Insight and inspiration in turbulent times.
Methamphetamine fuels the West’s oil and gas boom /
In Canada’s wilderness, measuring the cost of oil profits /
Entrepeneurs explore oil alternatives /
Will diesels have a future in Europe? /
Brazil fights oil prices with alcohol /
Fuel cells ‘need political push’
A review of Amory Lovins, “More Profit with Less Carbon”. In short, Lovins throws a lot of numbers around, but far too many of the ones he provides are irrelevant, meaningless, or misleading. The road ahead is much more difficult than he portrays.
A Question Of Shale / Canadians Gear Up for Protest against Natural Gas Projects in Maine / Underground Coal-Gasification, Coal-to-Liquids Project in Australia / New chips lower PC power use
Some think hydrogen will soon emerge as a force in the economy, just as oil did 100 years ago….Others are more skeptical.
Penn State environmental engineers and a scientist at Ion Power Inc. have developed an electrically assisted process that enables bacteria to coax four times as much hydrogen directly out of biomass than can be generated typically by fermentation alone.
With their promise of environmentally benign power, fuel cells are widely promoted as the electricity generators of the future. Technological advances over several decades have demonstrated that they can certainly be made to work but their central claim of exceptionally high efficiency does not always stand up to scientific scrutiny. Expectations that fuel cells will be simple and cheap seem unrealistic.
The People’s Republic is on the fast track to become the car capital of the world. And the first alt-fuel superpower.
The energy-literate scoff at perpetual motion, free energy, and cold fusion, but what about the hydrogen economy? Before we invest trillions of dollars, let’s take a hydrogen car out for a spin.
A Look at the Administration’s Budget Request for Sustainable Energy Programs in FY2006.
A recent Business Week article obscures hydrogen’s primary disadvantage: hydrogen is an energy intensive alternative to motor fuels derived from oil, argues Ronald Cooke, author of Oil, Jihad and Destiny.
The hydrogen economy is really a nuclear economy. Investors and the rest of corporate America may not realise how close the country is to making a gigantic bet on a nuclear future.
If the fuel cell is to become the modern steam engine, basic research must provide breakthroughs in understanding, materials, and design to make a hydrogen−based energy system a vibrant and competitive force.
