The data wranglers

Editor’s note: This article originally was published by Sanford Underground Research Facility on March 22, 2021.

This week, contractors completed major mechanical and electrical upgrades to the Ross Hoists at Sanford Underground Research Facility, or Sanford Lab.

During upcoming construction of Long-Baseline Neutrino Facility and future operation of the Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment, the Ross Hoists will power the excavation of 800,000 tons of waste rock and serve as the conveyance for people, materials and equipment underground. Originally manufactured in the 1930s, the hoists needed to be upgraded to support this ambitious undertaking.

“It’s remarkable that the Ross Hoists were still in such good working condition, although several key components needed to be refurbished or replaced,” said Colton Clark, project engineer with the LBNF/DUNE Project at the Department of Energy’s Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory.

Mechanical upgrades were made to both the cage hoist, which conveys people and equipment, and the production hoist, which will skip excavated rock to the surface to be crushed and transported to the Open Cut. The upgrades included new motors, brakes and clutches for both hoists, as well as advanced safety features and auxiliary brakes for the cage hoist.

The Ross Hoists were originally powered by direct current, or DC, motors, with two motor-generator sets converting alternating current, or AC, from the nearby substation into DC power. The electrical portion of the upgrade replaced the original DC motors and motor-generator sets with AC motors and variable frequency drives. In addition, a new transformer was installed to maintain a modern industry standard voltage.

Perhaps the most visual change to the Ross Hoistroom is an upgrade to the hoist operator platforms. The former open-air platforms with manual controls have been replaced by enclosed booths and electronic operating systems.

This is one of the final projects in a series of infrastructure improvements geared toward preparing the Ross Complex as part of the LBNF/DUNE Project. Previous efforts replaced Ross cages, skips and ropes; strengthened the Ross Headframe; and restored the tramway and built the conveyor system. In addition, the Ross Shaft Rehabilitation project refurbished the entire Ross Shaft.

“These upgrades are necessary for the construction and operation of LBNF/DUNE,” said Mike Headley, the executive director of Sanford Lab. “And these facility improvements benefit the site overall, providing access and reliability to all science users who do research at Sanford Lab.”

Siemag Tecberg, Inc. was contracted by Fermilab for the design, supply and commissioning of the Ross Hoistroom upgrade. In 2000, Siemag Tecberg had acquired Nordberg Manufacturers, the original manufacturer of the Ross Hoists.

“These contractors are subject matter experts on the hoists, and they are still amazed by what Nordberg did in the 1930s,” Clark said. “They’ve never worked in a hoistroom that was built like this. The size of it, the cleanliness, how everything’s been maintained — they are completely impressed.”

Several components being replaced in this upgrade are of historic significance, including the controls and large dials on the operator platforms. These components will be preserved by Sanford Lab for educational purposes.

“The facility’s hoists are an amazing engineering feat,” Headley said. “They have served the site well for nearly 90 years, and we’re now upgrading them with modern systems to support Sanford Lab for decades into the future.”

Sanford Lab is operated by the South Dakota Science and Technology Authority (SDSTA) with funding from the Department of Energy. Our mission is to advance world class science and inspire learning across generations. Visit Sanford Lab at www.SanfordLab.org. 

Fermilab is America’s premier national laboratory for particle physics and accelerator research. A U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science laboratory, Fermilab is located near Chicago, Illinois, and operated under contract by the Fermi Research Alliance LLC, a joint partnership between the University of Chicago and the Universities Research Association Inc. Visit Fermilab’s website at www.fnal.gov. 

The Office of Science of the U.S. Department of Energy is the single largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences in the United States and is working to address some of the most pressing challenges of our time. For more information, please visit energy.gov/science. 

Editor’s note: This press release was originally issued by the University of Chicago on March 22, 2021.

The Midwest is leading the nation as a hub for water innovation with state-of-the-art research facilities and world-renowned researchers at the University of Chicago, Argonne National Laboratory, and Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (Fermilab).

On World Water Day 2021, people and organizations come together to celebrate water and raise awareness of the global water crisis – focusing on how to support achievement of Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 6: water and sanitation for all by 2030.

“To overcome the daunting challenges we face this century in providing sufficient supplies of clean water, we will need to shift from our current once-through use of water to a paradigm of water reuse and recycling. Chicagoland research institutions are leaders in developing innovative materials and technologies to enable this new approach to water (re)use,” said Seth Darling, director of the Center for Molecular Engineering at Argonne National Laboratory and Senior Scientist at the University of Chicago’s Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering (PME).

The PME integrates science and engineering to address global challenges from the molecular level up – and is the first school in the nation dedicated to the emerging field of molecular engineering.

“This region is emerging as a nexus for water innovation both nationally and globally, from the popular Third Coast Water Seminar Series to vibrant collaborative research centers like the Advanced Materials for Energy-Water Systems (AMEWS) Energy Frontier Research Center and the Israel-US Collaborative Water-Energy Research Center (CoWERC),” added Darling, who also is the director of AMEWS.

Increasing its leadership in this space, Argonne is pioneering research, discoveries, and innovations in several areas. This includes materials discovery, synthesis, characterization, and scale-up, in addition to new process technologies for systems that sense, treat, and handle water. Argonne’s mission is to pursue water science and engineering empowered by artificial intelligence (AI).

“Argonne’s ‘Water + AI’ strategy will potentially transform the water industry by offering cost-effective and socially responsible solutions to the many challenges,” said Junhong Chen, lead water strategist at Argonne and a professor of molecular engineering at the University of Chicago’s PME.

“We will accomplish this vision through partnerships with our stakeholders, including local, state and federal government, academic and national lab collaborators, industrial partners, nonprofit organizations, and regional economic development hubs,” said Chen.

Both Argonne and Fermilab, which are U.S. Department of Energy national laboratories managed by the University of Chicago, frequently work with federal agencies, other universities, and corporations on research collaborations.

Fermilab currently is working with the Metropolitan Wastewater Reclamation District of Greater Chicago, but the progress could have benefits far beyond the local area. “Fermilab is known around the world for basic research,” said Mauricio Suarez, head of the Illinois Accelerator Research Center (IARC) at Fermilab, “And now we are using the same machines that have probed the smallest constituents of matter to help create a greener planet.”

Drawing on its decades of designing and building particle accelerators for discovery, Fermilab is developing a compact, skid-mounted accelerator that can clean polluted water. The portable machine is small enough to fit in the back of a truck and works by sending a beam of electrons through the volume of water to be treated, destroying multiple contaminants simultaneously, including dyes, pathogens, pharmaceuticals, and perfluorinated compounds, which are found in the tap water of more than 15 million Americans.

A multi-tool for treating contamination, Fermilab’s compact electron accelerator will be able to treat 200,000 gallons per day – five times more than conventional technologies – and is expected to require half the power of currently available treatment options.

“By using a particle beam to clean water, we will be able to annihilate many different types of contaminants cleanly, efficiently, and cost-effectively. Water treatment is one of the many ways that particle accelerators can have a positive impact on our health and environment,” said Suarez. “We at Fermilab are proud to be able to use our particle accelerator expertise, facilities and capabilities to help solve the problem of water contamination.”

The Polsky Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation manages the IP portfolio for all University of Chicago innovations and technologies and works to foster collaboration between laboratory scientists, engineers, students, researchers by connecting them with one another as well as with industry partners.