A FEW INTERESTING FACTS ABOUT ENERGY

The Inflation Reduction Act, to be signed today by President Joe Biden, provides generous funds for renewable energy.  I thus thought I'd go back to a dozen years ago when I wrote on this subject, and see how in 2022 things have changed.  You can read the 730-page bill here.  In summary:

• In the past, the Farm Lobby had a heavy influence, and snuck in a stinker:  ETHANOL!  This new legislation used ethanol only 3 times, while biofuel appears 11 times.  Hydrogen?  65 times.  Nuclear has 25 references, and gained some ground in this package.
• $9 billion in home energy rebates.
• $30 billion in production tax credits for solar, wind, batteries, aviation and other biofuels, plus critical minerals.
• $20 billion in loans to build clean vehicle manufacturing facilities in this country.
• $2 billion to national labs to accelerate breakthrough energy research.
• A methane emissions reduction program.
• Well, the Farm Lobby scored again, for there is a sum of $20 billion to support climate-smart agricultural practices.
• Senator Manchin got concessions for fossil fuels, but the coal industry, overall, turned out to be a loser.

My posting of 16 April 2010.  For some reason, there was a transfer problem, so just click on that link to read the old blog.

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A FEW INTERESTING FACTS ABOUT ENERGY

While I've recently been dabbling in saving Planet Earth and Humanity, today, I thought I would toss out a few interesting energy facts that caught my attention:

1. On nuclear power: 94% of the uranium used in American nuclear reactors are imported. Oil today is “only” at 66%. As an aside, I read that Iran also imports uranium, and even their stockpile is being depleted. Ergo: just make sure they can't import any more.

2. About windpower: 79% of the 2009 stimulus funds for wind machines went to foreign manufacturers.

3. Future of plug-in electric vehicles: the lithium battery for the GM Volt will be supplied by South Korea (on license from Japan).

A little more than a year ago I wrote an article for The Huffington Post entitled, “Don’t Copy…Build Something Better.” I wondered why we weren’t developing our own motive source, and recommended the direct methanol fuel cell, for, given biomass, it makes a lot more economic sense to produce methanol over ethanol. Methanol is the ONLY liquid capable of being directly fed into a fuel cell. Ethanol and gasoline first need to be processed through an expensive reformer. Plus, under similar conditions, a fuel cell vehicle can go five times further than a lithium battery system. My HuffPo of 10June08 provides some details. Plus, no one is doing much R&D on this subject.

My sense is that the Farm Lobby, to protect its ethanol investments, has successfully prevented the U.S. Department of Energy from doing any research with methanol. The Department of Defense has supported development, but only for smaller size applications, like backpack use. Some day, it is predicted that this innovation will replace batteries. To upscale this technology for cars will take at least a decade, and might never be possible. But, just a thought, as Toshiba last year actually began marketing a direct methanol fuel cell for portable applications. So the concept is viable.

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The Dow Jones Industrials sunk 126 to 11,018. One would tend to blame the civil fraud problems with Goldman Sachs (about a 13% drop in stock value today) as a shock to the system, but it turns out that the stock markets of the whole world fell over the past 24 hours, with the Japan Nikkei sinking 172 today. Everything decreased, as gold is down $21/toz to $1137 and crude oil dropped more than $2 bucks to under $83/barrel.

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So okay, let me start with nuclear energy. In 2021 the USA imported 92% of the uranium used.   So nothing much has changed.  We get 38% from Kazakhstan and Russia.  And here we keep talking about energy self-sufficiency and how nuclear power needs to be part of the mix.

While biofuels are being given some inducement, there is nothing specific about biomethanol and the direct methanol fuel cell.  Methanol is the only clean liquid fuel capable of being directly consumed by a fuel cell.  This graphic indicates that you need an expensive reformer in the system.  Not for methanol.  Hydrogen is is just too expensive today, and will remain so for probably decades.  The Department of Energy should read my Huffington Post article of 2011:  American, Don't Copy...Build Something Better!

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  Per unit volume, a fuel cell should be able to provide five times more energy than the lithium battery. Chapter 3 of Simple Solutions for Planet Earth can be referenced for details. In short, this device works like a battery to produce electricity, but uses hydrogen as the energy source instead of lithium, lead or cadmium. However, and this defies common sense, one gallon of methanol has more accessible hydrogen than one gallon of liquid hydrogen. So as hydrogen is very expensive to manufacture, store and deliver, with no existing infrastructure...
  ...the logic argues for producing methanol from biomass to power a fuel cell. This simplest of alcohols is the only biofuel capable of directly and efficiently being utilized by a fuel cell without passing through an expensive reformer.

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  So therefore, where are we as a Nation on next generation cars? Not unlike our ethanol fiasco, the plug-in electric car has a different kind of gigantic problem: we don't produce any advanced batteries for this application. Panasonic and Sanyo manufacture nearly all of the nickel metal hydride batteries used in our current hybrid autos. The irony to all this is that Stanford Ovshinsky of Ovonics in Detroit invented this technology, and even succeeded in suing Panasonic for stealing his idea. Ovshinsky worked out a partnership with General Motors, but their conventional wisdom must have prevailed, for nothing much happened.  (Stanford and Iris were good friends of mine.)

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  The story of the lithium battery is also a national nightmare. If you trace the expertise, you will find yourself in Japan, Germany, South Korea, France and China. Where are the American companies with the world patents and leadership? They don't exist!
• We need to instead invent our own new power system. Toshiba and a few other Japanese companies do have a current advantage for portable uses of the direct methanol fuel cell (DMFC), but no one is doing anything about using this technology for cars, yet.

• How ideal and opportune, then, for Detroit and the Obama Administration to partner on a new pathway for our future: initiate an Apollo-like project to develop the DMFC. The heartland of our country can also become involved, for the non-food portion of our crops and fields, cellulose, is the ideal feedstock for biomethanol.
• This second challenge is not currently being discussed in the White House or the Congress or Detroit. Why copy the world? Let us invent our own future. 

Unfortunately, in this interim, China has moved forward.  Read about what they are doing.

I can go on and on, but I'll stop and end with two human interest items.  First, Trevor Noah of The Daily Show.  Then, the Hollywood ending of 34-year old Samantha Futerman, and her twin, Anais Bordier.  

A documentary was made in 2015 called Twinsters, and got 92/90 ratings from Rotten Tomatoes.  Prime carries it, but at a small cost.

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