C&RL News, January 2005
Vol. 66, No. 1
by Gary L. Parsons
In the past few years, we have been barraged with the news of rising energy prices and extreme instability in the areas where our energy is located. You have to be wondering if there is a better way. This article hopes to show that there is. The Web is full of sites on energy, from the basics to the ultrafantastic. For each energy source I have tried to find one site that is a good, solid representation of that type of energy. My bias (or perhaps emphasis), whenever it appears, is in regards to an energy source’s usefulness in transportation.
Astronaut Edgar Mitchell has noted that there are three phases to achieving a vision: awareness, education, and action. I hope that this article serves at least as a first step. I also hope that it can lead to the second step, making readers aware that there are lots of ways to solve our energy-related problems. My goal for this article is that it will be both informative and entertaining. Enjoy the ride.
Coal is quite abundant in the U.S.; we have as much coal as Saudi Arabia has oil.
One solution to the fuel problem is to just make our own. Coalgas is a "synfuel" (synthetic fuel) made from mostly coal. This is not a new technology. The Germans ran their war machine on it with the technology of the 1940s; just think what we could do today.
Diesel oil is slightly less refined than gasoline. It is always "oily" and not "liquidy" like gasoline. This slight lack of refinement gives us more bang for our buck—or at least our barrel. Long the property of heavy equipment, industrial use, and railroads, technological advancements make it viable for automobiles–even small ones.
Heavy oil is not the liquid we’re used to. It is a form of petroleum and has a much more solid form. It looks like silly putty with coffee grounds. Native Americans used to caulk their canoes with it. With energy prices high, heavy oil remains economically feasible.
Like its petroleum counterpart, this bit of technology has served us well over the past century (and beyond). It comes in all sizes and serves countless types of vehicles and power needs.
Natural gas is a clean-burning alternative fossil fuel that we have in abundance in North America.
Nuclear power works. We find that if we approach this source without the usual irrationality that nuclear power provokes, it is a viable and economically competitive alternative to coal and oil for a large-scale power generation.
Whatever else can be said about oil, it works. It powers a multitude of engines and is useful in all types of situations. The problem is supply, and not just pure supply (some now think that petroleum is a natural geological phenomenon), but supply outside of politically unstable regions.
These are alternative energy sources that are ready for use or in serious development, with just a little push to get them to the magical status of "commercially reliable."
Alcohol and driving do mix—in the fuel tank. Alcohol is a viable fuel for vehicles. It was, in fact, the original choice of fuel by Henry Ford. Alcohol can be used in an internal combustion engine with little modifications. Many countries have been using it for years. It burns cleaner than gasoline but has a little less octane, requiring more of it to "stay even" with the power of gasoline. Nevertheless, it is a renewable fuel, and it works.
It is possible to make fuels out of plants and plant waste. Two good sites from the State of Oregon and Uncle Sam (The Department of Energy has good, solid information on its Web page on alternatives) give excellent explanations of how the process works and what it can do for us. Biofuels claim to be the best renewable source for liquid fuels that we have right now. Fuels used now are ethanol, methanol (alcohol), and biodiesel.
Want an abundant energy source? How about running our vehicles on air? It has already been done.
Hemp is an interesting plant that can be use for food, clothing, paper, and fuel. It is grown everywhere in the world–except the U.S. This provides a field day for conspiracy writers, but it is probably due to hemp’s familial links to the cannabis (marijuana) family.
If the U.S. is running out of a fuel source, why not switch to hydrogen, the most abundant element in the universe? We can, but there is a problem because you can’t drill or mine hydrogen. You have to create it. It is usually used as a natural gas, and storage is a problem for the liquid form that vehicles require (high pressure and extreme cold temperatures). These are basically infrastructure problems. Hydrogen already powers vehicles that don’t venture from their sources (buses, urban fleets), but what about longer distances? The infrastructure issues are solvable, and many companies and inventors claim that they already have the answer.
Related to hydrogen energy, fuel cells are the most commonly agreed upon method of using hydrogen. A fuel cell is an electrochemical device, like a battery, but designed for continuous replenishment of the reactants involved. It creates electricity from an external fuel, while a battery is discarded when drained.
Let us not forget solar, one of the oldest of the "new" technologies. Not that useful yet in transportation or industrial use, solar energy has found a niche in the home. Solar is a key factor in cutting utility bills and is the key to the efficient and environmentally sound passive solar homes that we have now.
Back to the future. Another alternative solution is the original fuel for mechanized vehicles: steam. Steam is an old technology. It was used for toys in the ancient days. There is even a famous picture of a steam car in the 1770s–internal combustion and diesel did not appear until the late 1800s. This car, known as the Cugnot vehicle, was little more than a buckboard with a boiler in front (sadly, the picture shows it being driven into the side of a building—but it was powered and it ran). Steam cars are safe, easy to maintain, and run on a variety of fuels.
The Stirling is one of a series of devices that is a heat engine that operates on any fuel. This futuristic technology (invented in 1816) is in use but is not widespread.
Tidal power is just that. It generates power twice a day from the change in the ocean’s tides. Tidal power will not, of course, do the Midwest much good, but it can help relieve pressure on the grid in the heavily populated coastal areas. It creates power in a similar fashion as regular hydroelectric power plants (and can use much of the same technology and equipment).
From compressed air we move to the least compressed air of all—ordinary wind. While not useful for transportation, wind generators can help relieve stress on the power grid and other forms of stationary power generation.
The following are possibilities for future developments. These items usually exist in experimental or "toy" form, but are not available in workable models yet.
There was a lot of hype about cold fusion in 1989 when this invention was announced. Well, an intrepid band of researchers from all over the world has kept up with it, and, guess what? It works. Cold fusion (actually the popular name for LENR-CANR: Low Energy Nuclear Reaction-Chemically Assisted Nuclear Reaction) has an extreme Web presence, mostly of aficionados and a few debunkers.
Free energy refers to a whole family of devices, mostly magnetic in nature, that provide fuelless propulsion. The muse of this movement (and, to a degree, the entire alternative energy movement) is 19th-century inventor Nikola Tesla. These devices could significantly change society—whenever they get them beyond the laboratory stage. Not without their critics, aficionados of Free Energy have a large Web presence.
Here are a few sites that did not fit into the previous categories of resources but are beneficial nonetheless.
© 2005 Gary L. Parsons