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[Due to the increasing size of the archives, each topic page now contains only the prior 365 days of content. Access to older stories is now solely through the Monthly Archive pages or the site search function.]
EPA Proposes Stronger Air Quality Standards for SO2; First Proposed Increase Since 1971
November 18, 2009
| US SO2 emissions by source sector in 2005. Source: EPA. Click to enlarge. |
For the first time in nearly 40 years, EPA is proposing to strengthen the nation’s sulfur dioxide (SO2) primary air quality standard to protect public health. Power plants and other industrial facilities emit SO2 directly into the air. Exposure to SO2 can aggravate asthma, cause respiratory difficulties, and result in emergency room visits and hospitalization. People with asthma, children, and the elderly are especially vulnerable to SO2’s effects.
EPA is taking comment on a proposal to establish a new national one-hour SO2 standard, between 50 and 100 parts per billion (ppb). The existing primary standards were 140 ppb measured over 24-hours, and 30 ppb measured over an entire year. The Agency also is taking comment on alternative levels for the 1-hour standard up to 150 ppb.
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GE Introduces Upgraded 7FA Gas Turbine for Power Generation; Improved Output and Efficiency
October 28, 2009
| The upgraded Frame 7A gas turbine. Click to enlarge. |
Using next generation gas turbine technology to increase output and efficiency, GE Energy introduced an upgraded Frame 7FA heavy-duty gas turbine for 60 Hz power plants.
The power output of the new 7FA will increase to 211 MW—a 36 MW increase over today’s 7FA—in simple cycle operation. In combined cycle configuration (two gas turbines and one steam turbine), the power output will increase to 627 MW—a 98 MW increase in power generation. GE has also increased the efficiency in each configuration: thermal efficiency will increase to 38.5% in simple cycle operation, and to 57.5% in combined cycle operation. Each point of efficiency increase translates to major savings in fuel costs for each megawatt of power produced.
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ARPA-E Awards $151M to 37 Projects for Transformative Energy Research
October 26, 2009
The Department of Energy (DOE) has selected 37 energy research projects for $151 million in funding through the recently formed Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E). This is the first round of projects funded under ARPA-E, which is receiving total of $400 million under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.
Among the projects selected are an effort to develop new metal-air batteries using advanced ionic liquids with 6-20 times the energy density of Li-ion batteries at < 1/3 the cost; a project to produce a flow of gasoline directly from sunlight and CO2 using a symbiotic system of two organisms; and a new type of engine for use as a genset in a plug-in hybrid vehicle that is five times more efficient than traditional auto engines in electricity production, 20% lighter, and 30% cheaper to manufacture.
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The Business of Plugging In: Building the Full Ecosystem for a Successful Plug-in Vehicle Industry in the US
October 23, 2009
The Business of Plugging In conference in Detroit this week marked a serious effort by utilities; automakers and suppliers; academia; government agencies; and financiers to instigate the necessary granular discussions required to lay an integrated foundation to develop a full ecosystem—products, services, policies, supply chain and consumer demand—for the successful deployment and growth of plug-in vehicles in the US.
Viewed another way, the conference was seeking to connect the different contributors or stakeholders that will be required to deliver and to support—on a large scale, to mainstream consumers—plug-in, electric drive vehicles that can compete in terms of cost, convenience, performance, and lifestyle appeal with combustion-engined cars that have had the benefit of more than 100 years of an ever-evolving value chain.
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US Utilities Pledge to Ramp Up Efforts To Make Electricity a Crucial Transportation Fuel
October 21, 2009
Declaring an urgent imperative to prepare for the use of electricity as a crucial transportation fuel in the future, the US’ electric utilities collectively pledged to move forward aggressively to create the infrastructure to support the full-scale commercialization and deployment of plug-in electric vehicles (PEVs).
The pledge represents a culmination of efforts by Edison Electric Institute (EEI) member companies to survey the current state of electric transportation initiatives among utilities, evaluate how those initiatives fit in with the overall goal of advancing transportation electrification and determine what more is needed. There are five areas of focus:
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Lockheed Martin and Ocean Power Technologies Developing Utility-Scale Wave Power System
October 13, 2009
| Individual PowerBuoy and undersea substation. Source: OPT. Click to enlarge. |
Lockheed Martin and Ocean Power Technologies, Inc. (OPT) have signed a commercial engineering services agreement to develop OPT’s wave energy systems for use in future utility-scale power generation projects.
Under the agreement, Lockheed Martin will provide its expertise in systems integration, lean manufacturing, and test and optimization analysis to enhance OPT’s innovative PowerBuoy wave power generation technology to utility-scale. This will allow the two companies to pursue future utility-scale power generation projects in North America. The companies agreed to collaborate on such projects in a letter of intent signed in January 2009.
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US DOT Awards $100M in Recovery Act Funds to 43 Transit Projects to Reduce Energy Consumption and Greenhouse Gas Emissions
September 22, 2009
The US Department of Transportation (DOT) is awarding $100 million in Economic Recovery Act funding to 43 transit agencies for projects to reduce energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions from both vehicles and facilities.
The 43 winning proposals were submitted by transit agencies from across the country as part of a nationwide competition for the $100 million in American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA) funds. Selection criteria included a project’s ability to reduce energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions and also to provide a return on the investment. Other criteria included readiness to implement, applicant capacity, degree of innovation and national applicability. The Federal Transit Administration reviewed more than $2 billion in applications for these funds.
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Volkswagen and LichtBlick Partner on Home Combined Heat and Power Systems; LichtBlick Plans a “SchwarmStrom” for 2,000 MW of Decentralized Power
September 09, 2009
| An EcoBlue CHP unit. Click to enlarge. |
Volkswagen and German energy supplier LichtBlick have formed an exclusive world-wide energy partnership. Volkswagen will produce the high-efficiency EcoBlue CHP (combined heat and power) plant, which is to be driven by natural gas engines from Volkswagen. LichtBlick will market the plants as “ZuhauseKraftwerke” (home power plants) and will use them in a new, decentralized intelligent power supply scheme: “SchwarmStrom” (current swarm).
LichtBlick plans eventually to network some 100,000 of the distributed home power plants to form a 2,000 MW virtual decentralized power plant to handle fluctuations in future electricity generation as renewables grow to represent a larger component of the power mix, according to Dr. Christian Friege, CEO of LicbtBlick.
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DOE Selects Laboratory-led Projects for up to $11M to Support Development of Advanced Water Power Technologies
August 29, 2009
The US Department of Energy (DOE) has selected national laboratory-led projects for up to $11 million this year, as well as future years, subject to annual appropriations, under DOE’s competitive laboratory solicitation for the development of Advanced Water Power Technologies. (Earlier post.) These projects are intended to advance the science needed to accelerate the commercial viability, market acceptance, and environmental performance for both new marine and hydrokinetic technologies as well as technologies and methods to improve on the performance of conventional hydropower facilities.
Awards were made in four topic areas—two for each respective technology, marine and hydrokinetics and conventional hydropower:
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Oyster Wave Power Machine Generates Electricity Onshore; Sea Trials Begin This Autumn
August 01, 2009
| The Oyster concept for transforming wave power to onshore electricity. Click to enlarge. |
A new type of wave power machine—Oyster—is being installed on the seabed off the Atlantic shores of the Orkney Islands for trials that begin this autumn. In contrast to many other wave power devices, Oyster uses hydraulic technology to transfer wave power to shore, where it is then converted into electricity.
Oyster is fitted with an 18m-wide oscillator based on fundamental research at Queen’s University Belfast led by Professor Trevor Whittaker. The oscillator is fitted with pistons and, when activated by wave action, pumps high-pressure water through a sub-sea pipeline to the shore. Onshore, conventional hydroelectric generators convert this high-pressure water into electrical energy.
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Report from the REFF-Wall Street; Themes in Renewable Energy Finance
July 22, 2009
by Bill Cooke
Green Car Congress attended the Renewable Energy Finance Forum - Wall Street (REFF-Wall Street) conference (23-24 June) sponsored by Euromoney Energy Events and the American Council on Renewable Energy (ACORE). ACORE is an organization of member companies and institutions that are dedicated to moving renewable energy into the mainstream of America’s economy.
Ed Feo is a partner with the law firm of Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy and was voted one of the “Five Most Influential People in Renewable Energy” in 2008 by Euromoney / Institutional Investor. He identified three major themes in 2009 for renewable energy: “Energy markets are undergoing their most fundamental changes since the 1930s; cap and trade is the most complex issue outside of health care; and schisms exist within the energy community that will grow stronger over time.” Although not part of the conferences formal structure, the themes were addressed in the presentations and panel discussions.
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New PNNL Geothermal Heat Extraction Process Optimizes Low-Temperature Resources; NYU Stern Study Finds Geothermal Most Efficient Renewable and Improving the Fastest
July 16, 2009
| PNNL’s metal-organic heat carrier (MOHC) in the biphasic fluid may help improve thermodynamic efficiency of the heat recovery process. This image represents the molecular makeup of one of several MOHCs. Source: PNNL. Click to enlarge. |
Scientists at the US Department of Energy’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) have developed a new method for capturing significantly more heat from low-temperature geothermal resources.
PNNL’s conversion system exploits the rapid expansion and contraction capabilities of a new biphasic fluid. When exposed to heat brought to the surface from water circulating in moderately hot, underground rock, the thermal-cycling of the biphasic fluid will power a turbine to generate electricity.
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DOE, RTI to Design and Build Coal Syngas Cleanup System for IGCC Power Plants to Reduce Cost of Removing Contaminants, Capturing CO2; Potential for Synthetic Chemicals and Fuels
July 14, 2009
| The RTI/Eastman syngas cleanup technology platform. Click to enlarge. |
Extending a relationship of more than a decade, the US Department of Energy (DOE) and Research Triangle Institute (RTI) International will collaborate on a project designed to advance the development of coal power plants with near-zero emissions by reducing the cost and improving the efficiency of capturing CO2 and removing contaminants from syngas derived from coal.
The system also holds the potential to reduce the cost of producing chemicals, transportation fuels, and substitute natural gas from gasified coal.
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Mitsubishi and Partners Develop Highly Integrated Organic Photovoltaics Module
June 21, 2009
| Structure of the OPV. Source: Mitsubishi Corporation. Click to enlarge. |
Mitsubishi Cooperation (MC), the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST) and Tokki Corporation have developed a new, highly-integrated Organic Photovoltaics (OPV) module.
Like silicone PVs, OPVs employ a P-N diode junction as a generating active layer. The biggest challenge over some 30 plus years of R&D has been raising the low power output of PVs. In January, 2005, AIST achieved 4.0% light exchange efficiency with the introduction of a bulk-hetero junction (i-layer). At the time, this was the highest efficiency rate that had ever been achieved.
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Researchers Propose a Renewable Energy Cycle Based on Co-electrolysis of Water and CO2 to Produce Syngas
May 21, 2009
| Schematic illustration of a generic liquid-fuel energy cycle utilizing a renewable electrical source. Credit: ACS. Click to enlarge. |
Researchers at Northwestern University are proposing, and have begun experimental validation of, a renewable liquid-fuel energy storage cycle based on the co-electrolysis of H2O and CO2 using a solid oxide electrolysis cell (SOEC) powered by renewable electricity to produce syngas. The syngas is then in turn converted into liquid fuels (e.g., methanol or synthetic hydrocarbons) which could be used in a direct fuel cell.
The direct fuel cell produces electricity, with water and CO2 as byproducts of the oxidation of the liquid fuel in the fuel cell. These would be captured and recycled back into the co-electrolysis process.
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Rentech Planning to Build Biomass to Synthetic Fuels and Electric Power Plant in California
May 11, 2009
| The Rentech Process is based on Fischer-Tropsch chemistry. Click to enlarge. |
Rentech, Inc., a Fischer-Tropsch process company, plans to build a plant in Rialto, California for the production of synthetic fuels and electric power from renewable waste biomass feedstocks.
The Rialto Renewable Energy Center (Rialto Project) is designed to produce approximately 600 barrels per day of renewable synthetic fuels and export approximately 35 MW of renewable electric power. The carbon footprint of the plant is designed to be near zero as the fuels and power would be produced only from renewable feedstocks.
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Study Finds Bioelectricity Better Option Than Liquid Biofuels for Transportation Output and GHG Emissions
May 08, 2009
| Kilometers per crop hectare for switchgrass feedstock with a small SUV. Campbell et al. (2009) Click to enlarge. |
A new life cycle assessment comparing the performance of bioelectricity and ethanol from a variety of pathways with respect to transportation kilometers and GHG offsets achieved per unit area of biofuels cropland concludes that bioelectricity used to charge a battery electric vehicle outperforms ethanol for a combustion engine across a range of feedstocks, conversion technologies, and vehicle classes.
The study by University of California, Merced, Assistant Professor Elliott Campbell along with Christopher Field of the Carnegie Institution’s Department of Global Ecology and David Lobell of Stanford University, found that bioelectricity produces an average 81% more transportation kilometers and 108% more emissions offsets per unit area cropland than cellulosic ethanol. A paper on the work appeared in the 8 May issue of the journal Science.
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Study Finds UK Power Infrastructure Has Capacity for Significant Rise in Use of EVs and PHEVs
April 30, 2009
According to the results of simulation studies by a consortium including Ricardo, Jaguar-Land Rover, E.ON and Amberjac Projects, a substantial medium-term rise in the number of electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles would have a much lower impact on the UK national power grid than has previously been estimated.
The research study has been carried out by the consortium as part of the Range Extended Hybrid Electric Vehicle (REHEV) project, which is led by Jaguar-Land Rover and part-funded by the UK’s Technology Strategy Board.
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Dutch Researchers Developing Catalytic System for Producing Hydrogen from Gas-Fired Power Stations
April 29, 2009
| Cartoon of the proposed combined hydrogen and conventional power plant (top). Combined methane combustion, coking and generation of H2 and coke combustion (bottom). More H2 can form via the water–gas shift reaction if CO is present. Credit: RSC. Click to enlarge. |
Researchers at the University of Amsterdam in the Netherlands are developing ceria-based catalysts as candidates for integrating methane combustion and hydrogen generation in power plants. The proposed process combines methane combustion, coking, simultaneous generation of hydrogen and coke combustion.
The process can be applied in existing gas-fired power plants, using methane from both fossil and renewable sources. In a paper published in the RSC journal Green Chemistry, the team led by Dr. Gadi Rothenberg showed that good results can be obtained from ceria-based catalysts with platinum, ruthenium, and importantly, nickel, with its lower cost.
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Altair Nanotechnologies Pursuing ARRA Funding for Grid Modernization
March 11, 2009
Altair Nanotechnologies Inc. (Altairnano), a provider of lithium-ion energy storage systems, is pursuing federal funds associated with the 2009 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA), which includes $4.5 billion for the modernization of the US electricity grid. Altairnano is developing energy storage systems for the automotive market as well as for the power generation sector. (Earlier post.)
The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act includes an Electricity Delivery and Energy Reliability program designed to accelerate the modernization of the US electricity grid. The program will provide up to $4.5 billion in funds to support the development, demonstration and deployment of energy reliability activities, including demand responsive equipment, enhance security and reliability of the energy infrastructure, and energy storage research.
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Study Finds Integrated Biorefinery Processes Could Be Highly Competitive With Petroleum Fuels on Efficiency and Costs, While Offering Substantial Reductions in Greenhouse Gas Emissions
March 08, 2009
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| Processing efficiencies for biorefinery scenarios (energy out as percent of feedstock lower heating value). Laser et al. (2009) Click to enlarge. |
Biomass refining technologies integrating biological and thermochemical processing to produce biofuels and/or power could offer similar, if not lower, efficiencies and costs and very large reductions in greenhouse gas emissions compared to petroleum-derived fuel, according to a comparative analysis of 14 mature technology biomass refining scenarios.
The paper results from the “The Role of Biomass in America’s Energy Future (RBAEF)” project and is published in a special issue of the journal Biofuels, Bioproducts and Biorefining which presents a collection of papers with technology-oriented analysis resulting from the RBAEF project.
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MIT Students Develop Hydraulic Energy-Generating Shock Absorbers
February 13, 2009
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| GenShock prototype. Click to enlarge. |
A team of MIT undergraduate students has invented a shock absorber that harnesses energy from small bumps in the road, generating electricity while it smoothes the ride more effectively than conventional shocks. MIT Senior Shakeel Avadhany and his teammates say they can produce up to a 10% improvement in overall vehicle fuel efficiency by using the regenerative shock absorbers.
Their prototype shock absorbers use a hydraulic system that forces fluid through a turbine attached to a generator. The system is controlled by an active electronic system that optimizes the damping, providing a smoother ride than conventional shocks while generating electricity to recharge the batteries or operate electrical equipment.
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Cyclone Targets Small-Scale Co-Generation Market With External Combustion Waste Heat Engine
February 11, 2009
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| WHE unit. Click to enlarge. |
Cyclone Power Technologies Inc., the developer of the external combustion Waste Heat Engine (WHE) (earlier post), has formed a separate division to market and manufacture WHE systems for applications such as small-scale cogeneration, solar thermal electricity production, biomass combustion, and engines for auxiliary power units for trucks and RVs.
The WHE is derivative of Cyclone’s external combustion Green Revolution Engine. (Earlier post.) Unlike its more powerful counterpart, the WHE operates in a low-pressure, low-temperature range. By contrast, the GRE employs super-critical pressure (3,200 psi, 22 MPa) and super-heated steam (1,200 °F, 649 °C).
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NREL Study Concludes That PHEVs and V2G Can Reduce NOx Emissions from Power Generation
January 24, 2009
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| Total annual per-vehicle tailpipe, refinery, and generation emissions of pollutants with different-sized PHEV fleets, with V2G services provided by the PHEV fleet (CO2-e is in tonnes, SO2 and NOx are in kg). Credit: ACS. Click to enlarge. |
A new study has concluded that in addition to reducing emissions from the transportation sector, plug-in hybrid electric vehicles may further increase the efficiency of power generation plants and reduce overall emissions by providing two vehicle-to-grid services: energy storage and ancillary services. A paper on the analysis was published online 22 January in the ACS journal Environmental Science & Technology.
Ramteen Sioshansi (currently at Ohio State University) and Paul Denholm at the US Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) found that by changing generator dispatch, a PHEV fleet of up to 15% of light-duty vehicles can decrease net generator NOx emissions during the ozone season, despite the additional charging load. By adding vehicle-to-grid (V2G) services, such as spinning reserves and energy storage, CO2, SO2 and NOx emissions can be reduced even further.
