The efforts of local people at the Tathra human sign event, Dr Mathew Nott and the clean energy for eternity group have motivated me start having a good look at where energy is at. Here is a work in progress of where I think the energy issue is at.

Current fossil fuel reliance results in;

• Adding carbon to the carbon cycle, extremely self distructive behavior.
  
• Huge inefficiencies due to high requirements for centralised mining,processing and distribution.
• Severe political ramifications in trying to secure sources of fossill fuels. eg much war and death.

C0₂ is not an evil chemical it is a critical part of the natural carbon cycle. All organic material dead or alive will degrade at some point largely into CO₂. New life that takes the place of that dead organic material will re-adsorb the CO₂ at the same rates. The Earth is an expert at regulating CO₂ levels. The problem in relation to global warming is the release of new CO₂ from fossil fuels into the cycle thus disturbing the balance.

So to burn a piece of wood releases CO₂ but as long as you know that another tree has taken the place of the wood you are burning then you can rest assured. You are not contributing to the problem of global warming. Or as often said your action will be carbon neutral. If your firewood collection results in the long term clearing of forests then not so neutral.

Cycling carbon faster or slower is not the issue. Adding carbon to the cycle is suicide.

Solar, wind, biodiesel, biogas can all be turned into electricity. The problem is no longer electricity generation but storage, transmission and use are now the issues. Solar for instance does produce sufficient power for household use but is limited by the cost and lack of efficient storage options. The national energy grid wastes vast amounts of electricity during times of low consumption due to having no where to put it. Large amounts of energy are lost in overhead transmission of electricity.

The generation and storage of Hydrogen and hydrogen rich natural gases provide not only an answer to energy storage but also has the side effect of being able to integrate anaerobic digestion and solar forms of generation. The transmission problem is a simpler one, make it locally.

Large scale electricity producing turbines take hours even days to get to top operating speeds. It is not feasible for them to be stopped overnight when power consumption is reduced. So what do they do with the power they generate during those hours ? Simple, they waste it. What else can they do? There is no efficient electricity storage in use in Australia on the required scale.

Household scale solar systems suffer similarly. The majority of generation occurs during the hottest times when nobody wants to use a great deal of energy.(Those clever enough to use solar power are also clever enough to have built a house that does not require air-conditioning). Current battery technologies are hopelessly inefficient and expensive. Car lead acid batteries return a mere 5% of the power they sallow. More expensive batteries can return up to 20%. Typically these batteries involve heavy metals, environmentally costly manufacture and short life span. The limitations of solar systems are more often than not one of storage capacity not one of generating the total required kilowatts.

Storing excited electrons (electricity) is not working out for us. In fact we are not even in the ball park. So why not take an alternative approach. Store the energy in a different form and convert it cleanly on demand.

Natural gas is an ideal way to store energy as all living things become natural gas by natural and almost unstoppable pathways. Everything from sewerage to lawn clipping can be converted to gas. With the help of solar power even water can be converted to gas.

The simple chemistry

PEM - pure hydrogen to electricity.

Solid Oxide Fuel Cell (SOFC) - hydrogen rich methane to electricity

www.lbl.gov/Science-Articles/Archive/MSD-fuel-cells.html

www.mscsoftware.com/alpha/view_article.cfm

www.celltechpower.com/technology.htm

Solar - electrolysis

Anaerobic Converters - methane and H2S

Solid oxide fuel cells(SOFC) cells accept a wide variety of fuels making them ideal for use with locally made fuel from a wide variety of sources. Anaerobic digestors are a simple and available technology. They produce a variety of natural gasses and alcohol from the anaerobic breakdown of virtually any organic materials. Coventionally the variety of gases that results was a problem as the gas had to purified before use. For instance impurities in the fuels of methanol or methane engines is a serious problem to be avoided. However SOFC's offer to utilise both the methane and the H₂S gases and any other hydrocarbons floating around. The gases can then be enriched by pure hydrogen coming from your solar powered electrolysis.

Heres the big news. Rather then getting 20% of your power back from storage, SOFC's can return 80% of your generated electricity (returning the remaining 20% inside the water you used to make the hydrogen, warm water is hardy a waste product). Then you can top up your gas supplies with some unwanted sewerage and mulch and give that to the same SOFC stack but wait theres more! You will receive an 80% efficiency rate on your gas to power conversion instead of a combustion moter that could give up to 25%.

Methane is a much easier and cost effective way of hydrogen storage, at least until new storage technologies become available. I am yet to find specific data on how much hydrogen could be stored with methane, in a mixture, before you lose the ability to utilise methane storage equipment and methods. In the worst case scenario of both gases requiring separate storage the gases could mixed upon use and most of the benefits remain.

An ideal source of methane and H₂S is sewerage both human and farm animal. The Bega Valley is covered in small settling dams next to dairies practically bubbling with gas rising to the air only to blow away in the wind.

CO2 emissions do come from fuel cells when using natural gas. The emission rates per KW are extremely low due to high efficiecy. More to the point this CO2 is not adding to the cycle at all. It is simply extracting energy from a process that would occur regardless.

If using pure solar/hydrogen systems no carbon is involved at all.

• Metal Hydride Tanks
• Carbon Nano tubes
• Chemical Storage

The short story is that pure Hydrogen is not as dangerous to store as hydrocarbon liquid gases. This is due to the fast dispersal rate of hydrogen, typically in a leak, the gas has dispersed and become moisture in the air before flash point can be reached.

In the case of methane for use in SOFC's, safe storage technologies have long been in use. In fact many of us have stored propane for a cooking, methane is less dangerous than this. The same cylinders can be used.

The Hindenburg story involves a blimp covering that consisted of explosive chemicals (dynamite) in the presence of hydrogen, an accidental choice of materials due to changing from helium to hydrogen without much thought. It is also worth noting, of the hundreds that died in the accident, not one of them was touched by flames from burning hydrogen. Due to bad PR and lack of knowledge this incident spelled the end to the most efficient form of mass travel available. Blimps can carry upwards of 500 passengers in spacious surroundings with only a fraction of the fuel use.

www.fuelcells.org.au

Wiki Hydrogen Economy

http://www.cea.fr/gb/publications/Clefs44/an-clefs44/clefs4453a.html

http://hydrogen.org.au/nhaa/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&Itemid=25

http://www.nfcrc.uci.edu/EnergyTutorial/combustionindex.html

http://www.acumentrics.com/DistGenOverview.htm

http://www.fuelcellmaterials.com/category.cfm?defID=44

http://www.nextechmaterials.com/view_page.php?id=26

My concerns with biodiesil are;

• Is it only made from nitrogen input intensive crops, thus not reducing fossil fuel usage ?
  
• Will encouraging intensive cropping increase erosion or soil degradation ?
• Will these crops put more pressure on the water system ?

Biodiesil electricity generation is not an energy efficient pathway. Thus Biodiesil's advantage is really only for high powered machinery such as tractors, trucks and hydraulics. It is not a contender in my view for household use or domestic transport.

Given these limitations, however, users of heavy machinery should look closely at this option. If crops can be produced on suitable cropping land then this fuel would be step in the right direction and an essential piece in the puzzle. It is unlikely that electric engines will take the place of combustion in large machinery.

If storage without batteries is not required due to hydrogen storage these options become much more feasible then otherwise thought. In fact at least a four fold increase in efficiency is acheived (20% to 80% return).

The electricity generated from these devices can be used to electrolyse water, generating hydrogen. Hydrogen can then be stored and delivered when and where required.

In the bega valley solar is definately a long term part of the clean energy solution. Wind in the valley however has not attracted the interest of wind farm developers. However little information about using single wind generators for domestic use seems to be available.