A common sense approach to evaluating alternative energy

What's the hold-up on developing new energy sources?

by Peter Maier, PhD, PE

Nobody denies that making fires was necessary for mankind to survive, but isn’t it time we start using our acquired knowledge to solve the problems this also caused to our health and our environment?

Why not apply common sense by accepting that the present use of fossil fuels is unsustainable and establishing criteria that new energy solutions will have to meet?

The most important criteria such new energy sources should meet are:

• It should not pose a public health threat, due to air pollution.
• Its generation and use should have no or minimal impact on the earth’s biosphere.
• The energy should be able to be stored and used only when needed.

One of the major problems caused by our present fossil fuel-based energy is air pollution. Besides emitting carbon dioxide and nitrous oxides, this burning process also emits heavy metals (mercury) and fine particulates. When coal is burned it emits radioactive matter. For this reason alone, mankind needs another source of energy.

Regarding the second criteria, everyone is already aware of global warming due to the increased carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. However, hardly any attention is given to the increase of nitrogen oxides in the air, which not only contributes to global warming but also contributes to the nutrient enrichment of the biosphere, thereby adding to the horrendous increased use of synthesized fertilizers. This nutrient enrichment causes eutrophication in open waters, resulting in excessive algae growth and “dead zones,” while on land, due to “green rain,” it is causing excessive grass and brush growth during wet weather and, consequently, hard to control range and forest fires during droughts.

The third criteria applies to the present use of electricity, which clearly is the 800-pound gorilla in the room nobody wants to talk about. While convenient, it is extremely wasteful since power companies not only have to supply electricity miles away, causing resistance losses, but also during times nobody is using it and thus it is wasted.  It would not be surprising if more than 90 percent of the energy content of the fossil fuel used to generate, transport and maintain this electric power is wasted and never used by customers.

Some will say that meeting these three criteria is not possible. But instead of focusing solely on chemical oxidation (fire), we only have to look at how life’s energy usage for millions of years is and has been based on water. All biological life on earth depends on the recycling of mainly four elements carbon, oxygen, hydrogen and nitrogen. There are  basically two major life forms: autotrophic life (grasses, plants trees) which uses carbon dioxide as its carbon sources, and heterotrophic life (animals) which uses organic carbon as it carbon sources.

Autotrophic life takes the carbon dioxide from the air and water and nitrogen from the soil, while it uses the energy of the sun by photosynthesis to split the water into oxygen and hydrogen and while it releases the oxygen it uses the hydrogen with the carbon dioxide and nitrogen to grow organic matter.

This organic matter now becomes the carbon sources for heterotrophic life and by doing so it breaks down the matter back into carbon dioxide and hydrogen. This now free hydrogen would be lethal, but since it combines with oxygen it forms water and the recycling process is completed.

Mankind has not yet found a way to use and manipulate biochemical processes (such as photosynthesis) to split water into hydrogen and oxygen on a large scale, but we know how to split water and we have many locations on earth where we can generate electricity to split water by utilizing the horrendous exchange of energy between the sun and the earth, without impacting the earth’s biosphere. Here, hydrogen and oxygen can be generated, stored and transported to where it can be used when needed.

Will such a common sense approach be used to evaluate alternative energy sources? Only when people are ready and willing to fight the 800-pound gorillas: interest groups desperate to protect their territories.

Maier received a doctoral degree in civil engineering from the University of Delft in Holland, and has professional engineering licenses in New York and Utah. He worked for the State of New York, a large engineering consulting firm in Holland and an equipment manufacturing firm in Utah. He was involved in the design and R&D of municipal and industrial wastewater treatment plants in Europe, Brazil, Mexico and the United States. He can be reached at pmaier@petermaier.net.