subsequent to the recruiting advertisements which were placed in a few major journals for scientist positions, the CAER received over 100 applications. Ten persons were short-listed and invited to spend a day at CAER, and present a seminar. There were a number of high caliber people who applied and we are optimistic that we will make at least three appointments in the near future. Senior UK administrative approval is now being sought in order to make firm offers to selected candidates.