Official alternative energy thread.

[CARLHAYDEN]

Solar electric power may be able to provide some of our electric needs. But what is needed is an inexpensive and efficient solar cell. Maybe such cells could be installed on our roofs instead of shingles. This can be done now but the cost currently is way too high.

Yes, and commercial cells are too brittle as well for some of the weather conditions across the US (ie, tornadoes, hurricanes, below-zero temps, etc).  There was a story last year discussing flexible solar cells which were twice as efficient as common commercial cells, but they were still inefficient compared to the price.  When it comes to solar power, I think solar arrays are much more economically practical than individual solar cells at this point in time.

http://www.tep.com/Company/News/PressReleases/ReleaseTemplate.asp?idRec=130

[MODU]

Sorry.  Another long article without a link to reference.

New Aluminum-Rich Alloy Produces Hydrogen On-Demand for Large-Scale Uses

Purdue University engineers have developed a new Al-rich alloy that produces H2 by splitting water and is economically competitive with conventional fuels for transportation and power generation.

“We now have an economically viable process for producing hydrogen on-demand for vehicles, electrical generating stations and other applications,” said Jerry Woodall, a distinguished professor of electrical and computer engineering at Purdue who invented the process.

The new alloy contains 9% Al and 5% of an alloy that is made of the metals gallium (Ga), indium (In), and tin (Sn).  Because the new alloy contains significantly less of the more expensive Ga than previous forms of the alloy, H2 can be produced less expensively, he said.

When immersed in water, the alloy splits water molecules into H2 and O2, which immediately reacts with the Al to produce aluminum oxide (Al2O3), also called alumina, which can be recycled back into Al.  Recycling Al from nearly pure Al2O3 is less expensive than mining the Al-containing ore bauxite, making the technology more competitive with other forms of energy production, Woodall said.

“After recycling both the aluminum oxide back to aluminum and the inert gallium-indium-tin alloy only 60 times, the cost of producing energy both as hydrogen and heat using the technology would be reduced to 10 cents per kilowatt hour, making it competitive with other energy technologies,” Woodall said.

The researchers will present findings about the new alloy on 26 Feb during the conference Materials Innovations in an Emerging Hydrogen Economy, which runs 24-27 Feb in Cocoa Beach, FL.

A key to developing the alloy for large-scale technologies is controlling the microscopic structure of the solid Al and the Ga-In-Sn alloy mixture.

“This is because the mixture tends to resist forming entirely as a homogeneous solid due to the different crystal structures of the elements in the alloy and the low melting point of the gallium-indium-tin alloy,” Woodall said.

The alloy is said to have two phases because it contains abrupt changes in composition from one constituent to another.

“I can form a one-phase melt of liquid aluminum and the gallium-indium-tin alloy by heating it.  But when I cool it down, most of the gallium-indium-tin alloy is not homogeneously incorporated into the solid aluminum, but remains a separate phase of liquid,” Woodall said.  “The constituents separate into two phases just like ice and liquid water.”

The two-phase composition seems to be critical for the technology to work because it enables the aluminum alloy to react with water and produce hydrogen.

The researchers had earlier discovered that slow-cooling and fast-cooling the new 95/5 aluminum alloy produced drastically different versions.  The fast-cooled alloy contained aluminum and the gallium-indium-tin alloy apparently as a single phase.  In order for it to produce hydrogen, it had to be in contact with a puddle of the liquid gallium-indium-tin alloy.

“That was a very exciting finding because it showed that the alloy would react with water at room temperature to produce hydrogen until all of the aluminum was used up,” Woodall said.
The engineers were surprised to learn late last year, however, that slow-cooling formed a two-phase solid alloy, meaning solid pieces of the 95/5 Al alloy react with water to produce H2, eliminating the need for the liquid Ga-In-Sn alloy.

“That was a fantastic discovery,” Woodall said.  “What used to be a curiosity is now a real alternative energy technology.”

The research is partially funded by Purdue’s Energy Center at the university's Discovery Park.
“This technology has exciting potential, and I hope that it receives a fair and detailed evaluation and consideration from the scientific, government and business communities,” said Jay Gore, the Vincent P. Reilly Professor of Mechanical Engineering and interim director of the Energy Center.

The slow-cooling technique made it possible to create forms of the alloy containing higher concentrations of Al.

The Purdue researchers are developing a method to create briquettes of the alloy that could be placed in a tank to react with water and produce hydrogen on-demand.  Such a technology would eliminate the need to store and transport hydrogen, two potential stumbling blocks in developing a hydrogen economy, Woodall said.

The Ga-In-Sn alloy component is inert, which means it can be recovered and reused at an efficiency approaching 100%, he said

“The aluminum oxide is recycled back into aluminum using the currently preferred industrial process called the Hall-Héroult process, which produces one-third as much carbon dioxide as combusting gasoline in an engine,” Woodall said.

The Al splits water by reacting with the oxygen atoms in water molecules, liberating hydrogen in the process.  The Ga-In-Sn alloy is a critical component because it hinders the formation of a “passivating” Al2O3 skin normally created on pure Al’s surface after bonding with O2, a process called oxidation.  This skin usually acts as a barrier and prevents O2 from reacting with bulk Al.  Reducing the skin’s protective properties allows the reaction to continue until all of the Al is used to generate H2, Woodall explained.

“This skin is like an eggshell,” he said.  “Think of trying to fry an egg without breaking the shell.”

The researchers developed the new alloy in late 2007 and are reporting about it for the first time during the conference.

“We now have a simple process for making 95/5, and we know the process splits water and produces hydrogen until all of the aluminum alloy is used up,” Woodall said.

For the technology to be used in major applications such as cars and trucks or for power plants, however, a large-scale recycling program would be required to turn the Al2O3 back into Al and to recover the Ga-In-Sn alloy.  Other infrastructure components, such as those related to manufacturing and the supply chain, also would have to be developed, he said.
“So the economic risk is large, but the potential payoff is also large,” said Woodall, who received the 2001 National Medal of Technology, the nation’s highest award for technological achievement.

Al, the most abundant metal on Earth, is refined from the raw mineral bauxite, which also contains Ga.

Future research will include work to learn more about the chemical mechanisms behind the process and the microscopic structure of the alloy.

[Frodo]

Hydrogen Fuel Station Opens in White Plains

By DIANA MARSZALEK
Published: March 16, 2008

WITH a history of using alternative-fuel vehicles long before it became chic, White Plains now is the Northeast hub — and one of three cities nationwide — for a model program designed to put hydrogen-powered cars in consumers’ hands.

In partnership with General Motors and a division of Shell Oil, the city has opened on its property the only hydrogen refueling station in the metropolitan area equipped for public use, G.M. and city officials said.

Proponents laud hydrogen-powered, or fuel-cell, vehicles for producing virtually no emissions and reducing the need for traditional fossil fuel. The vehicles are still in development — and out of most consumers’ reach with price tags for some ringing in at nearly $90,000 — but they are already refueling at the station on the Public Works Department’s refueling site.

Two hydrogen-powered versions of the Chevrolet Equinox sport utility vehicle are now on Westchester roads as part of G.M.’s Project Driveway, which aims to lend 100 fuel-cell vehicles free to consumers in New York, Washington and Los Angeles over the next three years, said Daniel O’Connell, G.M.’s director of fuel-cell commercialization.

The goal of the program, which began here earlier this month, is to garner and use consumer feedback and experiences when G.M. takes the car from model to mainstream, Mr. O’Connell said.

The city has amassed about $700,000 in grants from Shell, the New York Power Authority and the State Energy Research and Development Authority to buy five of its own hydrogen-powered vehicles, said Joseph Nicoletti Jr., the public works commissioner. Under its agreement with G.M., the city gets half the station’s hydrogen output for use in its fuel-cell vehicles.

Those vehicles include three Toyota Prius hybrids that run on electricity and hydrogen rather than the electricity and gasoline that power mainstream hybrids. Two Chevrolet fuel-cell pickup trucks — one runs solely on hydrogen, the other on a combination of hydrogen and compressed natural gas — are also joining the city fleet, Mr. Nicoletti said.

“The big benefit of using hydrogen as a fuel is that there is practically zero pollution,” said Mr. Nicoletti, who oversees the city’s approximately 400 vehicles, about 20 percent of which run on alternative energies including electricity, ethanol and compressed natural gas. “Water vapor is what comes out of the exhaust pipe.”

Maria Recchia-O’Neill of Rye Brook, who is one of the first two local residents to get one of the Equinoxes on a three-month loan, said driving the car had created even more interest in alternative fuels than she had expected. She is the science curriculum coordinator for the Port Chester Public Schools.

“I am very concerned about the state of our planet,” said Ms. Recchia-O’Neill, who came across G.M.’s online application while researching a school project on the subject. “I like knowing that we’re doing something good and making this a viable option.”

For the city, the involvement in Project Driveway is one step in its long use of alternative fuel, which dates to the 1978 gasoline shortage, when the federal government promoted the use of gasohol, a combination of gasoline and ethanol, Mr. Nicoletti said.

Since then, the city has created a range of fuel-saving techniques, from using and combining alternative energies to reducing the weight of trucks by replacing steel frames with aluminum or fiberglass, Mr. Nicoletti said.

For many years, White Plains had the only ethanol-fueling station in New York.

Mr. O’Connell said the mass production of affordable fuel-cell vehicles was at least five years off. But incorporating the vehicles into the city fleet now — as well as having the ability to refuel them — sets the stage to further White Plains’s use of alternative-fuel vehicles after General Motors’ test ends, Mr. Nicoletti said.

“I want to keep it going,” he said.

[Person Man]

So, the hydrogen economy is a major possibility in the next 10 or 20 years. Though we need to start investing in solar and fission and keep up funding ITER.

[ottermax]

This is an interesting discussion. I really think the country needs to find ways to turn the economy "green." Building supplies out of more environmentally friendly products, and a "green" energy industry. It would be amazing for the nation to change from oil to solar/wind/hydro/wave energy. I'm sick and tired of fossil fuels.

[Person Man]

This is an interesting discussion. I really think the country needs to find ways to turn the economy "green." Building supplies out of more environmentally friendly products, and a "green" energy industry. It would be amazing for the nation to change from oil to solar/wind/hydro/wave energy. I'm sick and tired of fossil fuels.

Agreed. It would also be interesting to see how we can develop vastly superior methods of obtaining power. I am talking about going beyond "green" power into super power that is green by the virtue of the fact that you need so little of it. How should we advance with fission power and fusion power and what type of things should we use it for. It has come to my attention that air and photon power is possibly enough to make us energy independent and reinvigorate our economy...but what about projects for America's future....not just solution for America's present. 

[MODU]

Great article, thanks Frodo.  You know me.  I love me some Hyrdogen!    I've got one for you though:

"Algae-Based Fuels Set to Bloom"

Relatively high oil prices, advances in technology, and the Bush administration's increased emphasis on renewable fuels are attracting new interest in a potentially rich source of biofuels: algae. A number of startups are now demonstrating new technology and launching large research efforts aimed at replacing hundreds of millions of gallons of fossil fuels by 2010, and much more in the future.


Algae makes oil naturally. Raw algae can be processed to make biocrude, the renewable equivalent of petroleum, and refined to make gasoline, diesel, jet fuel, and chemical feedstocks for plastics and drugs. Indeed, it can be processed at existing oil refineries to make just about anything that can be made from crude oil. This is the approach being taken by startups Solix Biofuels, based in Fort Collins, CO, and LiveFuels, based in Menlo Park, CA.


Alternatively, strains of algae that produce more carbohydrates and less oil can be processed and fermented to make ethanol, with leftover proteins used for animal feed. This is one of the potential uses of algae produced by startup GreenFuel Technologies Corporation, based in Cambridge, MA.


The theoretical potential is clear. Algae can be grown in open ponds or sealed in clear tubes, and it can produce far more oil per acre than soybeans, a source of oil for biodiesel. Algae can also clean up waste by processing nitrogen from wastewater and carbon dioxide from power plants. What's more, it can be grown on marginal lands useless for ordinary crops, and it can use water from salt aquifers that is not useful for drinking or agriculture. "Algae have the potential to produce a huge amount of oil," says Kathe Andrews-Cramer, the technical lead researcher for biofuels and bioenergy programs at Sandia National Laboratories, in Albuquerque, NM. "We could replace certainly all of our diesel fuel with algal-derived oils, and possibly replace a lot more than that."

(Cont...)

Definitely a win-win system here.  Not only does algae go a long way to cleaning up the environment as it is, it is cheap and easy to reproduce, creating a stable natural resource that can be grown anywhere for consumption.

[Frodo]

U.S. Will Approve New Nuclear Reactors:
British official says she's been informed the U.S. will approve at least three new nuclear power plants

By David Biello

One of the U.K.'s top nuclear officials said today that she was told the U.S. will okay plans to build the first nuclear power plants since the accident at Three Mile Island nearly three decades ago. Lady Barbara Thomas Judge, chair of the U.K. Atomic Energy Authority, said that the chair of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission informed her that the NRC will approve three applications for new nuclear reactors that it's currently considering.

"Dale Klein told me that those three nuclear applications will be approved," she told the State of the Planet conference at Columbia University today, the 29th anniversary of the accident at Three Mile Island in Middletown, Pa. (Subsequently, a reactor at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in the then Ukrainian Soviet Republic melted down in April 1986 in what would become the worst nuclear power accident in history, spreading radiation as far away as North America and leading to the evacuation and resettlement of more than 336,000 people).

"The politics is changing," she added, noting growing enthusiasm for nuclear power as the clean alternative to coal-burning plants. Even some environmentalists have begun to embrace nuclear power, because of its potential to reduce the greenhouse emissions that are blamed for global warming.

But critics question the safety of nuclear power, citing such concerns as the potential for catastrophic meltdowns, their potential vulnerability to terrorists, the lack of workable evacuation plans in the event of accidents as well as the problem of dealing with radioactive waste.

Among the pending applications: a plan to build two additional boiling-water reactors at the South Texas Project power plant near Houston. As many as 29 other reactors could be built, according to Bill Borchardt, director of the NRC's Office of New Reactors.

But neither the South Texas facility nor the applications for new reactors at Calvert Cliffs in Maryland and the Shearon Harris nuclear plant outside Raleigh, N.C., have completed the NRC's long design safety and feasibility evaluation, which could take years to complete. The commission does not expect to complete its review of the new reactors at the South Texas plant before 2011, according to NRC spokesman Scott Burnell.

"Once you build the power plants, it just keeps producing energy," Judge said, noting the potential benefits of electricity generation from nuclear fission. "It is part of what we have to do to deal with energy security and climate change."

[Person Man]

I think by 2030, we should make it a goal that 30% of the U.S. energy consuption comes from Fission Plants.

[dead0man]

Blame the enviromentalists of the 70s and 80s for the lack of nuclear power plants today.  Their ignorance has hurt the enviroment in the long run.

[Person Man]

Then again, the anti-environmentalists will just push for coal and oil and all dirivitives thereor. I think that the center lies with nuclear power.

[dead0man]

Who's pushing for oil power plants?

[Person Man]

In know my congressional delegation is, though they are big on Coal Gasification, too...though that's more a matter of supply than efficency or environmental concerns.

[MODU]

In know my congressional delegation is, though they are big on Coal Gasification, too...though that's more a matter of supply than efficency or environmental concerns.

Economics is the name of the game.  If they can produce it for cheap, then the people will pay for it.

[Person Man]

Sure it's cheap, but then you have to deal with Ozone poisoning game, grazing and recreation land and of course, there are the fallouts of global warming.

[MODU]

Sure it's cheap, but then you have to deal with Ozone poisoning game, grazing and recreation land and of course, there are the fallouts of global warming.

Yup, but that doesn't really register on the minds of the general public all that much.  They will continue with their energy-consuming lifestyles and blame others for contributing to the problem.  That's why I still call for a national "Manhattan project" style operation by the government to pull all these scientists into a single location and to hammer hydrogen out once and for all.  Only through this manner will there be enough resources not only to work out the kinks in the production-to-consumption of the new fuel, but the companies will have the financial support of the government to put into place the infrastructure required across the country in a process fast enough to make it beneficial to the nation and, in return, to the environment.

[Person Man]

Exactly. ...but Nuclear energy would be the way to go for now and Wyoming and my part of the world can benefit from it. In fact, there is one Uranium Ghost Town that is coming back to live because of this renewed interest in Nuclear Power.

[MODU]

Exactly. ...but Nuclear energy would be the way to go for now and Wyoming and my part of the world can benefit from it. In fact, there is one Uranium Ghost Town that is coming back to live because of this renewed interest in Nuclear Power.

It would definitely be a great bridge process, just to carry us over into the new energy economy, but we are three decades behind, and it will be difficult to get enough plants online to keep up with the current energy demands.  But as always, something is better than nothing.

[Person Man]

I think that in 30 years, we can be getting a plurality of our energy from nukes and by then, Water Reduction and Fusion will be able to take over.

[MODU]

I think that in 30 years, we can be getting a plurality of our energy from nukes and by then, Water Reduction and Fusion will be able to take over.

hahaha . . . and I will becoming the next fossil fuel.