Energy

After the election of Barack Obama in 2008, I had a few isolated concerns about his true science colors; he had issued creepy vaccine-autism statements, his transition team was stuffed with people who believed in anti-science UFO conspiracies, another suspect pick was tipped to run the EPA until his anti-vaccine quackery couldn't be hidden any more, and one of his picks thought girls couldn't do math. For a guy supposedly better for science his advisors were a concern.   John Holdren looked like a science pick, though he had a lot of Doomsday hysteria in his past so he was basically a…

It isn't often I will agree with Club Sierra...I mean Sierra Club - if you have ever been to their offices you will know how easy it is to confuse the terms. They spend so much time latching onto whatever cause will generate donations it's hard to know if they believe in anything, much less science, and it can make you nuts.  Like Greenpeace, their baffling 'trust scientists when it comes to global warming but scientists are out to kill you with GMOs' stance is, in a nutshell, why progressives (not liberals, not Democrats, progressives) are so goofy in their anti-science beliefs. …

People may complain about tax breaks for successful energy companies but the one thing worse is spending real money on lousy ones.   Yet it has happened because advocacy is taking precedence over science. The recent Solyndra LLC collapse is not the first time this has happened, nor can it be blamed solely on the Obama administration simply due to his zeal for alternative energy - the Department of Energy began the loan guarantee program in 2006 when there was a Republican Congress and a Republican senate and in 2005 the wasteful ethanol subsidies and mandates were put into law. Yet the…

A new alginate binder material for lithium-ion battery electrodes could boost energy storage and perhaps help eliminate the toxic compounds in batteries - good news for Prius owners who are concerned their batteries may be doing more harm to the environment than their emissions are saving. Alginate is extracted from common, fast-growing brown algae. In tests so far, it has helped boost energy storage and output for both graphite-based electrodes used in existing batteries and silicon-based electrodes being developed for future generations of batteries. Alginates are natural…

In the early days of the Obama administration transition, there were a number of concerns about his anti-science beliefs.  He hired a guy who thought girls couldn't do math and one who thinks there is a government UFO conspiracy. But then he made Steven Chu Energy Secretary, and that was good, if only Chu could curb his anti-CO2 fetish. Well, it looks like he has seen the light, though perhaps only because he sees what a dark place an America without CO2 looks like.   Emissions are back to 1995 levels - that may sound good but it's actually not because that means there are no jobs…

As solar power continues to grow in popularity, science issues like pollution are being swept under the rug in hopes future technology will solve it before it becomes a crisis, much like with ethanol, MTBE, PBDEs and other once-popular efforts environmental lobbyists spent millions promoting. Chris Cherry, assistant professor in civil and environmental engineering at  University of Tennessee-Knoxville, says solar power's reliance s on lead batteries has the potential to release more than 2.4 million tons of lead pollution in China and India, a pattern likely to be repeated throughout…

Researchers  have developed an inexpensive way to grade the ethanol potential of perennial grasses at the biorefinery's loading dock - the first use of near-infrared sensing (NIRS) to measure 20 components in switchgrass biomass that determine its potential value to biorefiners. These components include cell wall sugars, soluble sugars and lignin. With this information, 13 traits can be determined, including the efficiency of the conversion from sugars to ethanol.This is the first use of NIRS to predict maximum and actual ethanol yields of grasses from a basic conversion process. This…

Our energy dilemma The hydrocarbon economy is faltering as oil reserves dwindle worldwide (Hirsch, 2008).  Commodity prices have begun to fluctuate drastically due to the uncertain cost of petroleum, which resulted in food riots around the world in 2008.  With a steadily decreasing energy supply and the demands on energy systems continually growing, the planet is in dire economic, geopolitical, and environmental straits.  In order to halt the advance of climate change, prevent ecological collapse, rescue the global economy, and ensure our energy security, humanity must find a…

A new non-deformed energy storage phase change material (PCM) can retain and release heat according to specific temperature requirements - a breakthrough that might make a significant difference to the cost of heating and cooling buildings. If, for example, the required optimum temperature in a room is 22°C, the material can be fixed so that it starts absorbing any excess heat above that temperature.  The heat-regulating material looks like a circular tablet with the circumference of a large coin in the laboratory and can be manufactured so small that it can be sprayed as an unobtrusive…

With an oil issue that is pinching us on two fronts, cost and pollution, alternative energy research is going fuel speed ahead, including on solutions that have tried and failed in the past, like ethanol. But ethanol was not flawed as a concept, it was just pushed by activists who ignored the science and wanted it rushed to market - using food as inefficient fuel was not a great idea but bio-ethanol made from biomass, like left over cornstalks or weeds instead of fuel, might work to improve pollution issues. To improve fuel efficiency, which reduces cost and pollution, octane-boosting…