Thomko Petro Chemical Blog

Thanks to all who sent e-mail from our last post about soaring oil prices. From analysts, politicians and just about everybody weighing in, there are many opinions about the cause and ways to solve our dependency on oil. Here's my personal thoughts on some of the major causes of why oil has risen to all time highs
 . . . CT

For the past 20-25 years, this country has obviously neglected to find other sources of energy and fuel, and instead opted to stay dependent on foreign oil. Now we come to a time when as Thomas Friedman's book title "The World Is Flat" hits us squarely in the face.

This is a global economy - and the rest of the world wants what we have. We are no longer the driving force on the oil & gasoline prices worldwide. Even if we cut back on gasoline consumption - drivers in the rest of the world (China, India, etc) will continue to consume more gasoline. So the answer lies not just in finding more oil, the big pill to swallow is a real alternative energy policy.

While we have been living the "American Dream", much of the rest of the global world is catching up. They want the cars, homes and a lot of the technology we have become accustomed to. There are just not enough resources to supply the demand. Actually from my point of view they are falling into the same trap we now find ourselves - but that's another story . . .  

The facts are crude oil production has remained rather flat - while the need for oil continues to rise - especially from developing countries. The American dollar is at an all time low, and let me state once again that oil is priced worldwide in dollars.

Terrorist activity around the world can send oil souring at any time as we have seen in Nigeria, and threats remain throughout the Middle East. 

Oil speculators also have to be figured into the equation of the rising oil prices. Many institutions playing the market for their investors own far too many oil contracts - and when they announce oil price expectations - prices continue to rise. It's easy to control the price when you own most of the contracts!

And the war in Iraq has dramatically cut their pre-war production of approximately 4 million barrels per day to less than 2 million barrels per day. So in reality this war has also added to the reduction of the global oil supply - and I won't even go into what the threat of war with Iran will do to the world oil market prices.

But there's more bad news . . . Russia, the world's second largest oil exporter is having production problems. Russia's lack of investment in their infrastructure and many aging oil fields has led to their first production decline in 10 years.   

At the end of the day, it's all of us who pull up to the gas pump each week who are the losers. Obviously the elected politicians for the past two decades have not had the country or our best interests at heart. So, it's up to us to make changes in our lives, and try to ride out this economic chaos.

I certainly don't have all the answers, but I do know that we are facing a very bad economic time in this country. It's going to take sacrifice, and hopefully this time we will come out this with a new outlook on alternative energy - but it's not going to happen overnight. 

That's my take . . .

SAN FRANCISCO - A few years ago, drums of used French fry grease were of interest only to a small network of underground biofuel brewers, who would use the slimy oil to power their souped-up antique Mercedes.

Now, restaurants from Berkeley, California., to Sedgwick, Kansas., are reporting thefts of old cooking oil worth thousands of dollars to rustlers who refine it into barrels of biofuel in backyard stills.

Some say it's like a war going on right now over used grease. More people are stealing grease because they have converted their cars to run on grease collected from local area restaurants.

Grease is transformed into fuel through a chemical process called transesterification, which removes glycerine and adds methanol to the oil, leaving a thinner product that can power a diesel engine.

Biodiesel can also be blended with petroleum diesel, and blends of the alternative fuel are now sold at 1,400 gas stations across the country.

As the price of diesel soars ($4.79 currently in Northwest Indiana), so, too does the value of grease.

In three years, the price of soybean oil, the main feedstock for biodiesel made in the United States, has tripled. Last week, a gallon of crude soybean oil fetched 66 cents on the open market, according to the National Biodiesel Board.

Those numbers have encouraged biofuel enthusiasts to plunder restaurants' greasy waste, and have even spurred San Francisco to get into the grease-trap cleaning business.

Drivers for Blue Sky Bio-Fuels, which manufactures bio-diesel for San Francisco's municipal program, often find their 300-gallon Dumpster outside the Oakland Coliseum nearly dry, despite the dozens of concession stands that dump there. Losses there alone have cost $3,700 in lost oil revenues in the last year.

In Kansas, Healy Biodiesel reports thousands of dollars in losses from used cooking oil heists from restaurants near Sedgwick, about 20 miles north of Wichita.

Standard Biodiesel in Seattle started working with police to try to catch fly-by-night home-brewers pilfering up to 30,000 gallons of the oil they collect from restaurants every month.

To manufacture the renewable fuel legally, biodiesel producers must register with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Also, biodiesel consumers must pay the government taxes to help with road upkeep.
 

Source: Newsday

Saudi Arabia, the world's biggest oil exporter, plans to become an expert in another, cleaner field of energy by investing in solar power, the country's oil minister said in an interview released Sunday.

"For a country like Saudi Arabia - one of the most important sources of energy to look at and to develop is solar energy," Ali al-Nuaimi told French oil newsletter Petrostrategies.

He added: "One of the research efforts that we are going to undertake is to see how we make Saudi Arabia a centre for solar energy research and hopefully over the next 30 to 50 years we will be a major megawatt exporter. In the same way we are an oil exporter, we can also be an exporter of power."

Nuaimi said that Saudi Arabia was also set to invest in carbon capture and storage programmes to develop technology allowing carbon dioxide to be extracted from the atmosphere and stored underground.

"There are a lot of countries that are willing to cooperate with us," he said.

Source: Energy Daily

Bob Malone, chairman and president of BP America, said: "BP is growing its wind power portfolio in the US and the Sherbino wind farm in Texas is the latest example of that growth. Wind power is one of America's most abundant natural resources and we believe that turning wind into electricity should be a major part of the nation's drive to increase the use of alternative energy and reduce carbon emissions."

BP Alternative Energy announced that it has started the phase one construction of its 10,000 acre site in West Texas in a joint venture with NRG Energy.

By the second half of this year Sherbino Wind Farm is on schedule to be operational, and is expected to generate enough electricity to power 225,000 homes.

Another wind project, Silver Star I Wind Farm is also expected to be on line this year.

About BP Alternative Energy/BP America

BP Alternative Energy, launched in November 2005, combines all of BP's interests in low and zero-carbon energy including wind, solar, hydrogen power with carbon capture and storage, natural gas-fired power generation, biofuels for low carbon transport and distributed energy for emerging markets. BP Alternative Energy is one of the leading wind developers in the US and has portfolios in Europe, Asia & Latin America. BP's US wind portfolio includes the opportunity to develop almost 100 projects with a potential total generating capacity of 15,000 MW.

French engineer Guy Negre has designed a car that runs on compressed air, produces no emissions on short trips, and can be refueled in three minutes flat.

Called the OneCAT (CAT stands for compressed air technology), the new compressed-air powered car is a lightweight five-seat vehicle that is expected to sell for about $5,000 when it hits the market.

With the backing of Tata Motors, which just last month introduced the world’s cheapest car—the $2,500 Tata Nano subcompact—Negre plans to start selling the first models in India within a year.

Red full article at Larry's Environmental Issues Blog
http://environment.about.com/b/2008/02/14/new-car-runs-on-compressed-air.htm

Stopped by ENN this morning, and one of their news posts is about GreenBiz.com, which has just launched its "State of Green Business 2008" report - Charles

In it, you will find a wealth of information on green business trends with a cross-sectoral approach. Over the next week, ENN is posting a synopsis of some of those trends.

To start off, here's a list of the "Top Green Business Stories of 2007."

1. Corporate Climate Commitments - Major companies are making public commitments about their strategies to address climate change in record numbers.

2. Automotive Industry Finally Gets It - Major carmakers are bringing us more fuel-efficient and hybrid vehicles, with plans to launch plug-in hybrids soon.

3. Planes, Trains, Trucks, and Ships are Going Green Too - Other players in the transportation sector are also implementing eco-efficient tech to reduce their environmental impact.

4. Green Marketing/Greenwashing - Just as companies are increasingly catering to the "green consumer," mainstream consumers are increasingly skeptical of such claims.

5. Toxic Product Reduction - Manufacturers and retailers faced a public backlash this year concerning toxic materials in their products. As such, they are making amends to reduce or eliminate them in future production.

6. E-waste - The computing industry got serious this year about energy use and disposal problems associated with technology.

7. Big Companies Get Real about Sustainability - More Fortune 500 businesses announced plans to incorporate company-wide initiatives to engender smarter resource use.

8. Green Buildings Skyrocket - Green buildings become the norm in major urban centers across the nation.

9. Banks Pull Out of "Dirty Investments" - Shareholder activism pressure large banks to invest in clean energy production instead.

10. "Zero" is Where It's At - "Zero-waste," "zero-carbon," and "zero-emissions," are the rallying cries from the new initiatives emerging from the corporate sector.

Source: ENN
http://www.enn.com/business/article/30576

Clean Energy's Best-Kept Secret: Waste Heat Recovery

Recycling the heat that spews from industrial smokestacks may be one of the biggest opportunities for reducing greenhouse gas emissions, yet not many climate-savvy entrepreneurs are aware of it.

Of the 500,000 smokestacks in the United States, the 47,500 stacks that produce waste heat above 260 degrees Celsius (500 degrees Fahrenheit) could produce at least 50,000 megawatts of power.

That’s almost half the energy produced by the U. S. nuclear fleet!

There are companies like RED and its competitors, Cain Industries and GTS Energy, Inc., that all work to help develop waste heat recovery in the United States.

Read more of this interesting article at ENN

Since President Bush declined to join other countries in implementing the 1997 Kyoto Protocol's mandatory caps on emissions, instead emphasizing voluntary approaches to tackle climate change, states across the U.S. are making their own policies.

Last Thursday, Governor's from the Midwest signed agreements designed to cut greenhouse gases, promote energy conservation and fight global warming. The governors are in agreement that wind power, water and other renewable sources could eventually provide up to 30% of the region's electricity.

According to the World Resources Institute, these new energy initiatives mean that almost half of Americans will be living in areas covered by agreements designed to combat global warming.

Midwest regions include the state of Ohio west to the state of Kansas. If these states were their own country, they would be the world's fifth largest producer of greenhouse gas emissions.

States on both coasts have formed regional pacts to cut emissions. The Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative in the East seeks to cut carbon dioxide emissions from power plants. California, which is seeking to cut greenhouse emissions 25% by 2020, and five other states have formed the Western Regional Climate Action Initiative.

Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota and Wisconsin signed one agreement setting greenhouse gas reduction goals which allows companies to buy and sell pollution credits to meet the targets.

A broader agreement was signed involving nearly all states in the region calling for 15% of all gas stations in these regions will be selling ethanol by 2015, and one in four stations by 2025. This initiative will take advantage of non petroleum-based energy sources such as wind power and grain-based ethanol.

I admit I am very disappointed that my state of Indiana is not mentioned. What is Republican Governor Mitch Daniels doing about new energy initiatives for our state? Opps I forgot our man Mitch is a Bush supporter.

Nanosolar coatings are as thin as a layer of paint and can tranfer sunlight into power quite efficiently.

A solar panel without the panel. Just a coating, thin as a layer of paint, that takes light and converts it to electricity.

Imagine the possibilities, from solar coated shingles to solar lined windows to solar powered cell phones and ipods.

Solar powered buildings and homes might just become standard in the future thanks to this innovative technology by Nanosolar Inc. The almighty dollar will launch these thin-film solar cells into worldwide applications thanks to the fact that it's actually cheaper than burning coal.
 

The underlying technology for these solar cells is nothing new, having been around for decades, but Nanosolar has created the actual technology to manufacture and mass produce the solar sheets.

Read full article at ENN 

2007 Innovation of the Year - See How it Works

Several Brazilian companies are testing the Palio Elétrico car, a battery-run version from the Italian manufacturer Fiat.

In Brazil, auto manufacturer Fiat is a pioneer "not only in technology", but also in working alongside the transit authorities "to test and note problems in the legislation and in the tax system," stated Antonio Nunes, president of the Brazilian Electric Vehicle Association.

The Palio Elétrico is the product of a partnership between Fiat, the Itaipú hydroelectric dam, other electricity companies, and technology centers in Brazil, Paraguay and Switzerland.

The car can run approximately 75 miles, and reach a speed of 68 miles per hour.

These and other innovations in trucks, buses and motorcycles were the subject of the 5th Electric Vehicle Seminar and Show, that was held Oct. 25-26 in Rio de Janeiro.

Source: Tierramerica

Since the 1970s, the Campus Facilities department has been working to make Missouri University's (MU’s) campus green.

The MU Power Plant has the capability to generate 65 megawatts of power to all the buildings on campus - to date, the highest peak in power usage used only 46 megawatts of electricity.

The department focuses on reducing campus energy use, lowering the overall cost of energy consumption and even reducing student tuition in the long run.

Read full article at "The Maneater", the official student newspaper of the University of Missouri -

On a blackboard, it looks so simple: Take a plant and extract the cellulose. Add some enzymes and convert the cellulose molecules into sugars. Ferment the sugar into alcohol. Then distill the alcohol into fuel. One, two, three, four — and we're powering our cars with lawn cuttings, wood chips, and prairie grasses instead of Middle East oil.

Unfortunately, passing chemistry class doesn't mean acing economics. Scientists have long known how to turn trees into ethanol, but doing it profitably is another matter. We can run our cars on lawn cuttings today; we just can't do it at a price people are willing to pay.

Read this lengthy, but informative article at Wired

Fujitsu wanted clean energy at its Sunnyvale, Calif., site. But unlike some tech firms going the green route, including nearby Google. Fujitsu didn't go with solar or wind power.

It chose ... fuel cells.

The company says a stationary fuel cell system is more dependable than solar or wind energy, and needs less space.

This isn't the same fuel cell technology that's used in cars. Stationary fuel cell systems can power businesses and homes. But it remains a young industry that's a fraction of the size of the solar or wind energy fields. The systems look like big, boxy transformers and many use hydrogen to build heat and energy.

Read full story at CNN Money

Hello!

Good to be back blogging again. Had to take a rest, but all is well. Just needed some R&R. I stopped by Petroleum World and saw this article . . . CT 

"Think beyond petroleum" is a lofty thought. Sidewalk pundits endorse it. It smacks of high-tech. And that got my attention.

Think of fusion. That's the energy-producing concept which uses the hydrogen in heavy sea water. In other words, sea water becomes the fuel for the process. But fusion was not on the list "beyond petroleum." Windmills were high on the list, as they are with most people, except Senator Edward M. Kennedy, who suffers from the NIMBY syndrome. It seems strange to me that windmills were high on the list. My first reaction was that windmills were high-tech in Biblical times and that was before petroleum.

Solar energy was identified as a source to think about. Solar, like wind energy, is limited by location. The Southwest desert areas provide a greater opportunity for the use of solar power, which in these regions may be used to advantage.

Finish reading article at Petroleum World

Now that the government is going to approve blowing off the tops of mountains - it's time for a message from Dr. Thinks A Little who will present "Innovations in Energy"

Tell Congress to Support Wind Energy Today!

This Friday, the House is voting on bill H.R. 969, including the Udall-Platts Amendment that will require more of our electricity to come from renewable power sources like wind.

In addition to creating jobs, the amendment is designed to keep electricity bills low, reduce our dependence on sources of power that aren't created in the U.S., and curb greenhouse gas emissions.

Visit the site, and add your support
http://www.powerofwind.com/

Now this is some real news . . . CT

Inventors from the New Jersey Institute of Technology have developed an inexpensive solar cell that can be painted or printed on flexible plastic sheets.

This means that in the near future (hopefully) homeowners will be able to print sheets of these solor cells with an inket printer. After printing, you can attach the finished product on a wall, roof or billboard to create your own power station.

I will be on the lookout for the release date on these, and of course will keep you notified !! CT

View Press Release from New Jersey Institute of Technology