Energy-saving powder

It is currently estimated that natural gas resources will be exhausted in 130 years; however, those reserves where extraction is cost-effective will only flow for another 60 years or so. Scientists at the Max Planck Institute for Coal Research and at the Max Planck Institute of Colloids and Interfaces might be helping to make it worthwhile to tap into previously unused resources. They have developed a catalyst that converts methane to methanol in a simple and efficient process. Methanol can be transported from locations where it is not economical to build a pipeline. (Angewandte Chemie Int. Ed., September 1, 2009)

It is not cost-effective to lay pipelines to remote or small natural gas fields; nor is it worthwhile accessing the methane in coal seams or in gas sand, or which is burned off as a by-product of oil production, although the methane burned off throughout the world could more than satisfy Germany’s requirement for natural gas. It is also too expensive to liquefy the gas and transport it on trains or in tankers – and even chemistry has so far been unable to offer a solution. Although there are chemical ways to convert methane to methanol, which is easy to transport and which is suitable as a raw material for the chemical industry, “the processes commonly used up to now for producing diesel fuel – steam reforming followed by methanol synthesis or Fischer-Tropsch synthesis – are not economical,” says Ferdi Schüth, Director at the Max Planck Institute for Coal Research in Mülheim an der Ruhr. He and his colleagues have been working with Markus Antonietti and his team at the Max Planck Institute of Colloids and Interfaces in Potsdam to develop a catalyst that might change all this.

The catalyst consists of a nitrogenous material, a covalent, triazine-based network (CTF) synthesized by the chemists in Potsdam. “This solid is so porous that the surface of a gram is approximately equivalent in size to a fifth of a football field,” says Markus Antonietti. The researchers in Mülheim insert platinum atoms into the voluminous lattice of the CTF. Thanks to the large surface area, the catalyst oxidizes the methane efficiently to methanol, as it offers the methane a large area in which to react when the chemists immerse it in oxidizing sulphuric acid, force methane into the acid and heat the mixture to 215° Celsius under pressure. Methanol is created from more than three-quarters of the converted gas.

A catalyst manufactured by the American chemist Roy Periana more than ten years ago from platinum and simple nitrogenous bipyrimidine also effectively creates methanol, but only supports the reaction in a soluble form. This means that the catalyst – which chemists refer to as a homogenous catalyst – subsequently needs to be separated off in a laborious and somewhat wasteful process. “It’s much easier with our heterogeneous catalyst,” says Ferdi Schüth. The chemists in Mülheim filter out the powdery platinum and CTF catalyst, and then separate the acid and methanol in a simple distillation.

The catalyst developed by the Max Planck chemists probably uses the same mechanism as the Periana catalyst and was indeed inspired by it. “When I saw the structure of CTF, I noticed the elements which correspond to its bipyrimidine ligands,” says Schüth. “That’s when I had the idea of manufacturing the solid catalyst.”

via Energy-saving powder.

The predicted end of natural gas in 60 years is worth noting. Here are some facts about natural gas:

Natural gas is a major source of electricity generation through the use of gas turbines and steam turbines. Most grid peaking power plants and some off-grid engine-generators use natural gas. Particularly high efficiencies can be achieved through combining gas turbines with a steam turbine in combined cycle mode. Natural gas burns more cleanly than other fossil fuels, such as oil and coal, and produces less carbon dioxide per unit energy released. For an equivalent amount of heat, burning natural gas produces about 30% less carbon dioxide than burning petroleum and about 45% less than burning coal.^[10] Combined cycle power generation using natural gas is thus the cleanest source of power available using fossil fuels, and this technology is widely used wherever gas can be obtained at a reasonable cost. Fuel cell technology may eventually provide cleaner options for converting natural gas into electricity, but as yet it is not price-competitive. …

Climate change

Natural gas is often described as the cleanest fossil fuel, producing less carbon dioxide per joule delivered than either coal or oil.^[10], and far fewer pollutants than other fossil fuels. However, in absolute terms it does contribute substantially to global carbon emissions, and this contribution is projected to grow. According to the IPCC Fourth Assessment Report (Working Group III Report, Chapter 4), in 2004 natural gas produced about 5,300 Mt/yr of CO₂ emissions, while coal and oil produced 10,600 and 10,200 respectively (Figure 4.4); but by 2030, according to an updated version of the SRES B2 emissions scenario, natural gas would be the source of 11,000 Mt/yr, with coal and oil now 8,400 and 17,200 respectively.^[21] (Total global emissions for 2004 were estimated at over 27,200 Mt.)

In addition, natural gas itself is a greenhouse gas (methane) far more potent than carbon dioxide when released into the atmosphere, although released in much smaller quantities. Natural gas is mainly composed of methane, which has a radiative forcing twenty times greater than carbon dioxide. This means a ton of methane in the atmosphere traps in as much radiation as 20 tons of carbon dioxide. Carbon dioxide still receives the lion’s share of attention over greenhouse gases because it is in much higher concentrations. Still, it is inevitable in using natural gas on a large scale that some of it will leak into the atmosphere. Current USEPA estimates place global emmissions of methane at 3 trillion cubic feet annually^[22], or 3.2% of global production^[23]. Methane represented 14.3% of all global anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions in 2004 ^[24]. …

Safety

A pipeline odorant injection station

In any form, a minute amount of odorant such as t-butyl mercaptan, with a rotting-cabbage-like smell, is added to the otherwise colorless and almost odorless gas, so that leaks can be detected before a fire or explosion occurs. Sometimes a related compound, thiophane is used, with a rotten-egg smell. Adding odorant to natural gas began in the United States after the 1937 New London School explosion. The buildup of gas in the school went unnoticed, killing three hundred students and faculty when it ignited. Odorants are considered non-toxic in the extremely low concentrations occurring in natural gas delivered to the end user.

In mines, where methane seeping from rock formations has no odor, sensors are used, and mining apparatuses have been specifically developed to avoid ignition sources, e.g., the Davy lamp.

- wikipedia

Solar power generation around the clock

A Californian company, SolarReserve, is developing a solar power system that can store seven hours’ worth of solar energy by focusing mirrors onto millions of gallons of molten salt, allowing the plant to provide electricity 24 hours a day.

The company has applied to regulators in California for permission to build the 150-megawatt Rice Solar Energy Project solar farm near the abandoned town of Rice in San Bernadino County, California.

The solar energy is stored using a massive circular array of up to 17,500 mirrors (heliostats), each measuring 24 by 28 feet and attached to a 12-foot pedestal. The heliostat field encircles a concrete Solar Power Tower 538 feet high, with a 100-foot high receiver on top, which holds 4.4 million gallons of molten salt. When the heliostats focus the sunlight onto the receiver the salt is heated to over 1,000 degrees Fahrenheit.

When it is needed, such as at night or at peak times, the heat is released by passing the molten salt through a steam generator that drives a turbine to produce electricity. The cooled salt is then recirculated to the receiver for re-heating. The project brings the dream of a solar system that generates electricity in the dark to a reality, and avoids the need to use fossil fuel plants for backup electricity generation.

via Solar power generation around the clock.

Chemists describe solar energy progress and challenges, including the ‘artificial leaf’

Scientists are making progress toward development of an “artificial leaf” that mimics a real leaf’s chemical magic with photosynthesis — but instead converts sunlight and water into a liquid fuel such as methanol for cars and trucks. That is among the conclusions in a newly-available report from top authorities on solar energy who met at the 1st Annual Chemical Sciences and Society Symposium. The gathering launched a new effort to initiate international cooperation and innovative thinking on the global energy challenge.

The three-day symposium, which took place in Germany this past summer, included 30 chemists from China, Germany, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States. It was organized through a joint effort of the science and technology funding agencies and chemical societies of each country, including the U. S. National Science Foundation and the American Chemical Society (ACS), the world’s largest scientific society. The symposium series was initiated though the ACS Committee on International Activities in order to offer a unique forum whereby global challenges could be tackled in an open, discussion-based setting, fostering innovative solutions to some of the world’s most daunting challenges.

A “white paper” entitled “Powering the World with Sunlight,” describes highlights of the symposium and is available along with related materials here.

“The sun provides more energy to the Earth in an hour than the world consumes in a year,” the report states. “Compare that single hour to the one million years required for the Earth to accumulate the same amount of energy in the form of fossil fuels. Fossil fuels are not a sustainable resource, and we must break our dependence on them. Solar power is among the most promising alternatives.”

via Chemists describe solar energy progress and challenges, including the ‘artificial leaf’.

Abiotic Synthesis Of Methane: New Evidence Supports 19th-Century Idea On Formation Of Oil And Gas

Scientists in Washington, D.C. are reporting laboratory evidence supporting the possibility that some of Earth’s oil and natural gas may have formed in a way much different than the traditional process described in science textbooks.

Their study is scheduled for Nov./Dec. issue of ACS’ Energy & Fuels, a bi-monthly publication. Anurag Sharma and colleagues note that the traditional process involves biology: Prehistoric plants died and changed into oil and gas while sandwiched between layers of rock in the hot, high-pressure environment deep below Earth’s surface. Some scientists, however, believe that oil and gas originated in other ways, including chemical reactions between carbon dioxide and hydrogen below Earth’ surface.

The new study describes a test of that idea, which dates to at least 1877 and famous Russian chemist Dimitri Mendeelev. They combined ingredients for this so-called abiotic synthesis of methane, the main ingredient in natural gas, in a diamond-anvil cell and monitored in-situ the progress of the reaction. The diamond anvils can generate high pressures and temperatures similar to those that occur deep below Earth’s surface and allow for in-situ optical spectroscopy at the extreme environments.

The results “strongly suggest” that some methane could form strictly from chemical reactions in a variety of chemical environments. This study further highlights the role of reaction pathways and fluid immiscibility in the extent of hydrocarbon formation at extreme conditions simulating deep subsurface.

via Abiotic Synthesis Of Methane: New Evidence Supports 19th-Century Idea On Formation Of Oil And Gas.

‘Impossible’ Device Could Propel Flying Cars, Stealth Missiles

The Emdrive is an electromagnetic drive that would generate thrust from a closed system — “impossible” say some experts.

To critics, it’s flat-out junk science, not even worth thinking about. But its inventor, Roger Shawyer, has doggedly continued his work. As Danger Room reported last year, Chinese scientists claimed to validate his math and were building their own version.

Shawyer gave a presentation earlier this week on the Emdrive’s progress at the CEAS 2009 European Air & Space Conference. It answered few questions, but hinted at how the Emdrive might transform spaceflight — and warfare. If the technology works, that is.

The heart of the Emdrive is a resonant, tapered cavity filled with microwaves. According to Shawyer, a relativistic effect generates a net thrust, an effect confirmed by various Emdrives he has built as demonstrations. Critics say that any thrust from the drive must come from another source. Shawyer is adamant that the measured thrust is not caused by other factors.

While the argument over the drive’s impossibility continues, so does the engineering work. The problem is that nobody wants to talk about it. Even Shawyer gives little away.

Last year, professor Yang Juan of the College of Astronautics at Northwestern Polytechnical University (NPU) in Xi’an was happy to confirm that they were building an Emdrive which would be tested by the end of the year. But following the publication of this news in Danger Room, the situation changed. I was informed that the publicity was very unwelcome, especially any suggestion that there might be a military application. (Yang had previous published a study on the use of plasma as a weapon against low-orbiting satellites. [.pdf]) No further information has been forthcoming, and no Chinese papers have been published on the Emdrive, though Yang has recently published work on (unrelated) microwave plasma thrusters (.pdf).

Shawyer asserts that work is also being carried out in France, Russia and in the United States by a major aerospace company. But he cannot provide details beyond vague promises of “significant progress [that] has been made in both theoretical and experimental work, within these groups.” He also asserts that the British National Space Centre is said to be reviewing the Emdrive. Again, no details.

via ‘Impossible’ Device Could Propel Flying Cars, Stealth Missiles | Danger Room | Wired.com.

Thirst for oil poses threat to US national security, says military adviser

America’s thirst for oil is a gathering threat to its national security – and the risk will grow further as the world’s population touches 7 billion, a military adviser to the Pentagon told the Senate today.

In a second day of debate on energy, Democratic senators today pivoted from the economy to national security to try to make the case for a climate change bill.

The threat to Americans’ security ranged from the here and now – with troops in Afghanistan and Iraq tied down by their reliance on gas-guzzling equipment – to years into the future when extreme temperatures and rising sea levels could lead to a widespread social breakdown.

“We have never before on this planet had close to 7 billion people which we will have in 2011. We have never had the unprecedented level of per capita energy use multiplied by that 7 billion people,” Dennis McGinn, a member of the Military Advisory Board, composed of senior retired admirals and generals, told the Senate. “We have a whole host of indicators, warnings and trends that tells us climate change is bad for national security.”

He said the country would face risks on multiple fronts. “America’s current energy posture constitutes a serious and urgent threat to national security – militarily, diplomatically and economically.”

The Pentagon is already beginning to focus more acutely on the threat posed by climate change.

Military research labs are exploring new energy-saving devices, and other ways of conserving fuel in the battlefield. The conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq have made planners acutely conscious that fuel dependence is putting US forces at risk. The US marines corps recently ordered an energy audit of its operations in Afghanistan, in a bid to reduce enormous fuel costs.

“We are tied down by fuel. Fuel is a real day-today concern for our forces in the field who are tethered to that fossil fuel tail,” said Kathleen Hicks, the deputy undersecretary of defence for strategy.

The US military is beginning to focus more intensely on the threat posed by climate change.

via Thirst for oil poses threat to US national security, says military adviser | Environment | guardian.co.uk.

It is time to reward people financially for saving energy and for not having kids.

Solar superpower: Should Europe run on Sahara sun?

EVERY two weeks, the sun pours more energy onto the surface of our planet than we use from all sources in an entire year. It is an inexhaustible powerhouse that has remained largely untapped for human energy needs. That may soon change in a big way. If a consortium of German companies has its way, construction of the biggest solar project ever devised could soon begin in the Sahara desert. When completed, it would harvest energy from the sun shining over Africa and transform it into clean, green electricity for delivery to European homes and businesses.

Prospects for the project, called Desertec, have blossomed over the past year, and this month 20 major German corporations are expected to announce the formation of a consortium that will provide the €400 billion needed to build a raft of solar thermal power plants in north Africa. They include energy utilities giants E.ON and RWE, the engineering firm Siemens, the finance house Deutsche Bank and the insurance company Munich Re.

The current plan, outlined by the German Aerospace Centre (DLR) in a report to the federal government, envisages that the project will meet 15 per cent of Europe’s electricity needs by 2050, with a peak output of 100 gigawatts – roughly equivalent to 100 coal-fired power stations. Preliminary designs in the German report show electricity reaching Europe via 20 high-voltage direct-current power lines, which will keep transmission losses below 10 per cent (New Scientist, 14 March, p 42). Trans-Mediterranean links will cross from Morocco to Spain across the Strait of Gibraltar; from Algeria to France via the Balearic islands; from Tunisia to Italy; from Libya to Greece; and from Egypt to Turkey via Cyprus.

It is claimed that the project could meet 15 per cent of Europe’s electricity needs by 2050

via Solar superpower: Should Europe run on Sahara sun? – environment – 26 October 2009 – New Scientist.

Do it. Do it.

A novel form of fusion power

LIKE conquistadors seeking El Dorado, physicists cannot leave the idea of fusion power alone. Some spend billions of dollars of taxpayers’ money on the huge machines they believe are the best way to generate the temperatures and pressures needed to persuade atomic nuclei to merge with one another. Others still think there is something to the idea of “cold” fusion, and tinker hopefully with desktop apparatus full of electrodes made from exotic metals and electrolytes containing obscure isotopes of hydrogen.

Eric Lerner, however, believes there is a third way. His experimental device does not quite fit on a desktop (its sides are a couple of metres long) but nor does it cost billions (a few hundred thousand is closer to the mark). Nor, in truth, does it do fusion yet. But on October 20th he announced it had reached what might be seen as base camp on the climb to that goal.

Mr Lerner’s machine is called a dense plasma focus fusion device. It works by storing charge in capacitors and then discharging the accumulated electricity rapidly through electrodes bathed in a gas held at low pressure. The electrodes are arranged as a central positively charged anode surrounded by smaller negatively charged cathodes.

When the capacitors are discharged, electrons flow through the gas, knocking the electrons away from the atomic nuclei and thus transforming it into a plasma. By compressing this plasma using electromagnetic forces, Mr Lerner and his colleagues at Lawrenceville Plasma Physics, in New Jersey (the firm he started in order to pursue this research) have created a plasmoid. This is a tiny bubble of plasma that might be made so hot that it could initiate certain sorts of fusion. The nuclei in the plasmoid, so the theory goes, would be moving so fast that when they hit each other they would overcome their mutual electrostatic repulsion and merge. If, of course, they were the right type of nuclei.

For the test run, Mr Lerner used deuterium, a heavy isotope of hydrogen, as the gas. This is the proposed fuel for big fusion reactors, such as the $12 billion International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor being built at Cadarache in France and the $4 billion National Ignition Facility at Livermore, California. It is not, however, what he proposes to use in the end. In fact his trick (and the reason why it might be possible to produce a nuclear reaction in such a small piece of apparatus) is that what he does propose is not really fusion at all. Rather, it is a very unusual form of nuclear fission. Normal fission involves breaking uranium or plutonium atoms up by hitting them with neutrons. The reaction Mr Lerner proposes would break up boron atoms by hitting them with protons (the nuclei of normal hydrogen atoms). This process is known technically, and somewhat perversely, as aneutronic fusion. The reason is that the boron and hydrogen nuclei do, indeed, fuse. But the whole thing then breaks up into three helium nuclei, releasing a lot of energy at the same time. Unlike the sort of fusion done in big machines, which squeeze heavy hydrogen nuclei together, no neutrons are released in this reaction.

From an energy-generation point of view, that is good. Because neutrons have no electric charge they tend to escape from the apparatus, taking energy with them. Helium nuclei are positively charged and thus easier to rein in using an electric field, in order to strip them of their energy. That also means they cannot damage the walls of the apparatus, since they do not fly through them, and makes the whole operation less radioactive, and thus safer.

The plasmoids Mr Lerner has come up with are not yet hot enough to sustain even aneutronic fusion. But he has proved the principle. If he can get his machine to the point where it is busting up boron atoms, he might have something that could be converted into a viable technology—and the search for El Dorado would be over.

- via economist

Stealthy wind turbines aim to disappear from radar screens

For all their environmental appeal, wind turbines have few fans in the military or among air traffic controllers. Strange as it might seem, radar systems easily confuse the turbines’ rotating blades with passing aircraft. Now a company has developed a “stealthy”, radar-invisible blade that could see many more wind farms springing up across the UK and elsewhere.

The concern over wind turbines is delaying their deployment. According to the UK Government’s Department of Energy and Climate Change, plans for over 5 gigawatts of wind power are currently stalled by aviators’ objections .

It is no less of an issue elsewhere: last month the German army blocked investment in some new wind power projects because of radar interference concerns. Even in the US, where the population density is lower, the Department of Defense is investigating whether turbines could weaken radar defences.

At the root of the problem is the fact that traditional radar sweeps across an area, scanning a particular location only once every few seconds. It detects moving objects by looking for a Doppler shift in the reflected radar signals. If an aircraft flies low over a wind farm, it becomes difficult to distinguish whether those shifts have come from the aircraft’s movement or the rotating turbine blades. …

One solution would be to require all aircraft that fly over wind farms to carry transponders to identify themselves, says Nicola Vaughan, head of aviation at the British Wind Energy Association. Indeed, she says transponder-mandatory zones already operate over two offshore wind farms in UK waters. However, this is more problematic for land-based farms as large numbers of light aircraft, which generally don’t have transponders, fly over them.

Vestas, a wind turbine manufacturer, may have a better answer. Last week it carried out the first test of a “stealthy” turbine blade, built in collaboration with defence technology company Qinetiq.

It is relatively easy to hide objects from radar by applying an absorbent coating – an approach used to disguise vehicles. This is no good for wind turbines, though. “The mass of the blade is critical,” says Steve Appleton of Vestas. Blades can be up to 45 metres long, so slapping on a thick, radar-absorbent coating of paint would add substantial extra weight. “The blades flex in the wind too,” Appleton adds, so any coating is likely to crack and flake off.

Instead, a radar-absorbing blade has been designed from scratch, and in such a way that Vestas’ existing manufacturing process isn’t significantly altered – so it doesn’t push up costs. Although Vestas is not releasing details of the design as yet, Appleton says the blade behaves like a Salisbury screen – incoming radar waves bounce off two surfaces that are precisely spaced so that the reflections interfere and cancel each other out.

via Stealthy wind turbines aim to disappear from radar screens – tech – 23 October 2009 – New Scientist.

Ah, this may be the reason for UFO sightings around windmills.

Turning Wastewater into Ethanol

As the world continues to search for alternative fuels to fuel our cars and heat our homes, many different opportunities are being explored and there has finally been a significant breakthrough in turning wastewater into ethanol as an automobile fuel source. Qteros and Applied Clean Tech have teamed up to create a biofuel that will get us that much closer to having another true “green” energy source. Water treatment systems are expensive to run and have presented communities where they are located with some significant challenges. Most notably, what they can do with the sludge that is left over once the wastewater has been treated. Plant managers may no longer faced with the difficult task of figuring out this problem.

Jeff Hausthor, Senior Project Manager and Qteros Co-founder, is extremely optimistic about the opportunities that turning wastewater into ethanol will present in the very near future. He projects that the future customer base will be “every municipality that has a wastewater treatment plant.” Not only that, but turning wastewater into ethanol will severely cut down on operating costs for each and every water treatment plant that is involved.

This joint venture is a perfect example of what our energy companies need to do to continue advancements in alternative fuels. While it is unlikely that either of these companies could have achieved this task on their own, by combining their technologies and working together, they were able to create a “high yield process” that is technically advanced and will eventually prove to be profitable.

The United States government continues to push for alternative fuels and wants the usage tripled over the next two decades. With more and more research being done on things like turning wastewater into ethanol, the country moves ever closer to being able to achieve that goal.

via Turning Wastewater into Ethanol.