Methanol has been largely overlooked in the biofuels debate, perhaps that is because that is because it is typically produced from coal and natural gas and is often considered a fossil fuel product. But it is more accurate to think of methanol as a synthetic fuel that can be produced from all manner of carbon…
Continue reading →Last week in Riyadh at the 6th CSLF Ministerial Meeting, US Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz and Saudi Arabian Oil Minister Ali Al-Naimi issued a joint statement identifying the critical need for carbon capture, utilization and storage technologies (CCS) as a solution to reduce rising levels of greenhouse gasses. Both the USA and Saudi Arabia are…
Continue reading →In the west the debate over climate change generally falls along two competing narratives. The environmental left says that fossil fuels are the source of the CO2 emissions causing climate change and the solution is to abandon fossil fuels. Their opponents on the right say that climate change is a hoax or at least not…
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As the 2015 Paris Climate Summit approaches it appears that some positive steps will be taken in the fight against climate change, but one of the most important steps will again fail to be realized. Voices from governments, industry, academia, and activism have called for a price on carbon to help drive deep cuts in…
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I have been working on this blog post for a while, it has been a challenge to sum up my thoughts, especially since my views have shifted so radically in the last few years. Folks who know me are aware that I have been researching and writing about clean energy technologies for a few years…
Continue reading →Carbon Capture and Sequestration (CCS) has been identified as crucial in the efforts to reign in CO2 emissions that are causing climate change by leading agencies such as the UN IPCC, the International Energy Agency and the World Bank. But CCS, the process of physically capturing CO2 emissions from industrial systems like power plants, pressurizing…
Continue reading →There is potential for a new energy revolution that can follow on the success of shale gas. Carbon dioxide based enhanced oil recovery (CO2-EOR) offers the opportunity to produce billions of barrels of oil domestically while simultaneously eliminating gigatons of carbon dioxide emissions. The debate over climate change has brought the issue of excessive CO2…
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Methane hydrates are getting increased attention as a major new source of clean hydrocarbon energy. These enormous deposits of natural gas have never been developed commercially, but research and development has been promising, and expectations are that the gas could begin coming to market within a decade. Known as flammable ice, methane hydrates are molecules…
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This equation describes the idea of reverse combustion with renewable methane, carbon capture and oxy-combustion. This is also known as chemical looping and is a form of using renewable natural gas as energy storage. Combustion works by combining fuel (CH4) with oxygen to create heat (energy) plus carbon dioxide (CO2) and water (H2O). Typically the CO2…
Continue reading →Power-to-Gas (PtG) enables the natural gas pipeline network to be used for energy storage, resolving many of the integration issues that plague intermittent renewable energy sources such as wind and solar. It is well known that finding a solution for scalable energy storage is critical in the pursuit of achieving a renewable energy future. While…
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