Materials For Energy

EQ Interview: Brazil’s energy policies: An interview with Sérgio Rezende, former S&T minister

(See interview in Energy Quarterly (EQ) in the March 2011 issue of MRS Bulletin)

Brazil’s efforts in science and technology only emerged in the last 40 years and investment in it increased by a factor of 10 in just the last 10 years. Until recently, their Minister of Science and Technology was Sérgio Rezende (2005–2010), a materials researcher himself. He recently addressed questions from MRS Bulletin representative Guillermo Solórzano for Energy Quarterly about Brazil’s plans for the energy challenges ahead.

It is well known that Brazil has invested in renewable energy sources such as hydro and biofuels “long before the issues of a low-carbon economy entered the global agenda,” Rezende said. By the mid-1980s ethanol had replaced over 30% of gasoline there. Yet, Brazil does not rely only on biofuels. All possible energy sources are needed, Rezende said, and their aim is to achieve the lowest possible cost to allow economic growth at reasonably high rates for the majority of the population. Brazil has been developing offshore petroleum along with environmental remediation, stimulating the private sector to deploy wind farms, and pursuing a nuclear energy program. Rezende said that with only 30% of its territory prospected, Brazil has the sixth largest world reserve of uranium mineral. Brazil has self-sufficiency in the exploration, mining, processing, and production of uranium oxide (yellowcake); the production of powder and tablets; and the fabrication of fuel elements; and expects to become self-sufficient in uranium enrichment by 2015, he said.

In the area of biofuels, after the expansion of ethanol from sugarcane into the 1980s, the amount of ethanol used in the 1990s declined when subsidies were lifted, Rezende said. Then in 2003 flexible-fuel vehicles were introduced, making biofuels competitive again. Now over 90% of cars manufactured in Brazil are flex-fuel and more ethanol is used for fuel than gasoline. Rezende also said that while Brazil has plenty of sugarcane to produce ethanol using conventional methods, they also have a major effort in producing cellulosic ethanol, estimating that conversion efficiency can be increased by about 30% by using the stalks and leaves of the plants and also improving fermentation technology.

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Elizabeth L. Fleischer, Principal Development Editor
Materials Research Society (MRS)

Learning from Energy Initiatives Conducted in Different Regions of the World

The second issue of Energy Quarterly has been published in the December 2010 MRS Bulletin. This month the editorial by Steve M. Yalisove emphasizes the importance of Regional Initiatives, those “far-reaching experiments in sustainable energy” performed in some region of the world, with lessons to be learned by other regions of the world as they set forth to find their own solutions. Energy Quarterly now has presented two such experiments:

• September 2010: How Sunlight Became a Commodity in Germany and
• December 2010: Maintaining Brazil’s ethanol fuel momentum.

Sometimes, such as in the case of Germany scaling up solar energy, it is a question of political will. Germany might not be thought of as the sun center of the world, yet they are producing more than a third of the world’s photovoltaic power. Incentives for individuals to install solar cells on their homes and sell energy back to the utilities moved this program forward. Scaling up solar in Germany also opened a market for thin-film solar cells produced in the United States.

In other cases, local resources play a significant role, such as Brazil’s use of ethanol from their plentiful sugarcane crops. Now Brazil not only produces a large fraction of their automobile fuel domestically, they export ethanol to other countries. With an established ethanol industry, will catalysts and other materials developments make possible further experiments with cellulosic ethanol or other second-generation fuels?

These and other regional initiatives, such as nuclear power in France, wind in Denmark, and Desertec to transport renewable energy from deserts to population hubs, make up a useful set of experiments to examine economic, public policy, and engineering challenges in the energy arena. Energy Quarterly’s approach is to present the underlying science behind the engineering challenges and identify the materials issues that may offer useful solutions. What other lessons can be learned?

 

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Elizabeth L. Fleischer
Editor, MRS Bulletin
Materials Research Society (MRS)

Introducing Energy Quarterly

By V.S. Arunachalam and Elizabeth L. Fleischer

When MRS Bulletin published its expanded special issue in April 2008, “Harnessing Materials for Energy,” it was not a project done lightly. The impetus for this effort was the desire to describe the veritable options that materials provide in energy technologies.   These options can then be evaluated in the context of other imperatives such as economic viability and environmental concerns, which all interact to determine societal choices for energy. We were surprised and, of course, pleased by the timeliness, impact, and reception this volume received not only within the materials community but also in the larger world of energy professionals.

But these issues are not posed in a stagnant era. Even the framework for addressing energy challenges is evolving as countries set or collaborate on policies to address resource, security, and environmental needs. Since the publication of the special issue on energy, there have been a few reports of increased photovoltaic solar cell efficiency. The National Ignition Facility in the United States—one of the paths for realizing nuclear fusion—is becoming operational. Off-shore wind power is becoming a reality across Europe. And the government of Germany, despite its recent removal of subsidies, is still pursuing a bold initiative for large-scale grid connections of solar photovoltaics.

MRS Bulletin wants to capture stories of all such innovations as they occur, without a long wait for the detailed reports to appear. This is our driver for starting Energy Quarterly (EQ) . Four times a year, bound along with MRS Bulletin, EQ will host articles that are short, current, and eminently readable. Materials for energy will be the focus, but news from other nearby fields that are relevant will be included. The pages of EQ will include analysis across key energy sectors, lessons from major regional initiatives, interviews with energy leaders who are seen as architects of change, and transformational technology and research news.

This first volume provides a sampling of what we are pursuing. However, the space here is limited, and developments are many and varied. We need your input to help us follow the avenues with the greatest promise and to ensure this “journal within a journal” meets its objectives.  In subsequent days, the items in Energy Quarterly will be posted in the blog, and we encourage the community to comment on these articles and other blog items, expand on key points, and direct readers to additional resources.

V.S. Arunachalam
Chair, Energy Quarterly Organizing Committee

Elizabeth L Fleischer
Editor, MRS Bulletin

Scaling Up Alternative Energy

By Gopal R. Rao

(From Science)

The August 13, 2010, Issue of Science (Vol 329, Issue 5993, Pages 713-876) is a special issue on energy with the title "Scaling Up Alternative Energy".

As stated in the introductory article "Getting Better To Get Bigger" by David Malakoff, Jake Yeston, and Jesse Smith:

"The end of the age of fossil fuels may be in sight, but what comes after is still a bit of a blur. There are numerous alternatives to coal, oil, and natural gas from electricity generated by solar farms to biofuels brewed from plants. Scaling up these alternative sources of energy, however, has proved a challenge. This special issue explores the progress that researchers are making in developing better alternatives, and the technical, political, and economic pitfalls associated with scaling them up."

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Gopal R. Rao, Ph.D.
Web Science Editor
Materials Research Society (MRS)

Welcome

Welcome to the Materials Research Society’s (MRS) “MATERIALS FOR ENERGY” blog. I am your host Russell R. Chianelli, MRS president in 1990 and career researcher in energy materials: batteries, catalysts, hydrogen storage and solar cells.

We all recognize the importance of energy in the coming years for global economic growth and security. We also recognize that energy production in any form has environmental consequences that must be considered. Materials research is key to the development and maintenance of reliable and safe energy sources which are affordable and environmentally acceptable.

It is the purpose of the “MATERIALS FOR ENERGY” blog to discuss the scientific issues surrounding all areas of materials for energy: basic research, scale-up and commercialization, deployment, environmental impact including raw materials acquisition and finally disposal technologies. In order to effectively discuss these issues we have invited a series of experts as co-hosts to assist in guiding the discussions and to present current articles and resources for discussion. We encourage all interested parties in engaging in the discussions and suggest the April 2008 issue of the MRS Bulletin – Harnessing Materials for Energy.

 

 

Welcome and Blog On!!    

 

Nuclear Power Renaissance?

(MIT Technology Review Article)

Thirty years ago, in March 1979, a group of badly trained operators in the control room at Three Mile Island's unit 2 confronted a minor malfunction. The problem, a simple pump shutdown, was quickly made worse by an instrument panel that failed to inform the operators about a stuck valve and by an alarm system that overloaded after the first malfunction. The operators botched an attempt to solve the rapidly escalating problem, allowing a small leak to drain most of the cooling water out of the $700 million reactor. In about two hours, they converted America's newest nuclear plant, which had begun commercial operation just three months earlier, into a $1 billion liability.

The event at the reactor, near Harrisburg, PA, provoked near-panic, and although government reports said the maximum possible radiation exposure was too small to have much effect on human health, one major casualty was the outlook for the nuclear industry itself. The meltdown did not end the first round of nuclear construction in this country; 50 reactors already under construction were completed after the accident, and orders for new plants had effectively ceased anyway. (The last order for a nuclear plant that was actually built came in 1973.) But for years to come, it remained unthinkable to plan new reactors as part of the nation's energy portfolio.

Given pressures to reduce carbon dioxide emissions from fossil-fuel power plants, however, construction of nuclear plants could be poised to begin anew. The technology has grown more reliable and more efficient. Reactors now run 90 percent of the hours in a year, compared with less than 60 percent in 1979, effectively cutting the capital cost of a kilowatt-hour by about a third. Meanwhile, other sources of power have started looking a lot worse. Congress seems likely to put some kind of price tag on carbon dioxide emissions, so the price of coal-produced electricity could rise by 30 to 50 percent. The price of natural gas is low right now but has been more volatile than the price of oil in the past few months as surging supplies and lackluster demand play leapfrog. Such volatility makes electric companies reluctant to rely heavily on gas.

All the same, the nuclear industry faces tremendous risks, though their nature has changed since 1979. As the possibility of an accident that panics or injures the neighbors has diminished, the likelihood has grown that even a properly functioning new reactor will be unable to pay for itself. And changes in the utility industry since 1979 mean that this time, the money a company wastes may be its own.

More...

 

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Gopal R. Rao, Ph.D.
Web Science Editor
Materials Research Society (MRS)

 

 

Energy Related Videos from the 2008 MRS Fall Meeting

Two videos from the 2008 MRS Fall Meeting are now posted on the ScienceFriday.com Web site.

Video One—Susan Solomon on Climate Change
Susan Solomon, a scientist at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, gives the keynote address at the meeting of the Materials Research Society. Solomon discusses the evidence of changes in the Earth's climate and the causes of those changes. Courtesy of MRS.

Video Two—MRS Forum: Nuclear Power in America
Ira Flatow moderates a panel at the meeting of the Materials Research Society on the impediments to a renaissance of nuclear power in the US. Claude Guet, deputy to the High Commissioner for Atomic Energy CEA (French Atomic Energy Commission), Chaim Braun, of the center for International Security and Cooperation at Stanford University, Thomas Cochran, of the National Resources Defense Council, and Rodney Ewing, geologist at the University of Michigan, discuss the role of materials science in nuclear power. Courtesy of MRS.

 

Also see:

Energy Forum at ICEM 2008, Sydney, Australia
International Conference on Electronic Materials IUMRS-ICEM 2008
Sydney, Australia, July 31, 2008
This Energy Forum was a follow-on to the Energy Forum held during the 2008 MRS Spring Meeting in San Francisco and publication of the MRS Bulletin special issue, “Harnessing Materials for Energy” (April 2008, Vol. 33, No. 4). Industry representatives and researchers from across the world participated in the series of presentations and a panel discussion. The event focused on the most important materials research challenges that need to be addressed to move toward secure, affordable, and environmentally sustainable energy to meet the world’s accelerating energy needs. Following the full energy chain including production, storage, distribution and use, the presentations gave a global view of the energy challenges ahead and promising materials research directions for meeting these challenges.

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Dr. Gopal Rao
Web Science Editor
Materials Research Society (MRS)

 

Nuclear fusion-fission hybrid

According to a new report, scientists at the University of Texas at Austin have designed a new system that, when fully developed, would use fusion to eliminate most of the transuranic waste produced by nuclear power plants. The invention could help combat global warming by making nuclear power cleaner and thus a more viable replacement of carbon-heavy energy sources, such as coal.

The scientists propose destroying the waste using a fusion-fission hybrid reactor, the centerpiece of which is a high power Compact Fusion Neutron Source (CFNS) made possible by a crucial invention. The CFNS would provide abundant neutrons through fusion to a surrounding fission blanket that uses transuranic waste as nuclear fuel. The fusion-produced neutrons augment the fission reaction, imparting efficiency and stability to the waste incineration process.

The scientists' waste destruction system would work in two major steps.

First, 75 percent of the original reactor waste is destroyed in standard, relatively inexpensive light water reactors (LWRs). This step produces energy, but it does not destroy highly radiotoxic, transuranic, long-lived waste, what the scientists call "sludge."

In the second step, the sludge would be destroyed in a CFNS-based fusion-fission hybrid. The hybrid's potential lies in its ability to burn this hazardous sludge, which cannot be stably burnt in conventional systems.

One hybrid would be needed to destroy the waste produced by 10 to 15 LWRs.

The process would ultimately reduce the transuranic waste from the original fission reactors by up to 99 percent. Burning that waste also produces energy.

[View report in e! Science News]

[Fusion–Fission Transmutation Scheme—Efficient destruction of nuclear waste, Fusion Engineering and Design Volume 84, Issue 1, January 2009, Pages 83-88]

Dr. Gopal Rao
Web Science Editor
Editor, Materials360(r)
Editor, Meeting Scene
Materials Research Society (MRS)

The Future of Nuclear Power

The Scientific American website has a series of recently published articles on various aspects of nuclear power. The U.S.--and the world--is gearing up to build a potentially massive fleet of new nuclear reactors, in part to fight climate change. But can nuclear power handle the load? This is the question that this special report attempts to answer. Articles address various aspects of nuclear power, including the availability of nuclear fuel, whether nuclear power can compete with other energy sources and whether nuclear fuel recycling is worth the effort and more.

Dr. Gopal Rao
Web Science Editor
Editor, Materials360(r)
Editor, Meeting Scene
Materials Research Society (MRS)

Materials Challenges for Advanced Nuclear Energy Systems

The January issue of the MRS Bulletin is focused on nuclear energy systems.

The description for the issue reads "Nuclear energy has the potential to produce reliable baseline electricity at commercially competitive costs with minimal greenhouse gas production. However, the future of nuclear energy lies beyond the current generation of light water reactors. This issue focuses on materials developments in support of future generations of nuclear power reactors and examines the long-term potential of this energy source. Future reactors will need to provide improvements in safety, maintain high reliability, optimize use of nuclear resources, and reduce the volume and toxicity of solid wastes. In most cases, more efficient designs require higher operating temperatures and more corrosive environments, while longer life means enduring greater amounts of radiation. Structural materials for cladding, graphite and ceramic materials for high temperature operation, innovative fuel designs, and nuclear waste management are among the topics covered in this issue."

The issue is available online. The articles in the issue are listed below.

Introductory Article: Materials Challenges for Advanced Nuclear Energy Systems
Y. Guérin, G.S. Was, and S.J. Zinkle, Guest Editors

Advanced Structural Materials and Cladding 20-27
T. Allen, H. Burlet, R.K. Nanstad, M. Samaras, and S. Ukai

Graphite, Ceramics, and Ceramic Composites for High-Temperature Nuclear Power Systems 28-34
Jean-Pierre Bonal, Akira Kohyama, Jaap van der Laan, and Lance L. Snead

Environmental Degradation of Materials in Advanced Reactors 35-39
C. Cabet, J. Jang, J. Konys, and P.F. Tortorelli

Fuels for Advanced Nuclear Energy Systems 40-45
D. Petti, D. Crawford, and N. Chauvin

Materials Science of High-Level Nuclear Waste Immobilization 46-53
William J. Weber, Alexandra Navrotsky, Sergey Stefanovsky, Eric R. Vance, and Etienne Vernaz

Dr. Gopal Rao
Web Science Editor
Editor, Materials360(r)
Editor, Meeting Scene
Materials Research Society (MRS)