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By Rachel Neiman, Israel21C, February 22, 2009
A new US-Israel agreement of cooperation in renewable energy was announced at the opening of the 2nd Eilat-Eilot International Renewable Energy Conference last week. The US-Israel Energy Cooperation Act is an international collaboration aimed at creating a renewable energy storage initiative to reduce the world’s oil dependence.
The Cooperation Act will fund eligible joint ventures between US and Israeli businesses. Two million dollars, or $1 million from each country, has already been allocated for this year with a significant increase expected in future years.
At the opening, Jonathan Shrier, acting assistant secretary at the Office of Policy and International Affairs of the US Department of Energy, told the conference plenum that the agreement had the support of Dr. Steven Chu, the new US Secretary of Energy. “The secretary sees the power of international arrangements,” such as those brokered by the Binational US-Israel R&D Foundation (BIRD), the US-Israel Binational Science Foundation and others. “These various parties are involved because we need to push R&D of already available technologies and not neglect the cutting edge research at the basic science level.”
Shrier told ISRAEL21c that, while the US has similar agreements with countries such as Japan and the EU, “This one is special because we have a partner who brings a lot to the table. Israel is world-renowned in the field and we meet as equals,” he said.
US-Israel already in cooperation
Examples of US-Israel cooperation in renewable energy are already underway, noted Shrier. Seambiotic and Better Place, have already received approval. Seambiotic is the first company in the world utilizing flue gas from coal burning power stations for algae cultivation. The company aims to grow and process marine microalgae using an ecologically based environmental system to reduce air pollution and global warming. Better Place is a venture-backed company aiming to reduce global dependency on oil through the creation of an electric car network with a swappable battery.
Posted by CNP Webmaster as Alternative Energy, Clean Coal, Climate Change, Middle East Report, Recent Posts, Science and Technology, Solar Energy on February 23, 2009 - כ"ט שבט תשס"ט at 1:56 pm
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Press Release, University of Wyoming, October 30, 2008
"When completed, this center is expected to enable the University of Wyoming and GE Energy to advance cleaner coal technology and create the next generation of gasification experts. The acceleration of reliable, low-cost, cleaner coal power technology will help meet a growing demand for power, create jobs, support economic growth and positively impact the environment."
Oct. 30, 2008 — GE Energy and the University of Wyoming have reached agreement on a proposed development plan for the High Plains Gasification Advanced Technology Center. The agreement outlines the framework for the development, design, construction and operation of the facility, and enables work to begin immediately.
Plans are for the High Plains Gasification Advanced Technology Center to enable researchers from both GE and UW to develop advanced gasification and "cleaner coal" solutions for Powder River Basin and other coals. The center will consist of a small-scale gasification system.
"This is the beginning of what I hope is a productive, long-term relationship with GE to demonstrate how Wyoming coal can be utilized into the future," Gov. Dave Freudenthal said. "There is a community of interests here — for GE, there is a desire to develop and utilize new technology to gasify Powder River Basin and other Wyoming coals. For the state of Wyoming, there is a desire to continue to sell that coal in an evolving energy market. As the demand for electricity continues to rise, this question of managing carbon while still utilizing coal is an issue we will be confronting for many years to come. I am confident that the research developed at this facility will help us answer some of these questions and keep coal in the mix of cleaner and more secure domestic fuels long into the future."
Posted by CNP Webmaster as Alternative Energy, Business and Commerce, Clean Coal, Climate Change, Recent Posts, Science and Technology on November 1, 2008 - ג' חשון תשס"ט at 9:02 pm
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Hatch talked about how developing oil shale will require far less water and land than ethanol production. He said the entire process of oil shale production, even without carbon capture technology, emits only 7 percent more carbon than gasoline, compared to 93 percent more with ethanol or 50 percent more by turning to switchgrass for alternative fuel development. Hatch also pointed out how the U.S. has between 1 trillion and 2 trillion barrels of recoverable oil from shale, compared to the world’s current oil reserves of about 1.6 trillion barrels.
By Stephen Speckman, Deseret News, August 20, 2008
For the second time in two months, Sen. Orrin Hatch was at the state Capitol stumping for the development of Utah’s oil shale.
Utah Republicans Hatch and Rep. Rob Bishop appeared in front of the state Natural Resources, Agriculture and Environment Interim Committee Wednesday to talk about how progress of shale development is being held up by "liberals" in Washington, lawsuits by environmental groups and a moratorium on leasing federal land for shale development.
It is estimated that there is about 800 billion recoverable barrels of oil locked in shale under the Green River formation, which is in portions of Utah, Wyoming and Colorado.
Hatch said the trend since 2000 shows that there has been an increase of 100 percent in the number of applications for permits to drill, permits granted by the Bureau of Land management and wells completed, while "environmentalist protests" are up 700 percent in that time. He based the drilling figures on data collected from a Utah BLM office in Vernal. Hatch said the current climate allows for any "wacko" to file a lawsuit and hold up energy development projects.
Posted by CNP Webmaster as Alternative Energy, Clean Coal, Climate Change on August 21, 2008 - כ' אב תשס"ח at 7:17 am
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International Energy Agency, press release, May 15, 2007
For a sustainable energy future, we need to accelerate the development and deployment of new technologies. We will work urgently to bring this about. We will enhance our programmes for the deployment of renewables and, subject to national policies, nuclear power, to cope with the emerging threat of global warming. We will promote clean coal and press ahead through the IEA and the Carbon Sequestration Leadership Forum (CSLF) with the full scale demonstration and early deployment of Carbon Capture and Storage, paying due regard to regulatory and safety issues. We will encourage the strengthening of our R&D efforts to reduce the costs of new technologies such as advanced biofuels, solar, hydrogen fuel cells and electric vehicles.
1. We, the Ministers of the Member countries of the International Energy Agency (IEA), convene in Paris to review the state of global energy markets and to provide guidance to the Agency, a leading international organisation in energy market and policy analysis and energy crisis management. We highly value the contribution of the Agency in these matters and commit to further strengthening its role and capability. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted by CNP Webmaster as Alternative Energy, Clean Coal on May 16, 2007 - כ"ח אייר תשס"ז at 12:50 pm
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By SAM SER, THE JERUSALEM POST, Mar. 8, 2007
You don’t want to die. Not in a catastrophic flood caused by the melting of the polar ice caps. Not in a monstrous hurricane spawned by unnatural weather patterns. Not of thirst, after all your local water sources have dried up in a relentless series of heat waves. You don’t want to suffer the fate promised to you in An Inconvenient Truth, Al Gore’s over-the-top, Oscar-winning movie about the impending doom of global warming.
So, you listen to Avi Harel, CEO of Vortex Ecological Technologies, and take solace in the company’s solution, which makes pollution and global warming nothing more than a tempest in a teacup.
With the company’s Advanced Vortex Chamber, industrial emissions stream into a cone-shaped device that accelerates the flow of gas through a spiral, creating a kind of cyclone. Into that maelstrom, a cleansing liquid is sprayed. Droplets of this liquid attach to hazardous particles that a factory would normally belch into the air we breathe. In the chamber, however, they are shuffled into a separate container where they are rendered into either an easily treatable powder or a liquid fertilizer. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted by CNP Webmaster as Alternative Energy, Clean Coal, Recent Posts on March 9, 2007 - י"ט אדר תשס"ז at 1:16 pm
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Like PFBC, the technology is relatively new in connection with power generation. Coal-based IGCC plants for power generation passed through a critical stage in their development during the 1990s.
IGCC uses a combined cycle format with a gas turbine driven by the combusted syngas, while the exhaust gases are heat exchanged with water/steam to generate superheated steam to drive a steam turbine. Using IGCC, more of the power comes from the gas turbine. Typically 60-70% of the power comes from the gas turbine with IGCC, compared with about 20% using PFBC. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted by CNP Webmaster as Alternative Energy, Clean Coal on January 12, 2007 - כ"ב טבת תשס"ז at 12:13 pm
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Press Release, US Dept. of Energy
November 27, 2006 – Washington, DC – Building on the continuous operation of a prototype coal dryer that uses waste heat to remove moisture from coal, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has given the go-ahead to Great River Energy to conduct the first-ever full-scale demonstration of the utility company’s innovative technology.
Great River Energy will soon begin the demonstration at its Coal Creek Station near Underwood, N.D., during the second phase of a cost-shared project with DOE. The $31.5 million project, which received $13.5 million in funding from DOE, was one of eight projects selected in the first phase of DOE’s Clean Coal Power Initiative, a 10-year $2-billion commitment to advance of clean coal technologies and an integral part of the Administration’s National Energy Policy. The projects are managed by DOE’s National Energy Technology Laboratory.
Posted by CNP Webmaster as Alternative Energy, Clean Coal on December 1, 2006 - י' כסלו תשס"ז at 9:49 am
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Briefing Paper # 83
May 2006
Uranium Information Center, Australia, http://www.uic.com.au/nip83.htm
Coal is a vital fuel in most parts of the world.
Burning coal without adding to global carbon dioxide levels is a major technological challenge which is being addressed.
The most promising “clean coal” technology involves using the coal to make hydrogen from water, then burying the resultant carbon dioxide by-product and burning the hydrogen.
The greatest challenge is bringing the cost of this down sufficiently for “clean coal” to compete with nuclear power on the basis of near-zero emissions for base-load power.
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Coal is an extremely important fuel and will remain so. Some 23% of primary energy needs are met by coal and 39% of electricity is generated from coal. About 70% of world steel production depends on coal feedstock. Coal is the world’s most abundant and widely distributed fossil fuel source. The International Energy Agency expects a 43% increase in its use from 2000 to 2020.
However, burning coal produces about 9 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide each year which is released to the atmosphere, about 70% of this being from power generation. Other estimates put carbon dioxide emissions from power generation at one third of the world total of over 25 billion tonnes of CO2 emissions.
New “clean coal” technologies are addressing this problem so that the world’s enormous resources of coal can be utilised for future generations without contributing to global warming. Much of the challenge is in commercialising the technology so that coal use remains economically competitive despite the cost of achieving “zero emissions”. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted by CNP Webmaster as Alternative Energy, Clean Coal on October 7, 2006 - ט"ו תשרי תשס"ז at 9:39 am
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