Waste to Energy

Comment

Comment by Dee Miller on October 13, 2009 at 10:42am

What is the good of finding more gas or oil if using it pollutes? I don't know if there is global warming caused by man or not, but I firmly believe that 6 to 7 billion of anything can't exist anywhere without causing degradation of some sort. Pollution is degrading our quality of life (causing asthma and other disease) not to mention a blight on our view of the world. We can't stop others from polluting, but we don't need to contribute to it when there are meaningful, constructive and effective alternatives. We are getting more and better technologies all the time and I hope we continue. Being able to use our MSW for non-polluting energy is the greatest since popcorn! We need to have it become more affordable for us in the small and rural areas - desperately!

Comment by James Tracy on October 13, 2009 at 10:39am

I have worked in the NG feilds, as a welder, and pumper. I have seen millions of cf of NG vented into the air, when a well messes up. Fracking, punches holes in our aquafers, and will leak sooner or later. Water is life, and our waters are already polluted to the point it already affects everyones health. I agree Robert, there is alot of energy laying around. Current tech makes it as efficient as any fossil fuel. The real question is why this tech has been held back?

Comment by Robert Schultz on October 13, 2009 at 10:29am

connect the dots...Methane is truly a "natural gas" and utilizing waste-to-energy can turn our wastes into a renewable resource.

Comment by Robert Schultz on October 13, 2009 at 10:17am

Q: Is natural gas a renewable resource?

A: Not from its original source as fossil fuel. Much of the natural gas we are burning now formed in deposits buried during the Devonian period, 300 million years ago. It is possible natural gas could form in as little as 50 million years. We don't consider that renewable, in the sense that it is somewhat beyond the typical human life span. Our species has not yet actually existed for a single million years.

None of the fossil fuels are considered to be renewable in that sense.

But, since natural gas is primarily methane, and methane is readily available and obtainable from renewable sources other than gas wells drilled into conventional underground reservoirs, it can be considered renewable.

Methane can be derived from organic matter undergoing decomposition. For example in many parts of India, methane is generated through decomposition of both human and livestock feces, gathered and used as cooking gas. This technology has been in use there for centuries. Methane can be recovered from organic matter decomposing in land fills and through processing of animal waste.

In fact it has been recently established that the belching of millions of cattle worldwide is actually a measurable contribution of methane into the atmosphere. Free methane in the atmosphere is considered a greenhouse gas.

http://wiki.answers.com/Q/Is_natural_gas_a_renewable_resource

Comment by Robert Schultz on October 13, 2009 at 10:15am

Energy crisis is postponed as new gas rescues the world
By Ambrose Evans-Pritchard
Published: 5:47PM BST 11 Oct 2009
Telegraph UK

The World Gas Conference in Buenos Aires last week was one of those events that shatter assumptions. Advances in technology for extracting gas from shale and methane beds have quickened dramatically, altering the global balance of energy faster than almost anybody expected.

Rune Bjornson from Norway's StatoilHydro said exploitable reserves are much greater than supposed just three years ago and may meet global gas needs for generations.

"The common wisdom was that unconventional gas was too difficult, too expensive and too demanding," he said, according to Petroleum Economist. "This has changed. If we ever doubted that gas was the fuel of the future – in many ways there's the answer."

The breakthrough has been to combine 3-D seismic imaging with new technologies to free "tight gas" by smashing rocks, known as hydro-fracturing or "fracking" in the trade.

The US is leading the charge. Operations in Pennsylvania and Texas have already been sufficient to cut US imports of liquefied natural gas (LGN) from Trinidad and Qatar to almost nil, with knock-on effects for the global gas market – and crude oil. It is one reason why spot prices for some LNG deliveries have dropped to 50pc of pipeline contracts.

The US Energy Department expects shale to meet half of US gas demand within 20 years, if not earlier. Projects are cranking up in eastern France and Poland. Exploration is under way in Australia, India and China.

Texas A&M University said US methods could increase global gas reserves by nine times to 16,000 TCF (trillion cubic feet). Almost a quarter is in China but it may lack the water resources to harness the technology given the depletion of the North China water basin.

Needless to say, the Kremlin is irked. "There's a lot of myths about shale production," said Gazprom's Alexander Medvedev.

If the new forecasts are accurate, Gazprom is not going to be the perennial cash cow funding Russia's great power resurgence. Russia's budget may be in structural deficit.

As for the US, we may soon be looking at an era when gas, wind and solar power, combined with a smarter grid and a switch to electric cars returns the country to near energy self-sufficiency.

This has currency implications. If you strip out the energy deficit, America's vaulting savings rate may soon bring the current account back into surplus – and that is going to come at somebody else's expense, chiefly Japan, Germany and, up to a point, China.

Shale gas is undoubtedly messy. Millions of gallons of water mixed with sand, hydrochloric acid and toxic chemicals are blasted at rocks. This is supposed to happen below the water basins but accidents have been common. Pennsylvania's eco-police have shut down a Cabot Oil & Gas operation after 8,000 gallons of chemicals spilled into a stream.

Nor is it exactly green. Natural gas has much lower CO2 emissions than coal, even from shale – which is why the Sierra Club is backing it as the lesser of evils against "clean coal" (not yet a reality). The US Federal Energy Regulatory Commission said America may not need any new coal or nuclear plants "ever" again.


But before we get too excited, let's remember our responsibility to future generations also includes protecting water resources.
--Robert Schultz

Read the full article here:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/comment/ambroseevans_pritchard/6299291/Energy-crisis-is-postponed-as-new-gas-rescues-the-world.html

Comment by Karl Mayr on October 13, 2009 at 1:30am

Hi Friends,

Hey, we in America have a collective genuis, and we need to support what is good and science is awesome. We need to do a lot more mental exercize, and we will not be so complacent.

I have visited and read volumes about Hoover Dam, which is part of the "New Deal". There are 15 - 150,000 horsepower hyrdo-powered electric generators, and this was installed in the bottom of deep ravine. The roof in the generator building is four feet thick, to cushion falling rocks.

Hey, we are talking 1930-1935, when big diesel rigs were a dream. They bore four holes 50 feet in diameter in solid rock to divert the mighty Colorado River for five years during the dam construction. They cooled the concrete with refrigerated coolant from an ice plant that could produce 100 tons of ice every day!

Come on people, let's get to work, and get off our a---s. We beat the Nazi's and the Kamikazee' in my lifetimes, and we can do it again.

Is PickensPlan the "New Deal" or what? (because of internet, 10,000+ people read this blog)

Karl from Tularosa

Comment by JeffM on October 13, 2009 at 1:04am

Lou:

I am going through personal difficulties, and the power of vision and hope is what gets us through tough times. I couldn't agree with you more. Like Teddy Roosevelt in his quote "Dare Greatly" Google it if you have not read it.

Comment by JeffM on October 13, 2009 at 12:59am

Karl

The Grid can have pumped storage hydro, and we know it does, i.e Castaic Lake Pyramid Lake , Helms, all in California, and if super capacitors become feasible we can have massive solid state electrical storage,

I like wind power, but the real economics need to be investigated, with the economic loss of land, the energy cost to manufacture, the maintenance cost and useful life. The big cost uncertainty for nuclear is the waste issue.

There is a big fusion test device going into operation soon at Lawerance Livermore I think? Will have net energy gain. Cool stuff, I mean Hot stuff.

Comment by Lou De Frog on October 12, 2009 at 11:09am

What we do as individuals determines our personal future in the real world. What we do as a group (team) determines our ultimate existence - and we create this future in our imagination.

What we truly believe, will be. Some call this wishful thinking, others recognize this as the first stage of manifestation.

Comment by David L. Whiteman on October 11, 2009 at 8:07pm

Thank you, Karl, Well said.

• First
• Previous
• Next
• Last