tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-195086992012-01-28T09:03:27.306ZEnergy BalanceChris Rhodeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12060542089215379056noreply@blogger.comBlogger5561100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19508699.post-53681288457674838852012-01-28T09:02:00.000Z2012-01-28T09:03:27.310ZMethane Gas Hydrates - Vast Energy Resource or Ecological Disaster Awaiting? A vast and untapped resource of fuel? A contributor to global climate change? A submarine hazard, and potential trigger of tsunami's? A cause of catastrophic species extinction: an ELE; Extinction of Life Event? All of these are possible scenarios for methane gas hydrates. Methane hydrate is formed when methane gas and water are brought together under suitable conditions of low Chris Rhodeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12060542089215379056noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19508699.post-54704281835153325742012-01-26T09:50:00.003Z2012-01-26T10:24:28.813Z“Clean Tech Clean Profits." The twin spectres of peak oil and climate change loom large, urging humanity toward a low-carbon future. Burning oil at the rate of 30 billion barrels a year contributes around 12 billion tonnes of CO2 to the atmosphere, or roughly 40% of the total quantity blamed upon humans for their extravagant use of fossil-fuel. Once world oil production peaks, the provision of cheap crude-oil Chris Rhodeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12060542089215379056noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19508699.post-23027178741824319422012-01-23T09:06:00.017Z2012-01-23T15:50:46.020ZThe Death of Grass."The Death of Grass" is a novel written by Sam Youd in 1956 under the pseudonym of John Christopher. It is an apocalyptic tale in which a new virus (Chung-Li) wipes-out all forms of grass including rice, leading to mass starvation in China along with complete social disintegration and all manner of atrocities, which the West blame on a lack of "civilization" among the Asiatics, smug in the beliefChris Rhodeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12060542089215379056noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19508699.post-25086660818068578862012-01-20T09:31:00.014Z2012-01-22T10:48:35.127ZGreen and Pleasant Land.I spent a thoroughly enjoyable and thought provoking evening on Wednesday, with members of the fanSHEN theatre company (www.fanshen.org.uk) who are making a play entitled "Green and Pleasant Land". As they describe it: "this is the story of a search for a happier, more environmentally sustainable future. Audience members will pedal bicycle-powered generators to play pre-recorded sound, all set Chris Rhodeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12060542089215379056noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19508699.post-50551637501633718162012-01-17T09:51:00.008Z2012-01-19T09:35:32.177ZReal Algal Fuel Production: 2011 Highlights.<!--[if gte mso 9]> Normal 0 false false false EN-GB X-NONE X-NONE MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 <![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]>Chris Rhodeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12060542089215379056noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19508699.post-75532404515211453962012-01-12T15:59:00.012Z2012-01-17T14:26:07.870ZTransition Town Reading and London Commuting.The town of Reading lies some 40 miles to the west of London. Each day around 70,000 people commute from Reading into London, from a population of around 230,000, and surprisingly, almost exactly that same number commute from London into Reading. I say surprisingly because although the link between Reading and London is such that it is often referred to as a commuter town, it is generally thoughtChris Rhodeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12060542089215379056noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19508699.post-85806891860336407752012-01-11T09:58:00.007Z2012-01-11T15:41:53.769ZShaky Foundations for Offshore Wind FarmsBritain is the pioneer in offshore wind energy, with more turbines placed out at sea than by any other nation. However, constructing such offshore wind farms is far tougher and more expensive than land based wind energy. In the dockyards at Belfast in Northern Ireland, where the Titanic was built, are blades longer than the entire wingspan of a Jumbo jet at 61.5 metres and weighing 22 tonnes. TheChris Rhodeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12060542089215379056noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19508699.post-18800850855986474712011-12-30T12:56:00.017Z2011-12-31T09:41:47.848ZA New Atlantis?I am reading a fascinating book at the moment, "Forbidden History", which challenges certain prevailing scientific edicts and claims there are intellectual conspiracies at hand regarding such matters as the reality of ice-ages, the prospect of interplanetary cataclysms caused by massive electromagnetic discharges (lightning bolts striking one planet from another) and that ancient mythologies may Chris Rhodeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12060542089215379056noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19508699.post-83852557269331007582011-12-23T10:46:00.005Z2011-12-24T09:44:12.634Z"Energy" - not just "Electricity". Implementing nuclear power on a grand scale will not secure an energy supply for the U.K., nor will it significantly reduce our CO2 greenhouse gas emissions. The reason is simple, but is seldom rendered explicitly, that only 18% of the total final energy consumption is provided by electricity. 78% (430% more) of the U.K.'s total energy is produced by burning coal, natural gas and oil Chris Rhodeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12060542089215379056noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19508699.post-51546912473900862572011-12-16T10:29:00.005Z2011-12-16T10:56:49.881ZDie-Off or Abundance?The ownership of the largest deposits of oil, notably in the former U.S.S.R., e.g. Siberia and Kazakhstan and the Caspian region generally, in addition to the fields in the Middle East, will likely determine the future balance of world power. "The New World Order" as it is sometimes referred to. It is interesting that it is scientists from the former U.S.S.R. who throng among the ranks of "Chris Rhodeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12060542089215379056noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19508699.post-42466413195417073542011-12-03T11:23:00.007Z2011-12-04T08:33:43.265ZPeak Oil, the NHS and theTransition Nation: Cuba.Almost all aspects of modern life are acutely dependent on oil, including the practice of contemporary medicine. What then will happen as easy oil becomes more scarce, its costs rise, and ultimately there is less of it? The growing instabilities in those regions of the world where most of the oil is, e.g. the Middle East, do not bode well for a secure supply of oil meanwhile, and once sovereignChris Rhodeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12060542089215379056noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19508699.post-45214148662482580742011-11-17T13:48:00.006Z2011-11-18T10:13:10.919ZFurther Proposed Hydroelectric Power on River Thames.The Berkshire village of Streatley is about 8 miles (13 km) from Reading and 16 miles (26 km) from Oxford. It is located in the Goring Gap on the River Thames and is directly across the river from the village of Goring on Thames, in Oxfordshire. The two villages are connected by the Goring and Streatley Bridge with its adjacent lock and weir. The Goring Gap was cut through the chalk at the end ofChris Rhodeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12060542089215379056noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19508699.post-60548806309105310012011-11-14T13:47:00.004Z2011-11-14T13:51:56.399Z"What Happens When The Oil Runs Out?"This is a link to the Question and Answer session after a talk I gave with the above title to the Isle of Wight Cafe' Scientifique on September 26th:http://soundcloud.com/onthewight/chris-rhodes-what-happensThe talk itself can be found at:http://cafescientifique.onthewight.com/chris-rhodes-what-happens-when-the-oil-runs-out-presentation/I am available to give talks and quite often asked to speak Chris Rhodeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12060542089215379056noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19508699.post-67649784495213616632011-11-09T14:34:00.018Z2011-11-12T08:17:46.621Z100 kW Hydroelectric Turbine at Mapledurham.The village of Mapledurham is adjacent to that of Caversham where I live, near Reading in the English south east, and is a pleasant 4 mile walk from here tracing the banks of the River Thames. Mapledurham House is a beautiful Grade 1 listed manor house, set on the Mapledurham Estate which holds the last commercial working water mill on the river. The estate has belonged to the Blount family sinceChris Rhodeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12060542089215379056noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19508699.post-89068033841839833522011-11-02T11:21:00.009Z2011-11-02T13:12:40.165ZTransition Town Reading.The Transition Town movement has spread across the United Kingdom and there is one based in Reading, in the south east of England. In the face of peak oil, global economic failure and climate change, TT aims to provide resilient local communities that can weather such assailing forces and provide ultimately a more satisfying and humanly balanced way of living, setting apart from the delusionChris Rhodeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12060542089215379056noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19508699.post-11502982446944250702011-09-30T07:37:00.004+01:002011-09-30T11:44:49.034+01:00The 10 Commandments... Guidelines for Humanity Post- Peak-Oil. If they are not actually "commandments" they might as well be. The original set of 10 provided a simple set of rules for members of a small community to live in reasonable harmony with one another, and that is essentially the requirement for an oil-dependent society that has necessarily fragmented into smaller communities, once its supply of oil has been severely curtailed. At first Chris Rhodeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12060542089215379056noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19508699.post-45384903442227586662011-09-20T12:09:00.005+01:002011-09-20T14:32:50.509+01:00UK's First Public Hydrogen Filling Station Opens.Britain's first public hydrogen filling-station has opened in Swindon. It will be run by BOC (British Oxygen Company) who are the nation's biggest supplier of compressed gases. It is said that the station is an important step in a national scheme to make hydrogen vehicles a viable alternative to petrol-driven cars. Swindon Borough Council's regeneration body, Forward Swindon, was Chris Rhodeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12060542089215379056noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19508699.post-81095385603647004462011-09-12T13:19:00.008+01:002011-09-13T09:01:59.131+01:00UK and US Join Forces on Laser-Fusion Energy.The UK company AWE and the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory have joined-forces with the US-based National Ignition Facility (NIF) to help provide energy using Inertial Confinement Fusion, in which a pellet of fuel is heated using powerful lasers. Since the late 1950s, UK scientists have been attempting to achieve the fusion of hydrogen nuclei (tritum and deuterium) using magnetic confinement (MCF).Chris Rhodeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12060542089215379056noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19508699.post-1678535149755229312011-09-07T08:44:00.003+01:002011-09-07T09:47:18.580+01:00EU Set to Stockpile Rare Earth Elements (REEs).In the light of the Chinese hegemony for its own energy projects, it is feared that restrictions in the global supply of rare earth elements (REEs)will ensue. Until last year, China provided some 97% of the REEs available in the world, which are used increasingly to fabricate the magnets in wind-turbines and in electric vehicles. As China expands its own use of energy, including that from Chris Rhodeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12060542089215379056noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19508699.post-14389122038386701402011-09-03T08:44:00.004+01:002011-09-03T09:05:58.693+01:00Dr Richard Pike (1950-2011) and Peak Oil.Dr Richard Pike, the CEO of the Royal Society of Chemistry has died of cancer. He was a forceful ambassador for British Science and represented the subject of chemistry and its importance in providing a means for the fabrication of new materials and solving environmental problems, especially providing clean water across the globe. He and I disagreed about the nature of "Peak Oil": in his opinion,Chris Rhodeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12060542089215379056noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19508699.post-2355097047680797832011-07-20T14:02:00.009+01:002011-07-20T17:01:10.824+01:00Peak Gold and Peak Platinum?On the BBC News programme this morning (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/breakfast) I noted mention that there is thought to be enough recoverable gold to fill "three Olympic sized swimming pools"(OSSP) and enough platinum to occupy one such volume "up to your ankles". According to FINA (Fédération Internationale de Natation), the body recognised by the International Olympic Committee for Chris Rhodeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12060542089215379056noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19508699.post-72966937137312620062011-07-06T11:10:00.006+01:002011-07-07T07:16:41.704+01:00Natural Limits to World Wind Energy?The amount of energy available in the Earth system to be extracted by wind-turbines is limited, and if sufficient energy is removed the world climate will be affected. These striking conclusions follow from a recent analysis (http://www.earth-syst-dynam.net/2/1/2011/esd-2-1-2011.html) reported from the University of Jena in Germany. Humans use energy in total at a rate of 17 TW (terawatts), 87% Chris Rhodeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12060542089215379056noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19508699.post-89381692029379884222011-07-05T16:03:00.004+01:002011-07-05T16:58:04.403+01:00UK Government Report Calls for “Strategic Metals” Plan.<!--[if gte mso 9]> Normal 0 false false false EN-GB X-NONE X-NONE MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 <![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]>Chris Rhodeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12060542089215379056noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19508699.post-62821907032329758892011-06-03T07:50:00.002+01:002011-06-03T08:39:10.734+01:004 Die in Welsh Oil Refinery Explosion.Four contractors have been killed in an explosion at a Chevron oil refinery on the Pembrokeshire coast in west Wales. A fifth was taken to hospital with severe burns where they are undergoing treatment. Maintenance was being done on a 730 cubic metre storage tank where the explosion and fire occurred, although the details have yet to be fully investigated.The plant is one of the largest in Chris Rhodeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12060542089215379056noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19508699.post-51788688458193415362011-06-01T10:04:00.004+01:002011-06-01T10:40:49.186+01:00British "Fracking" Causes Earthquake... So What Now?Hydraulic Fracturing, known as "frac'ing" in the industry, has made another unwelcome appearance in the media, in which the process is termed "fracking", where it is reported that the procedure may cause earthquakes (http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/small-earthquake-in-blackpool-major-shock-for-uks-energy-policy-2291597.html). Essentially, water containing a surfactant and various other Chris Rhodeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12060542089215379056noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19508699.post-60256922983341047702011-05-31T13:23:00.007+01:002011-05-31T14:59:58.978+01:00Land Use Changes Are Main Factor In Carbon Emissions From Biofuels.Not all biofuels are "green" according to where the crops from which they are derived are grown. The worst offenders are palm oils which may have ten times the carbon emissions of normal diesel fuel derived from petroleum, if the palm is grown on converted rainforest land. In contrast, when the palm is grown on previously cleared land, its emissions are around one fifth that for conventional Chris Rhodeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12060542089215379056noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19508699.post-46633687755357611442011-05-22T09:47:00.003+01:002011-05-22T10:55:58.698+01:00British Government Faces Up To Peak Oil.The UK Secretary for Energy and Climate Change, Chris Huhne, has committed to establish an "Oil Shock Response Plan" to cope with some of the consequences of peak oil (http://www.businessgreen.com/bg/news/2072738/exclusive-government-develop-oil-shock-response-plan). While there remains dissent as to the facts of peak oil, a growing body of experts think that the phenomenon will occur at some Chris Rhodeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12060542089215379056noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19508699.post-81500127664149103052011-05-15T09:52:00.000+01:002011-05-15T09:55:22.898+01:00Fracking Does Contaminate Groundwater With Methane, But Jury Still Out On Process Overall.A study has been undertaken by Duke University of methane levels in water from 68 private wells above the Marcellus and Utica shales in Pennsylvania and New York. The details have just been published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2011/05/02/1100682108.full.pdf+html. Of these, around one third were in an "active extraction area", Chris Rhodeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12060542089215379056noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19508699.post-60439947860747422792011-04-30T09:51:00.004+01:002011-04-30T10:55:44.061+01:00Deep Oil From Diamonds.According to a new computer model, liquid methane in contact with a partially hydrogen-terminated diamond surface at extremely high pressures and temperatures spontaneously forms longer hydrocarbons, and hence the material of crude oil could be formed deep in the earth. Geologists, certainly in the West, believe that 99% or more of the hydrocarbons present in crude oil and natural gas originate Chris Rhodeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12060542089215379056noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19508699.post-31805330932759344532011-04-27T08:50:00.010+01:002011-04-27T12:15:45.062+01:00Green Alternatives to Rare Earth Elements?Always ready to air the other side of an argument, I return to the matter of whether Rare Earth Elements (REEs) and their impending scarcity are the Achilles heel of green energy. Since writing about this and the Chinese monopoly on cheap(ish) REEs on this blog, and my columns on Forbes and on Scitizen, I have become aware of countering polemics that e.g. wind-turbines, hybrid cars and low energyChris Rhodeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12060542089215379056noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19508699.post-13442483599220720292011-04-26T15:52:00.003+01:002011-04-26T16:28:31.053+01:00Chernobyl - 25th Anniversary.Just to note that 25 years ago today, the Unit 4 reactor at the Chernobyl nuclear power station exploded. I wrote about the incident on its 20th anniversary (http://ergobalance.blogspot.com/2006/04/chernobyl-26th-april-2006-20-years-on.html). I was working in Russia around this time, and that is maybe why the memory of it is quite acute for me, as it is undoubtedly for many others.Such a reminderChris Rhodeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12060542089215379056noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19508699.post-12298981462820061422011-04-12T09:58:00.011+01:002011-04-12T12:24:55.200+01:00Fusion: Powering the Future?I attended a fascinating event last night - a Cafe' Scientifique meeting held in the town of Reading in South East England. Last month it was me in the bear-pit, talking about "What Happens When the Oil Runs Out?", which remains a pertinent question. Last night it was the turn of Dr Chris Warrick from the Culham Centre for Fusion Energy based near Abingdon in Oxfordshire, which hosts both the Chris Rhodeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12060542089215379056noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19508699.post-143510709499894192011-04-04T09:07:00.002+01:002011-04-04T09:18:01.239+01:00The Price of Oil: Current Commentary.The following has just been published in Science Progress, a popular science journal. Some of this has already been published on here, but I am now posting it in full for completeness:C.J.Rhodes, Science Progress, 2011, Vol. 94, 1-9.Political tensions in the Middle East once again remind us of the fragile dependency of the Western nations on imported petroleum, which have driven the price ofChris Rhodeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12060542089215379056noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19508699.post-1571794820021171492011-04-01T08:52:00.009+01:002011-04-14T08:08:34.184+01:00"Electric Cars Should be Called Coal Cars": The Heretic.I saw a wonderful play at the Royal Court Theatre in London recently: "The Heretic" by Richard Bean. In a nutshell, the plot centres on a female academic, Dr Diane Cassell, who is researching sea-level rise. She finds none at some measurement point in the Maldives, but realises that both land and sea are rising together. Thus, while sea-levels are indeed rising, the islanders are unlikely toChris Rhodeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12060542089215379056noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19508699.post-52318623925357624172011-03-22T09:02:00.010Z2011-03-22T10:55:22.426ZRare Earth Elements and Thorium Power.97% of world market supplies of rare earth elements (REEs) come from China and look to become insecure in regard to meeting "green" energy targets, since exports of REEs are scheduled to be retained for Chinese energy projects. REEs are essential raw materials for the fabrication of high-performance magnets in hybrid cars and wind-turbines. Monazite sands contain around 45 - 48 % cerium, 24% Chris Rhodeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12060542089215379056noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19508699.post-5020519237556067412011-03-09T09:26:00.001Z2011-03-09T09:28:01.437ZOil Reserves and Fracking. Oil production is somewhat confounded by the reference more lately to “liquids” rather than “oil”, which includes hydrocarbons that are recovered, sometimes in great quantity, from natural gas wells, which condense from the gas in liquid form once the pressure drops below the dew-point. The latter are also called condensates, and to their volume may be added natural gas Chris Rhodeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12060542089215379056noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19508699.post-53961514862014209912011-03-07T14:31:00.004Z2011-03-07T14:48:54.989ZMiddle East Tensions and Peak Oil.Political tensions in the Middle East once again remind us of the fragile dependency of the Western nations on imported petroleum, which have driven the price of a barrel of crude oil to above $100, as was the case prior to the world economic crash in 2008. British motorists and owners of haulage companies flinch nervously in the face of rising prices at the pumps for fuel, feared to reach Chris Rhodeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12060542089215379056noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19508699.post-17398951971428451302011-02-18T11:29:00.005Z2011-02-18T11:33:08.940Z“Clean Tech Clean Profits," Book Review I wrote the following book review for the British magazine Chemistry and Industry which I thought might be germane to the subject of this blog."The twin spectres of peak oil and climate change loom large, urging humanity toward a low-carbon future. Burning oil at the rate of 30 billion barrels a year contributes around 12 billion tonnes of CO2 to the atmosphere, or roughly 40% of the totalChris Rhodeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12060542089215379056noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19508699.post-74944785209836327222011-01-26T09:13:00.020Z2011-01-27T08:38:00.819ZEndangered Elements: Threat to Green Energy.A list of "endangered elements" [1] has been published in a new report, including the rare earth elements (REEs) in particular neodymium, production of which, it is reckoned [2], will have to increase five-times to build enough magnets for the number of wind-turbines deemed necessary for a fully renewable future. Nonetheless, my rough calculations indicate that this would still take 50 - Chris Rhodeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12060542089215379056noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19508699.post-71256510262902054222011-01-21T10:09:00.004Z2011-01-22T08:30:26.003ZA Recent History of Oil Prices ... history about to repeat itself?I wrote this two years ago, and now oil is headed for $100 a barrel. So expect another economic catastrophe! The price of oil has oscillated from an all-time hike of almost $150 a barrel to a low of $30, hand in hand with the credit-crunch and the inextricable economic connection between money and oil. Why? Expect a Long Emergency... Chris Rhodeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12060542089215379056noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19508699.post-64426482772920390002010-12-10T09:26:00.003Z2010-12-10T10:15:17.044ZHatfield "Clean Coal" Power Plant Goes into Administration.The "Powerfuel" company that owns Hatfield Colliery in Yorkshire has entered administration due to lack of investment. The intention was to improve the mine and develop a "clean coal" power plant based on the integrated gasification combined cycle (IGCC) principle, with carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) technology. In IGCC, the coal is not burned directly as it is in normal coal-fired power Chris Rhodeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12060542089215379056noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19508699.post-43741252077695691302010-12-01T10:33:00.002Z2010-12-01T10:56:57.578ZShortage of Rare earth Metals made worse by Smuggling.Rare earth (RE) metals find application in devices inlcuding wind turbines, hybrid and electric cars, LCDs, fuel cells, nuclear reactors and lasers. China controls some 97% of the world supply of REs, and in July announced a 72% reduction in exports of REs for the second half of 2010, compared with the previous year. It is predicted that in 2012, Chinese domestic consumption of REs will match Chris Rhodeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12060542089215379056noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19508699.post-89287985291672710672010-11-07T15:33:00.009Z2010-11-07T16:39:44.689ZBritish Power is all Wind.Britain has decided to go all-out for wind-power. On Thursday, I flew over the massive off-shore Thanet wind-farm - one of the largest in the UK - in the English Channel off Foreness Point. The farm consists of 100 turbines, each over 300ft high, and is expected to power over 200,000 homes. It will increase the amount of energy generated from offshore wind in the UK by one third to Chris Rhodeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12060542089215379056noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19508699.post-25688776133790221502010-10-13T14:43:00.003+01:002010-10-13T15:05:29.030+01:00Algae to Fuels Under Pressure.The conventional route to biodiesel consists of extracting oil from plants and converting it to the methyl esters of fatty acids that are present in the lipid-components, known as triglycerides. These esters as a mixture constitute biodiesel: a specific kind of biofuel. High oil-yielding strains of algae can be grown and dried and the oil extracted from the dry algal mass, before being similarly Chris Rhodeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12060542089215379056noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19508699.post-1635210834512361802010-09-13T08:55:00.006+01:002010-09-13T10:37:21.138+01:00Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) - Yay or Nay?A new paper (1) published in the prestigious American Chemical Society journal, Environmental Science and Technology, has put the cat among the pigeons over carbon capture and storage (CCS). It argues that the colossal amount of money that CCS would entail globally would be better spent on "virtual CCS", meaning per se that instead of actual CCS, the emission of carbon be avoided in the first Chris Rhodeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12060542089215379056noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19508699.post-57907987174855389262010-09-07T10:12:00.006+01:002010-09-08T11:25:52.164+01:00So, What Did Happen After the Chinese Oil-Spill?On the 16th of July, China experienced its first major oil-spill. The Chinese incident was also caused by an explosion (this time during the transfer of oil from a tanker to a reserve owned by the China National Petroleum Corp), but is nothing like the size of the BP spillage in the Gulf of Mexico. The amount of public information released in any level of detail has so far been scant, but in thisChris Rhodeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12060542089215379056noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19508699.post-11851512726685515772010-08-23T11:00:00.004+01:002010-08-25T08:28:44.962+01:00Australia Plans to be Carbon-Neutral by 2020.I have just been sent a remarkable document entitled “Zero Carbon Australia Stationary Energy Plan.” As the title implies, within its pages is a proposal for how Australia might be run without the use of fossil fuels, including for transportation, by 2020. The ambitious plan, from a nonprofit called Beyond Zero Emissions and researchers at Melbourne University, hinges on developing enough Chris Rhodeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12060542089215379056noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19508699.post-51556272466968537532010-08-22T11:46:00.008+01:002010-08-22T14:34:46.281+01:00Looking for Algal Oil... with Near Infrared Light.A new method has been introduced for telling which strains of algae are likely to be any good for turning into biofuels based on Near Infrared (NIR) spectroscopy. The near infrared spectrum runs the range of wavelengths 800 - 2500 nm, and is therefore just below the region of visible light but above the usual mid-infrared, at 2,500 - 30,000 nm. The discovery of infrared radiation is attributed Chris Rhodeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12060542089215379056noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19508699.post-53808762804316379912010-07-20T11:28:00.007+01:002010-07-20T12:44:41.228+01:00First "Artificial Cell" May Provide Souce of Algal Fuel.In the latest issue of "Chemistry World" is a report describing "the first synthetic cell". What has in fact been done is to insert a chemically synthesised genome into a bacterial cell. The M.mycoides genome contains over a million letters of genetic code and current DNA-technology can string-together perhaps a few thousand units in one go. The team led by Dan Gibson and Craig Venter have Chris Rhodeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12060542089215379056noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19508699.post-55935853063315219012010-07-11T14:37:00.007+01:002010-07-12T09:45:28.755+01:00Nanomaterials are Prey to EU Ministers.In his 2002 novel, "Prey", the late Michael Crichton advanced a fictional scenario in which nanoparticles escaped from a lab and formed swarms in the desert with the drive and ability to kill humans and other animals whom they could use as feeding-templates on which bacteria could grow to replicate more of their kind. While such a scenario does appear alarmist and unlikely in reality, there Chris Rhodeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12060542089215379056noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19508699.post-61794681944468879492010-07-02T09:21:00.004+01:002010-07-02T13:24:15.999+01:0014% Efficiency for Thin-Film Solar Cells, but Where will the Indium Come From?.One principal advantage of thin-film solar cells is that they use far less (maybe 1/100th the amount) of the semiconductor materials that are required to fabricate first-generation solar cells. The disadvantage is that compared with typical efficiencies of 15% for conventional solar cells, a practical efficiency of around 8% is more normal for thin-film cells.Thin-film technologies offer the Chris Rhodeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12060542089215379056noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19508699.post-24407234430869212762010-06-27T11:55:00.001+01:002010-06-27T11:58:00.160+01:00Desertec - Energy From the Sahara to Europe. The European Energy commissioner has announced that the project Desertec will begin to provide electricity to Europe within 5 years, which is half the original estimate.The project is partly funded by the European Union and companies within Europe, to aid the EU in meeting its target of generating 20 percent of its energy from renewable sources by 2020. The Desertec scheme has been Chris Rhodeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12060542089215379056noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19508699.post-46795384345819645722010-06-26T08:38:00.002+01:002010-06-26T08:42:12.502+01:00Concentrating Solar Power Generation. Concentrating Solar Power (CSP) systems employ lenses or mirrors coupled with tracking systems to concentrate a large area of sunlight into a small beam, rather in analogy with the simple and familiar burning-lense. The concentrated energy may be used to heat a central “boiler” to run a power plant fitted with a conventional steam-turbine from which electricity is generated inChris Rhodeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12060542089215379056noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19508699.post-9259430398508022292010-06-24T15:37:00.007+01:002010-06-27T07:27:27.646+01:00Slovakia: a Sustainable Country?The Icelandic volcano which prevented my travelling to Slovakia as planned last April, appears to have fallen sufficiently silent to at least provide a window through which I could pass, on my cheap Ryan Air flight to Bratislava from London Stansted at a cost of about "fifty quid" ("around "eighty bucks", I believe). Thus I was able to deliver two lectures on the World Energy conundrum, one at Chris Rhodeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12060542089215379056noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19508699.post-74230495476044840312010-06-02T10:32:00.005+01:002010-06-09T15:35:08.114+01:00A Fuel Cell that Runs on Air and Water.It seems too good to be true that water can be used as a fuel, but in a recent paper, a fuel-cell has been described which runs on water and air, in which you don't actually "burn" water but a concentration gradient of water is established between the two electrodes allowing entropy rather than enthalpy to drive the energy output from the cell. The power output is small, orders of magnitude lowerChris Rhodeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12060542089215379056noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19508699.post-16302571473216693222010-05-31T11:37:00.012+01:002010-06-02T09:07:26.485+01:00Blame Big Bad B.P. For Now, but Where Is the Next Oil to Come From?The Deepwater Horizon oil spill is thought to be pouring anywhere between 5,000 and 100,000 barrels of oil into the Gulf of Mexico each day, according to different estimates. The blame is being laid squarely on the shoulders of B.P., under whose auspices the deep-sea drilling operation is being conducted. An oil-well blowout occurred on April 20th, resulting in a catastrophic explosion that Chris Rhodeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12060542089215379056noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19508699.post-35170739849774539772010-04-17T08:12:00.008+01:002010-04-17T08:57:50.767+01:00Icelandic Volcano and Quiet Skies over London.The Eyjafjallajokull volcano in Iceland began erupting a few weeks ago, but a combination of factors is now wreaking havoc on European air-travel. The interaction of the molten lava with an ice-sheet 100m thick is sending a thick plume of "ash" high into the atmosphere, which is being driven to the south-east by unusual winds and has caused the grounding of all flights in the U.K. and most Chris Rhodeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12060542089215379056noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19508699.post-41783033573999133362010-04-06T13:51:00.006+01:002010-04-06T15:02:57.250+01:00Report Says, Algal Biofuels May Not Cut Carbon Emissions, but Read it More Closely.A new study suggests that overall the CO2 emissions attendant to producing biofuel from algae may be worse than those from corn, canola (rape-seed) or switch grass. The main problem is the use of carbon dioxide brought from elsewhere in "gas-bottles" and inputs of fertilizer, particularly nitrogen and phosphorus. According to a Life-cycle analysis, the land-based crops all were found to Chris Rhodeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12060542089215379056noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19508699.post-73279610590088159822010-03-15T09:47:00.002Z2010-03-16T07:42:54.407ZDrilling Down Deep Over Offshore Oil.The Economist has published an excellent article (link below) on the subject of deep-sea drilling. The first offshore oil well completely out of sight of land was drilled in 1947, 17 km off the Louisiana coast in the Gulf of Mexico. The platform of the drilling rig was no larger than a tennis court and was supplemented by several refurbished naval barges remaining from WWII which provided both Chris Rhodeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12060542089215379056noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19508699.post-32945915463127527552010-03-13T09:34:00.006Z2010-03-13T10:28:54.224ZCoffee-Powered Car Does What it Says on the Tin.When I heard of a coffee-powered car I envisaged the tank being filled with the liquid beverage from a cafetiere. This is not what is meant, however, and the fuel is ground coffee combusted in a fluidised bed as a form of biomass. "Why choose coffee?" you might ask. However, a BBC presenter was left stranded on the M1 when Britain's first coffee-powered car broke down there. It was intended that Chris Rhodeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12060542089215379056noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19508699.post-71147117579026644242010-03-12T10:09:00.002Z2010-03-12T10:58:32.333ZMining for Gas may Set-Off Earthquakes.It is concluded that a "plausible cause" of a series of small earthquakes in Texas during 2008 - 2009 is saltwater pumped deep into the earth to recover natural gas, though this explanation is not definitive. In a process known as "hydraulic fracturing", shale layers are cracked by injecting water mixed with sand under high pressure, in order to liberate trapped natural gas. According to the USGSChris Rhodeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12060542089215379056noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19508699.post-45474474392821102732010-03-11T12:38:00.006Z2010-03-11T13:03:45.897ZShell and PetroChina Bid for Australian Coal-Seam Gas Reserves.Arrow Energy, the owner of the biggest reserves of gas trapped in seams of Australian coal, has been offered £2 billion by Royal Dutch Shell and PetroChina. The gas, principally methane, is a cleaner fuel than either coal or oil and has a much higher calorific output per unit mass at 57 GJ/tonne, compared with around 29 GJ/tonne for anthracitic coal and 42 GJ/tonne for oil. Shares for Arrow are Chris Rhodeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12060542089215379056noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19508699.post-43264682761893443522010-02-24T09:24:00.005Z2010-02-24T11:19:20.612ZNorth Sea Oil and Gas may Provide One Third of Britain's Energy by 2020.Combined output of North Sea oil and gas has fallen considerably from its heyday at the end of the 1970s to 2.48 million barrels a day last year, a 6% fall from the previous year. It is convenient to account for both oil and gas in terms of the energy equivalent of a barrel of oil, although actual oil production has fallen from just above 3 million bpd in1979 to just over one million bpd now. It Chris Rhodeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12060542089215379056noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19508699.post-21866749441991591712010-02-23T12:07:00.002Z2010-02-23T13:21:14.736ZOil Rises Above $80 a barrel.On Monday, the price of a barrel of oil reached above $80 in New York. The cause was a combination of fears over supply as a strike hit the French oil industry and the vexed issue of uranium enrichment in Iran, which is alleged to be in the intention of making nuclear weapons. The United States affirms that the intention of Iran to build two new uranium enrichment plants is "further evidence" Chris Rhodeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12060542089215379056noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19508699.post-87774026287652482812010-02-22T09:32:00.005Z2010-02-22T12:16:43.415ZLondon Taxis Powered by Hydrogen for 2012 Olympics.Looking exactly like the familiar London black cabs, a fleet of taxis that run on hydrogen/fuel cell technology are proposed to be ready in time for the Olympic games, to be hosted in London in 2012. The top speed of these vehicles is 81 mph and they can be driven for 250 miles on a single filling of hydrogen. Hydrogen is of course not a fuel, but an energy carrier, and must be produced, ideally Chris Rhodeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12060542089215379056noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19508699.post-19920101709435640092010-02-20T09:46:00.009Z2010-02-20T11:28:33.687ZWarships On Standby Over Falklands OilThe issue of British companies exploring for oil off the Falklands seems to be getting rather more fraught. A type 42-destroyer, the HMS York, was observed patrolling the neighbouring area, where Argentina has declared that drilling operations are illegal, and has introduced permits on ships that move from Argentine ports to the islands. The British prime minister, Gordon Brown, has warned Chris Rhodeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12060542089215379056noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19508699.post-39862277210257094632010-02-09T09:56:00.006Z2010-02-09T11:20:14.932ZFalklands War Shadow Over Oil Wealth.1982 was an important year for me personally as it was when I sat my "finals", studying chemistry at Sussex University on the south coast of England; but for the nation and more globally it was the time of the Falklands War, which was waged in defence of British sovereignty over the Falkland Islands. I recall at the time there was some mention of "mineral rights", but can recall nothing more Chris Rhodeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12060542089215379056noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19508699.post-83332362264297297622010-02-08T11:14:00.004Z2010-02-08T12:23:53.373ZThe Uranium Rush.Last year Kazakhstan became the world's largest supplier of uranium, overtaking Australia and Canada, at 14,000 tonnes, or one fifth of world production. As supplies of oil are being sought in increasingly inhospitable regions of the globe to meet rising demand against finite supply, the hunt is on for uranium in the face of an emphasis to turn-away from fossil-fuel based power stations and Chris Rhodeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12060542089215379056noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19508699.post-62673273388463721602010-01-27T10:13:00.005Z2010-01-27T10:53:53.626ZGerman Solar Subsidies May be Cut.Along with Japan, Germany has a thriving solar energy industry, assisted by generous government subsidies. However, the companies Q-Cells SE, Solarworld AG (SAG) face less cheerful prospects now if the German government goes ahead with cutting subsidies on the price of solar-generated power. There is also the knock-on effect to manufacturers of solar panels whose profits would be marginalised. Chris Rhodeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12060542089215379056noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19508699.post-43548317734766844002010-01-24T14:46:00.001Z2010-01-24T14:47:49.485ZVenezuela May Yield Twice as Much Oil as was Thought.The Orinoco Oil Belt is now reckoned to contain 513 billion “technically recoverable” barrels of oil, or more than double the previous estimate of 235 barrels. Although this has been compared with and is said to dwarf the 264 billion barrels under Saudi Arabia, like is not quite being compared with like. The Venezuelan oil is “heavy oil”, which is a highly viscous bitumen rather than the Chris Rhodeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12060542089215379056noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19508699.post-75298313203852850042010-01-16T08:59:00.005Z2010-01-16T10:20:15.760ZNorway says "Yes" to Arctic Drilling.According to a recent survey, the majority of Norwegians are in favour of an exploration study in a region of pristine Arctic wilderness, and which moreover is home to the largest spawning ground for cod in the world. Norway is not quite in the same straits as Britain in terms of the depletion of its North Sea fields, and yet its mature holdings of oil and gas are in decline. If Norway is to Chris Rhodeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12060542089215379056noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19508699.post-85904165544243149192010-01-10T08:04:00.004Z2010-01-10T08:37:26.244ZSnow and Gas Supplies.Gordon Brown has said that there is no reason to fear that Britain will run short of gas during this uncharacteristically severe spell of cold and snow, which has been impinging upon us since before Christmas. Apparently we have six days worth of gas in hand compared to the French reserve of 120 days. Now the two countries get their gas from different sources, and Britain can no longer rely on Chris Rhodeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12060542089215379056noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19508699.post-15748253571753559342009-12-09T08:44:00.005Z2009-12-09T15:03:51.261Z"Chemistry, Energy and Climate Change, " Lecture by Dr Richard Pike, CEO of the Royal Society of Chemistry.I attended a lecture by Dr Richard Pike, who is the CEO of the Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC) yesterday evening in London, entitled: "Chemistry, Energy and Climate Change." I have previously applauded Dr Pike's pro-active stance on the importance of chemistry as a means to comprehend and address the challenges facing humanity, especially in terms of future energy provision and tackling Chris Rhodeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12060542089215379056noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19508699.post-3490094168095519632009-12-02T07:38:00.009Z2009-12-02T14:18:52.657Z"Coltan" - African Niobium and Tantalum Ore.I first heard the word "coltan" on a recent television documentary about the Democratic Republic of the Congo, in Africa. Coltan is a black, metallic ore which is a source of "Columbium" (now called Niobium) and Tantalum, hence the name. Since tantalum is used to make high-performance capacitors as find application in mobile-phones, DVD players, video game players (playstations), laptop computersChris Rhodeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12060542089215379056noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19508699.post-52304880042046940722009-11-29T11:00:00.009Z2009-11-29T13:08:40.452ZGreenland: Melting Ice; Rare Metals to be Unearthed?The media has shown us in all its forms that the Greenland ice-sheet is melting, and along with the Antarctic peninsular, is one of the poster children for the reality of global warming. On the plus side is the possibility that under the ice of the Ilimaussaq Intrusion lies the world’s largest known reserve of rare earth metals, also known as lanthanides in the Periodic table of the Chemical Chris Rhodeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12060542089215379056noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19508699.post-42306684707177162382009-11-20T09:42:00.004Z2009-11-20T12:57:35.601ZEnergy Saving Light Bulbs Get Dimmer with Use.I had thought this might be the case from my own experience, but this is from the horse's mouth (an animal usually assumed to be standing the right way round, but isn't always). This particular horse is a report from E&T which is the leading trade magazine published by the Institution of Engineering and Technology, which one would assume is talking from its mouth and nowhere else. According to Chris Rhodeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12060542089215379056noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19508699.post-5870111105797867792009-11-17T09:52:00.004Z2009-11-17T15:26:35.435ZCarbon Particles a Factor in Climate Change?The toxicity of carbon particles ("particulate") has been stressed in the designation of PM10 and PM2.5, which refers to particles of size of 10 and 2.5 microns (thousandths of a millimetre) or less. The smallest of these particles are breathed into the deep lung, and during conditions where the concentration of them is high, an enhanced incidence of heart attacks and breathing problems is found.Chris Rhodeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12060542089215379056noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19508699.post-39652021143734574972009-11-07T08:45:00.004Z2009-11-07T09:08:24.234ZConundrum Over Vast Oilfield Under Baghdad.It is thought there nay be a "supergiant" oilfield underneath Baghdad, which may hold 8.1 billion barrels of oil, and is one of ten oilfields and one gasfield that seems about to come onto the market. To place this into perspective, the entire North Sea reserves are around 4 billion barrels, or half of that; while on the world stage of oil demand it is enough for about three months. Nonetheless, Chris Rhodeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12060542089215379056noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19508699.post-20970943218150183592009-10-27T07:32:00.003Z2009-10-27T08:03:05.587ZGo Nuclear to Avert Climate Change.This is the prognostication of Professor David MacKay, who is the U.K. government's chief scientific advisor (following Sir David King), who thinks that emphasis on nuclear power is the only way that Britain can keep pace with its inexorable demand for electricity but at the same time, holding rein on its carbon emissions. On his first day in this new role, Prof. MacKay delineated a plan for the Chris Rhodeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12060542089215379056noreply@blogger.com18tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19508699.post-82705264222778155622009-10-26T16:10:00.006Z2009-10-26T16:45:12.054ZBiofuel From Algae - Different Prognoses.I have read two entirely differing articles about the imminence and feasibility of growing algae and converting it into biofuel to stave-off the paucity of oil in the "post peak oil era" as that final descent has been dubbed in some quarters. We have on the one hand the valourous trumpet "Algae biofuel propels a brave new world" in fanfare that the status quo of plentiful liquid fuels can be Chris Rhodeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12060542089215379056noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19508699.post-46383913750884347282009-10-17T09:26:00.003+01:002009-10-17T10:16:38.084+01:00Is There an Extra Half-Trillion Barrels of Oil?It is claimed that there may be an extra half-trillion barrels of oil than was formerly reckoned, but even if there is, does it really matter? Dr Marcio Mello presented an analysis at the Denver ASPO conference that there may be 500 billion (half-trillion) barrels worth of oil in the sub-salt basins on the margins of the South Atlantic Ocean. The discovery of "diamondoid" structures in oil found Chris Rhodeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12060542089215379056noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19508699.post-79382252093780661982009-10-16T11:24:00.003+01:002009-10-16T12:36:38.648+01:00"The Not-So Sweet Truth of Sugar Fuel."The title is that of the headline in today's "getreading" local newspaper. The latter aptly refers not only to the assimilation of information by the process reading, but also to the town of Reading, across the River Thames from the village of Caversham where I live in south east England, where today one can read about Reading Council's efforts to run its local bus-fleet on biofuels. The article Chris Rhodeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12060542089215379056noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19508699.post-54822842250774201622009-10-15T09:40:00.008+01:002009-10-15T15:34:59.317+01:00UK "in with Europe" to Turn Waste into Energy.The European Union has a major drive to turn all kinds of waste into energy, particularly from biogas. There are two main incentives for this, the first being the geological feature that natural gas is in finite supply and world production of it is expected to peak within the next few decades, and secondly that burning fossil carbon contributes to the atmospheric concentration of CO2, which some Chris Rhodeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12060542089215379056noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19508699.post-53296025821427250062009-10-08T09:37:00.002+01:002009-10-08T10:19:18.313+01:00U.K. Government Told: "Peak Oil in 10 Years".The UK Energy Research Centre (UKERC) has issued a report in which it is stated that there is a "significant risk" that world oil production will reach its peak and then fall into terminal decline - i.e. "peak oil". The report further urges, quite logically, that the price of oil and hence fuel will rise and become more volatile and so one might expect will the world economy, given its Chris Rhodeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12060542089215379056noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19508699.post-89480174780786066932009-10-07T08:20:00.002+01:002009-10-07T09:04:33.007+01:00British-Norwegian Power Link.An undersea power link is to be established between Britain and Norway at a cost of around £1 billion. Norway generates almost its entire electricity production using hydropower while the U.K. are planning more wind farms. Establishing a power cable between the two countries could help to smooth-out intermittencies that are an integral feature of producing electricity by renewable means such as Chris Rhodeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12060542089215379056noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19508699.post-57373422130823565892009-10-06T09:14:00.005+01:002009-10-06T14:41:33.395+01:00British Wheat Surplus Consumed to Make Bioethanol.A bioethanol plant at Wilton (originally the home of the I.C.I. Advanced Materials Centre, and now a science park for a range of companies with similar interests) will consume one tenth of the U.K.'s home-grown wheat crop which is above the national surplus. 450 Million litres of bioethanol will be produced annually from 1.2 million tonnes of wheat. Since the U.K. wheat harvest ranges between 12 Chris Rhodeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12060542089215379056noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19508699.post-59823485269738058782009-09-27T12:11:00.007+01:002009-09-27T15:04:57.399+01:00Water-Demand makes Renewables Unsustainable.It takes resources to get resources, especially those of water, one that is often overlooked in the various strategies of obtaining renewable energy. It is reckoned to take 2,500 gallons of water to grow sufficient corn to make one gallon of ethanol, against which the often quoted, but still sizeable, four gallons of water required to produce a gallon of ethanol from corn (or other source of Chris Rhodeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12060542089215379056noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19508699.post-68913177918182194402009-09-25T10:56:00.008+01:002009-09-25T14:57:48.607+01:00Night-Time Solar Energy.Devices employing billions of heat collecting nanoantennas (“nantennas”) are under development, which may eventually provide a solar energy collector that is amenable to mass-production using flexible sheets, and will produce electricity at night. It is not presently possible to convert the energy collected to electricity but it is envisaged that once this hurdle is overcome, lightweight "skins" Chris Rhodeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12060542089215379056noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19508699.post-89029413412727055732009-09-15T08:42:00.003+01:002009-09-15T10:08:38.927+01:00Algae Driven Batteries.Taking the potential of algae into another dimension of energy production, research workers at Uppsala University have produced a novel lightweight battery by taking cellulose fibres from algae and coating them with a 50nm thin layer of polypyrrole. The batteries have demonstrated charging capacities of between 25 and 33 mAh g−1 or 38−50 mAh g−1 per weight of the active material, can be charged Chris Rhodeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12060542089215379056noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19508699.post-67049427917392302802009-09-14T09:28:00.004+01:002009-09-14T10:29:14.743+01:00Russian Oil Production Peaks.Since the year 2000, Russian oil production has increased by practically 50%, but this growth appears to have now peaked. The supply on Non-OPEC oil peaked early in this decade and it was only Russia, returning to force from the prior financial crisis that could offset the fall in the remaining parts of this sector. Non-OPEC accounts for about 60% of world oil production, but within the sector itChris Rhodeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12060542089215379056noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19508699.post-33784175423460501812009-08-28T11:02:00.003+01:002009-08-28T11:48:23.838+01:00Solar-Powered Oil.This is a nifty idea: an oil field which employs solar energy to generate steam for enhanced extraction technologies. This particular innovation is due to Brightsource Energy who are using a 29 MW solar thermal power plant at a Chevron oil field based in Coalinga, California. The method of CTSP (Concentrated Thermal Solar Power), sometimes abbreviated further to CSP, uses an array of mirrors to Chris Rhodeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12060542089215379056noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19508699.post-9411337995294227662009-08-25T07:57:00.006+01:002009-08-25T09:05:55.063+01:00Mexico Cantarell Oil Field Dead by End of 2010.The giant Cantarell oil field, the world's eighth largest will be dead by the end of next year. Output peaked in 2004/2005 at around 2.2 million barrels a day (mbd) but will be well below the 0.5 mpd predicted by the end of 2009 - and extrapolating its apparently linear decline, it will be around zero by the end of 2010. Cantarell was a late field, since it was discovered in 1976, by which time Chris Rhodeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12060542089215379056noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19508699.post-60160204886707067792009-08-14T08:25:00.000+01:002009-08-14T08:26:04.406+01:00"World Challenge 09" Announces its 12 Finalists.For the fifth year running, BBC World News and Newsweek magazine have joined Shell in a programme to support groups that provide benefit and support for local communities. "World Challenge 09" is a global competition which seeks to reward projects and businesses which bring economic, social and environmental benefits to local communities through grassroots solutions. The winner will get $20,000 Chris Rhodeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12060542089215379056noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19508699.post-23915695163720509032009-08-12T08:42:00.007+01:002009-08-12T10:44:25.739+01:00Soil-Bugs Provide Eco-Solution to Plastic Pollution.Despite the ubiquitous uses of plastics, from an environmental perspective they are a menace. Rebecca Hosking's "plastic bag" campaign is well known, when driven by the horror of her first-hand experience as a wildlife photographer seeing birds and sea-creatures tangled-up in plastic that had crossed the world's oceans, she persuaded her home town of Modbury in Devon to ban plastic bags in the Chris Rhodeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12060542089215379056noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19508699.post-75565146623575115682009-08-11T08:57:00.003+01:002009-08-11T10:18:24.973+01:00Dangerous Swiss Glacial Lake to be Drained.A glacial lake has formed above the town of Grindelwald in the Swiss canton, Bern. Since the lake has no overground drainage, it poses a risk of bursting through the weakest point and flooding the valley below. The formation of the lake is attributed to global warming over the Alps and melting of the lower Grindelwald glacier (Unterer Grindelwaldgletscher, in German) leaving a huge basin filled Chris Rhodeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12060542089215379056noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19508699.post-22197860280722015272009-07-22T08:48:00.012+01:002009-07-28T08:32:26.742+01:00Can Mushrooms Save the World?A mycelium (plural mycelia) is the vegetative part of a fungus and consists of a mass of branching, thread-like tendrils called hyphae [1]. Fungal colonies composed of mycelia are found in soil and on or in many other substrates. Usually, a single spore germinates into a monokaryotic mycelium which cannot reproduce sexually; however, when two compatible monokaryotic mycelia join and form a Chris Rhodeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12060542089215379056noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19508699.post-17936272889381362942009-07-16T09:50:00.016+01:002009-07-29T09:50:48.280+01:00We Need Good Polytechnics - not Bad Universities. "University Shambles" is the title of my recent novel (http://universityshambles.com) which is a black comedy but it does satire some of the worst developments in the vastly expanded and rejigged university system, as noted by a recent reviewer:“A highly amusing insight into the university sector as it has recently expanded relentlessly under government edict. It presents a devastating picture Chris Rhodeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12060542089215379056noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19508699.post-12405414314785393262009-07-06T09:11:00.011+01:002009-07-21T11:55:21.578+01:00Human Population and the Earth’s Resources.Part 5. of an essay on Global Warming with A. Koewius, put here for comments.While accepting that the earth-system is a complex set of interacting mechanisms that transport heat from the equator and tropics toward the cooler polar regions, the influence of CO2 (and other greenhouse gases) in the atmosphere is expected to cause an accompanying elevation in the Mean Global Temperature (MGT) as its Chris Rhodeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12060542089215379056noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19508699.post-75814724787712833792009-06-25T08:39:00.007+01:002009-06-25T09:33:54.475+01:00Saudi Oil Boss Says World Needs Fossil Fuels.Despite the new green revolution, which points to lofty targets to curb carbon-emissions and a future greatly underpinned by renewable energy sources, a Saudi oil-leader has said that when the situation of what can be provided by renewables is evaluated objectively, they can provide only a minute share of the total energy requirement. He told the Royal Academy of Engineering last week that oil, Chris Rhodeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12060542089215379056noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19508699.post-42439757247202576442009-06-23T09:04:00.004+01:002009-06-23T09:33:15.555+01:00Fuel from Algae within 10 - 15 Years.According to Raffaello Garafalo, who is the executive director of the European Algae Biomass Association, it will take around 10 - 15 years to implement the production of fuel from algae on the large scale. Algae figure among some of the earliest living species on Earth, and it is speculated that crude oil (petroleum) may have originated from the decomposition ("cooking") of algae that had Chris Rhodeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12060542089215379056noreply@blogger.com0