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Future Energy eNewsJune 3, 2003 Integrity Research Institute does not yet have an online version of this newsletter, so I'm taking the liberty of posting it here and would encourage you to subscribe (sign up at bottom of their main page).
Sent: Tuesday, June 03, 2003 11:48 PM
Subject: Hydrogen-Biofuel-Oil-Gas-Prigogine
1) Biofuel cell uses enzymes and
electrode to produce electricity - Back to ethanol for fuel cells.
2) Republicans Plan a Hydrogen
Economy-at Your Expense: It's Nucular - US nukes for hydrogen.
3) Keeping it Clean: Renewably Derived Hydrogen
- Use renewable energy to make hydrogen.
4) Total World Oil Production Decreases - A
complete assessment of 2002 by country.
5) US Natural Gas Production Headed for
Energy Crisis - "Innovation in new technology and renewable
energy sources are needed in the long term to improve the environment and meet
rising demand." Very strong call for action by a conservative business
journal, Investor's Business Daily.
6) Dr. Ilya Prigogine (1917- 2003) - Nobel
Prize winner for proving order exists far from equilibrium.
1) Alcohol Powers
Fuel Cell: Biofuel cell uses enzymes and electrode to produce electricity
MIT Technology Review Apr 04, 2003
Researchers from Saint Louis University have developed a fuel cell that uses enzymes rather than metal and can be recharged by adding a few milliliters of alcohol. Enzymes commonly speed up chemical reactions in living cells.
In the biofuel cell, the enzymes convert ethanol to acetaldehyde, removing a proton in the process. The proton is then added to nicotinimide adenine dinucleotide. The fuel cell's electrode strips the proton back off to produce electricity.
Biofuel cells could eventually be used as a replacement for any rechargeable power source, including laptop and PDA batteries, according to the researchers. Key to the method is a polymer membrane modified with ammonium salts to increase the size of the membrane's pores and reduce its acidity. When enzymes are added to the membrane, they become trapped in the pores, which provide them with a stable environment.
Enzymes in the researchers' prototypes remained active for several weeks. Given the proper environment, enzymes theoretically last forever, according to the researchers.
Biofuel cells could be applied practically in five to ten years, according to the researchers. The work was presented at the 225th national meeting of the American Chemical Society in New Orleans on March 27, 2003.
3)
Keeping it Clean: Renewably
Derived Hydrogen
Any
method that relies on fossil fuel feedstocks to
produce hydrogen, such as steam methane reformation and coal gasification, also
emits carbon dioxide and other pollutants as a byproduct of the production
process. Clean hydrogen,
however, can be produced from renewable energy sources that do not emit carbon
dioxide or other harmful pollutants. Wind
energy, for example, can be used to produce hydrogen through the chemical
reaction that occurs when electricity is combined with water, a process known as
electrolysis. This technology is
currently under development and has continued to become less expensive over
time. Furthermore, clean hydrogen
can be produced from any of the renewable energy technologies, and does not
require the development of controversial and expensive sequestration
technologies. Realizing the
multiple benefits of clean hydrogen is not a dream waiting to be realized, but
rather, is a goal many are working towards today.
For
more information about the briefing, please contact JR Drabick
at EESI at 202-662-1886 or
4) Total World Oil Production
Decreases
Hal Fox, New Energy News, May,
2003 (Source: Global Energy Outlook,
March 2003)
Total World Oil Production
Declined 653,000 Barrels per Day in 2002 over 2001 Levels
Here is a list of the World's Crude
Oil Production by Countries for the year 2002:
Middle East 19,409,000 bbls per day
Western Hemisphere 16,991,000
East. Europe & FSU 9,109,000
Asia Pacific 7,408,000
Africa 6,900,000
Western Europe 6,128,000
============
2002 Total 65,946,000 bbls per day
2001 Total 66,599,000
============
CHANGE - 653,000 bbls per day. [ -
MINUS! - ]
There may be some effect on these
figures as we move into 2003.
With the results of the war in Iraq, it
is conceivable that the oild fields of Iraq can be improved and increase
production without the oil revenues being used to support a dedicated
terrorist.
Crude Oil Production And
Capacity
The following figures are for the
current production of oil from various countries. The first six (from Saudia
Arabia to Norway) are considered to be pumping and marketing oil at maximum
capacity. The second figure for the following five oil-producing nations is an
estimate of the additional productive capacity.
Nation Current Spare
Production Capacity
(All figures in thousands of barrels per
day.)
Saudi Arabia 9,400
U.S. 8,500
Russia 7,750
Iran 3,600
Mexico 3,290
Norway 3,200
Iraq 2,400 400
U.A.E. 2,200 150
Nigeria 2,200 50
Kuwait 1,950 150
Venezuela 1,550 800
====== =====
TOTAL 46,040 1,550
It is to be noted that the world's
maximum oil production is not much greater than the current rate of
consumption. It is also important that some of the world's oil supply be saved
for future use as chemical feedstocks for the hundreds of thousands of
chemical products that are made from oil.
[Reviewed by Hal Fox, Ed. J.
New Energy. Information courtesy of Gordon B. Moody,
Editor/Publisher, Global Energy Outlook.] halfox@uswest.net
5) The Nation's Next Energy
Crisis Won't be at the Corner Gas Station
David Isaac, Investors Business
Daily, June 2, 2003 p. A14 (excerpts)
In the 1990's natural gas was hailed as
the growth fuel for the future. It was relatively cheap, burned cleanly and
polluted less. Power plants that used the fuel were easy to build with
reliable construction schedules. But it's become apparent that the early
hosannas extolling the wonders of natural gas were overblown. Prices are now
about 46 per million Btu up from an average price of $2 in the 1990's...The
basic problem is overreliance on natural gas for electricity. "Policies
that were established for the last five to seven years have resulted in almost
all new power capacity being based on natural gas," said R.W. Jewell,
business vice president of energy for Dow Chemical Co.
Even if the US were to open up all known
natural gas reservoirs to drilling, it would only help temporarily. Most
industry watchers agree that the key issue is the need to diversify supply.
"The answer is for the country to move to a more diversified electricity
mix," Jewell said, including "some nuclear, some clean coal, some
conservation and some based on natural gas."
5a) Natural
Gas Woes Won't Disappear Unless Gov't Acts
William Stavropoulos, Investors
Business Daily, Perspective, June 2, 2003 (excerpts)
World oil prices have fallen as the
Iraqi conflict has subsided, but a similar drop in natural gas prices has not
occurred...Millions of manufacturing jobs have already been lost in recent
years, and history shows that high and voltile energy costs typically
lead to recession.
What's the economic toll of sustained
high natural gas prices?...One out of every two homes are heated by natural
gas...Further, the amount of natural gas used to generate electricity has
risen 33% in the past five years and will likely grow an additional 60% by
2015...The current US supply of natural gas hasn't kept pace with increasing
demand. Indeed, annual US output has been stagnant at 19 trillion cubic feet
since 1995, even though demand has continued to climb.
Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan recently and
correctly highlighted the "contradictory federal policy" of
simultaneously driving up demand while restricting new supply. Try as it
might, Congress can't repeal the law of supply and demand. Congress must act
now to ensure a diverse and flexible supply of energy, encourage conservation
by all energy users, and create incentives to develop renewable energy
sources that are economically competitive...
But with suply problems looming as early
as this winter, Congress and the administration must do even more if we are to
avoid another spike in natural gas prices -- and the choking off of the
economic recovery. A sound energy policy will place the US on the path to a
reliable and affordable supply of domestic energy...An immediate return to a
diversified and robust energy mix -- not a single fuel for growth -- is
essential, including the full range of traditional and alternative energy
sources. Innovation in new technology and renewable energy sources are
needed in the long term to improve the environment and meet rising demand.
Better energy efficiency and reduction in the energy intensity of processes
and equipment will help balance supply and demand...
Today's natural gas crisis was largely
created by government policy and now must be solved by government policy. It
requires immediate action by our elected leaders -- for our nation's sake.
6) Viscount
Ilya Prigogine 1917-2003
Belle Dumι, Science Writer at PhysicsWeb, 30 May 2003 http://physicsweb.org/article/news/7/5/17 Ilya Prigogine, the winner of the 1977 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his work on non-equilibrium thermodynamics, has died aged 86 in Brussels. At the time of his death, Prigogine was director of the International Solvay Institute for Physics and Chemistry in Brussels - a post he has held since 1959. He was also professor of physics and chemical engineering at the University of Texas where he founded the Centre for Thermodynamics and Statistical Mechanics. This centre was later named after him.
Ilya Prigogine was born in Moscow in 1917. He moved to Germany with his family in 1921, and then to Belgium eight years later. He graduated with a PhD in chemistry from the Universitι Libre in Brussels in 1941 and remained there to continue with his research in thermodynamics. Prigogine is best known for extending the second law of thermodynamics to systems that are far from equilibrium, and demonstrating that new forms of ordered structures could exist under such conditions. Prigogine called these 'dissipative structures' because they cannot exist independently of their environment. According to the second law of thermodynamics, ordered systems disintegrate into disordered ones. However, Prigogine showed that the formation of dissipative structures allows order to be created from disorder in non-equilibrium systems. These structures have since been used to describe phenomena such as the growth of cities and the physics of car traffic. Prigogine received many awards and prizes during his life, including the Medaille d'Or (France) and the Imperial Order of the Rising Sun (Japan). He wrote almost a thousand research articles and many books, which include "Order out of Chaos" (1989) and "The End of Certainty" (1997).
Forwarded from a nonprofit organization specializing in
innovation in new energy technology:
See also
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June 4, 2003 |
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