(AGENPARL) – ven 29 marzo 2024 A weekly compendium of media reports on science and technology achievements
at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. Though the Laboratory reviews
items for overall accuracy, the reporting organizations are responsible for
the content in the links below.
….. LLNL Report, March 29, 2024
Supercomputer simulations predicting the synthesis pathways for the elusive
BC8 “super-diamond”, involving shock compressions of diamond precursor,
inspire ongoing Discovery Science experiments at NIF. Image by Mark
Meamber/LLNL.
… Diamonds are a lab’s best friend
Diamonds are the hardest natural substance on Earth, but that may not
necessarily be true on carbon-rich exoplanets where certain temperature and
pressure conditions create an ultra-dense form of carbon called eight-atom
body-centered cubic, or BC8, also known as super-diamond.
Scientists have known about BC8 for decades but have never observed the
atomic structure, but Lawrence Livermore scientists and collaborators have
now used a supercomputer to create simulations that help understand how BC8
could form.
The major finding helps explain why previous attempts at finding BC8 were
unsuccessful because it turns out that the super-diamond can only form in a
very narrow band of pressure and temperature. The team is now busy exploring
if these theoretical pathways can finally produce some very real-world
results.
Read More
Cover cropping has a relatively high potential contribution to national
soil-based CO2-removal efforts, due mainly to the large extent of land area
that can be cover-cropped without interfering with cash-crop production.
Cereal rye is by far the most widely planted cover crop currently in the
United States. 
… Counting on Mother Nature
Fifty-five gigatons of greenhouse gases are released into the atmosphere each
year, according to the United Nations. The vast majority of climate
scientists agree that human activities have been the main driver of climate
change, primarily due to the burning of fossil fuels, and that cutting
emissions is necessary to curb warming trends.
The United States and North Carolina have goals to cut greenhouse gas
emissions and reach “net-zero” by 2050. Completely eliminating greenhouse
gas emitting activities would be an enormous challenge in our current
economy. Instead, countries are hoping to fight climate change with a
“net-zero” strategy: removing one molecule of greenhouse gas from the air
for every molecule that’s released, making the net emissions zero.
That can be achieved by utilizing cleaner technology and more efficient
processes to reduce emissions, as well as capturing carbon from the
atmosphere and storing it.
“One of the easiest ways to do it is using Mother Nature,” said Allegra
Mayer, a researcher at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and co-author
or the report Roads to Removal. “Plants just breathe carbon dioxide out of
the air. It can be stored in soil, forests and cover crops.”
She says North Carolina forests are some of the best in the country for
carbon-storage capability.
Read More
Microbe models leverage extensive genomic data to power soil carbon
simulations. Illustration by Victor O. Leshyk.
… Secrets beneath the surface
https://ana.ir/en/news/5459/unlocking-secrets-of-soil-microbes-to-improve-climate-predictions
Climate models are essential to predicting and addressing climate change, but
can fail to adequately represent soil microbes, a critical player in
ecosystem soil carbon sequestration that affects the global carbon cycle.
A team of scientists from Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley
Lab) and Lawrence Livermore has developed a new model that incorporates
genetic information from microbes. This new model enables the scientists to
better understand how certain soil microbes efficiently store carbon supplied
by plant roots, and could inform agricultural strategies to preserve carbon
in the soil in support of plant growth and climate-change mitigation.
“Our research demonstrates the advantage of assembling the genetic
information of microorganisms directly from soil. Previously, we only had
information about a small number of microbes studied in the lab,” said
Berkeley Lab postdoctoral researcher Gianna Marschmann. “Having genome
information allows us to create better models capable of predicting how
various plant types, crops, or even specific cultivars can collaborate with
soil microbes to better capture carbon. Simultaneously, this collaboration
can enhance soil health.”
The corresponding authors are Eoin Brodie of Berkeley Lab, and Jennifer
Pett-Ridge of Lawrence Livermore, who leads the “Microbes Persist” Soil
Microbiome Scientific Focus Area project that is funded by the DOE Office of
Science in support of this work.
Soil microbes help plants access soil nutrients and resist drought, disease
and pests. Their impacts on the carbon cycle are particularly important to
represent in climate models because they affect the amount of carbon stored
in soil or released into the atmosphere as carbon dioxide during the process
of decomposition. By building their own bodies from that carbon, microbes can
stabilize (or store) it in the soil, and influence how much, and for how long
carbon remains stored belowground. The relevance of these functions to
agriculture and climate are being observed like never before.
Read More
https://ana.ir/en/news/5459/unlocking-secrets-of-soil-microbes-to-improve-climate-predictions
A photo taken by a scanning electron microscope shows a pit at the surface of
an additively manufactured (3D-printed) stainless steel part. Image by Thomas
Voisin/LLNL.
… They are just a bunch of slags
https://www.mining.com/scientists-discover-origin-of-corrosion-in-3d-printed-stainless-steel/
Researchers at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory delved into the
mysterious world of pitting corrosion in additively manufactured
(3D-printed) stainless steel 316L in seawater and discovered that the key
players in this corrosion drama are tiny particles called “slags.”
Stainless steel 316L is a popular choice for marine applications due to its
combination of mechanical strength and corrosion resistance. This holds even
more true after 3D printing, but even this resilient material isn’t immune
to pitting corrosion.
Slags are produced by deoxidizers such as manganese and silicon. In
traditional stainless steel 316L manufacturing, these elements are typically
added before casting to bind with oxygen and form a solid phase in the molten
liquid metal that can be easily removed post-manufacturing.
The LLNL researchers found these slags also form during laser powder bed
fusion (LPBF) 3D printing but remain at the metal’s surface and initiate
pitting corrosion.
“Pitting corrosion is extremely difficult to understand due to its
stochastic nature, but we determined the material characteristics that cause
or initiate this type of corrosion,” said LLNL researcher Shohini
Sen-Britain. “While our slags looked different than what had been observed
in conventionally manufactured materials, we hypothesized that they could be
a cause of pitting corrosion in 316L.”
Read More
https://www.mining.com/scientists-discover-origin-of-corrosion-in-3d-printed-stainless-steel/
Simon Pang (left) and Buddhinie Jayathilake assemble and prepare a prototype
bubble column electrobioreactor to test additively manufactured
three-dimensional electrodes. Under their project, excess renewable
electricity from wind and solar sources would be stored in chemical bonds as
renewable natural gas. Photo by Nathan Ellebracht/LLNL.
… A renewable natural gas breakthrough
https://biomassmagazine.com/articles/socalgas-joins-lawrence-livermore-national-laboratory-and-electrochaea-to-help-advance-gas-infrastructure-decarbonization
Lawrence Livermore,* *Southern California Gas Company (SoCalGas) and
Electrochaea are collaborating on an innovative research project that aims to
develop a single-stage electro-bioreactor to transform excess renewable
electricity and biogas into carbon-neutral synthetic biomethane, also known
as renewable natural gas (RNG).
This approach could mark a significant advancement in power to gas technology
and underscores the viability of potential for synthetic biomethane to help
decarbonize natural gas infrastructure and its end uses from residential
heating to manufacturing industries and transportation.
If developed at scale, this technology could increase the yield of RNG
produced from carbon dioxide sources like anaerobic digesters, landfills,
dairies, fermentation facilities or industrial processes.
“We believe this technology will help enable decarbonization of the natural
gas grid infrastructure by providing a renewable source of natural gas,”
said Simon Pang, a materials scientist in LLNL’s Materials Science
Division, who heads the project. “This renewable natural gas can be moved
and used in existing infrastructure, allowing the technology to be deployed
soon to meet green energy demand. Moreover, by producing pipeline-quality
renewable natural gas from biogas, we can increase the value of biogas and
reduce the likelihood that it will be vented to the atmosphere, reducing
greenhouse gas emissions and improving local air quality.”
Read More
https://biomassmagazine.com/articles/socalgas-joins-lawrence-livermore-national-laboratory-and-electrochaea-to-help-advance-gas-infrastructure-decarbonization
——————————————————————————
Founded in 1952, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory https://www.llnl.gov
provides solutions to our nation’s most important national security
challenges through innovative science, engineering and technology. Lawrence
Livermore National Laboratory is managed by Lawrence Livermore National
Security, LLC for the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security
Administration.
Read previous Lab Report articles online https://www.llnl.gov/news/lab-report
— Unsubscribe from this newsletter :