Technology Idea of the Week

"All I've heard from you lot so far is a lot of hot air, so in the interests of climate change: you're fired!"

A classic Lord Sugar quote from the BBC series The Apprentice (top on liners blog). Nice to see a acknowledgement of environmental change as well! Business plan competitions have become quite a major event for entrepreneurs over the last few years and are a great way to get a head start in business, unless of course you make a fool of yourself on The Apprentice. The CleanTech Challenge is a competition run by University College London and London Business School which looks for ideas which provide a "sustainable environmental benefit". So for this weeks tech innovation I am going to look at the 2013 winners of the CleanTech Challenge. 

The Power Window - Delft University of Technology 

• A luminescent foil is placed over a glass window
• The foil absorbs photons of light and scatters them towards the edge of the window 
• Solar panels around the window frame absorb the light and generate electricity
• The students at Delft University of Technology developed a new material which helped improve the efficiency of this process by a factor of five
• For more information check out the Delft TU Website or CleanTech Challenge. There is also an interesting video on the subject, link is posted below. 

A Solar Concentrator developed by MIT, similar to the Delft Invention

Delft TU Power Window YouTube Clip

It is really interesting to see the variety of business plan competitions that are focused on finding technological solutions to environmental and energy challenges. What is also interesting is that often these competitions are organised and funded by large engineering or energy companies as well as by research institutions. I think this is a really positive move for the green movement: by making it a business opportunity you can guarantee peoples interest and investment to make real change. I look forward to see what ideas come out of the competition this year! 

Bye bye birdie

Wind power: one of the main potential sources of renewable energy and is particularly important for a country like the UK. It is also quite contentious, here are some of the reasons why.

Main Advantages 

Turbines have a very small footprint on the land so can be used as part of integrated land use schemes. For example having turbines amongst cropfields, which is common practice in Denmark. Farmers invest in wind turbines and have responsibility for maintaining them, in return the energy they generate can supply the farm and go back into the national grid (Vermeylen, Renewable Energy, 2010). This is becoming a more popular approach in other countries such as the UK with many projects like Community Windpower in North Cornwall. 

Wind turbines are also relatively cheap to maintain, even though the initial cost of the turbine is relatively high compared to other renewable. This is really important in allowing grassroots projects because local stakeholders can invest in a project and therefore gain some benefits from it. This is a benefit for land based wind farms however the costs are considerably higher for offshore. Cost of the foundations is just 6.5% for land based turbines but it is 34% of offshore projects (Horgan, Renewable Energy, 2013). The energy payback time for offshore wind farms is much higher but the potential for energy generation is also higher.

UK offshore wind farms - Telegraph December 2013

Main Disadvantages

Disruption to communities and wildlife due to the visual impact and noise produced by the turbine is one of the biggest arguments against them. This can impact an ecosystem and species biodiversity for example the wind farm in Vagsoy in Denmark is located near a coastal cliff where sea eagles nest. There have been many reports of eagles colliding with turbines and the eagle population in the area has declined over the last few years (Rygg, Energy Policy, 2012).

Wind farms can also impact the local economy and tourism which is a big source of controversy. The Lindesnes region in Denmark attracts over 80,000 tourists a year for outdoor pursuits, fishing and its natural beauty. There were many concerns about the expansion of a wind farm, the environment manager for the wind farm stated in an interview that "we are a little afraid of ruining the image that Lindesnes lighthouse and the area have, by overloading it with too many turbines. This has been the main objection against having more [turbines]; it is related to tourism." (Rygg, Energy Policy, 2012).

Wind turbines are not restricted to rural environments. A particularly embarrassing example of poor project planning and management is the Strata Tower in London. The tower (also called the razor) makes a distinctive impression on the skyline with three turbines in the top. They were meant to generate 8% of the buildings electricity but after complaints from residents about the noise and vibration produced by the turbines they have been switched off since 2010.

The Strata Tower, London  - image courtesy of The Guardian
A failed renewable energy project

In conclusion, wind farm still has a long way to go in regards to winning over public opinion. Offshore wind farms have the biggest potential for energy generation and a reduced impact on wildlife or communities. The disadvantage is the high start costs which require big investors. For now it seems that small, community based projects will lead the way until we can train birds not to fly into turbines.

Technology Idea of the Week

Digging Deeper - The Deep Sea Gold Rush

Okay so this post was meant to go out two weeks ago but I have been defeated by blogger! So this is the tech idea for a couple of weeks ago and I will do another post this week with a new energy idea.

Hydrothermal vents located at ridges on the deep ocean floor were discovered in 1977 and our understanding of them is still fairly limited. They are home to a completely unique ecosystems: the microbes at the base of the food chain make energy by oxidising hydrogen sulphide which is produced by the vents (Lutz et al, Nature, 1994). This is fundamentally different to the production of energy by photosynthesis using carbon dioxide which sustains the vast majority of life. The vents sustain a variety of life including many organisms which cannot be found anywhere else on earth including giant tube worms (Riftia pachyptila) and the yeti crab (Kiwa hirsuta) - NewScientist, June 2011.

Riftia pachyptila - 2m long tube worms on the East Pacific Rise
Image Courtesy of NOAA Blogs

Kiwa hirsuta - the hairy legged yeti crab! Costa Rica.
Image Courtesy of MarineBiologene Blog

Shortly after the initial discovery of the vents, researchers began to investigate the mineral deposits located around them. There are significant concentrations of gold, silver, copper, zinc and manganese: all highly profitable minerals which many mining companies would be keen to exploit. 

There are many concerns from the scientific community about the effects on the endemic speices if exploration goes ahead. Many different articles have been published since the discovery of the mineral deposits about this issue. Halfur and Fujita, Science, 2011 argue that the disturbances to the ocean floor could release plumes of toxic chemicals that would damage the vent ecosystem and could have a widespread effect on ocean geochemistry. An editorial in Nature, 2011 also raises the issue about the direct impact on endemic species due to destruction of habitat and disturbance from mining operations. This is of particular concern because we know very little about the ecosystem and therefore cannot predict the impact we may have on it. Finally, there is huge concern about effecting the ecosystem because it has been suggested that these vents could be the location of the earliest life on Earth (Sousa et al, Royal Society, 2013). The environmental conditions around the vents could act as a proxy for the environment of the early earth therefore organisms around the vents could help us investigate the origins of life. If mining has a detrimental impact on these ecosystems it could damage biodiversity and scientific research. 

Bluewater Metals and Nautilus Minerals are two mining companies that are leading the way in mineral exploration in the Pacific Ocean. In 2011, Nautilus Minerals was granted a 20 year lease by the Papua New Guinea government to mine the Solwara 1 region in the Manus Basin (Dover, Nature, 2011). They are currently still investigating the area and predict that commercial production of minerals could begin as early as 2016 (BBC, 2013). The UN has just began to put together a framework for managing mineral extraction and licensing mining companies. This is managed by the UN International Seabed Authority. This map shows the Clarion-Clipperton Zone in the eastern Pacific which is currently being managed by the UNISA. There is estimated to be a total of 27 billion tonnes of mineral nodules (BBC, 2013). It is a little hard to see - here is the link to the full size image http://www.isa.org.jm/files/images/maps/CCZ-Sep2012-Official.jpg

The regions of the Clarion-Clipperton Zone
UNISA 2013

The key take away messages from the map are that the green striped areas represent the protected zones and the other colours all represent the licensed areas of different mining companies. It shows just how complicated the licensing in international waters and how close the environmental zones are to exploration areas. Very careful management is needed to preserve the ecosystem, maintain biodiversity and help continue scientific research into the origins of life. Mining of hydrothermal vents seems inevitable and I am more than a little concerned about its impacts on these extraordinary environments.

An interesting campagin group if you want to investigate further - Out of Our Depth

Merry Christmas!

A very merry Christmas to everyone and I hope you all have a wonderful day with family and friends. We have been suffering from power cuts and I am incredibly relieved to have the electricity back on at the moment. Fingers crossed it says that way!

As a little bit of entertainment for Christmas evening, how about some modern alchemy? Here is one of the Christmas Lectures from the Royal Institution in 2012. What happens when you burn a diamond...

Merry Christmas everyone!

Introducing Renewables

The next focus section for my blog is going to be on renewable energy, this will include a variety of different energy sources which have essentially unlimited supply To start off, just how much does renewable energy contribute to the global energy market?

Renewable Energy Share of Global Energy Consumption 2010

Figure 1 source: Renewables 2012 Status Report, page 20

Figure 1 Summary

• Fossil fuels (80.6%) - coal, oil, gas
• Traditional biomass (8.5%) - burning of wood primarily for cooking and heating
• Modern renewables (8.2%) - divided into hydropower, biofuels, heating and power generating, currently the 'heating' sector is significantly larger than power generation. 

Average Annual Growth Rates of Renewable Energy Production 2006-2011

Figure 2 Source: Renewables 2012 Status Report, page 21

Figure 2 Summary

• Over the five year period between 2006 and 2011, production of all energy types has increased. 
• Growth of the Solar PV cells is significantly higher than any other category in 2011 (74%) and over the five year period (54%).
• The main increases over the past five years have been in: solar PV, solar thermal power, biodiesel, ethanol production and wind power (total = 144% increase)
• Hydropower has seen a very minor increase over five years (3%) but it is one of the biggest contributors to the renewable market.

Oil - Final Thoughts

To summarise this focus section on oil I am just going to do a quick recap of the information I have looked at and make draw some conclusions about what part oil will play in supplying energy over the next few decades.

Opportunities for oil production 

• Increasing population growth and wealth means that the demand for energy is continuing to grow. Data from Allianz predicts that the global population will reach 9 billion by 2050. Furthermore, research by Stanford University predicts that global energy demand will continue to rise from 80 billion barrels of oil in 2020 to 100 billion barrels of oil in 2050 (Changing the World's Energy Systems, Stanford, 2012).  
• Developments in drilling technology allow oil companies to explore previously inaccessible reservoirs of oil. This includes deepwater locations such as in Asia and Arctic environments (Oil Developments, 2013 Summary). In addition, advancement in ground imaging are also really vital in locating previously unknown deposits (CGG, Seismic Overview). 

Threats to oil production

• Growth of other energy industries such as coal and development of new energy industries such as hydraulic fracking and renewables have increased competition for oil producers. A lot of research suggests that for many locations, outside of the OPEC countries, peak oil production occurred between 2000 and 2005. This is mainly because the price of an oil barrel tripled from $35 to over $100 making it less competitive (Kerr, Science, 2013).
• Increasing regulation of oil production also increases the price per barrel, further reducing the competitiveness of oil. Disasters such as the DeepWater Horizon and increasing public awareness of the threat to the environment in areas such as the Arctic mean that governments are looking to invest in other energy sources where possible (Huber, Economic Geography 2013). Emphasis on the "where possible"!

Conclusions...

Oil will continue to play a significant part in our energy supply over the next century, despite growing adverse public opinion and enthronement impacts. Improvements in drilling and seismic imaging will allow companies to tap previously inaccessible resources and governments will continue to support oil companies while the price remains competitive. I agree with the wealth of data that suggests that we have already reached peak oil production and that the increasing cost per barrel will be the sole determining factor in the demise of oil production.

Digging Deeper

Deepwater drilling has become economically viable over the last decade as oil prices have increased. There are a number of different issues companies have to address when drilling in deep water sediments and in my next post I am going to look at some of these in more detail. For a quick introduction to the process this animation demonstrates it quite nicely.

Technology Idea of the Week

Any Londoner will recognise that huge feeling of relief when you step into an underground station, escaping the winter weather the wind and rain of winter. That warm rush of air and being huddled down in seat without worrying about the outside world. This poster from 1927 captures this emotion beautifully, artist Fredrick Charles Herrick (1927).

Courtesy of Tony's Toy Shop
Artist: Fredrick Charles Herrick, 1927

The underground generates all of its own heat simply by the equipment, volume of people and being insulated at depth. A fact that is appreciated in winter as the temperature is kept around 20 degrees Celsius but is not so popular in summer where temperatures can reach over 30 degrees (WIRED, 2013). 

Popularity of the underground in the UK and many other countries raised the question of whether we can use the excess heat generated and put it to better use. Over the last few decades many groups and organisations have been established to investigate this potential. Here is a quick overview of how these plans are actually getting of the ground (or under it rather) in Islington. 

The Council of the London Borough of Islington have teamed up with the Mayor of London, Power Networks and TFL to invest £2.7 million in a heat capture system. This heat will be used to supply 700 homes with the potential to increase this to 1200 in another two years (Islington Council). It is estimated there will be a payback time of 10-15 years (Business Green). This is a little vague, largely because this is one of the first projects of its kind so research is limited. 

This is a cheaper and greener source of energy although it isn't technically classed as renewable. It is part of a government initiative to use 'secondary heat sources' and is really important in reducing fuel poverty (Buro Happold 2012 Report).

The use of secondary heat sources is being investigated by many other cities such as Cologne and Rotterdam (NewScientist 2013). It is pioneered by Celsius City is an EU collaboration who state that there is "enough heat produced in the EU to supply the EUs entire building stock, there just isn't the heating network to distribute it". If these plans are successful and continue to be implemented we could see a huge reduction in heating bills and energy consumption: a huge challenge facing mega cities today. 

Oil and climate change

The International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has the responsibility of collecting information on climate change and presenting it to policy makers. This has a big impact on energy policy, particularly relating to the use of fossil fuels and release of greenhouse gases. The 5th IPCC report was recently published and it makes some bold statements about carbon dioxide and global warming. At the very start of the report it states that:

"Warming of the climate system is unequivocal, and since the 1950s, many of the observed changes are unprecedented over decades to millennia." 

IPCC, Summary For Policy Makers, 2013, page 2

The report then goes onto make statements about the drivers of climate change stating that "The largest contribution to total radiative forcing is caused by the increase in the atmospheric concentration of CO2 since 1750" (IPCC, page 11). In addition to this it says that it is "extremely likely that human influence has been the dominant cause of the observed warming" (IPCC, page 15). This is largely based on research into climate forcing, research from Hohne et al 2011 demonstrated that the observed global warming could not have been produced by natural climate forcing: it requires the additional anthropogenic CO2 to produced observed changes. This is supported by many other research groups such as the Tyndall Centre and the Met Office. Finally the report goes on to warn policy makers about the effects on carrying on with business as usual. 

"Continued emissions of greenhouse gases will cause further warming and changes in all components of the climate system. Limiting climate change will require substantial and sustained reductions of greenhouse gas emissions."

IPCC, Summary For Policy Makers 2013, page 17

The recommendations from the IPCC, which represents many climate change research groups, is that is we want to reduce the rate of global warming: we have to reduce carbon emissions. Research into the impacts of global tipping points suggests that changing atmospheric composition is a major driver of biodiversity and ecosystem change, even if the impact is gradual rather than abrupt change (Brook et al 2013, Trends in Ecology and Evolution). Therefore, to reduce the impact on biodiversity, climate change and ecosystems we should reduce CO2 emissions. In 2010 32% of global energy supply came from oil, even though this has reduced from 1973 where 45% came from oil, it is still a hugely substantial figure (IEA, Energy Statistics, 2012). So despite extremely convincing evidence about the impact of CO2 emission from oil, it could be several decades before we see a significant reduction in global oil production.   

Technology Idea of the Week

This week: is there a future for methane fuel cells? Methane hydrates have featured quite a lot recently while I researched for my posts on Arctic natural resources and in Anson Mackay's lecture on the crysosphere. It seemed deserving as this weeks technology focus!

Fuel Cells - A very brief introduction! 

• Convert chemical energy into electricity by an oxidising reaction
• Require a constant fuel supply 
• The ideal fuel is hydrogen because it doesn't produce greenhouse gases but the technological challenges in its cost and storage mean this currently not viable (Steele, 1999, Nature)
• Currently, the best fuel options are hydrocarbons (methane) and alcohols (methanol).  

Methane Hydrates

• Methane hydrates (clathrate) are crystalline solids composed of a mixture of water and light natural gas (methane, carbon dioxide, ethane). They are found in the shallow lithosphere (<2000m deep) where the surface temperature is less than 0 °C (Kvenvolden, 1993, Review of Geophysics)
• There are substantial natural deposits of methane hydrates in deep ocean sediments, permafrost and under frozen lakes. It is estimated that the global volume of methane hydrate is 10¹⁵ to 10¹⁷ cubic metres of methane which represents 53% of all fossil fuels ((Demiras, 2010, Energy Conservation and Management). The distribution of organic carbon can be seen in the image below. 

Distribution of organic carbon on earth (excluding kerogen and bitumen).
Source: Demiras, 2010, Energy Convservation and Management)

Advantages of Methane Fuel Cells

• Substantial deposits - it is estimated that the global volume of methane hydrate is 10¹⁵ to 10¹⁷ cubic metres. Deposits are found in widespread geographical locations including US permafrost, Lake Baikal in Siberia and Arctic sediments. (Demiras, 2010, Energy Conservation and Management)
• Low carbon energy - methane is a less carbon intensive fuel than coal or oil: it produces approximately half the amount of CO2 than coal for equivalent volumes. This can be seen the equation below. Therefore using methane hydrates as an energy source could help reduce anthropogenic emissions of carbon dioxide which may contribute to the greenhouse effect. 

Top equation - the combustion of coal. Lower equation - the combustion of methane hydrate
Source: Demiras, 2010, Energy Convservation and Management)

The Challenging side of Methane Fuel Cells

• Location and access - finding the deposits requires high level seismic imaging, we do not have detailed enough resolution for some deposits. In addition the deposits often cross national boundaries or are in international territories. This raises a lot of geopolitical issues in terms of researching the site and rights over the resources. (Kvenvolden, 1993, Review of Geophysics)
• Extraction - the gas can expand 160 times its volume as it is brought to the surface and is de-pressurised. This can cause explosions and leaks of methane gas (CH4) which contributes to the greenhouse effect. We currently need to do further research into drilling technology to ensure safe extraction of methane hydrates. (Demiras, 2010, Energy Convservation and Management)

It is possible...

In March of 2013, a Japanese drilling company successfully produced gas from frozen methane hydrates from the ocean floor. For equal volumes, this deposit holds 164 times the energy of conventional gas (NewScientist, 2013). The deposit is in the Nankai trough and could be a game changer for Japan's energy supply. Investigation into methane hydrates was fast tracked by the Japanese government after the Fukushima nuclear power disaster. Here is a film of the methane hydrate extraction in Wellington by a team of German Scientists (the video is in English)! 

In conclusion, methane hydrates could be a really important step in meeting our energy needs over the next 100 years. The ultimate goal still remains as the production of commercially viable hydrogen fuel cells. 

Oil vs. Petroleum and Arctic Follow-Up

In this focus section on oil I have been using oil and petroleum pretty much interchangeability. I thought it might be good to just clarify the definitions of them (source US Energy Information Administration).

Crude Oil: a mixture of hydrocarbons that exist as a liquid in natural underground reservoirs and remain as a liquid when brought to the surface.

Petroleum products: produced from the processing of crude oil in petroleum refineries and the extraction of liquid hydrocarbons from natural gas.

Petroleum: a broad category that includes crude oil and petroleum products.

After the section on Arctic Oil I did a few days ago, I wanted to do a quick update on the subject. As countries get ready to stake their claims on the Arctic as the glacier retreats what will the impact be on the natural environment? Research by Smith and Stevenson 2012 suggests that by 2040, ships maybe able to cross the Arctic directly: hugely reducing shipping costs for companies. This diagram shows the change in shipping for Open Water ships (blue line) and Polar Clash ships (red line). The later are better able to deal with pack ice therefore can cross closer the Arctic.

Smith and Stevenson 2006, PNAS
Shipping routes for hypothetical ships across the Arctic Ocean. Note that this shows 'medium-low' radiative forcing (RCP 4.5) The scenario for RCP 8.5 allows even easier access for shipping through the Arctic. 

So which ever scenario you take, shipping through the Arctic is going to become more commercially viable for a lot of countries along with the access to natural resources. Untapped resources are estimated to be about 10% to the global amount of oil and gas (USGS, 2012). I think I would be feeling sad if I was this seal.

Image courtesy of seppo.net

Oil Trade Routes

The global trade of oil is big business. Each year, BP carries out a Statistical Review of Energy and the image below shows the global trade of petroleum in 2010 in millions of tonnes.

Source: BP Statistical Review of Energy 2010

To help visualise this a little clearer I found this diagram which uses the data produced by the BP review to draws arrows, where the thickness represents the level of trade. Oil barrel symbols are imports, Pumpjacks (nodding donkeys) are oil exports.

Source: Visual World Website