Energy Miscellany

Transatomic Power cofounders Mark Massie and Leslie Dewan, doctoral students at MIT’s nuclear engineering department, are being joined by Russ Wilcox, former chief executive and cofounder of the display-maker E Ink.  Wilcox will be the chief executive, and a cofounder, of the revolutionary new gen IV SMR company.

The company is designing a “modular and rail-shippable” 200- to 500-megawatt reactor, “suitable for the replacement of coal plants.” It could be manufactured at a central facility and then shipped to where it is needed.

They call it a “waste-annihilating molten salt reactor,” and it could run entirely on the used fuel pellets produced by today’s reactors, while reducing the volume of that waste. It’s targeted initially at replacing coal plants, and later, older nuclear plants, Wilcox explained, “which together make up about 60 percent of US electricity production.” _Boston Globe

Indonesian coal companies push for local development of coal gasification and coal-to-liquids (CTL) production

South African presses government and industry in South Africa to develop its massive shale gas resources

East European gas analyst Mikhail Korchemkin reveals that Russia's energy giant Gazprom is having a difficult time adjusting to the global shale gas revolution:

...Russian gas is the most expensive in Europe, that’s why it is the marginal resource of gas in the European market, the last one to be bought by consumers. Gazprom gradually cuts the price and, unfortunately for them, they are lagging behind their competitors.”

The recent 10-15% price cut to importers of Russian gas, he said, was not enough to beat its competitors.

...“It’s mostly about Gazprom, because Gazprom dominates the East European market: the former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe.”

...How worried was Gazprom about losing its market in Western Europe?

“Having to choose between keeping its market share or keeping the high price, Gazprom would prefer the latter. High price is more important to them than market share.” _Natural Gas Europe

Read the entire story at the link above for a more complete picture of Mr. Korchemkin's analysis of Gazprom's reaction to the developing global gas glut.

Gazprom's corrupt and antiquated attitude toward customers and competition will likely lead to large scale suffering of the Russian people themselves, who are so dependent upon Gazprom revenues -- by way of Russian government spending.

Meanwhile, keep a jaundiced eye focused on economic and political developments in Europe and China. If those two regions continue to have problems, global demand for commodities -- including crude oil -- is likely to stagnate for a while longer.

Brief Energy News

The Weizman Institute announced a new synthesis route for the production of methanol from carbon dioxide. More details from Chemical & Engineering News

East SF Bay biotech company Amyris is opening another plant to produce renewable farnesene.

[Farnesene] may be sold directly into industrial applications or put through simple chemical finishing steps to form a broad range of renewable products including squalane, base oil and finished lubricants and diesel.

Global Bioenergie and Synthos are partnering to produce bio-butadiene -- a $30 billion annual market, as noted briefly earlier. Such biological substitutes for petroleum feedstocks will eventually reduce the demand for petroleum and other mined hydrocarbons in the chemicals, plastics, fiber, dye, lubricants and other vital industries.

Brookhaven National Lab scientists are using computer modeling in an attempt to increase the production of seed oil in rapeseed -- an important crop in biodiesel production.

Ethanol acccounts for nearly 10% of the US "gasoline fuel supply."

Nuclear power cannot be written off -- it is here for the long haul

South Korea and India are collaborating to expand civilian nuclear technology

China has connected a new generation 20 MW "fast breeder reactor" to the electrical grid. Most news reports skate around the issue of plutonium proliferation associated with the uranium to plutonium breeder. Most current western approaches to breeder reactors are looking at the thorium to uranium 233 breeding, which has far less weapons proliferation risk.

Energy News Briefs

Gas Techno Mini-GTL
Gas Techno is offering to "mini gas-to-liquids (GTL)" plant packages using its technology of natural gas to methanol conversion, for between $1.5 million and $2 million. The packages can fit inside a standard 40 foot shipping container. Instead of converting natural gas to syngas, Gas Techno's process converts the gas to methanol, with formalin as a side product.

Biomass to Wheel Comparison
A Virginia Tech U. professor has devised a simple "biomass to wheels" method of calculating comparative efficiencies between different biomass methods for powering automobiles. A preliminary comparison is pictured above, with the basic approach outlined below.

Rentech's 55 MW biomass powerplant in Port St. Joe, Florida, received its final and unappealable air permit. The plant uses biomass gasification and gas turbine generation technology. Such a plant is ideal for CHP -- combined heat and power -- and for auxiliary production of fuels and renewable chemicals.

Also in Florida, GreenEnviroTech is building two plants for converting used vehicle tyres to oil. (via Biofuelsdigest)

Brazil's massive offshore oil reserves comparable in size to those of the North Sea

Positive news on small modular fission reactors (SMRs) from Dan Yurman and US Senator Lamar Alexander.

The Al Fin Energy blog does not focus upon any particular source of energy, because human civilisation is going to need most available forms of energy to get to the next level. The energy starvationists who currently control most governments of the advanced world are steering civilisation directly toward the Idiocracy.

Since civilisations cannot survive without relatively abundant energy, and since so many forms of energy are being prohibited and over-regulated, over-taxed, and over-priced by governmental agencies and international cartels, virtually all forms of energy must remain on the table for those remaining who wish civilisation to succeed. It is up to us that these forms of energy be utilised in as clean and sustainable a manner as possible.

Bonus! via NextBigFuture, Kirk Sorensen's information-packed TED Talk:

Energy Miscellany

Brian Wang provides new information from Blacklight Power on its mysterious Continuous Power Generator. Blacklight Power's approach is the closest thing to science fiction to be funded at high levels.

Brian also presents recent information onCold Fusion and new speculation about the IEC Bussard Fusion approach.

Brian Westenhaus looks at a promising French approach to creating liquid fuels from biomass waste using plasmas (more on this from GCC). He also takes a look at a new acellular approach to artificial photosynthesis.

From his new desk at Consumer Energy Report, Robert Rapier presents a broad overview of his positions on energy issues.

Finally, US Energy Secretary Steven Chu advocates for small modular nuclear reactors from the pages of the Wall Street Journal.

The long range outlook for abundant, clean energy is very good. But we must be careful not to shut down our best options for near term and intermediate term energy while we are star-gazing into the future.

Delusions of doom -- catastrophic anthropogenic global warming doom, peak oil doom, overpopulation doom, resource depletion doom, and so on -- can lead us down a dead end path from which there is no route to that abundant, clean energy future we dream of.

Europe's demographic fate is set, downward to diminishing numbers of smart young Europeans, downward to ever greater dependency upon central governments and lesser self-sufficiency. It makes sense for Europe to cling to various dooms as excuses for the unwillingness to face the hard choices.

North America and Oceania do not have to follow that downward path.

Comparing Costs for Energy, and More Energy News

NextBigFuture

Brian Wang looks at a study of the comparative costs of different forms of power production for the UK. Offshore wind is particularly bad. It is not clear whether the authors of the report took into account the lifetime of the different power plants. Wind turbines are particularly bad about requiring costly replacements and maintenance, and having to be retired early due to exposure to the elements.

Brian Westenhaus looks at the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission, and its shocking inability to certify even one new nuclear plant design over the past 35 years.

US NRC looks at small modular designs -- and takes its own sweet time about it.

Competition for Next Gen Nuclear Plant

Using solar energy for biomass gasification

Co-firing biomass with coal becoming more common in US

Co-firing eucalyptus and coal in NSW Australia


Biomass power from sawmill residue in British Columbia, Canada

There is no single energy answer. Bioenergy is extremely important due to the ability to grow biomass over most of the Earth's surface -- both land and ocean. This ubiquitous nature of biological growth will allow localities and regions to have more control over essential power and other economic possibilities on the small and regional scale.

Coal, oil sands, oil shale, heavy oils, and unconventional gas are extremely important bridge technologies -- between the oil age and the post-fossil age. The sooner humans get past the dieoff.org carbon hysteria of leftist greens and enter the real world of scientific proof, the sooner they can advance toward a higher level.

Nuclear fission is scalable up to very high levels of power production. It is safer than most forms of power production, but it could be much safer if the safe new designs were given the support by government that they deserve. Modular nuclear power can be distributed and made far more robust and resistant against external attempts to cut off power to large parts of a nation.

Energy News Briefs

Sorghum may become one of the top bioenergy crops.

Bioenergy companies may have to break into the market via high value chemicals production.

Advanced research in microbes and catalysts will have many parallel applications -- including the recycling of waste plastics.

A combined revolution in lighting, networking, and fire safety?

The Obama - Pelosi regime is still intent on implementing national energy starvation. The coordinated attacks by government officials on Canadian oil sands, shale gas, coal, shale oil, and oil drilling will all have the ultimate effect of making the US more dependent upon the importation of fuels from bloody dictatorships.

Quite a Lot of Energy Around, Actually

There is plenty of crude oil around the world. But there is far more coal, oil sands, shale gas, oil shale, heavy oils -- the unconventionals. Unconventional gas alone -- shale gas and coal bed gas -- are set to revolutionise world energy markets. Various projects to produce liquid fuels from gas are making the Russians very nervous indeed. Petrobras is even using microfluidic GTL and Fischer Tropsch for offshore production of liquid fuels from gas.

You know that oil sands are set to become a great success when the big guns of the green dieoff movement are spending big money in a propaganda campaign to shut them down. Of course, without domestic sources of energy, the advanced world will be held hostage to bloody oil dictatorships. Dieoff.org greens appear to be working hard to bring about their namesake.

Biomass to liquids (BTL) continues to advance against the disadvantage of low energy density.

This involves the drying and crushing of the biomass, torrefaction, gasification, purification of the synthesis gas and its ultimate conversion to second generation biofuels using Fischer-Tropsch synthesis.

A Polish power company is collaborating with Hitachi to build advanced nuclear power plants in Poland, and Mitsubishi may be bailing out South Africa's failed pebble bed reactor project.

The anaerobic digestion of biological waste and debris may prove to be a very useful form of energy and fertiliser in areas of active farming, ranching, and forestry. Bio - methane is produced, along with rich compost for agricultural soil.

As soon as the public understands that CO2 is not a threat to the Earth's environment in any way, we can focus on eliminating actual toxic products of industry and energy production. Freeing up the billions of dollars invested in proving the fantasy catastrophe of climate change will allow some actual productive work to get done, we hope.

Now, big wind and big solar. Neither produce baseload or dispatchable power. The capacity factor for both is below 0.3. Both are at least 3X as expensive to build as nuclear, considering the actual power produced. And nuclear plants survive at least 50 years, compared to wind turbines whose incredibly expensive gearboxes give out every 6 to 10 years.

The wasteful pursuit of big wind and big solar projects by the Obama - Pelosi regime is a sign of the ideological vacuousness of modern government, media, academia, and society at large. Both big wind and big solar are huge wastes of resources and personnel that could be better used in a more productive capacity.

Energy Wherever You Look, and More

Underground in situ coal gasification is just one approach to getting energy residing in hard-to-get-to places.

Farmers cannot grow sugar cane in North Dakota for producing ethanol, but they can certainly grow sugar beets! Using sugar beets, all manner of fuels can be brewed.

New Mexico plant to incorporate solar gasification of biomass to synfuels.

Biobutanol is a rising star of biofuels. Wise investors should take a look at biobutanol, and consider how it might act in synergy with bioethanol.

Researchers at the University of East Anglia have posted their entry into the solar powered hydrogen race. They used gold and platinum for the electrodes. They just had a lot of gold and platinum sitting around in the lab, you see. ;-) Seriously, titanium dioxide has been used (with platinum) for this purpose since 1975. TiO2 is cheaper than gold. Substitutes for platinum cannot be that hard to find in the age of nanotechnology.

An environmentalist's look at the comeback of nuclear power

As long as we allow our energy future to be held hostage by the likes of Rajendra Pachauri, Greenpeace, and the WWF, we may as well jump into a deep well and drown.

Energy Bits

If you look at the oil production vs. oil demand graphs between now and 2030 for Europe, China, and India, you will see the same thing: production is going down, while demand is slated to go up. That means that either oil imports will have to increase significantly, or these important countries and regions will have to learn how to make their own oil. It is that realisation which is driving much of the investment in next generation biofuels.

We knew that Europe was increasing its use of biomass to generate electricity. We knew that Brazil was beginning to fire ethanol in gas turbines as a replacement for natural gas. Now Japan is increasing its co-firing of biomass with coal for power generation.

An interesting use of biomass in the US is to provide power and CO2 for the production of algal biofuels.

The plant at full capacity will require 33.5 tons per hour of wood waste feedstock provided from the surrounding area. The plant will produce approximately 24 MW of electrical power at $0.06 per KW and 20 million gallon annually of bio-diesel at $2.00 per gallon. The plant will operate 24 hours a day and when completed provide 60 jobs. EQI would be an owner and operate this facility.

Energy Quest’s advanced modular gasification design will result in lower set up costs and increased efficiencies. The gasifiers will provide clean syngas fuel for the power generators. The Algae CO2 capture system will be provided by others and completely built in Piedmont.

The stack gases containing CO2 are captured and ducted to Algae growing pod clusters as feed for the growth of Oil (lipid) producing Algae. Algae grows in water. The lipid laden Algae is harvested from the pod growing clusters several times per day. The Algae is then dewatered to a sufficient level to feed into the lipid extraction process. Once the lipids have been extracted from the Algae it is fed into the lipid oil to diesel conversion process. Using this process will yield 200 litres of bio-diesel from every ton of CO2 produced from the biomass combustion process. _DomesticFuel

In Wisconsin, a biorefinery is being built to utilise wood biomass to produce electricity, steam, and heat for a paper mill. The biorefinery will also provide biodiesel to be sold on the market.

Thorium continues to generate discussion, as energy planners seek to develop safer, more plentiful sources of nuclear energy without significant weapons proliferation risks.

Mitsubishi Heavy Industries has begun production at a new plant expansion for producing forged turbine blades for nuclear power plant generators. Mitsubishi provides highly specialised turbines for steam, gas combustion, and hydroelectric applications. It is important for energy analysts to understand that a potential shortage of such top quality specialised turbines could be a serious bottleneck in new power generation construction sometime in the foreseeable future.

Political entities that place frivolous and artificial restrictions on current construction of power plants, will face severe hardships in the future when they finally realise how badly they need new power construction -- after they have delayed so long that they placed themselves at the back of the line for new construction.

New Technology for Gasification, Nuclear, Geothermal....

In order for the world's economies to climb out of the current quagmire, several types of plentiful energy supplies will be needed. Long-term energy sources include solar, nuclear, geothermal, and biomass (one form of solar).

A new method of gasification of industrial and solid municipal wastes promises to provide large new supplies of clean energy -- while turning landfills into valuable repositories of wealth.

The process was developed in collaboration with Cascades Engineering and Projects, a division of Cascades Canada Inc. The system uses high-pressure high-temperature steam in an oxygen-free reactor, thereby reducing environmental impact. This new technology allows faster reduction of carbon-based materials to produce synthetic gas that can easily be converted to fuel or other forms of energy, as needed.

This project, developed in accordance with the City's Sustainable Development Action Plan, in agreement with the Green Municipal Fund criteria and in conjunction with the government MSW objectives, will significantly reduce the amount of waste Salaberry-de-Valleyfield sends to landfill. It will also produce substantial savings on costs generated by the transportation and disposal of waste. Furthermore, the City of Salaberry-de-Valleyfield's continued association with Global Clean Energy on this project will eventually lead to the creation of a new source of biodiesel to fuel some of its installations and reduce its energy costs. _finance.yahoo _via_BiofuelsDigest

Nuclear engineers at Idaho National Laboratory are looking into the use of graphite for future nuclear reactors.

Windes said Great Britain has been using reactors with designs similar to what his team is proposing since the 1950s. The United States researched graphite for nuclear purposes for decades, but with oil prices and enthusiasm for nuclear power plunging, the program was shut down in the 1980s, Windes said.

Windes' team in Idaho Falls is now dusting off that old research.

"We're trying to improve upon those old designs," he said. "In some ways, we're just reinventing a wheel that's already been invented, which is the price you pay for dropping something."

But Windes' team is working with some significant advantages. Scientists today have the benefit of perspective when they revisit old experiments, as well as better instruments and access to much more advanced grades of graphite, he said.

Graphite isn't a perfect solution to all nuclear problems. Over time, exposure to radiation causes it to shrink, distort and ultimately crack, Windes said. The INL team is conducting experiments largely focused on how to solve this problem.

The team placed a graphite sample in INL's Advanced Test Reactor in September, where it is exposed to similar conditions as a next-generation nuclear reactor, Windes said. The sample is scheduled to be removed in May 2011 and tested for thermal, physical and mechanical changes. _USNews

This is one area where new molecular manufacturing techniques will pay off. Pure graphite may not hold up to the necessary punishment over a long period of time -- but molecularly modified graphite certainly will. Better nuclear reactors are desperately needed, to expand the use of nuclear power.

Enhanced geothermal energy is a potentially limitless source of heat and power, but recent concerns over seismic side effects threaten to limit geothermal's use. New single-well technology appears to provide all the advantages of enhanced geothermal, without the seismic risk.

The Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) has a project investigating a new type of Enhanced Geothermal Systems (EGS) - single well geothermal. Single Well Geothermal potentially resolves many of the problems with conventional EGS - lower environmental impact, less ground water contamination, and mercifully less seismic events.

Another advantage to Single Well Geothermal is that there are over 4,000 abandoned bore holes from the oil and industry that can be used for the geothermal industry and the single well architecture. _GTM

Europe is quickly expanding its biomass electricity industry.

Currently, about 800 mono-firing power plants in 23 countries convert thermal energy from the incineration of wood, black liquor or other biomass into electrical energy. The electrical power of these plants increased from 5,300 MW in 2003 to 7,100 MW at present. “We expect a further increase of the capacity up to more than 10,000 MW until the end of 2013,” said the authors. _Bioenergy

The University of Arizona receives a grant to develope fuels and products from algae.

"To tackle the problem of large-scale production of algae for fuels and other products we have to have a better understanding of everything from the biology to the interfacing with existing petroleum processing plants," Ogden said.

"We're looking at the whole thing," she said, "from growing algae to putting fuel in your tank."

Belief in "carbon climate catastrophe" from burning fossil fuels, is more a religion than a science.

Energy News and Views

DuPont prepares to fire up its cellulosic ethanol demo plant on 29 January 2010. The plant will accept both agricultural waste and biomass crops as feedstock.

ZeaChem's approach to cellulosic ethanol may give it a jump-start over competitors. "ZeaChem’s technology is a parallel hybrid system of fermentation and gasification. This hybrid process achieves 40% higher yield than other cellulosic processes. ZeaChem’s patented biorefining process uses an acetogen – a species of bacteria naturally adapted to digest the tough carbon chains of cellulose – to extract the maximum amount of energy available from the feedstock. ZeaChem offers the highest yield, lowest production cost and lowest carbon emissions profile of any known biorefining process."

California startup Cobalt Biofuels aims to produce bio-Butanol from "non-food" biomass. Butanol has several properties that make it a superior biofuel to ethanol for use in most modern internal combustion engines.

"White coal" (pressed biomass briquettes) is becoming a popular and economical fuel in many parts of rural India. (via Bioenergy) The briquettes are made from agricultural waste which farmers have no use for -- creating a new and welcome cash stream to poor rural areas.

The Jatropha genome is being tweaked to improve oil production. Jatropha is potentially one of the best of the 1st generation oilseed crops -- since it can be co-cultivated with other cash crops, and even with food crops, making more efficient use of land.

Canadian company develops process to produce both cellulosic ethanol and sweetener xylitol from wood chips. The key to profitability and competitiveness in the biofuel industry is to make full use of resources. The ability to produce multiple profitable products efficiently from the same feedstock gives a company flexibility to meet changing market demands.

Obama's green jobs initiative likely to prove one more disaster on top of an already disastrous Obama presidency.

Notable Energy Briefs

Switchgrass is twice as efficient as maize for producing biofuels

Switchgrass can yield 1,000 gallons of fuel per acre planted, while miscanthus (elephant grass) is projected to yield 1,250 gallons per acre. By comparison, corn yield only 400 gallons of ethanol per acre, and even sugarcane only 650. Oil palms produce 610 gallons of biodiesel per acre planted, while coconut yields only 276 gallons per acre. (Figures for ethanol come from the North Carolina Cooperative Extension Service, for biodiesel from the National Sustainable Agriculture Information Service.)

Residential fuel cells for producing home electricity, heat, and hot water, are coming to Japan. Initial models will run on natural gas. Methanol fuel cells will come later.

Cyclone Power Technologies Inc. has agreed to develop its novel biomass-burning external combustion engines for China.

British Columbia company to produce Dimethyl Ether (DME) diesel substitute, from forest waste. DME can also be made from black liquor wasteproduct from paper / pulp mills, and other low quality carbonaceous waste.

Boston College researchers are investigating new "hot electron" technology for improving efficiencies of photovoltaics

China prepares to steal copy 3G nuclear technology from Westinghouse AP1000 reactors -- before the reactors are even built! Westinghouse - Toshiba won their license to build 4 AP1000 reactors in China only after they agreed to transfer the license for much of the technology to China.

Government energy projects such as Lawrence Livermore's laser fusion National Ignition Facility (and mega-project ITER) continue to devour enormous amounts of funding with projected practical payoffs receding ever into the future. Meanwhile, small projects such as IEC and Vancouver-based General Fusion, have to bow and scrape for meager funding.

Energy and Bioenergy News

Virent Energy Systems has developed a water based catalytic method for producing diesel, gasoline and other hydrocarbon fuels from sugar, starch, and cellulose. Virent claims that its process is competitive with fossil fuels at a $60 a barrel oil cost. Brian Westenhaus has much more.

Amyris Biotechnologies is opening a demonstration plant in Brazil to demonstrate the production of fuels and high value chemicals from the bagasse waste product left over after the processing of sugar cane. GreenCarCongress and BiofuelsDigest have more.

The University of Florida's Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences, Buckeye Technologies, and Myriant Technologies are partnering to produce a wide range of high value chemicals, materials, and fuels from cellulose. Virtually every petroleum product used by humans could be substituted with a cellulosic product. Energy Daily has more.

Brian Wang has news on Liquid Thorium nuclear reactors and space based solar power.

More on space based solar from Brian Westenhaus

Converting from a petroleum based economy to an economy based on biofuels and electrical power from nuclear, space solar, enhanced geothermal etc. will require the use of coal IGCC, oil sands, oil shales, shale gas, heavy oils, offshore oils, methane clathrates, and all the other forms of energy that the Obama administration is in the process of shutting down. All of those fossil hydrocarbons are a vital bridge to better energy sources.

The Obama administration combined with the Pelosi Congress appear dedicated to bringing on political peak oil decades ahead of schedule. Combined with the ongoing (and worsening) financial crisis and ill-advised Obama mass-tinkering with the private / public sector balance of the US, the move to energy starvation by the US government is likely to be financially and strategically devastating for the country.

All of this is only possible with the active and conscious complicity of the news and entertainment industrial complex. It makes sense in a perverse way. In the news business, large scale suffering is newsworthy. Obama / Pelosi promise to make people suffer with their incompetent policies. It makes perfect sense if you are a total slime.

Energy News

Brian Westenhaus takes a look at specific energy in batteries, and where the technology may be going.

Germany's venerable and vaunted chemical industry is making plans to shift from petroleum-based feedstocks to biomass feedstocks.

Mitsubishi hopes to build an ultra-clean coal technology power plant in Australia -- the first of its kind. It would combine IGCC -- Integrated Gasification Combined Cycle (gas turbine cycle plus steam turbine cycle) -- with carbon sequestration. Talks are ongoing.Green Car Congress has more on the fascinating discovery of methane hydrates in Gulf of Mexico seafloor sands.

Atomic Insights blog looks at the potential impact of mPower modular nuclear reactors on the stock market.

Biofuels Digest looks at the use of algae for carbon sequestration. Algae need a lot of CO2 to grow optimally, and the best places to find CO2 are the chemical and fossil fuels industries.

7th Annual Int. Energy Conversion Conference

From 2-5 August, 2009, in Denver Colorado, the 7th Annual International Energy Conversion Conference will explore a wide range of topics of interest to Al Fin Energy readers:

The 7th IECEC will explore the future of clean energy systems through a series of panel discussions and technical paper presentations. This year's hot topics include:

* Alternative power systems – such as fuel cell technology and solar system technology
* Biofuels, including biodiesel fuels and fuels created from food-waste
* Electric power systems which would replace traditional fossil fuel based propulsion systems
* Nanotechnlology applications for solar power systems, among many others. There will also be a discussion of future energy policy needs to answer the demand for “green” energy systems. _IECEC

In a special joint conference with the "Jet Propulsion Conference" the IECEC will also be taking a look at biofuels as the source of rocket propulsion fuel for space launch.

The 7th IECEC is sponsored by Battelle Memorial Institute and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency. The 45th JPC is sponsored by Lockheed Martin Space Systems Company, Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Company, and Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control.

For more information, visit http://www.aiaa.org/events/IECEC or http://www.aiaa.org/events/JPC, or contact Duane Hyland, at 703.264.7558 or duaneh@aiaa.org. Registration for both conferences is complimentary for credentialed members of the press.

AIAA is the world's largest technical society dedicated to the global aerospace profession. With more than 35,000 individual members worldwide, and 90 corporate members, AIAA brings together industry, academia, and government to advance engineering and science in aviation, space, and defense. For more information, visit www.aiaa.org. Bioenergy

Nuclear News, Battery Advances, Biotech Symposium, More

First, Brian Wang has a nice partial summary of the state of the art in nuclear power technology for fission and fusion. From pebble bed reactors to liquid fuel thorium reactors to several fusion contenders, this article looks at the cutting edge of nuclear.

Next, Brian Westenhaus has a very nice look at the mysterious EEStor battery / capacitor technology slated to power electric vehicles of the future. Humans are on the verge of understanding energy storage -- just give them time.

The 31st Symposium on Biotechnology for Fuels and Chemicals runs for 3 days in San Francisco. It started yesterday and ends tomorrow.

Among the papers presented in one of the twin opening oral presentation sessions were several describing potential new engineered genetic pathways to produce biobutanol.

Biobutanol continues to attract interest based on its properties compared to ethanol such as its higher energy content, the ability to be transported in existing pipelines, and the ability to blend at higher ratios without impacting engine performance. At least one company, Gevo, is also looking at butanol as an intermediate to renewable hydrocarbon fuels. _More here

Finally, Forbes recently did a mediocre piece on the great biofuels battle between chemistry and biology. The Forbes piece illustrates what happens when a journalist relies on one relatively poor primary source for an article, without doing the necessary footwork to get the inside scoop. The result is overly generalised, simplistic pablum.

Yes, Virginia, they really do pay journalists in the old media to go through the motions of providing the news. If you ever get tired of being served re-heated, pre-digested newsroom gossip, step on over to the wild side, dear. ;-)

In Situ Oil Shale Gasification and More

General Synfuels International (GSI) is planning to test a method of oil shale recovery in Wyoming and Colorado called in situ gasification.

The process begins by drilling into the body of oil shale and locating a processing inlet conduit within the hole. An effluent conduit is anchored around the opening of the hole at the ground surface. Pressurized air is introduced to an above-ground combustor, superheated and directed underground into the oil shale through the inlet conduit.

As the superheated air (SHA) travels down a borehole, it interacts with the kerogen in the oil shale and brings hydrocarbons to the surface in the form of hot gases. The gases are then condensed to yield light hydrocarbon liquids and gases. The process achieves a controlled and relatively quick production of product.

Heat from the SHA creates a radiant heat process throughout the length of the processing gas inlet conduit, causing a non-burning thermal energy front in the oil shale surrounding the hole in a predictable radius. The high temperatures and correct pressures cause the oil bearing material to gasify. The porosity of the marlstone allows the gaseous hydrocarbon products to be withdrawn as an effluent gas into the effluent gas conduit.

This resulting gas is transferred from the effluent gas conduit into a condenser where it is allowed to expand and cool and produce liquid and gas hydrocarbon products. A portion of the gas produced is recycled to the combustor to blend with other recycled feedstocks and provide combustible material for continuous fueling within the combustor. This self-perpetuating feedstock feature reduces the cost of product substantially. _GCC

In other news from GreenCarCongress, both Ford and BMW are investigating heat recovery from automobile engines -- in a quest to increase overall automobile fuel efficiency. Ford is investigating a thermoelectric approach. BMW is looking at both thermoelectrics and a rankine cycle recovery system.

Metabolic engineering and genetic engineering companies are teaming up to create the "poifect" micro-factory for biofuels. Well, pernaps not the perfect fuel factory, but one that stands to make bio-ethanol production almost 10% more efficient than currently. This is, after all, a biological planet. May as well make the best of it.

Smart Biofuels, Jatropha Advances, Electric Minis

Oil company Total is investing in advanced biofuels company Gevo, to develop high value fuel and chemical products from bio-butanol. Gevo acquired the rights to a unique E. Coli based method of producing bio-butanol from glucose in 2007. Since then, Gevo has developed a method for retro-fitting existing commercial ethanol facilities to produce bio-butanol and its higher-value chemical derivatives. Economically, this approach shows much promise.

The non-edible oilseed shrub Jatropha curcas produces excellent quality oil for fuel, with much higher oil yields than soy, rape, or maize. But jatropha only grows in tropical and semi-tropical regions, leaving most of the US out in the cold. But California-based Sirona Fuels has formed a unique partnership to plant jatropha plantations on the impoverished island nation of Haiti. Some of the profits from the venture will help to support orphaned children of Haiti, via a relief fund. The crop will be grown and harvested at the community level, with training and equipment provided by Sirona via the partnership.

Speaking of jatropha, SG Biofuels (San Diego) has opened a genetic resource center to speed the development of high yield jatropha species which are more tolerant to cold, drought, and insect species.

The Illinois Institute of Technology is teaming with Allborg University in Denmark to develop a combination electric battery and supercapacitor drive for small electric vehicles. The battery supplies the bulk of the energy while the supercapacitors provide necessary power boosts for extra exertion. The description of the drive sounds reasonable. It should be easy to add a methanol fuel cell as the project scales up to larger vehicles.

Is oil-from-algae as close as ten years? Here is a brief overview.

The desert rubber plant, guayule, can produce latex, bio-alcohols from bagasse, and protects wood from termites. It grows on hot dry soils, with very little fertiliser.

Don't let anyone tell you there is no such thing as clean coal. The technology is improving all the time, and compared to coal as it is burned in China, virtually all other coal is clean. This big new clean coal plant is a step in the right direction.

Energy Links

Paradox: Oil prices have risen lately, while demand for oil has declined

Research into using frozen methane clathrates continues

Interesting hybrid power plant for automobile combines fuel cell and internal combustion engine

Biotechnologists continue developing better biofuel producing microbes

Obama's assault against the US economy will make it much harder for all sectors -- including bioenergy and biotech -- to recover from the downturn. Unfortunately, a lot of people have not picked up on the president's essential vacuity -- which means that a lot of people continue to pay attention to what Obama says, rather than to the far more important things that he does (or fails to do).

Biofuels Help Keep Demand for Oil Flat

The US Energy Administration (EIA) projects a flattened demand for oil in the US through the year 2030, thanks at least in part to biofuels expansion. As biofuels and bio-electricity production expands rapidly, bioenergy will be used to substitute for fossil fuels -- particularly oil.

Algae company GreenShift is pairing up with Montana maize ethanol operations to utilise their CO2 output for producing algal biofuels.

In California, Primafuel revealed ambitious plans for both algal biofuels and specialty chemicals operations, designed in the two phases of bioproduction and chemical refinery.

Another bioenergy company with big plans for production of specialty chemicals from biomass is BioEnergy International of Quincy, MA.

Commercial alcohol distilleries are discovering advantages to bioenergy. Yet another distillery in the UK is installing a biomass Combined Heat and Power (CHP) generating plant to provide operating power and process heat/steam for its main operation. The new plant will be installed at Combination of Rothes Distillers LTD in Scotland by Helius Energy. Over 1.5 GW of power from biomass has been announced in the UK since the beginning of 2008.

It took humans several thousand years to learn how to use the energy stored by the sun in fossil fuels over billions of years. Now, in the dozens of decades left before humans use all the accessible fossil fuels, would be a good time for them to learn to use shorter term solar storage, such as bioenergy, and for them to learn to use solar energy directly.

Earth orbiting solar power plants would be best, able to collect solar energy at its strongest, for 23 hours a day or so.