For Powering Cars, Solar-Electric Is 'Orders Of Magnitude' More Efficient Than Biofuels

Climate Progress recently reported on a study that found both economic and environmental benefits if homes in the northeastern United States upgraded older heating systems by moving from heating oil to switchgrass. However, one point to emphasize was the findings were specific to those circumstances - the region, the homes, and that particular use.

Switchgrass was not nearly as good an idea for electricity generation or transportation fuel. Further confirming the need for a diversity of renewable solutions to our energy needs, a recent study determined that electricity generated by solar beats out biofuels for powering cars under myriad scenarios.

The report, put together by a team from the University of California, Santa Barbara and the Norwegian University of Science and Technology, and published in Enviornmental Science and Technology, compared five different approaches to see what was the most efficient way to power a compact passenger vehicle for every 100 kilometers driven:

1. Battery-electric vehicles (BEVs) run on electricity from solar power.
2. Battery-electric vehicles run on electricity from switchgrass.
3. Internal combustion vehicles (ICVs) run on switchgrass biofuel.
4. Battery-electric vehicles run on electricity from corn.
5. Internal combustion vehicles run on corn-based biofuel.

The analysis considered land-use, greenhouse gas emissions, fossil fuel use, and took into account the production and use life cycles of both the fuels themselves and the vehicles they power.

In terms of land-use, solar significantly out-performed all other options. It performed modestly better than switchgrass in terms of greenhouse gas emissions, and significantly better than corn-based biofuel. Solar was actually equal or slightly worse than switchgrass when it came to fossil fuel requirements over the totality of the life cycle, but it still out-performed corn-based internal combustion. (And, of course, gasoline.)

So all things considered, a pretty clear win for solar-powered electric battery vehicles:

A write up over at Green Car Congress has more details on the assumptions and variables in the study's modeling.

"PV is orders of magnitude more efficient than biofuels pathways in terms of land use - 30, 50, even 200 times more efficient - depending on the specific crop and local conditions," Roland Geyer, a UCSB Bren School of Environmental Science & Management Professor, told Science Daily. "You get the same amount of energy using much less land, and PV doesn't require farm land." The central bottleneck, as the report notes, is the low efficiency of photosynthesis:

Biofuels for ICVs and bioelectricity for BEVs use photosynthesis to convert solar radiation into transportation services, that is, they are sun-to-wheels transportation pathways. While photosynthesis has a theoretical maximum energy conversion efficiency of 33 percent, the overall conversion efficiency of sunlight into terrestrial biomass is typically below 1 percent, regardless of crop type and growing conditions.

"Today's thin-film PV is at least 10-percent efficient at converting sunlight to electricity," Geyer explained - hence solar's superior performance. In fact, the WWF's Solar PV Atlas found that as far as land-use goes, solar is so efficient that less than 1 percent of global land areas would be needed to supply all the world's electricity needs in 2050.

Traditional corn-based biofuels are problematic on all sorts of levels: Carbon emissions from agricultural production over their full life cycle largely wipe out any carbon benefits at the point of actual vehicle use. They compete with human food supplies and food cropland, driving up global prices and contributing to global poverty and instability. And new cropland sequesters less carbon from the atmosphere than the grassland or forest it typically displaces.

Switchgrass and other cellulosic biofuels, while they avoid disrupting food supplies, are not immune to these other flaws either. On top of that, their commercial viability at any time in the near future is far from certain.

For the clean car fleet of the future, electrical and hybrid vehicles relying on a grid powered by solar - and presumably wind, hydroelectric, and such - still appears to be the way to go.

http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2013/03/27/1783781/for-powering-cars-

The Impact Of Fracking On America's Economy... From Space

See that cluster of lights by North Dakota? That's the result of fracking. Six years ago that light cluster did not exist. The reason is over the past years natural gas extraction though the use of fracking has increased exponentially as a result of the push for alternative fuel use and technological achievements.

Fracking is the controversial method of extracting natural gas from shale rock using a chemical and water mixture. Depending on the methods used, some 29% of the gas being extracted can go to waste-or rather, into creating this light show.

That light cluster is fire of natural gas burning as companies work all night to extract resources from the Bakken formation under North Dakota; a place whose citizens now call the "Kuwait on the prairie".

The natural gas rush has been so sudden that North Dakota now has the lowest unemployment rate in the country - more than 41,000 workers got jobs there between 2008 and 2012. Additionally, seven years ago, the U.S. was importing 60% of its oil. Now oil imports are down to 42%. The Bakken fields play a major role in this.

Natural gas is indeed making an impact, be it for better or for worse, and an impact that is now visible from space! The picture was taken by NASA's Earth Observatory, which orbits the planet twice a day some 512 miles up.

Source: news.yahoo.com

Andrew Meggison was born in the state of Maine and educated in Massachusetts. Andrew earned a Bachelor's Degree in Government and International Relations from Clark University and a Master's Degree in Political Science from Northeastern University. Being an Eagle Scout, Andrew has a passion for all things environmental. In his free time Andrew enjoys writing, exploring the great outdoors, a good film, and a creative cocktail. You can follow Andrew on Twitter @AndrewMeggison

The post The Impact Of Fracking On America's Economy... From Space appeared first on Gas 2.

http://gas2.org/2013/01/25/the-impact-of-fracking-on-americas-economy-

SMART car coming to the U.S. ... again

The SMART Car is coming to the U.S. ... of course, it's already been imported (legally) to the U.S. That effort was run by ZAP a company more famous for electric vehicles of all sizes (ZAP meaning Zero Air Pollution) who imported cars they commercially bought in Germany and had an American company revamp the cars to meet DOT compliance. The new plan is for Daimler Chrysler to import the cars themselves.

The author of the article spends the hole time in reaction to the small size. As usual the "different" gizmo meets with initial "eeew, that's so strange" reactions. Yes, it's a small car but so what? Why do we need huge vehicles to haul us around? If most of our driving is one person alone in a car, then why do they need a car designed for four people? Especially when the car designed for one or two people can get tremendously better gas mileage!!!

Then there's this little bit of eeeew that's so strange: the fact that it doesn't go very fast, capping out at 84 miles per hour ... I dunno about you, but 84 miles per hour is pretty darn speedy. That is unless you're in Montana or Idaho or Nevada. But very few people live in those states, and for most people, especially the city dwellers for whom this car is meant would find that speed very comfortable.

Article Reference: 

SMART USA home page

So small, even a caveman could parallel-park it

Cummins announces approval of B20 biodiesel blends

Cummins, a big truck maker in the U.S.A., has announced their trucks produced since 2002 are compatible with burning biodiesel B20 fuel. This is good news for improving adoption of this fuel alternative. Good news because truck owners can adopt the fuel with less concern. The article says Cummins was able to take this stance due to standardization improvements by the biodiesel makers, so I suppose that means Cummins feels there is less risk from getting bad fuel.

Article Reference: 

Cummins announces approval of B20 biodiesel blends

Transportation Energy Data Book

URL: 

Transportation Energy Data Book

Description: 

is a statistical compendium prepared and published by Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) under contract with the Office of Planning, Budget Formulation, and Analysis, under the Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) program in the Department of Energy (DOE). Designed for use as a desk-top reference, the data book represents an assembly and display of statistics and information that characterize transportation activity, and presents data on other factors that influence transportation energy use. The purpose of this document is to present relevant statistical data in the form of tables and graphs.

In January 1976, the Transportation Energy Conservation (TEC) Division of the Energy Research and Development Administration contracted with Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) to prepare a Transportation Energy Conservation Data Book to be used by TEC staff in their evaluation of current and proposed conservation strategies. The major purposes of the data book were to draw together, under one cover, transportation data from diverse sources, to resolve data conflicts and inconsistencies, and to produce a comprehensive document. The first edition of the TEC Data Book was published in October 1976. With the passage of the Department of Energy (DOE) Organization Act, the work being conducted by the former Transportation Energy Conservation Division fell under the purview of the DOE's Office of Transportation Programs, then to the Office of Transportation Technologies. DOE, through the Office of Transportation Technologies, has supported the compilation of Editions 3 through 21. In the most recent DOE organization, Editions 22, 23 and 24 fall under the purview of the Office of Planning, Budget and Analysis in the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy.

Ethanol is used widely in Brazil

In the State of the Union speech, GW Bush mentioned Ethanol as a resource "we" should develop. There's been a big scramble towards Ethanol since. Ethanol has some interesting characteristics, in that it's a liquid fuel that's very compatible with gasoline. Unlike biodiesel, ethanol can be readily burned in a gasoline engine and, in fact, ethanol is widely used today in the U.S. Just watch for a sticker on the pump saying "This gasoline may contain ethanol".

Brazil leading effort to boost ethanol use discusses ethanol production and use in Brazil. During the 1970's the "military dictators" then ruling the country pushed for ethanol production and mandated its use in vehicles. That has turned into a golden spot in the Brazillian economy, and they use ethanol rather than gasoline in nearly half of domestic passenger fuel demand.

Brazil has an interesting advantage with all those sugar canes, in that it's sugar which produces alcohol.

This means the U.S. can't directly replicate what they're doing, we don't have domestic sugar cane production to any great degree. Further, when you mention Ethanol, the corn farmers in Iowa get dollar signs in their eyes, and the corn producer lobbiests have been controlling debate around ethanol.

But I want to gather up some details from the article, so here goes.

The article focuses on one plant that works "around the clock" that is distilling 92,500 gallons of ethanol daily that is trucked away for immediate sale at the pumps. But it can only do this during the sugar cane season, apparently (March to November). This means to cover the period outside that season they'll need fuel storage facilities.

This at the end seems to be a critical point:

In Sao Tome, the cooperative that owns the ethanol distillery is betting on its best profits since it bought the operation in 1993. Cocamar's production cost is $1.10 per gallon, and wholesalers are buying the fuel for $2.68 - up from $1.44 last year.

About the only thing that could hurt Brazil's ethanol industry now would be an almost unimaginable plunge in international crude oil prices, currently trading above $60 per barrel, said Almir Hawthorne, the distillery's industrial manager.

"Oil could drop to $35 or $40 per barrel, and ethanol producers would still make money."

They're making $1.24 per gallon more profit than last year, due entirely it would seem to the high price for oil. If oil prices did drop again it's clear their threshold for gaining a profit is around $40 per barrel. But I wonder if, at that price, they'll make enough profit to get the excitement that's circling around them.

That's been the sticker for most of the alternative fuels, whether their price per unit is less than the price for fossil fuel.

It seems every time the price for oil goes high, the makers of alternatives are in the limelight. Today that's ethanol (of several kinds), fuel cells, biodiesel, wind turbines, etc. Unfortunately when the price of oil drops again, the alternatives become less attractive.

This is simple economics, with the market (in its short sighted decision making) going to the source with the least cost. Another factoid in the article is that Brazil invested years of subsidies in its ethanol production industry. It's paying off now, and in the future Brazil will remain fueled even when the peak oil phenomena hits and oil is no longer available.

The point to that is in the energy industry it takes a very long time to develop alternatives. Brazil is an example, where it took years before their ethanol industry was self sustaining.

If the U.S. decisioning is based largely on the short sighted approach of "oh, the market will take care of it", well, I think the market moves too quickly for the development of new energy resources.

When they say "the market will take care of it" the scenario is that oil supply becomes tight, and the oil price rises, and then people start scrambling for alternatives that are cheaper. And, we're seeing this effect going on today. But when the real oil peak hits the supply is supposed to drop off very rapidly from the peak. That should cause a rapid rise in prices which would trigger the market to search for alternatives. But if it's going to take years to develop the alternatives, and in the meantime oil supply drops precipitously, "we" won't have those years.

I believe the current high oil prices are not the true oil peak, but instead based on the war(s) brewing in the Persian Gulf. Especially with the war we are threatening against Iran.

The current high oil price is making for an interesting training ground, inspiring the people go through the steps of finding an alternative to burning fossil fuels. Last year people were dumping their SUV's and motorcycles were becoming popular. This year they may be looking for ethanol.

I suppose if the oil prices stay high long enough, like they are now, the makers of the alternatives will have a long enough window to establish themselves. Here's hoping.

WWF and palm oil industry join forces in Malaysia

Malaysia is going for biodiesel production in a big way. They are building many palm oil plantations and building biodiesel production plants. I have previous coverage here, here, and here.

One issue with Malaysia's plans is they're cutting down their rain forest to build these palm plantations. That, in turn, means new threats to rare species and a reduction of biodiversity. In other words, in the process of solving one environmental problem (environmental degradation from burning fossil fuel) they're creating a different environmental problem (reduced biodiversity).

WWF and palm oil industry join forces covers work by the World Wildlife Foundation to do something in cooperation with the palm oil industry. Through their Forest Conversion Initiative and the Malaysian Palm Oil Association (MPOA) signed two Memoranda of Understanding (MoU) to develop Better Management Practices for the Malaysian oil palm industry to safeguard high conservation value forests (HCVF) in the country.

This sounds nice ... if some action is going to cause an environmental problem, it's nice there's an environmental protection organization they can partner with to mitigate the problem.

But ... in my mind is another thought. I wonder if this partnership is meant to whitewash the problem? Is this partnership only meant to give the appearance of solving the problem? Or is this partnership taking actions which are truly useful?

Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, and oil reserves (HoweStreet.com)

Yikes! Things Just Got Worse ... what just got worse? It has to do with the claimed oil reserves in Kuwait. The article discusses a report published by Petroleum Intelligence Weekly (PIW) titled Oil Reserves Accounting: The Case Of Kuwait. Unfortunately the subscription price puts me off so I can't read the report myself.

Supposedly the report discusses details of Kuwait's claimed oil reserves. Kuwait's reported oil reserves are 99 billion barrels. Kuwait has been an oil exporter since 1946, and has a massive oil field. However it's clear the reserves have been overstated.

The PIW report is based upon data circulating within the top echelons of the Kuwait Oil Co. (KOC). KOC is the upstream arm of state-owned Kuwait Petroleum Corp. KOC has primary responsibility for conducting exploration, drilling and production from Kuwait's oil fields. The PIW report claims that Kuwait's remaining proven and nonproven oil reserves total about 48 billion barrels, or 51 billion fewer barrels than previously advertised.

That 51 billion fewer barrels of reserves represent 5% of stated world reserves. Especially troubling is I've read several articles claiming that many oil producing countries have been overstating their reserves as well. What isn't overstated is the world consumption, especially the growing consumption levels in India and China resulting from their economic expansion.

How did this come about? Well, it's not a simple matter of bravado (e.g. the stereotypical men boasting about the size of X or Y or oil fields). In this case it is about distinguishing between "proven," "probable" and "possible" reserves.

Kuwait (and others?) have stated their reserves as the sum of all three. Well, I don't know about you, but "possible" reserves doesn't sound very promising. Especially when you consider most oil wells turn up dry, even on a good day.

As I said, the oil consumption rate is known (and growing). What isn't so clear are the actual reserves. One thing that's clear is the Hubbert model which predicts the peak oil phenomenon. It's not that an oil field produces fine until one day it just fizzles to a stop. Instead it produces fine until the peak occurs, after which it's a constant struggle to get oil out.

This means the world oil situation will appear fine, but with more and more oil fields tilting to the "struggle" phase as each individual oil field peaks.

That, in a nutshell, is the peak oil phenomenon. The last several years of oil use will be characterised by a struggle to retrieve oil, and therefore the actual oil "production" will inexorably decline.

In the face of America stupidly continuing the glut of oil use and gas guzzling way of life, along with India and China rapidly expanding their oil use, this will not be pretty to watch.

I should warn you the author of the article I've linked to -- well -- he works for a financial investment company. They purport to having some investment ideas related to the scenario they describe. While I agree with the scenario, there may be some tilting of the rhetoric on their part.

Railnews :: News :: NO FRENCH TRAINS WILL USE FOSSIL FUELS BY 2026, SAYS PRESIDENT CHIRAC

Why can't we make a bold project like this in the U.S.??? Why instead do we have to beat up smaller countries for their oil??? NO FRENCH TRAINS WILL USE FOSSIL FUELS BY 2026, SAYS PRESIDENT CHIRAC French President Chirac has declared that France will move towards electric trains, and biodiesel powered trains. That they'll improve their nuclear plants going to a third and fourth generation design. That they'll accelerate development of solar energy, biomass fuels, etc. And that the result will be zero usage of fossil fuels to run the train system.

Whew! Go, France, Go!

A car nightmare become real

Remember in the movie Independance Day when the aliens are attacking New York City? There's a scene with a zillion people in cars trying to evacuate NYC, but they're stuck in a traffic jam as the aliens turn on their death ray.

I've been thinking about that scene a lot. The "car" is a wonderful thing in many ways, offering great freedom and fluid travel anywhere you want to go. That is, until the traffic is tight or until the world runs out of gas.

How Rita drove Texas crazy Exhausted drivers are returning to their homes with horror stories of the gridlock -- and ideas on how to prevent the highway from becoming hell next time. (By Katharine Mieszkowski, Sept. 27, 2005, salon.com)

This story comes from Texans who escaped the recent hurricane Rita. It was a massive hurricane, closely following Katrina which basically destroyed New Orleans. Therefore the officials in Texas were quick to evacuate their citizens, and the people were understandably anxious about being caught by a city-destroying hurricane. And, evacuate they did, displacing some 3 million people.

The story they tell is of traffic jams beyond belief. Trips that normally take 3-4 hours took 22 hours or more. Cars driving, on the highway, so slowly the kids could get out and walk the dogs. People desparate to find gasoline, but none to be found anywhere. All this happening in the context of a hurricane striking the mainland.

I live in Silicon Valley and while we don't have massive storms, we do have earthquakes. You might have heard of them. And I don't mean the soccer team, but real honest to goodness earth shaking events. Fortunately while they're few and far between, the famous San Andreas fault is less than 10 miles from my house.

Here's how this plays in my mind. Say we have a massive earthquake that really hampers delivery of supplies, and the government wants us to leave the area. Our escape route is hopelessly inadequate.

The geography of the SF Bay Area is that we're surrounded by mountain ranges. To the west is the Peninsula, with a mountain range down its spine. To the east is at least two mountain ranges. To the south these mountain ranges meet somewhere around Gilroy. To the north is the bay, and beyond that another mountain range.

Through each of the mountain ranges there are a small number of passes. The Sunol pass leading from the bay area to a small valley where Pleasanton and Livermore are located. Beyond that valley is the Altamont Pass leading to the Central Valley. Further north is the river leading between Sacramento and the SF Bay. To the south is a pass leading south from Gilroy, and another leading east into the Central Valley. Four passes, with a total of around 15 lanes of traffic heading out of the SF Bay Area.

15 traffic lanes to handle the exodus of 2+ million people is a scary thought.

But as we can see from the experience in Texas, it doesn't even matter when the land is flat for as far as you can see.

What I've thought for years is that we are victims to the success of cars. We are fooled by the glitz cars offer, the convenience and luxury that is. Fooled by the luxury, we are instead trapped in clogged roads, the air slowly poisining all of us because of the nasty carcinogenic chemicals in car exhaust.

It's not just times of emergency like this story from Texas. It happens to us every day of the week.

DaimlerChrysler thinking of killing the SMART car

The SMART car is an interesting phenemon. They're kind of the opposite of what Detroit thinks America wants, for it's teensy tiny, gets tremendous gasoline mileage, etc. Yet it sells well, and when it was introduced in Canada last year they sold out all the ones imported without doing any marketing. Can you say "popular"?

I've sat in one, and it's very roomy inside, despite being extremely small. Also I understand the designers went to great extreme to make it crash-safe since the small size obviously will raise safety concerns.

The most exciting thing about the car, from my perspective, is that it gets 60 miles per gallon. In todays environment of ever-increasing oil prices, that kind of fuel efficiency is to be greatly desired. The last time the U.S.A. had a gasoline "crisis", in the 1970's, the average fuel economy went up. For a few years. Until "we" forgot (I didn't forget).

DaimlerChrysler to Scale Back Mini-Car Unit (By MARK LANDLER - Published: April 2, 2005 - NY Times)

So, can someone explain to me the logic to this? They have a popular car, but they want to scale back production? They see a great success in Canada, they want to start shipping to the U.S.A. and they want to scale back.

Someone help me please. How does this make sense?