Zark's

A New Fuel Cell for Developing Economies

Craig Jacobson in the test labs of Point Source Power.
Image Credit: Julie Chao/Berkeley Lab

I have blogged about ceramic fuel cells before - Bloom Energy's products use ceramic fuel cells.  Recall these fuel cells don't use the exotic hydrogen, oxygen, and platinum of NASA's manned space flight fuel cells.  Likewise, this spinoff of a fuel cell developed at Berkely Laboratory is recharged by sitting it in a charcoal or biomass fire and then can be used to recharge a cell phone. 

Berkely's Lab Startup Brings Fuel Cells to the Developing World explains the original design used expensive ceramics, but this new commerical design uses stainless steel to replace 90 percent of the ceramics.  It is also tolerant of contaminants that would wreck conventional fuel cells.  The fuel cell itself will sell for $7, while the charging and control units is anticipated to sell for $17. 

 

Hydrogen is Back!

Hydrogen fueling station hydrogen pump, Shell Hydrogen
Image Credit: Michael Penev, NREL

If you recall, the Hydrogen Economy was rolled out with great pride by the Bush Administration.  With the Obama Presidency, Steven Chu was appointed Secretary of Energy, and hydrogen was barely mentioned.

Curiously for a Nobel Scientist, Chu was very results-oriented and in his own words, always "looking for the low-hanging fruit."  He believed hydrogen production and distribution was at least one decade away.  Probably some credit should be given to Chu for overseeing a transformation in the nation's energy expenditures.  He didn't invent fracking, but the nation's energy imports dived during his tenure.

Energy Department Launches Public-Private Partnership to Deploy Hydrogen Infrastructure tells the Energy Department is back in the hydrogen business. 

DOE Drives Hydrogen Car Infrastructure Push explains there are only 76 fueling stations in the nation for fuel cell vehicles.  The press release from the DOE and subsequent press release specifically on fuel cells, signals the DOE is going to be focusing on new fuel cell technology. 

Unfortunately we are still stuck with the problem of hydrogen production.  Today, the most economical method of producing hydrogen is steam reforming.  (It is ironic, isn't it?  Hydrogen is the most plentiful element in the universe, but there is little free hydrogen to be found on earth.)  Steam reforming combines methane (natural gas) with high temperature steam to produce hydrogen and carbon monoxide.  Yes, a greenhouse gas. 

Also during earlier days, it was believed the next generation nuclear reactor could possibly allow other hydrogen production by using its high heat production.  At a minimum, it could also power electrolysis which eliminates the production of greenhouse gas. Unfortunately, the government is not investing seriously in the next generation nuclear reactor.  (And that could be a good thing.) 

But until we have a different method of hydrogen production, investment in fuel cells seems like planning for a party, but forgetting to hire a band.

 

 

Carbon Dioxide Climbs

These polar mesospheric clouds formed over Vallentuna, Sweden.
Credit: NASA

Carbon Dioxide at NOAA’s Mauna Loa Observatory reaches new milestone: Tops 400 ppm reminds us that pre-industrial revolution, the carbon dioxide percentage was about 280 parts per million (ppm). 

Measurements on carbon dioxide at Mauna Loa began in 1958, and in the five decades, carbon dioxide has climbed from 0.7 ppm per year to 2.1 ppm for the past ten years.  The primary problem of course, is that greenhouse gases in the atmosphere result in higher surface temperatures because the heat is not radiated into space. 

There are worrisome secondary effects such as acidification of the oceans caused by them absorbing excessive carbon dioxide and the respiration of living organisms will also be affected by higher greenhouse gas levels. 

The United States has reduced its carbon dioxide levels, but China is still increasing.  So much so, that unless China reduces it production of greenhouse gases, whatever Europe does will be for nought.  That pragmatism has helped crash the European carbon credit program.  The other issue of course, is the availability of new petroleum and natural gas resources in large quantities due to fracking technology. 

The 400 ppm milestone is not catastrophic - however, like the global population exceeding 7 billion, it is a signal that our current path is not sustainable.

 

 

New NASA Study on Expected Rainfall with Greenhouse Gases

snapshot of animation
Image credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center Scientific Visualization Studio

I have commented before about the upheaval in the energy market caused by fracking in the U.S.  The cheaper energy unfortunately still reduces greenhouse gases and because of its lower price, makes even the progressive-minded Euro carbon market Below Junk Status.

This means of course, that as the world's population continues to increase, there will be more rather than a decline in greenhouse gases.  Thus the new NASA study on rainfall changes due to greenhouse gases is instructive.

The global water cycle is changed by additional greenhouse gases.  Strangely, the greenhouse gases result in disruptive behavior.  They cause greater extremes in rainfall - for every one degree Fahrenheit increase, regions with heavy rainfall increase by 3.9 percent, and regions with light rainfall increases by 1 percent.  The global net rainfall is a wash - no more, no less.  But the model shows some disturbing new desert regions.  Those already on the bubble such as Australia or India could have a very dry future. 

Only the western U.S. is affected.  The midwest and east coast are largely immune to the macroscopic rainfall changes.  Violent weather, similar to the rainfall variations is also expected to increase. 

 

 

 

New Estimates on the Bakken Formation

A drill rig in the Bakken oil field in Stark County, western North Dakota.
Image Credit: Stephanie Gaswirth, USGS

Wikipedia reminds us the Bakken formation is 200,000 square miles beneath the surface of parts of Montana, North Dakota, and Saskatchewan.  It was first defined by geologist J.W. Nordquist in 1953.  The name comes from the farmer Henry Bakken, who owned the land where it was originally discovered. 

It was only after 2008 that technology existed to recover the oil in the formation.  The petroleum and gas is in semi-permeable rock, meaning that it must be coaxed out of the rock.  Fracking accomplishes that by pumping liquids into the rock at high pressure.  Simultaneously another well must accurately placed parallel to the fracking fluid in order to pump out the oil that is pushed out.  The formation is two miles below the surface and horizontal drilling is required for at least one mile after reaching the formation. 

USGS Releases New Oil and Gas Assessment for Bakken and Three Forks Formations estimates there is 7.3 billion barrels of recoverable oil in the two formations, roughly twice the 2008 estimate.  There is also an estimated 6.7 trillion cubic feet of recoverable natural gas.  Since 2008, more than 4000 wells have been drilled into the formation, providing much better geologic mapping of the formation. 

Incredibly, the U.S. consumes 19.1 million barrels of oil per day.  That corresponds to almost 7 billion barrels of oil a year.  Sheesh!  It is a good thing private energy companies believe the Bakken formation contains ten times more petroleum than the USGS estimates.

 

 

What to Do with Spent Nuclear Fuel

Dry spent fuel casks on concrete pad at a nuclear power plant site.
Image Credit: Nuclear Regulatory Commission

Around the 2005 time period, it would have been a safe bet that the Yucca Mountain Repository would be filling with nuclear waste at the end of this year.  But the federal funding ended in 2010, effectively ending the project.  Yucca Mountain, if you don't remember, is a ridge line within the Nevada Test site, a little more than 100 miles away from Las Vegas, Nevada.

The Government Accounting Office (GAO) describes the abandonment as strictly political, and not for technical or safety reasons.

Was it a good decision?  Hard to say.  If we have a major incident at one of the local storage sites pictured above, then obviously the verdict will swing negative.  If we are lucky kicking the can down the road and better technology becomes available, then the decision will have been a good one. 

Energy Department Announces New Investment in Nuclear Fuel Storage Research tells that new design and testing is to be performed on dry storage cask designs.  Unfortunately, only $15.8 million will be invested by the government over 5 years, and private industry will contribute about 3.2 million.

The NRC tells that the end of 2012, there was approximately 70,000 metric tons of spent nuclear waste in storage at U.S. nuclear power plants.  The nation produces about 2,200 tons annually.  About 78 percent of the waste is in pools where the water shields the radiation and cools the spent rods.  About 22 percent is stored in dry casks.

 

 

Miracle or Mystery

Chief Petty Officer Bob Laura, U.S. Coast Guard

Deepwater Horizon: Gulf of Mexico 'deep-cleaned' itself claims the 210 million gallons of hot crude oil released into the Gulf were eaten by BP-friendly microbes.

Professor Terry Hazen of the University of Tennessee - Knoxville explains something really lucky happened.  The original discharge from the oil well was methane which incubated a huge population of microbes.  Then after the population had stabilized, the methane ceased from the oil well, and the microbes were ravenously hungry; they ate any carbon molecule they came in contact with.  Hence, despite the largest oil spill ever endured by the U.S., the Gulf of Mexico is back to normal less than three years after the accident.

Mmm.  My experience is that nature doesn't work that fast.  Nature is indeed resilient and will work to heal the deepest hurts that mankind can inflict, but the timescales of humans and nature are very different.  So label me as skeptical.  It isn't pessimism, but instead rueful life lessons that good outcomes require planning and terrific execution.   

(I'll also repeat that as a teenage scientist, I tried every way in the world to get microbes to devour used motor oil.  I had milk cartons full of oil everywhere around my parent's house, trying to come up with yeast or other organisms to eat the oil.  Nada.)

 

 

Two Coal Mines Represent 20 Percent of U.S. Output

Surface Coal mine in Saskatchewan, Canada
Image Credit: Joel M Galloway, USGS

Probably most of us think of underground coal mines with donkeys and canaries.  Okay, at least underground.

The efficiency of the surface mine on the left should be apparent from the photograph.  Really big trucks and excavating machinery can produce gargantuan mountains of coal. 

Two Wyoming Mines Account for 20% of U.S. Coal Production should not be too surprising.  In fact, 9 of the top 10 producing coal mines are in Wyoming.  In the event you are planning your summer vacation, the two top mines are North Antelope Rochelle, and Black Thunder.

Just because nature works that way, you would also expect that this easily mined coal is not as good as the coal produced in the underground mines of Kentucky or West Virginia.  (October Sky has been showing on cable the past month - the story of Homer Hickam who became a rocket scientist instead of a coal miner.)  Indeed the coal in Wyoming is largely sub-bituminous.  Wikipeda tells the ranking of coal (from least to best) is peat, lignite, sub-bituminous, bituminous, and anthracite.

At the beginning of the month, I posted Organic Mercury - Much Worse Than Natural Mercury, which describes the generation of methyl mercury that enters the food chain.  The origin of most organic mercury is from coal-burning equipment.  Mercury in U.S. Coal tells that mercury is largely uniform in density across the grades of coal.  Since much more lower-energy coal has to be burned for the same energy than the higher grades, sub-bituminous coal results in more mercury released into the environment.

Because of the lower energy density of Wyoming coal, it is currently priced about $10.25 a ton.  Transportation costs to deliver the Wyoming coal to the Southeast or Ohio Valley can be as much as $25 to $35 a ton. 

 

New Refineries in North Dakota

New refineries in North Dakota
Image Credit: EIA

North Dakota has a 3 percent unemployment rate and a state budget with a billion dollar surplus.  That is pretty good, considering the entire state only had 670,000 people when the oil and gas boom began.  The state has an 11.5 percent tax on every barrel of oil produced. 

Rising North Dakota oil production and demand spurs two new refineries explains that surprisingly, the refineries are primarily to service the increased demand for diesel fuel and kerosene within the state.  The state currently has one refinery in operation near Bismarck, with a capacity of 60,000 barrels a day.  The two new refineries shown on the map will be 20,000 barrel a day facilities and the first of the two should be online within 20 months. 

The EIA tells that the Trenton diesel plant will cost $200M to construct and is intended to be a 'light' fluid production facility that is much less complex than the traditional refineries producing multiple products. 

There is a price for extracting the gas and oil from the Bakken formation.  North Dakota oil industry is thirsty - 5.4 billion gallons of water used in 2012 explains 70 percent of the total was used directly for hydraulic fracturing.  Each well requires over 2 million gallons of water.  To place that in context, a city of 50,000 would use about 10 million gallons a day.  North Dakota uses over 38 billion gallons of water a year for irrigation.  Can you predict a problem coming?

 

Gas From Methane Hydrate

Burning Gas Hydrates
J. Pinkston and L. Stern (USGS) , USGS

Its nickname is burning ice.  Chemically it is a compound of methane trapped within a crystal of water, forming a solid similar to ice.  It is also cold, requiring either temperatures less than freezing water, or a combination of high pressure and low temperatures. 

Originally methane clathrite was believed to be an exotic compound found only in outer space.  Today, we know there is so much in the Arctic and the bottom of the ocean that its carbon content exceeds all other fossil fuels combined.

Much like the Bakken oil formation in North Dakota that requires high technology drilling, exploitation of the gas hydrates also requires advanced technology.  The Malik hydrate field in Japan was discovered in 1972, but until now was a future energy source. 

Japan extracts gas from methane hydrate in world first tells that natural gas has been obtained from that field.  Located in the Nankai Trough, 300 meters below the sea floor, or roughly 1200 meters from the surface, there could be 27 trillion cubic feet of hydrate gas.  (It is a little over 30 miles off the southern coast of the main island.) 

There is environmental risk in harvesting this new energy.  Methane is the worst of the greenhouse gases - pure poison to the upper atmosphere.  Most of the geologic formations for methane hydrate are unstable - think disasters far worse than the Gulf of Mexico oil spill. 

Something else - our investments in CO2 capture and recovery have focused on coal, not natural gas.  (And that seemed to be a good bet, only three years ago.)  We are not technically equipped to have 7 billion humans creating more greenhouse gas with relatively cheap natural gas.  We worried about running out energy.  Instead, we may run out of atmosphere.