Renewable ENERGY

Almost all activities on the surface of the earth are ultimately powered by the sun,whether by today’’s sunshine or by fossil fuels formed millions of years ago. What if it were possible to harness the physical process at work in a Star here on the earth to develop an environmentally attractive and sustainable energy source available to all nations and modeled on the fusion process in a Star?

fusion reactor

The main objective of the international fusion research project,”ITER” (which in Latin means “the way “),is to develop and demonstrate the science and technology of fusion power for peaceful purposes. If successful, “ITER” would produce 500 megawatts of fusion power for 500 seconds or longer during each “shot” of the fusion experiment,with a repetition period of roughly 2000 seconds.In contrast,the Tokamak Fusion Test Reactor at the “Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory”, one of “ITER”””’’s” predecessors that shut down in 1997, produced a maximum of 11 MW for only one-third of a second. With global energy consumption increasing yearly,the sources remain primarily fossil fuel resources such as oil,coal and natural gas,with some contribution from nuclear power.Fossil fuels have a significant impact on the environment in the form of greenhouse gases,as well as the ways in which they are extracted from the earth.Limited and localized resources are also a source of geopolitical instability,making alternative energy sources more attractive. These factors led President Bush to announce on January 30,2003 that the United States would join negotiations for the construction and operation of “ITER”.In his statement, Bush said,”The results of “ITER” will advance the effort to produce clean,safe,renewable,and commercially- available fusion energy by the middle of the century…We welcome this opportunity to work with our partners to make fusion energy a reality.”

The president”””’’s decision to enter negotiations was based on an extensive process that included the 2002 Snowmass Fusion Summer Study of major next steps, a Fusion Energy Sciences Advisory Committee study of strategies 2003 for the study of burning plasmas,the interim report of an on-going study by the National Research Council,and a cost assessment by the DOE Office of Science.

stats

Developing new energy sources will also mean developing new methods of collaboration and cost-sharing.The current estimated cost for the construction project is $5 billion,requiring an international collaboration to shoulder all of the responsibilities.”ITER” proposes to form an inter- national collaboration of nearly-equal partners. If successful,the “ITER” model could pave the way for future global science collaborations, such as the Global Linear Collider.

Canada,the European Union,Japan and the Russian Federation were the members of the “ITER” collaboration immediately prior to the U.S. joining (or re-joining;the U.S.was a partner until the late-90”””’’s when Congress withdrew from “ITER” for budgetary reasons). The U.S.and China are the newest members,and South Korea has recently expressed an interest in joining. With such a large international collaboration,the U.S.must first prepare for negotiations by conducting cost estimates for a range of possible in-kind contributions;then,identify the U.S.mission and objectives,compile the U.S.interests,and seek to find scenarios mutually beneficial for all the partners. In early March, Dr.N.Anne Davies, Department of Energy Associate Director of Science for Fusion Energy Sciences, named Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory”””’’s (PPPL) Ned Sauthoff as “U.S.ITER” Planning Officer, and Charles Baker of the University of California at San Diego as deputy.Davies cited Sauthoff”””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””’’s background in international collaborations and project management. Baker is the director of the U.S.fusion program”””’’s Virtual Laboratory for Technology.

To foster effective participation by the fusion community, Sauthoff formed the Burning Plasma Program Advisory Committee (BPPAC).This advisory committee consists of physicists from institutions across the nation who will examine the components the U.S.would be interested in contributing,and the roles the U.S.sees for itself in the “ITER” project,as well as other tasks. “BPPAC” is evaluating current successful models of international collaboration,such as the Large Hadron Collider located at “CERN”.

On April 29-30,”BPPAC” met with the “LHC” group at Fermilab to learn from their management experi- ence as part of one of the largest international collaborations at “CERN”.Although the groups come from different scientific communities,the challenge of working in a large global collaboration is common.

sun

“The future of high-energy physics depends on the success of such large global collaborations as the “LHC” and “ITER”,”he said.”The LHC group is happy to help because we have experiences that are relevant.In large projects,you encounter issues of international relations,but the bottom line is that scientists want to do science.Scientists will do whatever it takes to extend the field of research.”

Speakers at the meeting included Deputy Director Ken Stanfield,US-CMS Research Program Manager Dan Green,”USLHC” Accelerator Project Manager Jim Strait,and the Head of Fermilab”””’’s Office of Project Management Oversight,Ed Temple.Yeck noted that “a consistent message from the “LHC” people is the importance of strong central management.”

“BPPAC” plans to examine other models of international collaboration and does not expect to complete its analysis until the end of the summer. The “ITER” project hopes to begin construction in 2006 and become operational in 2014.Canada, France,Spain and Japan have all submitted offers to host “ITER”,but further negotiations are necessary to reach a consensus.Sauthoff cited the importance of contact with the “LHC” project.

“We have had a very fruitful interaction with the “LHC” group,”Sauthoff said.”Both “LHC” and “ITER” are big science adventures and we have not had enough opportunities to share our experiences. I””””m looking forward to more beneficial interactions.”

reactor scheme

Fusion is a theoretically simple physical process: the binding of the nuclei of two similar atoms. For example,the nuclei of deuterium (one proton and one neutron)and tritium (one proton and two neutrons)can be forced to bind together.The result will then split into a neutron and a helium nucleus, with two neutrons and two protons -otherwise known as an alpha particle –plus another particle that does not carry much energy.The mass of the two incoming nuclei is greater than the mass of the product.This loss of mass translates into energy, which can both heat the plasma and provide power for useful work.

The fusion reaction is sustained in what is called a “burning plasma,” a nearly fully-ionized gas in which the fusion power captured by the plasma keeps the plasma hot.A burning plasma is dominated by this self-heating; however,this condition has not yet been achieved in a laboratory. The dynamics of the self-heating will be a funda- mentally new and key feature studied in “ITER”.

The plasma, in this case an ionized gas of deuterium and tritium nuclei, will be heated by an external source to a temperature of at least 100 million degrees centigrade.Once this temperature is reached,the deuterium and tritium nuclei will begin to fuse,forming helium nuclei and neutrons. These magnetically-confined helium nuclei will then collide with deuterium nuclei in the gas,transferring some of their energy to the deuterium nuclei and heating the gas further.The plasma becomes self- heating -like a star -and a strong external energy source is no longer necessary.

“ITER” would be the first magnetic confinement fusion experiment to produce burning plasma. The reaction would produce ten times the amount of external power injected into it.

U.S.Secretary of Energy Spencer Abraham said: “By the time our young children reach middle age, fusion may begin to deliver energy independence and energy abundance to all nations rich and poor, Fusion is a promise for the future we must not ignore.”

Tornadoes are usually seen as very destructive forces, but one Canadian engineer believes that we can one day harness the power of the tornado to power entire cities. Louis Michaud believes that by pumping warm, humid air into his

tornado

Atmospheric Vortex Engine, a chamber approximately 200 meters wide with 100 meter tall walls, he can create an artificial tornado. The rotation of the tornado would then power wind turbines at the chamber inlets, creating enough electricity to power a small town. Using waste heat from power plants since they typically reject more than half of the heat they generate. He admits that the tornado would probably cause some extra precipitation in the surrounding area, but says that the whole setup would be inherently safe.

In 2009m. International team of scientists has determined the structure of the chlorophyll molecules in green bacteria that are responsible for harvesting light energy. The scientists discover results one day could be used to build artificial photosynthetic systems, such as those that convert solar energy in to electrical energy.

The scientists found that the chlorophylls are highly efficient at harvesting light energy. “We found that the orientation of the chlorophyll molecules make green bacteria extremely efficient at harvesting light,” said Donald Bryant, Ernest C. Pollard Professor of Biotechnology at Penn State and one of the team’’s leaders. According to Bryant, green bacteria are a group of organisms that generally live in extremely low-light environments, such as in light-deprived regions of hot springs and at depths of 100 meters in the Black Sea. The bacteria contain structures, chlorosomes, which contain up to 250,000 chlorophylls. “The ability to capture light energy and rapidly deliver it to where it needs to go is essential to these bacteria, some of which see only a few photons of light per chlorophyll per day.”

Because they have been so difficult to study, the chlorosomes in green bacteria are the last class of light-harvesting complexes to be characterized structurally by scientists. Scientists typically

green bacteria micro

characterize molecular structures using X-ray crystallography, a technique that determines the arrangement of atoms in a molecule and ultimately gives information that can be used to create a picture of the molecule; however, X-ray crystallography could not be used to characterize the chlorosomes in green bacteria because the technique only works for molecules that are uniform in size, shape, and structure. “Each chlorosome in a green bacterium has a unique organization,” said Bryant. “They are like little andouille sausages. When you take cross-sections of andouille sausages, you see different patterns of meat and fat; no two sausages are alike in size or content, although there is some structure inside, nevertheless. Chlorosomes in green bacteria are like andouille sausages, and the variability in their compositions had prevented scientists from using X-ray crystallography to characterize the internal structure.”

To get around this problem, the team used a combination of techniques to study the chlorosome. They used genetic techniques to create a mutant bacterium with a more regular internal structure, cryo-electron microscopy to identify the larger distance constraints for the chlorosome, solid-state nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy to determine the structure of the chlorosome’’s component chlorophyll molecules, and modeling to bring together all of the pieces and create a final picture of the chlorosome.

First, the team created a mutant bacterium in order to determine why the chlorophyll molecules in green bacteria became increasingly complex over evolutionary time. To create the mutant, they inactivated three genes that green bacteria acquired late in their evolution. The team suspected that the genes were responsible for improving the bacteria’’s light-harvesting capabilities. “Essentially, we went backward in evolutionary time to an intermediate state in order to understand, in part, why green bacteria acquired these genes,” Bryant said. The team found that the more evolved, wild-type bacteria grow faster at all light intensities than the mutant form. “Indeed, the reason that chlorophylls became more complex was to increase light-harvesting efficiency,” said Bryant.

Next, the team isolated chlorosomes from the mutant and the wild-type forms of the bacteria and used cryo-electron microscopy — a type of electron microscopy that is performed at super-cold cryogenic temperatures — to take pictures of the chlorosomes. The pictures revealed that chlorophyll molecules inside chlorosomes have a nanotube shape. “They are like Russian dolls, with one concentric tube fitting inside the next,” said Bryant. “The mutant bacterium’’s chlorosomes contain only one set of tubes, whereas the wild-type chlorosomes contain many tubes, each arranged in a unique pattern, like those andouille sausages.”

The team then went a step further and used solid-state NMR spectroscopy — a technique in which samples are spun very rapidly and exposed to a magnetic field — to look deep inside the chlorosome. This technique enables researchers to understand the relationships between atomic nuclei in a sample and, ultimately, to acquire structural information about the molecules of interest.

green bacteria

Bryant: “The NMR data revealed to us that the individual chlorophyll molecules in green bacteria are arranged in dimers — molecules consisting of two identical simpler molecules — with their long hydrophobic, or water-repellent, tails sticking out of either side. “We also learned precisely how the chlorophyll molecules attach to one another, and we were able to measure the distance between chlorophyll molecules. The cryo-electron microscopy pictures showed gross structural details and distances, and the NMR results allowed us to quantify these distances as well, and confirmed to us that what were were seeing was, in fact, stacks of the chlorophyll molecules all lined up,” he said. The NMR results also enabled the scientists to determine that the chlorophyll molecules in green bacteria are arranged in helical spirals. In the mutant bacteria, the chlorophyll molecules are positioned at a nearly 90-degree angle in relation to the long axis of the nanotubes, whereas the angle is less steep in the wild-type organism. “It’’s the orientation of the chlorophyll molecules that is the most important thing here,” said Bryant. The last steps for the team were to pull together all of their data and to create a detailed computer model of the structure.

Bryant said: “At first it seems counterintuitive that green bacteria have managed to evolve a better light-harvesting system by increasing disorder in the chlorosome structure. Most people would think that if you make something that is more highly ordered, you”ll end up with something that works better. But this is clearly a case where that isn”t true. If all of the chlorophylls are identically arranged in a chlorosome, then the energy from the photon, once it is absorbed, is going to wander around over all of those chlorophylls, which could take a long time. In the wild-type form, you have these different domains where chlorophyll molecules are located and, therefore, the ability of photon energy to migrate becomes restricted. In other words, the energy in an individual photon visits a smaller number of chlorophylls, and that’’s an advantage to the organism because the energy can get to where it needs to go faster. Speed is the name of the game that green bacteria play with light. The organisms have only a couple of nanoseconds for the energy to get someplace useful or else the energy is going to be lost. The speed required can be a problem for bacteria that receive only a few photons of light per chlorophyll per day. The interactions that lead to the assembly of the chlorophylls in chlorosomes are rather simple, so they are good models for artificial systems,” he said. “You can make structures out of these chlorophylls in solution just by having the right solution conditions. In fact, people have done this for many years; however, they haven”t really understood the biological rules for building larger structures. I won”t say that we completely understand the rules yet, but at least we know what two of the structures are now and how they relate to the biological system as a whole, which is a huge advance.”

The team also includes researchers from the Leiden Institute of Chemistry and the Groningen Biomolecular Sciences and Biotechnology Institute in the Netherlands, and the Max Planck Institute in Germany. This research was supported by the United States Department of Energy.

Green electricity from worthless wastewater

New technology will be presented at World Bioenergy in Jönköping, Sweden on 25–27 May 2010m. The new product is a container filled with technology which uses the heat from 55 °C water to generate electricity. The unit is called the “Opcon Powerbox” and was developed by the Swedish firm of “Opcon”.

open powerbox

The first commercial “Opcon Powerbox” was installed last year at two pulp mills in Sweden, StoraEnso’s mill at Skutskär and Munksjö’s Aspa mill. In operation, the technology more than delivers what its developer promises.

Niklas Johansson, vice president Opcon, explains: “The mills generate electricity from wastewater and the process also helps to meet cooling needs,”

Aspa Mill should be able to produce even more. With the Opcon Powerbox, StoraEnso will produce more than 4 GWh of carbon dioxidefree electricity annually.

Johansson says: “We’re talking about as much electricity as from a wind power plant, but at a far lower investment cost”

powerbox 2010

This is just the beginning of electricity generation with far greater potential. A pilot study has been done at a gas-fuelled, 105 MW power plant in Australia. With 12 Opcon Powerboxes installed, another 9 MW could be produced from the waste heat under current operating conditions.

The “Opcon Powerbox” is based on technology from Opcon’s subsidiary Svenska Rotor Maskiner (developers of the screw compressor) and the Swedish firm of Ljungströms (air preheaters, etc.). The technology is fuel neutral and works with hot water or steam. The technology is highly interesting in combination with biofuel, because electricity generation that requires little investment makes green energy even more efficient and competitive.

In recent years Opcon has developed into a major Swedish player in the bioenergy field, with brands like Saxlund International and Svensk Rökgasenergi,SRE. The company is one of a number of manufacturers to present new technology at World Bioenergy 2010 in Jönköping, Sweden. As well as the trade fair, there will also be a worldclass conference with field trips to nearby bioenergy facilities.

Energy and government officials from Eastern Europe toured the wind farm Friday at the Atlantic County Utilities Authority.

The group from Kazakhstan, Moldova, Ukraine and other former Soviet countries donned hardhats to get a close look at one of America’s most accessible wind projects.

ACUA President Rick Dovey said: “They asked more questions about electric rates than any other group”

Jim Black, of the Clean Air Council said: “They’re all looking at getting into solar, wind, biomass and other renewable energy”

The five-turbine project off the White Horse Pike is a popular destination for foreign dignitaries because of its proximity to Philadelphia and New York and its accessibility just a few steps from the road. The authority has hosted delegations from Sri Lanka, Japan, India, South Africa and the Baltic states.

world renewable energy

Many countries in Eastern Europe, including Kazakhstan, rely on coal plants. But that country is under increasing pressure to go green, said Nurlan N. Jiyenbayev, director of ND & Co. Solar Energy based in Kazakhstan.

Kazakhstan officials want to provide 5 percent of the nation’s energy needs through renewable resources by 2024. By comparison, New Jersey wants to provide 20 percent through renewable energy by 2020.

Eastern Europe has many options to meet this goal — from hydroelectric power to solar. But one is drawing particular attention.

“Wind — unequivocally wind,” said Andrey Khokhlov, deputy director of EuroUkr Wind, based in Kiev, Ukraine.

His company works on wind farms about 17 times the size of the Atlantic City project.

“Our investors are not interested in stations less than 100 megawatts,” he said. The five ACUA windmills produce a total of 7.5 megawatts.

Like in New Jersey, Ukraine offers government incentives to companies that generate renewable energy, said Oleh Dudkin, head of the secretariat for an energy panel in Ukraine.

Dudkin said he was impressed by the windmills’ automation and the authority’s efforts to capture renewable energy, such as its solar array and methane system.

The officials took photos and video of the authority’s presentation with handheld cameras and chatted quietly among themselves.

The authority’s operations room has a bank of 30-year-old electrical boards with dozens of colored lights that serve as a backup to the modern computers that track the plant systems, including solar and wind.

General Electric and the plant’s operator monitor the turbines remotely from California and Pennsylvania.

One plasma screen graphically illustrated the energy output from both systems and even tracked the sun’s position as it inched across the sky. The five windmills are named after the spouses of authority employees: Carol, K.C., Mary, Kathy and Diedre.

“Have you considered storing energy in the form of hydrogen fuel cells?” asked Vahe Odabashian, vice president of Armenian company H2 Economy.

Dovey said: “The way we do things, we want someone else to pay for it”

A private company built the windmills on ACUA property in 2006 for about $13 million. A partner firm sells the energy back to the authority at a discounted rate.

“That’s a very good approach,” Odabashian replied. “If someone comes up with the money, give me a call. I’ll bring the fuel cells.”

The tour was organized by the U.S. Department of Commerce.

This utilisation of hydrogen as a source of power, is one that is being extensively researched with everything from hydrogen fuel cell cars to hand held personal devices being powered by the most common element in the universe.

It is however, a complex process. As well as being highly flammable, storing pure hydrogen requires high pressure and low temperatures. Currently, new nano-materials with high surface areas capable of absorbing hydrogen are in production, but not on a large scale.

The science behind utilising urine is to do with chemically binding hydrogen to other elements, such as water, to make it easier and safer to store and transport.

The team under Gerardine Botte at Ohio University realised that by attaching hydrogen to another element, nitrogen, they can store hydrogen without the exotic environmental conditions, and then release it with less electricity, 0.037 Volts instead of the 1.23 Volts needed for water.

One molecule of urea, a major component of urine, contains four atoms of hydrogen bonded to two atoms of nitrogen.

Therefore, by inserting a special nickel electrode into a pool of urine and then applying an electrical current, you can release hydrogen gas. Botte’’s current prototype measures 3×3x1 inch and can produce up to 500 milliwatts of power.

Speaking to NBC News, Professor Botte, said of the possible benefits: “One cow can provide enough energy to supply hot water for 19 houses, soldiers in the field could carry their own fuel.”

She also mentioned the benefits of hydrogen cell vehicles saying a fuel cell, urine-powered vehicle could theoretically travel 90 miles per gallon whilst a refrigerator-sized unit could produce one kilowatt of energy for roughly $5,000.

Another scientist, John Stickney, a chemist and professor at the University of Georgia said the technology would enable industries such as farms to be completely powered by green energy.

“The waste products from say a chicken farm could be used to produce the energy needed to run the farm,” he said.

Currently, livestock farmers who are required by law to pool their animals” waste could utilise the technology to create energy from urine within six months.

As the world continues its quest to use less fossil fuels, the latest possible solution comes from the tobacco plant. This latest news comes from the “California University”, Berkeley. It will be nice to see tobacco used for something other than lung cancer. This new discovery is based on the possibility of literally programming the cells of the plants to get solar cells from the tobacco plants. The science behind it is actually pretty simple and pretty amazing. By using a genetically engineered virus, scientists were able to literally transform the cells of the plants to create synthetic solar cells.

Instead of creating some new form of tobacco plant, they are actually applying their chemistry to full grown tobacco plants. Their custom-made virus is sprayed on the plants and then it is time to sit back and let it work its magic. The virus infects a cell which then enables the virus to spread just as any other virus would. As the infected cells form, they are creating artificial chromophores that make high powered electrons out of light.

Of course, the plants themselves are not used for direct solar energy as they still have to be harvested. Once harvested, the structures are extracted and put into a liquid solution to dissolve. This solution is then applied to plastics or glass and poof, solar cells from tobacco plants is a reality. While whole process may seem a little off the wall, if this process can be refined and work in mass form. It totally changes solar energy as we know.

While this technology exciting, the effect that could have on an economy that seems to continue to go backwards is even more incredible. One of the hardest hit industries during the last decade has been the farming industry. Farmers have been grappleing with their crops and tight times have not made things easier. An flow into the tobacco industry to create solar cells from tobacco plants could be a nice boost in the arm as farmers who are waiting for the bank to come and take their land will now have a viable way out.

These cells would not be expected to last as long as typical solar cells, but they would probably be much less expensive. That being the case, solar cells from tobacco leaves could provide both an organic way to produce solar cells and the economic boost that the farming industry needs.