Electricity at 1 Cent per kWh from New LENR Reactor?

Rossi is asked about the initial cost of electricity produced by his systems in terms of cents per kw-h. His respone is”1 cent per kWh”. According to the U.S. Department of Energy, the average residential cost of electricity is 9.74 cents per kWh (2009 figures). Rossi does not say whether his estimate is at the wholesale or retail level, but in any case, his projection shows that he is anticipating the cost of electricity production to be at a much lower rate than is currently possible. _FET

...brute force is used to cause hot fusion, while cold fusion requires a complex solid environment in which a process similar to seduction can operate. Hot fusion has been studied for more than 60 years by many and, arguably, is well understood. Cold fusion has been studied for only 18 years by a few and is hardly understood at all. Cold fusion is a clean energy source resulting in essentially no radioactivity. Hot fusion results in the generation of considerable amounts of radioactive elements. _ScienceofLowEnergyReactions PDF Storms

Several websites have devoted time to updating the status of the Rossi-Focardi low energy nuclear reaction (LENR) reactor, and "cold fusion" generally.

Brian Westenhaus provides a useful update, focusing on the reaction of American scientist Edmund Storms' reaction to the Rossi/Focardi device and the recent international cold fusion conference in Chennai, India. Some useful links are included.

The Pure Energy Systems Network site also provides a recent update on Rossi's work at the University of Bologna, providing reactions from international researchers in the field of LENR. Worth a look for the curious and the sceptical.

Even more at Cold Fusion Now, and Free Energy Times.

Humans need a clean, cheap, abundant source of energy and power. We need to keep our eyes and minds open to new possibilities. Still, it is best to follow these claims dispassionately, and cautiously.

Algal Research Heats Up for Fuel and Alternative Uses

Yesterday we read about Sapphire Energy's big collaboration with Monsanto. Now we learn that Solazyme is teaming with Dow Chemical to develop large amounts of algae-derived dielectric fluid for electrical transformers and other power equipment applications. This is a potentially huge market, providing Solazyme with crucial early revenue streams while it is improving its algal fuel approaches.

The algae chemical is a replacement for so-called dielectric insulating fluid, which is used to insulate transformers from heat and electricity, and is traditionally made out of petroleum or occasionally plant-based oils like soy beans. Solazyme’s founder Harrison Dillon told me in an interview on Tuesday that Solazyme can make the algae version optimized for that insulation application with characteristics like an optimal viscosity and oxidation point.

Dow says as part of its deal with Solazyme, it plans to buy 20 million gallons of the fluid from Solazyme in 2013 and up to 60 million gallons in 2015, if everything goes as planned. While Solazyme has been working with Unilever on algae-based soaps, the algae fluid made for Dow is its first major industrial chemical product. _Gigom

Solazyme is different from most algal biofuels wannabes, in that it grows its algae in the dark, gorging it on sugars instead of sunlight and CO2. The economics of that approach for fuels is not likely to work out until cellulosic sugars become cheaply available -- hence the multi-pronged advance into alternative product lines which offer higher profits than fuels do, at this point.

SOUTH SAN FRANCISCO, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Solazyme, Inc., the leading industrial biotechnology company producing renewable oil and bioproducts from microalgae, has signed agreements with leading beauty retailer Sephora® and leading global multimedia retailer QVC® to launch Algenist™, Solazyme’s microalgae-based prestige anti-aging skincare line, in the U.S. and internationally. Beginning in March 2011, Algenist will be available on QVC in the U.S. and in over 800 Sephora stores in seven countries throughout Europe and in the US before expanding to Asia and the Middle East. Sephora and QVC will align their powerful promotional efforts behind Algenist in an unprecedented launch.

“We are constantly looking for the latest groundbreaking products to debut to our beauty customer who is both an early adopter and a beauty enthusiast. Algenist is the perfect addition to our growing assortment of premium beauty products.”

Algenist is a line of advanced anti-aging skincare products formulated with Solazyme’s breakthrough ingredient, alguronic acid. Solazyme’s biotechnology scientists unexpectedly discovered alguronic acid, a true breakthrough in the anti-aging market, after studying thousands of microalgae strains for renewable energy solutions. When researched for potential anti-aging benefits, alguronic acid demonstrated significant rejuvenating properties. _Businesswire

Meanwhile in Hawaii, a high powered 5-member consortium has formed a pact to develop a commercial scale algae-to-fuel plant by 2015.

The quest for algal fuels and co-products is worldwide in scope, and grows more urgent as political unrest pushes oil prices higher.

Al Fin energy analysts are sticking to their prediction of the year 2020 as the time when algal fuels are able to compete head-to-head in the marketplace with petro-fuels. Of course, if political peak oil sets in thanks to Obamaesque energy starvation policies and other misguided political influences, the economic balance could easily change in favour of synthetic fuels.

Greens Want to Shut Down Few Bright Spots in US Economy

More: Here is a brief DOE PDF report providing a primer on shale gas. A short but sweet introduction, with some excellent graphics.

Obama's EPA is currently focusing on finding excuses to shut down profitable operations in the Marcellus Shale, despite extensive testing showing the operations to be safe. If EPA policies of energy starvation are successful in the Marcellus, expect Obama's shock troops to spread out across the US to shut down other areas of similar prosperity.

The North American boom in shale oil and shale gas has helped to provide a few bright spots in an otherwise dour economic picture. Regions from Pennsylvania to Louisiana to Ohio to Texas to North Dakota are booming, with jobs a'plenty. Here's a look at one such region in Ohio:

The Utica deposit lies below sections of eight states, from Tennessee to New York, as well as parts of Canada. But drilling companies believe eastern Ohio has the most concentrated oil reserves that are the easiest to extract. The companies are in the testing and exploratory stage now. Hydraulic fracturing processes have been used to recover oil and gas from rock formations for decades through traditional vertical drills.

Hydraulic fracturing combined with horizontal drilling techniques has allowed producers to retrieve vast quantities of natural gas from shale formations. The techniques were more recently adapted to coax crude oil from deeply buried rocks in states including Texas, North Dakota and now, potentially, Ohio.

In Portage County, home to Windham, dozens of researchers on Chesapeake's payroll have crowded the recorder's office since September, poring over land records. Normally, Portage County records about 20 mineral leases a year; in 2010 there were 1,226.

Local oil and gas attorney Eric Johnson says some of his clients have already reaped life-altering rewards from the leases. One farmer in Ohio's poverty stricken Appalachian region pocketed nearly $1 million for selling drilling rights to his land. If the play pans out, even more money could pour into Ohio via royalties, typically 12.5% per barrel of oil." _WSJ_via_MJPerry

This article focuses on the boom in oil and gas leases, which benefits local land and homeowners. But the employment provided to skilled workers is likely to provide the greater long-term boon to any given region, as long as the boom is allowed to continue.

Faux environmentalists are flocking to the anti-fracking banner. Propumentaries such as "Gasland" provide a focus, and big green lobbies provide the funding and activists-for-hire. Others who have a vested interest in shutting down a resurgent US energy industry include Russian and MENA interests, as well as those invested in Brazilian energy -- such as G. Soros.

US environmental regulations are enforced by multiple agencies at multiple levels of government. They comprise overlapping layers of constrictive sheets and bands, of a suffocating nature to business. It is the assertion of the green lobbies that the energy industries are not regulated enough. That is probably true, if one's intent is to kill these industries outright.

If the lefty-Luddite greens of the dieoff.orgy persuasion -- of whom there are many within the Obama administration -- decide that shale energy should be regulated out of existence, that would be simply too bad for these few remaining American boom towns.

More on Obama's lack of seriousness in meeting America's crucial energy needs.

Sapphire Energy Scores Huge Investment Backer Monsanto

Monsanto says that algae could be used in its gene discovery process as the first step in the development process for its major crops, including corn, soybeans and cotton. The goal would be to identify genes that make crops more productive, especially in bad conditions such as salty water.

Because algae, a simple organism, is the predecessor of land-based crops, a trait that makes it more productive or more resistant to stresses may also have the same effect in other crops.

Algae reproduces very quickly, unlike land-based crops that have to grow trunks and roots, for example, so that one could test a new trait or gene in algae within weeks, as opposed to months, said Tim Zenk, vice president of corporate affairs for Sapphire.

"It looks like we're looking for many of the same genes and traits in algae that they believe can apply to cotton or corn," Zenk said. _Checkbiotech

Fledgling algal fuels company Sapphire Energy just received a huge boost from mega-giant Monsanto Company. The collaboration will involve the use of algae as a genetic test-bed for the creation of novel strains of agricultural crops. In other words, the algae will perform the role of "guinea pig" in genetic modification research experiments meant to benefit ag crops. Sapphire will use its expertise in the high throughput testing and screening of algae, toward that end.

Monsanto hopes to discover genes that could potentially increase crop yield or reduce crop stress in one of its core products, corn, cotton or soybeans. The new algae venture is a first for Monsanto, said Kelli Powers of Monsanto’s public affairs department. “For us, we have a pipeline and obviously that first step in our pipeline is discovery,” Powers said. “We see algae research that Sapphire is doing as a promising tool to screen genes early in that discovery process and to identify promising traits that could help with yield and stress.”

The research efforts will take place at one of Sapphire’s New Mexico locations, and according to Powers the work will begin right away. “Algae is a good discovery tool for us because it has similar photosynthesis processes to other plants. They (algae strains) are pretty simple and efficient to work with, and because most algae have a growth cycle of 24 hours, it gives us a completely analyzed trait in less than five days, which makes it a pretty fast process for our researchers.”

The new research effort will focus Sapphire’s research capabilities “on some of the biggest questions facing both agriculture and energy,” said Jason Pyle, CEO of Sapphire. He said this will be done by leveraging Sappire’s algae platform and tools to improve crop yield and enhance performance. As part of the agreement, Monsanto will make an equity investment in Sapphire although other terms of the collaboration were not disclosed. _Biodiesel

Algal fuels research is still in the early stages, given the huge productivity and economic gulf between current costs of production of algal fuels, and the costs needed before the process is ready for market. But algal fuels research is expensive, requiring top scientists, engineers, and other participants. Thus the need for algal companies to branch out and attract other business, while perfecting their algal fuels processes.

Video Report on Small Modular Reactors Featuring NuScale

The short video highlights Corvallis, Oregon's NuScale reactor -- which hopes to submit paperwork to the NRC within the next 3 years. If the NRC accepts the application paperwork, it may take at least 10 years to evaluate the data as it runs through its own bureaucratic circular jerkular procedures. There is no guarantee that the NRC will approve the application, regardless of how safe, efficient, and economical the NuScale reactor (and other SMRs) may prove to be.

It should be noted parenthetically that Oregon State University's department of Nuclear Engineering lost a great deal of talent when NuScale personnel departed the school's faculty and staff. The aftermath of that split-up has not been kind to OSU, causing significant loss of reputation and prestige to the university. Just one example of OSU's fall from grace. Let's hope OSU finds some new staffing to bring its nuclear engineering department back from the brink.

A Methane Bonanza: What To Do With All the Gas?

A wealth of unconventional methane is exploding onto the energy scene, much to the dismay of dieoff doomers, Russian energy tsars, and carbon hysterics. But what is the world to do with all this methane -- which is difficult to transport, and cannot be easily used within the liquid fuels infrastructure?

The answer would seem to be to convert the gas into liquids, but what is the most economical way to do that? Liquified natural gas (LNG) is difficult and expensive to handle, Fischer-Tropsch gas to liquids (GTL) is likewise expensive and requires costly chemical plants (although microchannel FT architectures may alter the equation). What to do, what to do?

German researchers at Max Planck Institute for Carbon Research in Mulheim are trying to develop better ways of converting gaseous methane to liquid methanol -- which would open a world of economic possiblities.

Methanol is a useful starting material for many chemical syntheses, including fuels; it can also be added to conventional fuels to power fuel cell or used in combustion engines. Conventional processes for producing methanol from methane involve detours (synthesis gas), are complex and energy-intensive, and require high temperatures and pressures. By contrast, the enzyme methane monooxygenase does the job gently and efficiently. However, this is a very complex enzyme that cannot easily be produced and used in an artificial environment....

In contrast to time-consuming protein engineering, the present approach simply requires the addition of an appropriate chemically inert perfluoro fatty acid to the enzyme, thereby triggering a catalytically activating effect which originates from specific guest/host interactions in the binding pocket. A shift from an inactive low-spin state to a catalytically active high-spin state and a decrease in the effective volume of the binding pocket appear to be the crucial factors as shown by UV/Vis difference spectra as well as a theoretical analysis based on MD simulations and docking experiments.

The present approach not only allows methane to be oxidized with notable enzyme activity, but also opens the door for using perfluoro carboxylic acids, which can be expected to bind to most CPYs, to influence the catalytic profile of monooxygenases as catalysts in the functionalization of more complex organic compounds, including the control of regio- and stereoselectivity.
—Zilly et al.

_GCC

The dynamics of enzymes and how they work their semi-selective magic, is an area of frantic study. But as noted here recently, nanotechnological catalysts are likely to eventually take over for most biological enzymes, for high volume synthesis of potentially toxic chemicals such as hydrocarbons.

New Nano-Wire Catalysts Convert Methane to Ethylene

The oxidative coupling of methane converts methane into ethane and ethylene (C2 hydrocarbons). The basic OCM reaction (which is exothermic) is:

2CH4 + O2 → C2H4 + 2H2O


In the OCM reaction, methane (CH4) is activated on the catalyst surface, forming methyl free radicals (CH3) which then couple in the gas phase to form ethane (C2H6). The ethane subsequently undergoes dehydrogenation to form ethylene and water. _GCC

We are seeing the early stages of a trend which has been long predicted by Al Fin energy analysts: The creation of robust non-biological nano-catalysts which are modeled on a biological template. These newer and tougher catalysts are only possible due to advances in nanotechnological fabrication processes, and they will eventually change the way that synthetic fuels are made -- avoiding the expensive Fischer-Tropsch pathways.

The Siluria advance described in the article below, involves the catalytic production of ethylene from methane -- currently in quite abundant supply due to the ongoing unconventional natural gas bonanza. Ethylene can then be converted catalytically to long chain, high value hydrocarbons.

The catalyst materials are proprietary, doped metal oxides of early transition metals that are designed for compatibility with existing petrochemical industry infrastructure. Siluria has developed a library of compounds with a range of crystal structures, and has tested their behavior in catalyzing the OCM reaction.

The first step is creating the library of organic templates—that’s the phage. Second, you do synthetic prep, so inorganic synthetic chemistry on each of those phages, and you create a diversity of catalyst nanowires: the same composition, but a different active site. Then we take these individual compositions, we combine them with high-throughput screening to screen not some incidental or ancillary property that you then infer; we actually run every single one in the reaction of interest. We get a direct measurement on each one of those little dots [256 per wafer] which is a different catalyst.
—Erik Scher

...

The excitement and the promise is where we will be 5 years from now. The non-reducible advantages of OCM versus FT and a syngas-based route is threefold. One, [OCM] is a simpler chemistry, in terms of the number of steps required to get to the end product. With OCM, its two steps: methane to ethylene, oligomerize to liquids. In FT, there are three steps: steam methane reforming to syngas, syngas to a mixture, hydrocracking to clean it up. Non-reducible.

Two, [OCM] is a chemistry that is easier to control. Ethylene is a versatile and flexible molecule that is easy through existing technologies to convert to longer chains: detergents, lubricants, fuels. And three, it has a better energy balance. The first step in FT is endothermic; the first in OCM is exothermic.
—Alex Tkachenko

_GCC

In other alternative liquid fuels news, UCLA researchers are aiming to develop microbes which create advanced biofuels from biomass proteins. Proteins are often found in greater quantity in biomass than either carbohydrates or lipids. By creating microbes to ferment the protein component into fuels, technologists will be able to convert biomass to fuels more completely and efficiently.

Thermochemical conversion of biomass takes a lot of energy -- although it is available now, rather than 10 years from now. But in 10 years, microbes which convert biomass to fuels more efficiently will begin taking over from the less efficient thermochemical processes. And in 20 to 30 years, non-biological nano-catalysts will begin taking over liquid fuels synthesis from many of the microbial fuels approaches -- and from the more efficient thermochemical approaches.

As long as government interference can be kept to a minimum, marketplace incentives should drive synthetic liquid fuels to a high level of replacement for petrol fuels over the next 30 years.

Brian Wang Presents Carnival of Nuclear Energy #42

The latest installment of the Blog Carnival of Nuclear Energy (#42) is presented by founder Brian Wang. A brief sampling:

1. Idaho samizdat - Progress noted in Texas and Virginia. The nuclear renaissance in the U.S. had some tough going in 2010. The low point of the year was Constellation's decision to walk away from the Calvert Cliffs III reactor project over a dispute with the federal government about loan guarantees. The project may be turning around and there is more good news to report in Texas and Virginia. That said anti-nuclear groups are as active as ever engaging the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) in a seemingly endless stream of contentions over licensing issues.

2. Nuclear Green comments on Doing Due diligence on future energy options

A recent essay by Robert Rapier on the Oil Drum titled "Doing Due Diligence" calls attention to an issue that Nuclear Green has repeatedly addressed, the failure to perform due diligence regarding future energy options. One example, involves two businesses, EEStor of Austin, Texas and ZENN Motors of Canada. A second example, involves the failure of energy researcher Mark Z. Jacobson to preform his due diligence obligations. Finally claims made by Greenpeace concerning the cost of Concentrated Solar Power in 2050 were subjected to due diligence tests, and found to be flawed.

3. ANS Nuclear cafe - Ajax Eastman is a lifelong environmentalist and conservationist who has been active in organizations working to preserve and protect Maryland's natural habitats. Here she discusses her concerns over the impact of wind energy projects on natural lands and how she came to embrace nuclear energy due to its environmental benefits and its small footprint vis-a-vis other energy sources.
4. Atomic Insights - Tortuous licensing for nuclear energy is imposed by conscious human decisions. Wind and solar unreliability and fossil fuel limitations are imposed by nature

_NuclearEnergyCarnival42

A new technology for extracting power from a nuclear reactor's heat production may bring both higher efficiencies and more compact sizing to small modular reactors. Supercritical CO2 brayton cycle turbines are smaller and more efficient than steam turbines with similar power ratings.

...the supercritical CO2 Brayton cycle provides the same efficiency as helium Brayton systems but at a considerably lower temperature (250-300 C). The S-CO2 equipment is also more compact than that of the helium cycle, which in turn is more compact than the conventional steam cycle.


Under normal conditions materials behave in a predictable, classical, “ideal” way as conditions cause them to change phase, as when water turns to steam. But this model tends not to work at lower temperatures or higher pressures than those that exist at these critical points. In the case of carbon dioxide, it becomes an unusually dense “supercritical” liquid at the point where it is held between the gas phase and liquid phase. The supercritical properties of carbon dioxide at temperatures above 500 C and pressures above 7.6 megapascals enable the system to operate with very high thermal efficiency, exceeding even those of a large coal-generated power plant and nearly twice as efficient as that of a gasoline engine (about 25 percent).

In other words, as compared with other gas turbines the S-CO2 Brayton system could increase the electrical power produced per unit of fuel by 40 percent or more. The combination of low temperatures, high efficiency and high power density allows for the development of very compact, transportable systems that are more affordable because only standard engineering materials (stainless steel) are required, less material is needed, and the small size allows for advanced-modular manufacturing processes. _ScienceBlog

More on the super-critical CO2 Brayton cycle here.

Some members of the US Congress are fighting the Obama NRC's foot-dragging approach to nuclear energy

US Energy Giant TVA is attempting to integrate new nuclear power technologies into its future plans -- despite being forced to labour under an Obama "energy starvation" regime and an obstructionist US NRC.

Current US executive branch policies appear quasi-suicidal. No doubt Mr. Obama and his motley crew have a plan -- and one day we will all know what it was.

Assessment of Fischer Tropsch Hybrid CTL and BTL

Researchers from the US and China collaborated to assess the "well to wheels" model of production of diesel from combined coal and biomass gasification, using F-T synthesis plus power generation from syngas combustion. Abstract:

This study expands and uses the GREET (Greenhouse Gases, Regulated Emissions, and Energy Use in Transportation) model to assess the effects of carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology and cellulosic biomass and coal cofeeding in Fischer−Tropsch (FT) plants on energy use and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions of FT diesel (FTD). To demonstrate the influence of the coproduct credit methods on FTD life-cycle analysis (LCA) results, two allocation methods based on the energy value and the market revenue of different products and a hybrid method are employed. With the energy-based allocation method, fossil energy use of FTD is less than that of petroleum diesel, and GHG emissions of FTD could be close to zero or even less than zero with CCS when forest residue accounts for 55% or more of the total dry mass input to FTD plants. Without CCS, GHG emissions are reduced to a level equivalent to that from petroleum diesel plants when forest residue accounts for 61% of the total dry mass input. Moreover, we show that coproduct method selection is crucial for LCA results of FTD when a large amount of coproducts is produced. _ACS_via_GCC

Technologies for carbon capture are still at a primitive and expensive stage -- which means that CCS should be omitted from early plant design and implementation. As it becomes economical to capture and use CO2 as a valuable co-product of the overall process, it will make more sense to implement CCS. Otherwise, the terrestrial and oceanic biosphere can make excellent use of whatever CO2 humans are capable of providing it.

...with the energy-based allocation method, fossil energy use of FTD is less than that of petroleum diesel, and GHG emissions of FTD could be close to zero or even less than zero with CCS when forest residue accounts for 55% or more of the total dry mass input to FTD plants. Without CCS, GHG emissions are reduced to a level equivalent to that from petroleum diesel plants when forest residue accounts for 61% of the total dry mass input. They also found that coproduct method selection is crucial for LCA results of FTD when a large amount of coproducts is produced.

The system boundary for the study is from wells to wheels (WTW), including a well-to-pump (WTP) stage covering the production and transportation of feedstock and the production, transportation, and distribution of fuel and a pump-to-wheel (PTW) stage covering vehicle operational activities.

In the FT process, solid feedstocks such as coal and biomass, are gasified to produce syngas, which is cleaned of CO2 and sulfur compounds and then send to FT reactors where a catalyst is used to convert CO and hydrogen into the desired hydrocarbon products. The CO2 may be vented or captured and sequestered (with the CCS technology). During FTD production, electricity could be produced from unconverted syngas, some of which could be exported to the electric grid as a coproduct. In addition to synthetic diesel FTD and electricity, FTD plants produce a mixture of hydrocarbons, the liquid portion of which is refined into finished FT diesel, naphtha (or gasoline).

There are two general designs for FTD production: recycling (RC) design and once-through (OT) design. In the RC design, unconverted syngas is recycled back for additional conversion, and the final tail gas is used for power generation. The OT design passes the syngas only once through a synthesis reactor and maximizes the power generation from the plant. _GCC

Simple gasification and power generation from syngas, via gas turbine, is the most direct and clean use for coal or biomass energy. Producing liquid fuels from syngas requires energy, thus reducing the overall efficiency. But given the huge infrastructure for use of liquid fuels, it makes economic sense to convert coal, gas, and biomass to liquid fuels -- as long as our goals are not twisted beyond recognition by the carbon hysterics and dieoff.orgiasts.

More Valuable By-Products from Grain Ethanol Production

Critics of grain ethanol -- such as maize ethanol -- sometimes make a great deal out of the energy demands of the production process vs. the energy output of the product. But they typically ignore the host of valuable by-products and energy work-arounds which clever ethanol producers utilise, in order to stay in business in a competitive environment. And as in any commercial enterprise, the energy balance of the process is far less important than the economic balance.

In Germany, Verbio is a biogas operation which utilises the biomass offal from ethanol producers to produce biogas -- which can be cleaned and sold on the German gas market.

verbiogas is produced exclusively from biomass residues materials such as slope, a by-product of bioethanol production, and straw. The biogas is processed to the same quality standard as natural gas, and then fed into the existing natural gas network and made available as a fuel at natural gas filling stations.

This was awarded the biogas innovation prize by the German Energy Agency (dena) in December 2010. _GCC

The Verbiogas operation is co-sited with ethanol production facilities, for more economical feedstock flow.

Other valuable by-products such as corn oil, dried distiller's grains, corn gluten meal, fish feed, and other materials yet to be discovered.

Persons who rely upon simplistic EROEI calculations without understanding the larger economic market, are almost certain to fixate upon a false conception of the incentives driving the marketplace. There are always alternative methods of calculating energy balances, which reveal often hidden incentives for commercial and industrial players.

In the long run, affordable cellulosic sugars will overturn modern ethanol feedstocks -- including maize and cane. But until those become widely available, expect smart ethanol producers to scrap and fight for every bit of profit and advantage they can find.

A Faster Butanol Bio-Synthesis from UC Berkeley Chemists

University of California, Berkeley, chemists have engineered bacteria to churn out a gasoline-like biofuel at about 10 times the rate of competing microbes, a breakthrough that could soon provide an affordable and “green” transportation fuel...The advance is reported in this week’s issue of the journal Nature Chemical Biology _UCBerkeley

Butanol is far superior to ethanol as either a fuel additive in gasoline and diesel, or as a drop-in substitute for gasoline in modern engines. Up until now it has been too expensive to ferment butanol from sugars, but UC Berkeley's gene-modified chimeric E. Coli may be the beginning of a new butanol age. By transplanting genes from Clostridium acetobutylicum, Treponema denticola and Ralstonia eutrophus, into E. Coli, the Berkeley scientists are helping lay the groundwork for a brave new microbial world of frankenstein fuel factories.

The new genetically altered E. coli produced nearly five grams of n-buranol per liter, about the same as the native Clostridium and one-third the production of the best genetically altered Clostridium, but about 10 times better than current industrial microbe systems.

“We are in a host that is easier to work with, and we have a chance to make it even better,” Chang said. “We are reaching yields where, if we could make two to three times more, we could probably start to think about designing an industrial process around it.”_UCBerkeley_via_GCC

Synthetic biology approaches to fuels production, such as described in the article above, have a bright future -- as oil prices tend to rise by fits and starts over the years. But synthetic biology is in a race with nano-technological abiotic approaches to catalysis which may prove far more robust in the long run.

Butanol creates a difficult growing environment for many micro-organisms. It is difficult to engineer an organism capable of tolerating significant levels of butanol in solution. Consequently, researchers must develop strains of microbes capable of fast synthesis -- along with the rapid means for separating the butanol product from the microbial fermentation solution, for the sake of the microbes' survival.

It is unclear whether the chimeric synth-bio approach will be superior to multi-microbial "production lines" -- using different species to perform the different steps of the synthesis. In general, the fewer separate production steps, the less expensive the setup.

Microbes recreate themselves at exponential rates under proper conditions. This makes microbial fermentation self-sustaining in terms of microbes.

Abiotic catalysts, on the other hand, must be mined, refined, and manufactured. It becomes an economic race between artificially controlled natural processes and increasingly automated industrial processes. In the long run, the most productive, most robust, and most economic catalyst will win out.

More: Here is a method of creating butanol from algae, developed by scientists at the University of Arkansas. The method involves so many steps, however that it is not likely to ever become economical in its present form. All the same, the U. Arkansas approach does illustrate one approach to the use of open pond algae as a biomass feedstock for producing advanced biofuels. For that reason alone, it is worth mentioning.

Gasification Plays Crucial Role in Future Coal, Biomass Use

The World CTL (coal to liquids) Conference takes place in Paris on 1-3 March 2011. A wide range of thermochemical processes will be presented, including the U-Gas system licensed by Synthesis Energy Systems from GTI.

The U-GAS?gasification process produces syngas utilizing a single-stage fluidized bed gasifier. This process is highly efficient at separating carbon from waste ash, which allows for the efficient processing of all low rank coal and many coal waste products that cannot otherwise be utilized in the entrained flow and fixed bed gasifiers offered by our competitors. The ability to gasify these lower quality fuels unlocks economic advantages by allowing the use of lower quality feedstocks while maintaining high carbon conversion and clean syngas outputs. _SES

On the biomass front, Chicago will host the tcbiomass conference on 27-30 September 2011.

Building on the success of tcbiomass2009 that hosted representatives from 22 countries and 130 organizations, tcbiomass2011 will be the platform for the world's leading energy innovators to present the latest results that shape the future of biomass conversion. The conference will explore the topics of pretreatment, gasification, pyrolysis, and upgrading.

Conference participants will include industry experts, technology developers, entrepreneurs, investors, engineering companies, feedstock suppliers, government policymakers, and researchers.

Many of the same technologies to convert coal and gas to liquids (CTL and GTL) will also be used to convert biomass to liquids (BTL). The U-Gas technology is one example which can be used for multiple feedstocks.

Biomass in nature is less energy dense than coal, but can be densified using pyrolysis, torrefaction, and other methods. Such densification can be carried out near collection sites, making transportation to more central processing, combustion, or gasification plants much more economical.

Here is an example of a pyrolysis plant being built next to a Massachusetts paper plant, to provide power and heat from waste. Much early adoption of pyrolysis and gasification power plants will utilise such synergy. Many others will simply be used as a more economical alternative in the long run to landfills and simple incinerators.

But the technologies of CTL and BTL will become very important as the stifling straightjacket of faux environmentalism is thrown aside in favour of a cleaner, more abundant energy future.

What Good is an Atmospheric CO2 Vacuum Cleaner?

Carbon dioxide is commonly used as a raw material for production of various chemicals; as a working material in fire extinguishing systems; for carbonation of soft drinks; for freezing of food products such as poultry, meats, vegetables and fruit; for chilling of meats prior to grinding; for refrigeration and maintenance of ideal atmospheric conditions during transportation of food products to market; for enhancement of oil recovery from oil wells; and for treatment of alkaline water. _CO2

CO2_Vaccuum_Cleaner?
CO2 is a valuable industrial chemical, with many valuable uses. Carbon dioxide is extracted economically from many industrial processes, for purposes of re-use. One important future use of industrial CO2 will be for algae food. Well-fed algae can be used to make chemicals, foods, fuels, and dozens of other products.

Industry is developing better means to grow and separate algae, and to extract algal oil from algae, once the algae have turned the tasty CO2 into oils:

The Diversified Technologies' PEF Pre-Treatment of Algae for Oil Extraction Process applies 10-30 kV/cm electric pulses for 2 to 20 microseconds to an algal slurry which rupture the cell walls to release biodiesel compounds such as methyl hexadecanoate. The firm estimates this low energy process of lysing algae cells would account for about $0.10/gal. of the price of algae-derived biofuel compared to $1.75/gal. for conventional drying.

In-line and fully scalable to high production volumes, the Diversified Technologies' PEF Pre-Treatment of Algae for Oil Extraction Process consists of a chamber where the algal slurry is pumped into and treated along with a rack housing a power supply and pulse modulator. The pulsed electric field process has been proven in food disinfection and wastewater processing, where it has been in commercial use for several years. _Diversified_via_BD

Of course it is more economical to vacuum CO2 out of industrial gas effluent than to extract CO2 from the atmosphere -- which is only 0.04% CO2!

Plants have been extracting CO2 from the atmosphere for hundreds of millions of years, and believe me, they like as much CO2 as they can get! Improved methods for turning plant biomass into fuels is one way humans can indirectly take advantage of atmospheric CO2 -- and re-cycle their own industrial CO2 production.

Carbon hysterics are people who panic at the thought of the least little bit of CO2 in the atmosphere. Despite the best scientific evidence pointing toward natural chaotic cycles of climate occurring for the past billions of years, carbon hysterics worry that CO2 will destroy the planet. Of course if you have become an extremist carbon hysteric -- as many employees of the new NASA have become -- you may go so far as to propose a nuclear war in order to neutralise the effect of 0.04% CO2 in the atmosphere!

A nuclear war to combat "global warming?" With all the famine, disease, death, and revolution which that would bring, perhaps that is what leftist faux environmentalists have been talking about when they discuss the great dieoff.orgy? It may be the only way that the lefty-Luddite predictions of doom can be brought to pass. And I always thought lefty faux enviros where anti-nuclear!

41st Carnival of Nuclear Energy: Thanks, CoolHandNuke!

Cool Hand Nuke is hosting the 41st Blog Carnival of Nuclear Energy. Here are a few excerpts:

We'll begin this Carnival over at Fuel Cycle Week, where Dan Yurman asks if NNSA can deliver reliable fuel services from its $4.6 billion MOX plant?  Three utilities are interested, but production may fall short of demand.

The "when" is the schedule of reactor fuel outages for each customer. These schedules line up with the regularity, and inflexibility, of planets in their annual orbits around the sun.

Who will be accountable for reliable fuel services may turn out to be as important an issue for MOX fuel as the capability to use it in the first place.

Next Big Future

Next we stop by Next Big Future for a Three-pack of posts beginning with China and Japan's plans for thorium reactors. China is funded. Plus addressing the issue of reactor startup. China can make a fairly fast transition and startup using plutonium which is not a constraint for them.  

Then he takes up for a look at the NRC certification and licensing of reactor designs. It appears that the NRC takes 7-20+ years to certify a design and many designs never make it past pre-application. Historically there have been many other non PWR and LWR reactor designs that were in pre-application but none have made it to formal certification since 1974.   And he ends with Cameco's uranium forecast to 2015.

Nuclear Green

Now we move over to Nuclear Green where we have a two-pack of posts beginning with the recent Chinese announcement of an intent to begin development of a thorium Breeding Molten Salt Reactor, which has drawn attention to the treatment of the Liquid Fluoride Thorium Reactor (LFTR) by the American Mainstream Media.  In contrast the LFTR has received recognition in the British press and in American Social Media.  

_Go to CoolHandNuke for the rest of the Carnival

Nuclear energy is a catch-phrase which covers a wide range of technologies. Taken together, these technologies represent the best hope for the development of an advanced civilisations of humans which spans the solar system in a prosperous, clean, and responsible manner.

The energy starvation policies of the US Obama government, and the carbon hysteria policies of the EU, the UN's IPCC, the US EPA, faux environmental groups such as Greenpeace, and other regressive institutions represent one of the foremost obstacles to a better future for all species of the planet.

Bill Gates Backs the Traveling Wave Reactor from TerraPower

Mr. Gates got the project rolling with seed money in the tens of millions of dollars. Venture-capital firms Charles River Ventures and Khosla Ventures invested $35 million last year. Nuclear-industry veteran John Gilleland is TerraPower's chief executive; a network of part-time researchers and scientists around the country offer input. _WSJ

The Traveling Wave Reactor is designed to run for decades, using depleted uranium as fuel. With such reactors, Iran would have no need for its elaborate and expensive uranium enrichment facilities -- at least if all Iran wishes to do is to produce electricity from nuclear fission power plants.

Obama's NRC is unlikely to certify such a design for many years -- if ever. The NRC as it currently exists is conservative to the point of being fanatically obstructive to newer, safer, more economical and sustainable nuclear power designs. Only big players who have established an inside political position with the Obama administration -- such as General Electric -- need apply.

The traveling-wave reactor is still virtual, existing only in software on computers at TerraPower headquarters. Mr. Myrhvold says there is a basic design, not a full blueprint. But it's enough for the next step: building a test version of the reactor. TerraPower is looking for a customer, such as an electric utility, and a country that is willing to house an experimental reactor.

The company has made pitches in France and Japan, Mr. Myrhvold says; both have big nuclear-power industries. He's also made the rounds in Russia, China and India, he says. So far, there have been no takers.

One country he is certain won't be a customer anytime soon is the U.S., which doesn't yet have a certification process for reactors like TerraPower's. It would likely be a decade or more before the reactor could be tested on U.S. soil. "I don't think the U.S. has the willpower or desire to build new kinds of nuclear reactors," Mr. Myrhvold says. "Right now there's a long, drawn-out process." _WSJ

The current US government -- at least the executive, regulatory branch -- is antagonistic toward any type of energy which is reliable and affordable. Which means that only exorbitantly expensive and unreliable wind and solar are actually favoured within the inner circle of the Obama administration.

That is an unfortunate attitude for any government to take, in the face of a potential multi-decadal global cooling spell. How much worse when such a government is the executive branch of the world's only superpower. The coming days and years may not only be cold and dark, but downright unruly.

Synthetic Biology and the Future

Synthetic biology is one of the six world-changing basic sciences chosen by an expert panel at the US Department of Defense. Other than advanced cognitive science, it is difficult to conceive of any other science or technology which could have greater impact on the human future than synthetic biology.

Jay Keasling wants to use synth-bio to create jet fuel and diesel.

Here is a brief primer on synthetic biology, and a look at the quest for a "genetic transistor."

Here is a look at another ultra-rich investor (besides Khosla) who is investing big in synthetic biology.

A quick look at one of the powerful new tools of synthetic biology.

The sophisticated genetic modification of microbes, plants, and animals is likely to lead to a number of dramatic disruptive products and technologies -- going far beyond alleviating any conceivable fuel shortage.

While the bulk of energy journalists, pundits, and economists seem to be whining and obsessing over a temporary political peak oil accompanying political unrest in third world MENA countries, smarter people are looking past the insignificant speed bumpts toward longer term goals and technologies.

Nuclear News and Views

South Korea is entering the small modular reactor (SMR) field with its new SMART line of mini-reactors. (via Energy Tribune)

Russia is driving ahead with its Gen-IV fast neutron reactors (FNRs). The FNRs are designed to burn fertile U238, which is available in nature in much higher quantities than naturally fissile U235.

Thorium cycle nuclear reactors are another unconventional approach to fission which hold a lot of promise. Thorium232 is fertile, and is converted to fissile U233 by neutron bombardment by a starter fuel, or perhaps eventually by a spallation neutron source -- in a sub-critical reactor.

Time magazine looks at Obama's NRC and the logjam it is putting in front of innovative nuclear companies such as Hyperion.

More on Obama's NRC bottleneck here

Brian Wang looks at several new developments in nuclear energy.

Japan's Chubu Electric Power Co. is planning a new 3 to 4 GW nuclear plant

French nuclear companies to collaborate in development of new SMRs

Advanced nuclear fission holds the promise for clean, sustainable power for many thousands of years. If humans cannot perfect unlimited fusion power over that time span, then it is clear that the destiny of humans was always to swing from trees like the monkeys.

"Gasland" Is a Fraud; The Promise of Shale Gas is Real

In the US, unconventional gas is providing a much needed energy boost. Over the next 20 years, shale gas is destined to grow from 15% of US gas production to roughly 50% of production.

Contrary to the blatant falsehoods (PDF) displayed in the Oscar-nominated "documentary" Gasland, production of shale gas is as clean or cleaner than production of any other type of non-nuclear energy or fuel.

Extent of Marcellus Shale Resource
Several nations in Europe are growing more interested in their own shale oil resource, and are beginning to drill test wells.

In countries like Britain, Germany and Poland, exploratory drilling is under way, or about to begin, as engineers try to determine how much shale gas is present and how easy it will be to retrieve. New technologies for extracting natural gas from stone have raised worries about contamination of drinking water while also driving a huge drilling expansion in the United States, helping push prices down by two thirds since 2008 and reducing dependence on imports.

Shale gas production accounted for 14 percent of U.S. natural gas production in 2009 and is expected to reach 45 percent by 2035, the U.S. Energy Information Agency estimates.

“It was an amazing story in the U.S., this very rapid increase in the availability of shale gas,” said Paul Stevens, senior research fellow for energy at Chatham House, a London research institute. European exploration has big potential too, he added... _NYT

More on Marcellus Shale -- just one of several huge US gas deposits, now available for production thanks to improved drilling technologies.

Faux environmentalists inside and outside of the Obama regime have sworn to shut down US energy production -- including shale gas -- no matter what it takes. The Obama agenda of "energy starvation" shines through in the regime's offshore oil de facto drilling moratorium, in the shutting down of coal mines and coal power plants, in the attempts to shut down Canadian oil sands imports, in behind-the-scenes moves to shut down US shale gas, and in the Obama Nuclear Regulatory Commission's blatant dragging of its feet on new nuclear designs and plants. The EPA's decision to regulate CO2 -- a keystone to the chain of life on Earth -- as a "dangerous pollutant" is a clear indication that Obama's interests are not dictated by the welfare of humans in the US or anywhere on Earth.

More: From Master Resource, here are some maps for the three main types of unconventional gas resource for the US.

More from Master Resource here and here. Methane is a compound found on other planets and moons in significant quantities in the outer solar system. It has also been found to be generated in Earth's mantle abiotically. Vast quantities of methane clathrates exist beneath seafloors and in arctic regions. It is unlikely that humans will ever come close to running out of methane -- particularly when it is so easily produced via anaerobic digestion of waste biomass.

We must have fossil fuel resources such as oil, gas, coal, oil sands, etc. in order to give us time to move to more sustainable energy sources such as advanced fission, fusion, enhanced geothermal, advanced biofuels and bioenergy, orbital solar, and perhaps low energy nuclear reaction reactors.

From an earlier Al Fin article

It is clear that the faux environmentalist lefty-Luddite greens of the dieoff.orgy persuasion, will do whatever they can to shut down viable energy resources. They are incapable of modifying or altering their own internal dreams of global doom and dieoff. Persons so deeply steeped in doom are unlikely to grow beyond their programmed indoctrination. But the rest of us can move on -- as long as we take the necessary precautions.

Ratio of Oil Price to Natural Gas Price Skyrockets

Image via Bespoke
Whenever the price of oil diverges from the price of natural gas, opportunities for profit emerge.

With the price of natural gas remaining below $4 even as NYMEX crude is rising above $100 per barrel, the ratio of the price of oil to natural gas is currently right near record highs. Prior to the last five years, large spikes in this ratio were usually a sign that the price of oil had gotten ahead of itself. However, in recent years the historical relationship has become unhinged due to large discoveries of natural gas reserves in the United States. Given the fact that natural gas is harder to transport, there is less of a market for US supplies outside of the country.

The big question with the ever increasing ratio between oil and natural gas is why more hasn't been done to exploit the discrepancy. It's now been nearly three years to the day since oil first spiked above $100 per barrel. Since then we have heard incessant talk and catchphrases about how the US needed to become more energy independent and create alternative domestic sources of energy. What's been missing in all this talk, however, is meaningful action on the part of policy makers, corporations or automakers to create alternative uses for all this excess fuel, which is practically burning a hole in the nation's pocket. _SeekingAlpha

The smart approach would be to push gas-to-liquids technologies and liquefied natural gas export terminals. But the Obama regime is instead working on ways to shut down the unconventional gas wealth of the US. How stupid is that?

International oil prices are being buffeted by political unrest across MENA (middle east and north africa). This is best viewed as a temporary phenomenon, just one of many possible manifestations of "political peak oil." In other words, it is one type of price bubble. Many opportunists of questionable ethics are using this bubble to drum up business. Sensationalising the situation, they attempt to create a virtual catastrophe in the minds of the public.

But more intelligent people can see through the flack to the truth beyond: the oil is still there, the gas is still there, the coal is still there, the uranium is still there, geothermal resources are still there. The only problem of any consequence is the political obstructionism, corruption, and incompetence which impedes the clean, cheap, and abundant use of energy resources.

Off-Grid Local Power Generation Using Wastewater & Other Waste

Pilus Energy is converging digester, fermenter, scrubber, and other time-proven technologies into a single solution we call an electrogenic bioreactor (EBR). This transformative technology is the basis of the Pilus Cell™. The EBR harnesses genetically enhanced bacteria and harvests the direct current (DC) electricity, economically important biogases like hydrogen, isoprene, and methane from bacterial metabolism (cellular respiration) of organic molecules. _Pilus

Pilus Energy of Ohio is partnering with Horizon Fuel Cell Technologies of Singapore to provide a sustainable self-contained waste-to-electric power generation platform.

Ohio-based Pilus Energy has announced a strategic relationship with Horizon Fuel Cell Technologies in Singapore, to combine Horizon hydrogen fuel cells with Pilus Energy’s renewable hydrogen production platform.

The partnership will integrate Horizon’s PEM fuel cells with Pilus Energy's platform for renewable hydrogen production, to provide a unique turnkey, end-to-end solution to generate clean power at low cost.

Distributed or localized production of hydrogen can reduce reliance on external hydrogen supplies, and opens up the opportunity for self-sustainable power systems in remote, off-grid locations. Using waste or wastewater as feedstock for distributed bio-hydrogen production also offers a carbon-free solution for both urban and remote environments. _RenewableEnergyFocus

This combination of microbial hydrogen-from-waste plus fuel cell power generation, should allow for sustained power generation without need for relying on an outside source of fuel.

Amyris Scale-Up of Farnesene from Cane Fermentation Proceeding

25Feb2011 More: This is a good example of a high-value chemical use for the following technology, providing early profits to finance development of more high volume products such as biofuels:

Amyris Inc. made an agreement with Swiss company Givaudan to develop an ingredient for perfumes.

Givaudan is based in Vernier, Switzerland. It will use Amyris’ product “Biofene” (farnesene) for perfume products that could be created as early as 2012. _bizjournals

Amyris' farnesene can be channeled into dozens of different product lines.

“The ability to modify microbes [means] we can be the Microsoft of fuels and chemicals, where we are in effect writing the software that goes into the fermentation tank,” he says. “That, to me, was game changing.” Melo directed the company to work on diesel, the world’s most widely used transportation fuel and one that is often in short supply. Producing the right type of molecule proved surprisingly easy. Within six weeks, the scientists had switched a single enzyme in their artemisinin producing bugs and begun producing farnesene, the oil they had identified as a potential precursor to diesel.

“They look like very different projects—one is a medicine and one is a fuel—but the metabolic route is similar,” Collier says. “That was the big advance of Amyris.” Farnesene is a pleasantsmelling oil that accounts in part for the odor of apple skins. By performing one additional chemical step, hydrogenation, Amyris can turn the yeast-produced farnesene into farnesane, a highly combustible fuel with properties similar to those of diesel. _TechnologyReview

Through different finishing steps, we can turn farnesene into a renewable diesel, a surfactant used in soaps and shampoos, a cream used in lotions, a number of lubricants, or a variety of other useful chemicals. _Amyris

Amyris
Amyris Biotech is an Emeryville, California, synthetic biology company founded by Berkeley's Jay Keasling. The company was founded with a grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to produce synthetic artemisinin -- a powerful drug used to treat malaria and other deadly diseases.

Amyris scientists discovered that they could also ferment farnesene -- a synthetic diesel precursor -- with minimal changes to the yeast fermentation platform. Farnesene has many uses in multiple industries, besides being easily converted to a synthetic diesel.

Amyris has close ties to the Brazilian sugar cane industry, and is proceeding on schedule to scale-up its farnesene fermentation process in order to reach commercial scales and economies of production. The latest news from Amyris is that it has achieved multiple successful fermentation runs of its farnesene-producing yeast, in fermentors of both 100,000 and 200,000 litre sizes.

Amyris, Inc., a renewable hydrocarbons company, announced that it has completed multiple runs of its fermentation process using its engineered yeast to produce Biofene, Amyris renewable farnesene, in 100,000 and 200,000 liter capacity fermentors. These runs were completed through contract manufacturing operations in North America and Europe. The results of these fermentation runs, including yields, were consistent with previous runs at smaller scale.

...Amyris expects to commence commercial production of Biofene in the second quarter of 2011 and ramp production through manufacturing arrangements with entities including Biomin and Tate & Lyle. In addition, Amyris and Grupo São Martinho, a leading sugar and ethanol producer in Brazil, have commenced site preparation on their joint venture production facility at Usina São Martinho. All of these facilities will utilize fermentors with capacities ranging between 100,000 and 600,000 liters. _GCC

More on the Amyris project:

Nine years ago, Amyris’s technology was still a bench project in Keasling’s Berkeley laboratory. Researchers had been looking at ways to coax microörganisms to produce commercially useful products. By adding DNA from plants and bacteria, Keasling’s lab eventually designed new bacteria and yeast cells that could make large quantities of sopentenyl pyrophosphate. With its five carbon atoms, the chemical is a sort of Lego block of the natural world; from it, plants and animals build isoprenoids, members of a large class of molecules that includes the anticancer drug taxol, vitamin E, and scents such as those of grapefruit and the pheromones of female cockroaches.

Keasling knew the invention was valuable, and in 2001 he filed the first patent application of his career. “We wanted to apply the tools to a real problem,” he says. The chance came in 2004, when the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation decided to donate $42.6 million to a project that would manufacture the antimalaria drug artemisinin with the aid of Keasling’s made-to-order microbes.

Artemisinin is currently derived from the sweet wormwood plant, grown mostly in Africa and Asia. Supply of the drug is unsteady, and prices swing wildly; they reached $1,100 a kilogram in 2006. By using genetically modified yeast to produce it from sugar, Keasling’s approach promised to solve the supply problem and dramatically cut the price. With its chance of saving thousands—perhaps millions—of people who might otherwise die of malaria, the project has become a symbol of synthetic biology’s potential to change the world for the better. The Gates money paid for the rapid expansion of Amyris, which Keasling and three of his postdocs founded to carry out the malaria project. By late 2005, says Amyris’s chief technical officer, Neil Renninger, some at the company were spending “nights and weekends” thinking about what other problems their technology could solve.

Amyris estimates that the isoprenoid family includes some 50,000 different types of molecules, so it was far from clear where to focus next. “When we began pitching the VCs, we said there are some drugs we think are interesting, and nutraceuticals, and even fuels—what do you think?” recalls Renninger. But it was hard to find a project as meaningful to Amyris’s scientists as malaria. “This was really a culture of people that want to save lives and not make a lot of money,” he says. “So when you throw making grapefruit flavor in front of them—well, it’s not too interesting.” _TechnologyReview

Our intention is to create a new “fene economy,” in which farnesene serves as the base chemical building block for a wide range of renewable products to replace existing products that are derived from petroleum, plant or animal sources and that may be of lower quality or higher price. We have entered into an agreement and non-binding letters of intent with Brazilian sugar and ethanol producers which provide us with access to approximately 12 million tons of sugarcane crush capacity annually. As of the first quarter of 2010, this capacity represented approximately 10% of the total crush capacity of these sugar and ethanol producers. We believe that if we are successful in converting these arrangements into operating bolt-on production facilities and if we continue to execute successfully on our research and development and commercialization programs, we will have the development capability and production and distribution relationships necessary to achieve approximately 600 million liters of farnesene production and high value product sales annually. However, achieving this volume of production and sales will require us to achieve a substantially higher level of production process efficiencies than we have to date. _Source

The only news being reported here, is that Amyris continues to progress in its scaleup of farnesene fermentation production. The larger picture clearly demonstrates that there are many paths to biofuels -- beyond ethanol from maize or cane.

Sooner or later, cellulosic sugars will become more affordable than sugars from food crops. When that happens, entire food and agricultural enterprises may well be overturned. Try to keep an eye on this development if you are invested in food or agriculture -- or biofuels.

Before you blame biofuels for high costs of food, it might be better to keep in mind the multitude of other factors which go into the pricing of food, besides one sliver of demand for a few crops. Crop poduction is flexible -- weather permitting -- but oil prices and capricious government policies in both emerging and advanced countries can important factors. Of course, a more proximate cause of food shortages in third world countries is the actual governments of those same third world countries, and their generally corrupt and counter-productive policies.

Nuclear Fuel Was Meant to be Recycled: What's Wrong With the NRC?

ImageSource

Failure to pursue a program for recycling spent nuclear fuel has put the U.S. far behind other countries. It represents a missed opportunity to enhance the nation's energy security and influence other countries.

These themes are the heart of a talk by Dale Klein, Ph.D., (left) the former chairman of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) given Sunday, Feb 20 at a session of the AAAS annual meeting being held in Washington, DC.

Dale Klein, who is now Associate Vice Chancellor for Research at the University of Texas System, said largely unfounded concerns and "long-held myths" about the reprocessing of spent fuel have prevented the U.S. from tapping into an extremely valuable resource.

Spent nuclear fuel, which includes some plutonium, often is inaccurately referred to as waste, Klein said.

"It is not waste," he said. "The waste is in our failure to tap into this valuable and abundant domestic source of clean energy in a systematic way. That's something we can ill-afford to do." _More at EnergyCollective

The US NRC is basically slow about everything it does. Consequently, the US is thrown to the back of the pack, in terms of new nuclear development. For that to change, the entire political makeup of the US NRC must be overthrown.

...a lengthy trial and approval from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission is required before MOX [Mixed Oxide Fuel] can be used as routine in a commercial US reactor. _WorldNuclearNews

More on nuclear fuel recycling:

The first step in recycling fuel is separating the plutonium from the remaining uranium (about 96% of the spent fuel) and the fission products with other wastes (together about 3%). Then the plutonium needs to be separated from most or all of the uranium. All this is undertaken at a reprocessing plant.

The plutonium, as an oxide, is then mixed with depleted uranium left over from an enrichment plant to form fresh mixed oxide fuel (MOX, which is UO2+PuO2). MOX fuel, consisting of about 7-9% plutonium mixed with depleted uranium, is equivalent to uranium oxide fuel enriched to about 4.5% 235U, assuming that the plutonium has about two-thirds fissile isotopes. If weapons-grade plutonium were used (>90% 239Pu), only about 5% plutonium would be needed in the mix.

Plutonium from reprocessed UO2 fuel is usually fabricated into MOX as soon as possible to avoid problems with the decay of short-lived plutonium isotopes. In particular, 241Pu (half-life 14 years) decays to americium-241 (241Am), a strong gamma ray emitter, giving rise to a potential occupational health hazard if separated plutonium over five years old is used in a normal MOX plant. The 241Am level in stored plutonium increases about 0.5% per year, with corresponding decrease in fissile value of the plutonium. 238Pu (half-life 88 years) is increased in high-burnup fuel. It is a strong alpha ray emitter and a source of spontaneous neutrons. 239Pu, 240Pu and 242Pu are long-lived and hence little-changed with prolonged storage. (see also paper on plutonium)

Reprocessing of 850 tonnes of French used fuel per year (about 15 years after discharge) produces 8.5 tonnes of plutonium (immediately recycled as 100 tonnes of MOX) and 810 tonnes of reprocessed uranium (RepU). Of this about two thirds is converted into stable oxide form for storage. One third of the RepU is re-enriched and EdF has demonstrated its use in 900 MWe power reactors.

Fast neutron reactors allow multiple recyclings of plutonium, since all transuranic isotopes there are fissionable, but in thermal reactors isotopic degradation limits the plutonium recycling potential and most spent MOX fuel is stored pending the deployment of more effective fast reactors. The plutonium isotopic composition of used MOX fuel at 45 GWd/tU burnup is about 37% 239Pu, 32% 240Pu, 16% 241Pu, 12% 242Pu and 4% 238Pu.

In 2007 EdF said that the plutonium stored at La Hague from reprocessing could provide the start-up fuel for seven Generation IV fast reactors, with 15 tonnes for each (the French inventory of separated plutonium at the end of 2006 was 49 tonnes, Russia had 41 tonnes). _EOEarth

France, Russia, and the UK are storing fuel in preparation for newer Gen-IV reactors which can utilise it.

Another problem spot for the US NRC is its inability to study safer, cheaper, more reliable reactor designs without charging companies exorbitantly extortionate fees for the service. It looks as if even tiny Jamaica may approve and utilise new small modular reactors (SMRs) before the US gets around to it.

SMRs operating costs (O&M+fuel) are estimated at around US 2¢/kWh and the capacity factor is more than 90 per cent. Estimated total project costs (TPC) is expected to vary between US$3,000/kW and US$6,000/kW (about US 11¢/kWh and US 15¢/kWh). The electricity production from SMRs would qualify for carbon credits, varying between US 2¢/kWh and 5¢/kWh (assuming the carbon tax/trading at US$16 to US$36 per tonne).

The SMRs have opened up real options for the SIDS to generate cheaper electric power over the medium to longer term and should be considered Jamaica's long-term energy security. However, before proceeding with the selection of nuclear technology, there is a long list of issues from IAEA that must be addressed. It is likely that Jamaica can commission its first nuclear plant in the 2020s. The recommendations from the minister's Task Force on Nuclear Energy (which was chaired by Professor Lalor) should be considered by the Cabinet to include nuclear energy into Jamaica's long-term energy-supply mix. _ Jamaica Gleaner

Of course the current Obama regime policy of "energy starvation" will last years beyond the exit of Obama from the White House. That is the way of bureaucratic inertia and an innate Luddism within large bureaucracies. So by the time all the Obama-Green detritus and leavings are cleaned out and sanitised it may be decades before SMRs are widely adopted in the US.

A Partial List of Approaches to Advanced Biofuels

Race to the Pump ACS
Therecent ACS story, Race to the Pump, was linked here earlier in passing, but it deserves a longer look. The story features many of the most prominent scientists and investors in the advanced biofuels race, providing some interesting perspectives.

“Because the energy industry is so large, there is room for everybody to play, as long as you can meet the economics,” says Jay D. Keasling, a synthetic biologist at the University of California, Berkeley. “That is the great thing about this problem. Chemical technologies can be engineered to happen more quickly. It does take a long time to engineer the biology. But the beauty of biology is that it can work under dirtier conditions, and you can get the specific molecule you want under a range of conditions.”

...“Chemical approaches offer plenty of advantages,” says Mark Mascal, a chemistry professor at UC Davis whose group is working on several biofuel projects. “Generally, if you have an inexpensive catalyst and a fast method, a chemical approach can be more cost-effective and doesn’t take a few days or a week the way most fermentation processes do,” he notes. “A consistent feedstock isn’t needed as is the case with microbes in sugar fermentation—you can use anything as long as it has sugar or cellulose in it.”

...Another primary chemical pathway to biofuels is pyrolysis. On this front, George W. Huber and his group at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, have developed a continuous catalytic pyrolysis method that directly converts raw biomass such as wood chips into gasoline-range compounds. Huber is a former graduate student of Dumesic’s at Wisconsin and part of the team that developed some of Virent’s technology.

...A handful of companies are already zeroing in on commercial biofuels produced by microbes. For example, Gevo, based in Englewood, Colo., uses an engineered microbe to produce 2-methylpropanol, known in the industry as isobutanol, which can be used as a gasoline blend stock or dehydrated to isobutylene and then converted into octane, aromatics, and other gasoline ingredients. The technology is based on research by James C. Liao and coworkers at the University of California, Los Angeles.

...As biofuel technologies proliferate, start-ups and investors must decide which ones are technically and economically feasible on a commercial scale. Decision making typically has focused on how to convert the biomass, but it should be refocused on which raw material should be used, argues Bruce E. Dale, a chemical engineer at Michigan State University and a lead scientist at DOE’s Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center, one of JBEI’s two sister centers.

...Another factor in decision making is the logistics of biomass availability, transport, and storage. To be commercially viable, a gasification plant would require up to about 15,000 tons of biomass per day, Dale says, whereas a fermentation facility would need about 5,000 tons per day and a pyrolysis facility would need about 2,000 tons per day. To win, companies must work out a long-term, reliable feedstock supply, as well as a partner who will take their fuel, Dale says.

...Khosla thinks that biofuels are one of the most interesting areas in the energy marketplace. That’s because, unlike electric cars, biofuels will be affordable most everywhere. Still, perhaps only half a dozen or so biofuel approaches will win, he said.

For example, biodiesel from palm oil might be a good idea, Khosla noted. But it may well disappoint investors because it’s just an incremental improvement and unlikely to come out on top. “Other people are trying to make magic work where it hasn’t worked before, such as using algae to make fuel,” he added. “I’ve looked at two dozen business plans, and I haven’t found one where the economics will work.”

Khosla instead has his bets on Gevo, LS9, and Amyris. That’s because all three companies have innovative biofuel technologies that they can also use to make high-margin chemical products, thereby reducing risk.

...UMass’s Huber thinks pyrolysis will be a big winner, with different technologies for making gasoline, diesel fuel, and jet fuel. Acid hydrolysis or enzymatic methods will be too expensive on a large scale, Huber believes. “The enzymes cost too much, and fermentation is very slow. If you use acids, then you have to pay to dispose of the acid or you have to try to recycle the acid.”

...“When the smoke clears, I think there will be a few technologies left standing,” Mascal agrees. “They will be the ones that can be done cheaply and in which feedstock supplies and their transportation aren’t an issue, capital and operating expenses aren’t prohibitive, and you get a product with a ready or emerging market. The more esoteric methods will be history in the literature.

“But scientists and engineers, or the federal government for that matter, don’t need to pick winners or losers,” Mascal continues. “The market does that itself, and science does that itself. We recognize when one method is much better than another; that’s a type of natural selection.”

“We spent decades getting petroleum-based fuels up to the volumes that we are producing now,” Keasling notes. “With new biofuel technologies, we can’t expect that to happen overnight. But in the next couple of years, we are going to see some of these advanced fuels on the market. From there it will continue to grow. But we’ve got to give it time.” _ACS

There is much more at the article above. As a quick executive summary, this ACS article is probably the best starting point for understanding where advanced biofuels currently stand, generally.

Professor James Clark of the University of York, is taking an interesting approach to extracting high value products from biomass. He is using super-critical CO2 to extract high value waxy products from the biomass, then proceeding to use microwave pyrolysis to produce pyrolysis gas, liquids, and solids.

We are approaching prime maple syrup time in North America, and it is good to remember all the different ways that nature has evolved to produce high energy chemicals -- including sugars. With the help of humans, nature is just getting started in the quest to ever higher energy crops.