National Oil Companies a Poor Substitute for Competent Energy Corporations

When Saudi Arabia and most of the other oil dictatorships threw out the multi-nationals and took over oil production themselves, the ability of the oil industry to react to surges in demand dropped precipitously. The competence is simply not there in nationalised oil and gas companies. Current skyrocketing oil prices are certain to create unpleasant blowback to Saudi Arabia's oil industry and the other incompetent nationalised oil industries. Still they try:

Saudi Arabia is planning to boost its oil production capacity by nearly 20 per cent in the next two years but its long-term target is to maximise its recoverable crude resources, according to the state-owned Saudi Aramco.

The Kingdom, which already controls nearly a quarter of the world’s extractable crude deposits, will focus on intelligent fields and other advanced oil production techniques to achieve that objective, said Amin Nasser, Exploration and Production Director at Saudi Aramco....

Mohammed Saggaf, Manager of Saudi Aramco’s Advanced Research Centre, put the Kingdom’s oil in place at 722 billion barrels, of which nearly 109 billion barrels have been produced since Aramco began pumping crude 75 years ago.....But he said the total amount of oil that can be produced with present technology is around 260 billion barrels....“Saudi Aramco’s long-term goal is two-fold, we want to increase total oil in place to 900 billion barrels by 2020 and to push the limits of recovery from around 50 per cent to 70 per cent in our major producing fields, using both improved conventional recovery and enhanced oil recovery,” he said.

“Globally, the average ratio of recoverable reserves to oil in place is mostly 30 to 40 per cent, with a level of 50 per cent. Saudi Aramco is already doing much better than the average. We intend to go further and push the limit to achieve recovery rates of 70 per cent.”
_Source

The only way Saudi Arabia could meet such goals is to turn over much of its operation to international oil production companies and consulting corporations. National oil companies such as Saudi Arabia's suffer from a pronounced laxity in maintenance practise, as well as managerial and technical incompetence to meet the rapidly changing demands of the oil markets on individual companies and oil fields.

Oil production companies have to anticipate changes in demand and have "ready plans" in place for instant execution. Unfortunately for the oil companies of the Arab and Muslim world, as well as much of Latin America, the competence and trained manpower is simply not there.

As oil prices flirt with benchmarks of $120 a barrel and higher, the potential blowback to these totalitarian energy potentates is growing immense.

1st Generation to 2nd Generation Biofuels

We are just now entering the era of cellulosic fuels, according to a new report from Research and Markets. The transition from 1st generation biofuel (using foods as feedstock) to 2nd generation biofuel (using biomass and other non-food feedstock) is underway. While maize ethanol plants can survive by clever cost-cutting, eventually the economics of biofuels will drive producers to use lower cost feedstocks such as biomass.

1. - The US biofuel industry especially ethanol production is expected to lead the global production during the forecasted period of 2008-2017.

2. - Corn is anticipated to dominate the [Ed: near] future ethanol production in the US, however, cellulosic ethanol requirements are expected to boom during the period 2008-2017.

3. - US biodiesel sector need strong support from the government as well as from technology point of view to sustain growth in future.

4. - Biodiesel prices in the US are expected to see a declining trend to push up commercial usage during 2008-2015.

5. - Supply of raw material (corn and soybean oil) will be a major concern for the US biofuel industry in coming years. Source_via_BusinessWire

Here again, we see a mixture of valid conclusion and popular misconception. Biocellulosic alcohols will lead one charge away from "food as feedstock." Biomass to liquids (BTL) will lead another--ultimately much larger--charge away from foods for feedstocks. Biodiesel from algae and non-edible oilseeds such as jatropha, is yet one more important leap from "foods as feedstocks" to foods and food-prices as a non-issue. Cellulosic electricity--substituting biomass for coal in co-generation plants--is yet another way that bioenergy will help to reduce oil costs--and thus reduce food costs.

Zeachem, Coskata, and a number of other small to medium bio-fuel plants will bring cellulosic biofuel product to market starting within the next year. In Europe, Choren is ready to bring BTL biodiesel to market, and looking to expand within North America in the next year.

Biomass, farm waste, agricultural waste, forestry waste, municipal waste, and industrial waste, are all available for making important contributions to the energy supply. It is a matter of making the necessary technological and managerial adjustments that will allow more industries and regions to take advantages of these resources which are currently going to waste.

Flow Cells for Home Energy Use

Flow cell batteries represent a technology that is more often touted as a utility load-leveling tool. But a home-scale version of a flow cell battery is being sent to Beijing for the 2008 Summer Olympics, as part of the Zero Net Energy Future House USA display.

... the cell's design is different than a traditional battery, with fluid charged with electrolytes flowing past its cell membranes, said Kevin Dennis, vice president of sales and marketing for ZBB.

"There are a couple of advantages (with this design)," he said. "Once the cell is charged, you can turn it off. A battery is always on." ZBB's fuel cells are designed for large energy efficient homes, commercial and industrial properties and power relay stations. When they're not in use, ZBB Energy's fuel cells discharge at a much slower rate than batteries, Dennis said. The fuel cells are rechargeable, and can be recharged many more times than rechargeable batteries. "We design fuel cells like this on the order of 20 to 30 years," he said. "You will have to replace the (cell) membrane in about 10 years. The cycles are on the order of thousands."

The ZESS 50 is ZBB Energy's 50 kWh energy storage module. ZBB Energy also makes the ZESS 500, which can store up to 500 k Wh. ZBB Energy has piloted its fuel cells for the past four years, Dennis said, and began production earlier this year. The company, which has 38 employees, manufactures the fuel cells from its 72,000 square foot facility in Menomonee Falls.

The Future House USA will be part of the Future House Village, a neighborhood of eco-friendly demonstration homes created by teams from Canada, China, Germany, Japan, South Korea, Spain, Sweden and the United States. The high-visibility program is designed to promote energy-saving strategies and construction that will have a minimal impact on the global environment. __Source

The term "fuel cell" is a misnomer for this technology. The proper term is Zinc-Bromine "redox flow cell (PDF)." Presumably, the company uses the term "fuel cell" in its press releases due to greater public familiarity with the term (if not the underlying concept).

Matsushita in Japan produces a true home fuel cell, which will be placed outside some Japanese homes starting next year.

It is highly likely that both home fuel cells and home flow cells will enjoy much higher rates of utilisation within the next ten years, than most energy analysts anticipate. The main technological obstacle to greater utilisation of redox flow-cells is the low energy density. For that reason, it is likely that the larger uses of the technology will be for utility and industrial scale power backup and load leveling. Eventually, flow cells should move downscale to commercial buildings, hotels, apartments and condominiums, and single family residences.

Oregon Geothermal Projects Heat Up

Enhanced geothermal energy involves drilling deeply into the Earth's crust to hot rocks, then injecting water in one hole and withdrawing steam from an adjacent hole--to drive a steam turbine powered electrical generator. The western US contains a large number of likely sites for both enhanced geothermal, and more conventional geothermal--which relies upon pre-existing pressurized hot water to steam geothermal processes.

The state Department of Geology and Mineral Industries this year issued three new permits for drilling geothermal wells, an early step in developing power plants that turn underground heat into electrical power. A fourth permit will probably be issued soon, said Bob Houston, a state geologist.

They are the first geothermal permits issued in Oregon in a decade or more, he said, and signal a new push for geothermal power driven by increasing demand for clean, renewable energy.

...At least three companies are planning geothermal power plants in Oregon, and one could be producing electricity in less than two years, officials said. The recent failure of Congress to extend tax breaks for renewable energy makes financing the plants more challenging but should not derail them entirely, officials said.

Interest so far is focused most closely on known hot spring areas in eastern Oregon:

The best-known site is Newberry Crater near Bend, where Connecticut-based Davenport Power just received permits to drill two exploratory wells. The company has signed a 20-year contract with California's Pacific Gas & Electric to sell 120 megawatts of power annually from the project, enough to light about 80,000 homes.

U.S. Geothermal of Boise recently received a permit to drill an exploratory well on private land at Neal Hot Springs, west of Vale near the Idaho border. If the first well verifies the hot-water reservoir the company expects, three more wells and a power plant estimated at 26 megawatts in size will follow, officials said.

Raser Technologies of Provo, Utah, plans construction of a 10-megawatt power plant in Klamath County, near the California border, in the next 18 months. The company also has leased 73,000 acres of land owned by International Paper in Oregon for potential geothermal development.

The Oregon Institute of Technology in Klamath Falls is proposing installation of a geothermal power plant that would make it the only college campus in the world completely powered by local renewable energy, according to John Lund, director of the Geo-Heat Center at OIT. ___Oregonian

In the short run, the more immediately profitable conventional geothermal processes will predominate. But as energy prices remain high on the world markets, the incentive to push forward to the "enhanced geothermal" or hot-rock technologies will become irresistible.

Reducing Petroleum Demand: Synthetic Biology and Bio-Plastics

Craig Venter claims that his synthetic biology venture may produce an artificial bio-energy factory as early as the next few years. The overall field of synthetic biology is certainly capable of attracting top talent and financing.

Researchers will gather in London this week to outline plans to promote one of the most audacious, and controversial, scientific ideas of the 21st century - synthetic biology.

The new discipline, established by scientists such as human genome pioneer Craig Venter, involves stripping microbes down to their basic genetic constituents so they can be reassembled and manipulated to create new life forms. These organisms can then be exploited to manufacture drugs and fuels or to act as bio-sensors inside the body.

...The crucial point, said Holliger, who will be speaking at this week's conference, Engineering Life, is that 'scientists are now learning how to design life down to the last letter. We don't know enough to be sophisticated as yet but our knowledge is increasing all the time.'

Most scientists working on synthetic biology projects - including Holliger - say that their research is safe and stress its potential benefits. 'Synthetic biology represents a new approach to engineering,' said Professor Richard Kitney of Imperial College London, another speaker at the meeting, which will debate the risks and ethics of synthetic biology. 'It has brought us to the cusp of a new industrial revolution in which new fuels, drugs, medical treatments and sensors can be created from biological materials.'

One idea is the creation of organisms that could soak up carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and turn it into hydrocarbon biofuels. __Source

Yep. Of course, once you tame the little beasties, you can pretty much get them to make anything you want. ;-)

The bio-plastics industry provides another way to reduce demand for petroleum--the primary feedstock for plastics.

Bioplastics are biodegradable and can be made from a wide range of different plants. In the future genetically modified plants will need less water and reduce the costs. Bioplastics has the potential to reduce the petroleum consumption for plastic by 15 to 20 percent in 2025. Improved technical properties and innovations open new markets and applications with higher profit potentials in automotive, medicine and electronics. ___Source

Biology provides many approaches to reducing demand for petroleum--thus easing some of the pressures on worldwide petroleum prices and food prices. Biomass CHP, cellulosic electricity, cellulosic alcohol fuels, biomass to liquid fuels (BTL), bio-oils, bio-diesel, and waste to energy, among many approaches currently being explored.

An enlightened society would welcome all these approaches to reducing food and fuel costs, rather than scapegoating the entire bio-energy industry.

Peak Oil: Meet Pork Fat Biodiesel!

US pork producing company Seaboard Foods has officially started up, and delivered its first product shipment of pork fat biodiesel the second week of April.

High Plains is colocated with Seaboard’s pork processing facility to more easily use pork fat. The High Plains facility was designed to use multiple feedstocks, but Eaheart said anything other than pork fat will depend on its availability and market price. Pork fat is the plant’s feedstock of choice for now.

Eaheart said the biodiesel facility is part of Seaboard’s plan to be a fully vertically integrated company. Seaboard owns everything from the farms on up, he said, so it “makes sense” to begin producing biodiesel with pork fat from the processing plant. “Biodiesel adds to the element of using everything,” he said. BiodieselMag

The combination of biofuels production with other processes will become more common, as industry discovers many previously wasted forms of energy. Previous articles at Al Fin have discussed the conversion of animal waste to biofuels. Garbage and sewage sludge are being converted into bio-energy in more locations every year. Agricultural and forest waste are becoming valuable bio-energy resources. The trend is from waste to energy.

The sooner governments understand that it is best to let the markets work, the sooner they will get away from destructive and counter-productive mandates and tariffs, such as the ones that have put bio-ethanol in the US into a no-win limbo state.

2nd Generation Bio-Energy--Moving Away from the Needless Scapegoating of Biofuels

When faced with high energy costs you can either waste your time on irrelevant diversions and scapegoating, or you can spend your time more productively in solving the problems. Bio-energy can be an important solution to local and regional energy needs--without using food-for-fuel, or otherwise causing food shortages or price hikes.

Toward the end of the year, the plant at Freiberg will go into operation, fed primarily with old, untreated bits of lumber and other scrap wood. It will take approximately five tons of dry material to produce one ton of fuel. The small refinery will consume nearly 70,000 tons of waste wood a year. “It should be pretty easy for us to get our hands on this amount,” says Michael Deutmeyer, who is responsible for supplying biomass to Choren.

It will be considerably more challenging to keep up with the needs for raw materials at the full-scale refineries Choren is planning to build. The first of these larger plants should go into service in 2012 in the eastern German city of Schwedt, right near the border with Poland. The planned facility will produce 200,000 tons of BTL diesel a year - and devour a million tons of wood and other dry material. Waste products alone won’t be enough to satisfy this hearty appetite.

To meet this increased demand, Deutmeyer is planning to plant trees. Wood is the most suitable raw material for biofuel processing. Three years ago, just east of Schwerin, the capital of the federal state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Choren converted 20 hectares (50 acres) into experimental “rapid sapling-to-sawmill plantations,” where willows and other fast-growing trees are flourishing.Such cultivation, says Deutmeyer, requires significantly smaller amounts of pesticides and fertilizers than crops like rapeseed. This type of forestry also reaps considerable public subsidies. The Ministry of Agriculture in the state of Brandenburg has already indicated that it will provide government funds for the plantations destined to supply the wood for a plant to be built in Schwedt. Up to 45 percent of the investments for saplings, preparations and soil-improvement measures will derive their financing from state coffers.

The experimental fields in Mecklenburg have already been harvested once, the trees reduced to wood chips by a special chopper from Sweden. The results look very promising. Annual yields of up to 20 tons of dry material per hectare can be harvested from good soils. This would work out to a top production rate of four metric tons - or 5,000 liters - of BTL diesel. Until now, rapeseed fields that are comparable in area have only yielded 1,500 liters. Spiegel

Clearly, bioenergy

Thermal Solar Finally Breaks Through the Clouds

It has been obvious to most thinking persons for several years, that solar thermal is a more reasonable approach to utility-scale solar plants at this time. This is due to the need to match energy production to energy use. Photovoltaics cannot provide good matching, until utility scale electrical storage becomes affordable to utilities and energy producers. Solar thermal can provide good matching now--with existing methods of thermal storage.

Batteries are not up to efficiently storing energy on a large scale. A different approach being tried by the solar power industry could eliminate the problem.

The idea is to capture the sun’s heat. Heat, unlike electric current, is something that industry knows how to store cost-effectively. For example, a coffee thermos and a laptop computer’s battery store about the same amount of energy, said John S. O’Donnell, executive vice president of a company in the solar thermal business, Ausra. The thermos costs about $5 and the laptop battery $150, he said, and “that’s why solar thermal is going to be the dominant form.”

Solar thermal systems are built to gather heat from the sun, boil water into steam, spin a turbine and make power, as existing solar thermal power plants do — but not immediately. The heat would be stored for hours or even days, like water behind a dam.

A plant that could store its output could pick the time to sell the production based on expected price, as wheat farmers and cattle ranchers do. Ausra, of Palo Alto, Calif., is making components for plants to which thermal storage could be added, if the cost were justified by higher prices after sunset or for production that could be realistically promised even if the weather forecast was iffy. Ausra uses Fresnel lenses, which have a short focal length but focus light intensely, to heat miles of black-painted pipe with a fluid inside.

...At Black & Veatch, a builder of power plants, Larry Stoddard, the manager of renewable energy consulting, said that with a molten salt design, “your turbine is totally buffered from the vagaries of the sun.” By contrast, “if I’ve got a 50 megawatt photovoltaic plant, covering 300 acres or so, and a large cloud comes over, I lose 50 megawatts in something like 100 to 120 seconds,” he said, adding, “That strikes fear into the hearts of utility dispatchers.”

Thermal storage using molten salt can work in a system like Ausra’s, with miles of piping, but if the salt is spread out through a serpentine pipe, rather than held in a heavily insulated tank, it has to be kept warm at night so it does not solidify, among other complications.

A tower design could also allow for operation at higher latitudes or places with less sun. Designers could simply put in bigger fields of mirrors, proponents say. A small start-up, eSolar, is pursuing that design, backed by Google, which has announced a program to try to make renewable electricity for less than the price of coal-fired power. __NYT

The particular design for large scale heat storage will probably vary with the location and utility needs. But the underlying idea of storing heat instead of electricity may just make solar electricity competitive with coal fired electrical plants, at long last.

Oil Megaprojects: Production Holds its Own +

Brian Wang presents an impressive look at oil and gas "megaprojects" for this year and beyond.

The complete list of megaprojects at the wikipedia [oil megaprojects] is for over 13 million barrels per day added. Plus there is all of the small 200-25000 barrel per day small wells. Like several hundred in the Bakken to offset any 4.5% decline. Ten of thousands of small rigs. As pointed out by Dan a reader, 2006, 2007 were flat oil production years so roughly 3.5-4 million b/d of megaprojects has gone to offsetting decline. So 3 to 3.5 million b/d is the projected excess from 2008, 2009. So it would be 6-7 million barrels per day to be added net of any decline for the end of 2009 and into 2010 as those new additions scale up. If the increase in large projects also indicates more small projects then say 0.5-1.5 million b/d each year from that increase.

So if we are 87.3 million b/d Jan 2008. Then my prediction is a little over 90 million b/d at the end of 2008 (not the full 3.5-5 million b/d increase because of lag in scaling) For the end of 2009, over 94 million b/d and for the end of 2010, over 97 million b/d. __NextBigFuture

Check out Brian's full posting for much more information.

If you combine the information that Brian provides, with the information from yesterday's posting, you will see that Peak Oil predictions will almost certainly be off by decades, not just years.

Now, we need for bio-energy, nuclear energy, solar energy, enhanced geothermal energy, ocean energy, and wind energy to begin to kick in over the next several year time span.

A World Without Peak Oil?

As peak oil predictions fall by the wayside, oil production continues to find a way to meet skyrocketing demand. Oil prices go up for many reasons. But the higher the price, the more the incentive for new ways to pump more oil that no one expected would be there.

Pumping oil is surprisingly inefficient: For decades, companies relied on ground pressure and crude secondary well-flooding methods that recovered just one-third of a field’s reserves. Now, through enhanced oil recovery techniques, companies can collect up to three-quarters, dramatically lengtheninga field’s useful life. — D.C.

CO2 Injecting carbon dioxide into the ground increases reservoir pressure and the fluidity of heavy, gummy oil, enabling it to escape rock pores and flow toward wells. It takes about 8000 cu. ft. of CO2 to get an extra barrel of oil.

STEAM Injected steam reduces oil’s viscosity, which increases flow rates. Shell claims that in the past decade steam injection has enabled it to produce more than a billion additional barrels of oil from a California field discovered in 1911.

CHEMICAL Surfactants can form a soapy film in the well, lubricating oil so it flows to well bores. A quarter of the oil from China’s massive Daqing field, which produces more than 1 million barrels per day, is recovered by this means.

MICROBES When introduced into an oil reservoir, microbes plug small channels in the rock, forcing oil through larger pores. They also generate surfactants and carbon dioxide. One Texas field boosted production by 43 percent—but it took two years.

ULTRASOUND In a recent development, the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory in Richland, Wash., has conducted lab tests on a device that is mounted on well-bore pipes, where it uses ultrasound to heat flowing oil, rendering it less viscous. __PopMech

Only 120 of the world's 4000 active oil and natural gas fields satisfy a remarkable 40 percent of total global consumption. Based on data compiled by geoscientists at the University of Texas, this map pinpoints 932 giant fields—those with estimated reserves of at least 500 million barrels of ultimately recoverable oil or gas equivalent. Although discoveries of these megafields peaked in the 1970s, drillers using new technologies have located 69 new giants since 1999 and anticipate finding up to 33 more before the end of the decade. Below are the biggest hits of the past eight years, including major discoveries within our own borders that could help reduce imports of foreign oil.

— Davin Coburn

Oil prices are at the foundation of all other prices, in a transportation society. Food prices are not caused by biofuels. High food prices come from high oil prices. Of course, high oil prices also stimulate the quest for oil alternatives, and eventually the market will find a way to make suitable liquid fuels from biological sources.

Reviving Dead Oil Wells

According to oil microbiologist Lewis Brown, 2/3s of oil in US oil wells remains in the ground, for lack of advanced enough technology to extract it. Brown is learning how to take oil wells that have been declared dead, and bring them back to life.

Before Brown began his Alabama experiment, analysts had predicted those wells would stop producing in 1998. After Brown had applied his method, follow-up analysis indicated the wells could still produce--and might continue to do so until 2015...To date, the Alabama project has recovered more than 400,000 additional barrels. "This process has us talking about potentially recovering much of the now unrecoverable oil," Brown said. "This will help give us more time to develop replacements for our major energy source."

...By feeding only indigenous microbes in the oil-bearing formations, Brown avoids problems that can plug the wells. While limiting the amount of environmentally friendly nutrients limits their growth, it successfully alters the paths of injected water used to sweep the hiding oil from previously untouched areas.

In addition to being environmentally friendly, the process is cost-effective, Brown observed. In a recent field trial, the additional cost of the process was just $1.32 per barrel of new oil...Though there are limits to the depths at which microbes can be expected to grow, Brown has been able to isolate microbes at depths of more than 14,000 feet, and some can even grow at temperatures above 100 degrees Celsius.

"This certainly extends the number of oil fields where this methodology could be applied," Brown said proudly.

While Brown continues to work with petroleum industry leaders in removing additional oil from the ground, he has launched a second project in Wyoming to revive depleted natural gas wells located in coal beds. As with the liquid product, he's using indigenous microflora in these wells to produce more methane. __Source__via__NextEnergy

Advanced oil recovery methods are yet another factor that Peak Oil Prophets had not counted on. Peak Oil collects a ragged and pathetic following, that seems to revel in the imagined collapse of civilisation.

But scientists such as Brown can not waste their time on such absurd fantasies. He has work to do. After all, the oil won't pump itself.

Biomass to Fuel Direct Conversion

Two teams of scientists recently demonstrated methods of direct production of hydrocarbon fuel from biomass cellulose. The direct conversion process also releases extra heat which can be used to generate additional electricity from the process.

Researchers have made a breakthrough in the development of "green gasoline," a liquid identical to standard gasoline yet created from sustainable biomass sources like switchgrass and poplar trees.

James Dumesic and colleagues from the University of Wisconsin-Madison announce an integrated process for creating chemical components of jet fuel using a green gasoline approach... For their new approach, the UMass researchers rapidly heated cellulose in the presence of solid catalysts, materials that speed up reactions without sacrificing themselves in the process. They then rapidly cooled the products to create a liquid that contains many of the compounds found in gasoline.

The entire process was completed in under two minutes using relatively moderate amounts of heat. The compounds that formed in that single step, like naphthalene and toluene, make up one fourth of the suite of chemicals found in gasoline. The liquid can be further treated to form the remaining fuel components or can be used "as is" for a high octane gasoline blend.

...Not only is the method a compact way to treat a great deal of biomass in a short time, Regalbuto emphasized that the process, in principle, does not require any external energy. "In fact, from the extra heat that will be released, you can generate electricity in addition to the biofuel," he said. "There will not be just a small carbon footprint for the process; by recovering heat and generating electricity, there won't be any footprint." (reported in April 7, 2008 issue of Chemistry & Sustainability, Energy & Materials) ___TechNewsDaily

So we have yet another method of thermochemical conversion of biomass to liquid fuels.

Is Jatropha a "Dream Fuel?" We'll See

According to some researchers, Jatropha Curcus can produce four times the fuel per area than soy, and ten times more than maize. My Dream Fuel LLC in La Belle, Florida, is gambling that jatropha will work as well in the US as it is beginning to work in other parts of the world.

Nearly 1 million seedlings are in the ground at a nursery in Hendry County and promoters are looking for farmers – here and across the country – to raise them as oil-producing plants....Researchers say the plant can produce four times more fuel per acre than soy, and 10 times more than corn.

...The Jatropha tree, native to Mexico and Latin America, has been grown in other countries, such as India and Africa, for fuel and medicine. It produces fruit with oily seeds that can be crushed to make biodiesel.

In India, there are large plantations with millions of Jatropha trees and My Dream Fuel has a contract with the government to train 1,500 farmers to grow the trees. In China, there are now more than 1 million acres of Jatropha growing.

Locally, Dalton has so much faith in the trees that he expects to put another 1 million in the ground in LaBelle before June. ___Source__via__NextEnergy

Bio-energy will be an actively expanding area for small to medium scale investment in new business enterprise. The demand for new fuel is being driven by the international oil market, as well as by environmentalist restrictions on oil drilling and refinery construction in the US.

A regional approach to bio-energy is the wise approach. Each new enterprise should be based upon the needs of the particular region, and its bio-assets. Jatropha will not grow in areas that are subject to frost, so are not an answer for regions too far away from the tropics. Switchgrass, on the other hand, can be grown in cold and arid regions, and can be converted into almost any hydrocarbon fuel using gasification methods. Not quite as economical as jatropha for diesel, certainly, but with the price of oil ever rising, it makes sense to start looking at processes that were uneconomical when oil was under $40 a barrel.

Profit-Based Cellulosic Ethanol Plant Startup 2009

Range Fuels Inc. will begin producing 20 million gallons of cellulosic ethanol per year in 2009, with plans to scale up to 120 million gpy. The plant will use gasification to convert biomass to syngas. Then the syngas will be converted to liquid fuels--initially ethanol.

Range Fuels says their facility will break down any type of plant material (eg agricultural waste or wood chips) by a two-step thermochemical process. This differs from competing methods of producing cellulosic ethanol, which involve breakdown of plant material with heat and/or acid, and treating it with costly ($0.50/gallon) enzymes.

Range Fuels skips the enzymatic part and uses a process similar to Coskata Inc.: biomass is broken down by extreme heat and pressure, which converts it into a mixture of gases (H2 and CO) called syngas. The syngas is fed through proprietary catalysts that converts it into a mixture of alcohols, and a bit more sorting and processing produces a renewable vehicle fuel. See Range Fuel’s interactive explanation (as depicted above).

1. * Fuel production costs “significantly less” than either enzymatic cellulosic ethanol or corn-grain ethanol, the latter of which currently costs about $2/gallon.
2. * Higher fuel production rates for each ton of biomass than enzymatic and corn-grain ethanol, which decreases cost, biomass needed, and land use.
3. * Uses 75 percent less water than corn ethanol and 60% lower emissions than corn-grain ethanol
4. * Cost competitive with gasoline as long as oil stays above $50/barrel.

___gas2org

Range Fuels is in a race with Coskata to be the first to produce large scale cellulosic ethanol by an affordable and sustainable process. Coskata claims to be on track to begin production by the end of this year. Both companies appear to have secured sufficient financing to build pilot production plants using gasification technology.

Biomass Gasifiction: The Road to Rational Bioenergy

Image Source

Gasification of biomass promises to be the best route for small to medium scale regional energy independence. For the purposes of most people, thinking locally and regionally is far more intelligent than trying to solve all the world's or nation's energy problems in one fell swoop. Intelligent bio-energy is both accessible and affordable. It should be at the top of the list for areas such as North America that are blessed by a prolific biosphere.

Qi-Bioenergy blog has a good assortment of April 1st postings that are not jokes. They are part of the patchwork quilt of approaches to bio-energy that can take a tremendous financial burden off of many regions of the continent (and world) while pumping in much needed financial stimulus the old-fashioned way--letting the market work.
Gasification is currently the best approach to start off the process of biomass to bio-energy. Plasma gasification may be the best all-purpose approach for the widest variety of feedstocks. Here is a description of Skygas, one of many approaches to gasification:

Skygas™ is the code name for an innovative technology for the disposal/gasification of carbonaceous wastes. It is a newly developed electric arc conversion process that converts solid and semi-solid waste into clean, medium BTU synthesis gas that can be used for steam production or direct fired gas turbine generation of electric power. The composition of the gas (primarily CO and H2) are useful building block chemicals. They can be taken through well-known chemical processing steps to produce products such as methanol and acetic acid, or downstream chemicals such as formaldehyde, acetic anhydride, vinyl acetate, acetate esters and many others. The reducing gas may also be combined with nitrogen to produce chemicals such as ammonia and urea.

The electric arcs produced in the primary reactor by three electrodes are sufficiently energetic to cause the generation of ionic reactive species by homolytic bond cleavage. Both the carbonaceous materials and the water molecules can be broken into ionic reactive species. These species will react in a chain reaction with other feed molecules to form still more ionic reactive species and cause the breakage of more chemical bonds. The net result of these ionic homolytic reactions is the conversion of the relatively high molecular carbonaceous feed material into low molecular gas products, primarily carbon monoxide, hydrogen and methane. ___Skygas__via__Qi-bioenergy

Following the flow diagrams above, the synthesis gas can be either used to drive a gas turbine, to create steam, to make hydrogen, alcohol fuels, gasoline and diesel fuels, or to generate electrical power. The image at the top of this post comes from BRI Energy, which is one of the many small companies at the forefront of developing biomass energy from waste products and other non-food materials.

Recent criticism of bio-energy from Time magazine and other media outlets only serve to emphasize the disconnect between the pioneers and informed observers of bio-energy and the lazy and ignorant media analysts who keep the public in ignorance of this valuable resource. As ligno-cellulose bio-waste resources are more easily converted into useful energy and fuel resources, the usefulness of biomass energy will become more difficult to conceal and obfuscate.

Looking For Oil Under the Lava Flows--New Oil Exploration Technology Opens New Frontiers

Huge quantities of oil lie in sediments that have been covered by volcanic activity over hundreds of millions of years of geologic upheaval. New methods of "seeing through" lava flows on the ocean floor--to the rich sediments below--are bringing previously hidden regions of the planet's undersea surface into the oil exploration game.

The scientists, led by Professor Robert White, FRS at the University of Cambridge (UK), also developed a new method of seeing through the thick lava flows beneath the seafloor to the sediments and structures beneath. The technique is now being employed to further oil exploration of the area which was previously restricted by the inability to image through the lava flows.

The research was funded by a university-industry research group, which included Cambridge and Liverpool Universities, Schlumberger Cambridge Research Ltd and Badley Geoscience Ltd, with major funding input from WesternGeco, the Natural Environment Research Council, the Department of Trade and Industry, and eight oil companies.

...The researchers’ findings [...] have implications for oil exploration in the region. Large volumes of oil have already been discovered (and are being extracted) in the sediments under the seabed between the Shetland Islands and the Faroe Islands. If these same sediments extend westward towards the Faroe Islands, as geological models suggest they do, there may be more oil to be found.

Conventional exploration techniques have not been able to penetrate the thick layers of lava flows that poured over them at the time the North Atlantic broke open. Techniques developed in conjunction with the mapping research enable the penetration of the molten rock layer to the sediments and structures that lie beneath them.___GCC

Peak Oil theory is based upon ignorance: Ignorance of the true extent of oil formations under most of the surface of the Earth. Only North America has been fairly well explored for oil, and even there, large new fields are still being found. The age of oil is far from over.

Which is a good thing, since neither renewable energy nor nuclear energy are ready to provide the fuels and power currently being provided by oil and gas. Oil will be absolutely necessary during the next few decades, to bridge into the new era of renewables, safe fission, and hopefully controlled fusion.

Solar Thermal: Not as Sexy as PV, But More Ready for Prime Time Energy Production

Solar thermal is the solar sister with less sex appeal, but more maturity. This sister is ready to start putting out power, and over a longer time span.

The ability to utilize solar thermal technology after the sun sets is made possible by a storage system that is up to 93% efficient, according to Ausra’s executive vice president John O’Donnell.

High efficiency is achieved because solar thermal plants do not need to convert energy to another form in order to store it and do not rely on battery technology. Flat moving recflectors or parabolic mirrors focus solar energy to generate heat. This heat generates steam that turns turbines, thus generating an electric current.

If you want to generate electricity-at, say, 3 am-heat from the sun can be stored for later use. This gives solar thermal technology the ability to not just produce peak power, but also generate base load electricity.

“Adding solar plants that reliably generate until 10 pm displaces the highest cost alternative power,” said John O’Donnell. “That is the first wave of solar thermal plants. The daily and seasonal variation in grid load in the United States matches solar availability.”__CleanTechnica

This built-in advantage of solar thermal should exist for at least the next 10 to 20 years. In 20 years or so, utility-scale electric storage should allow photovoltaics to mature, and begin producing at the levels of her older sister.

Levitating Magnet Fusion Makes Progress at MIT

Using a unique levitating magnet approach, MIT researchers have made progress within the past week at confining plasma with the goal of producing controlled fusion reactions.

Begun in 1998, the Levitated Dipole Experiment, or LDX, uses a unique configuration where its main magnet is suspended, or levitated, by another magnet above. The system began testing in 2004 in a "supported mode" of operation, where the magnet was held in place by a support structure, which causes significant losses to the plasma--a hot, electrically charged gas where the fusion takes place.

LDX achieved fully levitated operation for the first time last November. A second test run was performed on March 21-22 of this year, in which it had an improved measurement capability and included experiments that clarified and illuminated the earlier results. These experiments demonstrate a substantial improvement in plasma confinement--significant progress toward the goal of producing a fusion reaction-- and a journal article on the results is planned. ___MIT__via__NextEnergy

MIT's LDX fusion approach confines plasmas by a more natural and controllable "pulling flux" as opposed to the "pushing flux" being attempted by Tokamak approaches such as ITER.

Novel approaches to fusion such as LDX and other new approaches to fusion described by Brian Westenhaus and Brian Wang, may very well break the tape ahead of much more expensive approaches such as ITER.

Technological breakthroughs in superconducters, nanotech materials, and optical-electronic process controls should allow the materials and infrastructural costs for alternative fusion approaches to drop considerably, over time.

Better, Safer Nuclear Fuel Technologies

Current high oil prices add an exclamation mark to the need for new, reliable energy sources. Converting our automobiles from petrol to electricity will require new high capacity power plants--like nuclear fission reactor plants. It is important to make nuclear power so safe that the public becomes more accepting of the necessary expansion.

Brian Westenhaus at New Energy and Fuel explains some clever modifications of nuclear fuel that will make the fuel both safer for use and disposal--and--much less likely to be used to make nuclear weapons.

The technology is about the coatings that are applied to particles of fuel. Two paths are being followed, one is a cylinder shaped pellet of particles and the other is the pebble or spherical shaped pellet. The choices are made due to the diverging engineering sets that are going to pebbles that are entered into a fuel system and reside until burned through and rods filled with cylindrical pellets in common use today. The paths exist to accommodate the helium-cooled reactor where the helium gas is used to transfer the heat out to the electrical generation plant.

Spherical pellets are planned for use in systems that would meter through the fuel so avoiding a full shutdown to refuel. Cylindrical pellets would be used in rods that would produce larger reactors while still requiring a shutdown to refuel.

The advantages of the research and development of coating technology offers more beyond the increase of burnup percentage. The effects yield that the total fuel used is reduced, the amount needed to produce a given output is reduced and most importantly, the operating temperatures can be raised which brings a dramatic increase in the efficiency, or much more electricity is generated for a given amount of fuel. Nevertheless, the main concern for utility owners and customers is the safety increases as the coatings are stable beyond the reactive temperatures of the active fuel so blanking the “meltdown” or being a rich deposit of fuel that could be made into weapons.___NewEnergy

These technologies appears to offer several advantages in both safety and operational efficiency over current designs of fission fuel.

Brian Wang at NextBigFuture explains that nuclear energy is actually much safer than people believe--even in its worst designs.

Those who talk about PV solar power (millions of roofs) need to consider roof worker safety. About 1000 construction fatalities per year in the US alone. 33% from working at heights.

Falls are the leading cause of fatalities in the construction industry. An average of 362 fatal falls occurred each year from 1995 to 1999, with the trend on the increase. 269 deaths (combined falls from ladders and roofs in 2002).___NextBigFuture

As Brian explains at his post, only 50 workers died at Chernobyl, the worst commercial nuclear reactor accident. And of course, no one died at Three Mile Island, the most celebrated nuclear reactor mishap in the western world.

Ambitious planners who wish to see solar panels put on every rooftop, would likely be responsible for the deaths of many thousands of workers from accidental falls. Similar safety problems apply to the use of wind generators--which can be particularly hazardous.

China Boosts Polysilicon Production

Polysilicon is a popular material for building photovoltaic (PV) panels, but has been in short supply. Consequently, the price of polysilicon has gone up from US $20 per kg to over US $300 per kg in 5 years. Chinese industrialists intend to cash in on the production of this newly valuable commodity. Chinese polysilicon factories are poised to produce double the polysilicon currently being produced around the world. Is there a downside to this Chinese boom in solar energy?

In China, a country buckling with the breakneck pace of its industrial growth,...stories of environmental pollution are not uncommon. But the Luoyang Zhonggui High-Technology Co., here in the central plains of Henan Province near the Yellow River, stands out for one reason: It's a green energy company, producing polysilicon destined for solar energy panels sold around the world. But the byproduct of polysilicon production -- silicon tetrachloride -- is a highly toxic substance that poses environmental hazards.___WaPo

On the one hand, Chinese suppliers are making an important material in solar energy production more available. On the other hand, these Chinese factories are ignoring common rules of toxic waste disposal, while paying Chinese government officials to look the other way.

Apparently the news media considers this situation remarkable because the pollution is being done in the name of green energy. But honestly, the monstrous pollution spewed into China's air, onto its soil, and into its waters should be reported as important news every day--until something is done to stop it.

False, invented crises such as "climate change catastrophe" take up far too much of the media's (and the public's) attention, while serious and genuine environmental catastrophes go looking for interested parties.

China is poisoning itself in the name of wealth, power, and world clout. It is also poisoning the rest of the world through its pollution, and its poisoned toys, medicines, toiletries, and unsafe parts for critical machines.

How fascinating that the media cannot be bothered, and the public cannot be concerned over that.

Hat tip Earth2Tech

Energy: Media is Stuck on Stupid

Can you really get energy from garbage? From exhaust gases? From forestry and agricultural biowaste? In all the brouhaha about biofuels taking food out of the mouths of babies, who would have the imagination to take a negative such as garbage and exhaust gases, and turn them into a positive such as useful energy? Only intelligent people, which is why you hear so little about the idea in the mainstream media.

Brian Westenhaus at New Energy and Fuel looks at the "pyrolysis reaction," one of several ways of extracting useful energy from waste.

Modern science is exploring and improving on pyrolysis. Scientists know what temperatures yield what products and how time at temperature can affect the product production. The modern goal is to have no oxidized products and yield products that can be made into other products. What is common is to try to yield pyrolysis oil, a complex mixture of oxygenated hydrocarbons that can be refined into most things that crude oil can also be used to make. The advantage is that modern techniques yield liquid products that are much easier to use, easier to transport and can be made into a wide array of products.

The latest technology is in gaseous pyrolysis. Gaseous pyrolysis has been around for well over 100 years when coal was first treated by pyrolysis to make “coal gas” that was piped around to homes and businesses for lighting lamps before electricity became commonplace. Today the target is “syn-gas” or “syngas” and to achieve the highest yield with the least possible liquid and solid products.

Its not all that simple, pyrolysis is a complex reaction and results can be products out of equilibrium with difficult to predict properties. Nevertheless, technology marches on and the control expertise has good results now in managing the process temperatures, the timing, ambient surroundings, and the “contaminates” of oxygen, water and other gases. A pure or consistent feedstock can yield excellent results. Keep in mind that only a very small fraction of the energy locked in the feedstock is all that’s required to make the necessary heat run the pyrolysis.___NewEnergy

Pyrolysis reactions are the subject of intensive research by those who understand the energy revolution that is coming.

Here is more about energy from garbage, and energy from exhaust gases. Even the US military in Iraq is learning to replace diesel generators with trash fueled generators.

For those who are stuck on stupid the mainstream media's perceptions of biofuels, take a quick peak at the different approaches to biomass energy and energy from garbage. No need to do anything as drastic as to change your mind. Just let some new information in, and allow fermentation to occur.
;-)
Image Source

Jet Fuel from Garbage--Using Waste Wisely

Rentech Inc. plans to use garbage from Los Angeles County to produce synthetic bio-fuels. And LA is only the beginning:

Rentech, Inc. (AMEX: RTK), announced today it is expanding its initiative to produce synthetic biofuels from garbage, often referred to as municipal solid waste (MSW). Rentech, having developed, patented and licensed clean-energy technology for over a quarter-century, will pursue projects in large municipalities to convert garbage that otherwise would be buried at landfills into ultra-clean, biodegradable jet fuel, potentially meeting the needs of local airports and communities.

“The Rentech Process can help solve waste management issues by utilizing waste streams such as MSW for the production of synthetic biofuels,” stated Richard Penning, EVP of Commercial Affairs for Rentech. “For example, the County of Los Angeles alone creates close to 42,000 tons of garbage each day, and the City is quickly running out of landfill space to dispose of its waste,” Mr. Penning continued.

The production of biofuels from MSW using the Rentech Process could have a potentially carbon neutral or even carbon negative footprint while extending the life of existing landfills. These fuels are also cleaner burning and more efficient than petroleum-derived fuels. ___BusinessWire

The energy-from-waste industry is gearing up to be a highly competitive area of fuel production in the US.

US Congress' Stupidity Driving Up Oil Price

Do you think skyrocketing oil prices are due to peak oil? To oil speculators? To hedge fund speculators? Yes, but probably the US Congress is the culprit behind this weeks upward surges. The Energy Independence and Security Act 2007 passed by the US Democratic Party-led Congress is causing many oil analysts concern over whether the law means that the US is barred from using oil from Canada's immense tar sands deposits. The answer to that question may be too expensive to find out. If enough analysts believe the answer to be "no dice for tar sands" then expect oil prices to go well above the current US $110 a barrel psychological ceiling.

But that is not the bad news. The bad news is that idiot-filled legislatures such as the current US Congress are not uncommon around the globe. Every country that takes CO2 hysteria seriously will pay a huge price in the economic and industrial sphere. Governments are not manned by intelligent people who understand the real world. So if governments pass laws based upon unscientific theories such as CAGW, it is their people who will pay with their jobs, their houses, their families, their health, and ultimately their lives--if government caused financial distress pushes society too far.

This is only the beginning.

The US Congress should consider itself duly warned, and should immediately pass legislature that explicitly removes Canadian tar sands from the provisions of the 2007 energy bill. Failure to do so is a shot into the heart of the US economy, and a further boost to oil prices.

But that may be the goal. Economic hardship in a presidential election year is generally blamed on the President, rather than the Congress--which is often more directly responsible for the health of the economy than the President. We will only know the answer to that question if a Democratic Party candidate is elected President in November.

Print-On PV, Paint-On PV, and Quantum PV

Three different approaches to increasing the use of photovoltaics--print-on PV, paint-on PV, and quantum PV--may provide product designers and architects with novel energy solutions. First, "print-on PV" uses ink-jet printer technology to rapidly print out PV surfaces.

Konarka Technologies, the Massachusetts-based company we first recognized with a 2005 Breakthrough Award for its affordable Power Plastic solar film, said this week that it has successfully manufactured those thin solar cells using an inkjet printer. In addition to decreasing production costs because it relies on existing inkjet technology, the printable Power Plastic cells can be applied to a range of small-scale, highly variable power opportunities, from indoor sensors to small RFID installations. ___PopMech__via__BayouRenaissanceMan

The next new PV manufacturing technology is "PV Paint."

The University of Swansea said it would now begin working with Bangor University, the University of Bath and Imperial College London on the project....Dr Dave Worsley, a reader in the Materials Research Centre at the University's School of Engineering, who led the first phase of research said that the breakthrough could have enormous implications for the way new buildings are powered.

"[Corus' pre-finished steel division] Corus Colours produces around 100 million square metres of steel building cladding a year," he observed. "If this was treated with the photovoltaic material, and assuming a conservative five per cent energy conversion rate, then we could be looking at generating 4,500Gw of electricity through the solar cells annually. That's the equivalent output of roughly 50 wind farms."

It is also hoped that the solar cell material could be applied to steel using existing paint rollers used during steel manufacturing processes. The researchers said they hoped to develop a way of applying layers of solar cells to a flexible steel service at a rate of 30-40m sq per minute, potentially making the process relatively cost effective.___Source

Eventually, every conceivable (non-living) surface could be generating electricity while the sun is shining. As engineers provide more flexible methods of adding PV to virtually any product, it is up to designers to incorporate the technology in such a way as to be unobtrusive, safe, and reliable.

Finally, quantum PV, for getting more of the solar spectrum :

The researchers used four different sizes of quantum dots (between 2.3 and 3.7 nm in diameter) which exhibited absorbent peaks at different wavelengths (between 505 and 580 nm). The group observed a trade-off in performance corresponding with quantum dot size: smaller quantum dots could convert photons to electrons at a faster rate than larger quantum dots, but larger quantum dots absorbed a greater percentage of incoming photons than smaller dots. The 3-nm quantum dots offered the best compromise, but the researchers plan to improve both the conversion and absorption performances in future prototypes.

Besides investigating the quantum dots’ size quantization effect, the researchers also experimented with two different nano architectures – particle films and nanotubes – that act as scaffolds for transporting electrons from the quantum dots to the electrodes. The group found that the hollow 8000-nm-long nanotubes, where both the inner and outer surfaces were accessible to quantum dots, could transport electrons more efficiently than films. ___NextBigFuture

Solar energy is available in quantities too large for humans to use. By incorporating PV into more products and installations, we can use ever more of the plentiful resource. By combining solar thermal, PV, and large scale storage, solar energy will be poised to approach its potential. Only space-based solar is capable of harvesting more solar energy than that combined approach.

Air Force to Build Small Nuclear Reactor

Small nuclear reactors would be convenient power sources for large industrial and military installations--particularly those in Arctic and Antarctic areas, or otherwise isolated locations such as mid-ocean locations. The US Air Force has come to the same conclusion:

According to a recent article in Energy and Environment News, the Air Force is planning to build a 100-225 megawatt nuclear power reactor. It will not only provide affordable, reliable electricity to an Air Force base, which has yet to be chosen, but will also be used as a power source for the local community. This is a departure from the usual news regarding the comeback of nuclear power. These stories generally revolve around plans to build large, 1000-1600 megawatt commercial reactors to increase power supplies to consumers that rely on the current electricity grid (also known as base load capacity expansion).

While such planning certainly signals a new day for nuclear power, it does not necessarily represent the full scope of a true nuclear renaissance. The Air Force’s decision, however, demonstrates a growing recognition that nuclear energy has applications beyond simple base load expansion. And that is an indication that a nuclear renaissance is truly underway.

One of the advantages of nuclear power is its flexibility, which the Air Force has recognized with its decision. These small reactors share many of the advantages of their larger counterparts. They produce massive amounts of power, run on inexpensive uranium, require infrequent refueling, and are environmentally friendly.

Smaller reactors have some unique advantages as well. First, they allow its users to insulate themselves from an increasingly unreliable U.S. power grid. This vulnerability was demonstrated last week when a relatively minor disturbance on the grid caused massive blackouts across Florida. They are also physically smaller so that they can be constructed in more isolated locations. This would obviously be attractive to the armed forces, which relies on a distributed system of sometimes remote installations and bases.

Outside of the military context, these smaller reactors could have a role in providing modern power services to some of the one and a half billion people that remain without access to modern power services throughout the world. This is not to say that every rural African or Asian village should have its very own reactor. It is to say, however, that small reactors could play a role in providing the reliable energy to parts of the world that have been denied such basic services in the past.___Source

I suspect that as small and modular nuclear reactors prove their safety and reliability for the more distributed, off-grid medium scale application, that more uses for them will be found.

The largest danger accompanying increased use of nuclear power is the chance that the fuel will be misused for weapons purposes--either dirty bombs or enriched nuclear weapons. Considering the far greater risks coming down the road from biological and nano-biological weapons, it is vital to place this risk of more widespread nuclear energy in perspective. By all means, keep track of radioactive materials. But be careful of all likely risks, not just one. And always weigh risks against benefits.

Switchgrass Ethanol: 55 Cents a Gallon

The internet is full of frantic hysterics who claim that biofuels will starve the world. But no one eats switchgrass, and switchgrass grows on marginal soils not used for crops. If you can make $0.55 a gallon ethanol from switchgrass, who is being starved?

Following up on a net-energy study published in the January Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), a team of Agricultural Research Service (ARS) and University of Nebraska-Lincoln (UNL) scientists today reports the on-farm economic costs of producing switchgrass for cellulosic ethanol.

In their PNAS energy-analysis paper, the team reported that switchgrass, when used for cellulosic ethanol, yielded over five times more energy than required to produce the fuel. In this month's edition of the journal BioEnergy Research, the team describes their study's second part, which examined the farm-scale production costs of switchgrass.

...On average, switchgrass production costs were $60 per ton. Two farmers with previous experience growing switchgrass were able to limit production costs to $39 a ton. They were among a group of five farmers whose production costs were $50 or less per ton. That's something farmers elsewhere could probably achieve as they, too, gain production experience with switchgrass, the researchers suggest. Based on the $50-per-ton figure, and assuming a conversion efficiency of 80 to 90 gallons per ton, the farmgate production cost of cellulosic ethanol from switchgrass would be about $0.55 to $0.62 per gallon.___Source

Even at 62 cents a gallon for switchgrass ethanol, that is fairly economical fuel, for not starving anyone.

Of course, if you want to starve billions of people, that will cost you $10 a gallon or more. Al Gore and his friends will gladly handle the administrative costs.

US Bio-Energy Funding Picks Up

In the US both the Department of Agriculture and the Department of Energy are beginning to infuse much-needed basic science funding into the bio-energy sector. The grants span a wide range of topics in bio-energy.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) today announced that combined, USDA and DOE will invest up to $18.4 million, over three years, for 21 biomass research and development (R&D), and demonstration projects that will contribute to creating the bioeconomy. These projects specifically aim to address critical barriers to making production of biomass based products - electricity, heat, biofuels and bio-based products - more efficient and cost-effective.___Source

The projects range from studies of rapid-growing biomass plants, to cellulosic ethanol systems, to micro-wave pyrolisis and thermo-chemical processing of biomass to combined heat and power (CHP) biomass. Additionally, various industrial processes for non-energy chemical uses of biomass are also being studied.

Frankly, industry itself has taken the lead in cellulosic ethanol production, so the US government should not be financing that sector. But the other projects mentioned at the Biopact article linked above appear to open doors to significant energy and industrial projects in the future.

Sodium Sulfide Batteries: 1 Megawatt Storage

Renewable energy such as wind and solar have been waiting for cheap, reliable utility scale storage for decades. The sun only shines half the day on average, and the wind is apt to stop blowing at any time. Utility-scale electrical storage could provide 24 hour energy from renewables, which would make renewable energy more competitive.

Xcel Energy, (NYSE: XEL)in partnership with the University of Minnesota, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory and the Great Plains Institute, will soon begin testing a one-megawatt sodium-sulfur battery storage system to demonstrate its ability to store wind energy and dispatch it to the electricity grid when needed.

Fully charged, the batteries could power 500 homes for six and one-half hours. Xcel Energy will purchase the batteries from NGK Insulators, Ltd. that will be an integral part of the project. The sodium-sulfur battery is commercially available and versions of this technology are already being used in Japan and in a few US applications, but this is the first U.S. application of the battery as a direct wind energy storage device.

The 50-kilowatt battery modules, 20 in total, will be roughly the size of two semi trailers and weigh approximately 60 tons. They will be able to store about 6.5 megawatt-hours of electricity, with a charge/discharge capacity of one megawatt. When the wind blows, the batteries are charged. When the wind calms down, the batteries can be used to supply energy to the grid as needed. ___EnergyBlog

More information on the sodium sulfide system can be found here.

For truly huge electrical storage, redox flow cells make more sense. Even so, the NaS system can certainly fill an important gap, if they prove both reliable and cheap enough.

Peak Oil: Meet PackersPlus StackFrac

Some oil fields require horizontal wells drilled, to reach the oil. But if the wells are not fractured appropriately, the oil that is there may not come out of the well. The Bakken formation in Saskatchewan and North Dakota is a good example.

Despite mounting successes across the Western Sedimentary Basin as well as the United States, the novel technology didn't make much splash until two years ago. That's when Petrobank began applying it in the Saskatchewan Bakken. Unstimulated, a Bakken horizontal well typically makes 10 to 30 barrels per day, hardly an economic return for an expenditure of $1.2 million. When stimulated using earlier technologies, however, water cuts routinely jumped from near nothing to 70% of total production. StackFrac enabled Petrobank to stimulate oil flow with minimal additional water, which transformed the Bakken into Canada's hottest oil play.

...Three years ago, Schlumberger Limited bought a minority stake (30%) in Packers Plus, forging an alliance that's bearing fruit overseas. StackFrac crews have worked their magic in Saudi Arabia, Mexico, West Africa and elsewhere. The first system installed in China improved the well's gas production by about 2,500%, from 250 mcf per day to more than six mmcf, sparking plans for more to follow. "We are currently active in more than 10 countries," says Themig, "and our personnel roster exceeds 200."___Source__via__Brian_Wang

Across North America, well previously considered exhausted are awaiting the application of new production technologies--to squeeze the remaining oil out of the hole. Likewise, across North America and much of the world, oil and gas deposits too hard and expensive to find via traditional seismic exploration technologies, are waiting to be located by PIP and other advanced exploration technologies.

The game of oil and gas production is far from up. It is vital to improve upon exploration and production of oil and gas, to allow bio-fuels time to develop and scale up to the demand. At the same time, other renewables will be climbing the learning curve, developing better technologies of production and utilisation.

More links, images, and details at NextBigFuture.