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ASHRAE Standard 62-1989 (Standard 62-89) Ventilation for Acceptable Indoor Air Quality'' is the new heating, ventilating, and air-conditioning (HVAC) industry consensus for ventilation air in commercial buildings. Bonneville Power Administration (Bonneville) references ASHRAE Standard 62-81 (the predecessor to Standard 62-89) in their current environmental documents for required ventilation rates. Through its use, it had become evident to Bonneville that Standard 62-81 needed interpretation. Now that the revised Standard (Standard 62-89) is available, its usefulness needs to be evaluated. Based on current information and public comment, the American Society of Heating, Refrigeration, and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE) revised Standard 62-1981 to Standard 62-89. Bonneville's study estimated the energy and cost implications of ASHRAE Standard 62-89 using simulations based on DOE-2.1D, a computer simulation program which estimates building use hourly as a function of building characteristics and climatic location. Ten types of prototypical commercial buildings used by Bonneville for load forecasting purposes were examined: Large and Small Office, Large and Small Retail, Restaurant, Warehouse, Hospital, Hotel, School, and Grocery. These building characterizations are based on survey and energy metering data and represent average or typical construction and operation practices and mechanical system types. Prototypical building ventilation rates were varied in five steps to estimate the impacts of outside air on building energy use. 11 refs., 14 tabs.

Wildfires are a threat to human life and property, yet they are an unavoidable part of nature and in some instances they are necessary for the natural maintenance and evolution of forests. Investigators have attempted to describe the behavior (speed, direction, modes of spread) of wildfires for over fifty years. Current models for numerical description are mainly algebraic and based on statistical or empirical ideas. The authors describe, in contrast, a transport model called FIRETEC, which is a self-determining fire behavior model. The use of transport formulations connects the propagation rates to the full conservation equations for energy, momentum, species concentrations, mass, and turbulence. In this text, highlights of the model formulation and results are described. The goal of the FIRETEC model is to describe average behavior of the gases and fuels. It represents the essence of the combination of many small-scale processes without resolving each process in complete detail. The FIRETEC model is implemented into a computer code that examines line-fire propagation in a vertical spatial cut parallel to the direction of advancement. With this code the authors are able to examine wind effects, slope effects, and the effects of nonhomogeneous fuel distribution.

Energy availability in a country is of great importance to its economy and to raising and maintaining its standard of living. In 1994, the United States consumed more than 88 quadrillion Btu (quads) of energy and spent about $500 billion on fuels and electricity. Fortunately, the United States is well endowed with energy sources, notably fossil fuels, and possesses a considerable nuclear power industry. The United States also has significant renewable energy resources and already exploits much of its hydropower resources, which represent 10% of electricity production. Nevertheless, in 1994, the United States imported about 45% of the petroleum products it consumed, equivalent to about 17 quads of energy. This dependence on imported oil puts the country at risk of energy supply disruptions and oil price shocks. Previous oil shocks may have cost the country as much as $4 billion (in 1993 dollars) between 1973 and 1990. Moreover, the production and use of energy from fossil fuels are major sources of environmental damage. The corresponding situation in many parts of the world is more challenging. Developing countries are experiencing rapid growth in population, energy demand, and the environmental degradation that often results from industrial development. The near-term depletion of energy resources in response to this rapid growth runs counter to the concept of ''sustainable development''--development that meets the needs of today without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. Energy research and development (RD (2) protecting the environment by reducing the adverse environmental impacts associated with energy production, distribution, and use; (3) keeping America secure by reducing vulnerabilities to global energy market shocks; and (4) enhancing American competitiveness in a growing world energy market.

The work described in this report was performed under the direction of the Industrial Assessment Center (IAC) at University of Texas at Arlington. The IAC at The University of Texas at Arlington is managed by Rutgers University under agreement with the United States Department of Energy Office of Industrial Technology, which financially supports the program. The objective of the IAC is to identify, evaluate, and recommend, through analysis of an industrial plant’s operations, opportunities to conserve energy and prevent pollution, thereby reducing the associated costs. IAC team members visit and survey the plant. Based upon observations made in the plant, preventive/corrective actions are recommended. At all times we try to offer specific and quantitative recommendations of cost savings, energy conservation, and pollution prevention to the plants we serve.

The backgrund, structure and use of modern forecasting methods for estimating the future development of geothermal energy in the United States are documented. The forecasting instrument may be divided into two sequential submodels. The first predicts the timing and quality of future geothermal resource discoveries from an underlying resource base. This resource base represents an expansion of the widely-publicized USGS Circular 790. The second submodel forecasts the rate and extent of utilization of geothermal resource discoveries. It is based on the joint investment behavior of resource developers and potential users as statistically determined from extensive industry interviews. It is concluded that geothermal resource development, especially for electric power development, will play an increasingly significant role in meeting US energy demands over the next 2 decades. Depending on the extent of R and D achievements in related areas of geosciences and technology, expected geothermal power development will reach between 7700 and 17300 Mwe by the year 2000. This represents between 8 and 18% of the expected electric energy demand (GWh) in western and northwestern states.

The U.S. Department of Energy Office of Wind and Geothermal Technologies (DOE) is funding advanced geothermal research through University Geothermal Research solicitations. These solicitations are intended to generate research proposals in the areas of fracture permeability location and characterization, reservoir management and geochemistry. The work funded through these solicitations should stimulate the development of new geothermal electrical generating capacity through increasing scientific knowledge of high-temperature geothermal systems. In order to meet this objective researchers are encouraged to collaborate with the geothermal industry. These objectives and strategies are consistent with DOE Geothermal Energy Program strategic objectives.

This report examines relationships between a comprehensive set of definitions of and viewpoints on the concept of Sustainability and the abilities of communities and individuals in the United States to meet the behavioral prescriptions inherent in these definitions and viewpoints. This research is timely because sustainability is becoming a cornerstone of national and international environmental strategies designed to simultaneously achieve environmental, economic, and social goals. In the United States, many communities have adopted sustainability principles as the foundation for both their environmental protection efforts and their socioeconomic development initiatives. This research is important because it highlights serious problems communities and inviduals may have in achieving sustainability expectations, and illustrates how much work is needed to help communities and individuals overcome numerous considerable and complex constraints to sustainability.

The Pennsylvania State University, under contract to the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL) is performing a feasibility analysis on installing a state-of-the-art circulating fluidized bed (CFB) boiler and ceramic filter emission control device at Penn State's University Park campus for cofiring multiple biofuels and other wastes with coal, and developing a test program to evaluate cofiring multiple biofuels and coal-based feedstocks. Penn State currently operates an aging stoker-fired steam plant at its University Park campus and has spent considerable resources over the last ten to fifteen years investigating boiler replacements and performing life extension studies. This effort, in combination with a variety of agricultural and other wastes generated at the agricultural-based university and the surrounding rural community, has led Penn State to assemble a team of fluidized bed and cofiring experts to assess the feasibility of installing a CFB boiler for cofiring biomass and other wastes along with coal-based fuels. The objective of the project is being accomplished using a team that includes personnel from Penn State's Energy Institute and the Office of Physical Plant, Foster Wheeler Energy Services, Inc., and Cofiring Alternatives.