World Can Be Powered by Alternative Energy, Using Today’s Technology, in 20-40 Years, Experts Say

If someone told you there was a way you could save 2.5 million to 3 million lives a year and simultaneously halt global warming, reduce air and water pollution and develop secure, reliable energy sources — nearly all with existing technology and at costs comparable with what we spend on energy today — why wouldn’t you do it?

According to a new study coauthored by Stanford researcher Mark Z. Jacobson, we could accomplish all that by converting the world to clean, renewable energy sources and forgoing fossil fuels.

“Based on our findings, there are no technological or economic barriers to converting the entire world to clean, renewable energy sources,” said Jacobson, a professor of civil and environmental engineering. “It is a question of whether we have the societal and political will.”

He and Mark Delucchi, of the University of California-Davis, have written a two-part paper in Energy Policy in which they assess the costs, technology and material requirements of converting the planet, using a plan they developed.

The world they envision would run largely on electricity. Their plan calls for using wind, water and solar energy to generate power, with wind and solar power contributing 90 percent of the needed energy.

Geothermal and hydroelectric sources would each contribute about 4 percent in their plan (70 percent of the hydroelectric is already in place), with the remaining 2 percent from wave and tidal power.

Vehicles, ships and trains would be powered by electricity and hydrogen fuel cells. Aircraft would run on liquid hydrogen. Homes would be cooled and warmed with electric heaters — no more natural gas or coal — and water would be preheated by the sun.

Commercial processes would be powered by electricity and hydrogen. In all cases, the hydrogen would be produced from electricity. Thus, wind, water and sun would power the world.

The researchers approached the conversion with the goal that by 2030, all new energy generation would come from wind, water and solar, and by 2050, all pre-existing energy production would be converted as well.

“We wanted to quantify what is necessary in order to replace all the current energy infrastructure — for all purposes — with a really clean and sustainable energy infrastructure within 20 to 40 years,” said Jacobson.

One of the benefits of the plan is that it results in a 30 percent reduction in world energy demand since it involves converting combustion processes to electrical or hydrogen fuel cell processes. Electricity is much more efficient than combustion.

That reduction in the amount of power needed, along with the millions of lives saved by the reduction in air pollution from elimination of fossil fuels, would help keep the costs of the conversion down.

“When you actually account for all the costs to society — including medical costs — of the current fuel structure, the costs of our plan are relatively similar to what we have today,” Jacobson said.

One of the biggest hurdles with wind and solar energy is that both can be highly variable, which has raised doubts about whether either source is reliable enough to provide “base load” energy, the minimum amount of energy that must be available to customers at any given hour of the day.

Jacobson said that the variability can be overcome.

“The most important thing is to combine renewable energy sources into a bundle,” he said. “If you combine them as one commodity and use hydroelectric to fill in gaps, it is a lot easier to match demand.”

Wind and solar are complementary, Jacobson said, as wind often peaks at night and sunlight peaks during the day. Using hydroelectric power to fill in the gaps, as it does in our current infrastructure, allows demand to be precisely met by supply in most cases. Other renewable sources such as geothermal and tidal power can also be used to supplement the power from wind and solar sources.

“One of the most promising methods of insuring that supply matches demand is using long-distance transmission to connect widely dispersed sites,” said Delucchi. Even if conditions are poor for wind or solar energy generation in one area on a given day, a few hundred miles away the winds could be blowing steadily and the sun shining.

“With a system that is 100 percent wind, water and solar, you can’t use normal methods for matching supply and demand. You have to have what people call a supergrid, with long-distance transmission and really good management,” he said.

Another method of meeting demand could entail building a bigger renewable-energy infrastructure to match peak hourly demand and use the off-hours excess electricity to produce hydrogen for the industrial and transportation sectors.

Using pricing to control peak demands, a tool that is used today, would also help.

Jacobson and Delucchi assessed whether their plan might run into problems with the amounts of material needed to build all the turbines, solar collectors and other devices.

They found that even materials such as platinum and the rare earth metals, the most obvious potential supply bottlenecks, are available in sufficient amounts. And recycling could effectively extend the supply.

“For solar cells there are different materials, but there are so many choices that if one becomes short, you can switch,” Jacobson said. “Major materials for wind energy are concrete and steel and there is no shortage of those.”

Jacobson and Delucchi calculated the number of wind turbines needed to implement their plan, as well as the number of solar plants, rooftop photovoltaic cells, geothermal, hydroelectric, tidal and wave-energy installations.

They found that to power 100 percent of the world for all purposes from wind, water and solar resources, the footprint needed is about 0.4 percent of the world’s land (mostly solar footprint) and the spacing between installations is another 0.6 percent of the world’s land (mostly wind-turbine spacing), Jacobson said.

One of the criticisms of wind power is that wind farms require large amounts of land, due to the spacing required between the windmills to prevent interference of turbulence from one turbine on another.

“Most of the land between wind turbines is available for other uses, such as pasture or farming,” Jacobson said. “The actual footprint required by wind turbines to power half the world’s energy is less than the area of Manhattan.” If half the wind farms were located offshore, a single Manhattan would suffice.

Jacobson said that about 1 percent of the wind turbines required are already in place, and a lesser percentage for solar power.

“This really involves a large scale transformation,” he said. “It would require an effort comparable to the Apollo moon project or constructing the interstate highway system.”

“But it is possible, without even having to go to new technologies,” Jacobson said. “We really need to just decide collectively that this is the direction we want to head as a society.”

Jacobson is the director of Stanford’s Atmosphere/Energy Program and a senior fellow at Stanford’s Woods Institute for the Environment and the Precourt Institute for Energy.

Stanford University (2011, January 27). World can be powered by alternative energy, using today’s technology, in 20-40 years, experts say. ScienceDaily. Retrieved January 27, 2011, from http://www.sciencedaily.com­ /releases/2011/01/110126091443.htm

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The Original Post is Located Here: World Can Be Powered by Alternative Energy

We provide a number of resources such as photos, articles, videos and links that may be of interest if you want more detailed information on fuel cells.

Tomorrow’s fuel-cell vehicles may be powered by enzymes that consume cellulose from woodchips or grass and exhale hydrogen.

Researchers at Virginia Tech, Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), and the University of Georgia have produced hydrogen gas pure enough to power a fuel cell by mixing 14 enzymes, one coenzyme, cellulosic materials from nonfood sources, and water heated to about 90 degrees (32 C).

The group announced three advances from their “one pot” process: 1) a novel combination of enzymes, 2) an increased hydrogen generation rate — to as fast as natural hydrogen fermentation, and 3) a chemical energy output greater than the chemical energy stored in sugars — the highest hydrogen yield reported from cellulosic materials.

“In addition to converting the chemical energy from the sugar, the process also converts the low-temperature thermal energy into high-quality hydrogen energy — like Prometheus stealing fire,” said Percival Zhang, assistant professor of biological systems engineering in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences at Virginia Tech.

“It is exciting because using cellulose instead of starch expands the renewable resource for producing hydrogen to include biomass,” said Jonathan Mielenz, leader of the Bioconversion Science and Technology Group at ORNL.

The researchers used cellulosic materials isolated from wood chips, but crop waste or switchgrass could also be used. “If a small fraction — 2 or 3 percent — of yearly biomass production were used for sugar-to-hydrogen fuel cells for transportation, we could reach transportation fuel independence,” Zhang said. (He added that the 3 percent figure is for global transportation needs. The United States would actually need to convert about 10 percent of biomass — which would be 1.3 billion tons of usable biomass).

The most recent research is published in the Wiley journal ChemSusChem (Chemistry and Sustainability), in the article “Spontaneous High-Yield Production of Hydrogen from Cellulosic Materials and Water Catalyzed by Enzyme Cocktails,” by Virginia Tech student Xinhao Ye and post doctoral associate Yiran Wang, both in biological systems engineering; Robert C. Hopkins and Michael W. W. Adams of the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at the University of Georgia; Barbara R. Evans and Mielenz of the ORNL Chemical Sciences and Biosciences Divisions, respectively; and Zhang.

The research is supported by the Air Force Office of Scientific Research; Zhang’s DuPont Young Professor Award, and the U.S. Department of Energy.

Virginia Tech (2011, January 2). Enzyme cocktail could eliminate a step in biofuel process. ScienceDaily. Retrieved January 2, 2011, from http://www.sciencedaily.com­ /releases/2010/12/101227100824.htm

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The Original Post is Located Here: Enzyme Cocktail Could Eliminate a Step in Biofuel Process

What are Hydrogen Fuel Cells?
The hydrogen fuel cell is same as our battery cells except for the fact that in case of hydrogen fuel cells the power is produced only when hydrogen is fed to the fuel cell. The electricity produced in hydrogen fuel cell is dependent on the rate of Hydrogen flow to the cell and also on size of the hydrogen fuel cell.

What are the advantages of Hydrogen Fuel Cells?
Although along with electricity it produces heat and water, the hydrogen fuel cells produce a lot less heat than the traditional rod cells. Hydrogen fuel cells are a lot more efficient than the gasoline engines by about 20 to 30%.

These cells can be created in different sizes and as a result can be used to power smaller instruments like an MP3 player to factory buildings and towns.

For the automobile industries the biggest challenge today are its dependence on gasoline and the rate of pollution. Hydrogen fuel cells if used as internal combustion engines for cars can reduce the petroleum dependency and environmental pollution.

Not just for cars, hydrogen fuel cells can be used to power remote areas, provide electricity where roads have not yet been built and in general alleviate the living conditions. It can also be used as a portable source of energy.

It is estimated that hydrogen fuel cells may replace the traditional batteries all together in the next 50 to 100 years. If it has been successful in the space programs, it is quite evident that it will leave its mark in day-today life as well. Different government and environment agencies are also supporting the use of hydrogen fuel cells. However with all boons comes its accompanying bane. To produce hydrogen we need energy. Fossil fuels are widely used to produce that energy. Now as we all know fossil fuel too is a non-renewable energy source. So the need of the hour is a lot more research so that we can get hydrogen from a renewable energy source in order to power hydrogen fuel cells in generating electricity.

However there is no denying the fact that today we need such energy alternatives like hydrogen fuel cells that are customizable, can be used everywhere, can power anything from a small walkman to a town and the best of all reduces pollution and generated less heat. As we all know it is time that we do away with global warming!

The Original Post is Located Here: Hydrogen Fuel Cells-The Next Great Step In Fuel Saving Technology

What are they, and how do they work?

Hydrogen can be burned in a combustion engine or be converted back into electricity through a fuel cell. In an internal combustion automotive engine, gasoline or hydrogen can be used in a dual-fuel system that will suffice until a widespread hydrogen infrastructure can be built. These dual fuel cell systems are much like the electric hybrids like Toyato’s Prius, yet they use hydrogen rather than electricity to supplement the gasoline.

In the long-term, with an infrastructure in place, hydrogen-on-demand vehicles can use either a hydrogen compound for internal combustion, or a fuel cell can create electro-mechanical energy and water. A fuel cell isn’t as complicated as a conventional gas or diesel engine and isn’t subject to high temperatures, corrosion or some of the structural weaknesses found in other types of engines. This affords a flexibility and durability for Hydrogen fuel cells. Hydrogen is processed through the fuel cell and combined with oxygen to create electricity. This newly formed energy is sent to pistons to propel the car forward (or reverse if you like). These fuel cell cars promise zero emissions and pollutants, with the only tailpipe emission being water vapor. Fuel-Cells are basically a combination of a battery and an engine making them a very unique advancement in car propulsion systems. Every year more and more efficient fuel cells are churned out by engineers and factories propelling the hydrogen car possibilities forward. Fuel-Cell conventions and conglomerates abound and with more and more government grants focusing on Fuel-Cell and Hydrogen Car development, the future continues to get brighter for Hydrogen Fuel-Cell cars.

While there is concern that putting hydrogen fuel cell cars on the road is as bad of an idea as was the ill-fated Hindenburg, experts say the two aren’t related, and recent advances in car technology include development of safe, on-board hydrogen storage systems.
Infrastructure and hydrogen highways.

If you’re not familiar with the term, a hydrogen highway is a chain of hydrogen-equipped filling stations along a road. What will it take to make it happen? Norway started the HyNor Project in 2006; Japan has several stations, as does Germany, and California now reports having 25 stations in place from San Diego to Sacramento. All of these stations will add to a momentum of change and will hopefully give rise to a new determination to improve on present Hydrogen powered vehicle prototypes in order to begin to switch our fleet of petroleum based cars. The Hydrogen car will arrive even if it takes time: The future is now.

The Original Post is Located Here: Fuel-Cell Cars: The Wave of the Future?

GM Hydrogen Car

In 2003, President George Bush, in his State of the Union address, announced a $1.2 billion hydrogen fuel initiative with the express intention to reduce America’s dependence on foreign oil and to provide the fuel we need to reduce gasoline consumption in our vehicles.  That financial commitment enabled scientists to direct more energy into developing the technology for commercially viable hydrogen-powered fuel cells to power cars, trucks, homes and businesses – with no pollution or greenhouse gases.

Since then, there have been increasing levels of funding provided to develop hydrogen fuel as an alternative to gasoline and we are now seeing many more vehicles being powered by hydrogen fuel than ever before.  One method of using Hydrogen to power a vehicle is with Hydrogen fuel cells, which store and process the gas that will power a vehicle. Fuel cell technology has developed so much over the years that General Motors now boasts a one hundred percent hydrogen fuel powered vehicle (see image).

However, Hydrogen fuel doesn’t come without its own problems.  Hydrogen is around four times more expensive to produce than gasoline (when produced from its most affordable source, natural gas). The hydrogen fuel initiative hopes to lower that cost enough to make fuel cell cars cost-competitive with conventional gasoline-powered vehicles by 2010; and to further advance the methods of producing hydrogen from renewable resources, nuclear energy, coal and even water.

GM Hydrogen Car

By using hydrogen fuel instead of gasoline, we could actually become energy independent, ie. we wouldn’t have to depend on other countries for our energy resources.  Hydrogen is domestically available in abundant quantities as a component of natural gas, coal, biomass, and water.  The Department of Energy estimates that the hydrogen fuel initiative may reduce our demand for petroleum by over 11 million barrels per day by 2040 – approximately equal to the amount of oil America imports today.

Vehicles are a significant source of air pollution in America’s cities and urban areas. Hydrogen fuel cells create electricity to power cars without any pollution, and the hydrogen fuel initiative could reduce America’s greenhouse gas emissions from transportation alone by more than 500 million metric tons of carbon equivalent each year by 2040. Additional emissions reductions could also be achieved by using fuel cells in applications such as the generation of electricity for residential or commercial uses.

Hydrogen fuel is one of the main keys to a clean energy future.  It has the highest energy content per unit weight of any known fuel.  When it is burned in an engine, it produces no emissions, in fact, the only emission given off by hydrogen fuel when ignited is water vapor.

The newest, biggest thing in the alternative fuel industry is hydrogen fuel.  President Bush knew that and now the American people know that as well and with all the new fuel cell technologies appearing, owning a vehicle that is powered by hydrogen fuel alone is now a reality.  And it’s just the beginning!
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The Original Post is Located Here: Hydrogen – the Future of Alternative Fuels