The Energy Blog

Sharp to Up Thin-film Solar Cell Capacity

Sharp Corp (OTC: SHCAY (ADR) ), the worlds largest producer of solar cells, announced on Thursday it would invest 22 billion yen ($200 million) to increase capacity for thin-film solar cells at its Katsuragi Plant (shown left, Nara Prefecture, Japan) from the current level of 15 MW (megawatts) to 160 MW (160,000 kW) per year by October 2008.

Thin-film solar cells are fabricated by depositing thin layers of silicon on a glass substrate. This structure enables a dramatic reduction in the amount of silicon raw material used to approximately one hundredth the amount used in conventional crystalline solar cells, and also provides for shorter production process times and lower costs from manufacturing economies of scale.

Sharp began mass production of tandem thin-film solar cells with a tandem-junction structure (amorphous silicon and microcrystalline silicon) in September 2005. Now, Sharp is making thin-film solar cells with a triple-junction structure, which consists of two amorphous layers and a microcrystalline layer. With these triple-junction thin-film solar cells, Sharp has achieved module conversion efficiencies of approximately 10%, at the industry's top level.

According to this earlier announcement Sharp was to increase annual production capacity for solar cells at its Katsuragi Plant to 600 MW by November 2006, the world's highest. This current announcement would bring the total to 765 MW.

This Reuters story reported that Sharp had previously announced plans to ramp up its thin-film capacity with a new plant in Sakai in Osaka prefecture to go online by March 2010 and eventually target output of 1,000MW per year at this facility.

Sharp also has UK production capability of 220MW.

Exxon: Film May Lead to Car Battery that is Lighter and Safer

It seems that everyone is getting into the battery business, one of them will succeed in making a smaller, lighter and less expensive battery.  This development by ExxonMobil sound very promising.

ExxonMobil Chemical and ExxonMobil's Japanese affiliate, Tonen Chemical have developed a thin film separator for use in lithium-ion batteries, that would enable production of batteries like those found in cell phones and laptops, to power cars and trucks. These new film technologies are expected to significantly enhance the power, safety and reliability of lithium-ion batteries, thereby helping speed the adoption of these smaller and lighter batteries into the next wave of lower-emission vehicles.

This weekend, at the 23rd Electric Vehicle Symposium and Exposition (EVS-23) in Anaheim, Calif., Exxon Mobil will unveil a super-thin plastic sheeting the company says can improve the power, safety and reliability of lithium-ion batteries for use in automobiles.

Separator film is an integral part of battery system design and critical to overall performance. ExxonMobil Chemical’s new technology platform builds on twenty years experience in lithium-ion battery separators, applying advanced polymer and process technologies with flexibility to tailor products to battery manufacturer requirements.

Exxon Mobil considers the film a breakthrough because it allows battery makers to build smaller and cheaper battery systems — removing key obstacles that have kept automakers from building hybrid and electric vehicles on a wide scale. Porosity is one of the key parameters in building higher performance separators and Tonen has developed a prototype film with a 51% porosity compared to 37% in current production batteries while maintaining the same strength and thermal integrity.

Exxon Mobil developed its film with Japanese affiliate Tonen Chemical (see this earlier press release that discloses that Tonen has been manufacturing films for small Li-ion batteries since 1991). Invented in research labs at Exxon Mobil's Baytown complex, the film is the first to squeeze multiple layers of plastic into a single white sheet the width (thickness?) of a human hair.

Tonen and Exxon are exploring the possibility of building a new production facility for the new generation of films in Gumi, Korea.

More here, here, here and here   

Material for this post is based on an article in The Houston Chronicle and various ExxonMobil publications.

New UK Heavy Oil Recovery System Could Unleash Generations of Production of Inexpensive Oil

Is the THAI™ system (below) or any other process that comes along for economically recovering heavy oil and bitumen the answer to our dependence on oil for the majority of our transportation fuels?  This does not appear to be pie in the sky, as they already have a 3,000 bpd pilot plant in operation. Since oil for transportation systems is becoming very expensive (relatively, especially in the US and other dollar denominated countries) and our current development of alternative liquid fuels and/or electrically fueled vehicles is not currently moving ahead fast enough to have a significant impact on oil prices in the near future, (nor would this process in the short term) should we celebrate such a process as a possible constraint on oil prices?  There is much heavy oil in the Western Hemisphere other than Canada, including Venezuela and western parts of the US, the use of which would greatly reduce our dependence on oil from the Mideast and Africa.  It certainly would be a big boost to the Canadian economy.  If widely adopted what does this do to further development of renewable energy and the accompanying reductions in CO2 emissions?

University of Bath press release:

A new method developed in Britain over the past 17 years for extracting oil is now at the forefront of plans to exploit a massive heavy oilfield in Canada.

Duvernay Petroleum is to use the revolutionary Toe-to-Heel Air Injection (THAI™) system developed at the University of Bath at its site at Peace River in Alberta, Canada.

Although heavy oil extraction has steadily increased over the last ten years, the processes used are very energy intensive, especially of natural gas and water. But the THAI™ system is more efficient, and this, and the increasing cost of conventional light oil, could lead to the widespread exploitation of heavy oil.

Google's Goal: Renewable Energy Cheaper than Coal

Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) today announced a new strategic initiative to develop electricity from renewable energy sources that will be cheaper than electricity produced from coal. The newly created initiative, known as RE<C, will focus initially on advanced solar thermal power, wind power technologies, enhanced geothermal systems and other potential breakthrough technologies.

In 2008, Google expects to spend tens of millions on research and development and related investments in renewable energy. As part of its capital planning process, the company also anticipates investing hundreds of millions of dollars in breakthrough renewable energy projects which generate positive returns.

"There has been tremendous work already on renewable energy. Technologies have been developed that can mature into industries capable of providing electricity cheaper than coal. Solar thermal technology, for example, provides a very plausible path to providing renewable energy cheaper than coal. We are also very interested in further developing other technologies that have potential to be cost-competitive and green. We are aware of several promising technologies, and believe there are many more out there."

"With talented technologists, great partners and significant investments, we hope to rapidly push forward. Our goal is to produce one gigawatt of renewable energy capacity that is cheaper than coal.  We are optimistic this can be done in years, not decades."

-- Larry Page, Google Co-founder and President of Products

Supergrid to Supply Europe with Wind Power

The Independent reports that a proposed supergrid could supply Europe with carbon free electricity primarily from wind power. The 5,000-mile electrical grid, stretching from Siberia to Morocco and Egypt to Iceland, would slash Europe's CO2 emissions by a quarter, scientists say.

The scheme would make the use of renewable energy, particularly wind power, so reliable and cheap that it would replace fossil fuels on an unprecedented scale, serving 1.1 billion people in 50 countries. Europe's 1.25bn tons of annual CO2 output from electricity generation would be wiped out. High-voltage direct current (HVDC) lines, up to 100 times as long as the alternating current (AC) cables carried by the National Grid's pylons, would form the system's main arteries. HVDC lines are three times as efficient, making them cost effective over distances above 50 miles.

Building the supergrid would require an investment of US$80bn (£40bn), plus the cost of the wind turbines – a fraction of the €1 trillion the EU expects to pay for a 20 per cent reduction of its carbon footprint by 2020. The average price of the electricity generated would be just 4.6 euro cents per kWh, competitive with today's rates, which are likely to rise as fossil fuels run out.  . . .

Crude Reserves in US Decline, Natural Gas Reserves Increase

U.S. crude oil proved reserves declined 4 percent in 2006, while natural gas reserves increased by 3% according to estimates released by the Energy Information Administration

The Gulf of Mexico Federal Offshore and Alaska, two of the largest oil producing areas, respectively reported 10 and 7 percent declines in crude oil proved reserves. This was due to downward revisions and fewer new discoveries. Utah reported the largest increase in crude oil proved reserves, adding 78 million barrels (a 30 percent increase from 2005), followed by Colorado and New Mexico. 

Domestic crude oil production declined 5 percent in 2006 due mostly to lower production in Alaska. Part of the decline resulted from an August 2006 shut-in of producing wells in half of the Prudhoe Bay Field for inspection and repair of corrosion in the gathering system. For the second year in a row Montana had the largest annual oil production increase of any state (6 million barrels; a 20 percent increase) owing to continued development of the Bakken Formation in the Elm Coulee Field. This relatively new and important oil field is difficult to produce and requires cutting-edge technology for economic production.

U.S. natural gas proved reserves increased 3 percent in 2006, rising to over 211 trillion cubic feet, the highest level since 1976. Additions to reserves replaced 136 percent of the dry natural gas produced in 2006. This was the eighth year in a row that U.S. natural gas proved reserves have increased.

Total U.S. natural gas production increased in 2006 due to production increases in Texas (Barnett Shale), Louisiana, and the Rocky Mountain states (Colorado, Wyoming, Utah, and Montana). Gulf of Mexico natural gas production declined the most with a 6 percent drop.

Advance Summary: U.S. Crude Oil, Natural Gas, and Natural Gas Liquids Reserves 2006 Annual Report is available on the EIA Internet site at:
http://www.eia.doe.gov/pub/oil_gas/natural_gas/data_publications/advanced_summary/current/adsum.pdf

Improved Strain of Camelina Developed for Biodiesel Feedstock

Targeted Growth, Inc. (TGI), a renewable energy bioscience company, and Green Earth Fuels, a biodiesel energy company, announced the formation of a joint venture called Sustainable Oils, Inc.. The new venture will produce and market up to 100 million gallons of Camelina-based biodiesel by 2010, launching the single largest U.S. contract for the unique biodiesel-specific feedstock. Nearly all of the initial Camelina production is expected to be grown in Montana.

Camelina, a distant relative to Canola, can grow on marginal land, requires minimal water or fertilizer, and can be harvested with traditional equipment. TGI has been perfecting Camelina for the past three years in greenhouse and field trials. Specifically, it has used non-transgenic molecular assisted breeding programs to create a crop that is well suited to Montana’s climate and soil and that produces high quality biodiesel.

“We have created a better feedstock for biodiesel,” said Tom Todaro, CEO of Targeted Growth. “Camelina can be rotated with current Montana crops, it grows in land with lower agricultural value, and it doesn’t significantly increase the use of fertilizer or irrigation water. We think this will be a model for the development and use of other biofuel-specific crops.”

“This deal allows us access to a high quality feedstock at an extraordinarily competitive price,” said Green Earth Fuels CEO Greg Bafalis. “There’s an advantage to being vertically integrated – it closely aligns our interests with those of our feedstock suppliers. And because Camelina exists outside of the traditional commodity market, it should not be as volatile as other feedstocks.”

Targeted Growth has spent years applying its suite of yield and trait technologies to Camelina to create the first Elite Camelina Seed. Green Earth Fuels opened one of the country’s largest biodiesel production facilities this month, in Houston, and is successfully developing additional projects to provide biodiesel that meets exceptional quality and ratability standards to leading energy companies.

This is a welcome addition to the feedstocks available for biodiesel. Until biodiesel from algae becomes a commercial reality, lower cost, higher yielding crops will improve the viability of biodiesel.

Maxwell Technologies, Tianjin Lishen Battery to Develop "Hybrid" Products" Combining Ultracacitors and Li-ion Batteries

Maxwell Technologies, Inc. (Nasdaq: MXWL) and Tianjin Lishen Battery Joint-Stock Co., Ltd. , (Lishen), China’s leading producer of rechargeable lithium-ion batteries, have announced an alliance to manufacture and market novel “hybrid” energy storage products combining the companies’ respective ultracapacitor and li-ion battery technologies.

David Schramm, Maxwell’s president and chief executive officer, said that the companies see a large market opportunity for products that leverage the complementary strengths of double layer capacitor and li-ion battery technologies.

“We believe that the products we envision will give end-users the best of both worlds in terms of the long cycle life, rapid charge/discharge characteristics and low temperature performance of ultracapacitors and the large energy storage capacity of lithium-ion batteries,” Schramm said. “We also plan to move some of our BOOSTCAP product assembly to Lishen in order to leverage our joint process engineering capabilities, and Lishen will conduct development and qualification testing on battery electrode material produced through Maxwell’s proprietary dry process, so we see this as a deep and strategically important alliance for both companies.”

The companies have identified a number of initial target applications for the new products, ranging from quick-charge cordless tools to electric vehicles, and anticipate production and delivery of initial product samples in early 2008.

This is not the first announcement of such a poroduct, but it brings together two very large companies who can pull off this feat.  It should be a great product.

An Inconvenient, Dirty Truth About Cheap and Plentiful Coal

This column from the Canadian Globe and Mall gives the writers opinion of the role coal will play in our future energy needs. For those of you that thought renewable energy, conservation and perhaps a new fleet of nuclear reactors were going to save our climate, this article gives a rather dismal picture.    

If you want to make money and don't mind spitting up black phlegm and destroying the planet, buy coal. While the energy markets and the media are obsessed with rising oil prices, the developing world is quietly gearing up for a coal development and consumption spree of astounding proportions. The energy markets of tomorrow are not about oil and hydrogen and wind turbines spinning lazily on ridges. They're about coal, which is cheap and plentiful but also the worst news for the environment that you could imagine in the post-Al Gore world.

The investor case for coal is hard to beat.  . . .

In a gas-fired plant, 3 per cent to 4 per cent by volume of the flue gases flung into the atmosphere are carbon dioxide. The figure in a coal plant is 15 per cent. No wonder the IEA predicts coal's share of global carbon dioxide emissions will rise from 38 per cent in 2000 to 45 per cent in 2030.  .  .  .

In fact, no large coal plant anywhere on the planet uses carbon capture. The technology is said to be coming but you can bet it won't arrive quickly. Designing and building a plant that uses carbon capture can add 50 per cent to the capital costs.  . . . more

Thanks to Tyler of Clean Break for the tip.

UPS Goes Green

UPS rolled out an electric car and truck fleet this week to help with small parcel deliveries in in Northern California using 42 electric cars and trucks from ZAP (OTCBB: ZAAP). The move was made to reduce fuel consumption, reduce CO2 emissions and to provide a more maneuverable vehicle in congested urban areas.

The UPS branch in Petaluma, California (just north of San Francisco) has leased an initial fleet of 42 ZAP Xebra® electric city cars and trucks for their small parcel deliveries. This is the first time that UPS has used electric city-speed vehicles for this purpose.

Small parcel deliveries are becoming more challenging for the trademark big, brown UPS delivery vans, which is why UPS is using the electric city cars and trucks to handle small parcel deliveries. The ZAP vehicles lessen fuel consumption and reduce automotive emissions produced by current delivery vehicles. Drivers will be monitoring their electrical usage to carefully analyze cost-savings and emissions reductions.

Global Warming Sceptics Countered by IPCC and Scientists

The BBC has compiled a list of the top ten reasons "climate skeptics" dispute the evidence that human activities such as industrial emissions of greenhouse gases and deforestation are bringing potentially dangerous climate change as claimed by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPPC). Counter arguments made by some of scientists who agree with the IPCC are also presented in the BBC presentation. The comparison is much too long to duplicate here, but can be found at the BBC site.

My personal view is that we are undergoing global warming at a rate that cannot be explained by historic natural cycles. There is a compelling trend, shown on the referenced graph, that the average combined global land and marine surface temperature has been rising since 1860 and that increased concentrations of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere due to human activities are most likely the underlying cause of warming in the 20th century. The exact value of the temperature rise is not the most important factor in coming to this conclusion, it is the trend. As is stated in this paper from which this graph was taken: Since the mid twentieth century the uncertainties in global and hemispheric mean temperatures are small, and the temperature increase greatly exceeds its uncertainty. In earlier periods the uncertainties are larger, but the temperature increase over the twentieth century is still significantly larger than its uncertainty.

Based on my conclusions, that global warming is real, and that greenhouse gases are the most important cause that we have any control over, I believe that all efforts to decrease carbon dioxide and methane emissions need to be taken, with more emphasis than we have been giving this effort. The length of this trend is also of some question to me, but the important thing is that it is happening and has been happening for over 100 years and there is no rational reason for it to stop.  If for some reason these conclusions are wrong and there are some, in my opinion small uncertainties about global warming, we will have cost the world economies rather large amounts of money, but not in vain, because we have decreasing supplies of increasingly expensive fossil fuels and that the technologies that reduce global warming -- biofuels, better batteries, electric vehicles, and renewable energy -- also reduce our dependency on fossil fuels, an equally important problem.  This dual concern is what caused me to create The Energy Blog.

First Commercial Algae Facility Announced

In what would be a first, Green Star Products (GSPI) has announced that is building a commercial algae facility, located next to an existing biodiesel plant. Continuously harvesting algae from a pond or bioreactors appears to be the major technological step to be overcome before biodiesel production becomes feasible. It was not stated in the new press release what technology would be used to produce the algae. Presumably it would use its HAPS technology, shown above, which they describe as follows: "The GSPI (licensed) algae system (which) is a Hybrid Algae Production System (HAPS) that incorporates the controlled environment of the closed photobioreactors coupled with inexpensive construction technology to reduce the cost to a level very close to the open pond systems." However in a in a previous project, earlier post, (which has been canceled due to financial problems of the customer) the customer had negotiated with Greenfuels Technologies, previous post, to use their reactors. GSPI uses a low cost continuous flow reactor, earlier post, each rated at 10 million gallons per year, to make biodiesel. GSPI has also developed an algae strain, that it believes is superior to other strains.

Among the advantages of using algae to make biodiesel the three that stand out to me are 1) algae is a non-food feedstock 2) it can be produced on land that is not suitable for agriculture, such as in deserts 3) the amount of land required is much less than that for oilseed crops.

If all the technical problems are resolved the remaining issue is whether biodiesel can be produced economically, without subsidies. Through the use of their reactors and presumably HAPS, GSPI may obtain low enough costs to be competitive. Another problem is that GSPI is a penny stock and its financial future is unclear to me.  Its business plan appears to be to partner with someone with greater resources to build the plants, in return for its patents and knowhow, and then sharing the royalties from the biodiesel production with its partner. 

The following is a slightly edited version of the press release regarding the new algae production facility.

Green Star Products, Inc. (OTC:GSPI) announced that it has signed a contract to build a 100-acre Commercial Algae Facility in the Midwest.

International Truck and Engine First Company to Enter Hybrid Commercial Truck Production

International Truck and Engine Corporation, a Navistar company (OTC: NAVZ), announced that it is the first company to enter line production of hybrid commercial trucks, the International(R) DuraStar(TM) Hybrid, a diesel hybrid electric medium-duty truck that provides customers with improved fuel efficiency and reduced engine emissions.

The International DuraStar Hybrid diesel hybrid electric truck has the proven capability to provide dramatic fuel savings from 30-40 percent on a standard in-city pickup and delivery applications. The fuel efficiency can increase to more than 60 percent in utility-type applications when the engine can be shut off, but electric power still operates the vehicle. Diesel emissions are completely eliminated when the hybrid truck operates equipment (like overhead utility booms) solely on the truck's battery power, instead of allowing the engine to idle.

In 2006, International built and delivered 24 developmental hybrid units to 14 major utility companies across North America with overwhelmingly positive results.

“These units are now successfully operating giving us confidence in the quality and reliability of our new hybrid electric product,” said Jim Williams, Director of Sales & Distribution, New Products, International Truck and Engine.

The key challenge facing the trucking industry is the high initial cost to bring the hybrid technology to market. As International builds scale, hybrid truck prices are expected to decrease dramatically, similar to price reduction in computer technology and home electronics equipment over the years. Many customers have also been working to secure government funding to help offset the cost of the new technology. The Energy Policy Act of 2005 can provide tax credits of up to $12,000 per unit.

First Solar Posts Record Sales, Receives Substantial Contracts and Announces New Manufacturing Capacity

Producer of CdTe thin-film PV solar modules, First Solar, Inc. (Nasdaq:FSLR) announced its financial results for the third quarter ended September 29, 2007. Quarterly revenues were $159.0 million, up from $77.2 million in the second quarter of fiscal 2007 and up from $40.8 million in the third quarter of fiscal 2006. Net income for the three months ended Sept. 30 rose about ten times to $46 million, or 58 cents a share, from an adjusted year-ago profit of $4.3 million, or 6 cents a share.

Analysts surveyed by Thomson Financial forecast earnings of 19 cents a share and revenue of $120 million, on average.

Based on these results First Solar rallied 34% on Thursday to a new closing high of 230 after increasing from about $125 to $150 in the month of October, but retreated to $207 on Friday.

This is real evidence that Wall Street is taking Solar seriously. Their manufacturing capacity for a non-silicon solar cell producer must be among the highest, if not the highest.  Thin-film technology is where the action is going to be. See Nanomarkets Reports on TFPV for another opinion.

Additionally it announced that it has entered into new long term module supply agreements with a subsidiary of international investment and funds and asset manager Babcock & Brown, and Ecostream Switzerland GmbH, a subsidiary of Econcern BV.The new agreements expand contracted module volume by a total of 557MW, allowing for additional sales of approximately $1 billion at an assumed exchange rate of $1.30/E1.00 over the period of 2008 to 2012.

To meet the demand expected from the sales contracts, First Solar's board of directors approved, on Nov 5, the construction of a fourth manufacturing plant in Malaysia with four production lines with an annual nameplate production capacity of 120 Megawatts, bringing the total number of production lines to 16 for the Malaysian Manufacturing Center. The new plant is scheduled to start production in the second half of 2009 and will be built adjacent to the three previously announced plants currently under construction in Malaysia.

First Solar operates manufacturing plants in the U.S. and Germany with total annual nameplate production capacity of 210MW and is currently constructing three additional manufacturing plants in Malaysia with total annual nameplate production capacity of 360MW. Apparently this newest announcement is in addition to the 120MW announced on Sept 27. This expansion will bring the company's total annual nameplate production capacity to 690MW upon completion of all announced projects by the end of 2009.

Where the Presidential Canidates Stand on Energy Policy

The League of Conservation Voters (LCV) has published a comparison of the energy policy positions of the 2008 presidential candidates, which range from environmentally responsible to business-as-usual.

Of the major candidates, Hilary Clinton, John Edwards and Barack Obama have strong energy policy positions while John McCain has a much weaker policy. Mitt Romney has a very weak positions on energy policy. Of the major candidates only Rudy Giuliani has not articulated an energy policy, except that he supports liquid coal, according to the LCV.

Study the League of of Conservation Voters chart on where candidates stand on energy policy and form you own opinion on who most conforms to your way of thinking.

Vapema, Developer of Membranes for Ethanol/Vapor Separation Receives Can$21.5 Million in Funding

Vaperma Inc., Quebec City, QC, provider of advanced gas separation solutions aimed at reducing energy costs and carbon footprint, has received Can$ 21.5 million in a second financing round.

The company will use proceeds from this financing to commercialize its Siftek(TM) membrane-based ethanol/alcohol dewatering system, to expand all corporate operations and to accelerate the growth of its membrane business.

Vaperma has developed a lower cost solution to remove water from ethanol blends by entirely replacing rectification column and/or dehydration unit such as molecular sieve and extractive distillation with a membrane separation system. Conventional ethanol/alcohol distilleries are known to consume huge amounts of steam. Vaperma's Siftek(TM) system has been tested successfully for over a year in an operating corn-based ethanol plant in Canada.

Vaperma Siftek™ hollow-fiber polymeric membrane enables the dewatering of a 40:60 ethanol to water vapor mixture into a 99+% w/w fuel-grade ethanol product. There is no need to rectify the ethanol/water blend after evaporation. By replacing the rectifier and the molecular sieve used in a conventional ethanol plant, energy savings as high as 40 % are possible with the innovative membrane permeation process developed by Vaperma. This is equivalent to a cost reduction of 6.4 ¢/Gal (1.7¢/L).

Vaperma has teamed up with Canada's largest producer of ethanol, Greenfield Ethanol (GFE- previously Commercial Alcohols Inc.), to prove its Siftek™ membrane technology prior to its industrial scale commercialization, projected for 2008.

Range Fuels Breaks Ground on its First Cellulosic Ethanol Plant

On November 6, 2007 Range Fuels broke ground, on what it claims is the nation’s first commercial cellulosic ethanol plant located near Soperton, Georgia. Range Fuels, one of six companies selected by the Department of Energy (DOE) for financial support in building a commercial cellulosic ethanol plant, will be the first to break ground.

The Range Fuels process accommodates a wide range of organic feedstocks of various types, sizes, and moisture contents. This flexibility eliminates commercial problems related to fluctuations in feed material quality and ensures success in the real world, far from laboratory-controlled conditions.

The first plant focuses on utilizing leftover wood residues from timber harvesting that serve no useful purpose, converting them to about 20 million gallons of ethanol and other alcohols per year, initially. By the time they ramp up to full-scale operations at the Soperton Plant, the plant is projected to produce up to 100 million gallons of ethanol each year.

The plant will employ Range Fuels’ innovative and proprietary two-step thermo-chemical process, K2:

Step 1: Solids to Gas
Biomass (all plant and plant-derived material) that cannot be used for food, such as agricultural waste, is fed into a converter. Using heat, pressure, and steam the feedstock is converted into synthesis gas (syngas), which is cleaned before entering the second step.

Step 2: Gas to Liquids
The cleaned syngas is passed over their proprietary catalyst and transformed into mixed alcohols. These alcohols are then separated and processed to maximize the yield of ethanol of a quality suitable for use in fueling vehicles.

Source: Range Fuels

Mascoma Aquires Celsys Biofuels

Mascoma Corporation, a developer of proceses to produce biofuels from lignocellulosic biomass using proprietary microorganisms and enzymes, announced the acquisition of Celsys BioFuels, Inc.

. . . Celsys BioFuels, Inc., . . .was formed . . . to commercialize cellulosic ethanol production . . . using technology developed . . . at Purdue University. The Celsys technology is based on proprietary pretreatment processes for multiple biomass feedstocks, including corn fiber and distiller grains. . . .

“The acquisition of Celsys BioFuels strengthens our proprietary biomass processing capabilities and our intellectual property portfolio. It also expands our ability to integrate cellulosic ethanol into existing corn ethanol production facilities by utilizing fiber and distiller grains co-products as feedstocks.” said Mascoma CEO Bruce A. Jamerson. . . . more

Biofuels Can Match Oil Production

Biopact has a post on a sure to be controversial article by a Harvard professor that claims that biofuels can match oil production.  Read the post and the Financial Times article and form your own opinion.

Even though some vested interests are trying to downplay the potential of biofuels, energy analysts and scientists know that their potential is truly vast - at least in theory. The director of Harvard University’s Center for International Development (John F. Kennedy School of Government), professor Ricardo Hausmann, joins those analysts and presents a well argued view on what would be needed for a sustainable bioenergy future to emerge. Writing in the Financial Times, he goes so far as to state that 'biofuels can match oil production'.  . . .  more

LED Lights Reduce Energy Consumption 48% in Cree Headquarters

Cree, Inc. (Nasdaq: CREE), a manufacturer of LED solid-state lighting components, released the results of the first phase of the conversion of its Durham headquarters to LED lighting, which has resulted in the use of 48% less energy than the lights they replaced and plans to convert all lighting at the headquarters and manufacturing facility to LED lighting. The parking lots, entryways, lobby and conference rooms at Cree’s headquarters building are now 100-percent lit by energy-efficient, environmentally friendly XLamp(R) LEDs.That means replacing everything from high-pressure sodium parking-lot lights to the fluorescent tubes in offices and hallways to the spotlights on the flagpole out front.

“Conventional wisdom is that LED lighting is years away from widespread adoption. The truth, however, is that the performance of Cree’s LED technology enables real LED lighting solutions today,” said Chuck Swoboda, Cree chairman and CEO. “The conversion of Cree’s site demonstrates that the LED Lighting Revolution is well underway and will illustrate the benefits in energy savings, maintenance costs and environmental impacts.”

The new LED lights use 48% less energy than the incandescent, fluorescent and high-pressure sodium lights they replaced. Cree began the process in October 2007 and will continue until it replaces the tens of thousands of bulbs and tubes that light the campus, inside and out.

Cree claims that the combination of the energy savings, reduced maintenance and disposal costs and the environmental savings demonstrate that LED lighting is now a real alternative to traditional lighting solutions.

Direct Ethanol Fuel Cell Breakthrough?

Biopact also reported:

Scientists at the Kyushu Institute of Technology (KIT) propose using ethanol as a direct fuel in next-generation fuel cells. This would have multiple advantages over fuels more commonly associated with efficient fuels cells, like hydrogen or methanol.

The KIT researchers have found a way to boost the fuel cell performance while operating at room temperature by using oxidized nanoparticles as the anode catalyst in combination with a composite catalyst used for the cathode.

The researchers mixed the nanoparticles and the carbon-supported PtRu (PtRu/C) merely at the ratio of 1:1.

First applications will be to use the DEFC as a device to power cell phones, laptops and other electronic devices.  . . . more

This would offer the advantage of using our relatively small supplies of ethanol in a fuel cell that has two to three times the efficiency of the ICE. If this discovery would make possible the production of larger low cost fuel cells, my position on fuel cells would have to change, but don't hold your breath.

Ethanol from Biodiesel Byproduct

Biotech reports that scientists have found a way to convert glycerin, a byproduct of biodiesel production into ethanol.

Ramon Gonzalez and Syed Shams Yazdani have identified the metabolic processes and conditions that allow a known strain of Escherichia coli to convert glycerin into ethanol through an anaerobic fermentation process.

Gonzalez found that ethanol from glycerol is 39 cents cheaper to produce than ethanol from corn. Feedstock costs per gallon were 53 cents for corn, versus 30 cents for glycerol. Per gallon operating costs were 52 cents for corn and just 36 cents for glycerol. . . . more

I would think this technology would only be applicable to larger biodiesel plants, of which there are not too many in the U.S., but probably more in Germany.

New Brushless Generator Improves Wind Turbine Reliability

Wind Technologies Ltd, the result of a collaboration between Dr Richard McMahon at Cambridge University and Prof Peter Tavner at Durham University has developed the Brushless Doubly-Fed Generator (BDFG), a new maintenance-free generator which doubles the lifetime of generators in wind installations and significantly reduce maintenance costs and increase reliability.

According to this article, the BDFG system employs two 3-phase stator windings of different pole in a single frame in combination with a special form of ‘brushless’ rotor, which along with eliminating the need for brush replacement, also doubles the life time of the generator from 90,000 hours to 180,000 hours before failure, according to the managing director of Wind Technologies, Dr Ehsan Abdi.

Typically one stator winding is connected to the mains or grid, and hence has a fixed frequency, and the other is supplied with variable voltage at variable frequency from a converter.

In the majority (more than 90%) of newly-installed wind turbines in the world, generation is from a doubly-fed slip-ring induction generator (DFIG). There are drawbacks to the use of slip-ring generators, particularly the additional cost and bulk of a machine which incorporates slip-rings and the need to maintain brush-gears including replacement of the brushes on a regular basis. Studies have shown that problems with brush-gear are a significant issue in wind turbine operation and reliability, and that the problem will be more severe in machines deployed offshore where there are stronger winds and accessibility is impaired.

Total Chief Warns of Peak Oil

I was going to write a post on this, but the Biopact post will suffice.

The world’s capacity to produce oil will fall well short of official forecasts, the chief executive of oil major Total warned. In an unusually stark prediction for the head of one of the world’s biggest oil companies, Christophe de Margerie, CEO of the French group, said it would be difficult to reach even 100 million barrels a day.  . . . more

Gore Nightmare Wins as Europe Pays to Ship U.S. Coal

Bloomberg has current article on the worlds love affair with coal:

Gore, said that ago the U.S. should adopt a "complete moratorium on new coal-fed power plants unless all of the carbon dioxide from them can be buried underground." . . .

A ton of U.S. coal is so cheap at about $47 that European utilities will pay $50 to ship it across the Atlantic, according to Galbraith's Ltd., a 263-year-old London shipbroker. While oil and coal cost the same as recently as 1998, West Texas Intermediate crude is five times more expensive after climbing to a record $96.24 on Nov. 1. . . .

"Coal is by far the cheapest fuel because there's no price on how much damage it causes,'' said John Holdren, a Harvard University professor of environmental science and director of the Woods Hole Research Center in Falmouth, Massachusetts.  . . .  more.

Gores statement agrees with the position that I have, I hope my position wasn't influence by Gore.

Is the Fuel Cell Car Dead?

In a post, yesterday, Tyler Hamilton of Clean Break starts as follows:

It's been a long time coming, but Ballard Power is finally reading the tea leaves and realizing that the dream of a fuel-cell car powered by hydrogen is a dream that only a million-dollar prototype can occupy. The Vancouver-based fuel cell company, an industry pioneer and leader, confirmed today that it was in talks with part owners Daimler AG and Ford Motor Co. about, well, it didn't say exactly.

. . . It kind of makes sense, at least at this point, that the auto companies embrace and drive forward the fuel-cell approach from hereon in.

. . . momentum is on the side of battery technology and the infrastructure to support it needs to be extended and upgraded, instead of created from scratch. . . . more

This has been my view since the start of The Energy Blog and I am glad to see someone else explicitly supporting my views.

The Power Revolution as seen by U. S. News

USNews.com has a very, but good, article on the "Power Revolution" that is developing now. They attribute venture capitalists as the prime mover of this revolution with Vinod Khosla being emblematic of this technology entrepreneurship. They focus on concentrating solar power, "deep geothermal", cellulosic ethanol and plug-in hybrids as prime examples of these technologies. A brief excerpt is given below:

Khosla views climate change as the gravest threat the world has ever faced, and he knows others see America's foreign oil dependence as an urgent crisis. But in his calculus, we've been pitching pebbles at these Goliath problems. "Building a biofuels plant here and a solar plant there is not enough," he says, "unless we can replace 50 percent and hopefully 100 percent of the fossil energy sources." . . . more.

Toyota's Own Plug-in Prius

EV World had a recent article confirming that Toyota has been testing its PHEVs for at least three years, longer than most have believed and that the diagnostic codes on recent Prius models have become more complex, making it more difficult to make aftermarket conversions to plug-ins. . . . here.

I am experimenting with a few very short posts, like this one, referring to posts on other sites with articles that should be of interest to visitors to my site. Let me know what you think about this.

Subaru G4e Boasts New Battery

Subaru has released a second generation battery-electric vehicle, the G4e (for “Good 4 earth”). The 5-seater has a  maintenance-free 65-kilowatt electric motor, and features high energy-density vanadium enhanced lithium-ion batteries, which give the G4e a 124 mile (200km) range from a charge (more than double the first generation R1e’s range, previous post) and using a quick-charger it can be charged to 80% in only 15 minutes.

The increased range can be attributed to advances in lithium-ion battery technology. Using a new high-capacity vanadium battery material, the capacity of the positive terminal is increased two to three times, resulting in an energy density about twice that of the previous model.

IBM Silicon Wafer Reclamation Process Saves Energy, Provides Solar Industry with New Supply

IBM (NYSE: IBM) announced that it has developed and is using an innovative new semiconductor wafer reclamation process at its Burlington, VT manufacturing facility and intends to provide details of the new process to the broader semiconductor manufacturing industry.  The new process uses a specialized pattern removal technique to repurpose scrap semiconductor wafers to a form used to manufacture silicon-based solar panels.

Semiconductor manufacturers are very concerned that intelluctual property on defective wafers might be recovered if they are sold. To avoid this they have been using much more expensive sandblasting, or chopping them up and disposing of them in landfills. IBM's process wipes away any traces of the original chip design, which could ease those worries.

Through this new reclamation process IBM is now able to more efficiently remove the intellectual property from the wafer surface, making these wafers available either for reuse in internal manufacturing calibration as "monitor wafers" or for sale to the solar cell industry, which must meet a growing demand for silicon material to produce photovoltaic cells for solar panels.

According to Cleantech, IBM's machines use an abrasive pad and deionized water to polish the patterns off of scrap wafers, which are thin discs of silicon material used to imprint patterns that make finished chips for electronics.

Latest on the Volt: Lutz Sees 60,000 to 100,000 the First Year, First Battery Delivered

In an interview  published in the Detroit Free Press on October 31, 2007, General Motors Corp. Vice Chairman Bob Lutz said he continues to be increasingly confident that GM will bring the range-extended Chevrolet Volt to market by 2010.

"We got our first experimental battery pack today" from LG Chem, Lutz said. The battery pack doesn't yet have a cooling system, he said, but doesn't need one for the stage of testing GM and LG Chem are in.

GM expects to receive an experimental battery pack in December from A123Systems, the other battery supplier with which it has a contract, Lutz said.

By the first quarter, GM expects to be running the E-Flex operating system in late model Malibus for testing purposes, he said.

Lutz said the first-generation production version of E-Flex will appear in a vehicle that will look much like the concept car shown at the 2007 Detroit auto show, but with a more traditional front end.

"The engine-motor configuration didn't work. ... Now it has a more classic-looking front end. ... It will be called the Chevrolet Volt."

Lutz said the company has not determined how many Volts it will make in the first year, but said he believes "it's a very safe bet that it will be produced in the tens of thousands" in its first generation.

"This is not sanctioned, not an official GM number, but in the first full year of production I would like to see between 60,000 and 100,000 and then go up from there," Lutz said.

Khosla Ventures, BIOeCON Form KiOR for Catalytic Production of Biooil

BIOeCON press release:

Khosla Ventures and BIOeCON have announced the formation of their joint venture KiOR Inc., which will use BIOeCON's ‘Biomass Catalytic Cracking Process' (BCC) technology to converts lignocellulosic biomass, found in grass, wood, and various agricultural and forestry wastes, into a bio-oil product that can be further upgraded to transportation fuels.  The conversion of cellulosic biomass to bio-oil represents a significant commercial opportunity that also offers important benefits, including using post-harvesting waste rather than competing with food crops; promoting environmental sustainability; reducing reliance on fossil fuels such as crude oil; and enabling economic development and job creation in rural areas.

Khosla Ventures, will provide the Series A funding, whereas BIOeCON will bring its knowledge and intellectual property for the ‘Biomass Catalytic Cracking Process' (BCC). KiOR Inc. will focus on the further development and commercialization of the BCC technology as well as prepare for raising significantly more capital in the next two to three years.

"The key technical problem in the conversion of cellulosic biomass into usable fuels is how to open up the inaccessible solid fibrous 'woody' material, so that it can be effectively transformed. Most of the existing processes to unlock the woody structures are quite costly and intensive of energy or chemicals," says Paul O'Connor, founder and president of BIOeCON.  "BIOeCON has developed a simple non-energy intensive way to make the woody biomass accessible to catalysts and convert to a bio-oil product with significantly improved product properties compared to other thermal-chemical processes.

400 MW Solar Tower System for California

The California Energy Commission has accepted an application from Oakland solar startup BrightSource Energy Inc. to develop the 400-megawatt Ivanpah Solar Electric Generating System (ISEGS), a solar thermal power plant -- the first large solar thermal facility proposed for California in 16 years.  The ISEGS is a project to develop three solar thermal power plants and shared facilities near Ivanpah Dry Lake in the Mojave Desert close to the California-Nevada border. 

The plants will utilize Distributed Power Tower™ (DPT) (sometimes called solar towers, earlier post) solar field technology developed by Jerusalem, Israel based Luz II, a wholly owned subsidiary of BrightSource Energy.

The ISEGS includes three solar concentrating thermal power plants, based on distributed power tower and heliostat mirror technology. DPT technology consists of a number of solar power clusters (SPC's), each including a power tower surrounded on 360º by an array of heliostats. DPT heliostats are organized into a solar field, which consists of thousands of heliostats sharing a common power tower. Heliostats are flat glass mirrors which track the sun and reflect sunlight onto a receiver. The receiver is located on the top of the power tower. Power towers are linked together by pipelines to a central location where electricity is generated and sent to a power grid. The total area required for all three phases would be 3,400-acres (or 5.3 square miles). Each SPC produces 20 MW using Bright Source Energy’s current DPT 550 technology.