Tuesday, October 02, 2007

We’ve Got Plenty of Oil

I’ve discussed this before, but don’t believe the peak oil hype. The US has massive amounts of oils in capped wells and in oil fields yet untapped. And when you count oil shale, we have massive amounts not even touched yet.

There is an estimated 2 trillion barrels of oil buried beneath parts of Colorado, Utah and Wyoming. Geologists, petroleum companies and the federal government have known about these massive deposits for nearly a century. The trouble has always been: how do you get at it?

It is believed that the shale deposits in the Green River region of Colorado, Utah and Wyoming are holding the equivalent of approximately 1.5 trillion to 1.8 trillion barrels of oil. Called “oil shale” or “shale oil,” according to scientists and petroleum companies, much of it cannot be recovered with current technology due to the costly processing involved and the depth of the deposits buried beneath the Rocky Mountains.

Still, if only half can be extracted, scientists believe the amount is nearly triple the oil reserves of Saudi Arabia.

New processes are being developed to refine oil shale. It’s actually a better idea than biofuels which cut into our food supply and raise food prices across the board.

We should be working on ways to tap these resources and wean our dependance on foriegn oil and use part of the profits for R & D into alternative energy. But of course, that would make too much sense. 

Monday, October 01, 2007

30 Year Battery

This has to be seen to be believed. But I hope its real.

Your next laptop could have a continuous power battery that lasts for 30 years without a single recharge thanks to work being funded by the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory. The breakthrough betavoltaic power cells are constructed from semiconductors and use radioisotopes as the energy source. As the radioactive material decays it emits beta particles that transform into electric power capable of fueling an electrical device like a laptop for years.

Although betavoltaic batteries sound Nuclear they’re not, they’re neither use fission/fusion or chemical processes to produce energy and so (do not produce any radioactive or hazardous waste). Betavoltaics generate power when an electron strikes a particular interface between two layers of material. The Process uses beta electron emissions that occur when a neutron decays into a proton which causes a forward bias in the semiconductor. This makes the betavoltaic cell a forward bias diode of sorts, similar in some respects to a photovoltaic (solar) cell. Electrons scatter out of their normal orbits in the semiconductor and into the circuit creating a usable electric current.

Monday, September 10, 2007

Salt Water Fuel?

For obvious reasons, scientists long have thought that salt water couldn’t be burned.

So when an Erie man announced he’d ignited salt water with the radio-frequency generator he’d invented, some thought it a was a hoax.

John Kanzius, a Washington County native, tried to desalinate seawater with a generator he developed to treat cancer, and it caused a flash in the test tube.

Within days, he had the salt water in the test tube burning like a candle, as long as it was exposed to radio frequencies.

His discovery has spawned scientific interest in using the world’s most abundant substance as clean fuel, among other uses.

Rustum Roy, a Penn State University chemist, held a demonstration last week at the university’s Materials Research Laboratory in State College, to confirm what he’d witnessed weeks before in an Erie lab.

“It’s true, it works,” Dr. Roy said. “Everyone told me, ‘Rustum, don’t be fooled. He put electrodes in there.’ “

But there are no electrodes and no gimmicks, he said.

Dr. Roy said the salt water isn’t burning per se, despite appearances. The radio frequency actually weakens bonds holding together the constituents of salt water—sodium chloride, hydrogen and oxygen—and releases the hydrogen, which, once ignited, burns continuously when exposed to the RF energy field. Mr. Kanzius said an independent source measured the flame’s temperature, which exceeds 3,000 degrees Fahrenheit, reflecting an enormous energy output.

Well, that would be yet another example of people finding solutions to common problems. Sea Water is certainly not running out. 

Thursday, August 02, 2007

No Peak Oil Here

Peak Oil is a myth, that largely benefits the oil industry. It keeps priced unreasonably inflated. Which is why its hilarious so many oil company bashers believe it. They’re playing into big oil’s hands.

But whatever, the fact is, we didn’t leave the stone age for lack of stones. We’re always coming up with new solutions for problems. Such as:

The biofuel of the future could well be gasoline. That’s the hope of one biotech startup that on Monday described for the first time how it is coaxing bacteria into producing hydrocarbons that could be processed into fuels like those made from petroleum.

LS9, a company based in San Carlos, CA, and founded by geneticist George Church, of Harvard Medical School, and plant biologist Chris Somerville, of Stanford University, had previously said that it was working on what it calls “renewable petroleum.” But at a Society for Industrial Microbiology conference on Monday, the company began speaking more openly about what it has accomplished: it has genetically engineered various bacteria, including E. coli, to custom-produce hydrocarbon chains.

To do this, the company is employing tools from the field of synthetic biology to modify the genetic pathways that bacteria, plants, and animals use to make fatty acids, one of the main ways that organisms store energy. Fatty acids are chains of carbon and hydrogen atoms strung together in a particular arrangement, with a carboxylic acid group made of carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen attached at one end. Take away the acid, and you’re left with a hydrocarbon that can be made into fuel.

Thursday, June 14, 2007

BS DuJour

Scientists have criticised a major review of the world’s remaining oil reserves, warning that the end of oil is coming sooner than governments and oil companies are prepared to admit.

BP’s Statistical Review of World Energy, published yesterday, appears to show that the world still has enough “proven” reserves to provide 40 years of consumption at current rates. The assessment, based on officially reported figures, has once again pushed back the estimate of when the world will run dry.

However, scientists led by the London-based Oil Depletion Analysis Centre, say that global production of oil is set to peak in the next four years before entering a steepening decline which will have massive consequences for the world economy and the way that we live our lives.

According to “peak oil” theory our consumption of oil will catch, then outstrip our discovery of new reserves and we will begin to deplete known reserves.

So this theory is proposed by an agenda group. What a surprise. It seems like news is driven by agenda groups these days. The press just reports wha they say as if its a fact, without checking the validity of their arguments or offering a counter-argument.

The facts are, we keep discovering huge oil fields. There is also plenty of oil in oil shale of which there are huge untapped resources on the planet. There is more than enough oil for 40 years and well before then we will be onto something else. We already have People using other fuels for their cars.

Besides, Peak Oil is an unproven theory. The fact is, we keep finding new oil fields all the time. We recently found a huge one in the Gulf of Mexico. We also have plenty of oil fields untapped in the US. Thre are many more yet undiscovered fields. We may find Greenland and the arctic circle to have plenty if GW continues as some people claim.

Now, I am all for viable alternatives to oil. And I think we will have them in the next 10 years. We’re already making good strides. Humans are resourceful. We figure out things sooner or later. When there is a demand like there is for energy now, it tends to be sooner.

The problem is, the peak oil story suits the agendas of certain grounds, including the oil companies. By scaring the market, prices increase which makes them wealthier. Environmental groups get paid more too, as they find more and more reasons to be strident, fueled on by this propaganda.

The public ends up suffering with high gas prices. But much of that is the result of polices we have. Punitive taxes on fuel. Not enough refineries. Absurd gas mixes that slow down capacity because they have to switch from one gas mix to another in production. If we would just established a standardized gasoline blend in this country, it would make gas prices lower and alleviate some of these problems. But again, there are people benefiting from this bureaucratic nonsense.

The public should be holding politicians accountable for creating many of these messes. Like anything, when lots of money is involved, everyone has tried to get their cut by running some game, and it has convoluted things to the mess it is now. We need to un-convolute it end make it teh system work better. That will lower prices and stop some of this market madness.

Of course, I don’t expect any o this to happen. But it should.

By the way, I remember in the mid to early 70s, when the energy crisis came up, they said we would run out of oil in 30 years. Funny, but 30 years later they are saying it again. 

Tuesday, June 12, 2007

Stupidity of the Day

For all their talk, the government really doesn’t want to help remove our dependence on oil. Or, to put iot another way, their fetish for regulations and taxes is holding people back.

Bob Teixeira decided it was time to take a stand against U.S. dependence on foreign oil.

So last fall the Charlotte musician and guitar instructor spent $1,200 to convert his 1981 diesel Mercedes to run on vegetable oil. He bought soybean oil in 5-gallon jugs at Costco, spending about 30 percent more than diesel would cost.

His reward, from a state that heavily promotes alternative fuels: a $1,000 fine last month for not paying motor fuel taxes.

He’s been told to expect another $1,000 fine from the federal government.

And to legally use veggie oil, state officials told him, he would have to first post a $2,500 bond.

Wednesday, May 30, 2007

Going Ape over Green Fuels

Every time people come up with an idea how to save the earth by using an alternative source of energy, someone will claim it is killing the planet. Wind farms are accused of killing birds. Now, bio-fuel is accused of killing apes.

The threat to great apes, such as the orang-utan, is “growing visibly” as a result of the demand for greener fuels, Richard Leakey, the paleo-anthropologist and conservationist warned yesterday.

Orang-utans: Apes under threat from green fuels, warns Leakey
Orang-utans’ habitat has been cleared by 80 per cent in 20 years

On a visit to London, the former head of the Kenya Wildlife Service said that the shift away from fossil fuels to biofuels was “a great concern” as huge areas of forest in south-east Asia had already been cleared for palm oil plantations, and the pressure could only increase.

Let’s hope that dude with the water splitter (turns water to hydrogen) has the answer, though I am sure someone will complain. 

Tuesday, May 29, 2007

Free Gas

Did I say free gas? Who needs it? 

Tuesday, May 01, 2007

A Great Idea

An Arizona student came up with an idea for wind turbines powered by the wind cars and trucks generate on the freeway. The only problem with this idea is that there would be no wind generated during rush hour. Still, it’s the kind of idea we’ll probably see a lot more of as we search for more ways to generate clean energy.

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Monday, April 09, 2007

The French Do Something Right

And we did something wrong when we all but banned nuclear power plants in the US. But the French we the opposite way and look what happened.

When much of the world spurned nuclear power, 30 years ago, the French, being French, decided to go their own way and embrace it. Paris, the “City of Light,” is lit by nuclear energy, which powers just about everything else in France: its homes, its factories, even its high speed railroads.

Nearly 80 percent of the country’s electricity comes from 58 nuclear power plants, crammed into a country the size of Texas. Pierre Gadonniex, the head “Electricite de France,” the country’s national utility says it all began with a French obsession for energy independence.

“In France, we have nearly no coal. We have no oil. So clearly, nuclear appeared to be the best way,” Gadonniex explains. “And 30 years later, it appears to be a very smart decision.”

Because nuclear plants emit no greenhouse gases, France has the cleanest air in the industrialized world, and because the price of oil is now around $60 a barrel, it has the lowest electric bills in Europe. In fact, France has so much cheap electricity, it exports it to its European neighbors. French nuclear plants supply power to parts of Germany, Italy and help light the city of London.

The greens were wrong in the 70s, as they were in the 60s over DDT and in the present over global warming. In fact, but blocking nuclear power plants, we were stuck with a lot more pollution than we would have. And our dependence on oil is much greater as a result.

Nuclear power is not only the cleanest form of energy, it’s one of the safest. The amount of serious accidents in the US can be count on one hand in 60 years, and none of them caused any fatalities or environmental damage. The only downside is nuclear waste, but we have a good facility to deal with that. The greens have been trying to shut that down for years. Ignorance is not good for the environment.

If people really care about greenhouse gasses and the environment. If they think we need to be more energy dependent, not less. Then they should embrace nuclear power.