Ruoff argues that complete energy independence in America can already be done without any further investment in research. The problems we Americans face today are not technical; they are, instead, bureaucratic and psychological (or, appropriately, political and economical). Energy independence starts with “politics, ecology, economics, population, government, war, money,” and ends with the least important, that is, the actual science and engineering involved in affecting change for the future of energy generation and transmission.

There are bottlenecks down the line in politics, in the way people think, and in cost, and until these bottlenecks are overcome, it is impossible for the already available technology to become widely-built and put into operation.

The importance of this issue is apparent everywhere. Without energy, modern society cannot survive. There would be no trains and cars; there would be no computers and telephones; there would be no refrigerators and microwaves. Today, about 25% of the United States’s energy consumption goes to cars alone, 7% to other means of transportation, 10% to homes and offices, 25% to industry, and the rest to energy production and transmission itself, all totally about 30 billion megawatt-hours annually.

The first law of thermodynamics states that energy cannot be created or destroyed, only converted. So, what feeds this level of energy consumption? The largest source of energy used in the United States is petroleum oil—at around 40% (natural gas and coal are around 25% each). U.S. oil production peaked in the 1970 and has been significantly importing ever since at an exponential and alarming rate. Only in 1980 did U.S. energy consumption begin to appear to level out. But upon further analysis, this temporary dip is attributed to the outsourcing of manufacturing (then importing finished products to market). If we include imports from countries like China, the energy consumption curve of the United States would only continue to rise. In fact, energy consumption is growing much faster than domestic energy production in India and China. It is calculated that within 25 years, India and China will be using the same amount of energy as America is today.

It is a common understanding today that the U.S. energy policy needs to be reformed, for the sake of domestic energy security, if not for the sake of human sustainability on earth. Ruoff proposes the outline of potential solutions (aside from simply consuming less): [1] decrease population, [2] impose a $4 tax on gasoline, and [3] impose a big, exponential tax on heavy non-business vehicles. Specifically, build nuclear power plants domestically and completely eliminate the need of importing oil or gas. How do we pay for this program? It’s simple too. Ruoff proposes that we withdraw all our troops stationed in 761 military bases in 151 foreign countries, thereby saving about $250 billion annually, and all summarized in a simply 3-page proposal.

This seemly uncomplicated approach, however ideal, is impractical. The egregious American mindset is deeply embedded in the people, where bigger is better, faster is better, and more is better. Change comes, unfortunately, slow. Aggregate American disposition certainly does not change on its own. More needs to be done. Finally, we need to bear in mind that this is far from an insular, domestic problem. It is a global one that requires a global effort. As more and more people around the world adopt the American consumerist mentality, we are experiencing an exponentially growing need of energy.

Whichever way we approach this global energy crisis, though, this much is certain: the energy issue will either bring the world’s people together toward a unified effort, or result in its inevitable demise.

Refineries can use large quantities of water that need to be purified for the next process.

An interesting article from ScienceDaily reports that techniques being researched for an upcoming European mission to Mars could be directly applied to help address the energy crisis here on Earth. Basically, the process of separating organic material from space rock could be applied to purifying the large quantities of water required to refine unconventional fossil fuels. Unconventional fossil fuels are of interest in times like these, when conventional crude oil is in short supply. From the article:

Professor Mark Sephton from Imperial’s Department of Earth Science and Engineering, said: “The research involves using extraction-helping materials, called surfactants, to liberate organic matter from rock in space to gain a deeper understanding into the biological environment on Mars. We aim to show that the same technique could also be used to recycle the prodigious amounts of water necessary to process tar sand deposits and turn them into conventional petroleum.”

Usable energy resources are essential to the global economy.  Conventional crude oil is a staple energy resource and accounts for over 35% of the world’s energy consumption.  As the demand for oil exceeds supply, focus has now turned to trying to tap unconventional fossil fuels, such as tar sands. However, these unconventional fossil fuels must be extracted and upgraded to match the characteristics of more conventional oil deposits and make them commercially viable. The extraction process requires substantial amounts of water which is then left contaminated for extended periods of time. In just hours, the new technology can strip this water of its oily contaminants, removing a bottleneck in the refining process.

By removing this “bottleneck” in the process, more oil can be extracted from these unconventional fossil fuels, which reduces reliance on crude oil in short supply.

It is interesting to see how research and development in one area can be directly applied in another. The article has a conclusion that also expresses interest in the versatility of this research:

Dr Liz Towns-Andrews, Director of Knowledge Exchange at STFC, which is funding the study through its Knowledge Exchange Follow on Fund award scheme, added, “This is a truly valuable study which will not only reveal more about our neighbour Mars, but could also deliver enormous benefits here on Earth. The new research is a direct solution to our worsening energy supply crisis and is a great example of the seamless interaction of pure and applied science with engineering to solve real world environmental and commercial issues.  Professor Sephton’s work is well aligned with the current needs of industry and we believe that this ambitious project could be of great benefit to the UK economy.”

(Image from Wikipedia.)

Earth, Seen From Space

As the population grows, energy consumption would naturally increase if everyone continued to consume the same amount of energy that they currently do. Contemporary energy engineering has a main focus on energy efficiency in order to meet the energy demands of each individual in the world while being friendly to the world that we live in. Not only do engineers work on developing better ways to distribute energy, they also work on developing energy-efficient products (such as lighting, ventilation, etc.) and alternative energy methods.

So, what are some easy, painless things that you can do to help conserve energy? For starters, remembering to turn off lights, computers (or at least put into sleep mode), and such when you don’t need to use them will save significant quantities of energy.

Thanks for reading! Until next time, remember:

Only YOU can prevent forest fires.

– Smokey the Bear

While I don’t want to express my opinion on the matter (one nuclear disaster is far more devestating than all the wind farm accidents put together), I find that it’s still interesting to consider this comparison. Because of the severity and the huge impact of nuclear accidents, all the safety and accountability measures put in place at nuclear sites have proven successful and have largely allowed us to experience nuclear energy relatively incident-free.

What do you think?

Wind Farms Usually Involve Several Wind Turbines

On the other hand, the effect of wind on large structures is something that structural engineers need to analyze in order to ensure the safety of these structures. Some examples of structures that are heavily affected by wind are skyscrapers, towers, cable suspension bridges, and the wind turbines mentioned above. Here, wind is like a curse because structures can fail and collapse under heavy winds if precautions against wind effects are not taken when designing these structures.

For a wind turbine, winds cause a bending moment in the shaft of the turbine. This is because vertical wind speed profiles are not uniform (more so on land than over water), meaning the wind speeds at low elevations and high elevations are different. This difference in wind speed causes a difference in forces at the top and bottom of the wind turbine shaft, which makes the shaft want to bend. Too much bending moment will cause a wind turbine to break and collapse. Engineers have a variety of tools at hand to help them combat this challenge of wind loads, such as building material to use (different materials have different properties against failure), and geometry of the shaft (like the cross-sectional shape and area of the shaft).

For cable bridges, high winds can cause vibrations in the bridge. One famous historical example of a suspension bridge is the Tacoma Narrows Bridge (Wikipedia). Opened in 1940 to traffic in Washington state, it collapsed four months later due to high winds that caused large periodic motions of the bridge. Forces on the bridge from the wind combined with the natural frequency of the bridge to result in large-scale fluttering, which is a phenomenon known as aeroelastic flutter. You can see video footage of the Tacoma Narrows Bridge collapse here (YouTube).

The Tacoma Narrows Bridge collapse serves as a lesson learned in today’s world of engineering. Ways that engineers can safeguard against suspension bridge failure due to high winds include considering stiffness of the bridge and how the bridge deck is constructed, as well as studying the winds themselves (looking at historical wind speed data for a particular area).

Next time you walk outside and experience a heavy wind in your face, know that winds are a necessary evil. Sure, they are something that engineers need to consider when designing large buildings and bridges, but they also serve as a renewable source of energy.

Photo from Wikipedia.