[Stoves] A bit about shale energy

[Carefreeland at aol.com]

In a message dated 10/15/2012 5:36:02 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time,  
acparker at xmission.com writes:
 
DD; It's also difficult for me to think only about Biomass Energy when I  
just finished an E- mail selling my skills to a gas driller. 
    I don't have a problem with big oil running things  that are big 
projects, as long as they do things properly and spread the  benefits to those who 
deserve them. Big oil is made up of a lot of small people  and 
subcontractors. I was in line to be hired by a small driller for field  maintenance 
services if they hit locally, just because they wanted someone "  with common 
sense and an awareness of the environment". For the most part that  is also 
true of big oil ,except sometimes anybody can get greedy and careless.  Big 
oil means big mistakes. 
    Plug in hybrids are the way to go unless you are  limited to short 
commutes. Here in the USA I think about 6% of our electricity  is now wind and 
solar. The big opportunity in transportation here in the USA is  the rapid 
building of LNG fueling infrastructure for converted trucks, trains  and 
someday ships. In remote areas LNG can be synthesized easier than gasoline  from 
biomass for refueling. Diesel fuel is expensive and in high demand around  
the world, Biodiesel has it's limitations. Converting fuel oil heat to NG,  
biomass, geothermal or solar thermal heat for houses and buildings, will also 
 free up distillates for diesel and jet fuel. Synthetic NG derived jet fuel 
is  being produced in Qatar instead of just shipping LNG. There is  talk of 
doing that on the US Gulf Coast somewhere due to the glut of gas  there. A 
plane was being tested somewhere with a special biodiesel engine.  
The high sulfur and otherwise dirty steam coal is  being gradually replaced 
by NG. New environmental rules are putting  more cost pressure on very 
clean metallurgic type coal. I think the real  opportunity lies in replacing the 
met coal with low ash charcoal. That is where  the cleaner biofuel really 
pays off. I also heard someone was converting an old  coal fired steam power 
plant on the Ohio River to co- fire biomass. Cliffs  resources was 
developing a process to use biomass to beneficiate iron ore. There  are still many 
uses for Biomass wherever carbon is required. Cheap shale gas  will just shift 
things around a bit. 
        Dan 

I will  hope that things will change for the better in Africa, but it is a  
 
slim hope.

The irony for "Big Oil" hating environmentalists is that  changing the  
source of fuel is not going to hurt big oil in the long  run.  They own the 
 
distribution and retail  infrastructure.

Electric vehicles are simply unworkable outside of  short commutes (I could 
 
use an inexpensive, street legal golf cart,  as much of my driving is under 
 
5 miles round-trip, and on flat,  low-speed surface roads that meet Low  
Speed Vehicle requirements)  and can never replace conventional liquid  
fueled vehicles, unless  some breakthrough is made in battery or capacitor  
technology that  does not require rare earth elements.

To keep closer to subject, I read  that if biomass is mixed with coal,  
around 20 to 30 percent, in the  gasification process, it reduces CO2  
production below that produced  in refining oil -- if you're keeping  
score.  Another source of  gas that can put-off the inevitable by a few  
hundred  years.

_______________________________________________



-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.bioenergylists.org/pipermail/stoves_lists.bioenergylists.org/attachments/20121015/ac56b080/attachment.html>