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1. T. Boone, Prop 10 and the Questionable Effect of Natural Gas Cars
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2. Animated Ethanol Molecule, Not Just For the Kids
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3. Fuel Cells: We Don't Need No Stinking Platinum
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4. Customize Algae Fuel With AXI
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5. The Daily Sprout
T. Boone, Prop 10 and the Questionable Effect of Natural Gas Cars
Katie Fehrenbacher - Policy
The LA Times story that knocked the green halo off T. Boone Pickens’ head, with its spotlight on Pickens’ funding of California’s Prop 10, generated a lot of heated comments from readers. This morning the Wall Street Journal takes a crack at the story and points out some more interesting details.
The Prop, which would gives thousands of dollars in rebates to natural gas vehicle buyers, as well as spending on R&D, will supposedly cost California $9.8 billion over 30 years and would come from taxpayer money. The WSJ says, if the prop passes, it could lead to a million natural gas vehicles for California; if the Prop is defeated then natural gas vehicle backers will have to compete — against cleaner alternatives like electric vehicles — for the $840 million in funds under law AB 118. In a vacuum natural gas cars sound OK, but it’s hard to justify spending on dirtier-burning natural gas vehicles when those funds are directly competing with “zero emission” alternatives, like electric cars powered by a solar grid.
So, the biggest issue with choosing to fund natural gas vehicles or not is the questionable emissions benefits. Yes, there is a national security and supply issue that is answered by natural gas vehicles, but the WSJ quotes a California Energy Commission study: When natural gas replaces gasoline, greenhouse gases are reduced by just 20 to 30 percent. When natural gas is used instead of diesel in trucks, greenhouse gases are reduced just 10 to 20 percent. If diesel is almost comparable, then it makes more sense to fund that as a stop gap as that infrastructure is already in place. The article also points out that the natural gas vehicle benefits over gasoline have dropped over the past two decades as newer internal combustion engines have become cleaner and more efficient.
The WSJ says together Pickens and Chesapeake Energy CEO Aubrey McClendon have spent $3.7 million supporting the proposition. Previously Pickens had been isolated as the only backer of the prop. Chesapeake Energy’s claim to fame is that it’s the “third-largest overall producer of natural gas in the U.S” — so it’s not surprising that the firm would invest to get this passed. Earlier this week it also came out that Pickens is getting into natural gas vehicle development, too. Pickens and the natural gas distribution company he founded, Clean Energy Fuels, joined with the Perseus fund to invest $160 million into building a natural gas vehicle.
Animated Ethanol Molecule, Not Just For the Kids
Katie Fehrenbacher - In the Lab
The animation isn’t the end unto itself. Crowley has visually mapped it out to help researchers eventually bioengineer a version of Cel7A that could be useful for cellulosic biofuel production. In nature, Cel7A turns cellulose into simple sugars at a pace that’s good enough for plants, but not quite fast enough for an industry that wants to pump gallons of the end product into our fuel tanks. Engineering the enzyme could deliver an efficient way to churn out biofuels from cellulosic — and more importantly, non-food feedstocks.
Crowley’s research is being funded by the NREL to the tune of $1 million a year over five years. He’s working with researchers from Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Cornell University, Forest Products Research Lab, Scripps Research Institute and the University of California at San Diego. The work could not only help deliver innovations for biofuels, but will likely produce computer science work in the form of codes and algorithms that will help researchers do similarly complex supercomputer-based modeling.
Fuel Cells: We Don't Need No Stinking Platinum
Celeste LeCompte - In the Lab
Prices for platinum have dropped more than 30 percent in recent weeks, to around $1,478.80 an ounce, off a high of more than $2,100 an ounce earlier this year. It’s part of an overall slide in commodity prices, from corn to precious metals to crude, taking place as global supply chains respond to a slowing U.S. economy.
But platinum prices are still high and supply isn’t expected to keep up with demand — a major point of concern for fuel cell companies, which use platinum as a catalyst for converting hydrogen gas into electricity and water. It’s also a point of innovation as researchers and firms have scrambled to find a way to replace (or at least reduce) the expensive material in their designs.
Hydrogen fuel cells have two main reactive surfaces: an anode, which splits oxygen, and a cathode, which splits the hydrogen gas. Both electrodes typically use platinum to catalyze the reaction, but a team of Australian researchers has developed a way to outfit the cathode with a conductive, Gore-Tex-like material to replace the platinum. The Monash University researchers told Greener Design they’re optimistic about ditching platinum in the anode as well:
“However, the way the conducting polymer works as [a] catalyst make us believe that it should be possible to design a conducting polymer that suits the hydrogen oxidation reaction,” said Monash’s Dr. Bjørn Winther-Jensen.
The Monash team’s work is related to that of researchers at MIT, who have devised a way to use cobalt in an anode-side reaction that mimics photosynthesis, as well as Japanese automaker Daihatsu Motor, which said last year that it had developed a similar polymer-based approach. (So far the company hasn’t made any additional announcements.)
Other companies are working on the cathode problem: Japanese company Hitachi Maxell is looking to blend platinum with gold as a way to cut prices and boost efficiency. The new catalyst is just 2-3 nanometers in size, allowing the company to pack more reactive surface area into the fuel cell stack. However, the Maxell approach may not be as helpful at cutting costs if the U.S. economy continues to slide, since gold prices tend to go up as the dollar goes down. (Still, we’d take gold’s current $814 per ounce over $1,400 per ounce any day!).
Researchers at Brown are also experimenting with nanotechnology to improve platinum’s performance as a catalyst (this time without adding gold into the mix.) By blending the pure metal with two compounds, the team has created “nanocubes” that, like Maxell’s gold-blend catalyst, boost the platinum’s reactive surface area.
Such initiatives are slow going, however, and platinum is unlikely to become a cost-effective option for fuel cell manufacturers any time soon. Nor for the beleaguered U.S. auto industry, which uses platinum as the active ingredient in catalytic converters; each converter can use four to seven ounces of the pricey material. The auto industry accounts for as much as 50 percent of global demand for the metal, according to Reuters, and growing numbers of cars on the road in China and India are likely to increase pressure on existing resources. Mazda and Nissan have both developed catalytic converters that use nanotechnology to reduce the amount of platinum used by 50 to 90 percent.
Customize Algae Fuel With AXI
Craig Rubens - Startups
AXI says it has a technology that allows it to customize algal strains to its, or the distributors’, liking. There are basically three main areas of innovations that can add to the algae to fuel world: there’s the tweaking of algal strains, the development of bioreactor systems and the commercialization of fuel production. AXI joins players like Seambiotic, Aurora Biofuels and Solazyme who are all focused on developing superior strains of algae.
This means AXI doesn’t have to dabble with messy bioreactors or fuel fermenters that other startups are using to make biofuels — if it doesn’t want to. Instead, many on our list of startups could actually be customers for AXI’s algae strains. Rose Ann Cattolico, developer of the AXI technology at the University of Washington, said in a statement that its methods for developing “growth and productivity traits” will help the algae fuel industry improve output.
The Daily Sprout
Craig Rubens - Misc
Sam’s Club Selling Solar Panels: Nine Sam’s Club (owned by Wal-Mart) stores in southern California will be promoting rooftop solar installations in the stores and offer $500 discounts. Deals will be offered through residential installers Borrego Solar and BP Solar - CNet.
Johnson Controls-Saft Gets $8.2M for Hybrid Batteries: The joint venture between Johnson Controls and France’s Saft received a $8.2 million contract from the DOE-funded Advanced Battery Consortium. Over two years Johnson Controls-Saft will work on validating their lithium-ion battery technology for plug-in hybrid applications - Cleantech Group.
Chinese Solar Firm Aims for $1B U.S. IPO: Silicon wafer maker Jiangsu Shunda Group plans to IPO in the first half of 2009 on the New York Stock Exchange and hopes to raise $1 billion. The company says it plans to build a new polysilicon plant and will solidify its plan to IPO in October if its silicon meets international standards - Reuters.
Making Cement From Flue Gas: Khosla-backed Calera says it can make cement using flue gas from industrial facilities. Founder Brent Constantz claims: “We probably have the best carbon capture and storage technique there is by a long shot.” Too bad that’s not saying much - Scientific American.
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