Research Notes - 3/12/07 Energy - TXU/KKR, artificial photosyn, thin film solar)
TXU KKR & Coal, Russia/Gazprom’s looks at hydrogen, artificial photosynthesis, DOE grants in thin film solar, SpectroLab’s CPV contract, $4.6m for membrane research at Delaware, Argonne’s nanocatalyst engineering, India’s electrical grid, breakthrough in nitrogenase synthesis, pulling fluorine out of fluorocarbons, NittoDenko’s desalination membranes…
Energy
1) Something profound has happened in the world of energy– one of the largest and most reputable private equity investment firms in the world has agreed to purchase one of the largest electrical utility companies in America. Behind this acquisition was a very deliberate commitment to addressing the emissions issues related to coal fired power plants.
Other bloggers have written about the KKR-TXU story- so I will avoid any lengthy insights. What is significant to me is the expectation from the private equity world that carbon will soon be factored into energy costs and that the value of the
KKR is now developing plans for two coal gasification plants that could set a strong precedent within the industry towards cleaner more efficient and modern central power plants. I am not anti-coal. I believe that the greenest thing that we can do for the planet is to help evolve the coal industry. The energy industry does not change overnight. And while we might feel in our hearts that accelerating the adoption of solar and wind technologies will help to save the planet, the wheels of the global energy industry are already in motion. The next 30 years will likely see an explosion of coal based electricity production. (Thanks largely to
2)
Link from Gasworld.com
Why this is important to the future:
Despite the contrary, I believe that oil and natural gas companies will embrace a hydrogen-electricity economy without reservation. The long-term resource asset base of nearly every major energy company is in natural gas- not oil. Beyond natural gas we should expect that the massive sea floor based methane deposits will fall within their area of expertise in energy development.
So what about hydrogen? Natural gas is expected to be the primary feedstock for hydrogen production in the near term. As the automobile industry begins to convert its entire fleet from combustion engine based vehicle platforms towards all electric vehicles the oil major companies will need a new medium to supply electricity for these vehicles. Hydrogen reformed from natural gas provides an ideal foundation for future revenues.
Beyond transportation- natural gas converted in a fuel cell can produce electricity to the home, office or factory. Gazprom could use natural gas lines fed into European homes coupled with (off the retail shelf) fuel cells to supply electricity to all of
3) Progress towards Artificial Photosynthesis
Link from Physorg.com
…researchers ‘have successfully activated CO2 for use in a chemical reaction by using a special new type of metal-free catalyst: graphitic carbon nitride. “Chemical activation of carbon dioxide, meaning its cleavage in a chemical reaction,” …“ is one of the biggest challenges in synthetic chemistry.” The bonds in this molecule are very stable, so a lot of energy is needed to split them. To date, only a few special metal catalysts are known to be capable of breaking the C–O bonds in CO2.
Why this is important to the future:
There is no denying the long-term potential of solar-based energy production. Solar-electricity, solar-hydrogen are all part of the same electron-based energy paradigm. Researchers are attempting to innovate around solar through crystalline based semi conductors, concentrated thermal systems and thin film organic electronic membranes. But the real potential breakthrough might be based on our ability to replicate and improve upon nature’s process of photosynthesis. Artificial photosynthesis is not a new idea but small breakthroughs seem to be occurring every few months. I still need to look more closely at this research but am confident in our ability to construct supramolecular compounds which dramatically improve the photo-electron conversion.
3) Significant Grants announced for Solar Energy - Link from DOE
Why this is important to the future:
Most of research dollars went to ‘thin film’ solar projects. This means that crystalline based photovoltaics may be left in the hands of the private sector. And that we are still in a stage of fundamental research for organic electronics. I am a big fan of thin film-based solar applications and believe it could be a game changer in the de-centralization of the global energy industry. These grants should yield promising results for the future solar industry in
4) SoloPower – announces plan for thin film membranes based on copper indium gallium selenide (Also used by Miasole) (Link)
5)
6) Delta Electronics (Tawain) – working on concentrator photovoltaic systems (40% efficiency)– working with Spectrolab – a Boeing subsidiary that I’ve written about before..! I would not be surprised if we saw a major mainstream news announcement around Spectrolab’s solar systems within the next six months. Link
Fuel Cells…
7) $4.6 million aimed at the
Why this is important…
I have written before in previous posts that the path to commercializing fuel cells and cheap hydrogen production deals with membrane research.. This is the second grant provided to the
Related previous posts:
Energy – Misc
While we tend to focus on energy consumption of humans for our daily activities, we must not forget that the majority of energy consumed in the world goes towards materials processing and agricultural production. We must also focus our research efforts at bringing greater efficiencies to these arenas…
Breakthrough in saving energy from nitrogen production?
Researchers studying a bacterial molybdenum-storage protein have teamed up with inorganic chemists to resolve the structure of the storage protein’s central cavity. The findings make an ‘unprecedented’ addition to current understanding of cluster synthesis based on tailor-made protein-based templates, as well as about nucleation/condensation processes at the single-molecule level, say the researchers. A reservoir for the metal which is crucial to the function of several enzymes, including nitrogenase - which bacteria use to fix nitrogen.
Link from RSC.org
Why this is important to the future:
if I remember correctly the production of nitrogen consumes nearly 1% of global energy inputs. It is highly energy intensive. This type of fundamental research and engineering could help to generate nitrogen used for agricultural applications. The lessons learned from nitrogen producing enzymes could also help in the development of hydrogen producing enzymes that would dramatically reduce the energy needed to capture or hydrogen from fossil fuels, photons, and biomass. It’s all about the enzyme catalysts…
9) Molecule pulls fluorine out of fluorocarbons – ‘computational chemistry’
Why this is important to the future…
Fascinating research by the NIST (et al) looking at the bonding of carbon and fluorine atoms- and a potential molecule that could separate the two with unprecedented efficiency. Carbon-fluorine chains are highly stable and the creation of catalysts to break these bonds would represent a significant advance for the world of chemistry.
The researchers are building a pattern around an enzyme in a South African bacteria that ‘pulls the fluoride ion out of sodium fluoroacetate’ – at room temperature!
This research has wide spread applications – mostly in the materials science world. But the principle of looking at molecule bonds and their relationships with exotic enzymes found in bacteria is significant – especially for the bio-production of hydrogen at lower temperatures. Link from Azom.com
10) NittoDenko sales of high performance membranes for desalination - Link
11) Superconductivitiy ‘gridlock’ examined by Cornell Researchers – Link
It seems like it would take a large input in energy for a bacteria to break the Carbon-fluorine bond, it seems that in attempting to do this, it would be self-depleting, and cause the bacteria to destroy itself.