Overview of "A Convenient Solution" - a real and positive response to Al Gore's book.

This book, "A Convenient Solution," is is about alternative systems based on renewable, non fossil fuels, expansion of non polluting energy sources, and the total replacement of fossil fuels with their accompanying addition of carbon dioxide to our atmosphere. The ultimate goal is to show how we can do this economically and quickly by explaining what can and is being done and how we can accelerate the change. No, it does not have all the answers, but it does present practical ways we can move to an environmentally safe, economically secure energy and transportation system in as short a time as a decade.

In order for us to succeed in making this change it will require a completely new view of energy and how to create, store, transport, distribute and use it. Making this change smoothly and without painful disruption of commerce and transportation is a significant challenge. The change must be evolutionary rather than revolutionary and make use of as much existing and practical new technology as possible. As a matter of fact, one of the prime messages of the book is that it can be done using existing technology.

The current energy/transportation system includes: oil exploration, drilling, extraction, storage, refining, transportation, distribution as well as the development, manufacture, distribution, repair and maintenance of vehicles. The hydrogen fuel cell vehicle would be but a small part of a totally new and radically different duplicate system, designed from scratch, manufactured and put in place safely. This is a daunting and terribly expensive undertaking which would take a very long time to complete and have many unforseen pitfalls along the way.

Sadly, concentration of research effort on the hydrogen fuel cell vehicle system could possibly delay development of faster, better and less expensive systems by taking up a large percentage of government research money. Much of this money could be better spent developing other technologies described in the book. Fortunately, private money and development is bringing these other, less exotic, systems and products into reality. As in the human genome project, private effort inspired by the slow progress of government research is rapidly out performing government funded and controlled efforts with real technology and products of numerous types. Many of these creative technologies are described in the book.

One of the energy systems proposed in this book will provide environmentally positive vehicles and non fossil, renewable (RN) fuel at relatively low costs while creating an economic boom in any country that adopts it. It meets the following positive criteria:

1. It will be adaptable to present vehicles and small motors and not make them obsolete.

2. It is compatible with a gradual changeover and will not make obsolete much of the manufacturing, transport, storage, and delivery systems currently in use.

3. It will completely replace the use of fossil fuels within ten to twenty years using current or emerging technologies.

4. It will be a safe and secure system from top to bottom with adequate protection from dangers of all kinds. Probably far safer than our current system.

5. All of the required changes will be made smoothly evolutionary and not abruptly revolutionary.

6. It will stop the present steady increase in atmospheric carbon dioxide and the corresponding decrease in oxygen.

7. Conversion will not cost a fortune for research and development of new components or infrastructure.

8. Concrete steps for implementation can be started almost immediately with relatively little cost or inconvenience.

Another system and one that could be a surprise winner in the competitive world involves electric vehicles or EVs combined with radically different electric power sources such as tidal, wave action, wind, solar or geothermal. Already there are new EVs and PHEVs (Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicles) coming to market. These are described in some detail along with links to further information. It is this writer’s opinion that geothermal power plants, no more costly than coal power plants, could be built in a surprising number of locations and provide electricity without pollution or carbon dioxide emissions. Couple this with vehicles powered by electric motors and new technology batteries already developed and you have one very attractive and quite practical answer. Two vehicles now available include the Tesla roadster with its 100+ MPH speed and 250+ mile range and the Phoenix Motors SUT, a full-size pickup truck that seats five comfortably, has a top speed of 95 miles an hour and a range of 200+ miles on a single charge. One does not need much imagination to envision either of these systems in place within a decade or even less. We already have the technology. Should the new battery technology prove viable, the development of RN fuel for most transportation use could be on a much smaller scale with concordant environmental benefits.

The first system mentioned, the RN fuel system, would have the same advantages as the hydrogen system over petroleum based fuels, yet be much easier and far less costly to adopt. It would use almost entirely, existing, proven technologies and components including existing systems of storage, transport and distribution with little if any modifications. Existing vehicles and small engines could be easily and inexpensively converted to use RN fuels. Addition of RN fuels to service stations would be no more challenging than the recent addition of diesel fuel pumps and tanks. The required changes would be evolutionary with little disruption to our current system. At the very least, I predict that if properly implemented it would remove our dependence on foreign oil within ten years and do so using sound economics.

Should we adopt either or even both programs the benefits to our nation and the world would be quite substantial and almost immediate. Both the EV system and the RN fuel system would be superior to the hydrogen fuel cell system in environmental effect as it would not require nearly as much energy to implement and could be developed so no fossil fuels would be used. Use of any fossil fuel adds carbon dioxide to the atmosphere.

The financial boon to our nation would be huge as all our money now used to buy imported oil would go for American RN fuels. With existing infrastructure used for RN fuels there would be no huge outlay for an entirely new system as required for hydrogen. RN fuels produced without using fossil fuels would be much less costly at delivery than hydrogen. The least costly process for producing methanol would actually use hydrogen and combine it with carbon dioxide from the atmosphere to produce methanol and byproduct oxygen. Methanol has long been produced from coal and woody plant materials. Ethanol has likewise been produced from renewable plant sources and used as an additive to gasoline.

We desperately need an alternative to petroleum products which are becoming more and more dear. A sudden major disruption of the oil supply would wreak havoc with the world economy and create a depression that would make the thirties look like a cake walk. If the middle east implodes in terrorism, as will certainly happen, we will have to adopt such an alternative or our economy will be devastated. This could be that alternative.

The proposed methanol systems consist of some or all of certain specific components as follows:

1. An expanded production system for methanol. Development of use of woody material, agricultural wastes, in addition to coal to use in manufacture of methanol.

2. A new origination electrical power source that doesn’t use fossil fuel or create carbon dioxide emission. Nuclear or geothermal could be the best bet while wind, river, tidal or solar powered are also future possibilities.

3. A revolutionary new and very safe system for disposal of radioactive waste.

4. An electrolysis plant for generation of hydrogen and oxygen from water.

5. A chemical plant that reacts the hydrogen with carbon dioxide from the atmosphere to produce methanol using the reaction: 4 H2 + 2CO2 = 2CH3OH + O2 or, four hydrogen molecules reacted with two ca0rbon dioxide molecules yields two methanol molecules plus one of oxygen.

6. An ethanol, butanol or DMF production system to produce these fuels from agricultural products and possibly mix it with methanol to produce RN fuel.

7. A distribution system to store RN fuel and deliver it to filling stations for pump delivery. The current gasoline system could be easily modified to do this.

8. Vehicles modified or designed specifically to burn RN fuel in piston engines or in turbine/generator combinations.

No matter what the source or use of power, it’s all energy - that's simple physics. The only four sources for all energy we use on the earth are: the sun, the moon, the earth itself and atomic. Most of our energy comes or came from the sun. Whether from contemporary or fossil fuels, that energy was originally from the sun. Anything that is burned (oxidized) releases the solar energy that was originally stored in organic materials by photosynthesis. In this process, carbon dioxide and water were changed into organic compounds and oxygen. What we do when we release (or use) this solar energy is return that carbon dioxide and water into our atmosphere. Oxidation of any kind of fossil fuel by any process will increase the carbon dioxide in our atmosphere and decrease the oxygen.

A ton of carbon consumed in any oxidation process will remove four tons of oxygen from the atmosphere and add five tons of carbon dioxide back into it. It makes absolutely no difference what the source, any use of fossil fuels adds carbon dioxide to the atmosphere and removes oxygen. This is even true if the fossil fuel is used as a raw material to produce other fuels including hydrogen. The only fuel source that contributes no carbon dioxide to the atmosphere is fuels made from current plant material - renewable resources including wood, plant fiber and plant derivatives like ethanol.

The hydrogen economy will add even more carbon dioxide to the atmosphere than the present system unless a non-fossil fuel source is used to make the hydrogen.

The following shows the byproducts from use of several kinds of fuel in amounts roughly equivalent to one ton of coal in energy production:

1 ton of Coal removes 4 tons of oxygen and adds 5 tons of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere.

240 gallons gasoline removes 4.8 tons of oxygen and adds 4 tons of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere

225 gallons diesel removes 4 tons of oxygen and adds 4.9 tons of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere

290 gallons RN fuel removes 0 net tons of oxygen and adds 0 net tons of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere - because the two gasses were added and removed from the atmosphere when the fuel source was first created.

IMPORTANT! If the current fossil fuel energy system is to be replaced with one using no fossil fuels, biomass production of ethanol and methanol may not provide sufficient fuel to meet the increasing demands. Nuclear fission reactor driven generators may be the only practical system to provide that much energy. A practical method of permanent disposal of all radioactive waste products is described. Conservation, improved efficiency, even the hydrogen fuel cell will hardly dent the atmospheric growth of carbon dioxide in the foreseeable future. Addressing this critical need demands an entirely new fuel system.

The use of methanol as a universal fuel augmented by ethanol or other fuels from agricultural products, could be one answer. The methanol to be produced in plants powered by nuclear fission or geothermal steam driven generators. Electricity from these generators will be used on site to generate hydrogen and oxygen by electrolysis. The hydrogen to be directly reacted on site with carbon dioxide from the atmosphere to make methanol. This process uses the reaction 4H2 + 2CO2 = 2CH3OH + O2 or, four hydrogen molecules reacted with two carbon dioxide molecules yields two methanol molecules plus one of oxygen.

The combination of methanol, ethanol, and other liquid fuels, RN fuel, can be stored in tanks and distributed by pipeline and trucks using equipment that is currently used for gasoline. Present filling stations will store and deliver RN fuel as they now do gasoline. This changeover will be as simple as the recent addition of diesel pumps to nearly all filling stations. Some modification of equipment will be required, but an entire new distribution system will not.

It will be practical to modify existing gasoline vehicles and small engines to run on RN fuel inexpensively. It is even possible that special RN fuel made of a blend of butanol and DMF could be used directly in present gasoline engines without modification. New conventional type IC vehicles and small engines will be produced designed for RN fuel from the ground up. New vehicles will be developed which use RN fuel in internal combustion (IC) or turbine engines driving generators much like in present hybrid vehicles.

Finally, RN fuel turbine driven generators will power new "tribrid" vehicles through storage battery systems capable of going fifty to a hundred miles on battery power alone. These turbines will run at maximum efficiency at constant speed and load, charging the batteries on-the-fly and shutting down when not needed. The "tribrid" can also be charged from house current, thus the name, "tribrid" indicating the use of three distinct energy conversion systems in a single vehicle.

Development of fixed, on-the-fly direct charging systems could then lead to full electric vehicles with possibly a small emergency methanol powered generator. Methanol fuel cells, currently under development, could be another evolutionary step to power the "tribrid". Should they become practical, the infrastructure for fuel distribution would already be in place.

The many advantages of RN fuel over any type of hydrogen fuel system are obvious.

1. It will be a gradual, evolutionary change, not a drastic revolution.

2. It uses technology that is proven and already in use.

3. It won’t make obsolete the engines in existing cars, trucks, motorcycles, ATVs, boats, RVs, lawn mowers or other small engine powered tools.

4. It may reduce fuel costs, if Uncle Sam doesn’t tax it more than gasoline is now taxed.

5. It does something positive about pollution and global warming. (The American public really does care about the environment.)

6. It will mean a huge economic boom for the US since the billions that now go out of the country for oil will stay in the US. (What if France or China beats us to the punch?)

7. It will provide many new and high paying jobs for Americans right here.

8. It’s a lot safer than gasoline, diesel, propane and especially hydrogen

9. It will eventually cut off funding for Islamic fundamentalists.

Several years ago I was quite interested in the hydrogen fuel-cell program for vehicle power, but didn’t really know much about it. Once I began researching it, I found out that it might not be the panacea it was touted to be, particularly because of the tremendous cost in both money and time required both for its development and for the infrstructure required to serve it. Since that time, I have looked into several systems that could be applied to storage and distribution of hydrogen as a fuel and came up with some novel ideas. Unfortunately for the hydrogen fuel cell proponents, I also came up with several alternate strategies for using hydrogen that appears to be simpler, cheaper, and much more practical. This results of this research is published in, "A Convenient Solution."

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Last edit October 25, 2007