Conserve To Greatness---Energy Resource Efficiency and The Future (2 of 5)
Conserve To Greatness---Energy Resource Efficiency and The Future (2 of 5)
ENERGY
Energy is the most notable set of mineral resources because any shortages of energy affect production of other minerals and food. Conversely, excess energy allows production from the most dilute ores and the most marginal farm lands.
World energy prices reached low points in the 1960s and 1980s (adjusted for inflation). In the 1960s, Increased production in the giant oil fields of North Africa and the Persian Gulf drove down the prices of oil and all competing energy sources. Low prices allowed sloppy burning methods and encouraged rapid growth in energy use. Energy use increased geometrically, as in the Club of Rome computer simulations.
Then in the 1970s, many of the major petroleum exporters managed to raise world prices by cartel controls on production, and most energy prices rose along with those of oil. Consequently, efficiency of energy use also began increasing. One estimate is that improved efficiency saved more energy than that provided by all new sources (Flavin and Durning; Lovins). Similarly, many noxious smells disappeared from the environment because fuel feedstock became too expensive to waste.
In the 1980s efficiency and new sources caused the collapse of oil-cartel prices. Efficiency efforts collapsed with the prices (Reisner). Yet, efficiency can be expected to increase again when prices rise to indicate a need.
Aluminum is another nonrenewable that was the object of worry. The fears were that aluminum cans would bury everything or that aluminum ores would run out. Then, container deposits caused empty aluminum containers to be a valued commodity. Aluminum cans have shrunk to a small part of the waste stream.
These things happen because of the law of supply and demand. This law is more effective than bureaucratic monitoring because no amount of creative bookkeeping can hide infractions. Every consumer has a vested interest in finding ways to get the same job done while using less fuel, aluminum, or other resource. The byproducts aremore efficient energy use and a cleaner environment. Furthermore, labor is not wasted in arguing with, deceiving, or setting legal sophists against the bureaucracy.
Major changes in consumption patterns start with simple changes. When fuel prices rise, industries insulate steam lines and monitor processes more closely. Home owners insulate attics and storm windows.
Still, the possibilities are much greater. The changes become trickier and more exciting. Yet the possibilities are enormous.
Heating and cooling buildings takes one third of the energy used in the United States. The recent cost of that space conditioning was nearly $200 billion. Better construction could halve those energy costs by 2010. (Bevington and Rosenfeld)
Furthermore, super-insulated houses already built reduce the space conditioning load per house to only several hundred watts (Shurcliff). When eventually spread through the building stock, such efficiency might reduce the conditioning load to 1% of the present energy load.
Of course, super-insulated houses work by stopping air infiltration. Keeping the air breathable then requires an "air exchanger" to suck in outside air while cooling or warming it with the air being expelled.
The result is a controlled environment, something useful for saving energy here but something vital for colonizing the oceans and outer space. If the present government dabblings in space are to ever grow into significant movements of people, techniques of controlled environment must become safe and cheap. How better might such techniques evolve than by a large consumer market for such systems on Earth.
Lighting consumes roughly a quarter of U.S. electricity, 20% directly plus 5% for cooling the extra heat generated. Converting to the best hardware now available would save 80-90% of the lighting electricity. Furthermore, these innovations would cost about one cent per kilowatt-hour to install. (Fickett et al.)
Electric motors consume more than half the electricity generated in the U.S. With better motors, drives, controls, and sizing motor energy use might be halved. This would eliminate the cost from 80-190 billion watts (gigawatts) of power plants. (Fickett et al.)
Transportation takes roughly a quarter of United States energy use, mostly in liquid petroleum fuels. The prestigious Battelle Memorial Institute designed a mid-sized car that would get 100 miles per gallon (Davis). Simply applying various small improvements could increase car efficiency by a fourth (Holzman). Any of a number of new technologies could make major improvements in auto milage (Bleviss).
Better ceramics, alloys, plastics, and composites can vastly increase transportation efficiency. The ceramics allow hotter combustion temperatures and improved batteries (Sanders). Plastics and composites allow greater strength lighter weights. Together, all the improvements cascade by allowing better designs. The combined effect will be an increase of a third or better throughout all transportation (Sanders). Such materials contain fewer scarce minerals, and environmental impacts can be low.
The byproduct will be materials needed to eventually make space exploration a profitable venture. For instance, newly developed ceramics and alloys are the key to an air-breathing space plane (Keyworth and Abell).
However, there are entirely new approaches. Fuel cells for electrochemical "burning" of hydrogen and other fuels are not subject to Carnot's limits of mechanical efficiency. They can have efficiencies approaching 50%, and they hold those efficiencies over a range of power levels (Fickett). For these rasons, they have been used in experimental electrical power plants. However, an even better use might be in cars (McCormick and Huff). There, the auto-cycle engine runs at about 15% efficiency and often less than that in variable low-power situations, such as much of city driving.
Even better, further advances in fuel cells would allow use of sugars as fuel. This is the same process as respiration in life. Research on microbial fuel cells for burning sugar has made some progress (Bennetto; Bungay, pp. 106-7). It has become possible to consider a research goal of replacing gasoline cars with those running on sugar water burned with bioengineered microbes.
The advantages of such a cell are obvious. Consider that present fossil fuels are made over eons from the remains of life. Most of the organic matter is lost in the cooking process. Most of the hydrocarbon fuel produced by nature is too dilute or in deposits too small for economical mining. A small fraction reaches the fuel tank where it is burned inefficiently. Similarly, production of ethyl alcohol fuel entails losing half of the energy of sugars in the fermentation process and then expending energy equivalent to half of the remainder in the concentration process. Finally, the expensive fuel is burned, making ethyl alcohol more costly then gasoline.
However, saving three quarters of the energy content and electrochemically tapping the energy at three times the efficiency changes the economics. Agriculture can go from being an energy drain to being an energy source. Energy supplies become renewable and self sustaining. Emissions would be only carbon dioxide and water, and even the carbon dioxide would have been fixed from the atmosphere. Truly self-sustaining industry and agriculture become a possibility.
Still, there are many more possibilities from materials. Superconduction means lighter and more efficient motors and generators. It greatly simplifies magnetic levitation for high speed trains on Earth...and for mass drivers in space. Superconduction also means more powerful magnetic fields for particle accelerators, containment of plasma, and materials processing.
One such process might be industrial production and storage of antimatter for space propulsion (Forward). Another material process might be to produce a free radical, such as monatomic hydrogen. Single atoms of hydrogen merging back into the normal two-atom molecules cannot produce any more energy than what was required to produce the radical, but it is concentrated energy. One research estimate was that a mixture of one quarter monatomic hydrogen in a solid hydrogen matrix might yield an ideal specific impulse of 830 compared to the ideal 528 of hydrogen-oxygen combustion in the Space Shuttle (Garrison et al.). (A rough estimate is that every unit of increase in Shuttle specific impulse would yield a 1% increase in orbital payload.)
Fabricating steam engines led to the byproduct of better metals that could hold hold the pressure and withstand corrosion. Those metals allowed many other technologies to flourish. Similarly, transforming minor bits of physics into working technology will likely catalyze entirely new industries.
ENERGY
Energy is the most notable set of mineral resources because any shortages of energy affect production of other minerals and food. Conversely, excess energy allows production from the most dilute ores and the most marginal farm lands.
World energy prices reached low points in the 1960s and 1980s (adjusted for inflation). In the 1960s, Increased production in the giant oil fields of North Africa and the Persian Gulf drove down the prices of oil and all competing energy sources. Low prices allowed sloppy burning methods and encouraged rapid growth in energy use. Energy use increased geometrically, as in the Club of Rome computer simulations.
Then in the 1970s, many of the major petroleum exporters managed to raise world prices by cartel controls on production, and most energy prices rose along with those of oil. Consequently, efficiency of energy use also began increasing. One estimate is that improved efficiency saved more energy than that provided by all new sources (Flavin and Durning; Lovins). Similarly, many noxious smells disappeared from the environment because fuel feedstock became too expensive to waste.
In the 1980s efficiency and new sources caused the collapse of oil-cartel prices. Efficiency efforts collapsed with the prices (Reisner). Yet, efficiency can be expected to increase again when prices rise to indicate a need.
Aluminum is another nonrenewable that was the object of worry. The fears were that aluminum cans would bury everything or that aluminum ores would run out. Then, container deposits caused empty aluminum containers to be a valued commodity. Aluminum cans have shrunk to a small part of the waste stream.
These things happen because of the law of supply and demand. This law is more effective than bureaucratic monitoring because no amount of creative bookkeeping can hide infractions. Every consumer has a vested interest in finding ways to get the same job done while using less fuel, aluminum, or other resource. The byproducts aremore efficient energy use and a cleaner environment. Furthermore, labor is not wasted in arguing with, deceiving, or setting legal sophists against the bureaucracy.
Major changes in consumption patterns start with simple changes. When fuel prices rise, industries insulate steam lines and monitor processes more closely. Home owners insulate attics and storm windows.
Still, the possibilities are much greater. The changes become trickier and more exciting. Yet the possibilities are enormous.
Heating and cooling buildings takes one third of the energy used in the United States. The recent cost of that space conditioning was nearly $200 billion. Better construction could halve those energy costs by 2010. (Bevington and Rosenfeld)
Furthermore, super-insulated houses already built reduce the space conditioning load per house to only several hundred watts (Shurcliff). When eventually spread through the building stock, such efficiency might reduce the conditioning load to 1% of the present energy load.
Of course, super-insulated houses work by stopping air infiltration. Keeping the air breathable then requires an "air exchanger" to suck in outside air while cooling or warming it with the air being expelled.
The result is a controlled environment, something useful for saving energy here but something vital for colonizing the oceans and outer space. If the present government dabblings in space are to ever grow into significant movements of people, techniques of controlled environment must become safe and cheap. How better might such techniques evolve than by a large consumer market for such systems on Earth.
Lighting consumes roughly a quarter of U.S. electricity, 20% directly plus 5% for cooling the extra heat generated. Converting to the best hardware now available would save 80-90% of the lighting electricity. Furthermore, these innovations would cost about one cent per kilowatt-hour to install. (Fickett et al.)
Electric motors consume more than half the electricity generated in the U.S. With better motors, drives, controls, and sizing motor energy use might be halved. This would eliminate the cost from 80-190 billion watts (gigawatts) of power plants. (Fickett et al.)
Transportation takes roughly a quarter of United States energy use, mostly in liquid petroleum fuels. The prestigious Battelle Memorial Institute designed a mid-sized car that would get 100 miles per gallon (Davis). Simply applying various small improvements could increase car efficiency by a fourth (Holzman). Any of a number of new technologies could make major improvements in auto milage (Bleviss).
Better ceramics, alloys, plastics, and composites can vastly increase transportation efficiency. The ceramics allow hotter combustion temperatures and improved batteries (Sanders). Plastics and composites allow greater strength lighter weights. Together, all the improvements cascade by allowing better designs. The combined effect will be an increase of a third or better throughout all transportation (Sanders). Such materials contain fewer scarce minerals, and environmental impacts can be low.
The byproduct will be materials needed to eventually make space exploration a profitable venture. For instance, newly developed ceramics and alloys are the key to an air-breathing space plane (Keyworth and Abell).
However, there are entirely new approaches. Fuel cells for electrochemical "burning" of hydrogen and other fuels are not subject to Carnot's limits of mechanical efficiency. They can have efficiencies approaching 50%, and they hold those efficiencies over a range of power levels (Fickett). For these rasons, they have been used in experimental electrical power plants. However, an even better use might be in cars (McCormick and Huff). There, the auto-cycle engine runs at about 15% efficiency and often less than that in variable low-power situations, such as much of city driving.
Even better, further advances in fuel cells would allow use of sugars as fuel. This is the same process as respiration in life. Research on microbial fuel cells for burning sugar has made some progress (Bennetto; Bungay, pp. 106-7). It has become possible to consider a research goal of replacing gasoline cars with those running on sugar water burned with bioengineered microbes.
The advantages of such a cell are obvious. Consider that present fossil fuels are made over eons from the remains of life. Most of the organic matter is lost in the cooking process. Most of the hydrocarbon fuel produced by nature is too dilute or in deposits too small for economical mining. A small fraction reaches the fuel tank where it is burned inefficiently. Similarly, production of ethyl alcohol fuel entails losing half of the energy of sugars in the fermentation process and then expending energy equivalent to half of the remainder in the concentration process. Finally, the expensive fuel is burned, making ethyl alcohol more costly then gasoline.
However, saving three quarters of the energy content and electrochemically tapping the energy at three times the efficiency changes the economics. Agriculture can go from being an energy drain to being an energy source. Energy supplies become renewable and self sustaining. Emissions would be only carbon dioxide and water, and even the carbon dioxide would have been fixed from the atmosphere. Truly self-sustaining industry and agriculture become a possibility.
Still, there are many more possibilities from materials. Superconduction means lighter and more efficient motors and generators. It greatly simplifies magnetic levitation for high speed trains on Earth...and for mass drivers in space. Superconduction also means more powerful magnetic fields for particle accelerators, containment of plasma, and materials processing.
One such process might be industrial production and storage of antimatter for space propulsion (Forward). Another material process might be to produce a free radical, such as monatomic hydrogen. Single atoms of hydrogen merging back into the normal two-atom molecules cannot produce any more energy than what was required to produce the radical, but it is concentrated energy. One research estimate was that a mixture of one quarter monatomic hydrogen in a solid hydrogen matrix might yield an ideal specific impulse of 830 compared to the ideal 528 of hydrogen-oxygen combustion in the Space Shuttle (Garrison et al.). (A rough estimate is that every unit of increase in Shuttle specific impulse would yield a 1% increase in orbital payload.)
Fabricating steam engines led to the byproduct of better metals that could hold hold the pressure and withstand corrosion. Those metals allowed many other technologies to flourish. Similarly, transforming minor bits of physics into working technology will likely catalyze entirely new industries.
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