These days everyone seems anxious to jump on the “green”bandwagon. As several TMC fleet members have stated, “It’s the right thing todo.” We just need a little more life-cycle-type of thinking instead ofregulators merely reacting to influence peddlers, or we will create anothercorn-based ethanol debacle.
For example, California has legislated against carbon-basedfuels to minimize CO2 emissions. CARB still thinks minimizing CO2 emissionswill solve all global warming problems, but members haven’t thought thesituation through entirely. CO2 is only partially responsible for globalwarming.
Human activity of any type releases heat. Physicists referto these as exothermic reactions. Motorcycle riders can observe this phenomenonwhen they ride from the countryside into the city—the temperature is always afew degrees higher in the city. Morehumans doing more activities, regardless of CO2 levels, will increase globalwarming.
Let’s allow scientists sufficient time and resources toreduce global warming without creating unintended consequences that adverselyaffect productivity and efficiency. If we ever intend to be energy independent,we need to focus more on energy conservation and operating efficiencies and notlet CO2 reduction be the focus of all R&D.
Along these lines, have any of you readers ever heard of theWilliston Basin or the Bakken oil fields? The Bakken is the largest continuouscrude oil formation the U.S.
Geological Survey (USGS) has ever assessed. A little oil hasbeen taken from the Bakken for years, but only recently has the size of thedeposits beneath North Dakota, Montana and southern Canada been identified asbillions of barrels. However, environmentalists block efforts at extraction,and the media scarcely mention the discovery.
We also don’t hear much about nuclear power. Although powergeneration is the second largest source of CO2 emissions (19%), and nuclearpower generation produces no CO2 emissions, how much have you heard about it inthe media? Granted, first-and second-generation nuclear power plantsencountered safety issues (remember Three Mile Island), but third-generationnuclear power plants have proven to be significantly safer. Why is nuclearpower almost never mentioned as one of the solutions to our energyindependence?
Now let’s talk really going green! One of the most exciting new alternative fueldevelopments revolves around algae. It turns out that “pond scum” has ratherunique properties that make it an excellent choice to produce alternativefuels. Algae consumes CO2 to grow, and it can be grown practically anywhere,even on waste water. Some species of algae also have a very high oil content(10,000 gal./acre) compared to soybeans at 48 and corn at 18 gal./acre. Oilfrom algae biomass can be used to produce either biodiesel or methane to powerindustrial operations directly. Biomass left over after the oil has beenextracted is primarily carbohydrates and protein, which can be used as cattlefeed. Algae can be used to absorb CO2 adjacent to power plants and otherindustrial operations where CO2 emissions need to be stored. It can also beused to produce methane to help power the facility.
Algae is getting a lot of attention. ChevronTechnology has been working with the Department of Energy’s (DOE) NationalRenewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) for two years. They recently partnered with Solaszyme,which has an $800,000 grant from the California Energy Commission. The DOE’sIdaho National Laboratory announced in February it has signed a cooperativeR&D agreement with Origin Oil. The Missouri Life Sciences Research Boardhas given the
