The Energy Blog

Chinese Pebblebed Reactor Program

  An article in the current issue of Newsweek International gives some insight as to the status of their pebblebed nuclear reactor program which is progressing in parallel to the pebblebed reactor being built in South Africa, which was described in detail in a previous post. China is developing a small commercial pebblebed plant, which will produce 195 megawatts of electricity, which it expects to complete within five years in the eastern province of Shandong. Huaneng Power, one of the country's largest electricity companies, is contributing about half of the $300 million cost.

According to the article the South Africa project has faced delays due to pressure from environmentalists and many experts expect China, which does not foster environmental influences, to finish first.

Pebblebed technology is claimed to be fail-safe —it would not be possible for the reactor to melt down or explode like Chernobyl or Three Mile Island. The main coolant for the system is inert helium, which helps make the reactor safer that other reactors that use water as the coolant.  The Chinese pebble-bed reactor doesn't even have a containment vessel, which is viewed as controversial by some. Extracting fuel from pebblebed reactors to use for weapons would be difficult and expensive.

Because the plants would be built in a standard design, that is quite small, they can be largely prefabricated offsite making them less expensive to build. This permits them to be quickly assembled in remote areas lending them to distributed plants, closer to the point of use. In populated areas a group of modules can provide greater capacity. The simplicity of design and inherent safety means that a much smaller operating staff is required than in more conventional reactors.

The article states that the ultimate goal is to improve China's own design and construction capabilities so it will not have to rely on foreigners to build and operate their reactors, but rather to be able to export its expertise in the design, construction and operation of plants.

Resource: China Leaps Foreward, MSNBC/Newsweek International Edition (online), February 6, 2006

Technorati tags: nuclear, pebblebed, electric generation, energy, technology

Turning Point for Chemicals from Coal

An article in the Oil & Gas Journal reported that Nexant officials had concluded that recent increases in oil and gas prices have pushed the chemical industry to a "strategic turning point" for the use of coal to produce chemicals. Nexant stated that four factors were causing this turning point:

• Unprecedented increases in global crude oil prices
• Explosive increases in natural gas prices in North America and Western Europe
• Unprecedented energy demand growth in developing economies, particularly in Asia and for liquid transportation fuels
• Advances in coal utilization processes, such as gasification, and related environmental technologies

In a new study, Nexant analyzed the technologies and economics of using coal to produce major petrochemicals via gasification and other known processes.

Another IGCC Plant

The ERORA Group LLC of Louisville, Kentucky, an independent power developer, is developing an IGCC power plant near Taylorville, Illinois.  It has signed a license agreement with GE Energy, authorizing the use of GE's gasification technology for a proposed power generating station. GE also has been selected to provide the process design for the gasification portion of the facility and the power island.  The plant would be fueled with Illinois basin coal and would generate approximately 770 gross megawatts of power, with additional consideration for co-production of products derived from synthesis gas. Construction is set to begin in 2007, with the facility expected to begin commercial operation in 2010.

The project received a major boost recently when Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich announced $5 million in public and private support. ERORA will receive $2.5 million for front-end engineering and design work from the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity and another $2.5 million from the public-private Illinois Clean Coal Review Board.

I just want to keep reminding every one that IGCC Is coming.  The construction schedule is quite aggressive and it will be one of the first if not the first IGCC plant to be completed. BTW I just read that it is anticipated that over 75% of new coal fired power plants built after 2010 would be IGCC plants. I would have hoped that it would be higher, unless a better technology, like direct carbon fuel cells, comes along faster than anticipated.

GE Gasification Technology Licensed for Proposed IGCC Plant in Illinois, press release, ERORA Group LLC of Louisville, Kentucky, January 23, 2006

Technorati tags: IGCC, coal, electric generation, energy, technology

EEStor Ultracapacitor Shuns Publicity

Clean Break has an interesting post, much of what I have copied verbatim, on a new ultracapacitor made by start-up company EEStor of Austin TX.  I thought the technology was potentially so important that a record of it was needed on the Energy Blog.  The company is very wary of publicity and the following, which Tyler meticulously chased down, is about all that is known about their technology:

• It is a parallel plate capacitor with barium titanate as the dielectric.
• It claims that it can make a battery at half the cost per kilowatt-hour and one-tenth the weight of lead-acid batteries.
• As of last year selling price would start at $3,200 and fall to $2,100 in high-volume production
• The product weighs 400 pounds and delivers 52 kilowatt-hours.
• The batteries fully charge in minutes as opposed to hours.
• The EEStor technology has been tested up to a million cycles with no material degradation compared to lead acid batteries that optimistically have 500 to 700 recharge cycles,
• Because it's a solid state battery rather than a chemical battery, such being the case for lithium ion technology, there would be no overheating and thus safety concerns with using it in a vehicle.
• With volume manufacturing it's expected to be cost-competitive with lead-acid technology.
• As of last year, EEStor planned to build its own assembly line to prove the battery can work and then license the technology to manufacturers for volume production
• EEStor's technology could be used in more than low-speed electric vehicles. The company envisions using it for full-speed pure electric vehicles, hybrid-electrics (including plug-ins), military applications, backup power and even large-scale utility storage for intermittent renewable power sources such as wind and solar.
• They have an exclusive agreement with Feel Good Cars, a Canadian manufacturer of the ZENN, a low speed electric car, to to purchase high-power-density ceramic ultra capacitors called Electrical Storage Units (ESU).  FGC's exclusive worldwide right is for all personal transportation uses under 15 KW drive systems (equivalent to 100 peak horse power) and for vehicles with a curb weight of under 1200 kilograms not including batteries.

None of these claims except construction and cost are significantly better than other ultracapacitors. Although they sometimes refer to the technology as a battery, it is clearly an ultracapacitor.

Clean Break's resources were:

Kleiner Perkins' Latest Energy Investment, BusinessWeek online, Sept., 3, 2005
Feel Good Cars, Toronto, ON, Canada
MCL Capital Inc. announce Agreement in Principal with Feel Good Cars (In section on History and Nature of the Business this agreement refers to FGC's agreement with EEStor)

Technorati tags: ultracapacitors, energy storage, energy, technology

Maxwell Receives Order for 200,000 Ultracapacitors

From a Maxwell press release via Alternative Energy Stocks:

Maxwell Technologies announced that General Hydrogen Corporation, a leading developer of hydrogen fuel cell-based power systems for electric forklifts, has placed a 200,000 unit, three-year, purchase order for BOOSTCAP® ultracapacitors to enhance performance and energy management in its Hydricity® Pack technology.

Dr. Richard Balanson, Maxwell's President and Chief Executive Officer, said that each Hydricity system incorporates 30 to 120 BOOSTCAP MC2600 2,600-farad ultracapacitor cells

Frank Trotter, General Hydrogen's President and Chief Executive Officer, said that Hydricity Pack power systems are an economical "drop-in" replacement today for lead-acid batteries in Class I electric forklifts.

"Maxwell's ultracapacitors are a critical element that helps us triple the runtime of forklifts, eliminating the average three lead-acid battery sets per vehicle and the extensive infrastructure normally associated with the recharging and care of high-use conventional battery-electric forklifts," Trotter said. "Ultracapacitors' burst power capabilities, energy recapture efficiency and long operating life make them an ideal complement to hydrogen fuel cells.

In addition to the advantages cited above the fuel cell/ultracapacitor system eliminates the disposal problems associated with lead-acid batteries and maintain the zero emission characteristics that are necessary for indoor operation.  They use Ballard fuel cell stacks, which are probably the most proven PEM fuel cells and one of the few that is available commercially.  The fork lift application is one (if not the only) of a few applications where fuel cell/ultracapacitor usage has been proven to be commercially successful.

Maxwell Technologies Receives 200,000-Unit, Three-Year Ultracapacitor Purchase Order From General Hydrogen  Maxwell Technologies press release, January 26, 2006

Technorati tags: energy storage, ultracapacitors, batteries, energy, technology

DOD Funds Advanced PEM Fuel Cell Development

Plug Power Inc. (PLUG) and Ballard Power Systems (BLDP) announced they have been awarded a $2M program by the U.S. Department of Defense to develop an advanced prototype PEM fuel cell system to support Defense Continuity of Operations (COOP).

Under this program, Plug Power and Ballard will jointly develop a next-generation prototype PEM fuel cell power solution to be used in backup power applications. Plug Power will act as the systems integrator, using a Ballard® fuel cell stack for evaluation and potential use in COOP programs for the U.S. Department of Defense and Department of Homeland Security.

See entire press release for more details.

PEM fuel cells have held promise for small, under 100kW, applications, such as vehicle power, battery replacement, and UPS service. This effort has only met with limited sucess and this program may help to bring the technology into more practical use.

Technorati tags: fuel cells, energy, technology

FuelCell Energy Sells 1 MW Unit in Japan

FuelCell Energy announced that it has sold a one megawatt (MW) Direct FuelCell(R) (DFC(R)) power plant to provide electric power and high-quality heat for a Sharp Corp. production facility in Japan that manufactures advanced flat-screen TVs.  The DFC power plant will provide Sharp's Kameyama manufacturing facility with a portion of its base load electricity needs and supply heat byproduct for air conditioning by means of absorption chilling.

"This is our first international megawatt-class installation, showing growing acceptance in Japan of our larger ultra-clean DFC power plants," said R. Daniel Brdar, President and CEO of FuelCell Energy.

Installation of the DFC power plant is expected to be complete by second calendar quarter of 2006. The unit will operate on liquefied natural gas -- supplied via a newly installed 17-kilometer pipeline from Toho Gas.

For further details see FuelCell Energy press release, January 24, 2005

FuelCell Energy based in Danbury, CT is the leading producer of molten carbonate fuel cells (MCFC), which were the subject of a previous post.  MCFC's are produced in sizes above 250 kW and obtain extremely high efficiencies, as high as 85%, when the waste heat is captured and used as is the case in this application.

This is an example how high effiency fuel cells can provide distributed power to help reduce consumption of fossil fuels.  Not only is electricity produced at a higher efficiency than in any conventional power plant and the waste heat recovered and used, but the not insignificant distribution losses are eliminated

Technorati tags: fuel cells, energy, technology

Plug-In Partners Launch National Campaign

With articles in the Wall Street Journal, on the Dow Jones Newswire, the Plug-In Partners coalition launched a national campaign with a rally in Washington DC on Tuesday.

Declaring the country's economy, environmental health and national security at risk, a grassroots coalition of cities including Austin, Baltimore, Denver, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Seattle as well as electric utilities and national policy organizations today kicked off a nationwide campaign to urge automakers to accelerate development of plug-in hybrid vehicles.  Some quotes from the press briefing include:

"Nothing has to be invented to produce a plug-in hybrid vehicle," says Dr. Andrew Frank, a mechanical engineering professor at the University of California at Davis and Director of the UCD Hybrid Electric Research Center. "Everything needed is available: the power trains, the gasoline engines, the computer systems, electric motors and batteries. All we need is for one of the large auto manufacturers to step up to the plate."

"A plug-in vehicle with even a 20-mile range could reduce petroleum fuel consumption by about 60 percent," says Bob Graham, Manager of EPRI's Electric Transmission program.

"Even drawing from our existing power plants, plug-in vehicles have the potential to cut a vehicle's petroleum consumption by three-fourths or more, can operate at as little as one-fourth the fuel cost, and reduce greenhouse gases by two-thirds," said Kateri Callahan, President of the Alliance to Save Energy.

Resource: National Coalition Launches Campaign to Urge Automakers to Produce Plug-In Automobiles Press release, January 24, 2005

Technorati tags: vehicles, batteries, energy policy, energy, technology

Sleek Aptera Hybrid Designed for 330 mpg

Accelerated Composites is developing a two seat, three wheeled hybrid car that is projected to get 330 mpg.  The high mileage is made possible because the car is lightweight, weighing only 850 pounds and because it is  extremely aerodynamic, having the lowest drag coefficient of any mass produced car.  The company forecasts that the car will retail at $20 000.

The car named the Aptera TM, is made out of materials which give the car its incredibly light weight.  Over 90% of the automobile will be composed of composites, including the seat structure, swing, and upper and lower control arms.  The vehicle uses lightweight core throughout the sandwich panels, some of which use synthetic materials, while others are engineered natural products. Reinforcements used include carbon, glass and aramid (Kevlar) fibers.

Safety is not compromised despite the sleek look of the artist rendering.  Its construction is based on the so-called driver-protection “crash box” that is typically used in Formula One motor racing.  The area between the crash box and the body is filled with foam as a crush zone for increased safety of the passengers.  The car, although technically classified as a motorcycle, will be equipped with air bags and seat belts.  Rubber bumpers, not evident on the rendering, are blended into the front and back of the body to prevent damage from incidental contact with cars and curbs.

Altair Announces High Performance Li-ion Battery

Altair Nanotechnologies Inc. (NASDAQ: ALTI) has announced that had completed testing of its lithium ion battery cells containing Altairnano's nano-structured lithium titanate electrode materials. Altairnano's battery product application labs, with rapid prototyping and battery testing capabilities, is expected to be fully equipped and operational and to have its first battery cells manufactured by the end of January.  Their press release states:

"The test results demonstrated that the performance of these lithium ion battery cells exceed the system-level power requirements set forth by the U.S. Council for Automotive Research FreedomCAR Energy Storage System Performance Goals for hybrid electric vehicle (HEVs), as well as those requirements published by major U.S. automakers," said Evan House, Ph.D., Program Director, Altairnano's Advanced Materials & Power Systems business unit."

The battery cells using Altairnano's nano-structured lithium titanate electrode materials in battery cell tests developed for HEV applications demonstrate a useable state-of-charge range twice that of conventional nickel metal hydride (NiMH) batteries presently used in hybrid electric vehicles. Nano-structured lithium titanate electrode materials offer a near-term promise of lithium ion batteries that exhibit rapid charge and discharge, longer cycle life and more inherently safe performance than either currently available nickel metal hydride or lithium ion batteries. These results support the feasibility of a power lithium ion battery pack half the size of those currently being tested for HEV applications.

National Campaign for Plug-In Hybrids to Launch Jan. 24

Austin, Texas, will lead a nationwide partnership that will lobby carmakers to build a new green vehicle — plug-in hybrids. In return, cities in the coalition are prepared to commit to buying the cars — Austin alone 600 of them.  Around a dozen cities and dozens of public utilities are set to announce the partnership Tuesday in Washington, D.C.

A live broadcast of a media briefing by the Plug-In Partners Coalition will be held at 9:30 -10:30 am EST tomorrow January 24, 2005.  According to their press release the following topics will be covered:

• Find out why local governments, national policy organizations, utilities, and environmentalists are uniting behind the push for plug-in hybrid vehicles (electric-flex-fuel vehicles that can be recharged by plugging into electrical sockets);
• Hear how the Plug-in Partners campaign plans to create a compelling case for automakers to produce plug-in hybrid vehicles;
• Learn from some of the country's leading experts on national security, energy efficiency and plug-in hybrids about the merits of developing this next generation of hybrid vehicles.

The webcast can be heard at: www.PlugInPartners.org

The Coalition was started by Austin, Texas, Mayor Will Wynn who be the lead off speaker.  Other speakers include:

Hydra Fuel Cell Corporation

Hydra Fuel Corporation, a fuel cell company that is a (the only) wholly owned subsidiary of American Security Resources Corporation (OTCBB: ARSC.OB), an "acquisition vehicle" in Houston, TX, announced in December that  it plans to ship beta units of its proprietary hydrogen fuel cells to select customers in January, 2006. On January 19 ARSC announced:

Hydra fuel will demonstrate beta units of its proprietary hydrogen fuel cells to a select group of potential customers which includes the Department of Defense -- Army Corps of Engineers, Qwest Communications, Verizon Communications, Foxconn, the Oregon Institute of Technology and a major regional utility, among others.  The demonstration took place at Hydra's facilities in Beaverton, Oregon, on Friday, January 20, 2006.

Ed Davis, Chairman of Hydra, explained, "The HydraStax® hydrogen fuel cell is designed to be the first commercially mass producible hydrogen fuel cell. Our beta units are performing much better than expected. The applications for this type of fixed power with the military and commercial customers number in the hundreds of thousands."

The ARSC website gives this description, in part, of Hydra:

The emerging need for stationary Fuel Cell technology for the industrial/ commercial sector for standby and remote power, and for high-end residential users, is evident. The Freedonia Group projects that the Fuel Cell Opportunity is currently a $5 billion segment of a Trillion dollar industry for reliable power and distributed generation for the digital economy.

Vanadium Redox Flow Batteries

The vanadium radox battery energy storage system (VRB) is a flow battery that is capable of storing energy in multi megawatt ranges and for durations of hours or days - from any available input source such as the grid, renewable resources or a diesel generator. The stored energy can be returned to the grid or supplied to a load as required and directed. The VRB is capable of being charged as quickly as it was discharged and is able to respond to all forms of power quality variations and can be operated in a UPS mode as well. For loads which require reactive energy, the VRB can provide VARS on a continuous basis either when charging or discharging. Flow batteries are further described in this previous post.

The durability and wide design options of vanadium batteries promise large markets for many applications, such as load leveling, storage in renewable energy systems (e.g. wind and solar) and uninterpretable power supplies.

VRB's are based on the patented vanadium-based redox regenerative fuel cell that converts chemical energy into electrical energy. Redox is the term used to describe electrochimical reactions in which energy is stored in two solutions with electrochemical potentials sufficiently separated from each other to provide an electromotive force to drive the oxidation-reduction reactions. In the VRB energy is stored chemically in different ionic forms of vanadium in a dilute sulfuric acid electrolyte.  This creates a current that is collected by electrodes and made available to an external circuit.  The reaction is reversible allowing the battery to be charged, discharged and recharged.

More on Firefly Batteries

A Firefly Energy press release on January 17 revealed a little more information, now that one of their patents has been issued on their battery technology.

Firefly Energy has received a U.S. patent for a new lead acid battery technology that it believes has the potential to revolutionize the existing $16 billion worldwide lead acid battery market as well as serve applications like hybrid electric vehicles which historically aren't suitable for lead acid batteries. ....

The invention is a battery comprised of an electrical current collector constructed of carbon or lightweight graphite foam. This foam exhibits a sizeable increase in surface area for chemical reactions to take place and eliminates the need for heavy lead plates found in traditional batteries. The graphite material resists corrosion and sulfation build-up, thus contributing to longer battery life and is lighter in weight than today's lead acid batteries. ....

The overwhelming restriction to lead acid battery efficiency to this point has been the lack of interface area between the active chemistry and the electrodes. Today, the chemistry is capable of delivering approximately 170 Watt Hours per Kilogram (Whr/kg), yet lead acid batteries only average around 30 Whr/kg. Up to now, achieving a higher surface area within a given lead-acid battery box required the addition of more and thinner lead electrodes. However, lead electrodes corrode, so increasing surface area by putting thinner lead electrodes in the battery increases corrosion and decreases battery life.

"By removing the corrosive heavy lead grids and replacing them with a graphite foam, Chief Scientist Kurt Kelley's invention has helped unleash the innate power of lead acid chemistry," adds CEO Williams. "It introduces a material that doesn't corrode and enables the weights and sizes of lead acid batteries to be reduced significantly." ....

Mil Ovan, senior vice president and Firefly Energy's other co-founder, believes the invention also addresses important environmental problems. "One of the reasons 'Firefly' was picked as the name of our company was because it's a green technology, since our battery's design drives one-half to two-thirds of the lead out of the battery through use of the graphite foam composite material. The graphite form is also easily recyclable through the existing infrastructure of lead acid battery recycling."

Firefly Energy is a Peoria, Illinois-based company which has developed a next generation lead acid battery technology that has the opportunity to address major portions of the $30 billion worldwide battery marketplace. Firefly's graphite foam-based battery technology can deliver a unique combination of high performance, extremely low weight, low cost and, all in a battery which utilizes the best aspects of lead acid chemistry while overcoming the corrosive drawbacks of this same chemistry. This product technology delivers to battery markets a performance associated with advanced battery chemistries (Nickel Metal Hydride & Lithium), but for one-fifth the cost, and can be both manufactured as well as recycled within the existing lead acid battery industry's vast infrastructure. The Company was formed after its technology, technical founder, and initial seed funds were spun out of Caterpillar, Inc. a Fortune 90 company, in May 2003, and is headed by co-founders Edward Williams (CEO), Mil Ovan (Senior VP), and Kurtis Kelley (Chief Scientist).

A previous post (1/15/06) decribed Firefly's batteries with information available at that time.

Technorati tags: batteries, storage technology, energy, technology

Eight proposals advance in BLM oil shale program

The Oil & Gas Journal had an article regarding a BLM shale oil development program from which I have excerpted the more pertinent parts:

WASHINGTON, DC, Jan. 19 -- Five applicants submitted eight oil shale development and demonstration proposals that are eligible for further consideration, the US Bureau of Land Management said.  The five companies are Chevron Shale Oil Co., EGL Resources Inc., ExxonMobil Corp., Oil-Tech Exploration LLC, and Shell Frontier Oil & Gas, which submitted three applications that BLM accepted. ....

The next step will be to complete an evaluation under the National Environmental Policy Act of the eight proposals, according to BLM.

Inovalight Developing Solar Ink

Innovalight is developing light-activated power generating products based on a unique and patented solvent-based silicon nanomaterial platform. Innovalight claims that it has a cost savings over traditional silicon products by using less silicon and having a more efficient manufacturing process as well as having some unique optical advantages.  It is a start-up company aiming to take advantage of the rising cost of solar cells that are based on monocrystalline or polycrystalline silicon as the price of these traditional solar products continues to rise. 

Innovalight solution-processes the quantum dots in a so-called silicon "ink" that lends itself to proven manufacturing technology using roll-to-roll printing technology used for printing on paper or film.  Being able to deposit ink on flexible substrates allows Innovalight to apply its technology to applications such as clothing and portable chargers for both consumer and military customers.

Seattle Biodiesel Receives Financing, Going National with Innovative Technology

Seattle Biofuels announced that it has received venture capital financing to be used for national expansion, claiming that they have innovative technology, with the goal of producing biodiesel cheaper than petroleum diesel. The following is from their press release.

Seattle BioFuels, Inc., a leader in next generation Biodiesel process technology, today announced it closed a $7.5 million Preferred Series A investment from leading venture investors including Nth Power, Technology Partners and Vulcan Capital. The financing will be used for national expansion, with plans to accelerate commercialization of innovative process technology, open a new biodiesel refinery and oil seed-crushing oil facility in the second half of 2006. ....

Seattle BioFuels has developed a proprietary Pulse Reactor(R), Active Methanol Recovery System(R), and an Adsorbent Enhanced Polishing Process(R) along with other improvements to the Biodiesel production process.  The company built its first commercial scale refinery operating as Seattle Biodiesel providing 5 million gallons per year capacity to the Northwest market. ....

The mission of Seattle BioFuels is to develop and deploy technology innovations that enable a gallon of biodiesel to be produced cheaper than a gallon of petroleum diesel.  Seattle BioFuels operates the Seattle refinery as a wholly owned subsidiary under the name Seattle Biodiesel, LLC.

I would like to know exactly what is involved with their proprietary technology and how much it reduces their cost.  The biodiesel industry really needs a boost to reduce their cost so that they compete without subsidies.  Of course if petroleum diesel prices are high enough that is not a problem.  Reading their website, at least some of their production is or will come from canola which makes better use of land than soybeans.  They plan on building a crushing plant for locally grown canola, rather than importing soybean oil from the midwest. Their is not enough land to produce enough seed oil for a significant portion of our diesel requirements and biodiesel from algae probably will not be significant in the next ten years. The only very high volume means of replacing petroleum diesel is with Fischer-Tropsch diesel from biomass (BTL), which remains more expensive than biodiesel.  Finding a good gasifier seems to be the holdup on this route.  The Shell-Choren venture in Europe, using the Choren gasifier, is the only organization actively pursuing this option and they are still a few years away from a demonstration plant.

Resources:

Northwest's Premier Bio-Fuel Company Secures Resources for National Expansion, Press release, January 17, 2006
Seattle Biodiesel, LLC, Seattle, Washington, USA
Seattle Biofuels Blog
Seattle Diesel set to Expand, Seattlepi.com, January, 16, 2005

Technorati tags: biodiesel, biofuels, energy, technology

About Sodium-Sulfur (NaS) Batteries

Sodium Sulfur (NaS) batteries are high capacity battery systems developed for electric power applications.  A NaS battery consists of liquid (molten) sulfur at the positive electrode and liquid (molten) sodium at the negative electrode as active materials separated by a solid beta alumina ceramic electrolyte. The electrolyte allows only the positive sodium ions to go through it and combine with the sulfur to form sodium polysulfides.

2Na + 4S = Na2S4

During discharge, as positive Na+ ions flow through the electrolyte and electrons flow in the external circuit of the battery producing about 2 volts. This process is reversible as charging causes sodium polysulfides to release the positive sodium ions back through the electrolyte to recombine as elemental sodium. This hermetically sealed battery is kept at approximately 300 ^oC and is operated under conditions such that the active materials at both electrodes are liquid and the electrolyte is solid. At this temperature, since both active materials react rapidly and because the internal resistance is low, the NAS battery performs well. Because of reversible charging and discharging the NAS battery can be used continuously.

Flow Batteries for Energy Storage

Flow batteries are emerging energy storage devices that can serve many purposes in energy delivery systems. They can respond  within milliseconds and deliver power for hours. They operate much like a conventional battery, storing and releasing energy through a reversible electrochemical reaction with an almost limitless number of charging and discharging cycles. They differ from a conventional battery in two ways 1) the reaction occurs between two electrolytes, rather than between an electrolyte and an electrode and 2) they store the two electrolytes external to the battery and the electrolytes are circulated through the cell stack as required. The great advantage that this system provides is the almost unlimited electrical storage capacity (MWh), the limitation being only the capacity of the electrolyte storage reservoirs.

Flow batteries are essentially comprised of two key elements: cell stacks, where power is converted from electrical form to chemical form, and tanks of electrolytes where energy is stored. These two elements are supplemented with circulation and control systems. An individual cell consists of a negative electrode and a  positive electrode separated by an ion exchange membrane.  The battery uses electrodes that cannot and do not take part in the reactions but merely serve as substrates for the reactions. There is therefore no loss of performance, as in most rechargeable batteries, from repeated cycling causing electrode material deterioration. Banks of these cells can then be linked together to create a bipolar module ‘cell stack’ where the electrodes are shared between the adjacent cells, with the cathode of the first cell becoming the anode of the next cell, etc. Linked in series, sufficient cells in a string can then form the desired voltage for the cell stack.

Mitsubishi Entering PV Solar Market

Another Japanese company, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd., is making a major foray into the PV solar market according to their press release earlier this week:

Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd. plans to enter the solar power market on a major scale, based on a significant advance in its solar-cell technology and a growing demand for renewable energy sources. Officials said over the weekend that the Tokyo-based company had developed solar panels that are 50 percent more efficient than its current models.

In 2004, Mitsubishi panels accounted for about 1 percent of the world's solar power capacity of around 1,200 megawatts. It now aims to supply 5 percent of the capacity within 10 years.

The boost in production will start as early as next year at a factory to be built in the compound of the company's Nagasaki shipyard, officials said. Tens of billions of yen will be invested in the project, they added.

Mitsubishi researchers developed a thin membrane that can use a broader spectrum in the wavelength of solar light to generate electricity. As a result, the efficiency rate for solar energy conversion was raised to 12 percent from the current model's 8 percent. Mitsubishi officials also said that the cost for manufacturing the new solar panels will be about half that of rival companies.

For Mitsubishi to realize its plan to produce 5 percent of the world's solar power capacity within 10 years, the new factory will have to manufacture at least 300 megawatts of capacity a year. That amount of energy can supply the electricity for 100,000 households.

In 2004, Sharp Corp., based in Osaka, was the top manufacturer of solar panels, accounting for an estimated 27 percent of world capacity. It was followed by Kyocera Corp., based in Kyoto, with 9 percent.

Japanese companies account for more than 50 percent of solar power generating capacity installed worldwide. (IHT/Asahi: January 10,2006)

This follows close on the heels of Honda's announcement to enter the solar business in December. There has also been a lot of publicity lately about the continuing silicon shortage.  Honda has avoided this by using CIGS technology.  According to this earlier publication Mitsubishi has been developing a thin-film amorphous silicon tandem cell, which doesn't eliminate silicon, but reduces the amount used significantly. Ovonics manufactures a triple junction thin-film amorphous solar cell product that may be similar.  It appears to me that within two years thin-film technology will account for a much more significant share of the market than the 10% share that they had in 2004.

Technorati tags: solar, solar power, energy, technology

Firefly Energy's New Lead Acid Batteries

Firefly Energy, a company, spun off from Caterpillar in 2003, has developed a next generation battery using lightweight graphite to replace most of the heavy lead plates contained in traditional batteries. Although no quantitative details could be found at their website the following statements were found:

• The Firefly battery replaces the the heavy, corrosive, traditional positive and negative lead plates, which comprise up to 70% of a typical lead-acid battery's weight, with smaller and extremely low weight non-corrosive composite plate material.
• The composite plates provide more surface area for battery chemistry to occur.
• Firefly's composite plate material will extend battery performance (run time).

  Better high-rate discharge performance.
• Performs whether cold or hot
• Higher number of charge discharge cycles
• Reduced cost-1/10th the cost of NiMH or Li-ion batteries.
• Can be manufactured within the existing lead-acid battery industry's manufacturing infrastructure.
• Firefly's technology can still be put through the existing lead-acid battery's recycling infrastructure, the plate material is simply burned away and remaining lead in the chemistry is recycled.

These advantages of the new battery were confirmed by Mil Ovan, senior vice president and a co-founder of Peoria's Firefly Energy, a speaker at last weeks Energy Independence 2020 Summit held in Chicago. 

Ultracapacitors for Automotive Use

This paper by Maxwell makes the case for ultracapacitors in automotive applications.  The paper is very informative about the uses of ultracapacitors, much moreso than I could be in a post.

Ultracapacitors offer pulse power and power cycling capability for vehicular use far in excess of electrochemical batteries. The migration to electronic control for vehicle applications in safety critical systems such as steer, brake and drive by wire has been delayed due to technical inadequacy in these cost sensitive systems. Similarly, the electrification of key functions like engine cranking and electromechanical valve actuation has also been slowed. This paper re-assesses safety critical and power train systems by exploring the use of distributed energy storage modules in the vehicle electrical distribution system to satisfy the requirements for power supply redundancy.

For the rest of the technical paper, please click here.

Technorati tags: energy storage, ultracapacitors, energy, technology

World Crude Oil Distillation Capacity

EIA just published its annual World Crude Oil Distillation Capacity tabulation which gives a country by country breakdown of distillation capacity as of January 1, 2006.  Distillation capacity jumped up 2.8% in the last year, to 85,127 thousand barrels a day, the highest increase since 1978 and the first time it exceeded 1.0% since 2000.  Demand for oil for the first three quarters of 2005 (latest figures available) was up 1.16% over last year, so refinery capacity is up well ahead of demand. This should help eliminate the refinery bottleneck that has existed during the past year, as long as they can get enough crude. 

The United States did not show any increase in distallation capacity during 2005, so our imports of refined products are going to increase.  China showed the largest increase with 1,596 thousand barrels per day, followed by Saudi Arabia (350) the United Arab Emirates (267), Poland (117) and Germany (105) for a net total of 2,332 barrels per calender day to 84,500.  Several countries had a loss of capacity, so note that the total is total net capacity. 

The total world crude oil production (including lease condensate) is running about 73,500 thousand barrels per day or about 86% of distillation capacity.  This is still a very high percentage on a worldwide basis, it would be OK for an individual country.

These number do not represent total liquids output capacity, natural gas liquids alone are about 7,500 thousand barrels per day, so be careful if you try to compare these numbers to other numbers.

Technorati tags: oil, refineries, energy, technology

More on Biodiesel from Algae

A Cristian Science Monitor article gives an update to the Greenfuels Technologies Corporation CO2 mitigation/algae production system first reported here on June 17, Biodiesel from Algae is Here, which has been one of my most read posts.  Geenfuels process, invented by MIT scientist Issac Berzin, grows algae in clear plastic tubes placed in the exhaust stream of emissions from power plants.  The CO2 in the exhaust plus photosynthesis grow the algae which absorbs the CO2 and nitrous oxide in the exhaust stream.  The algae then can be harvested and used to produce biodiesel and the remaining solids can be further processed to produce ethanol.

The company has received $11,000,000 in venture capital financing since the last report.  A field trial at an undisclosed power plant is underway.  Next year, GreenFuel expects two to seven more such demonstration projects, scaling up to a full production system by 2009.  Technology to produce ethanol from the residue is new. Berzin estimates that just one 1,000 MW power plant could produce 40 million gallons of biodiesel and 50 million gallons of ethanol a year.  Such a facility would require a "farm" of 2,000 acres of algae growing tubes.  There are about 1000 power plants in the U.S. with enough acreage for a "farm." 

One disadvantage of this process is that it requires sunlight to work, which limits it use to daytime operation.  There are many natural gas peaking power plants that also work primarily in the day time, that the process could be used with.  The CO2 could also be stored (sequestered) and processed during the daytime.  Even with processing only the exhauste produced during the daytime, the process could remove over 40% of the CO2 which exceeds regulatory requirements and would provide a significant reduction in greenhouse gas emissions.

GreenShift Corporation has licensed a competing CO2 mitigation/algae production system from Ohio University. They claim that their system requires a smaller footprint because their tubes can be taller and have more surface area. GreenShift is also building a series of biodiesel plants which could process their algae and has a process to convert ethanol waste to biodiesel.

Technorati tags: global warming, biofuels, energy, technology

Tiny Crystals Promise Big Benefits for Solar Technologies

From Los Alamos National Laboratory press release, Januaray 4, 2006:

Los Alamos National Laboratory scientists have discovered that a phenomenon called carrier multiplication, in which semiconductor nanocrystals respond to photons by producing multiple electrons, is applicable to a broader array of materials that previously thought. The discovery increases the potential for the use of nanoscrystals as solar cell materials to produce higher electrical outputs than current solar cells.

In papers published recently in the journals Nature Physics and Applied Physics Letters, the scientists demonstrate that carrier multiplication is not unique to lead selenide nanocrystals, but also occurs with very high efficiency in nanocrystals of other compositions, such as cadmium selenide. In addition, these new results shed light on the mechanism for carrier multiplication, which likely occurs via the instantaneous photoexcitation of multiple electrons.

The Los Alamos findings point toward practical photovoltaic technologies that may utilize such traditional solar cell materials as cadmium telluride, which is very similar to cadmium selenide.

A very early stage research finding that could have significant impact in future generation solar cells.

Technorati tags: solar power, PV solar, energy, technology

Short-Term Energy Outlook

EIA Short-Term Energy Outlook, January 10, 2006 release, overview:

Prices for crude oil, petroleum products, and natural gas are projected to remain high through 2006 before starting to weaken in 2007. For example, the price of West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude oil, which averaged $56 per barrel in 2005, is projected to average $63 per barrel in 2006 and $60 in 2007. Retail regular gasoline prices, which averaged $2.27 per gallon in 2005, are projected to average $2.41 in 2006 and $2.33 in 2007. Henry Hub natural gas prices, which averaged $9.00 per thousand cubic feet (mcf) in 2005, are projected to average $9.80 in 2006 and $8.84 in 2007.

2005-2006 winter residential space-heating expenditures are projected to be higher relative to the winter of 2004-05 due to higher energy prices. On average, households heating primarily with natural gas likely will spend $257 (35 percent) more for fuel this winter than last winter. Households heating primarily with heating oil can expect to pay, on average, $275 (23 percent) more this winter than last.

Detailed information on all sectors of the energy market, along with graphical and tabular data for both projected and historical data can be found here.

Technorati tags: oil, gasoline, natural gas, energy, technology

About Solid Oxide Fuel Cells

The Solid Oxide Fuel Cell (SOFC) uses a ceramic, solid-phase electrolyte which reduces corrosion considerations and eliminates the electrolyte management problems associated with liquid electrolyte fuel cells. To achieve adequate ionic conductivity in such a ceramic, however, the system must operate at temperatures between 650 and 1000°C (1200 and 1830°F). High temperature operation removes the need for precious-metal catalyst, thereby reducing cost. At these temperatures, internal reforming of carbonaceous fuels is possible, and the waste heat from such a device can be utilized by conventional thermal electricity generating plants to yield excellent fuel efficiency. Solid Oxide Fuel Cells (SOFCs) are currently being demonstrated in sizes from 1kW up to 250-kW plants, with plans to reach the multi-MW range.  Commercial SOFCs are expected to have around 50-60 percent efficiency. In co-generationapplications overall efficiencies should be in the 80-85 percent range.

In operation, hydrogen or carbon monoxide (CO) in the fuel stream reacts with oxide ions (O=) from the electrolyte to produce water or CO2 and to deposit electrons into the anode. The electrons pass outside the fuel cell, through the load, and back to the cathode where oxygen from air receives the electrons and is converted into oxide ions which are injected into the electrolyte. It is significant that the SOFC can use CO as well as hydrogen as its direct fuel. This allows SOFCs to use gases made from coal.

 

New Diesel and Gasoline Requirements

The following is from this weeks edition of the EIA's This Week in Petroleum and is more relevant than their usual entries. These are even more reasons why the price of gasoline and diesel will remain at lofty levels this year.

Regulatory and industry changes to the composition of both gasoline and diesel fuel will be key issues affecting these markets in 2006. How markets behave during the transition to these new transportation fuel specifications will go a long way in determining how high retail prices may reach for these two fuels.

Specifically, five fuel specification changes, some due to mandates for cleaner-burning fuels pursuant to the Clean Air Act Amendments of 1990, others resulting from the Energy Policy Act of 2005 (EPAct 2005) and industry responses to it, will stress the fuel supply system in 2006. Two of these changes, the ultra-low sulfur diesel (ULSD) program, and the removal of methyl tertiary butyl ether (MTBE) from reformulated gasoline by many suppliers, are likely to be the most challenging to the market.

Beam me up Scotty

This lead in appears on Slashdot yesterday, I guess I can sneak this in as an energy topic, they have a wild discussion, as usual, going on about it if you go to the Slashdot site:

"Although a staple of Sci-Fi space travel, it is often deemed to be just that: Fiction. However, it seems that one is currently in development. "The theoretical engine works by creating an intense magnetic field that, according to ideas first developed by the late scientist Burkhard Heim in the 1950s, would produce a gravitational field and result in thrust for a spacecraft. Also, if a large enough magnetic field was created, the craft would slip into a different dimension, where the speed of light is faster, allowing incredible speeds to be reached. Switching off the magnetic field would result in the engine reappearing in our current dimension."

Lima Energy IGCC Upgraded to 600 MW, to Operate in 2008

Global Energy has upgraded its Lima Energy IGCC (Integrated Gasification Combined Cycle) power generation facility to 600MW (megawatts) from the its originally announced size of 540MW. The increase in power output is a result of engineering optimization work and will enhance the project economic value. The project is currently in construction with concrete foundation work being carried out at this time.  Construction, which will accelerate in 2006, will involve several hundred workers over three years.  Commercial Operation of the IGCC is expected in late 2008.

The Ultra Clean High Tech IGCC is the most advanced IGCC (see previous post for explanation of how IGCC works) in the U.S.  It is the cleanest and most efficient solid fuel (coal or petcoke) based power generation system.  Gasification will convert solid petroleum coke feedstock into synthetic gas, which after purification will be both the fuel for the gas turbine power generation and the feedstock to produce synthetic gas products such as hydrogen and synthetic natural gas. In a combined cycle system a high-efficiency gas turbine uses the clean SG fuel to produce electricity.  Exhaust heat from the gas turbine is recovered to produce steam—to power traditional high-efficiency steam turbines, thereby greatly increasing the efficiency of the IGCC power plant. The synthetic gas is produced at less than half of today's market prices for gas, thus enabling the combined cycle power plant in the IGCC to produce low cost, clean and efficient electric power. If the base- load coal fleet were converted to IGCC, the U.S. would benefit from up to 20% more power and 10 times cleaner emissions from the same annual coal consumption.

XSUNX Optimistic at Year End

Extracted from several of the companies press releases and their website:

XsunX, Inc. (XSNX), developer of Power Glass -- a thin film solar technology that allows glass windows to produce electricity from the power of the sun, announced that it ended 2005 with continued progress in the development of its semi-transparent Power Glass thin films, that may allow the Company to begin marketing efforts of its technologies as early as Spring 2006. Power Glass is a solar technology that allows windows to produce electricity from the power of the sun without significantly altering the appearance or use of the window.

The design of the solar cell provides for the manufacture of very thin solar cells on transparent flexible plastics. As part of the manufacturing process numerous individual cells are produced on rolled plastics substrates and interconnected using minimally apparent segmentations. The resulting integrated solar cell design is monolithic or uniform in appearance and simulates tinted solar control films used in window shading applications. The Company believes the advantages to the use of Power Glass films over current solar glass designs lie in improved esthetic appearance, reduced manufacturing or assembly requirements, and lower finished product costs. The company estimates that Power Glass™ solar cells operating at half the efficiency of conventional opaque amorphous solar cells yet costing one fourth to produce results in a 100% efficiency-to-cost gain over conventional opaque solar cells. Final cost to efficiency analysis will be determined upon completion of development.

About Ultracapacitors

Conventional capacitors have enormous power but store only tiny amounts of energy. Supercapacitors offer a unique combination of high power and high energy.  Supercapacitors are capable of very fast charges and discharges, and are able to go through a large number of cycles without degradation.

Batteries are charged when they undergo an internal chemical reaction. They deliver the absorbed energy, or discharge, when they reverse the chemical reaction. In contrast, when a supercapacitor is charged, there is no chemical reaction. Instead, the energy is stored as a charge or concentration of electrons on the surface of a material. The energy can be released in a micosecond, much faster than from a chemical reaction.

An ultracapacitor or supercapacitor, also known as a double-layer capacitor can be viewed as two nonreactive porous plates, or electrodes, immersed in an electrolyte, with a voltage potential applied across the collectors. In an individual ultracapacitor cell, the applied potential on the positive electrode attracts the negative ions in the electrolyte, while the potential on the negative electrode attracts the positive ions. A porous dielectric separator between the two electrodes prevents the charge from moving between the two electrodes.

Note on Flywheels in Transportation

I caused a little confusion on my post on flywheels by including their use in vehicles under the category of energy reuse, although that was a correct category.  A little further explanation is due however.

Flywheels have been used on engines since their inception and the technology for this application is quite mature.  A possible new application for energy storage has developed with the introduction of hybrid vehicles.  This is because batteries cannot absorb nearly all the power that is available from regenerative braking, the chemical reaction in a battery is much too slow for this.  More than 50% of this energy is wasted.  Flywheels and ultracapacitors can do this job much better.  Flywheels have been used on hybrid subway and hybrid light rail vehicles with success. Their use is being developed for use on hybrid delivery vehicles.  The ultracapacitor has been used on hybrid buses with very good success.  Both of these technologies are expensive and add to the cost of already expensive hybrid vehicles.  Where life-cycle costs are important, as in high mileage commercial vehicles, they can be justified.  One flywheel company is developing a flywheel system aimed at the personal vehicle market, and they are working with on low volume producer.  It is my opinion that flywheels are too heavy and too costly to be incorporated into automobiles with current or near term technology. 

On the other hand ultracapacitors are lightweight, in fact it is claimed that the combined weight and size of an ultracapacitor and battery are reduced compared to the current weight and size of a battery. This is because the ultracapacitor can take over the starting duty of the battery, reducing the size of the battery considerably. (An ultracapacitor with enough capacity for a few starts is state of the art and increases in functionality with decreasing temperature, the capacitor can be recharged in about 15 minutes of driving--ultracapacitors are starting to replace batteries for starting of diesel engines because of these properties) The life of the battery is also increased considerably due to less cycling and no deep discharges.  The cost of ultracapacitors can be reduced significantly with high volume production, so this looks like a much more suitable means of increasing the energy reuse in a car.

It seems to me that a very cost effective "mild hybrid" could be made by putting in an ultracapacitor combined with shutting off the engine when the vehicle is stopped.  If this would increase the mileage by 10 to 15% with little increase in cost it should be a no brainer.  So what is wrong with my reasoning or are the car companies just not motivated.

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