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Making Natural Gas Transportation a Reality

WOW-- I just read Edwin Black's article on Honda & Fuelmaker and it paints a most distressing picture of Honda. Being a Honda supporter for some time I find this almost unbelievable and amazingly stupid from both a strategic and PR perspective. Honda will regret this and I suspect it was conceived at some lower division level. Hopefully Honda leadership will see the light and fire the boneheads responsible for such poor behavior or send them to Attu to work to work on future NG fueled arctic vehicles. Thanks for the links.

Honda moved their talented diesel engine car designers to the new Insight design to counter the Prius. Perhaps Toyota will respond by going into production with their new NG/hybrid.

Making Natural Gas Transportation a Reality

Excellent article. You've brought together many diverse aspects of this problem into clear focus and outlined steps toward the solutions. I think the central focus is the main issue along with leadership (or lack of it) because most of the potential components view their prospects through the lens of their own company/industry. The auto industry is a good example of this as their attention is focused on their immediate survival, not looking to solve our energy problems.

Clearly a national energy policy is required to accomplish these goals and it looks like it will have to come from the people as you noted.

Your comment regarding the oil and gas available to private energy companies worldwide is right on target. The great majority of reserves are in the control of foreign governments. I think that fact was behind Conoco's purchase of Burlington ang their move into more gas reserves. Hopefully Mulva will be a strong supporter of NG transportation as it is clearly in his interest. Russia's recent moves on the gas front are disquieting and should alert us develop our own resources for obvious reasons.

I remain convinced for a complete energy policy in addition to NG transportation we MUST get moving on advanced fast nuclear reactor development as soon as possible. NG is a bridge, but we need the foundation on the other end of the bridge to carry us forward. As has been discussed here before while wind, solar and geothermal are all good sources of renewal energy and must be expanded, their numbers are too small to become the major source of our base power needs in the near to intermediate term.

A Natural Gas Centric Strategic Long-Term Comprehensive Energy Policy

Dave Marsh: You are exactly correct about mantle disposal of the waste and your concept strikes me as brilliant. Crazy ideas were normal at our institution and in fact the idea of drilling a core in deep water was considered crazy at that time. We just went ahead and did it to the surprise of many (but not all since it was funded after all). Considering all the work already accomplished on the IFR reactor, pushing ahead with its development and building them in quantity is anything but crazy. In fact it would be crazy NOT to move forward with this program because it solves so many problems confronting us.

A Natural Gas Centric Strategic Long-Term Comprehensive Energy Policy

Dave Marsh: Thanks for the comments on nuclear power. I agree with your concerns regarding IFR reactors for those outside the nuclear club. I'm not familiar with the CANDU system but will look into it. From your description of it it would seem to be a good solution for non nuclear countries. I have little doubt that advanced nuclear power is required for our future because when you look at the numbers and if you think we must reduce carbon dioxide emissions there is no other source that will supply the required baseload power.

Your thoughts on disposing of nuclear waste in the Mariana's trench are very interesting to me. Many years ago I was involved in what became the Deep Sea Drilling Project and conceived the idea of drilling the waste into trench subduction zones. There are quite a number of them in the ocean, some not as deep, but with high subduction rates that would rapidly (in geologic time) carry the hot material rapidly into the deeper zones within the earth. It was usually thought to be a crazy idea by others.

A Natural Gas Centric Strategic Long-Term Comprehensive Energy Policy

Fitz: I just received a reply to my letter urging my congressman to support HR 1835 that resulted from one of your prior articles on that subject. He is fully on board and a cosponsor of the bill. He clearly understands the big picture on our energy situation, the need to take a multifaceted approach and how important NG is in the mix. He also liked my request to push the IFR nuclear reactor technology to achieve clean low cost base load power while disposing of the long half-life waste from current reactors. It is refreshing to learn that at least someone in our congress actually gets it! Hopefully there are others.

A Natural Gas Centric Strategic Long-Term Comprehensive Energy Policy

Fitz: Thanks for the info on how to get the book. It's on order. You are correct about aviation fuel. I found it ironic that early in the cycle of increasing oil prices that only the USAF seemed aware of the looming potential shortage of jet fuel.

www.sciam.com/article....

www.flightglobal.com/a...

Quite a lot is going on with aviation gas too, mostly to learn how to remove the lead from 100LL and yet support the needs of piston power aircraft.

www.swiftenterprises.c...

Butanol is another fuel that has good potential for both aviation and automotive applications since it can be directly mixed into the present feed stocks and has high energy content per unit weight, a critical factor for aviation fuel.

peswiki.com/index.php/...

A Natural Gas Centric Strategic Long-Term Comprehensive Energy Policy

Fitz: I was looking for the Hefner book, but couldn't find one on any of the usual web sites (Amazon etc). Any advice on where to find it? I did find an interesting tv link of an interview with Hefner.

fora.tv/2009/02/24/Rob...

A book that discusses the IFR reactor and other interesting related subjects is "Prescription for the Planet" by Tom Blees and is available on Amazon. I found its organization frustrating but it contains a lot of useful information and ideas that offer solutions for many of our energy (and environmental) problems.

As an interesting aside the ancient Chinese drilled for natural gas in the 1st century BC achieving depths up to 4800 feet using bamboo drills strings and iron drill bits. Ref. "The Genius of China" by Robert Temple pg. 51-54.

A Natural Gas Centric Strategic Long-Term Comprehensive Energy Policy

Fitz: Yeah, I used to be against nuclear power too primarily due to the accumulation of very long half life waste with no responsible solution to dispose of it. The IFR reactor changes all that however as it can burn up all the accumulated waste and recycle it into a waste with about 200 year half life and a much smaller quantity of it too. This is a viable solution that has been set aside for over a dozen years. GE has a design called the S-Prism that is based upon the IFR technology and while the concepts have all been built, tested and proven they work a commercial sized unit remains to be built. This is a vital component of any long range clean energy program and we must get moving on it. Quite a lot of information is out there on the subject, just Google IFR reactor. Below is a link that explains what was done on this program.

skirsch.com/politics/g...

Pickens' effort to introduce gas (CNG & LNG)as a transport fuel for trucks and buses depends on Westport to deliver the engines and they are doing it.

A Natural Gas Centric Strategic Long-Term Comprehensive Energy Policy

Your ideas for solving our energy problems are excellent and well presented. I'm not so sure about hydrogen as a transport fuel in the future but perhaps a breakthrough will improve its potential. The other area that requires immediate attention is pushing forward with the IFR nuclear reactor development. We will need some more of the current technology nuclear plants to bridge the gap until IFR generators take over but we must be sure to NOT use any intermediate designs that produce waste products that cannot be burned in the IFR reactors.

For investment ideas you forgot to include Westport (WPRT), the maker of heavy duty NG fueled engines for trucks and buses.

Book Review: Robert Hefner's 'The Grand Energy Transition'

Fitz: Perhaps I'm not making my point on LNG clear. I wasn't proposing it for middle class car transport, but for use in long haul trucking. The main issue is that LNG would enable wide use NOW because with only a few carefully sited locations (several already exist) large trucks on long haul routes could rely on available fuel to greatly reduce cost and pollution. This is already being implemented by several west coast ports to reduce pollution in the harbors and surrounding areas.

While many object to nuclear power generation, my difficulty is with the long life waste generated by the current generation of light water reactors. A solution for this exists with more advanced fast reactors and Argonne Labs has built and tested such a solution, the IFR reactor. This system does away with the uranium mining issues as it consumes present nuclear waste and depleted uranium which are available now in quantity. This solution can be placed into service with additional development in a reasonable time frame while research continues on fusion technology which most think is quite some time in our future even if research efforts are ramped up. We will require a significant amount of baseload electrical power generation if we are to replace coal and wind and solar cannot produce those quantities with current technology. It seems we are being side tracked by thinking "clean coal" might be a solution and are not pushing forward on advanced nuclear technology as a result. That is a huge mistake in my opinion, but it is being sold by vested interests.

Book Review: Robert Hefner's 'The Grand Energy Transition'

Fitz: We can agree to disagree over LNG use, but in the longer term I see gas as a transition fuel. You are correct about closing coal burning for electric power generation. I think the long term solution lies with advanced fast nuclear reactors that will solve both our carbon and long life nuclear waste problems. Tom Blees has written and interesting book "Prescription for the Planet" that discusses this and other related subjects and is worth reading.

www.skirsch.com/politi...

Book Review: Robert Hefner's 'The Grand Energy Transition'

LNG actually make sense for long haul truck fuel considering our present gas refueling infrastructure. Sufficient LNG fuel can be carried for long trips and only a few strategically located LNG refueling locations would allow replacement of diesel fuel now for much of the long haul industry, saving them quite a bit of fuel costs in the process. Several of the large truck makers have introduced LNG fueled models and Australia is moving in this direction for their long haul trucking industry.