US Grid Interconnection Map with the New Superstation Location. Click image for the largest view. Image Credit: Tres Amigas.

The proposed transmission station called the Tres Amigas SuperStation would allow power to be transmitted as needed among the three independently operating U.S. electricity grids: the Eastern Interconnection, the Western Interconnection, and the Texas Interconnection.  These three grid systems supply power throughout the U.S. as well as to people in Canada and Mexico.  It’s a major tool to rationalize power production and consumption demands.

Tres Amigas got approval from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission in March of 2010 to offer transmission services at negotiated rates across the three main arteries of the U.S. electrical grid. The agency is now considering allowing it to build and connect the mega-hub based in Clovis, N.M.  With the approval for services in hand, the likelihood that physically offering the service is quite high.  For many, there is a sense of relief and for others alarm as one company has the handle on the rationalization of the grid.  But the company isn’t named Enron.

FERC Chairman Jon Wellinghoff’s comments from March are being said to signal that the agency will ultimately support the project.  There remain several aspects are pending approval.

Wellinghoff said in a statement during a hearing, “This project, which is the first of its kind, will allow customers to trade power across the interconnections and to take advantage of opportunities to buy lower cost power from other regions. It may also open a new transmission path for customers interested in tapping the vast renewable energy potential in many parts of the country – Texas, the Southwest, the West and Northwest, the Southeast and the offshore Atlantic.”

Tres Amigas claims its super hub and storage facility would be able to move substantial amounts of power among the three systems. The facility will use Xtreme Power’s grid storage and management technology in an attempt to decrease brown-outs by offering more reliability and stability across the U.S., and enable renewable-energy sources like wind and solar to be better utilized.

Tres Amigas CEO Phil Harris said in part from his statement, “The role of the SuperStation is multi-faceted, but one of the most critical aspects will be ensuring that the input from renewable energy sources is incorporated smoothly into the span of the three grids, while providing reliable, flexible storage.”  Harris is the former head of PJM Interconnection, one of the largest grid operators in the U.S.

TresAmigas Superstation SuperConductor Map. Click image for the largest view. Image Credit: American Superconductor.

The major new technology going to work is using American Superconductor’s direct current superconductor power cables buried underground that will be powered by the company’s high-temperature superconductor wire and high-powered voltage-source AC/DC power converters. American Superconductor has said, obviously, that using underground superconductor cables greatly reduces the loss of energy during transmission compared to existing overhead power lines.  Somewhere the calculation of the energy loss from resistance is more than the power needed to run the superconductor system.

The new station will answer some of the issues of using wind power from the Midwest and solar in the southwest.  Having a fully interconnected national grid can bring much of the renewable energy potential into more complete utilization.  The lowest cost producers get to stay up much longer because the grid covers all four time zones.  Those four hours are a huge opportunity.  Early in the day the low cost west excess power can go east and late in the day low cost east production can flow west.  More complete base utilization should take some pressure off consumers if the savings pass through without being pocketed along the way.

The Tres Amigas plan calls for building a substation with three high-voltage converters able to connect up to five gigawatts, or 5,000 megawatts, worth of electricity from one grid to the others. Underground superconducting power cables would link the three terminals using direct current, rather than alternating current. Tres Amigas would act a broker, distributing and selling power among the three grids.  Just what that pricing power will do to consumers is yet to be seen.  The Wall Street Journal reported that Tres Amigas would burn about $1 billion for the station and startup.  It will have to payoff.

While there is no clear regulatory information on the results to consumers, the capital return for $1 billion would be 10 to 15% charged against the total savings.  One would hope the regulators figured that out and will bring a bit lower billings to consumers – but don’t bet on that.

The other opportunity of a full national grid is it helps make those production ideas for renewable shifting and leveling possible.  Much renewable power is still competitively expensive so getting the power off and used for payment and the investment amortized is in everyone’s long term interest.

This writer isn’t expecting an impact on the electricity bill either more or less.  Even if the new station was to earn 30% or $300 million that would only come to a dollar per citizen per year, less any savings.

The payoff will be in investments for new power plants that will be based on a bigger database, many brownouts and rolling blackouts should be stopped because of generating capacity and the local utilities should be able to look more to distribution upgrades.

It’s a good thing – finally getting very close.

Germany is rich or getting poor, depending on your view of economics with aims to have one million electric vehicles – powered by energy from renewable sources – on the road by 2020. And, within ten years, the German environment ministry expects “green electricity” to make up 30 percent of all power consumed.

From a math perspective the proposition is it would be possible to achieve CO2-neutral electro mobility. But, in reality, it is a difficult goal to attain. As more and more solar and wind energy is incorporated into the German power grid, the proportion of electricity that cannot be controlled by simply pressing a button is on the increase. In addition, there is a growing risk that the rising number of electric vehicles will trigger extreme surges in demand during rush hour.

They are thinking ahead over there.  This – from a society that not so long ago was busily decommissioning nuclear – but now is looking to build more nuclear stations.  Reality wins one there.

Dominik Noeren of the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems says, “What we need is a smart grid that carries information in addition to power.  The information transport equipment is available now.  Noeren explains the structure of the grid has to change from a push (information feedback) system based on energy demand to a pull (information feedout) system based on production output. In Noeren’s opinion, “electric cars are best equipped to meet this challenge.” Introduced in large numbers, they have the capacity to store a lot of energy. On average, a car is parked for at least 20 hours out of 24. That is more than enough time to recharge them when the wind picks up or the demand for electricity is low.

Fraunhofer Smart Charger Concept Art. Click image for more info.

The Fraunhofer researchers developed a “smart” charging station, a device that enables electric vehicles to recharge when the system load is low and the share of energy from renewable resources is high. In this way, load peaks can be avoided and the contribution of solar and wind power fully exploited. “For us, it is important that end consumers are completely free to decide when they want to recharge. We do not want them to suffer any disadvantages from the controlled recharging of their vehicles’ batteries,” Noeren emphasizes. That’s why he favors electricity rates that adapt to the prevailing situation in the power grid — ones that are more expensive in periods of peak demand and particularly cheap when there is a surfeit of renewable energy.

Noeren is right, most all light and personal transport vehicles sitting still and empty is the vast bulk of the useable lifetime.  That presents an opportunity both to charge, store and discharge.  The amount of energy has a value as well as the speed the amount is delivered.  Add those points to the time of day that energy is drawn and the available renewable supply.  One might be very interested if one charged up on the cheap overnight and discharged to others during the morning rush.  Smart enough information handling and the cost of energy for transport could make much more sense.

The Fraunhofer thinking is the person using the “smart” charging station could then choose between recharging immediately or opting for a cheaper, possibly longer, recharging time. If they go for the second option, all they need to do is enter the time when their vehicle has to be ready to drive again. The charging station takes care of everything else, calculating the costs and controlling the recharging process. Via the display the user can track the progress of recharging and also see the costs incurred and the amount of energy used.

They’re halfway there . . . Now if the utility companies catch on and work out the economics the markets could start some forecasts.

A lot depends on more than the price(s).  There’s a whole lot of politics, investment and return, and operating costs to understand much better before much can happen.  A huge amount of mass storage would help as well.

Yet, it’s a gallant start.   The group showed their prototype charger at the Hannover Messe back in April.

First are those Federal rebates. In your local area the money might be gone but here is where to check.  The government’s Cash for Appliances program, which lets you score rebates for about $50 to $500 swapping energy guzzling appliances for more efficient models, has gotten lots of attention.  Incentives, which are administered through the states, are typically doled out on a first-come, first-served basis, and in many locales the money is already gone. Florida’s program, for example, closed just 36 hours after it opened. But some states, such as Michigan, still had plenty of cash in their coffers at the end of May, and other initiatives didn’t launch until June.

Second is most states offer their own programs too. Even if you can no longer qualify for a Cash for Appliances rebate, you may still be able to get cash back from the more than 600 programs run by utilities and over 100 state programs that offer incentives for boosting your home’s energy efficiency.  In Oregon you can get a $75 rebate on an Energy Star washer, and $30 for recycling an old fridge.  This is the link to check.

Third is the Feds may come up with two more chances for taxpayers to recover tax payments from federal funds.  Through the end of 2010, you can claim a $1,500 federal tax credit for up to 30% of the cost of many energy-related improvements.  Cash for Caulkers was passed by the House in May and might soon become law. It would give homeowners hefty rebates on a variety of energy saving projects.  Watch for this in the news – no link yet – the Senate and the president have yet to move on the bill.

Fourth – Get out the calculator and think through your choices.  Getting cash back might help you justify the purchase of, say, that snazzy new stainless-steel fridge.  But other projects may give you greater savings.  A comprehensive home energy audit, which will pinpoint your leaks, runs about $400. But some states or utilities conduct basic audits for free or will reimburse some of that cost.  It’s well worth the effort to find out to save money but add improved resale value, comfort and personal satisfaction, too.

Fifth, remember that small projects can still pay big.  There are plenty of ways to save energy without spending a lot. Every degree you go up or down on your thermostat will knock 2% off your annual heating and cooling costs.  Pull a wad of window screen through the clothes dryer vent and be sure the valve is working.  Replacing your five most frequently used bulbs with compact fluorescents can lop $70 a year off your energy bill – and the new ones are much better and cheaper than just a couple of years ago.  Ditching that old fridge you’ve relegated to the garage for storing extra drinks will save about $200 or more a year – that might justify an appliance upgrade – rebates considered or not. It’s likely the current kitchen unit will be more efficient – move it out there if you must.

Other ideas are as simple as a power strip or surge suppressor strip to mount the chargers – load all chargers there and switch it off when not working. The same applies to the computers.  Off isn’t always fully off.  Here the costs really add up and they probably do for you, too.

Getting an energy audit might seem pricey, but over time the report will pay for itself and having it in the file shows where to keep an eye out for your home.

Electricity and natural gas aren’t going to get cheap anytime soon.  There are way too many players in the business, statutory, regulatory fields and the attitudes and goals for abundant and cheap are simply not being thought through for consumers.  It’s really a consumer “look out for yourself” situation.

With the summer doldrums, vacation and time off, honey do’s there’s probably time now.

One might even get set for adding insulation, replacing windows and doors and considering a heating and air conditioning upgrade.  With those insulation and air loss items upgraded a new system might be smaller and cheaper than what’s installed now.  Properly sized, a new unit will be more comfortable, making the thermostat adjustments much easier and actually more appropriate for comfort. That and many vendors are getting up to speed with calculating software that far better shows the range of sizing new units.

The resources needed for individuals to get a handle on home energy use have never been better, easier and effective.  The savings could be significant, comfort better, and the satisfaction gratifying.  It’s a good time to be a conservative.

The U.S. Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory has invented a new air conditioning process for the 21st century with the potential of using 50 percent to 90 percent less energy than today’s top-of-the-line units. It uses membranes, evaporative cooling and liquid desiccants in a way that has never been done before in the centuries-old science of removing heat from the air.

Kozubal and DEVap Memebrane. Click image for more info.

NREL mechanical engineer Eric Kozubal, co-inventor of the Desiccant-Enhanced eVaporative air conditioner (DEVap) explains, “The idea is to revolutionize cooling, while removing millions of metric tons of carbon from the air. We’d been working with membranes, evaporative coolers and desiccants. We saw an opportunity to combine them into a single device for a product with unique capabilities.”

Cooling comes in two forms – sensible cooling, which is a temperature drop, and latent cooling, which comes from pulling the moisture out of the air.

One intriguing product already on the market in arid, temperate climates is the Coolerado cooler. It differs from a typical evaporative cooler by never increasing the moisture content of the supply air. It provides cool air through indirect evaporative cooling. Indirect evaporative systems use a purge air stream that removes heat from the product or supply air stream that is then directed into a building.  The Coolerado method can cool the air all the way to the wet-bulb temperature, the lowest temperature to which air can be cooled by evaporating without changing the pressure.

“It’s a big improvement on evaporative cooling because it doesn’t add moisture and still gives you cold air,” Kozubal said. However, in a humid climate, the Coolerado does not provide cold air or humidity control.

In a typical evaporative cooler water flows over a mesh, and a fan blows air through the wet mesh to create humid, cool air and they are a lower-cost alternative to A/C in dry climates that don’t get too hot or humid such as Denver, but Miami is too humid and Phoenix is too hot.  In high humidity Miami adding water fails, as the air cannot absorb enough water to become cold so the air creates a hot and sticky building environment.

At high ambient temperatures known in Phoenix, the evaporative cooler can bring down the temperature, but not enough to make it pleasant inside on a 100-degree day or during the four to eight week moist period known as monsoon season. The cooling bumps against the wet bulb temperature.  The wet bulb temperature could be 75 or 80 degrees on a mid-summer Tucson day.  But a typical evaporative cooler only can bring the temperatures about 85 percent of the way to the wet bulb level.

The NREL’s DEVap solves that problem. It relies on the desiccants’ capacity to create dry air using heat and evaporative coolers’ capacity to take dry air and make cold air.

Kozubal says, “By no means is the concept novel, the idea of combining the two. But no one has been able to come up with a practical and cost-effective way to do it.” HVAC engineers have known for decades the value of desiccants to air conditioning. In fact, one of the pioneers of early A/C, Willis Haviland Carrier, knew of its potential, but – smartly for his time – opted to go the refrigeration route.

You will recognize desiccants as those little pouches of grains packed with new products to absorb humidity.  The kind NREL uses are syrupy liquids – highly concentrated aqueous salt solutions of lithium chloride or calcium chloride. They have a high affinity for water vapor, thus can create very dry air.  Getting the humidity into a desiccant is easy, getting it out isn’t.  Inventing a simple device for easy installation and maintenance is the barrier stopping desiccant cooling from entering into commercial and residential cooling markets.

DEVap Cooling Block Diagram. Click image for more info.

The NREL device solves the problem using thin membranes that simplify the process of integrating airflow, desiccants, and evaporative cooling. These result in an air conditioning system that provides superior comfort and humidity control.

The membranes in the DEVap A/C are hydrophobic, which means water tends to bead up rather than soak through the membranes into the dessicant such as the rain fallen on a freshly waxed car. That property allows the membranes to control the liquid flows within the cooling core. “It’s that property that keeps the water and the desiccant separated from the air stream,” Kozubal said.

Kozubal explains, “We bring the water and liquid desiccant into DEVap’s heat-mass exchanger core. The desiccant and evaporative cooling effect work together to create cold-dry air.”  The air is cooled and dried from a hot-humid condition to a cold and dry condition all in one step. This all happens in a fraction of a second as air flows through the DEVap air conditioner. The result is an air conditioner that controls both thermal and humidity loads.

DEVap is expected to use 50 to 90% less energy than top-of-the-line refrigeration-based air conditioning.  DEVap replaces the refrigeration cycle with an absorption cycle that is thermally activated. It can be powered by natural gas or solar energy and uses very little electricity.

This means that DEVap could become the most energy efficient way to cool your home or business.

With a patent application in progress NREL’s Kozubal expects that over the next couple of years he will be working on making the device smaller and simpler and perfecting the heat transfer to make DEVap more cost effective.  The NREL wants to work with manufacturers to bring DEVap to market and create a more efficient and environmentally benign air conditioning product.

Sometimes government research looks very, very good.  One has to wonder with the gauntlet now thrown down what the leading A/C makers will do.  If Kozubal gets to saving 90% of the energy used now having a license would be a very competitive idea.  This is something to watch for.

AC electric motors are notoriously efficient now compared to internal combustion engines.  Many can get to 90%, but that’s a simplistic view.  What matters is the mechanical watt output from the shaft that’s applied to the load to the watt level coming in off the line.  From an efficiency standpoint, one hopes to have an electric motor sized just at or above the load.  That works in perfect circumstances, which don’t usually exist, so motors are always oversized to some extent.  Thor Power believes they can solve that.  As electricity gets more expensive, they will be correct where prices climb most.

Thor Power Grismir Motor Dimensions. Click image for the largest view.

The Thor Power motor on display is diminutive, 7 or so inches (about 180mm) long by 2.4 inch (62mm) across outputting 2.68 hp (2.0kw) at 30,000 rpm with a variable range from 3000 to 30,000.  Combining the controller and the motor sets up Thor to claim the patent pending ‘TREZIUM’ electric motor system will cause a shift in product design. It cuts electricity loss by up to one-half, is half the weight and delivers twice the power of current systems up to 5kw/6.7 hp.

Thor Power Grismir Case and Rotor 2kw Size. Click image for the largest view.

Maxed out at 6.7 hp covers a lot of territory.   Thor is pointing out that at 6.7 hp they can cover 80% of the AC motor applications.  The main difference is substituting the electromagnets and carbon brushes seen in more conventional designs with using powerful permanent magnets.  The windings are simplified as well using multi strand coil windings.  The Thor Trezium system also takes three-phase design to markets without three-phase access.

Thor uses iron-neodymium-boron magnets to form the 2-pole rotor, three-phase slotless permanent magnet synchronous motor.  Called the ‘Grismir,’ the motor is a synchronous, sinewave, permanent magnet motor that is also brushless, slotless and sensorless. It provides the benefits of variable speed, forward/reverse, high power-to-weight ratio, and unparalleled efficiency. The motor is classified as a brushless AC motor and shares the positive characteristics of a brushless DC motors.

But the big gains have to be coming from the drive controller. As the electric vehicle market watchers know, the controllers of great interest.  The time getting used up is from the blending of three engineering disciplines, electronics, electrical and mechanical.  There doesn’t seem to be enough engineers in the combined field right now.  That has opened the door to innovators like Thor to kick off a market.

Thor Power Motor Controller. Click image for the largest view.

The Thor controller, with a twist of marketing ‘engineering’ naming the system Trezium shows their process to take incoming line AC, correct the power factor, convert the power to DC, boost the voltage, then convert back to AC.  It allows blending the DC voltage boosting efficiency advantage with the three-phase AC motor advantage.  In itself, this isn’t really hard to do.  What makes Thor different is the use of insulated gate bipolar transistors (IGBT) instead of the more common metal oxide semiconductor field-effect transistors (MOSFET).  IGBTs are improving fast with a sixth generation expected in the market soon.  Not that the MOSFET market is standing around, the competition here is getting to be quite advantageous.

Thor also adds a microchip system for power oversight with integrated drivers, short circuit protection and over temperature protection.  Using an application specific integrated circuit chip, the Thor design is the basis for a sensorless field oriented control of the motor.  The ICC provides open-loop startup of the motor to approximately 3,000rpm then using a controlled speed ramp up to design speed.  Once past the minimum speed, the field oriented controller algorithm adjusts the drive to the motor in order to optimize the power output. Speed is then regulated with a closed loop speed control algorithm that keeps the speed nearly constant from no-load to full-load.

Another dedicated microcontroller chip supervises the system by monitoring input voltage, the DC bus voltage, fault registers in the other chips, output power levels, temperatures. The system is smart and flexible enough to recover power when the motor slows down.  Complicated for sure, but two current transitions, the switching up to three phase and the “once in, all in” opportunity that comes with using integrated circuits really pushes the working efficiency up.

One matter left unanswered is applying the Thor technology to the most common motors – the ones running at 1850 rpm commonly seen in fans and a huge array of smaller devices.  Thor offers the controller and motors separately, but where the low speed examples are isn’t addressed.  One doesn’t get the feeling a reduction gear arrangement isn’t going to be cost efficient.

But is it cost efficient?  Well, in uses where a motor would run at variable load 24/7 you better call Thor.  Electric rates won’t need to be all that high to get a payoff.  If your job is infrequent, easy start, light duty you can wait.  But it’s a certainty that motor controllers are coming to your home, business and that electric vehicle.  The EV will have to have one, and every electric motor can benefit from one.  Thor might be right; a country could do more than half again more work for the same power generated.

Homeowners and homebuilders are realizing that the utility cost reductions can have a significantly positive increase in a home’s value.  Every dollar saved in utilities can go to higher mortgage balances or higher disposable incomes.  Its usually best, to get that investment in before the first mortgage is taken, as later the monthly money budget will need to cover both a sunk higher cost and the new investments to reduce the monthly cost.

Energy Efficient Home Features. Click image for more info.

Ann Griffin of the Earth Advantage Institute has done investigative research and produced documented findings in Certified Home Performance: Assessing the Market Impacts of Third Party Certification on Residential Properties. (‘Certification’ is explained in the report.)  Griffin’s sample showed certified homes in the Portland metro area sold at a 3%-to-5% price premium. In addition, certified homes were on the market 18 days less than non-certified homes.  (Earth Advantage Web Site Link.)

In the Portland study were 92 certified homes built between 2000 and 2008, with a majority sold in 2006 and 2007 that were paired with 3 or 4 comparables totaling 340 comparable homes netting 432 surveys.  In Seattle 68 certified homes and 207 comparables came to somewhat less, 275 surveys.  Seattle had better pricing, sales prices were found to be 9.6% more for the third-party sustainable certified homes.  But on market time was averaged to 5 days longer.  One might trade almost 5% more price for 5 days.

Griffin also surveyed people.  90% of third-party certified home residents say they would choose it over a non-certified home and would pay more. 80% would pay as much as 5% more.  Depending on your home that can be quite an investment.

Energy Efficiency Added Perceived Home Value. Click image for the largest view.

The study offers much for buyers, lenders and sellers.  Some 98% of the homebuilders she interviewed believe that third-party verification adds value and are concerned that current residential appraisal practices fail to recognize the positive benefits of certification.  It’s also a point that lenders could or should keep in mind in an application process.  Home purchasers need to better understand the value and significance of certified sustainable homes. Homebuilders say homebuyers need to learn to appreciate the quality and value (long-term durability, high quality materials, improved indoor air quality, increased energy efficiency) of sustainable homes.  Over time sellers will have to get certified sustainability to get good prices.

Another point, rather big brother like, is home values should incorporate performance measures. For example, long-term reductions in utility bills and repair costs should be a considered in the appraisal price and loan balance allowed.

Momentum is building among energy agencies and legislators to label homes and buildings so to empower buyers to make comparisons. A publicly available score on the Multiple Listing Service (MLS) would surely transform the value of energy efficiency improvements and drive adoption.

Griffin quotes Jim Harris of the Financial Post, December 15, 2009, “What is the future of energy? It’s a critical question. The three fastest-growing sources of power in the future will be: ‘negawatts’, smart systems and clean power. ‘Negawatts’ is a term coined by Amory Lovins to signify electricity that isn’t needed produced due to energy efficiency. Mr. Lovins is one of the world’s leading energy efficiency experts – and coined the term when he saw a typo in a report – ‘negawatt’ instead of megawatt. “Every kilowatt hour that I save through energy efficiency is a kilowatt hour that someone else somewhere else on the grid can use. It’s the cheapest form of power generation. A negawatt strategy can apply to: 1) how electricity is produced; and 2) how it is consumed…”

Energy efficient homes that are certified are worth more.  Even homes with prepared printed out utility bills can have a positive effect. That’s simple, obvious and worth some thought.  Getting tightened up, insulated and being sure the water heater and furnace are as efficient as needed to close to the highest home price are worthwhile efforts.

Realistically though, most folks still buy paint and the ‘look’ and seek to get the biggest house they can afford.  As for everyone else maybe a little oversight by regulation would be worthwhile.  Don’t get over excited, the lenders couldn’t handle a boom, buyers over bought, many sellers were flippers, and the whole thing crashed. There doesn’t seem to be much about the lessons being discussed.

Meanwhile the flood of government money has and is rushing to the real estate market with oddly, a lot of caulking involved.  That’s fine, but as Griffin points out, there’s a lot more to it than that.

Its still buyer beware, but what to beware about is getting easier.

Andy Hong and the Microbubble Device. Click image for more info.

First, the focus on cleanups:

Hong says the method – for which patents are pending – also could be used to clean a variety of pollutants in water and even soil, including:

• So-called “produced water” from oil and gas drilling sites on land. Such oily water normally is re-injected underground. “If we have technology to clean it, it could be put into beneficial uses, such as irrigation, especially in arid regions where oil and gas tend to be produced,” says Hong.

• Water from mining of tar sands and oil shale.

• Groundwater contaminated by MTBE, a gasoline additive that reduces harmful vehicle emissions but pollutes water due to leaking underground gasoline storage tanks.

• “Emerging contaminants,” such as wastewater polluted with medications and personal care products.

• Soil contaminated with polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs, from electrical transformers) or polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs, from fuel burning). Water and contaminated soil would be mixed into slurry, and then treated with the new method.

• Heavy metals in soil. Instead of ozone, air and metal-grabbing chelating agents would be pressurized with a slurry of the contaminated material.

• Refinery wastewater and oil spills at refineries or on waterways. The spill could be vacuumed, and then treated with the new method on-site or on a barge.

Hong says, “We are not trying to treat the entire hydrocarbon [oil] content in the water – to turn it into carbon dioxide and water – but we are converting it into a form that can be retained by sand filtration, which is a conventional and economical process.”

Most of the dispersed oil droplets – which float on water to cause a sheen – are turned into acids and chemicals known as aldehydes and ketones, bit worthwhile chemicals. Most of those substances, in turn, help the remaining oil droplets clump together so they can be removed by conventional sand filtration.

As well as cleanup, Hong and his team are on to something.  Perhaps the chemistry and the process he’s invented has a role in oil recovery as well.

But, in his study, Hong showed the new method not only removes oil sheen, but also leaves the treated water so that any remaining acids, aldehydes and ketones are more vulnerable to being biodegraded by pollution-eating microbes.  Once the process is used the products are somewhat vulnerable.  Great for cleanup and it could be great for other processes as well.

Hong has developed an inexpensive new method to process oil widely dispersed in water by repeatedly pressurizing and depressurizing ozone gas, creating microscopic bubbles that attack the oil so it can be removed by sand filters.

Hong says his method uses two existing technologies – ozone aeration and sand filtration – and adds a big change to the former. Instead of just bubbling ozone through polluted water, Hong uses repeated cycles of pressurization of ozone and dirty water so the ozone saturates the water, followed by depressurization so the ozone expands into numerous microbubbles in the polluted water, similar to the way a carbonated beverage foams and overflows if opened quickly.

The tiny bubbles provide much more surface area – compared with larger bubbles from normal ozone aeration – for the oxygen in ozone to react chemically with oil. Hong says pollutants tend to accumulate on the bubbles because they are not very water-soluble. The ozone in the bubble attacks certain pollutants because it is a strong oxidant. The reactions convert most of the dispersed oil droplets – which float on water to cause sheen – into the acids and chemicals, which in turn, help the remaining oil droplets clump together so they can be removed by conventional sand filtration.

Professor Hong conducted his experiments using a tabletop chemical reactor that contained about a quart of oily water made by mixing deionized water with crude oil from the Rangely oil field in northwestern Colorado.

For producing ozone Hong’s team passes dry air through a high-voltage field, converting oxygen gas, which has two oxygen atoms, into ozone. The ozone was pressurized to 10 times atmospheric pressure, about 150 pounds per square inch.  Hong found oily water was cleaned most effectively by pressurizing and depressurizing it with ozone gas 10 times, then filtering it through sand, then putting the water through 20 more pressurized ozone cycles, and then filtering it again through sand. That was at flow rates of 10 to 20 liters per minute [about 2.6 to 5.3 U.S. gallons per minute] in his laboratory apparatus.

Hong tested how well the ozonation worked by measuring chemical and biological oxygen demands of treated water samples. Both indirectly measure organic contents in the water. Hong also used mass spectrometry to identify what contaminants remained in the water.  He found that his most effective procedure removed 99 percent of the turbidity from the “produced water” – leaving it almost as clear as drinking water – and removed 83 percent of the oil, converting the rest to dissolved organic acids removable by biodegradation.

Successful, Hong now plans for larger-scale pilot tests. “It is economical and it can be scaled up,” he says.

One such test will be done in Wuxi, China, where a prototype desk-sized device capable of treating 200 liters [53 U.S. gallons] at a time will be tested at three to five polluted industrial sites that the government vacated for redevelopment.

The University of Utah Research Foundation has entered into options to license the technology to Miracotech, Inc., of Albany, Calif., and 7Rev, L.P., a Salt Lake City venture capital group, so the companies can bring the technology to market.

With a cleanup market in place and demand good Hong and the new licensees are well set.  There is much more opportunity here than first meets the eye, flowing from old oil reserves might be a much larger market f the process can really scale up to production levels.

Professor Hong has hit a home run that may go around more than once.  It has to really cheer up those of us who like a clean planet as well as realistic environmentalists.

The first certified winner is Coolerado Corp. of Denver. Recent federal tests show that Coolerado’s five-ton commercial rooftop unit should be able to air-condition a typical big-box store with less than half the energy needed by conventional cooling units.

The catch is southwestern states are hot and dry, but use cooling systems that were designed for warm and more humid climates. The Cooling Challenge is based on the premise that southwestern-specific technologies should be able to cool using far less energy.

Mark Modera, director of the UC Davis Western Cooling Efficiency Center says, “Coolerado’s entry in the Western Cooling Challenge was the first to take our rigorous tests at the Advanced HVAC Lab at the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Golden, Colo.”  The result, the Coolerado H-80 delivers a stunning near 80 percent energy-use savings and over 60 percent peak-demand reduction.  These are very big numbers.  Commercial rooftop air-conditioning units are used to cool 70 percent of the floor area in nonresidential buildings in the western U.S. In California alone air-conditioning accounts for an astounding 50 percent of the summer peak power load.  Cut that by more than half and the power generation issue changes completely.

Conventional air conditioning works by manipulating a chemical refrigerant through cycles of compression and expansion. The refrigerant absorbs heat to cool interior air and releases it to the air of the great outdoors.  That makes any confined space a candidate for being a refrigerator (at comfort levels of temperature and humidity).  Coolerado’s technology applies where the humidity issue doesn’t come into play, in arid areas that the humidity absence can be exploited.

How Coolerado Works. Click image for more info.

Coolerado takes an alternative method of cooling, the evaporative or swamp cooler design to a new heights of efficiency and design.  Evaporative coolers use a blower to force hot air through a water soaked pad.  The water evaporates, carrying the heat with it and the air, now carrying some of that water, is passed back into the confined space.  An indirect evaporative cooler could have a secondary heat exchanger that captures some of the humidity from the cooled air before it is returned to the temperature controlled space.

Coolerado’s air conditioners work with the same basic model as evaporative coolers, drawing fresh air into the unit with a fan where it is filtered of dust and allergens and enters into a series of Heat Mass Exchangers.  The heat mass exchangers consist of several plates of a special plastic that wicks water evenly on one wide and transfers heat through the other side.  These plates are stacked and separated by channels that guide air movement, dividing the air streams into “product air” and “working air.” Thus Coolerado has invented a new heat exchanger design using water and air.

The product air within the confined space air stays within the dry channels the entire length of the heat mass exchanger where it is cooled as it passes through and into the confined space.  The working air from the outside initially enters dry channels where it is pre-cooled, divided into multiple streams and directed into wet channels.  The heat from the product air is transferred to the working air in the wet channels by means of evaporation (mass transfer and state change) before the working air is ejected back outside.

An advantage or disadvantage from the separate airflows is the process does not add nor remove humidity to the product air.  Inside the Coolerado mass heat exchangers the heat transfer process occurs multiple times in a short physical space resulting in progressively colder product and working air temperatures.

If you’re living in an arid zone Coolerado offers two other major incentives.  Current evaporators work at about reductions of 20° F.  Coolerado’s units can drop temperatures 100° F in units measuring only 13 inches.  The energy savings are staggering.  A Coolerado system will cool the same space as the most efficient traditional AC system while using only 10 percent of the energy.  The company web site offers that a 3,000 square foot building can be cooled by a single unit using 1/3 the energy of a standard hair dryer, about 600 watts.

That suggests that a photovoltaic system wouldn’t need to be so large reducing that investment.  Moreover where adequate water is in good supply for the evaporator, a much larger share of the earth’s surface would be more pleasantly inhabitable.

The down side is that evaporator systems need cleaned of the gunk that is left behind when the water is evaporated off.  But for virtually anyone, saving up to 90% on the air conditioning electricity bill is a minor price for the effort to flush a system.

Coolerado is off the ground and products are currently available only through distributors in ten Western states.  You’ll need a small electrical service and add a water supply.  Prices are expected to be comparable to other high-end air conditioning products.

But those prices might not hold.  The Cooling Challenge has five other manufacturers promised to submit equipment for Western Cooling Challenge efficiency testing. More results should be available by the end of 2009.  These products have to be candidates for utility incentive programs, soon.

Coolerado’s CEO Mike Luby said, “Coolerado would not have taken on the big task of producing this exceptional product had it not been for the challenge laid down by the Western Cooling Efficiency Center.”  That’s something to keep in mind when destructive ideas like cap and trade are floated as “incentives.”

As a UC Davis alumni Mr. Styles was triggered to write his own post on the topic called “Going Farther on Oil” by a short article in his UC Davis alumni magazine (on pages 8 and 9) about Sperling’s book.  The article about the book examines the impact and implications of the rapidly growing global vehicle population in a vastly different perspective than the popular doomsday press reports.  Much to the uninformed’s surprise; it is possible for many more people to have personal powered transportation.  That should be a huge relief as personal transport and the mobility it allows, stimulates and motivates a huge amount of human effort and productivity.  That means customers for you and mor, better and cheaper things you’d like to buy.

Media types tend to overlook the immeasurable benefits to everyone when the world economic pie gets bigger.  In the adaptable economies, it means bigger slices.  The richer world means a richer you.

The article’s points stimulated Mr. Styles to wonder just how far we might be able to stretch the transportation fuels we get from oil, and just how far short they would fall as the global car fleet expands. To Mr. Styles’ surprise, it doesn’t require very aggressive assumptions concerning improvements in fuel economy, reductions in vehicle miles traveled, and additional oil supplies to cover the needs of a significantly larger number of cars in the world.

Quoting Mr. Styles,

“The starting point for such an analysis is current oil supplies and the way we process them. Global oil output in 2008 reached 86.5 million barrels per day (MBD), including crude oil, natural gas liquids, and the volumetric gain that occurs when you run them through a modern refinery. Roughly 60% of that input is currently turned into gasoline, diesel and jet fuel. Improvements in refining technology should make it possible to push that fraction to perhaps 70%, at the expense of heavy fuel oil displaced from power generation and shipping. So even if global oil output plateaued at only 90 MBD, a scenario that would probably seem optimistic to the adherents of Peak Oil and pessimistic to some industry experts, it could still yield 63 MBD of liquid transportation fuels. Set aside 7 MBD of that for jet fuel and kerosene and another 26 MBD for trucking and home heating oil, and we’re left with 30 MBD of gasoline and diesel for passenger cars. That’s roughly 25% more than current global consumption, in light-duty vehicles, including the couple of MBD of diesel fuel that power Europe’s popular diesel cars.”

That 10% shift in refinery output will certainly be an issue for many, but Styles is right, there is more variability than the outside “experts” will consider.  A little more technology, which is sure to come in any case and the 70% number might be low in a few years.  Yet there is a cap, not yet found, so Mr. Styles looks at the other side, one of my favorites, efficiency.  Go Geoff!

“That doesn’t seem to get us nearly far enough, until we consider that in the near future, cars will become much more efficient than they have been, particularly in the US, where an improvement from the current national average of 25 mpg to the required 35.5 should eventually reduce average fuel consumption per mile by 30%. If the recent reversal in annual vehicle miles traveled persists after the recession ends that would compound future fuel savings. When we consider that new cars in Europe currently average about 35 mpg and are required to reach approximately 43 mpg by 2015, based on a standard of 130 grams of CO2 emitted per kilometer, and that China has also introduced stricter fuel economy standards, it’s not hard to imagine the average world car getting 40 mpg by 2020. That doesn’t even require the majority of cars to be hybrids, let alone plug-in hybrids. If that average car drove 9,000 miles per year, it would consume 225 gallons of fuel annually. Following this back-of-the-envelope calculation to its conclusion, our 30 MBD of petroleum-based fuel for light-duty vehicles would be sufficient to cover Dr. Sperling’s 2 billion cars with a little bit left over.”

Most of us are, with a level or disgust or dread, not looking forward to the inevitable smaller cars.  But the rest of everyone’s standard of living depends in part on Americans ditching the gas hogs in a major way, thus preserving and improving our own standard of living.  That’s a long chain for many people to grasp, yet the reality is that when you have more and wealthier customers you’re going to be better off, too.

Mr. Styles’ exercise points out a useful reality.  Fuel products are either in balance or short of supply or demand.  We know, having been retrained again over the past two years, that the moments of balance are fleeting and that short supply leads to economic trouble.  The risk in the matter is the continued supply of the raw crude.

That’s why alternatives are so important, every barrel per day that can come to market under the balanced price will make more of the world’s people wealthier.  For adequate food, jobs, education, good housing and safe retirement and pensions, getting more low cost alternatives is just crucial.  Humanity isn’t going to turn back the clock no matter what dreams may foment in the minds of the social engineers.  More fuel, used more efficiently is the only plan that can work.

Thanks for the post Geoff.

The UK’s University of Warwick research, backed and funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) and Airbus, promises to dramatically reduce mid-flight drag, by using tiny air powered jets which redirect the air, making it flow sideways back and forth over the wing.

The key in this is air is forced into a cavity, which increases the pressure. That forces air out and sucks it back in again, causing an oscillation. It’s the same phenomenon that happens when blowing over a bottle. The jets work by using the Helmholtz resonance principle.

The math offers that wings designed with the air redirection could cut airline fuel bills by 20%. The design uses tiny air powered jets which redirect the air, making it flow sideways back and forth over the wing. A “waggle,” in the Brits idea of a descriptive term. Engineers have known for some time that tiny ridges known as ‘riblets’ – like those found on shark’s bodies – can reduce skin-friction drag, a major portion of mid-flight drag by around 5%.

Airbus In Flight. Tiny air powered jets redirect the air, making it flow sideways back and forth over the wing.

University of Warwick’s Dr. Duncan Lockerby, the project leader says, “This has come as a bit of a surprise to all of us in the aerodynamics community. It was discovered, essentially, by waggling a piece of wing from side to side in a wind tunnel.” There’s that “waggling’ word again, still absent a better description. He goes on, “The truth is we’re not exactly sure why this technology reduces drag but with the pressure of climate change we can’t afford to wait around to find out. So we are pushing ahead with prototypes and have a separate three year project to look more carefully at the physics behind it.”

I like this guy, honest enough to come out and say straight out that climate change is a pressure driving the work. I’ll take climate change as a motivator for efficiency, and if this work can greatly cut the cost of getting through the air at speed, its very worthwhile work.

The EPSRC Senior manager for aerospace & defense, Simon Crook says, “This could help drastically reduce the environmental cost of flying. Research like this highlights the way UK scientists and engineers continue to make significant contributions to our lives.”

The UK aviation industry has announced targets to reduce emissions based on a measure of per passenger km by 50% by 2020. That’s an aggressive goal. Part of these savings will be made from lighter aircraft plus improvements in engines and fuel efficiencies but air drag friction is the major factor in fuel consumption during flights.   The new micro-jet system being developed by Dr. Lockerby and his colleagues could reduce skin friction drag by up to 40%

The Brits are serious, with a depth of understanding about the loads to overcome for flight with the research, being carried out in collaboration with scientists at Cardiff, Imperial, Sheffield, and Queen’s University Belfast. The research is still at concept stage yet it is targeted the new wings to be ready for trials as early as 2012.

With high probability for air flight success, this technology could also have a major impact on the aerodynamic design and fuel consumptions of cars, boats and trains that operate a much lower speeds.

The developed world has a great advantage with high-speed transport in economic scale. Moving people and goods makes a modern economy possible. People and leaders alike tend to overlook the value and costs of time. Only a century and a half ago getting across America was done at a walking pace, century ago at rail speed, a half-century ago at jet speed. Now an airline ticket is practical for most American’s making it possible for almost everyone get across the continent in a few hours.

This applies to freight, mail and other articles as well. The time not used is available for other things. That is one of energy’s best contributions to a modern economy and least considered issues for many. The idea of putting most people on bikes as an example, is a prescription for an incalculable economic contraction.

The Brits ideas to greatly reduce the energy needed to move at speed are very important, more so than first thought. I most want to say, “Go guys, GO!”