Breaking Energy, Feb. 5, 2014 (.pdf) The Energy Collective, Feb 10 In 1990, President George H.W. Bush signed into law an amendment to the Clean Air Act that mandated emissions reductions of the harmful pollutant sulfur dioxide, SO2, from coal fired power plants. The government did not instruct industry how they were to achieve the…
Continue reading →Breaking Energy, Jan. 30, 2014 (.pdf) Novomer is a small start-up chemistry company developing novel methods for converting waste carbon dioxide, CO2, into useful plastics, polymers and chemical intermediates. Novomer has developed proprietary catalysts that react with CO2 and allow it to bond with other molecules. CO2 is a difficult molecule to work with for the…
Continue reading →I discovered one of my articles was copied without attribution onto a Russian website. I suppose I could be mad, but I think I will just take it as a complement that someone liked my work enough to steal it. http://portnews.ru/digest/13384/ Growth of LNG fuel in maritime shipping (.pdf)
Continue reading →This article was published at Breaking Energy, January 22, 2014 (.pdf) Joule is a biotech firm developing a breakthrough photosynthesis based system for the production of liquid fuels using biocatalysts fueled by sunlight and carbon dioxide. The Joule process looks like many of the algal biofuel processes from the outside, but under the hood it is completely…
Continue reading →This piece first appeared on the Energy Collective, Jan. 20, 2014. The marine shipping industry is moving towards a heavy use of LNG, driven primarily by new emissions standards that come into place in 2015 combined with the low cost of natural gas from unconventional shale resources. Traditionally, big ships use bunker fuel, the heaviest…
Continue reading →I wrote this paper for FC Gas Intelligence, January 15, 2014 (.pdf) Introduction: In 2011 the International Energy Agency (IEA) made a bold claim that we are entering “A Golden Age of Gas”. The key drivers for this transformation in the global energy mix are growing supplies and falling prices of natural gas due to…
Continue reading →Published at The Energy Collective, Dec. 9, 2013 Wind, solar and biogas combine to keep the lights on in Germany In Germany a test has been successfully conducted of a 100% renewable energy power plant using wind, solar and biogas to provide round the clock electric power. The Kombikraftwerk 2 is a “Combined Renewable Energy…
Continue reading →Published at The Energy Collective, Dec. 3, 2013 There has been a lot of talk this week about a new PNAS study which found much higher levels of methane in the atmosphere than previously estimated. Reactions to the study were predictable. Climate activists sounded the alarm and reiterated their position that natural gas is no…
Continue reading →Published at The Energy Collective, Nov. 25, 2013 Renewable energy sources and natural gas should be considered as complements and not rivals. A hybrid gas-electric clean energy provides a workable engineering solution while 100% Renewables models based heavily on wind, solar and efficiency fall short of the meeting the functional needs of a modern technology…
Continue reading →I have seen the future of fuel and it is LNG. Liquefied Natural Gas. Its cool! Pun intended. To be honest I think that natural gas broadly speaking is the future, its cryogenic form is merely one manifestation. All forms of natural gas are useful; whether in pipelines, compressed, liquefied, converted to synthetic liquids or…
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