2005/03/25 by james
Future energy
'Tree-Power' Could be Future Energy Source <By Robert Burns>
A wood-fueled electricity generating plant may be in your future.
In fact, the future is 'now' in some Scandinavian countries, said Dr. Darwin Foster, Texas Cooperative Extension forestry program leader.
"In Sweden, they're already bundling up what we're leaving in the forest after a timber harvest and using it as bio-fuel," Foster said.
"Bio-fuel" is all-inclusive term that includes any renewable resource used to generate energy. As with ethanol distilled from small grains byproducts and methane from animal-waste, wood refuse is another renewable energy source.
The key word is "renewable," Foster said. "As compared to fossil fuels which take hundreds of millennial to create and are not renewable," he said.
Using forest bio-mass - limbs, bark, tree tops - as a bio-fuel is not unheard of in the United States. Forest product manufacturing concerns already burn wood residue in steam boilers. The steam is used to drive electrical generators and supply part of the energy needed to run the plant.
Other mills use "black liquor" - the lignin-rich residue of the pulp and paper industry - for heat, steam and electric power generation.
But currently, in both examples, the residue used is created at the plant during the manufacturing process, not recycled
Green Power
Consumer demand for clean renewable energy and the deregulation of the utilities industry have spurred growth in green power—solar, wind, geothermal steam, biomass, and small-scale hydroelectric sources of power. Small commercial solar power plants have begun serving some energy markets.
Solar Energy Topics
Solar technologies use the sun's energy and light to provide heat, light, hot water, electricity, and even cooling, for homes, businesses, and industry.
Hydrogen Fuel Cell
A hydrogen fuel cell is a relatively new form of energy with very little pollutant products, and impressive efficiency - higher than that of diesel-electric hybrids. It consists of two electrodes sandwiched around an electrolyte. Oxygen (as air) passes into the fuel cell via the cathode, and hydrogen enters via the anode. The air enters the system from outside the car, but the hydrogen is sourced from a hydrocarbon fuel (e.g. natural gas, methanol, petrol, etc.) via an on-board reformer - compressed hydrogen is not carried as it would transform the car into a moving bomb
Hydrogen Topics
Hydrogen is the third most abundant element on the earth's surface, where it is found primarily in water (H²O) and organic compounds. It is generally produced from hydrocarbons or water; and when burned as a fuel, or converted to electricity, it joins with oxygen to again form water.
The Nuclear Fusion Reaction
Nuclear Fusion is the energy-producing process which takes place continuously in the sun and stars. In the core of the sun at temperatures of 10-15 million degrees Celsius, Hydrogen is converted to Helium providing enough energy to sustain life on earth.
For energy production on earth, different fusion reactions are involved. The most suitable reaction occurs between the nuclei of the two heavy forms (isotopes) of Hydrogen - Deuterium (D) and Tritium (T); eventually reactions involving just Deuterium or Deuterium and Helium (3He) may be used.
Words
timber : 재목, 목재, 용재
all-inclusive : 모두를 포함한, 포괄적인
distill : 증류하다, <···을> 증류하여 ···으로 만들다
millennial : 천년간의; 【그리스도교】 천년 왕국의
limb : 수족, 일부, 분파
bark : 나무 껍질, (나무)껍질을 벗기다.
mill : 제조 공장, 제작소
black liquor : 펄프나 종이 제조 후 남는 찌꺼기
lignin : 목질소, 리그닌
biomass : 생물자원
electrolyte : 전해물(질, 액)
on-board : 선상의, 탑재된, 회로 기판 상의
deuterium : 중수소
Tritium : 3중 수소
Q. You are involved in some group that study about future energy such as Solar Energy , Hydrogen Fuel Cell, Nuclear Fusion.
I want to assume that we are in the situation which we should get some money from government like a government subsidy for your project.
I want to divide 3 groups and each group is competitive each other for money.
I think you are not familiar with this kinds of things so you should study a couple of things. Study hard......
Group1 : Charlie, Jim, Ted
Group2 : Young, Jeffry, lusia, jerry
Group3 : Paul, Tom, sunny