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What is the goal?
The replacement of the “Electrical Transmission Lines” with underground pipes containing “Hydrogen”. It will change our way of thinking about and using Energy. A Giant Storage Battery would be created. It will save energy and release it on demand. Not generate as needed. Why spend money trying to clean up hydrocarbons when there is a better way!
Oil, Gas and Coal will run out. Let’s start building Atomic power plants, Windmills, Solar panels Etc that produce Hydrogen. This effort will create millions of jobs that will last forever! Why wait until our Midwest is strip mined and the oceans are polluted.
Let’s start the conversion now. Hydroelectric plants are a good starting point. They have excess power available in off peak hours. After the water is gone the energy is gone. Lets store it in the form of Hydrogen!
We need more energy not less to maintain our way of life. Hydrogen storage will give use a clean never ending energy source. It can be used in all devices that presently use hydrocarbons. Fuel cells can convert it to electricity when needed. They don't need fuel cells if a Stirling Engine is used. http://newenergydirection.com/blog/2009/06/stirling-engine-generator/
A second approach already on the market is to install a Natural Gas conversion kit on a internal combustion engine. Hydrogen, Propane or a mix can replace the Natural Gas.
http://www.hendrixsystems.com/
Small self powered hydrogen collection systems are possible. This will allow the small guy to enter the energy business. No big distillation plants are required. They can be placed anywhere. A farmer can place them in unused field space. This would give him a new cash product. Coops could pick up the gas and take it to pipeline collection locations. Where it could be compressed and placed in the gas grid. (pipe lines) Millions of good paying long term jobs would be created.
The project could be started at locations such as Niagara Falls. The water energy flowing over the falls is lost if not used. During off peak they could generate Hydrogen and mix it with the natural gas coming from Canada.
The Con Edison Company had a project at Storm king Mountain. They were going to pump the water into a manmade lake. This way they save part of the energy for peak periods. If they used the water energy to make hydrogen the lake would not be needed. No fish would be killed at the pump inputs. There are no pumps.
Viking Bob
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Thursday, October 15, 2009
Monday, September 7, 2009
THE WORLD NEEDS A LIMITLESS PORTABLE CLEAN ENERGY SOURCE.
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Let's start with safety. I hear too often that hydrogen is dangerous.
For those of you that believe that. I say this, all flammable gases are dangerous. The least dangerous is hydrogen. It goes up and blows away. Please take a look at the photos below. They were taken at the University of Miami. One is hydrogen powered and the other is gasoline powered both fuel tanks were punctured and ignited. I'll let you decide which one is gasoline and which one is hydrogen! If you were unconscious where would you rather be?
If I had billions and billions invested in oil rigs and profits were at a record high I would be reluctant to change what I was doing. Oil companies, I believe must be given an incentive for change. When the wagon starts rolling I believe they will all jump on. The governments of the world that join in the hydrogen economy could start developing hydrogen eventually stopping the use of hydrocarbons completely. We stopped riding horses. It's time to take down the transmission lines and distribute energy in a whole new way that will really give us an energy economy.
There are many countries in the world that have their whole economy based on oil Let the rest of the world argue over them. We will be all set for the future. When the oil runs out our economy will still be booming and we will have something to sell. I think the politicians missed the point, one of the major items that has made for a worldwide economy is the use of energy. (oil)
True competition only comes about when anyone can compete. The more competition the harder it is to interrupt the supply and the more innovation there will be. There is no country in the world that can't produce hydrogen! The governments of the world can help here. Thousands and thousands of government vehicles could be converted to internally produced hydrogen. Even if they broke even on the process it would get everything going. It could help create the demand that would get the worlds entrepreneurs perking. I know I know it's just a dream.
When something threatens their country and their way of life I believe any citizen of the world will expect their government to take action.
In the USA our president is trying to make us feel guilty. He is telling us that we are causing global warming, and we should drive small cars and reduce our electrical use. He keeps telling us to cut back, cut back. He says this is his way of increasing the number of jobs.
That makes no sense to me. The way you create jobs is to give people something to work on. If these jobs materialize it's going to take energy to maintain them. He talks about solar panels and windmills. Only small solar panel factories existin the USA. The company he has chosen for windmills is General Electric. They manufacture them in Spain. The late Ted Kennedy was pushing windmills until someone propose to put them in a location that could be seen from his backyard he changed directions fast. Not in his backyard!!
Some of the stimulus money should be used to put a major effort into bringing Hydrogen online. (Similar to the Manhattan Project.) Solar panels just won't work on an automobile or a plane. Batteries are heavy and toxic when being disposed of. What do we do with the waste? In the case of hydrogen the answer is simple. We drink it!
The present administration has considerably reduced the funds that the Bush administration had put into hydrogen development. I believe that is a mistake and a big one! (Good news here. congress overroad him and put it back) The world needs that energy. It will help produce long-term jobs! I see the money being put into loan guarantees for the development of solar panels. Not fuel cells. The last time I looked outside. We only have sun for half the day, and in winter time, considerably less. If they were hooked up to generate hydrogen I could feel a little better about it. That is the step that has yet to be discussed.
I can't help but believe they want to sell carbon credits not worry about what is best for us.
The solar panels are going to be used to charge storage batteries, which have a limited life expectancy. Hydrogen could be stored in carbon composition tanks. The batteries are heavy. The carbon composition tanks with hydrogen in them are only about one third the weight. This will increase the mileage of the vehicle and allow us to drive larger vehicles.
If all of vehicles on the road right now were switched to electricity the power transmission grid could not support the amount of energy it would require.
Trucks and trains and airplanes are left out. They are major carbon-based fuel consumers. Windmills have the same problem. Sometimes there is no wind, and sometimes there is too much. Here again, they are going to use storage batteries.
I look at a tank of hydrogen as a storage battery. It is an energy storage medium. There is a law in physics that says energy in equal’s energy out minus efficiency. To use the batteries, you must charge them. To use a tank of hydrogen you must generate and compress it. Then put it in a tank. (charge it). Hydrogen can be used as a power source in everything that we do. That is not true of storage batteries. Hydrogen can be used in an internal combustion engine as easily as it can be used with a fuel cell.
The presently existing hybrid vehicles will go about 40 miles and then they start an internal combustion engine and start burning gasoline to recharge the batteries. If it had a tank of hydrogen it could travel 600 miles and never put out one drop of pollutants. The whole effort is to make us feel guilty if we drive a large vehicle. To me this compromises safety and takes away choice.
Your existing vehicle could be converted to hydrogen, a lot cheaper than purchasing one of these new go carts. Hydrogen can also power our planes. It also stops the worry about us causing global warming. It cleans up the air in our cities. Its ability to be generated by multiple sources will give us a continuous supply of energy that will never run out. It solves so many problems that I do not understand why the greenies are against it. We should be going full speed ahead developing it.
You environmentalists out there join the push for hydrogen. If you burn someone's SUV it only causes more pollution. If you burn Hydrogen it will make the flowers grow! We need a hydrogen economy now. It will allow us to grow and expand without the restrictions that carbon-based fuel products put on us. Remember if a ship full of hydrogen hits the rocks. The hydrogen leak will go up, not pollute the water around it. If it burns it will cause a big rainstorm.
Bob, that's great but it takes a long time to build an atomic power plant!
Isn't there something that we can do to get started a lot sooner than that. Yes, there is! Small We can start small. Small atomic generators can be installed very rapidly. I will discuss this later. This is a place here for the solar panels and windmills. Our farmers are being asked to grow crops that can be used to produce biofuels. Why not build small hydrogen generating systems using solar panels and windmills. These units could be powered by the hydrogen that they generate.
I know energy in equals energy out! I believe the amount of energy necessary to run one of the systems would be far less than what we would obtain. The extra power comes from the sun and wind. It may take a day or two to fill a hydrogen storage tanks but remember the sun and wind are free. The unit could be placed on land and the presently cannot farm but paying taxes on. It will give the farmer a new way to make money. The system could work like the existing milk co-ops do. A hydrogen pickup truck would go from unit to unit collecting the hydrogen and taking it to a main distribution center. This would be another product for our farmers to sell many of them are having problems now, just surviving
These are just my ideas. Lets turn loose the inventors and entrepreneurs. I am sure there are many better ideas out there. We just need the leadership that makes energy sense! Someone who realizes we need more energy, not less!
Viking bob
Complete Vikingbobs words List
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http://www.vikingbobs.net/
http://www.invents.net/
Email: vikingbobs@yahoo.com
Let's start with safety. I hear too often that hydrogen is dangerous.
For those of you that believe that. I say this, all flammable gases are dangerous. The least dangerous is hydrogen. It goes up and blows away. Please take a look at the photos below. They were taken at the University of Miami. One is hydrogen powered and the other is gasoline powered both fuel tanks were punctured and ignited. I'll let you decide which one is gasoline and which one is hydrogen! If you were unconscious where would you rather be?
I hear you saying, energy again "RP" no one cares as long as the lights turn on and there are no long lines at the gas pumps!! This is what my friends tell me, but I think they have just gotten complacent because we have had easy access to energy, until now!
The use and control of energy is the thing that separates man from every other life form on this planet. Most life forms use the energy that nature provides. If nature does not provide the necessary energy and it can’t evolve it does not survive.
Scientists say it is the use of tools that separates us from other animals. Religion says it is our soul. When it comes to energy I see no difference in these points of view. Until your deity returns, a large volcano erupts, the earth shakes or that wayward asteroid hits we have a planet that is what it is.
Whether you like the changes or not we are changing it. Trees are cut down bulldozers make roads and cities are built. This is all done by man. The thing that we seem to forget is we are building this on a living planet. It too is changing itself.
The tectonic plates are moving. Volcanoes are erupting and yes there's a shower of meteors hitting the planet every day. Most of them are tiny and go unnoticed. They turn to a gas in our atmosphere and release heat. Slowly but surely the remnants of that gas & heat buildup.
Humans inhale our oxygen nitrogen atmosphere and exhale nitrogen & CO2. The other end produces methane like all other mammals. To this point man has a simila effect to other animals. One big difference when it comes to changing the planet is man has invented the bulldozer and the chainsaw.
The plants use the CO2 from the atmosphere and giveback oxygen to replace it. Slowly the planet’s atmosphere changes a little gas here and a little there. If the oxygen level gets too high fires will develop more easily, and it will correct itself. The result of this is more CO2. The plants can feast.
The continents get father apart or closer together, the Great Rift Valley in Africa will one day flood and be part of the ocean. When it happens it will go quickly. Everything in it that can't get out of the way will die. Soon it will be replaced by sea creatures. Life will flourish again.
If you believe that God gave us the brain to understand things. It would be an insult to him not to see the things that he really has done. Those that believe we have just evolved to the point where we do understand things must feel ashamed when they don't use their ability to think. The answer for us all is the same. If our population is to expand, there is no reason to believe that it won't, we need a new source of energy. It must be environmentally friendly, abundance and low cost. We must also protect our food source.
I hear you say Bob: This is a nice earth’s history lesson. But what has that got to do with us using energy?
Stay with me. In the beginning of this blog I talked about the changes in the earth itself and how little we contribute to it. But let's take a hard look at energy. The energy that it takes to move the tectonic plates takes an unbelievable amount of power. Bigger than anything we can conceive of or generate. They may be moving slowly, but they are moving. When a major volcano erupts, the energy that it produces again is enormous. The movement of the plates takes a long time, and many earthquakes to create visible changes. For volcanoes this is not true. A major eruption can change the earth's temperature in less than a week. (Read my blog, a simple man's view of global warming).
The tendency of the planet is too warm. Meteors and volcanoes come along once in a while and drop the temperature so drastically that it can take thousands of years to recover. It has cycled up and down for 4 1/2 billion years. It is hard for us to notice; unless you study science. Our life expectancy is less than 100 years. That doesn't give the earth much time for change, but it is changing.
Many species change this planet; plants use carbon dioxide and give off oxygen, coral forms our reefs etc. I am not going to go into all the different effects other life forms have on the earth. This blog is about humans, energy and protecting our food source.
The point I would like to make is; ever specie that has a large population will eventually have an effect no matter what they do. If it gives off oxygen it is good. If it takes away oxygen it is bad. We need it!! If all the oxygen were to leave our atmosphere we would be gone. All plants and animals need our atmosphere, in one way or another, to live. They use only the energy necessary to support that life. Only man uses energy to reengineer the place.
As our population grows, it moves into areas that once belonged to Mother Nature. It also takes away farmland that one day we're going to need to feed the growing population. The pollutants that we dump into the water supply are going to make unusable something else that we need badly. Some type of life shows up almost everywhere. The stuff we dump may allow other life forms to succeed, but it won't be us.
Our oceans are being contaminated. Large oil tankers can run up on the rocks and dump their cargo into the ocean. We are being told that global warming is being caused by us. The present practice in offshore natural gas wells is to dump CO2 into the oceans where it can turn to carbolic acid. The rest will bubble to the surface and enter the atmosphere. The thinking is it won't be in the gas that we burn. That will reduce the amount of CO2 that we put into the atmosphere. So the CO2 is less, OR is it. Just being put where we can't see it doesn't remove it from the planet. If it makes it to a volcano into the atmosphere it will go.
We can invest time and energy telling the world to stop using energy because it is bad. Or we can accept the fact that we need this energy. It is what makes man progress. Like anything else that man touches. It can be used for good or evil.
There are 6 billion of us on this planet. The major thing we have in common is the use of energy. We operate bulldozers, drive cars and fly airplanes. Our homes and buildings are air-conditioned and heated, traffic lights work. Las Vegas is ablaze with lights. Any evening they can be seen for miles. (Not everything that happens in Vegas stays in Vegas) All these things we take for granted. It is impossible for modern man to go through even one hour and not use energy in one form or another. Even those of us that still live in the wild will build a fire.
Man has gone through several changes during the lifetime of energy use. The first was the use of a campfire. Next he added torches out of animal fat and tree limbs. Soon there was the oil lamp. We killed a lot of whales because of it. Then oil wells and the discovery of electricity. Soon we were flying through the air. And also weapons, bombs and guns.
If you believe this is progress or not. It all took the mastery of energy. It does not matter what deity you believe or disbelieve in. What language you speak or what the color of your skin is. Even your IQ has no bearing here. If you are human you will use energy. Doesn't it make sense to change our thinking about energy? The earth itself needs energy for the lifestyle it makes available for us. We need energy to have that lifestyle. We need hydrogen and atomic power to generate it. If photocells get more efficientor windmills become practical they can be added to the system. The only thing we have other than oil that has the energy to provide for our way of life is atomic power. Is the closest thing that man has that has the power to allow us to expand our life.
Let's develop a form of energy that is clean and abundant. Reducing our energy usage is the wrong thing to do. We need more energy to have a vibrant economy. I hear all the talk about clean jobs. Yet the Obama administration has aprroved the expenditure of $800 million for offshore drilling in Brazil.
Someone that believes in a Green Planet would not make that decision. Carbon-based fuels will run out. The cost of obtaining these fuels is increasing. Large wells are being drilled in the ocean and strip mining will soon be done in our Midwest. Oil is becoming harder to get and less available. It will run out. The cost of carbon-based energy has to go up. Sooner more than later there will be no more. It may not happen in our lifetime. Our children however will pay for our inability to act.
Why not use the time; we still have to develop a clean fuel that never will run out? Our population is growing and so is our need for energy. It’s time to use our ability to reengineer the place to reengineer energy. We need hydrogen & atomic power now!!
For all of you naysayers that like pointing out all the problems with hydrogen. I believe you were part of the same team that pointed out all the problems with transistors. How they would never replace vacuum tubes. I can see you laughing in the third row. I see you really believed in the horse-drawn cart. I like that sign “Get a horse”! The girl with the Red Hat what did I just hear you say? You were the one that originated the phrase Fulton's Folly. Thank you for being honest. You with your hand up, what did you want to say. You wrote an article telling us why we should not buy Stewart's icebox. Good crowd here today.
I personally have a strong believe in the worlds engineers. I know all the problems are solvable, but deliberately holding them back by withholding development funds will make sure that it doesn't happen for years to come. Let's turn that engineering talent loose. Let's give a prize to the company that brings hydrogen online first. Just like the prize we gave for Spaceship One.
There are other countries in the world that are moving forward, and I fear we're going to be left behind. We have always solved problems before, and hydrogen will be no different. When the oil runs out I believe that's when it will get done. I think that is very unfortunate and very shortsighted.
In the area of carbon-based fuels the rest of the world is our competitor. Why not become their hydrogen supplier?
All it takes is salt water and an atomic reactor. We have a lot of that surrounding us!!
Other species survive within limited parameters and that is all they do. We have the ability to change and understand the parameters that surround us. It is the ability to use and control these parameters that is a basic difference between us and other species.
Take a look around you, unless you're out in the woods. Everything around you with the exception of other humans, pets, bugs and plants was created and built by man. It all took energy in some form. Energy is necessary to build the products and get them to you. Workers need energy to get to work energy, energy, energy.
I think you can see here how much the cost of energy impacts everything that we do. If the cost of transportation were to go down everything would be cheaper even healthcare. We could drive behind a bus in the city and still be able to breathe. It would have an impact on our health. We are being told to stop smoking, but its okay to breathe diesel fuels.
I hear you ask do other species need energy? Yes energy is a basic need of all species. Cold-blooded animals will crawl out on a rock in the sun. They absorb the heat that nature provides. We flourish because of the ability to control energy. It is a universal need of mankind. Even on the way out, if you choose cremation or backhoe digs a hole. You use energy!
No other specie has had so much impact on physical characteristics of planet. Other species can over feed and make the area around them inhabitable. Only man can have an oil tanker crash on the rocks. This ruins our fisheries and kills wildlife by sending millions of gallons of oil gushing into the ocean. The ocean is a major supplier of our food. All this can be fixed by using hydrogen and atomic power!
Strip mines are not only ugly. The coal we get from them is located under farms and ranches that now produce our food. Once they are strip mined, they will never produce food again. Food is a very basic need of mankind. We should protect the ability to provide it at all cost. This to me is a course for disaster our main energy source is running out and as we get closer to the end. The worlds population is exploding. We are now assaulting the very places that we need to produce our food.
I don't understand the talk about clean coal by our president. We are endangering a major source of our food supply! We have strip mines, in some of our states now. Those of you that have seen them know the damage that they do. That land is lost to farming forever. The major coal reserves in the United States are in the middle of the country the area we call our breadbasket. They are close enough to the surface that they can be strip mined. Oil rigs in the ocean are never completely clean. Oil rigs on land are never pretty and many times pollute the underground water supply.
If there were no other way to get energy I would agree we should develop something else. That so-called clean coal, as you know, has never been developed. It also will not last forever. To spend all that money to develop a new product that will eventually run out to me is the height of foolishness. It will take our farmland with it. I am sure this is true in other countries in the world. I said, it is big oil thinking. The politicians can't sell carbon credits, if hydrogen were in use. HUMMM
I discussed in the beginning of this blog the other power on this planet that can change the place is nature. Volcanoes, earthquakes can rearrange our surroundings in a big hurry. The energy produced exceeds anything we have yet to master. If a major volcano blows today, the Earth temperature will drop like a rock. No politician will take credit for Cap & Con after that.
Our ancestor’s discovery of fire as an energy source started the whole thing. It led to the discovery of the dental drill. There has been a steady change in the use of energy. As man learned the gun was developed and central heating became the norm.
The United States has been lambasted for its use of energy. I think it is obvious that if a country is going to succeed and give its people an excellent standard of living. It requires a mastery of energy. The more energy it uses the better the standard of living will be.
Fossil fuels have gotten us this far. Like riding horses was used for thousands of years before the automobile was invented. It is time to change. We must embrace technology and move away from fusel fuels. We need a hydrogen/atomic economy. Hydrogen is the most abundant element in the universe and the only fuel it can be used over and over again. When you use it you get water, take apart the water and you get back to hydrogen a totally clean process. We need atomic power for land based power and hydrogen for portable use. Hydrogen will power our planes, our cars and our ships ETC. Using underground plumbing it will heat and cool our homes.
Only a major disaster can stop the expansion of the human population on this planet. If we can’t stop it lets prepare for it!! If you know trouble is coming do you sit and wait or get prepared? Let’s get prepared!!! Oil and coal will run out. We know that and so does our government! Why aren't we getting prepared for it? I can't help but believe that it's greed. I believe it is Oil Company thinking ( Something I call the oil DAMN ) and the politicians being controlled by it. Most politicians like power. It takes money to be powerful. Oil companies make large donations to political campaigns.
If you like this world as it is, or you want to change it, you need energy!! If you want to send all illegal aliens home or open the borders it will take energy to get it done!!! If you love the computers that make advanced weapon systems work or you want to destroy them, it will take energy.
Man from the beginning of his time on this planet has progressed by using energy. Everyday no matter where you are or who you are, you will use some kind of energy to help you live. Fire was one of the first forms of energy usage and it still is! Let's change that!
Clean pure water is necessary for human life. The only fuel source on its planet that produces water when it is consumed is hydrogen, and it is 100% pure. Early man lived next to rivers and lakes; soon he realized that he could bring the water to him so he dug ditches and gravity made the water run through them. In those days there were no oil slicks to contend with. What did he use those ditches for? To irrigate his crops.
As trade developed man made rafts then boats to move his goods. Soon we had sails. Life for all humans was improved by sharing talents and goods. These boats became huge oil tankers loaded with energy. As I stated earlier, if they go on the rocks we have a lot more trouble than just the loss of the ship. If a tanker loaded with hydrogen goes on the rocks. The hydrogen will go up in the air and blow away not pollute the water and kill off our food supply. It is not a greenhouse gas so that will be no problem there. Even if it catches fire it will be followed by a big rainstorm. No pollution will result.
The Romans built aqueducts to get clean water to their cities. They also built an extensive network of roads to facilitate moving goods, items and armies. These roads made travel over land possible using bigger wagons. The Romans brought their brand of civilization to most of Europe. City living became desirable. With a clean water supply and abundant food they survived for 450 years. A good part of their energy came from slaves. I wonder what they would have done with a bulldozer?
Manpower, horsepower, waterpower and slaves provided the necessary energy for the Romans. I separate manpower and slaves as manpower could be voluntary, but slaves were just used for the energy. Is this what the greenies want us to go back to?
As man progressed he wanted to do more, the slaves desired what their masters had. The energy requirements started to exceed the physical capabilities. Major projects, took years and years and thousands of hands to complete. Is this what the greenies want us to go back to?
Man started to look for other means to aid them in their quest for an improved and expanded life. Running water was soon pushing paddle wheels. Dams were built to make water usage more efficient. This principle is still used today.
Next there was the steam engine. It started replacing water wheels allowing mankind to move away from the rivers and lakes. This meant transportation had to be improved the horse and buggy was limited in its ability to move people and goods. Channels were dug and boats and barges were used to move our products and us. Soon the steam engine was put on wheels and we had a train. Then there was the steamboat. The internal combustion engine, planes, cars and trucks followed. The industrial revelation was upon use.
The above information is to show how man has incorporated energy into his way of life. All the progress man has made is based on the continued understanding and use of energy. It can push a bullet or a rocket and heat our homes. Take away energy and everything we have and have gotten used to stops. It is time to move forward again while there is still time. when we started the heavy industrialization of our society there were a lot less of us. There was plenty of farmland and a clean Ocean. Our food supply was not in danger.
It is not our output of CO2 that is endangering our food supply. Plants and plankton love it. there is evidence that during the time the oil was being produced (peet bogs) . The atmospheric CO2 was higher than it is now. That is when the fossil fuels we are relying on now had their beginning. The danger is to our low level cities.
The use and control of energy is the thing that separates man from every other life form on this planet. Most life forms use the energy that nature provides. If nature does not provide the necessary energy and it can’t evolve it does not survive.
Scientists say it is the use of tools that separates us from other animals. Religion says it is our soul. When it comes to energy I see no difference in these points of view. Until your deity returns, a large volcano erupts, the earth shakes or that wayward asteroid hits we have a planet that is what it is.
Whether you like the changes or not we are changing it. Trees are cut down bulldozers make roads and cities are built. This is all done by man. The thing that we seem to forget is we are building this on a living planet. It too is changing itself.
The tectonic plates are moving. Volcanoes are erupting and yes there's a shower of meteors hitting the planet every day. Most of them are tiny and go unnoticed. They turn to a gas in our atmosphere and release heat. Slowly but surely the remnants of that gas & heat buildup.
Humans inhale our oxygen nitrogen atmosphere and exhale nitrogen & CO2. The other end produces methane like all other mammals. To this point man has a simila effect to other animals. One big difference when it comes to changing the planet is man has invented the bulldozer and the chainsaw.
The plants use the CO2 from the atmosphere and giveback oxygen to replace it. Slowly the planet’s atmosphere changes a little gas here and a little there. If the oxygen level gets too high fires will develop more easily, and it will correct itself. The result of this is more CO2. The plants can feast.
The continents get father apart or closer together, the Great Rift Valley in Africa will one day flood and be part of the ocean. When it happens it will go quickly. Everything in it that can't get out of the way will die. Soon it will be replaced by sea creatures. Life will flourish again.
If you believe that God gave us the brain to understand things. It would be an insult to him not to see the things that he really has done. Those that believe we have just evolved to the point where we do understand things must feel ashamed when they don't use their ability to think. The answer for us all is the same. If our population is to expand, there is no reason to believe that it won't, we need a new source of energy. It must be environmentally friendly, abundance and low cost. We must also protect our food source.
I hear you say Bob: This is a nice earth’s history lesson. But what has that got to do with us using energy?
Stay with me. In the beginning of this blog I talked about the changes in the earth itself and how little we contribute to it. But let's take a hard look at energy. The energy that it takes to move the tectonic plates takes an unbelievable amount of power. Bigger than anything we can conceive of or generate. They may be moving slowly, but they are moving. When a major volcano erupts, the energy that it produces again is enormous. The movement of the plates takes a long time, and many earthquakes to create visible changes. For volcanoes this is not true. A major eruption can change the earth's temperature in less than a week. (Read my blog, a simple man's view of global warming).
The tendency of the planet is too warm. Meteors and volcanoes come along once in a while and drop the temperature so drastically that it can take thousands of years to recover. It has cycled up and down for 4 1/2 billion years. It is hard for us to notice; unless you study science. Our life expectancy is less than 100 years. That doesn't give the earth much time for change, but it is changing.
Many species change this planet; plants use carbon dioxide and give off oxygen, coral forms our reefs etc. I am not going to go into all the different effects other life forms have on the earth. This blog is about humans, energy and protecting our food source.
The point I would like to make is; ever specie that has a large population will eventually have an effect no matter what they do. If it gives off oxygen it is good. If it takes away oxygen it is bad. We need it!! If all the oxygen were to leave our atmosphere we would be gone. All plants and animals need our atmosphere, in one way or another, to live. They use only the energy necessary to support that life. Only man uses energy to reengineer the place.
As our population grows, it moves into areas that once belonged to Mother Nature. It also takes away farmland that one day we're going to need to feed the growing population. The pollutants that we dump into the water supply are going to make unusable something else that we need badly. Some type of life shows up almost everywhere. The stuff we dump may allow other life forms to succeed, but it won't be us.
Our oceans are being contaminated. Large oil tankers can run up on the rocks and dump their cargo into the ocean. We are being told that global warming is being caused by us. The present practice in offshore natural gas wells is to dump CO2 into the oceans where it can turn to carbolic acid. The rest will bubble to the surface and enter the atmosphere. The thinking is it won't be in the gas that we burn. That will reduce the amount of CO2 that we put into the atmosphere. So the CO2 is less, OR is it. Just being put where we can't see it doesn't remove it from the planet. If it makes it to a volcano into the atmosphere it will go.
We can invest time and energy telling the world to stop using energy because it is bad. Or we can accept the fact that we need this energy. It is what makes man progress. Like anything else that man touches. It can be used for good or evil.
There are 6 billion of us on this planet. The major thing we have in common is the use of energy. We operate bulldozers, drive cars and fly airplanes. Our homes and buildings are air-conditioned and heated, traffic lights work. Las Vegas is ablaze with lights. Any evening they can be seen for miles. (Not everything that happens in Vegas stays in Vegas) All these things we take for granted. It is impossible for modern man to go through even one hour and not use energy in one form or another. Even those of us that still live in the wild will build a fire.
Man has gone through several changes during the lifetime of energy use. The first was the use of a campfire. Next he added torches out of animal fat and tree limbs. Soon there was the oil lamp. We killed a lot of whales because of it. Then oil wells and the discovery of electricity. Soon we were flying through the air. And also weapons, bombs and guns.
If you believe this is progress or not. It all took the mastery of energy. It does not matter what deity you believe or disbelieve in. What language you speak or what the color of your skin is. Even your IQ has no bearing here. If you are human you will use energy. Doesn't it make sense to change our thinking about energy? The earth itself needs energy for the lifestyle it makes available for us. We need energy to have that lifestyle. We need hydrogen and atomic power to generate it. If photocells get more efficientor windmills become practical they can be added to the system. The only thing we have other than oil that has the energy to provide for our way of life is atomic power. Is the closest thing that man has that has the power to allow us to expand our life.
Let's develop a form of energy that is clean and abundant. Reducing our energy usage is the wrong thing to do. We need more energy to have a vibrant economy. I hear all the talk about clean jobs. Yet the Obama administration has aprroved the expenditure of $800 million for offshore drilling in Brazil.
Someone that believes in a Green Planet would not make that decision. Carbon-based fuels will run out. The cost of obtaining these fuels is increasing. Large wells are being drilled in the ocean and strip mining will soon be done in our Midwest. Oil is becoming harder to get and less available. It will run out. The cost of carbon-based energy has to go up. Sooner more than later there will be no more. It may not happen in our lifetime. Our children however will pay for our inability to act.
Why not use the time; we still have to develop a clean fuel that never will run out? Our population is growing and so is our need for energy. It’s time to use our ability to reengineer the place to reengineer energy. We need hydrogen & atomic power now!!
For all of you naysayers that like pointing out all the problems with hydrogen. I believe you were part of the same team that pointed out all the problems with transistors. How they would never replace vacuum tubes. I can see you laughing in the third row. I see you really believed in the horse-drawn cart. I like that sign “Get a horse”! The girl with the Red Hat what did I just hear you say? You were the one that originated the phrase Fulton's Folly. Thank you for being honest. You with your hand up, what did you want to say. You wrote an article telling us why we should not buy Stewart's icebox. Good crowd here today.
I personally have a strong believe in the worlds engineers. I know all the problems are solvable, but deliberately holding them back by withholding development funds will make sure that it doesn't happen for years to come. Let's turn that engineering talent loose. Let's give a prize to the company that brings hydrogen online first. Just like the prize we gave for Spaceship One.
There are other countries in the world that are moving forward, and I fear we're going to be left behind. We have always solved problems before, and hydrogen will be no different. When the oil runs out I believe that's when it will get done. I think that is very unfortunate and very shortsighted.
In the area of carbon-based fuels the rest of the world is our competitor. Why not become their hydrogen supplier?
All it takes is salt water and an atomic reactor. We have a lot of that surrounding us!!
Other species survive within limited parameters and that is all they do. We have the ability to change and understand the parameters that surround us. It is the ability to use and control these parameters that is a basic difference between us and other species.
Take a look around you, unless you're out in the woods. Everything around you with the exception of other humans, pets, bugs and plants was created and built by man. It all took energy in some form. Energy is necessary to build the products and get them to you. Workers need energy to get to work energy, energy, energy.
I think you can see here how much the cost of energy impacts everything that we do. If the cost of transportation were to go down everything would be cheaper even healthcare. We could drive behind a bus in the city and still be able to breathe. It would have an impact on our health. We are being told to stop smoking, but its okay to breathe diesel fuels.
I hear you ask do other species need energy? Yes energy is a basic need of all species. Cold-blooded animals will crawl out on a rock in the sun. They absorb the heat that nature provides. We flourish because of the ability to control energy. It is a universal need of mankind. Even on the way out, if you choose cremation or backhoe digs a hole. You use energy!
No other specie has had so much impact on physical characteristics of planet. Other species can over feed and make the area around them inhabitable. Only man can have an oil tanker crash on the rocks. This ruins our fisheries and kills wildlife by sending millions of gallons of oil gushing into the ocean. The ocean is a major supplier of our food. All this can be fixed by using hydrogen and atomic power!
Strip mines are not only ugly. The coal we get from them is located under farms and ranches that now produce our food. Once they are strip mined, they will never produce food again. Food is a very basic need of mankind. We should protect the ability to provide it at all cost. This to me is a course for disaster our main energy source is running out and as we get closer to the end. The worlds population is exploding. We are now assaulting the very places that we need to produce our food.
I don't understand the talk about clean coal by our president. We are endangering a major source of our food supply! We have strip mines, in some of our states now. Those of you that have seen them know the damage that they do. That land is lost to farming forever. The major coal reserves in the United States are in the middle of the country the area we call our breadbasket. They are close enough to the surface that they can be strip mined. Oil rigs in the ocean are never completely clean. Oil rigs on land are never pretty and many times pollute the underground water supply.
If there were no other way to get energy I would agree we should develop something else. That so-called clean coal, as you know, has never been developed. It also will not last forever. To spend all that money to develop a new product that will eventually run out to me is the height of foolishness. It will take our farmland with it. I am sure this is true in other countries in the world. I said, it is big oil thinking. The politicians can't sell carbon credits, if hydrogen were in use. HUMMM
I discussed in the beginning of this blog the other power on this planet that can change the place is nature. Volcanoes, earthquakes can rearrange our surroundings in a big hurry. The energy produced exceeds anything we have yet to master. If a major volcano blows today, the Earth temperature will drop like a rock. No politician will take credit for Cap & Con after that.
Our ancestor’s discovery of fire as an energy source started the whole thing. It led to the discovery of the dental drill. There has been a steady change in the use of energy. As man learned the gun was developed and central heating became the norm.
The United States has been lambasted for its use of energy. I think it is obvious that if a country is going to succeed and give its people an excellent standard of living. It requires a mastery of energy. The more energy it uses the better the standard of living will be.
Fossil fuels have gotten us this far. Like riding horses was used for thousands of years before the automobile was invented. It is time to change. We must embrace technology and move away from fusel fuels. We need a hydrogen/atomic economy. Hydrogen is the most abundant element in the universe and the only fuel it can be used over and over again. When you use it you get water, take apart the water and you get back to hydrogen a totally clean process. We need atomic power for land based power and hydrogen for portable use. Hydrogen will power our planes, our cars and our ships ETC. Using underground plumbing it will heat and cool our homes.
Only a major disaster can stop the expansion of the human population on this planet. If we can’t stop it lets prepare for it!! If you know trouble is coming do you sit and wait or get prepared? Let’s get prepared!!! Oil and coal will run out. We know that and so does our government! Why aren't we getting prepared for it? I can't help but believe that it's greed. I believe it is Oil Company thinking ( Something I call the oil DAMN ) and the politicians being controlled by it. Most politicians like power. It takes money to be powerful. Oil companies make large donations to political campaigns.
If you like this world as it is, or you want to change it, you need energy!! If you want to send all illegal aliens home or open the borders it will take energy to get it done!!! If you love the computers that make advanced weapon systems work or you want to destroy them, it will take energy.
Man from the beginning of his time on this planet has progressed by using energy. Everyday no matter where you are or who you are, you will use some kind of energy to help you live. Fire was one of the first forms of energy usage and it still is! Let's change that!
Clean pure water is necessary for human life. The only fuel source on its planet that produces water when it is consumed is hydrogen, and it is 100% pure. Early man lived next to rivers and lakes; soon he realized that he could bring the water to him so he dug ditches and gravity made the water run through them. In those days there were no oil slicks to contend with. What did he use those ditches for? To irrigate his crops.
As trade developed man made rafts then boats to move his goods. Soon we had sails. Life for all humans was improved by sharing talents and goods. These boats became huge oil tankers loaded with energy. As I stated earlier, if they go on the rocks we have a lot more trouble than just the loss of the ship. If a tanker loaded with hydrogen goes on the rocks. The hydrogen will go up in the air and blow away not pollute the water and kill off our food supply. It is not a greenhouse gas so that will be no problem there. Even if it catches fire it will be followed by a big rainstorm. No pollution will result.
The Romans built aqueducts to get clean water to their cities. They also built an extensive network of roads to facilitate moving goods, items and armies. These roads made travel over land possible using bigger wagons. The Romans brought their brand of civilization to most of Europe. City living became desirable. With a clean water supply and abundant food they survived for 450 years. A good part of their energy came from slaves. I wonder what they would have done with a bulldozer?
Manpower, horsepower, waterpower and slaves provided the necessary energy for the Romans. I separate manpower and slaves as manpower could be voluntary, but slaves were just used for the energy. Is this what the greenies want us to go back to?
As man progressed he wanted to do more, the slaves desired what their masters had. The energy requirements started to exceed the physical capabilities. Major projects, took years and years and thousands of hands to complete. Is this what the greenies want us to go back to?
Man started to look for other means to aid them in their quest for an improved and expanded life. Running water was soon pushing paddle wheels. Dams were built to make water usage more efficient. This principle is still used today.
Next there was the steam engine. It started replacing water wheels allowing mankind to move away from the rivers and lakes. This meant transportation had to be improved the horse and buggy was limited in its ability to move people and goods. Channels were dug and boats and barges were used to move our products and us. Soon the steam engine was put on wheels and we had a train. Then there was the steamboat. The internal combustion engine, planes, cars and trucks followed. The industrial revelation was upon use.
The above information is to show how man has incorporated energy into his way of life. All the progress man has made is based on the continued understanding and use of energy. It can push a bullet or a rocket and heat our homes. Take away energy and everything we have and have gotten used to stops. It is time to move forward again while there is still time. when we started the heavy industrialization of our society there were a lot less of us. There was plenty of farmland and a clean Ocean. Our food supply was not in danger.
It is not our output of CO2 that is endangering our food supply. Plants and plankton love it. there is evidence that during the time the oil was being produced (peet bogs) . The atmospheric CO2 was higher than it is now. That is when the fossil fuels we are relying on now had their beginning. The danger is to our low level cities.
We know it is non-renewable and is getting harder and harder to find. It has many undesirable side effects. Pollutants in the air and ash dumped in major heaps, lakes that are polluted by acid rain. Strip mines scar the land.
I lived for 20 years in the Adirondack State Park in upstate New York. Most of the lakes were already dead. No fish just allergy. Don't get excited here. I'm not a greener I just like the countryside. When there is a way to stop all that and give us limitless energy it gets me excited!! Just think about it no more smoke stacks or overhead transmission lines just buried pipes.
I hear you saying, Bob, what about global warming? Won't the Cap & Con bill stop it?
Those of you who have not done so please read my blog, (A simple man's view of global warming). I believe the Cap & Trade bill that is presently before the Senate will do nothing to relieve global warming. It already has passed the House of Representatives is just a way of putting a hidden tax on all of us. It does not stop carbon use it just taxes OOPS I mean puts a fee on the use of carbon based fuels. If the fee were used to develop the atomic power and hydrogen maybe it would make a little sense. We can't even use the fee to develop Hydrogen.
The president never mentions atomic power or hydrogen, just clean coal, solar panels and wind mills. I hear lots of talk about what we are going to do and very little talk about how we're going to do it. My motive in writing this is to demonstrate a method of accomplishing energy independence with a totally clean source.
Small reactors, similar to those used by the navies of the world should be used wherever possible. This would reduce the construction time of large systems. The only real way to improve the efficiency of the system is to improve the efficiency of the distribution mechanism. Trucks, trains & underground pluming can deliver hydrogen for use anywhere. It could be the end of the overhead transmission lines. Underground pipesare more efficientfor usein energy distribution. It will take a total rethinking of how energy is distributed.
The reason for not developing a clean burning fuel that will protect our health, food supply, and the beauty of this planet still escapes me. This planet is our spaceship. We all live here.
The use of oil from the Middle East and other parts of the world is taking away the funds that Every country needs for things at home. Why are giving that money away? Let's stop now and . Make every country energy independent. This way capitalism could flourish! Why not commit to a complete hydrogen distribution system using atomic reactors to produce the hydrogen the job creation would be enormous and long-lasting.
Again I say clean coal is just a figment of someone's imagination and will destroy our farmland. What do we do with the contaminants we take out of it? . Let's not take any contaminants out of coal switch to atomic energy. I hear you say; where do we put the spent rods! The answer is we recharge them. The USA has more usable atomic energy than anyone else on earth let's put it to use to give us more power than anyone else on earth.
We need an alternate fuel source. It will change the world. It will give us limitless abundant safe, clean, cheap energy. We would not be made to feel guilty for turning on the heat or air conditioning or driving that big car! How about a guilt free Hummer. Those GM jobs would not have been lost if we were using hydrogen.
We need another Manhattan Project. During the Second World War in less than four years, the USA developed a totally new technology and got it online. Hydrogen is not a totally unknown science. I believe we can do it in a couple of years especially if the rest of the world would join in. We could sell Hydrogen bonds to pay for it.
My estimate is that within two years we could be putting it in the natural gas lines. The mix would be totally replaced by hydrogen as its production increased. Internal combustion engines could be converted for natural gas as hydrogen became available the switch over could take place. Fuel cell vehicles would replace them. The hydrogen could now be generated using carbon-based fuels. As nuclear power, solar panels and windmills became available those fuels could be reduced to zero. It would take a coordinated effort, but it can be done one power pole and one coal-fired plant at a time!
The government should provide the funds. There are over 2000 operating reactors in the world today. That number does not reflect the number in use by the military. Estimates say over a thousand more, especially in the Navy's. I haven't seen too many green glowing sailors walking around. Just the three illegal aliens that came here from outer space. France is 90% atomic.
Japan is basing their whole entire economy on the use of atomic power generating hydrogen. The USA have no such plans.
Taking the funds out of the hydrogen project in the USA has the effect of slowing everything down. That is not what we need for this economy. We need something that's going to speed it up. We can't have new jobs if we don't have new industry. The world can't have new industry if we don't have more energy. The industrialized world should not be cutting back on the use of energy. It is the power behind our way of life. It is our use of energy that has made that possible. Why are we apologizing for being successful?
In the past cities would build walls to keep the barbarians out. They also put in cisterns as a water reserve. These were community efforts for the common benefit. If the barbarians stayed around long enough the cisterns dried up. The oil supply is drying up, other countries like China have already exceeded our CO2 output and our oil usage. India is right behind. You will realize that we're in a battle for the oil! Let's stop its use now, it will allow us to continue to grow as a nation. I hope the rest of the industrialized world will join us. I know that's a dream.
This really means jobs and security and better health. Remember, it will save the planets farmland. It will also preserve the largest farm of them all our oceans. It has everything going for it except money for some politician's agenda.
It is politicians that I worry about. They are in it for themselves. It may surprise you from my writings, but here I have faith in big oil. I think when they see the handwriting is on the wall. They will go into the hydrogen business big time. Their pipelines, storage tanks and tankers presently used for natural gas can be easily converted, and I believe they will do it. We the people must goose them. If we do not find a way to stop the politicians from spending all the money in ill-conceived schemes there will be nothing left to do it right.
For those of us that are sending money to the Middle East it is even worse than oil drying up. They are using our own money against us. Even if they don’t cut off or restrict the oil supply it will run out. I repeat as the world increases its demand for oil the price will go up!!! Why not act now and start developing a hydrogen economy before, we are forced into it. I repeat oil and coal will run out. It may be a hundred years from now, after we are all dead, but it will happen. As long as we live on this planet the price of hydrocarbons will continue to increase.
We have the technology. It can be done in stages. The importance of energy to the human race makes it more valuable then gold. It is steadily growing in value as the human race expands. Look at oil company profits.
I for one don’t resent them. They are in the right place at the right time. If your pension plan has stock in oil you will love them. If you have stock in these companies write them a letter. Tell them you don't want your pension plan evaporated. Tell them they must switch to hydrogen!
Look what is happening in the automobile industry. If you are in a union, you must consider the same thing!! Look at what has happened to General Motors and Chrysler. Many of those jobs are gone forever. If all those RVs were hydrogen powered they would still be in production today!
If energy were not so important to the future of the human race I would take the position let the market decide. Our president says we most reduce our addiction to oil. but only offers windmills and solar panels as an answer. His clean coal statements are a figment of his imagination. Even if it were possible our farmland will be gone. The only way to do what he asked is to reduce our population and/or stop our progress. That is the wrong answer! We must develop alternative energy sources NOW! There are lots of different ways to produce hydrogen. They have been known for hundreds of years.
We must realize that energy is no longer just a commodity. It is a necessary for our way of life. The limited supply of oil is slowly eating away at the worlds lifestyle. That includes eating.
You can blame the oil companies or the commodities speculators. As I said before they are in the right place at the right time. Enron was making its money from energy speculation. They were one of the middlemen that help drive up the energy prices. Some of these practices need to be investigated. Insider trading is illegal. We don't need the same thing happening to hydrogen!
I repeat when it comes to oil it has a limited supply. The only answer is to develop a totally new energy supply system. Why not develop one that is limitless?
I lived for 20 years in the Adirondack State Park in upstate New York. Most of the lakes were already dead. No fish just allergy. Don't get excited here. I'm not a greener I just like the countryside. When there is a way to stop all that and give us limitless energy it gets me excited!! Just think about it no more smoke stacks or overhead transmission lines just buried pipes.
I hear you saying, Bob, what about global warming? Won't the Cap & Con bill stop it?
Those of you who have not done so please read my blog, (A simple man's view of global warming). I believe the Cap & Trade bill that is presently before the Senate will do nothing to relieve global warming. It already has passed the House of Representatives is just a way of putting a hidden tax on all of us. It does not stop carbon use it just taxes OOPS I mean puts a fee on the use of carbon based fuels. If the fee were used to develop the atomic power and hydrogen maybe it would make a little sense. We can't even use the fee to develop Hydrogen.
The president never mentions atomic power or hydrogen, just clean coal, solar panels and wind mills. I hear lots of talk about what we are going to do and very little talk about how we're going to do it. My motive in writing this is to demonstrate a method of accomplishing energy independence with a totally clean source.
Small reactors, similar to those used by the navies of the world should be used wherever possible. This would reduce the construction time of large systems. The only real way to improve the efficiency of the system is to improve the efficiency of the distribution mechanism. Trucks, trains & underground pluming can deliver hydrogen for use anywhere. It could be the end of the overhead transmission lines. Underground pipesare more efficientfor usein energy distribution. It will take a total rethinking of how energy is distributed.
The reason for not developing a clean burning fuel that will protect our health, food supply, and the beauty of this planet still escapes me. This planet is our spaceship. We all live here.
The use of oil from the Middle East and other parts of the world is taking away the funds that Every country needs for things at home. Why are giving that money away? Let's stop now and . Make every country energy independent. This way capitalism could flourish! Why not commit to a complete hydrogen distribution system using atomic reactors to produce the hydrogen the job creation would be enormous and long-lasting.
Again I say clean coal is just a figment of someone's imagination and will destroy our farmland. What do we do with the contaminants we take out of it? . Let's not take any contaminants out of coal switch to atomic energy. I hear you say; where do we put the spent rods! The answer is we recharge them. The USA has more usable atomic energy than anyone else on earth let's put it to use to give us more power than anyone else on earth.
We need an alternate fuel source. It will change the world. It will give us limitless abundant safe, clean, cheap energy. We would not be made to feel guilty for turning on the heat or air conditioning or driving that big car! How about a guilt free Hummer. Those GM jobs would not have been lost if we were using hydrogen.
We need another Manhattan Project. During the Second World War in less than four years, the USA developed a totally new technology and got it online. Hydrogen is not a totally unknown science. I believe we can do it in a couple of years especially if the rest of the world would join in. We could sell Hydrogen bonds to pay for it.
My estimate is that within two years we could be putting it in the natural gas lines. The mix would be totally replaced by hydrogen as its production increased. Internal combustion engines could be converted for natural gas as hydrogen became available the switch over could take place. Fuel cell vehicles would replace them. The hydrogen could now be generated using carbon-based fuels. As nuclear power, solar panels and windmills became available those fuels could be reduced to zero. It would take a coordinated effort, but it can be done one power pole and one coal-fired plant at a time!
The government should provide the funds. There are over 2000 operating reactors in the world today. That number does not reflect the number in use by the military. Estimates say over a thousand more, especially in the Navy's. I haven't seen too many green glowing sailors walking around. Just the three illegal aliens that came here from outer space. France is 90% atomic.
Japan is basing their whole entire economy on the use of atomic power generating hydrogen. The USA have no such plans.
Taking the funds out of the hydrogen project in the USA has the effect of slowing everything down. That is not what we need for this economy. We need something that's going to speed it up. We can't have new jobs if we don't have new industry. The world can't have new industry if we don't have more energy. The industrialized world should not be cutting back on the use of energy. It is the power behind our way of life. It is our use of energy that has made that possible. Why are we apologizing for being successful?
In the past cities would build walls to keep the barbarians out. They also put in cisterns as a water reserve. These were community efforts for the common benefit. If the barbarians stayed around long enough the cisterns dried up. The oil supply is drying up, other countries like China have already exceeded our CO2 output and our oil usage. India is right behind. You will realize that we're in a battle for the oil! Let's stop its use now, it will allow us to continue to grow as a nation. I hope the rest of the industrialized world will join us. I know that's a dream.
This really means jobs and security and better health. Remember, it will save the planets farmland. It will also preserve the largest farm of them all our oceans. It has everything going for it except money for some politician's agenda.
It is politicians that I worry about. They are in it for themselves. It may surprise you from my writings, but here I have faith in big oil. I think when they see the handwriting is on the wall. They will go into the hydrogen business big time. Their pipelines, storage tanks and tankers presently used for natural gas can be easily converted, and I believe they will do it. We the people must goose them. If we do not find a way to stop the politicians from spending all the money in ill-conceived schemes there will be nothing left to do it right.
For those of us that are sending money to the Middle East it is even worse than oil drying up. They are using our own money against us. Even if they don’t cut off or restrict the oil supply it will run out. I repeat as the world increases its demand for oil the price will go up!!! Why not act now and start developing a hydrogen economy before, we are forced into it. I repeat oil and coal will run out. It may be a hundred years from now, after we are all dead, but it will happen. As long as we live on this planet the price of hydrocarbons will continue to increase.
We have the technology. It can be done in stages. The importance of energy to the human race makes it more valuable then gold. It is steadily growing in value as the human race expands. Look at oil company profits.
I for one don’t resent them. They are in the right place at the right time. If your pension plan has stock in oil you will love them. If you have stock in these companies write them a letter. Tell them you don't want your pension plan evaporated. Tell them they must switch to hydrogen!
Look what is happening in the automobile industry. If you are in a union, you must consider the same thing!! Look at what has happened to General Motors and Chrysler. Many of those jobs are gone forever. If all those RVs were hydrogen powered they would still be in production today!
If energy were not so important to the future of the human race I would take the position let the market decide. Our president says we most reduce our addiction to oil. but only offers windmills and solar panels as an answer. His clean coal statements are a figment of his imagination. Even if it were possible our farmland will be gone. The only way to do what he asked is to reduce our population and/or stop our progress. That is the wrong answer! We must develop alternative energy sources NOW! There are lots of different ways to produce hydrogen. They have been known for hundreds of years.
We must realize that energy is no longer just a commodity. It is a necessary for our way of life. The limited supply of oil is slowly eating away at the worlds lifestyle. That includes eating.
You can blame the oil companies or the commodities speculators. As I said before they are in the right place at the right time. Enron was making its money from energy speculation. They were one of the middlemen that help drive up the energy prices. Some of these practices need to be investigated. Insider trading is illegal. We don't need the same thing happening to hydrogen!
I repeat when it comes to oil it has a limited supply. The only answer is to develop a totally new energy supply system. Why not develop one that is limitless?
If I had billions and billions invested in oil rigs and profits were at a record high I would be reluctant to change what I was doing. Oil companies, I believe must be given an incentive for change. When the wagon starts rolling I believe they will all jump on. The governments of the world that join in the hydrogen economy could start developing hydrogen eventually stopping the use of hydrocarbons completely. We stopped riding horses. It's time to take down the transmission lines and distribute energy in a whole new way that will really give us an energy economy.
There are many countries in the world that have their whole economy based on oil Let the rest of the world argue over them. We will be all set for the future. When the oil runs out our economy will still be booming and we will have something to sell. I think the politicians missed the point, one of the major items that has made for a worldwide economy is the use of energy. (oil)
True competition only comes about when anyone can compete. The more competition the harder it is to interrupt the supply and the more innovation there will be. There is no country in the world that can't produce hydrogen! The governments of the world can help here. Thousands and thousands of government vehicles could be converted to internally produced hydrogen. Even if they broke even on the process it would get everything going. It could help create the demand that would get the worlds entrepreneurs perking. I know I know it's just a dream.
When something threatens their country and their way of life I believe any citizen of the world will expect their government to take action.
In the USA our president is trying to make us feel guilty. He is telling us that we are causing global warming, and we should drive small cars and reduce our electrical use. He keeps telling us to cut back, cut back. He says this is his way of increasing the number of jobs.
That makes no sense to me. The way you create jobs is to give people something to work on. If these jobs materialize it's going to take energy to maintain them. He talks about solar panels and windmills. Only small solar panel factories existin the USA. The company he has chosen for windmills is General Electric. They manufacture them in Spain. The late Ted Kennedy was pushing windmills until someone propose to put them in a location that could be seen from his backyard he changed directions fast. Not in his backyard!!
Some of the stimulus money should be used to put a major effort into bringing Hydrogen online. (Similar to the Manhattan Project.) Solar panels just won't work on an automobile or a plane. Batteries are heavy and toxic when being disposed of. What do we do with the waste? In the case of hydrogen the answer is simple. We drink it!
The present administration has considerably reduced the funds that the Bush administration had put into hydrogen development. I believe that is a mistake and a big one! (Good news here. congress overroad him and put it back) The world needs that energy. It will help produce long-term jobs! I see the money being put into loan guarantees for the development of solar panels. Not fuel cells. The last time I looked outside. We only have sun for half the day, and in winter time, considerably less. If they were hooked up to generate hydrogen I could feel a little better about it. That is the step that has yet to be discussed.
I can't help but believe they want to sell carbon credits not worry about what is best for us.
The solar panels are going to be used to charge storage batteries, which have a limited life expectancy. Hydrogen could be stored in carbon composition tanks. The batteries are heavy. The carbon composition tanks with hydrogen in them are only about one third the weight. This will increase the mileage of the vehicle and allow us to drive larger vehicles.
If all of vehicles on the road right now were switched to electricity the power transmission grid could not support the amount of energy it would require.
Trucks and trains and airplanes are left out. They are major carbon-based fuel consumers. Windmills have the same problem. Sometimes there is no wind, and sometimes there is too much. Here again, they are going to use storage batteries.
I look at a tank of hydrogen as a storage battery. It is an energy storage medium. There is a law in physics that says energy in equal’s energy out minus efficiency. To use the batteries, you must charge them. To use a tank of hydrogen you must generate and compress it. Then put it in a tank. (charge it). Hydrogen can be used as a power source in everything that we do. That is not true of storage batteries. Hydrogen can be used in an internal combustion engine as easily as it can be used with a fuel cell.
The presently existing hybrid vehicles will go about 40 miles and then they start an internal combustion engine and start burning gasoline to recharge the batteries. If it had a tank of hydrogen it could travel 600 miles and never put out one drop of pollutants. The whole effort is to make us feel guilty if we drive a large vehicle. To me this compromises safety and takes away choice.
Your existing vehicle could be converted to hydrogen, a lot cheaper than purchasing one of these new go carts. Hydrogen can also power our planes. It also stops the worry about us causing global warming. It cleans up the air in our cities. Its ability to be generated by multiple sources will give us a continuous supply of energy that will never run out. It solves so many problems that I do not understand why the greenies are against it. We should be going full speed ahead developing it.
You environmentalists out there join the push for hydrogen. If you burn someone's SUV it only causes more pollution. If you burn Hydrogen it will make the flowers grow! We need a hydrogen economy now. It will allow us to grow and expand without the restrictions that carbon-based fuel products put on us. Remember if a ship full of hydrogen hits the rocks. The hydrogen leak will go up, not pollute the water around it. If it burns it will cause a big rainstorm.
I hear your question: You talk about atomic power. Yet you're pushing hydrogen. What is the atomic power for?
The answer is hydrogen does not exist by itself. To get hydrogen, you must use energy. The amount of energy necessary to supply the worlds energy needs exceeds what we can get from hydrogen now. We just don't produce enough of it.
The nuclear reactors can be used to produce hydrogen. Hydrogen can also be produced from solar panels, windmills, hydroelectric stations, tidal systems Etc.
The nuclear reactors can be used to produce hydrogen. Hydrogen can also be produced from solar panels, windmills, hydroelectric stations, tidal systems Etc.
Again I hear your question. If all of these sources produce energy why don't we use it directly?why do we need hydrogen at all?
I look at hydrogen as a storage battery. A way to store the energy that was produced from other processes. These processes are land-based hydrogen would make the energy portable and transportable. Windmills require wind, solar panels require the sun. These are not constant energy sources. The only real way to use them is to store the energy they produce while they are producing it.
Bob, what about atomic power and hydroelectric? That's is there all the time!
I look at hydrogen as a storage battery. A way to store the energy that was produced from other processes. These processes are land-based hydrogen would make the energy portable and transportable. Windmills require wind, solar panels require the sun. These are not constant energy sources. The only real way to use them is to store the energy they produce while they are producing it.
Bob, what about atomic power and hydroelectric? That's is there all the time!
That is true the situation in the USA is most of the main power grid is operating above peak capacity. If an atomic power plant were placed in the location far away from existing powerlines. New power lines would have to be built adding capacity to the system that is not capable of distributing it. Hydrogen gives us breathing space. It can be distributed by trucks. It also can be transported through underground pipes. Pipes are considerably easier to install and maintain then large overhead transmission lines. They are also harder to sabotage when they are underground. It is the best way to move energy from one place to an other.
Overhead power lines work best when they use copper wire. This reduces the transmission loss. Copper is also in a limited supply item. The overhead lines are also subject to lightning hits. Underground pipelines don't require copper. They are safe from lightning, have no transmission loss and leave a pristine environment pristine. Something the greenies should love! Yet they don't seem to.
In the United States there are already thousands and thousands of miles of underground natural gas lines. I am sure that is true in the rest of the world. They could carry a hydrogen mix until 100% hydrogen was online. Fuel cells would change the gas to electricity. Slowly but surely all of the overhead power lines could be replaced by underground plumbing. This would really produce jobs. It would be a project that would last over 100 years. All it takes is co-operation and dedication . Unlike the selling of carbon credits that will cost jobs. It also will give us the energy that we need to continue our existence on this planet.
Overhead power lines work best when they use copper wire. This reduces the transmission loss. Copper is also in a limited supply item. The overhead lines are also subject to lightning hits. Underground pipelines don't require copper. They are safe from lightning, have no transmission loss and leave a pristine environment pristine. Something the greenies should love! Yet they don't seem to.
In the United States there are already thousands and thousands of miles of underground natural gas lines. I am sure that is true in the rest of the world. They could carry a hydrogen mix until 100% hydrogen was online. Fuel cells would change the gas to electricity. Slowly but surely all of the overhead power lines could be replaced by underground plumbing. This would really produce jobs. It would be a project that would last over 100 years. All it takes is co-operation and dedication . Unlike the selling of carbon credits that will cost jobs. It also will give us the energy that we need to continue our existence on this planet.
Bob, that's great but it takes a long time to build an atomic power plant!
Isn't there something that we can do to get started a lot sooner than that. Yes, there is! Small We can start small. Small atomic generators can be installed very rapidly. I will discuss this later. This is a place here for the solar panels and windmills. Our farmers are being asked to grow crops that can be used to produce biofuels. Why not build small hydrogen generating systems using solar panels and windmills. These units could be powered by the hydrogen that they generate.
I know energy in equals energy out! I believe the amount of energy necessary to run one of the systems would be far less than what we would obtain. The extra power comes from the sun and wind. It may take a day or two to fill a hydrogen storage tanks but remember the sun and wind are free. The unit could be placed on land and the presently cannot farm but paying taxes on. It will give the farmer a new way to make money. The system could work like the existing milk co-ops do. A hydrogen pickup truck would go from unit to unit collecting the hydrogen and taking it to a main distribution center. This would be another product for our farmers to sell many of them are having problems now, just surviving
These are just my ideas. Lets turn loose the inventors and entrepreneurs. I am sure there are many better ideas out there. We just need the leadership that makes energy sense! Someone who realizes we need more energy, not less!
Viking bob
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Tuesday, August 18, 2009
Energy Independence (STEP ONE)
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I am interested in changing the energy use in the USA. For stationary use, Atomic power, Hydroelectric, Windmills & Solar panels etc. These systems will also Generate Hydrogen for mobile use. This will stop the generation of green house gases by the USA completely. Cap & trade will only continue the use of carbon based fuels!! If you can buy more credits why stop using them? They will just pass the cost on to the consumer. Why not stop carbon usage completely.
There continues to be a debate over the cause of global warming. I have written in, my Blog, “A simple mans view of Global Warming” on the subject myself. Is it caused by humans or is it a natural effect? Switching to alternate power sources would get us out of the equation completely. It also will give use an uninterruptable energy source that will not damage the planet in any way! We could drive those big SUVs if they were powered by Hydrogen!!
There is a lot of hot air flying around Washington. The country is running record deficits and mailing checks that they call a stimulus. If we had low cost energy it would solve our problems. Every one of us uses energy in one form or another. Our main source of energy comes from a part of the world that doesn't like us much. Ross Perot proposed an energy tax during his campaign. It was to replace the income tax.
Oil or natural gas must be brought here on large tankers or pump from wells out in the ocean. All this just drives up the cost. Those ships are expensive and so are those wells out in the Gulf. All this just drives up the cost. I can't stress the cost of energy more. It is the main commodity in everything that we do and have. It even affects our medicines, and our medical care. Our entertainment depends on it. Taking a trip to grandmas depends on it. Our foods are trucked in by it. I think you get my point. It is the thing that separated us from the animals. Everything that we do since the caveman discovered fire has depended on it.
This is not a political document. Energy independence is not a left or right issue. Energy powers our life. Environmentalists want us to ride bikes. China gobbles fuel and is using more every day. Any talk about drilling in Alaska is at least 5 years away. Even when it starts we have nowhere to refine it. Alaska also has started a new natural gas pipeline and it is heading south.
China is very rapidly catching up with us in energy usage. We buy their stuff and their economy grows requiring more energy. The china, followed closely by India, is becoming our biggest competitor on the world’s oil market, and they are using our money to do it. Everything we buy that is made in China or India requires them to use energy.
Our leaders say this is an enormous business opportunity for us. This is only true if we or a large international company. We the people need low cost energy to produce our products. The cheaper it is the better we can compete. Our competition has low labor costs so fuel cost doesn’t impact their end product price as much as it does ours.
It is obvious that we should not lower our salaries. The feeling I get from the government lately is that is what they would like to see happen. The real answer is very simple. Develop a low-cost energy supply, one that does not require gigantic expensive ships, huge ugly derricks in our oceans or destroy our countryside. Cannot cause an oil slick, and like any other explosive fuel if it is handled correctly. It is very safe. That fuel is hydrogen the ultimate reusable power source.
It makes no sense to put our country into a Cap & trade program. It's going to raise prices of our energy not lower them. It will make us less competitive in the world, not more competitive. I wonder what we're going to be making. Obama talks about jobs, making windmills and solar panels. Making them requires energy. China and India have the technology and they know how to use it. We have given it or sold it to them. Their products will be cheaper, and we will buy them. No jobs for us!!
The big General Electric windmill plant is in Spain. I am sure that China and India are gearing up to produce windmills and solar panels. India is about to start construction on two atomic power plants arranged for by our Secretary of State, and being built by US companies. Guess where the jobs will be? Why are we helping India construct atomic power plants? Why aren't we expediting ours?
Those of you that have read some of my other blogs know that I believe it is big oil that is stopping the development of alternate fuel sources. Our oil companies have very large overseas investments. All those oil derrick's cost money. China and India are increasing their demand. Their heart is not here in the USA. The oil-producing countries are not in favor of reducing carbon-based energy. For many, it is their only income. The shift that I propose to hydrogen will have a worldwide affect.
The oil production in Iraq is still well below prewar levels. Personally I would not be so quick to get out of Iraq. As we withdraw we should leave them a bill to be paid with oil. One of the reasons China defends Iran in the UN is the oil they receive from them. We get upset, but all they are doing is looking out for their interests with little worry about us. It’s up to us to worry about ourselves.
My old employer IBM sold their personal computer division to China. IBM developed the PC and China got all that development. It puts them in competition with all of the top PC builders in the world. China also bought up parts of World-Com when they collapsed. That is major parts of the fiber optics network that carries a lot of our Internet traffic.
They have also constructed The Three Gorges Dam. It is the world’s largest electricity-generating plant of any kind. It is to supply their country with cheap & clean energy. They will have cheap labor and cheap energy. All this is great for China, but who is worrying about us.
We are being told that we should cut back on the use of carbon-based fuels. Many of the countries in the world like China and India are doing their best to use more. We've got to realize that cutting back on the use of energy is the wrong thing for this country to do. The right thing to do is to develop a clean source of energy. One that is limitless and economical. We have the technology. Let's not give it away this time. Let’s use it. The American way is to move forward, not backward. We need a leader that puts the USA first. A leader that realizes the basis of the US economy is energy!!
I hear our president saying that he cannot believe that a country that put a man on the moon in 10 years cannot develop clean coal. The words “cannot develop clean coal”, worry me. That means we do not have it yet. Why spend development money and time when there is a better choice. If he were to state that he cannot believe that a country that put a man on the moon in 10 years, cannot develop hydrogen a truly limitless, clean energy, reusable system in 5 years. It would make scientific and economical sense.
John Kennedy put us on the moon in 10 years because of his enthusiasm and belief in the United States. Mr. Obama is a great speaker let him get behind hydrogen. Selling carbon credits is just a way to get money, and it does not help any of us except those who buy and sell credits. It will make us less competitive in the world and lower our standard of living and not create one single job. In fact, it will put people out of work, if a company can't afford the carbon credits. They will have to shut down or move overseas. To China or India, or they don't care about carbon credits.
He states that he is an environmentalist. I wonder what he is going to say to the people in the Midwest when all the strip mines start showing up. This coal will also run out, and like our debt. The problem will be passed on to our grandchildren.
There are 13 countries that have signed the Kyoto agreement. China and India are not members of the 13. They are the top two most populous countries in the world. China has 20% of the world’s population. India comes in second with 18%. The total of both countries is 3.2 billion. That is 38% of the of the world population. The USA comes in at 310 million 4.6% percent of the world’s population. If the trend continues by the year 2011 the world’s population will exceed 7 billion. Even if our population doubles, we won't be one billion. They will all want energy.
If we don't fix the energy problem now, we will be a minority country. The competition for carbon-based products will drive our cost of living through the roof. Remember when their oil runs out, they will want ours. Let's make a giant step forward. Let’s switch to a fuel that is limitless. Once it is in full production it will be the cheapest fuel ever.
It is expected that the 13 countries with operational Kyoto protocol targets will remain below their agreed minimum greenhouse emissions. These countries will therefore be sellers of carbon credits. When money starts being made from carbon credits, greed will take over. We will never get rid of them until the oil and coal are gone. What is best for the average person will be forgotten.
On the surface another country selling carbon credits doesn't sound so bad. Think about it. Energy has been the base of man's progress. What this statement tells you is these countries will be stagnant. They will have sold their ability to move forward. The citizenry will not tolerate that. We will end up with another North Korea. Only this time, they will be using carbon in secret not building bombs.
I could keep giving examples of the competition we are facing in the world for our energy. I believe, loose of our technical base is only one of the problems we face. To keep our way of life moving ahead we most have low cost energy. Even the environmentalists should see this. If we stopped burning fossil fuel today it will do nothing to help global warming now.
We know that oil and coal are going to run out. Hydrogen never will. China and India have already far exceeded our energy use. China with the three gorges dam in India's two new atomic power plants, Japan already has 25 that will be making hydrogen from sea water. They are moving forward on the energy front. Yet we are being asked to go backwards. It is not the American way. We do not back up!
China and India have 3.2 billion people all wanting to drive an SUV. The 310 million of us stopping carbon use completely have no affect on the 3.2 billion of them. Stopping carbon-based fuels usage will stop the draining of our countries, pocketbook to support the rest of the world. Boone Pickens called it the largest transfer of wealth in human history!
Stopping us from progressing, is the wrong thing to do, energy independence must mean independence from fossil fuels. Not independence from using energy, which will shut us down and lose us jobs and our standard of living. Who would care if a person was driving a big RV if it were not polluting the air. If it contributes nothing to global warming. Even the Greener's would drive one.
Diesel fuel sure does fill our cities with smog. The flipside is someone had to build the vehicles. If they were hydrogen powered it would mean jobs, jobs, jobs. The way it is going. It means loss of jobs, jobs, jobs.
I hear that we are being asked to insulate our houses, and to drive smaller less powerful cars.
I hear you saying, Bob we should we not try to save the environment?
I ask you this question. Why are we not developing energy to let us do what we want to do? It does exist. That is the American way. That is how you create jobs. When you stop things you stop jobs even insulating a house may give a job for a day. But you will never do it again in your lifetime. Buying a new car many times it is an emotional thing and you may buy two or three of them in 10 years. The vehicles that are being described as the vehicles of the future will be held on to until the wheels fall off.
I'm sure that you have noticed that all the talk about energy saving vehicles only pertains to our vehicles. The planes and trains and boats will still run on carbon-based fuels. Only the military has atomic power. Our aircraft carriers and submarines run on it. I have not seen a bunch of green sailors running around lately. And they live a lot closer to those reactors than any of us ever will. We are being sold a bill of goods. The big oil companies continue to block it. Reactors can produce the hydrogen. Hydrogen will run the rest. I repeat, it is limitless and completely green when it burns. It produces water.
The military has plenty of atomic material. We have been making it since the 40s. There is enough atomic material stored to run this country for a thousand years. We pay for every ounce of it lets use it. We also have been buying a lot of the Russians weapon grade material. Just to get it off the market. We have its stockpiled in secret facilities around the country. No one knows just how much there really is.
Let's turn it around and use it for power. Opponents of atomic power will tell you the reactors are too heavy to put in a plane and that is true, but a tank of hydrogen is not. And it is not radioactive. The atomic power is excellent for stationary use on land or large sea born vehicles. Again I repeat hydrogen will do the rest.
Anyone that understands the science knows Hydrogen and atomic power are the fuels of the future. They should be brought on line now. Fuel cells that use Hydrogen are being developed and someday will be in common use. Why not push up the development and do it now?
We need a transition period to move us from one fuel to the other as rapidly as we can. We should never take a detour trying to develop something like clean coal. During the Second World War it took us three years to build the biggest bang in history from a totally unknown to science. (Nuclear power)
It was done by a bunch of people pushing slide rules and a very dedicated female workforce operating the controls. We need a leader that will dedicate building something like that again. This time it is an energy system, we need to build. They were not trying to change our society. They were trying to save it. Kennedy did the same thing when we went to the moon. We need a leader that champions cheap energy!! Alternate power systems producing electricity and hydrogen is the answer.
Presently we have millions of internal combustion vehicles on the road. I hear you asking can an internal combustion engine run on Hydrogen. Yes there are several auto companies are running them. BMW has one operating in Germany.
I built one when I was 14 years. If a 14-year-old kid can make an engine run on hydrogen in 1948. Not only did I make the engine run. I built a unit that produced the hydrogen. What I did was dangerous, but it did produce hydrogen and the engine did run. Our great modern knowledge technology sure can make that practical.
These are the words that should come out of Obama's mouth. The same kit that converts your vehicle to natural gas with minor modifications will work with Hydrogen. The gases can be mixed making modifications unnecessary. That is similar to adding methanol to gasoline. Most engines running on natural gas have to be started using gasoline. The addition of hydrogen to the mix would make that unnecessary and burn cleaner. It is still not a completely clean burn, but is headed in the right way. The percentage of hydrogen can be increased as availability increases. Vehicle computers can be programmed to compensate for the mix.
Building a pure hydrogen distribution system will take time. The existing natural gas distribution system will carry the hydrogen, natural gas mix. We need to start introducing hydrogen into our natural gas distribution network now. The percentage of hydrogen can be increased as the availability increases. If we don't start now, it will only delay things. To date we have not even started Japan has. California has talked about it. I don't know how far they have gotten.
The use of hydrogen is not new. City Gas that was used for so many years when they cooked coal was mostly hydrogen and some parts methane. The fear of hydrogen, that was developed because of the Hindenburg disaster made them call at city gas.
The question is what we do in the short term? The first step is to separate our energy usage into 4 parts fixed, mobile, airborne and seaborne. The second step is to establish if and existing asset can run on synthetic or alternative fuel such as Ethanol or Bio Degradable diesel. This way fuels can be allocated on the bases of time until conversion to hydrogen.
Development of electric cars that use batteries should be stopped.
There is a law in physics that states “energy in equals’ energy out minus efficiency”. This means the energy for charging the batteries has to come from somewhere. Somewhere will be coal-fired generating stations pumping more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.
This will force them to purchase the proposed carbon credits and strip mine the Midwest. And guess who gets the bill? We have just passed on the cost to someone else. That someone else is us when we get the electric bill. Unlike hydrogen and atomic power it also pushes off the problem into the future. The coal will run out. Oh those poor grandkids.
Batteries are expensive and they are dangerous. If not disposed of correctly they are toxic and a health hazard. This will produce waste that the grandkids will have to handle. Money used to develop a new type of car battery could help us bring hydrogen online. A small carbon fiber storage tank filled with hydrogen contains 10 times the energy of one of these new batteries and is less than half the weight. They work just like a storage battery. They store the energy. Storage tanks have no known life expectancy. Battery estimates say one year or two and they are expensive. Just like the battery can be charged a storage tank can be refilled. The advantage is it can be refilled over and over and will last forever.
The transition should be from internal combustion engines converted for a natural gas to fuel cell vehicles. The tanks could be filled with a mix of natural gas and hydrogen. Other types of gases can be used for fuel cells, including methane.
These words are from our EPA a development effort you paid for “LFG” is Land Fill Gas which is methane (Natural Gas)
“Fuel cells are one of the newest and most innovative ways to generate power. At this point, the technology works much like a battery fueled by LFG. A fuel cell extracts hydrogen from the methane in LFG and mixes it with oxygen to produce electricity, heat, and water. The Fuel Cell produces no combustible parts that can harm the environment.
Prior to development of the gas cleanup technology designed and used in this project, use of landfill gas to power fuel cells was not possible due to contaminants in the gas such as sulfur and halides. Under contract from EPA, ONSI set out to show that using landfill gas to power fuel cells is technically and environmentally feasible in commercial operation.”
We paid for this development effort. I know it was done for landfills, but the same technique could be used on a vehicle with a storage tank full of natural gas. There are several places in the US right now that run on natural gas in their buses. The Honda Civic Gx is available in Utah. Utah has natural gas available in many areas. It is clean and economical. A distribution system for natural gas can be used for hydrogen and the mix.
There is so much technology out there, and it is ready to go. We just need a good plan that makes it work. Similar to the plan Kennedy gave use when we went to the moon. He didn't say we can't tell him we can't develop clean coal. He gave us a goal and a plan and my generation fulfilled it. Energy has a greater priority than Eisenhower had when he proposed the interstate highway system. We need an interstate energy system similar to the REA.
“Electrification Administration (REA), created under President Roosevelt the REA was created on May 11, 1935 with the primary goal of promoting rural electrification. In the 1930s, the U.S. lagged significantly behind Europe in providing electricity to rural areas due to the unwillingness of power companies to serve farmsteads.”
We have a similar situation today in the 30s it was the power companies that were not servicing our farms. Today, I believe it is the oil companies are blocking us from getting a new type of energy system in place. We are starting to lag behind the world in energy. France is now 90% atomic, and many of the European countries are coming online fast. So are Japan, India and China. We are being asked to drive smaller cars, and lower our standard of living. This is the wrong direction.
I know it is great to talk about medical reform, and I am a believer that something needs to be done. But if there is no money there will be no reform. If we don't develop our own energy supply it will subtract from our wealth. Using less is not a bad idea, but when it's the only idea it is a problem.
The fixed asset that affects us all the most is the power plant. They presently burn coal, natural gas, fuel oil and Atomic power. Natural gas and fuel oil are also used to heat our homes. The only hope for short term there is natural gas. Hydrogen could be mixed with the natural gas. The pipelines are in place but furnaces would need a miner modification to operate on pure hydrogen.
The city of San Diego California has hydrogen available at some locations. They have another asset that is not being used it is a Navy station. Our atomic submarines arrive there all the time. What we should do is hook their reactors to hydrogen generation units. These small reactors are the real solution for getting started on energy independence. The military reactors need to be declassified and made available for civilian use. Any reactors and mothballs should be released for civilian use. Contract should be released for the construction of these reactors for land use. I've stated this before; I don't see many greens sailors running around on these ships and submarines in spite of the fact that they sleep right next to the reactor.
The Army Corps of Engineers takes care of our waterways. I believe we should start a Navy Corps of Engineers; they can take care of the small reactors. They can be placed in small towns and operated as a small local power station. The rural electrification program started from the large cities and moved into the small ones. This program would work the opposite way.
Large nuclear reactors are presently under discussion. Finished construction will take time. We could start with the small towns and small reactors now. When the big reactors are finished we can move to the big town. Every reactor should have a hydrogen generating facility associated with it. Any windmill or solar panel farm or hydroelectric generating facility should also be assigned to generating hydrogen. This will increase domestic power and hydrogen will start flowing.There also is a small reactor on the civilian market.
http://hyperionpowergeneration.com/
Conceived at Los Alamos National Laboratory, the HPM intellectual property portfolio was licensed to Hyperion Power Generation for commercialization under the laboratory's technology transfer program. Inherently safe, and self moderating, the HPM utilizes the energy of low-enriched uranium fuel and meets all the non-proliferation criteria of the Global Nuclear Energy Partnership (GNEP). Permanently sealed and never opened on site, each unit produces 70 MWt, or 27 MWe when connected to a steam turbine - enough to provide electricity for 20,000 average American-size homes or the industrial equivalent. Approximately 1.5 meters wide by 2 meters tall, the units can be transported by ship, rail or truck and produce power for five to seven years depending on usage.
Hyperion Power Generation
For the purpose of this blog which I call “Step One” I will concentrate on the areas that can start making us energy independent and hold prices down fast. I talked above about atomic power. Even the small units will take time. There is something we could do right away in preparation for it to come online. We can start switching all internal combustion engine vehicles over to natural gas. Newly manufactured vehicles should use methane fuel cells.
These converted units will run cleaner than gasoline powered engines. In the future natural gas will be mixed with hydrogen. It will be cleaner yet. Trucks with diesel engines can run on bio degradable diesel (vegetable Oil). New pipeline distribution systems need to be installed. The plan being to use natural gas in the beginning, and slowly switch over to hydrogen as it becomes available. Technically we have answers for the short term and the long term. As demand increases, other sources of hydrogen will be available.
Presently the government has a fuel economy standard that they are trying impose on the car manufacture. The Bush administration had relaxed this standard. As I stated earlier this is not a political document. It strikes me however that relaxing the standard continued our addiction to oil. With the rest of the world becoming more and more our competitor in a supply and demand market the price will go up!!!
I hear you asking Bob, what are other countries doing anything about energy independence?
Japan has started installing a Hydrogen distribution system. They also are producing internal combustion and turbine engines that will run on Hydrogen. These vehicles will not be exported to the US until there is a distribution system in place here. They will be fuel cell ready when they come on line. Even little Thailand, switching over to hydrogen.
I hear Mr. Obama talking about clean coal and very little about Fuel Cells and nothing about Hydrogen. All the Fuel Cells in the world won't work without natural gas or hydrogen distribution. To me it is like the interstate highway system or rural electrification. It would never have happened without government intervention.
The only country in the world that is now energy independence (It may surprise you) is Brazil. They have done it by removing the taxes from Ethanol and Bio Degradable diesel. They also mandated the oil companies to invest in these products and to keep the prices below gasoline.
Special tax breaks are given for companies that invest in alternative fuel sources.. They also built a major dam and have started several Atomic plants. Ford has a major manufacturing plant in Brazil. Ford has just made a profit without bail out money or a government takeover.
This has a positive effect, resilient oil companies. They will really be in the energy business. Those pensions will be safe when the oil runs out.
Even the new hybrid cars have a gas engine to charge the batteries. It can run on natural gas or hydrogen.
My recommendation for a first step is to start putting this country first. Put us on an energy development path that will guarantee our success for the next 250 years. There is a rule in physics “For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction”. Iraq is winding down. The reaction to our success and the death of our troops will be competition for Iraqi oil.
We most get independent as fast as possible. Jimmy Carter called it the moral equivalent of war. I believe this statement to be true but would state it this way "It is a weapon of economic war". When we win the war on terror the war for energy will be bigger than ever. The time for action is now!!!
I would like to see us follow the example that Brazil has set. Ethanol can be 40% percent Alcohol. That’s 40% of home grown product. Get the Moon Shiners fired up.
Our very success spreading economic growth around the world causes our trade in balance to grow. It also makes them our competitor. They need energy to produce the products they sell us. This in turn raises their standard of living thus more energy is required; and so on and so on.
I feel the countries fuel supply like the interstate highway system affects or quality of life. If we wait for market pressures to make it happen the world will pass us by. Our main competitor is a Communist dictatorship two billion strong. If they were taking our land we would fight back. Energy as an invasion is a hard concept to grasp. Like terrorism it is hard to pin down. Yet we most defend ourselves. It really is war.
That’s my thoughts. What do you think?
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I am interested in changing the energy use in the USA. For stationary use, Atomic power, Hydroelectric, Windmills & Solar panels etc. These systems will also Generate Hydrogen for mobile use. This will stop the generation of green house gases by the USA completely. Cap & trade will only continue the use of carbon based fuels!! If you can buy more credits why stop using them? They will just pass the cost on to the consumer. Why not stop carbon usage completely.
There continues to be a debate over the cause of global warming. I have written in, my Blog, “A simple mans view of Global Warming” on the subject myself. Is it caused by humans or is it a natural effect? Switching to alternate power sources would get us out of the equation completely. It also will give use an uninterruptable energy source that will not damage the planet in any way! We could drive those big SUVs if they were powered by Hydrogen!!
There is a lot of hot air flying around Washington. The country is running record deficits and mailing checks that they call a stimulus. If we had low cost energy it would solve our problems. Every one of us uses energy in one form or another. Our main source of energy comes from a part of the world that doesn't like us much. Ross Perot proposed an energy tax during his campaign. It was to replace the income tax.
Oil or natural gas must be brought here on large tankers or pump from wells out in the ocean. All this just drives up the cost. Those ships are expensive and so are those wells out in the Gulf. All this just drives up the cost. I can't stress the cost of energy more. It is the main commodity in everything that we do and have. It even affects our medicines, and our medical care. Our entertainment depends on it. Taking a trip to grandmas depends on it. Our foods are trucked in by it. I think you get my point. It is the thing that separated us from the animals. Everything that we do since the caveman discovered fire has depended on it.
This is not a political document. Energy independence is not a left or right issue. Energy powers our life. Environmentalists want us to ride bikes. China gobbles fuel and is using more every day. Any talk about drilling in Alaska is at least 5 years away. Even when it starts we have nowhere to refine it. Alaska also has started a new natural gas pipeline and it is heading south.
China is very rapidly catching up with us in energy usage. We buy their stuff and their economy grows requiring more energy. The china, followed closely by India, is becoming our biggest competitor on the world’s oil market, and they are using our money to do it. Everything we buy that is made in China or India requires them to use energy.
Our leaders say this is an enormous business opportunity for us. This is only true if we or a large international company. We the people need low cost energy to produce our products. The cheaper it is the better we can compete. Our competition has low labor costs so fuel cost doesn’t impact their end product price as much as it does ours.
It is obvious that we should not lower our salaries. The feeling I get from the government lately is that is what they would like to see happen. The real answer is very simple. Develop a low-cost energy supply, one that does not require gigantic expensive ships, huge ugly derricks in our oceans or destroy our countryside. Cannot cause an oil slick, and like any other explosive fuel if it is handled correctly. It is very safe. That fuel is hydrogen the ultimate reusable power source.
It makes no sense to put our country into a Cap & trade program. It's going to raise prices of our energy not lower them. It will make us less competitive in the world, not more competitive. I wonder what we're going to be making. Obama talks about jobs, making windmills and solar panels. Making them requires energy. China and India have the technology and they know how to use it. We have given it or sold it to them. Their products will be cheaper, and we will buy them. No jobs for us!!
The big General Electric windmill plant is in Spain. I am sure that China and India are gearing up to produce windmills and solar panels. India is about to start construction on two atomic power plants arranged for by our Secretary of State, and being built by US companies. Guess where the jobs will be? Why are we helping India construct atomic power plants? Why aren't we expediting ours?
Those of you that have read some of my other blogs know that I believe it is big oil that is stopping the development of alternate fuel sources. Our oil companies have very large overseas investments. All those oil derrick's cost money. China and India are increasing their demand. Their heart is not here in the USA. The oil-producing countries are not in favor of reducing carbon-based energy. For many, it is their only income. The shift that I propose to hydrogen will have a worldwide affect.
The oil production in Iraq is still well below prewar levels. Personally I would not be so quick to get out of Iraq. As we withdraw we should leave them a bill to be paid with oil. One of the reasons China defends Iran in the UN is the oil they receive from them. We get upset, but all they are doing is looking out for their interests with little worry about us. It’s up to us to worry about ourselves.
My old employer IBM sold their personal computer division to China. IBM developed the PC and China got all that development. It puts them in competition with all of the top PC builders in the world. China also bought up parts of World-Com when they collapsed. That is major parts of the fiber optics network that carries a lot of our Internet traffic.
They have also constructed The Three Gorges Dam. It is the world’s largest electricity-generating plant of any kind. It is to supply their country with cheap & clean energy. They will have cheap labor and cheap energy. All this is great for China, but who is worrying about us.
We are being told that we should cut back on the use of carbon-based fuels. Many of the countries in the world like China and India are doing their best to use more. We've got to realize that cutting back on the use of energy is the wrong thing for this country to do. The right thing to do is to develop a clean source of energy. One that is limitless and economical. We have the technology. Let's not give it away this time. Let’s use it. The American way is to move forward, not backward. We need a leader that puts the USA first. A leader that realizes the basis of the US economy is energy!!
I hear our president saying that he cannot believe that a country that put a man on the moon in 10 years cannot develop clean coal. The words “cannot develop clean coal”, worry me. That means we do not have it yet. Why spend development money and time when there is a better choice. If he were to state that he cannot believe that a country that put a man on the moon in 10 years, cannot develop hydrogen a truly limitless, clean energy, reusable system in 5 years. It would make scientific and economical sense.
John Kennedy put us on the moon in 10 years because of his enthusiasm and belief in the United States. Mr. Obama is a great speaker let him get behind hydrogen. Selling carbon credits is just a way to get money, and it does not help any of us except those who buy and sell credits. It will make us less competitive in the world and lower our standard of living and not create one single job. In fact, it will put people out of work, if a company can't afford the carbon credits. They will have to shut down or move overseas. To China or India, or they don't care about carbon credits.
He states that he is an environmentalist. I wonder what he is going to say to the people in the Midwest when all the strip mines start showing up. This coal will also run out, and like our debt. The problem will be passed on to our grandchildren.
There are 13 countries that have signed the Kyoto agreement. China and India are not members of the 13. They are the top two most populous countries in the world. China has 20% of the world’s population. India comes in second with 18%. The total of both countries is 3.2 billion. That is 38% of the of the world population. The USA comes in at 310 million 4.6% percent of the world’s population. If the trend continues by the year 2011 the world’s population will exceed 7 billion. Even if our population doubles, we won't be one billion. They will all want energy.
If we don't fix the energy problem now, we will be a minority country. The competition for carbon-based products will drive our cost of living through the roof. Remember when their oil runs out, they will want ours. Let's make a giant step forward. Let’s switch to a fuel that is limitless. Once it is in full production it will be the cheapest fuel ever.
It is expected that the 13 countries with operational Kyoto protocol targets will remain below their agreed minimum greenhouse emissions. These countries will therefore be sellers of carbon credits. When money starts being made from carbon credits, greed will take over. We will never get rid of them until the oil and coal are gone. What is best for the average person will be forgotten.
On the surface another country selling carbon credits doesn't sound so bad. Think about it. Energy has been the base of man's progress. What this statement tells you is these countries will be stagnant. They will have sold their ability to move forward. The citizenry will not tolerate that. We will end up with another North Korea. Only this time, they will be using carbon in secret not building bombs.
I could keep giving examples of the competition we are facing in the world for our energy. I believe, loose of our technical base is only one of the problems we face. To keep our way of life moving ahead we most have low cost energy. Even the environmentalists should see this. If we stopped burning fossil fuel today it will do nothing to help global warming now.
We know that oil and coal are going to run out. Hydrogen never will. China and India have already far exceeded our energy use. China with the three gorges dam in India's two new atomic power plants, Japan already has 25 that will be making hydrogen from sea water. They are moving forward on the energy front. Yet we are being asked to go backwards. It is not the American way. We do not back up!
China and India have 3.2 billion people all wanting to drive an SUV. The 310 million of us stopping carbon use completely have no affect on the 3.2 billion of them. Stopping carbon-based fuels usage will stop the draining of our countries, pocketbook to support the rest of the world. Boone Pickens called it the largest transfer of wealth in human history!
Stopping us from progressing, is the wrong thing to do, energy independence must mean independence from fossil fuels. Not independence from using energy, which will shut us down and lose us jobs and our standard of living. Who would care if a person was driving a big RV if it were not polluting the air. If it contributes nothing to global warming. Even the Greener's would drive one.
Diesel fuel sure does fill our cities with smog. The flipside is someone had to build the vehicles. If they were hydrogen powered it would mean jobs, jobs, jobs. The way it is going. It means loss of jobs, jobs, jobs.
I hear that we are being asked to insulate our houses, and to drive smaller less powerful cars.
I hear you saying, Bob we should we not try to save the environment?
I ask you this question. Why are we not developing energy to let us do what we want to do? It does exist. That is the American way. That is how you create jobs. When you stop things you stop jobs even insulating a house may give a job for a day. But you will never do it again in your lifetime. Buying a new car many times it is an emotional thing and you may buy two or three of them in 10 years. The vehicles that are being described as the vehicles of the future will be held on to until the wheels fall off.
I'm sure that you have noticed that all the talk about energy saving vehicles only pertains to our vehicles. The planes and trains and boats will still run on carbon-based fuels. Only the military has atomic power. Our aircraft carriers and submarines run on it. I have not seen a bunch of green sailors running around lately. And they live a lot closer to those reactors than any of us ever will. We are being sold a bill of goods. The big oil companies continue to block it. Reactors can produce the hydrogen. Hydrogen will run the rest. I repeat, it is limitless and completely green when it burns. It produces water.
The military has plenty of atomic material. We have been making it since the 40s. There is enough atomic material stored to run this country for a thousand years. We pay for every ounce of it lets use it. We also have been buying a lot of the Russians weapon grade material. Just to get it off the market. We have its stockpiled in secret facilities around the country. No one knows just how much there really is.
Let's turn it around and use it for power. Opponents of atomic power will tell you the reactors are too heavy to put in a plane and that is true, but a tank of hydrogen is not. And it is not radioactive. The atomic power is excellent for stationary use on land or large sea born vehicles. Again I repeat hydrogen will do the rest.
Anyone that understands the science knows Hydrogen and atomic power are the fuels of the future. They should be brought on line now. Fuel cells that use Hydrogen are being developed and someday will be in common use. Why not push up the development and do it now?
We need a transition period to move us from one fuel to the other as rapidly as we can. We should never take a detour trying to develop something like clean coal. During the Second World War it took us three years to build the biggest bang in history from a totally unknown to science. (Nuclear power)
It was done by a bunch of people pushing slide rules and a very dedicated female workforce operating the controls. We need a leader that will dedicate building something like that again. This time it is an energy system, we need to build. They were not trying to change our society. They were trying to save it. Kennedy did the same thing when we went to the moon. We need a leader that champions cheap energy!! Alternate power systems producing electricity and hydrogen is the answer.
Presently we have millions of internal combustion vehicles on the road. I hear you asking can an internal combustion engine run on Hydrogen. Yes there are several auto companies are running them. BMW has one operating in Germany.
I built one when I was 14 years. If a 14-year-old kid can make an engine run on hydrogen in 1948. Not only did I make the engine run. I built a unit that produced the hydrogen. What I did was dangerous, but it did produce hydrogen and the engine did run. Our great modern knowledge technology sure can make that practical.
These are the words that should come out of Obama's mouth. The same kit that converts your vehicle to natural gas with minor modifications will work with Hydrogen. The gases can be mixed making modifications unnecessary. That is similar to adding methanol to gasoline. Most engines running on natural gas have to be started using gasoline. The addition of hydrogen to the mix would make that unnecessary and burn cleaner. It is still not a completely clean burn, but is headed in the right way. The percentage of hydrogen can be increased as availability increases. Vehicle computers can be programmed to compensate for the mix.
Building a pure hydrogen distribution system will take time. The existing natural gas distribution system will carry the hydrogen, natural gas mix. We need to start introducing hydrogen into our natural gas distribution network now. The percentage of hydrogen can be increased as the availability increases. If we don't start now, it will only delay things. To date we have not even started Japan has. California has talked about it. I don't know how far they have gotten.
The use of hydrogen is not new. City Gas that was used for so many years when they cooked coal was mostly hydrogen and some parts methane. The fear of hydrogen, that was developed because of the Hindenburg disaster made them call at city gas.
The question is what we do in the short term? The first step is to separate our energy usage into 4 parts fixed, mobile, airborne and seaborne. The second step is to establish if and existing asset can run on synthetic or alternative fuel such as Ethanol or Bio Degradable diesel. This way fuels can be allocated on the bases of time until conversion to hydrogen.
Development of electric cars that use batteries should be stopped.
There is a law in physics that states “energy in equals’ energy out minus efficiency”. This means the energy for charging the batteries has to come from somewhere. Somewhere will be coal-fired generating stations pumping more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.
This will force them to purchase the proposed carbon credits and strip mine the Midwest. And guess who gets the bill? We have just passed on the cost to someone else. That someone else is us when we get the electric bill. Unlike hydrogen and atomic power it also pushes off the problem into the future. The coal will run out. Oh those poor grandkids.
Batteries are expensive and they are dangerous. If not disposed of correctly they are toxic and a health hazard. This will produce waste that the grandkids will have to handle. Money used to develop a new type of car battery could help us bring hydrogen online. A small carbon fiber storage tank filled with hydrogen contains 10 times the energy of one of these new batteries and is less than half the weight. They work just like a storage battery. They store the energy. Storage tanks have no known life expectancy. Battery estimates say one year or two and they are expensive. Just like the battery can be charged a storage tank can be refilled. The advantage is it can be refilled over and over and will last forever.
The transition should be from internal combustion engines converted for a natural gas to fuel cell vehicles. The tanks could be filled with a mix of natural gas and hydrogen. Other types of gases can be used for fuel cells, including methane.
These words are from our EPA a development effort you paid for “LFG” is Land Fill Gas which is methane (Natural Gas)
“Fuel cells are one of the newest and most innovative ways to generate power. At this point, the technology works much like a battery fueled by LFG. A fuel cell extracts hydrogen from the methane in LFG and mixes it with oxygen to produce electricity, heat, and water. The Fuel Cell produces no combustible parts that can harm the environment.
Prior to development of the gas cleanup technology designed and used in this project, use of landfill gas to power fuel cells was not possible due to contaminants in the gas such as sulfur and halides. Under contract from EPA, ONSI set out to show that using landfill gas to power fuel cells is technically and environmentally feasible in commercial operation.”
We paid for this development effort. I know it was done for landfills, but the same technique could be used on a vehicle with a storage tank full of natural gas. There are several places in the US right now that run on natural gas in their buses. The Honda Civic Gx is available in Utah. Utah has natural gas available in many areas. It is clean and economical. A distribution system for natural gas can be used for hydrogen and the mix.
There is so much technology out there, and it is ready to go. We just need a good plan that makes it work. Similar to the plan Kennedy gave use when we went to the moon. He didn't say we can't tell him we can't develop clean coal. He gave us a goal and a plan and my generation fulfilled it. Energy has a greater priority than Eisenhower had when he proposed the interstate highway system. We need an interstate energy system similar to the REA.
“Electrification Administration (REA), created under President Roosevelt the REA was created on May 11, 1935 with the primary goal of promoting rural electrification. In the 1930s, the U.S. lagged significantly behind Europe in providing electricity to rural areas due to the unwillingness of power companies to serve farmsteads.”
We have a similar situation today in the 30s it was the power companies that were not servicing our farms. Today, I believe it is the oil companies are blocking us from getting a new type of energy system in place. We are starting to lag behind the world in energy. France is now 90% atomic, and many of the European countries are coming online fast. So are Japan, India and China. We are being asked to drive smaller cars, and lower our standard of living. This is the wrong direction.
I know it is great to talk about medical reform, and I am a believer that something needs to be done. But if there is no money there will be no reform. If we don't develop our own energy supply it will subtract from our wealth. Using less is not a bad idea, but when it's the only idea it is a problem.
The fixed asset that affects us all the most is the power plant. They presently burn coal, natural gas, fuel oil and Atomic power. Natural gas and fuel oil are also used to heat our homes. The only hope for short term there is natural gas. Hydrogen could be mixed with the natural gas. The pipelines are in place but furnaces would need a miner modification to operate on pure hydrogen.
The city of San Diego California has hydrogen available at some locations. They have another asset that is not being used it is a Navy station. Our atomic submarines arrive there all the time. What we should do is hook their reactors to hydrogen generation units. These small reactors are the real solution for getting started on energy independence. The military reactors need to be declassified and made available for civilian use. Any reactors and mothballs should be released for civilian use. Contract should be released for the construction of these reactors for land use. I've stated this before; I don't see many greens sailors running around on these ships and submarines in spite of the fact that they sleep right next to the reactor.
The Army Corps of Engineers takes care of our waterways. I believe we should start a Navy Corps of Engineers; they can take care of the small reactors. They can be placed in small towns and operated as a small local power station. The rural electrification program started from the large cities and moved into the small ones. This program would work the opposite way.
Large nuclear reactors are presently under discussion. Finished construction will take time. We could start with the small towns and small reactors now. When the big reactors are finished we can move to the big town. Every reactor should have a hydrogen generating facility associated with it. Any windmill or solar panel farm or hydroelectric generating facility should also be assigned to generating hydrogen. This will increase domestic power and hydrogen will start flowing.There also is a small reactor on the civilian market.
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Conceived at Los Alamos National Laboratory, the HPM intellectual property portfolio was licensed to Hyperion Power Generation for commercialization under the laboratory's technology transfer program. Inherently safe, and self moderating, the HPM utilizes the energy of low-enriched uranium fuel and meets all the non-proliferation criteria of the Global Nuclear Energy Partnership (GNEP). Permanently sealed and never opened on site, each unit produces 70 MWt, or 27 MWe when connected to a steam turbine - enough to provide electricity for 20,000 average American-size homes or the industrial equivalent. Approximately 1.5 meters wide by 2 meters tall, the units can be transported by ship, rail or truck and produce power for five to seven years depending on usage.
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For the purpose of this blog which I call “Step One” I will concentrate on the areas that can start making us energy independent and hold prices down fast. I talked above about atomic power. Even the small units will take time. There is something we could do right away in preparation for it to come online. We can start switching all internal combustion engine vehicles over to natural gas. Newly manufactured vehicles should use methane fuel cells.
These converted units will run cleaner than gasoline powered engines. In the future natural gas will be mixed with hydrogen. It will be cleaner yet. Trucks with diesel engines can run on bio degradable diesel (vegetable Oil). New pipeline distribution systems need to be installed. The plan being to use natural gas in the beginning, and slowly switch over to hydrogen as it becomes available. Technically we have answers for the short term and the long term. As demand increases, other sources of hydrogen will be available.
Presently the government has a fuel economy standard that they are trying impose on the car manufacture. The Bush administration had relaxed this standard. As I stated earlier this is not a political document. It strikes me however that relaxing the standard continued our addiction to oil. With the rest of the world becoming more and more our competitor in a supply and demand market the price will go up!!!
I hear you asking Bob, what are other countries doing anything about energy independence?
Japan has started installing a Hydrogen distribution system. They also are producing internal combustion and turbine engines that will run on Hydrogen. These vehicles will not be exported to the US until there is a distribution system in place here. They will be fuel cell ready when they come on line. Even little Thailand, switching over to hydrogen.
I hear Mr. Obama talking about clean coal and very little about Fuel Cells and nothing about Hydrogen. All the Fuel Cells in the world won't work without natural gas or hydrogen distribution. To me it is like the interstate highway system or rural electrification. It would never have happened without government intervention.
The only country in the world that is now energy independence (It may surprise you) is Brazil. They have done it by removing the taxes from Ethanol and Bio Degradable diesel. They also mandated the oil companies to invest in these products and to keep the prices below gasoline.
Special tax breaks are given for companies that invest in alternative fuel sources.. They also built a major dam and have started several Atomic plants. Ford has a major manufacturing plant in Brazil. Ford has just made a profit without bail out money or a government takeover.
This has a positive effect, resilient oil companies. They will really be in the energy business. Those pensions will be safe when the oil runs out.
Even the new hybrid cars have a gas engine to charge the batteries. It can run on natural gas or hydrogen.
My recommendation for a first step is to start putting this country first. Put us on an energy development path that will guarantee our success for the next 250 years. There is a rule in physics “For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction”. Iraq is winding down. The reaction to our success and the death of our troops will be competition for Iraqi oil.
We most get independent as fast as possible. Jimmy Carter called it the moral equivalent of war. I believe this statement to be true but would state it this way "It is a weapon of economic war". When we win the war on terror the war for energy will be bigger than ever. The time for action is now!!!
I would like to see us follow the example that Brazil has set. Ethanol can be 40% percent Alcohol. That’s 40% of home grown product. Get the Moon Shiners fired up.
Our very success spreading economic growth around the world causes our trade in balance to grow. It also makes them our competitor. They need energy to produce the products they sell us. This in turn raises their standard of living thus more energy is required; and so on and so on.
I feel the countries fuel supply like the interstate highway system affects or quality of life. If we wait for market pressures to make it happen the world will pass us by. Our main competitor is a Communist dictatorship two billion strong. If they were taking our land we would fight back. Energy as an invasion is a hard concept to grasp. Like terrorism it is hard to pin down. Yet we most defend ourselves. It really is war.
That’s my thoughts. What do you think?
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Monday, August 10, 2009
ENERGY IS REALLY A WEAPON
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I see an opportunity for Mr. Obama to make a real mark on our future. We need a clean, low cost, multiuse, storable, plentiful, reusable energy source now! One that will create good jobs and improve our standard of living. Everything in our life uses energy in one form or another. Lowcost energy would reduce the cost of everything!!!
I hear you saying, come on, Bob. That is a dream. No such energy source exists!
My answer is that it does exist. It is hydrogen. We get it from water and other sources. It can be burned in a heating system, or pass through a fuel cell to generate electricity. Even internal combustion vehicles can run on it and also jet engines. When we use it we get water, which we can use over and over. There is no other fuel in the world that once you use it with a little energy. You can get it back again!
If we believe in this country we most think for this country. It may sound selfish but we must come first. We must realize that terrorism is only part of the war we are fighting. Energy is the key to our way of life. Without it our economy stops. It affects everyone's life in a very profound way. It is being used by our enemies as a weapon against us. Maybe the term enemies could be replaced by “countries looking out for their own interest.
We should not be asked to reduce our energy use. We should develop a low-cost, abundant fuel that will allow us to do whatever we want to do. Drive whatever we want to drive. Fly whatever we want to fly. Have a powerful car if you want one.
We have the technology. It has existed for years. I believe its development has been blocked by what I call the oil damn. And yes, I mean damn. If hydrogen were online now, those oil rigs would be rusting away.
China has 2 billion people all wanting to drive SUVS. If we include India the total is about 3 1/2 billion. The energy requirement for the total of 3 1/2 billion people has already surpassed ours. We are only 310 million people.
We are told, it is a sin for 310 million people to be using so much of the world's energy. I say, that is what made us great. The trick is to use our own energy. These multi-national energy companies have got to go back to the 50s and start exporting our energy to the world again. When we start exporting energy the jobs will be here. The world population is growing and developing countries are going to need energy.
Hillary Clinton has just concluded a major arms deal with India. It is the biggest in the history of the world. That means jobs in this country. A little known fact about the deal is the two atomic reactors American companies get to build in India. General Electric is one of those companies. We have not built a new reactor in this country in 30 years. The rest of the world is moving right on past us. There are thousands of them being built all over the world. Our own Navy has hundreds of them all classified.
China is now our greatest competitor for the world’s energy and is aggressively pursuing more energy. If we don’t use our technology and work hard to get energy independent as soon as possible we could be facing a real disaster. It is like an invasion with no one firing a shot. It is a national emergency.
Our elected officials are supposed to represent us not just their own reelection. State projects, such as bridges to nowhere or highways that go to the same place, are fine when it comes to getting reelected but won’t do very well without the energy to use them. I see grand medical plans being developed. The Cap & Trade program being pushed forward at lightning speed.
If I owned an oil company I would be pushing this bill as hard as I could. Carbon Credits being sold on the stock exchange guarantees that every drop of oil will be squeezed out of the ground before we go to something as practical as hydrogen.
I have this practice of giving everything the grand kids test. What kind of a country would you like to leave behind for them to live in? What is worth them fighting and dying for? Energy is an item that meets this test. However, I would rather spend tax money now to develop alternate energy sources so our grandchildren don’t have to die latter trying to defend someone else’s oil well. That will be the end result, if we don't develop an alternate fuel source now.
I realize our government has said we are not in Iraq for oil. I for one hope we are. We have competition from the rest of the world to obtain the oil that we need to move forward with our life style. China has made deals with Cuba, Bolivia and Venezuela.
Those tankers that presently cross the ocean carrying LP and LNG should be going the other way, carrying hydrogen.
We think Communism died when Russia collapsed. I am sorry to tell you it is alive and well right in our hemisphere. Mexico could be next. Many of these countries, their only source of income is oil. Without us and the rest of the world using their oil they would have no income. They would be very happy if we imposed cap and trade on our selves. In fact, I believe they would rejoice.
Oil was discovered around 1850 in Pennsylvania then in Texas about 20 years later. Most homes until the Second World War ended around 1946 or 47 we used coal. We then started converting to oil. This put a drain on our oil supply. We exported the excess until the 1960s. That’s when our needs started to exceed our production. We gave them our money in exchange for their oil. The availability of oil on the world market has continued to satisfy our needs since then. It is only recently that world demand has started to approach ours. Our push to industrialize the world has created our own monster. Now the proposal is to return to cool again.
Those of you that have read my other Blogs know I keep mentioning the two billion Chinese waiting to drive cars. They are developing and industrialized economy and we are helping them do it. Our politicians keep telling us about the great business opportunity they represent yet the trade imbalance continues to grow.
The price of gas at the pump will continue to go up and down. When it is up the public will complain and when it goes down the furor will stop. It is hardly noticed that the average price never goes down.
It is easy to blame the oil companies for price fixing until you look at the big picture. Oil is getting harder to obtain. It is costing more to find and obtain. The equipment necessary gets more and more costly. The only area of the world where it continues to be economical to pump oil is the Middle East, an area that is politically unstable. There is also transportation costs involved in getting it here. This is a region that doesn't like us much.
Shipping companies are building larger and larger tankers. Where they sail is not important. They will go to the highest bidder. We are fighting a war in Iraq and our people are dying. All the rest of the world has to do is sit back and wait for us to leave then buy the oil.
I am not so naive that I believe that becoming energy independent will make the world leave us alone. To the contrary, if we don’t maintain an aggressive posture many of the leaders, especially in the Middle East will look on it as a sign of weakness. The old term “Paper Tiger” comes to mind.
It is difficult to understand an ego that believes that he or she should run the world, but they keep popping up. I will be 75 this June and for my whole life they just keep coming. I see no reason to believe, in anything like a foreseeable future, it will stop.
The USA being energy independence will take a very powerful weapon out of their hands, our money. We build stealth aircraft and spend billions for the development. It is time to put energy in the same category. It is a weapon. We should think of it that way. If we obtain it from others. They can use our money against us.
If we are independent, we will take the money out of their hands that they are using to kill our soldiers. Instead of guns and planes, we should be investing in hydrogen. It affects every man woman and child in the USA. If you think 9/11 was bad this could be worse.
I disagree with the statement that all democracies are peaceful. It depends on who is elected. Take a look a Venezuela, They have and are making deals with China.
More than half off South America is colored red or at least pink. Next is Central America the same thing is happening there. Communism has a good chance in Mexico.
We can replace many things that we now get from others but energy is not one of them. Unless we act now it will become our biggest problem. Why wait for a preemptive strike. Our energy supply is under attack. It is time to strike back before it becomes a full-fledged war!!!! The Roman Empire collapsed because they started relining on others. We are in the same trap.
We must develop hydrogen. It is the fuel of the future. When everything else runs out hydrogen will be there. This proposal for carbon credits being sold on the stock market is ridiculous. It will hold up the development of hydrogen. Who will put money into a new fuel source after they have paid for the carbon credits?
If man is causing global warming. It makes no sense to allow him to purchase credits. That allowed them to keep on producing CO2. Let’s stop it completely. Hydrogen is a multiuse fuel. There is nothing that man is presently driving flying in or using on the water that can use hydrogen as a fuel.
Energy base of our survival is being taken away by others. We can’t just sit around and wait. It is time for action. The new movement to clean up natural gas by removing CO2 from it is only a halfway measure. The question is, where we put the CO2 we took out of it. Right now it is being dumped into the ocean. Hydrogen use will add water to the ocean, not carbolic acid.
Mr. Obama keeps talking about clean coal. This approach is not practical, and even if it was. Why should we do it when there is another fuel that we don't have to make clean? He also does not consider where the coal will come from. We have it in the ground in the Midwest that is true. Do we really want it strip mined? Those giant ugly gashes in the ground don't need to be there.
Putting money into clean coal is a waste and does not solve the problem. At present, it does not exist. The technology to produce hydrogen does exist. NASA uses it all the time. Let's solve the whole problem and take the leap to hydrogen. It is the most abundant element in the universe. We have lots of natural gas pipelines already in the ground. They can be converted easily. There are some programs out there right now that are playing around with hydrogen. But in less direction comes from the White House, the way John Kennedy did when we went to the moon. It will not go forward to many people have too much money invested in oil.
A total hydrogen production system could be sold to others. They will soon be facing the same thing that we are right now. Carbon-based fuels are running out. It may not be in our lifetime, but it will happen. So let's jump ahead and stop using them now. No carbon credits, they will stop the development of a truly clean fuel.
We need atomic power to develop the hydrogen, and electricity. As I stated above, the hydrogen is a multiuse fuel, but best of all. It is clean. Even our lawn mowers can use it. The exhaust will water the grass.
With a system like this in place, we will be energy independent. We can no longer be threatened. We need energy to grow and energy to live. Clean energy is the best. If you don't believe in global warming just drive behind a bus in the city. You will be for clean air. If you want to have a big heavy vehicle, no one will care as long as you can pay for it.
Energy really is a weapon. A very useful weapon when it is in our hands. No more stealth bombers let's develop hydrogen. When they don't have our money it will do more damage than any bomber. Let's declare it a weapon and put it online now. It is a war that we are in, and hydrogen is a unique weapon, but it will make us win it.
That’s my thoughts. What do you think?
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I see an opportunity for Mr. Obama to make a real mark on our future. We need a clean, low cost, multiuse, storable, plentiful, reusable energy source now! One that will create good jobs and improve our standard of living. Everything in our life uses energy in one form or another. Lowcost energy would reduce the cost of everything!!!
I hear you saying, come on, Bob. That is a dream. No such energy source exists!
My answer is that it does exist. It is hydrogen. We get it from water and other sources. It can be burned in a heating system, or pass through a fuel cell to generate electricity. Even internal combustion vehicles can run on it and also jet engines. When we use it we get water, which we can use over and over. There is no other fuel in the world that once you use it with a little energy. You can get it back again!
If we believe in this country we most think for this country. It may sound selfish but we must come first. We must realize that terrorism is only part of the war we are fighting. Energy is the key to our way of life. Without it our economy stops. It affects everyone's life in a very profound way. It is being used by our enemies as a weapon against us. Maybe the term enemies could be replaced by “countries looking out for their own interest.
We should not be asked to reduce our energy use. We should develop a low-cost, abundant fuel that will allow us to do whatever we want to do. Drive whatever we want to drive. Fly whatever we want to fly. Have a powerful car if you want one.
We have the technology. It has existed for years. I believe its development has been blocked by what I call the oil damn. And yes, I mean damn. If hydrogen were online now, those oil rigs would be rusting away.
China has 2 billion people all wanting to drive SUVS. If we include India the total is about 3 1/2 billion. The energy requirement for the total of 3 1/2 billion people has already surpassed ours. We are only 310 million people.
We are told, it is a sin for 310 million people to be using so much of the world's energy. I say, that is what made us great. The trick is to use our own energy. These multi-national energy companies have got to go back to the 50s and start exporting our energy to the world again. When we start exporting energy the jobs will be here. The world population is growing and developing countries are going to need energy.
Hillary Clinton has just concluded a major arms deal with India. It is the biggest in the history of the world. That means jobs in this country. A little known fact about the deal is the two atomic reactors American companies get to build in India. General Electric is one of those companies. We have not built a new reactor in this country in 30 years. The rest of the world is moving right on past us. There are thousands of them being built all over the world. Our own Navy has hundreds of them all classified.
China is now our greatest competitor for the world’s energy and is aggressively pursuing more energy. If we don’t use our technology and work hard to get energy independent as soon as possible we could be facing a real disaster. It is like an invasion with no one firing a shot. It is a national emergency.
Our elected officials are supposed to represent us not just their own reelection. State projects, such as bridges to nowhere or highways that go to the same place, are fine when it comes to getting reelected but won’t do very well without the energy to use them. I see grand medical plans being developed. The Cap & Trade program being pushed forward at lightning speed.
If I owned an oil company I would be pushing this bill as hard as I could. Carbon Credits being sold on the stock exchange guarantees that every drop of oil will be squeezed out of the ground before we go to something as practical as hydrogen.
I have this practice of giving everything the grand kids test. What kind of a country would you like to leave behind for them to live in? What is worth them fighting and dying for? Energy is an item that meets this test. However, I would rather spend tax money now to develop alternate energy sources so our grandchildren don’t have to die latter trying to defend someone else’s oil well. That will be the end result, if we don't develop an alternate fuel source now.
I realize our government has said we are not in Iraq for oil. I for one hope we are. We have competition from the rest of the world to obtain the oil that we need to move forward with our life style. China has made deals with Cuba, Bolivia and Venezuela.
Those tankers that presently cross the ocean carrying LP and LNG should be going the other way, carrying hydrogen.
We think Communism died when Russia collapsed. I am sorry to tell you it is alive and well right in our hemisphere. Mexico could be next. Many of these countries, their only source of income is oil. Without us and the rest of the world using their oil they would have no income. They would be very happy if we imposed cap and trade on our selves. In fact, I believe they would rejoice.
Oil was discovered around 1850 in Pennsylvania then in Texas about 20 years later. Most homes until the Second World War ended around 1946 or 47 we used coal. We then started converting to oil. This put a drain on our oil supply. We exported the excess until the 1960s. That’s when our needs started to exceed our production. We gave them our money in exchange for their oil. The availability of oil on the world market has continued to satisfy our needs since then. It is only recently that world demand has started to approach ours. Our push to industrialize the world has created our own monster. Now the proposal is to return to cool again.
Those of you that have read my other Blogs know I keep mentioning the two billion Chinese waiting to drive cars. They are developing and industrialized economy and we are helping them do it. Our politicians keep telling us about the great business opportunity they represent yet the trade imbalance continues to grow.
The price of gas at the pump will continue to go up and down. When it is up the public will complain and when it goes down the furor will stop. It is hardly noticed that the average price never goes down.
It is easy to blame the oil companies for price fixing until you look at the big picture. Oil is getting harder to obtain. It is costing more to find and obtain. The equipment necessary gets more and more costly. The only area of the world where it continues to be economical to pump oil is the Middle East, an area that is politically unstable. There is also transportation costs involved in getting it here. This is a region that doesn't like us much.
Shipping companies are building larger and larger tankers. Where they sail is not important. They will go to the highest bidder. We are fighting a war in Iraq and our people are dying. All the rest of the world has to do is sit back and wait for us to leave then buy the oil.
I am not so naive that I believe that becoming energy independent will make the world leave us alone. To the contrary, if we don’t maintain an aggressive posture many of the leaders, especially in the Middle East will look on it as a sign of weakness. The old term “Paper Tiger” comes to mind.
It is difficult to understand an ego that believes that he or she should run the world, but they keep popping up. I will be 75 this June and for my whole life they just keep coming. I see no reason to believe, in anything like a foreseeable future, it will stop.
The USA being energy independence will take a very powerful weapon out of their hands, our money. We build stealth aircraft and spend billions for the development. It is time to put energy in the same category. It is a weapon. We should think of it that way. If we obtain it from others. They can use our money against us.
If we are independent, we will take the money out of their hands that they are using to kill our soldiers. Instead of guns and planes, we should be investing in hydrogen. It affects every man woman and child in the USA. If you think 9/11 was bad this could be worse.
I disagree with the statement that all democracies are peaceful. It depends on who is elected. Take a look a Venezuela, They have and are making deals with China.
More than half off South America is colored red or at least pink. Next is Central America the same thing is happening there. Communism has a good chance in Mexico.
We can replace many things that we now get from others but energy is not one of them. Unless we act now it will become our biggest problem. Why wait for a preemptive strike. Our energy supply is under attack. It is time to strike back before it becomes a full-fledged war!!!! The Roman Empire collapsed because they started relining on others. We are in the same trap.
We must develop hydrogen. It is the fuel of the future. When everything else runs out hydrogen will be there. This proposal for carbon credits being sold on the stock market is ridiculous. It will hold up the development of hydrogen. Who will put money into a new fuel source after they have paid for the carbon credits?
If man is causing global warming. It makes no sense to allow him to purchase credits. That allowed them to keep on producing CO2. Let’s stop it completely. Hydrogen is a multiuse fuel. There is nothing that man is presently driving flying in or using on the water that can use hydrogen as a fuel.
Energy base of our survival is being taken away by others. We can’t just sit around and wait. It is time for action. The new movement to clean up natural gas by removing CO2 from it is only a halfway measure. The question is, where we put the CO2 we took out of it. Right now it is being dumped into the ocean. Hydrogen use will add water to the ocean, not carbolic acid.
Mr. Obama keeps talking about clean coal. This approach is not practical, and even if it was. Why should we do it when there is another fuel that we don't have to make clean? He also does not consider where the coal will come from. We have it in the ground in the Midwest that is true. Do we really want it strip mined? Those giant ugly gashes in the ground don't need to be there.
Putting money into clean coal is a waste and does not solve the problem. At present, it does not exist. The technology to produce hydrogen does exist. NASA uses it all the time. Let's solve the whole problem and take the leap to hydrogen. It is the most abundant element in the universe. We have lots of natural gas pipelines already in the ground. They can be converted easily. There are some programs out there right now that are playing around with hydrogen. But in less direction comes from the White House, the way John Kennedy did when we went to the moon. It will not go forward to many people have too much money invested in oil.
A total hydrogen production system could be sold to others. They will soon be facing the same thing that we are right now. Carbon-based fuels are running out. It may not be in our lifetime, but it will happen. So let's jump ahead and stop using them now. No carbon credits, they will stop the development of a truly clean fuel.
We need atomic power to develop the hydrogen, and electricity. As I stated above, the hydrogen is a multiuse fuel, but best of all. It is clean. Even our lawn mowers can use it. The exhaust will water the grass.
With a system like this in place, we will be energy independent. We can no longer be threatened. We need energy to grow and energy to live. Clean energy is the best. If you don't believe in global warming just drive behind a bus in the city. You will be for clean air. If you want to have a big heavy vehicle, no one will care as long as you can pay for it.
Energy really is a weapon. A very useful weapon when it is in our hands. No more stealth bombers let's develop hydrogen. When they don't have our money it will do more damage than any bomber. Let's declare it a weapon and put it online now. It is a war that we are in, and hydrogen is a unique weapon, but it will make us win it.
That’s my thoughts. What do you think?
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Thursday, August 6, 2009
THE TRUTH ABOUT HYDROGEN
8/6/2009
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It is casually mentioned by our candidates. No one in power in the US really considers it seriously. The Japanese and other countries are betting their future on hydrogen and Atomic power. Honda is bringing a Hydrogen fuel cell car into full production at the end of this year. I believe Hydrogen is the only portable fuel we should be using. The trouble is it is being pushed off into the future by big oil. If action is not taken now it will be way off in the future.
The new Cap & trade bill that just passed the House of Representatives contains provisions for the sale of carbon credits. Once this trade is introduced, the chances for going over to hydrogen will be reduced considerably. It strikes me if you're going to go green. Why not go all the way. If you believe man is causing global warming. Why sell carbon credits? Why not reduce these fuels to zero.
There are applications where it can be used TODAY!! Even your existing automobile can be converted to hydrogen. Those big gas guzzlers would have water coming out of their tailpipe not CO2.
Let's take a look at Hydrogen itself. I will try here not to get very technical. We all know the problem with science is it tends to be very dry and boring except to the scientist.
Hydrogen at Earth temperatures is a gas. It is the most abundant element in the whole universe and the fuel that our Sun uses every day to heat and light the earth. It is two parts of the water that is extremely abundant on our planet. It is part of coal and oil. They are Hydrocarbons. It is even two thirds of you and me.
The question that arises is, if it is so abundant why aren't we using it for fuel now? The answer is very simple it does not exist in any abundance alone. It is always combined with other atoms. An example is water, H2O. Two parts Hydrogen one part Oxygen. In order to obtain Hydrogen from water, energy must be used.
One common process is called electrolysis. Electrical energy is applied to water, which separates into Hydrogen and oxygen. We can then use the Hydrogen and Oxygen separately. Hydrogen can also be generated from other sources such as coal, oil and natural gas. When Hydrogen is combined with Oxygen energy is released, and we get back the water we started with. This operation can be set up anywhere in the world where there is water and electricity. It does not require an oil well or expensive oil rig. Hydrogen can be generated from the windmill or solar panels. Hydroelectric generators are fine. By compressing hydrogen and putting it in storage tanks. It will work just like a storage battery. Windmills and solar cell outputs can only be stored in batteries. Batteries are DC our power grid is AC. There is only so much energy that can be stored in a battery and then you must use another battery. Batteries are expensive and contain dangerous elements that, if not exposed of correctly are poisonous. If you were generating hydrogen all you would need is a bigger tank. Carbon composition tanks have been developed, that is stronger and safer and lighter than steel tanks.
Solar panels only work when there is sunshine. That makes them very inefficient. If during the day we would a siphon off some of the output from the solar panels. We could use it to produce hydrogen, which could be used during the nighttime hours. This would make the solar panels more effective.
Hydrogen sounds really nice. So why aren't we using it now?
The electricity that we are using two separate Hydrogen and Oxygen is coming from a power plant or from natural gas. The power plant is using coal, gas or oil. We need a primary fuel source to obtain the Hydrogen. It defeats some of the purpose of hydrogen if you use a fossil fuel to generate it. Every windmill and solar panel bank needs to be equipped with hydrogen generation equipment. Any type of electrical generation system would benefit from the use of hydrogen. The Hydrogen stores the energy in high pressure storage tanks in this process. The lead or lithium cell stores the energy in the storage battery. These storage batteries must be disposed of in environmental way. The lead and lithium are poison. Hydrogen is the world’s only nonpolluting storage battery.
This brings up another question. What have we gained if we go to Hydrogen?
The answer to that question lies much deeper than just the use of hydrogen to run an automobile. The very basis to our economy and the success of the United States as a nation is based on our use of energy. Without energy this country cannot remain great. It is the most important thing required for use to sustain our way of living!!! Saving energy is not the answer! Using it in a way that has the least impact on us and the planet is. Hydrogen is only real answer to this statement and should be on a very fast track. It is obvious that this is true. We are 350 million people, and according to the latest statistics. We are using 25% of the world’s oil.
Five years ago we were using 40%. This is not due to us using less it is others using more of this limited resource that has made the change. The rest of the world population is 5.7 billion people. All wanting to drive RVs. Oil is a limited supply item. It may not run out in our lifetime, but it will run out and very, very soon. The whole world needs oil and are looking at ours. It’s time to break this dependency and jump past them all. We need a real energy policy!! Not just oil, and the nonexistent clean coal!!!
The supply of oil is dwindling. Our grandkids or great grandkids are going to face a real dilemma. The fact that the supply is limited is not the only reason for the price increases. There are speculators that push the price up. We are drilling offshore or in the Arctic. Coal is being strip mined in Montana. It can't be found in easy areas anymore. Oil shale and other similar sources ruin the beauty of this planet. The cost of obtaining the oil continues to increase. The very terrorists that we are fighting around the world are getting funded by our own money. Referring to T. Boon Pickings "It is the greatest transfer of wealth the world has ever seen". It is very obvious that other energy sources are needed and needed now. Believe it or not you can generate Hydrogen at home.
We can no longer consider coal and oil the only sources of energy. We have different needs for energy. Some of them are stationary, others are mobile, and some fly through the air or sail our oceans. The only fuel source that can be used by them all is hydrogen!!
Hydrogen is used as a major fuel source for our space program. It's what makes our rockets go. There is no reason for it not to be used to make our jet planes fly. Think about it. You can go to Cape Canaveral after a rocket lifts off and there is no smell even after millions of tons of fuel have been consumed. Try that at any airport after a jet has lifted off. NASA is getting the hydrogen from somewhere how about giving some to us the tax payer.
We the tax payer has paid to develop this technology. Why should we not benefit from it? Under Eisenhower we build the interstate highway system. Why not an interstate energy system?
Again another question, does Hydrogen answer all of the energy needs of the world future? The answer to that question is no, it can’t stand alone and needs other energy sources to produce it. It is, however, an extremely important part of a practical approach to the energy problem. We have the need for both mobile and stationary fuel use. The stationary energy sources need to produce the fuel for the mobile energy users. There are many nonpolluting stationary energy sources, and any of which can be used to generate hydrogen. The hydrogen can be transported by using the existing natural gas lines. Propane trucks with a converted nozzle will work just fine. We need to start this transition now.
We do have the ability to produce it with existing technology. It can be generated using oil or natural gas for use in all our moving vehicles, trucks, cars, buses, airplanes etc. Why wait for windmills or atomic power plants to be built to start using Hydrogen? As more of the non polluting power plants come on line the hydrogen will be already flowing. If we don't do it at the same time it will just take longer. It would sure clean up the air in our cities, if only the busses ran on Hydrogen. I see no difference between building an interstate highway system so our commerce could move to building a interstate energy system. The more pipes in the ground the larger the storage capacity will be.
Hydrogen is a storage medium not a fuel source. Like a giant storage battery once the Hydrogen is generated it will store that energy forever. Every pipeline full of Hydrogen is a pipe line full of clean energy. There are multiple sources of, none polluting, renewable energy or limitless sources available to us that could generate it. There is wind power, atomic power, solar power, tidal power, geothermal power. Good jobs and clean air will be the result. America the beautiful can remain that way.
I believe it is not our ingenuity stopping the use of these different power sources. It is the entrenched use and investment in oil that is working like a giant dam. It is stopping our expansion in other energy areas. These companies have too much money invested. They want to scare us about other sources of energy. They are even after our retirees saying their pension are dependent on them.
When Hydrogen is generated it can replace gas or oil in almost every application. In one very big user that there is no other clean answer. It is jet, turbine and internal combustion engines. That old clunker converted to hydrogen would become a clean running vehicle.
How about one of these secret government facilities that keep on rolling out better spy planes surprising us and roll out a Hydrogen powered jet?
T. Boone Pickens a diehard oil man has made a proposal. It is the first crack in the oil dam that I have seen. To learn more about his proposal I've included his web address, and I'm not going to discuss it in much detail here.
http://www.pickensplan.com/
One of the things he wants to do is to increase the use of natural gas which means more pipelines. The second is the installation of windmills down the middle of the United States where wind is very prevalent. This means jobs and no cost fuel for the turbines. I believe he has one installed. How about out of the goodness of his heart he puts a hydrogen generating facility next to it!!! Windmills have the same problem as solar cells. They can have dead time. A common practice is to charge storage batteries. I propose they generate hydrogen instead and put in the new carbon composition storage tanks. This way all you need is a vehicle with a fuel cell and it and away you go power for the furnace and your vehicle. Fuel cells can also be used to power the lighting plants in your house and your other appliances.
He has been criticized for only mentioning things that would benefit his pocket. I however do not see it that way. I think it is an excellent first step. Nothing stops other entrepreneurs from taking the electrical output from his wind turbines and generating Hydrogen and putting it into the existing natural gas pipelines. The average person does not realize that most pipelines are capable of multiple uses. The Pickens lines will be in place and ready for Hydrogen. But, the existing pipes can be used now!!!! Those same pipelines that contain natural gas could be diluted with hydrogen, reducing the amount of greenhouse gas output. The end goal being one hundred percent hydrogen. To me this is a national defense issue.
It is a little known fact that for many years. Our major cities used something called city or coal gas. It was obtained from coal. It was mostly Hydrogen. Due to the Hindenburg disaster the name was disguised.
When I talk to people about Hydrogen and the first words out of their mouth is: Hydrogen is an extremely dangerous gas. Remember the Hindenburg. I know there is no sense talking to that person anymore. They don't understand the science.
If you fill a balloon with a flammable gas and light a match next to it. It's going to burn. If the balloon is as big as the Hindenburg it's going to be a big fire. Steel or carbon composition tanks have improved considerably since then.
Natural gas is as explosive as and more dangerous than Hydrogen. Hydrogen is extremely light, and if a leak occurs it will go up and blow away. However, natural gas or propane will hang around and go down until it finds an ignition source. Burn natural gas or propane, and they release CO2. When hydrogen burns, it turns into water.
I started this Blog by saying the Japanese and other countries have bet their future on Hydrogen. How are they doing this? The French and the Japanese are using Atomic energy as their primary energy source. In Japan the energy generated by the Atomic power plants is being used to generate Hydrogen that will be distributed through pipelines presently being installed in Japan. This has been a long term plan for them. We have no such plan. If you would like to see the distribution of Atomic power across the world look at the map below or for more detail visit:
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It is casually mentioned by our candidates. No one in power in the US really considers it seriously. The Japanese and other countries are betting their future on hydrogen and Atomic power. Honda is bringing a Hydrogen fuel cell car into full production at the end of this year. I believe Hydrogen is the only portable fuel we should be using. The trouble is it is being pushed off into the future by big oil. If action is not taken now it will be way off in the future.
The new Cap & trade bill that just passed the House of Representatives contains provisions for the sale of carbon credits. Once this trade is introduced, the chances for going over to hydrogen will be reduced considerably. It strikes me if you're going to go green. Why not go all the way. If you believe man is causing global warming. Why sell carbon credits? Why not reduce these fuels to zero.
There are applications where it can be used TODAY!! Even your existing automobile can be converted to hydrogen. Those big gas guzzlers would have water coming out of their tailpipe not CO2.
Let's take a look at Hydrogen itself. I will try here not to get very technical. We all know the problem with science is it tends to be very dry and boring except to the scientist.
Hydrogen at Earth temperatures is a gas. It is the most abundant element in the whole universe and the fuel that our Sun uses every day to heat and light the earth. It is two parts of the water that is extremely abundant on our planet. It is part of coal and oil. They are Hydrocarbons. It is even two thirds of you and me.
The question that arises is, if it is so abundant why aren't we using it for fuel now? The answer is very simple it does not exist in any abundance alone. It is always combined with other atoms. An example is water, H2O. Two parts Hydrogen one part Oxygen. In order to obtain Hydrogen from water, energy must be used.
One common process is called electrolysis. Electrical energy is applied to water, which separates into Hydrogen and oxygen. We can then use the Hydrogen and Oxygen separately. Hydrogen can also be generated from other sources such as coal, oil and natural gas. When Hydrogen is combined with Oxygen energy is released, and we get back the water we started with. This operation can be set up anywhere in the world where there is water and electricity. It does not require an oil well or expensive oil rig. Hydrogen can be generated from the windmill or solar panels. Hydroelectric generators are fine. By compressing hydrogen and putting it in storage tanks. It will work just like a storage battery. Windmills and solar cell outputs can only be stored in batteries. Batteries are DC our power grid is AC. There is only so much energy that can be stored in a battery and then you must use another battery. Batteries are expensive and contain dangerous elements that, if not exposed of correctly are poisonous. If you were generating hydrogen all you would need is a bigger tank. Carbon composition tanks have been developed, that is stronger and safer and lighter than steel tanks.
Solar panels only work when there is sunshine. That makes them very inefficient. If during the day we would a siphon off some of the output from the solar panels. We could use it to produce hydrogen, which could be used during the nighttime hours. This would make the solar panels more effective.
Hydrogen sounds really nice. So why aren't we using it now?
The electricity that we are using two separate Hydrogen and Oxygen is coming from a power plant or from natural gas. The power plant is using coal, gas or oil. We need a primary fuel source to obtain the Hydrogen. It defeats some of the purpose of hydrogen if you use a fossil fuel to generate it. Every windmill and solar panel bank needs to be equipped with hydrogen generation equipment. Any type of electrical generation system would benefit from the use of hydrogen. The Hydrogen stores the energy in high pressure storage tanks in this process. The lead or lithium cell stores the energy in the storage battery. These storage batteries must be disposed of in environmental way. The lead and lithium are poison. Hydrogen is the world’s only nonpolluting storage battery.
This brings up another question. What have we gained if we go to Hydrogen?
The answer to that question lies much deeper than just the use of hydrogen to run an automobile. The very basis to our economy and the success of the United States as a nation is based on our use of energy. Without energy this country cannot remain great. It is the most important thing required for use to sustain our way of living!!! Saving energy is not the answer! Using it in a way that has the least impact on us and the planet is. Hydrogen is only real answer to this statement and should be on a very fast track. It is obvious that this is true. We are 350 million people, and according to the latest statistics. We are using 25% of the world’s oil.
Five years ago we were using 40%. This is not due to us using less it is others using more of this limited resource that has made the change. The rest of the world population is 5.7 billion people. All wanting to drive RVs. Oil is a limited supply item. It may not run out in our lifetime, but it will run out and very, very soon. The whole world needs oil and are looking at ours. It’s time to break this dependency and jump past them all. We need a real energy policy!! Not just oil, and the nonexistent clean coal!!!
The supply of oil is dwindling. Our grandkids or great grandkids are going to face a real dilemma. The fact that the supply is limited is not the only reason for the price increases. There are speculators that push the price up. We are drilling offshore or in the Arctic. Coal is being strip mined in Montana. It can't be found in easy areas anymore. Oil shale and other similar sources ruin the beauty of this planet. The cost of obtaining the oil continues to increase. The very terrorists that we are fighting around the world are getting funded by our own money. Referring to T. Boon Pickings "It is the greatest transfer of wealth the world has ever seen". It is very obvious that other energy sources are needed and needed now. Believe it or not you can generate Hydrogen at home.
We can no longer consider coal and oil the only sources of energy. We have different needs for energy. Some of them are stationary, others are mobile, and some fly through the air or sail our oceans. The only fuel source that can be used by them all is hydrogen!!
Hydrogen is used as a major fuel source for our space program. It's what makes our rockets go. There is no reason for it not to be used to make our jet planes fly. Think about it. You can go to Cape Canaveral after a rocket lifts off and there is no smell even after millions of tons of fuel have been consumed. Try that at any airport after a jet has lifted off. NASA is getting the hydrogen from somewhere how about giving some to us the tax payer.
We the tax payer has paid to develop this technology. Why should we not benefit from it? Under Eisenhower we build the interstate highway system. Why not an interstate energy system?
Again another question, does Hydrogen answer all of the energy needs of the world future? The answer to that question is no, it can’t stand alone and needs other energy sources to produce it. It is, however, an extremely important part of a practical approach to the energy problem. We have the need for both mobile and stationary fuel use. The stationary energy sources need to produce the fuel for the mobile energy users. There are many nonpolluting stationary energy sources, and any of which can be used to generate hydrogen. The hydrogen can be transported by using the existing natural gas lines. Propane trucks with a converted nozzle will work just fine. We need to start this transition now.
We do have the ability to produce it with existing technology. It can be generated using oil or natural gas for use in all our moving vehicles, trucks, cars, buses, airplanes etc. Why wait for windmills or atomic power plants to be built to start using Hydrogen? As more of the non polluting power plants come on line the hydrogen will be already flowing. If we don't do it at the same time it will just take longer. It would sure clean up the air in our cities, if only the busses ran on Hydrogen. I see no difference between building an interstate highway system so our commerce could move to building a interstate energy system. The more pipes in the ground the larger the storage capacity will be.
Hydrogen is a storage medium not a fuel source. Like a giant storage battery once the Hydrogen is generated it will store that energy forever. Every pipeline full of Hydrogen is a pipe line full of clean energy. There are multiple sources of, none polluting, renewable energy or limitless sources available to us that could generate it. There is wind power, atomic power, solar power, tidal power, geothermal power. Good jobs and clean air will be the result. America the beautiful can remain that way.
I believe it is not our ingenuity stopping the use of these different power sources. It is the entrenched use and investment in oil that is working like a giant dam. It is stopping our expansion in other energy areas. These companies have too much money invested. They want to scare us about other sources of energy. They are even after our retirees saying their pension are dependent on them.
When Hydrogen is generated it can replace gas or oil in almost every application. In one very big user that there is no other clean answer. It is jet, turbine and internal combustion engines. That old clunker converted to hydrogen would become a clean running vehicle.
How about one of these secret government facilities that keep on rolling out better spy planes surprising us and roll out a Hydrogen powered jet?
T. Boone Pickens a diehard oil man has made a proposal. It is the first crack in the oil dam that I have seen. To learn more about his proposal I've included his web address, and I'm not going to discuss it in much detail here.
http://www.pickensplan.com/
One of the things he wants to do is to increase the use of natural gas which means more pipelines. The second is the installation of windmills down the middle of the United States where wind is very prevalent. This means jobs and no cost fuel for the turbines. I believe he has one installed. How about out of the goodness of his heart he puts a hydrogen generating facility next to it!!! Windmills have the same problem as solar cells. They can have dead time. A common practice is to charge storage batteries. I propose they generate hydrogen instead and put in the new carbon composition storage tanks. This way all you need is a vehicle with a fuel cell and it and away you go power for the furnace and your vehicle. Fuel cells can also be used to power the lighting plants in your house and your other appliances.
He has been criticized for only mentioning things that would benefit his pocket. I however do not see it that way. I think it is an excellent first step. Nothing stops other entrepreneurs from taking the electrical output from his wind turbines and generating Hydrogen and putting it into the existing natural gas pipelines. The average person does not realize that most pipelines are capable of multiple uses. The Pickens lines will be in place and ready for Hydrogen. But, the existing pipes can be used now!!!! Those same pipelines that contain natural gas could be diluted with hydrogen, reducing the amount of greenhouse gas output. The end goal being one hundred percent hydrogen. To me this is a national defense issue.
It is a little known fact that for many years. Our major cities used something called city or coal gas. It was obtained from coal. It was mostly Hydrogen. Due to the Hindenburg disaster the name was disguised.
When I talk to people about Hydrogen and the first words out of their mouth is: Hydrogen is an extremely dangerous gas. Remember the Hindenburg. I know there is no sense talking to that person anymore. They don't understand the science.
If you fill a balloon with a flammable gas and light a match next to it. It's going to burn. If the balloon is as big as the Hindenburg it's going to be a big fire. Steel or carbon composition tanks have improved considerably since then.
Natural gas is as explosive as and more dangerous than Hydrogen. Hydrogen is extremely light, and if a leak occurs it will go up and blow away. However, natural gas or propane will hang around and go down until it finds an ignition source. Burn natural gas or propane, and they release CO2. When hydrogen burns, it turns into water.
I started this Blog by saying the Japanese and other countries have bet their future on Hydrogen. How are they doing this? The French and the Japanese are using Atomic energy as their primary energy source. In Japan the energy generated by the Atomic power plants is being used to generate Hydrogen that will be distributed through pipelines presently being installed in Japan. This has been a long term plan for them. We have no such plan. If you would like to see the distribution of Atomic power across the world look at the map below or for more detail visit:
http://www.insc.anl.gov/pwrmaps/map/world_map.php.
I think the number of Atomic power plants presently in existence and where they are located will surprise you. It really is a very safe method of generating power. The map you will find on this website was generated in 2005. At that time it was over a thousand reactors operating. Now it's about 1500. How many accidents do you hear about?
It's like the Hindenburg, 3 mile Island and Chernobyl happen over and over again in people's minds. We continue to build nothing and are told it'll take 10 years to complete one. Obviously this is a lie. That is the oil dam talking. We are building aircraft carriers and submarines, and many other military installations and putting reactors in them and they take a year maybe two to complete. The people on the ships and submarines live within feet of the reactors. Let's declassify them and set them up in small-town America. The aircraft carrier Ronald Reagan has up electrical power to light up a small city. It has the ability to it connect to the shore and supply this energy in an emergency.
I know we are being had by the oil dam. I look at a wind farm and I see multiple fans turning. Why do we want to build a super reactor that takes 10 years? When we could take proven reactors out of the submarines and aircraft carriers and start building small reactors that we could add to as we go. This is the way they build a wind farm. ( I FORGOT THEY ARE CLASSIFIED) The military also has stock piles of radioactive material that could be used in reactors.
I repeat we are being had! Remember for every Atomic plant that goes on line that’s off shore oil we do not need!!! A a strip mine we won't have to dig. The entrenched oil industry looses business. By off shore I mean, not just drilling, all the way to the Middle East and the rest of the world. We should be the leaders in the area of non fossil fuel power generation. A great high tech business could be created selling the technology to the rest of the world. That is the real way to stop any affect we may have on globule warming. It also is the best way to win the war on terror. We should treat it as a war!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Because it is!!!
If we all stop driving our vehicles tomorrow morning, the other 5.7 billion will not. It is a wasted effort. Putting clean energy in the hands of developing nations would give us jobs. Whether or not there is globule warming? Both sides should be happy. The air in the cities of the world would be cleaner!! I ask why we want to import something that sends billions of dollars overseas so they can buy bullets to shoot at us.
I can hear your question. What is the answer?
The average person wants to get in his car and away it goes without breaking the bank. He or she wants to turn on the hair dryer or air conditioner and not have sticker shock when the electric bill comes in. These may seem like small things but they are the things that make our life better than most of the world. The funny thing about democracy is it only works well when it has abundant energy. That is why for some countries democracy gives the basic people nothing. There still is no running water.
I would like to hear one of our candidates make energy the top of his list for things to solve. A presidential order releasing the military reactors for private use would be a good start. Look what happened when the military let loose of the Internet! (It once was classified)
A group of cash prizes for the companies that develop the first practical hydrogen powered jet engine, better storage batteries, better solar panels anything that helps remove our dependence on oil. Most of all a real push on getting Hydrogen on line.
The military reactors presently in moth balls should be given to small localities for their use. We paid for them. We have the US Army corps of Engineers taking care of our water ways. Why not a Navy corps of engineers helping set up the small reactors? They have the most experience with them. It could work like the thirties rural electrification project. The requirement would be that at least half of the power generated would be used to generate Hydrogen.
Yes we should drill for oil. Just giving leases on an area does not cut it. They should be areas with the shortest recovery rate. The leases should also contain the condition that a certain amount of corporate profit be used to develop hydrogen friendly projects. Excess profit taxes just don't get us anywhere! The government will just eat the money and the power problem will not be fixed. Forcing the major oil companies to help develop new energy sources will! It will give us more and better jobs also. The companies would have new products and the pensions would be safe!!!!!!
This also will cause the oil speculators to start looking for other investments. The money would soon become available for Hydrogen development.
The old statement "It's the economy stupid" would be satisfied. Without energy there is no economy!! This most be a national program. Without we the people pushing it will not go.
The Japanese have a plan and are working hard at accomplishing it. It's a national effort for them. We need a national leader that does the same for us. We need a leader like John Kennedy that took us to the moon. If we can go to the Moon why can't we solve the energy crises? I repeat it is the OIL DAM!!!
Our candidates have no energy plan. The Bush administration said they had one but kept it secret. There is nothing to make us energy independent let alone give us limitless power so we can continue to have the life style we all enjoy and remain the greatest nation on earth. The technology exists so why not use it?
We call ourselves a democracy but in truth we are a republic. That means we elect our leaders to think for us. I hear such comments being made that we should be ashamed of not speaking multiple languages. I wonder what would be better. Learning multiple languages or studying enough science to overcome the misguided fear of atomic or hydrogen power. Could it be that someone learning science could solve the energy crises or could speaking another language do it?
Energy is the base to the saying "It is the economy stupid" No energy no economy!! We once killed whales for their blubber to use in our lamps. It is again time to move on!!
Vikingbob
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