New Reactor Harnesses Sun’s Energy Like Plants January 20, 2011

In the reactor, sunlight heats a ceria cylinder which breaks down water or carbon dioxide, just like plants do (CALTECH)

Researchers have unveiled a prototype reactor which mimics plant life, turning the Sun’s energy to make hydrocarbon fuel.

Developed by a team of scientists from the United States and Switzerland, The solar device uses the Sun’s rays and the metal ceria, or cerium oxide, to break down water or carbon dioxide into energy which can be stored and transported.

Harnessing the power of the sun has been but a pipe dream as conventional solar panels must use the power they generate in situ. With the ceria fueled reactor, this issue is solved.

The scientists, which include Caltech professor Sossina M. Haile and Swiss Institute of Energy Technology professor Aldo Steinfeld, wanted to figure out a way to harness the sun efficiently, without incredibly rare materials. They decided on ceria, a relatively abundant “rare-earth” metal with very special properties.

The reactor takes advantage of ceria’s ability to “exhale” oxygen from its crystalline framework at very high temperatures and then “inhale” oxygen back in at lower temperatures.

“What is special about the material is that it doesn’t release all of the oxygen. That helps to leave the framework of the material intact as oxygen leaves,” Haile explains. “When we cool it back down, the material’s thermodynamically preferred state is to pull oxygen back into the structure.”

Conceptually, the device has boundless potential with its ability to break down water into hydrogen fuel and oxygen or carbon dioxide into carbon monoxide and oxygen, key ingredients for the fuel cell component methanol. Because they are broken down thermochemically, the resulting fuel is easy to transport.

But the prototype is still in its infant stages and extremely inefficient, harnessing only 0.7% to 0.8% of the solar energy it absorbs with most lost through heat or re-radiation. The researchers are confident they can reach levels of around 20% which would make the device commercially viable.

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Can This Object Save the World? February 24, 2010

Bloom Energy's fuel cells are flat, solid ceramic squares made from a common sand-like "powder" and are painted with patented inks to create anode (green) and cathode (black) sides. Each fuel cell represents 25 watts of power or enough for one lightbulb.

At a press conference Wednesday, Silicon Valley startup Bloom Energy showed off its new, heavily hyped technology, which harnesses chemical reactions to create energy. The company’s mission: to revolutionize the world’s fuel sources.

Bloom’s main product is the Bloom Energy Server, a generator based around a smart new fuel cell technology. Fuel cells rely upon chemical reactions to generate energy rather than fossil fuels, and as such are considered cleaner, more affordable, and more reliable than the traditional energy sources.

Fuel cell technology has been under development for decades, primarily concentrating on chemical reactions using hydrogen — an element that can be volatile and difficult to store. Bloom’s fuel cell technology is fundamentally different, running on a wide range of renewable or traditional fuels.

The technology has roots in NASA’s Mars space program, where Dr. KR Sridhar, principal co-founder and CEO of Bloom Energy, was charged with building technology to help sustain life on Mars. His mandate: Use solar energy and water to produce air to breathe and fuel for transportation.

Sridhar’s invention converts air and nearly any fuel source — ranging from natural gas to a wide range of biogases — into electricity via a clean electrochemical process, rather than dirty combustion. Even running on a fossil fuel, the systems are approximately 67% cleaner than a typical coal-fired power plant, explains Bloom. When powered by a renewable fuel, the company’s Energy Server can be 100% cleaner. Each Energy Server consists of thousands of Bloom’s fuel cells, flat, solid ceramic squares made from a common sand-like “powder.”

SLIDESHOW: How the Bloom Box Works

Bloom Energy states that to date, Bloom Energy Servers, currently in deployment for several Fortune 500 companies, have produced more than 11 million kilowatt hours (kWh) of electricity, with CO2 reductions estimated at 14 million pounds.

The technology industry breathlessly watched and waited for Wednesday’s unveiling. John Doerr, a partner at investment firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers and Bloom Energy board member, shared in the hype.

“For years, there have been promises of new energy solutions that are clean, distributed, affordable, and reliable; today we learn that Bloom, formerly in stealth, has actually delivered,” he said. “Americans want clean, affordable, energy, 24×7 — and all the jobs that go with it. Bloom’s boxes are a breakthrough, serving energy, serving demanding customers, and serving our country.”

The company’s customers seem to echo Doerr’s enthusiasm, many of which are leading businesses. Coca-Cola, Cox, eBay, FedEx, Google, Staples, and more have been running the Energy Servers.

Coke’s 500kW installation at its Odwalla plant in Dinuba, CA, will run on re-directed biogas and is expected to provide 30% of the plant’s power needs while reducing its carbon footprint by an estimated 35%.

“This new fuel cell technology has great promise and represents an important step for Coca-Cola in continuing to grow our business without growing the carbon footprint,” said Brian Kelley, President and General Manager, Coca-Cola North America. He noted that the Bloom Servers can help the company reduce carbon emissions while improving efficiency and using cleaner forms of energy.”

In a video shown at the event, California Senator Dianne Feinstein, Cypress Semiconductor CEO T.J. Rogers, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg and others raved about the new innovation.

Mayor Bloomberg said he was excited from the first time he saw the technology in action: “My first reaction was this was a company guaranteed for greatness.”

“When we look at Bloom Energy,” he added, “we are looking at the future of business, at the future of the economy, at the future of America.”

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Should World Powers Drill for Long Frozen and Possibly Dangerous Methane from Hydrates November 14, 2008

U.S. Study Finds Large Alaska Frozen Natural Gas Deposits Could Be Extracted With Current Tools

By H. JOSEF HEBERT Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON November 12, 2008 (AP)

Government scientists believe Alaska’s North slope has huge deposits of frozen natural gas that current technology could extract, according to an Interior Department report.

Read the full first article here:   http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory?id=6237613

Doomsday? Or simply unfounded panic

Commentary by Bob Ferrari:

This report will cite that “methane is 27 times more potent than carbon dioxide in contributions to global warming”.  I would like you, the reader, to remember this little fact, and also know that Alaska is not the only place in the world that has such massive frozen methane deposits.  Japan is also onto this track, but Japan is already doing something about, NOW. The “scary” part of all this, is within this first sentence in the second article:

An international drilling expedition to the Nankai Trough off Japan’s southwest coast, one of the most volatile earthquake zones on Earth, has discovered that there is strong variation in the tectonic stresses in the area.

While CO₂ exists in much stronger concentration than the other greenhouse gases, there are a bunch of other gases that are more potent than CO₂ , by volume. That’s why, even though CO₂ is measured in parts per million while methane is measured in parts per billion, methane is a strong 2nd place in terms of its climate effect. In other words, when it comes to “global warming”, methane is one of the worst gases to be playing around with.

Second article:   

Caught in the Vice Between Tectonic Plates

http://cordis.europa.eu/fetch?CALLER=EN_NEWS&ACTION=D&SESSION=&RCN=28875

Japan is looking to drill here:

Caught in the vice between two converging rigid tectonic plates, the wedge was found to be undergoing strain in preparation for the next earthquake,’ says co-chief scientist Masataka Kinoshita of the Institute for Research on Earth Evolution (IFREE) at the Japan Agency for Marine Earth Science and Technology (JAMSTEC).

Third article:

China and India Exploit Icy Energy Reserves

http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,523178,00.html 

China and India have reported massive finds of frozen methane gas off their coasts, which they hope will satisfy their energy needs. But environmentalists fear that tapping these resources could have adverse effects on the world climate.

 

 

Judging by all three stories, what do you think about current and future attempts at extracting frozen methane from beneath the Earth?  The Alaska methane does not seem to quite raise the spectre of a world-wide Dante’s Inferno quite like the Japanese mucking in the “earthquake volatile” Nankai Trough.