Technology Breakthroughs for Energy, Food and Water Crises

Dominican University Osher Lifelong Learning – Winter 2012

Session I – 1:45-3:30 pm Fridays Jan 13 – Feb 17, Guzman Hall

Rod Handeland, rpjhand@pacbell.net, www.rodhandeland.com

I. Recent technology potentials in energy, water and food supply

Energy – Shale, transportation, renewables, conservation, efficiency

A. Shale Gas, Oil, Tar Sands – Major new fossil fuel supplies retard renewables progress

• Hydraulic fracturing shale gas North America bonanza, Europe potential, Russia gas pipeline threat
• Global warming, water, toxic threats of hydraulic fracturing and response
• More gas pipelines, continued LNG growth in Asia

B. Electricity in Transportation – Fuel options to petroleum imperative for cost, supply, world stability

• Biofuel ethanol limits until algae and genetic engineering breakthroughs
• Wind, solar, wave, nuclear, geothermal renewables must become cost effective to produce heat for electricity
• Electricity storage must grow in capacity, fall in cost, through improved batteries and other approaches

C. Petroleum Supply – Source, supply and price problems and potentials

• Financial instability from rising oil revenue to nations without wealth and opportunity creation ability
• Computers, design, efficiency enhancements to reach fleet engine mileage goals
• Microprocessor advances expand supply: 3D seismic maps, horizontal drilling, CAD/CAM offshore rigs

D. Renewable Sources - Cost competitive and Not in My Backyard (NIMB) challenges

• Photo voltaic silicon price drops spur China dominance, losses elsewhere
• Wind competitive but erratic and limited without storage, transmission lines access
• Waves unpredictable, costly, limited to coasts
• Environment, NIMB challenges to windmills, solar farms, transmission lines, offshore platforms

E. Fuel cells, nuclear fusion economically or technical infeasible or non competitive now

• Cost of production and storage risk for fuel cells and hydrogen offset any pollution, availability or carbon advantage.
• Nuclear fusion may continue infeasible for many years, reprocessing raises terror threat, fear of nuclear waste disposal
• Peak passed for US petroleum production, coal health and environment damage unacceptable

F. Political Gridlock Prevents Consensus on Economic Growth and Environment Tradeoffs

• Global warming, biodiversity, sustainability, environment concerns limit energy use for economic and job growth
• Diminishing willingness to sacrifice for common good: eminent domain; NIMB; lowest cost preference

G. Behavior changes needed for half potential energy savings and improvement

• Reduce preference for individual automobile transport
• Increase carpooling, mass transit, home close to office
• Limit vehicle movement to improve health, develop virtual travel
• Telecommute, networking workgroups, videoconferencing to improve time use
• Home location, size, retrofitting to reduce energy use
• Daily habits and technology aids to reduce heating in winter, cooling in summer, wasted electricity

Fresh Water – Silicon sensors, monitors, controls for food and factory

A. Increase supply of useable water

• Drip irrigation as replacement of standard field flood or unmeasured water distribution
• More and larger dams and reservoirs for hydro power and fresh water in developing countries
• Computer and telecommunication application with sensors, controls, monitors for water/nutrient just in time delivery
• Recycling grey water, improving flowing water quality and purity

B. Move water from source to need

• California north to south flow with delta adequacy
• Expand Western US water distribution and efficiency of use
• Maintain Great Plains Ogallala aquifer levels
• China south to north canals
• Geo engineering potential of Siberia river reversal for benefit of Asia populace as glaciers recede

C. Improve desalination for use in resource rich desert areas like Persian Gulf

• Limits of fresh water options such as iceberg towing
• Improve desalination energy use efficiency through better filters, membranes
• Reduce water inefficient crops in sensitive areas: rice in CA delta, cotton in California, grains in Mid East deserts

D. Solve Fresh Water Problems – Pricing, Borders, Allocations, Himalayas

• Multiple countries sharing river systems: Mekong, Brahmaputra, Jordan, Nile, Euphrates
• Global warming and Himalayan plateau
• Economic pricing of what many view as free resource vs. distribution, storage, treatment costs
• Incentives for conservation, efficient use, capital cost of technology application

Food – Abundance from productivity, biotech, nutrition enhancement

A. Monitors, sensors and controls for nutrient delivery and limit fertilizer runoff

• Enhance and extend drip irrigation to include nutrients and water to individual plants
• Sensors to detect need, monitors to control volume flow, controls for safety and security
• Capital costs plummet and water supply shortage will encourage drip delivery technology application
• Globalization promotes rationalization of production areas, framework for marginal production when needed

B. Biotech seed technology for drought resistance, growth speed, nutrient value

• Plants
• - Extension of hybrids for productivity, quality
• - Continued focus on seed characteristics: drought tolerant, pesticide, insecticide, other resistance
• - Seed resistance to weed, inset, pest killers

• Animals
• - BT growth hormones for increased meat quality and quantity
• - BT non meat production improvements, such as milk
• - Disease, drought resistance, higher feed to meat conversion
• - Cloning for reproductive speed, consistency of best of breed

C. Challenge of fears, threats and education

• Spread of synthetic new foods that threaten human health or environment
• Invasive species type threat of diminishing biodiversity
• Unknown human health and environment threats from new biotech modification
• Education on improved nutrition and relation to better health, longevity, resource use, energy efficiency
• Intellectual property rights and affordable access conflicts similar to health vaccines

Major interrelationships of energy, food, water technologies

• Energy use for water distribution systems, food production and processing
• Land use tradeoffs of food production, biofuel development, clean fresh water
• Climate and environment threats from industrial pollution, fossil fuels, tropical deforestation, population
• Water availability for energy production, food growth and processing
• Technology in other fields to reduce scarce food, water, improve and increase energy

II. Energy, Food, Water Technology through Civilization

 

A. Antiquity through Fertile Crescent

• 500,000+ BC - Fire controlled for heat and cooking
• 17,000 BC Ice Age End – African Diasporas completed with Bering crossing

• 9,000-7,500 BC – Fertile Crescent agriculture development
• 8,000+ BC – Irrigation in Jericho, Euphrates
• 6,000 – 4000 BC – Potter’s wheel, liquid storage
• 4,500-3,300 BC – Wheeled vehicles, domestication of horse
• 4,000+ BC – Plow Mesopotamia, 3,500+ BC irrigation Mesopotamia

• 3,500+ - Egyptian Nile delta irrigation
• 3,200+ BC – Writing Sumer
• 3,000+ BC – Arithmetic, counting, algebra, geometry – Babylonia and Egypt
• 1770+ BC – Hammurabi Code of Laws
• 1,700+ BC – Windmills Babylonia

B. Classical World through Rome

• 1700+ BC Phoenician Mediterranean shipping, Alphabet
• 700+ BC – Two masted ship Etruscans

• 300+ BC - Greek Science Euclid (geometry), Archimedes (water displacement, screw), Pythagoras (right tri<, pi), hero (Siphon, Steam)
• Crank, crane, aqueducts, bridges, Aristotle, wheelbarrow, canal lock Egypt, water wheel, drydock, botany Archimedes, Greek fire

• 200+ BC - Roman Building, Organizing – Roads, Aqueducts, arch bridge & dam, gravity, buttress dam, oar, paddle wheel boat, turbine
• 100+ Watermill for grinding Rome – 1086 UK Domesday 5000+ 1/300 rose to 1700’s
• 200+ BC Silk Road to China – - 500 moldboard plow, row cultivation, -300 horse collar, -100 winnowing fan, multitude seed drill, 200 Paper,

C. Middle Ages to Industrial Revolution

• 450+ Byzantine Greeks, 650+Arab Mideast to preserve and expand learning
• 900 Wind, water, geared, trip hammer gristmills
• 1000 Crop rotation – 1730’s Townshend Flanders, fertilizer start through 1800’s

• 1119 Mariner’s compass, 150-1450 Astrolabe
• 1439 Printing Guttenberg, (1088 China)
• 1500+ Columbian Exchange of food and plants

D. 1700’s Industrial Revolution

• 1709+ - Darby blast furnace Coalbrookdale, cast iron pots, to 1778 cast iron for bridges
• 1712 - Newcomen Steam Engine
• 1730+ - Textile: 1733 flying shuttle, 1764 spinning jenny, 1775 mule, 1790 power loom

• 1769+ - Watt perfects steam engine, separate condenser, 1780 Boulton business, 1803 Murdoch gas
• 1785+ potting, stamping, crucible steel, coke hotter, 1820’s machine tool

E. 1800’s Electricity to Petroleum Energy

Energy

• 1800 +Galvani battery storage, Volta Electric flow, 1750+ Ben Franklin kite, static electricity, lightning rod
• 1807 - Fulton steamboat, 1808 Trevithick railroad steam engine
• 1823 Coal Gas to 1857 dyes, celluloid, plastics
• 1830’s – Faraday, Henry – Electromagnetism, ring, induction, Davy electric motor
• 1859 – Drake’s oil well PA, Stilliman fractional distillation petroleum
• 1865+ Bessemer, Siemen open hearth steel production
• 1880+ - Skyscraper steel frame Chicago post fire
• 1887+ - Edison DC, Tesla AC, transmission, generation, hydropower

Food

• 1810 – Albert Canning
• 1833 - McCormick Reaper, 1837 Deere plow
• 1865 – Mendel plant genetics, sweet pea genetic traits, 1907 Luther Burbank CA fruits vegetable breeding, 1926 Pioneer hybrids
• 1880 – Refrigerated railcar, 1895 Refrigeration, 1930 Birdseye fast frozen foods

F. 1900’s Synthetic Materials, Nuclear Modifications

Synthetics

• 1907+ Bakelite, plastics, petrochemicals, 1933 – Carouthers DuPont nylon, neoprene synthetic rubber
• 1990+ Microprocessor advances for water control, 3d seismic mapping, horizontal drilling, CAD/CAM drill platforms

Energy

• 1901 Spindletop gusher, 1907 – Iran first of Gulf mega oil strikes, 1970+ OPEC power, 90%,+ transport petroleum share
• 1945 Atomic bombs, 1953 Atoms for Peace, 1957+ US nuclear plants
• 1945+ Decline of railroads, 1956 US Interstate highway commitment, 1907 Wrights flight, 1959 Commercial jet travel
• 1996 Shale Gas Fractionating in US, 4x by 2006

Food

• 1909 Haber Bosch Ammonia Fertilizer. 1944+ - Green revolution hybrids, Mexico, 1970 Franz Glyphosate herbicide, pesticide
• 1975+ Genetic engineering in crops, farm animals, algae for energy

Water

• 1913 Owens water to LA, 1923 Hetch Hetchy water to San Francisco, 1915+ -Air conditioning Frigidaire, Carrier
• 1933+ California Central Valley, 1960+ State Water, 1936+ Hoover Colorado, Bonneville, Grand Coulee Columbia dams

III. Energy technology breakthroughs with transportation focus

A. Discovery, Development and Application of Energy Fuels

• Fossil fuels – Coal, Gas, Petroleum
• Steam, Electricity, Biomass energy
• Industrial revolution in fibers and metallurgy
• Mass transit steamboats, railroads, electric streetcars, aviation
• Renewable fuels – Hydro, Biomass, Nuclear, Geothermal, Wind, Solar, Wave

B. Challenge of Fuel Storage for Transportation

• Petroleum supply and demand for internal combustion engines
• Personal mobility of motor vehicles
• Economics and limits of biomass and electricity as transport energy options to petroleum
• New energy storage technologies and potentials - transportation
• Evolution of energy distribution systems – industrial, residential, commercial

C. Energy Conservation and Efficiency through Technology and Individual Choices

• Smart grid systems for communications, energy use, control
• Electronic sensors, monitors and controls based on telecommunications and information technologies
• Reduction of loss in energy production, distribution, use
• Individual choices in buildings, home locations, appliances, commuting, mobility, health

IV. Fresh water as life essential and technology potentials for supply and use

A. Increase supply of useable water

• Drip irrigation as replacement of standard field flood or unmeasured water distribution
• More and larger dams and reservoirs for hydro power and fresh water in developing countries
• Computer and telecommunication application with sensors, controls, monitors for water/nutrient just in time delivery
• Recycling grey water, improving flowing water quality and purity

B. Move water from source to need

• California north to south flow with delta adequacy
• Expand Western US water distribution and efficiency of use
• Maintain Great Plains Ogallala aquifer levels
• China water transfer through south to north canals
• Geo engineering potential of Siberia river reversal for benefit of Asia populace as glaciers recede

C. Improve desalination for use in resource rich desert areas like Persian Gulf

• Limits of fresh water options such as iceberg towing and groundwater
• Improve desalination energy use efficiency through better filters, membranes
• Reduce water inefficient crops in sensitive areas: rice in CA delta, cotton in California, grains in Mid East deserts

D. Solve Fresh Water Problems – Pricing, Borders, Allocations, Himalayas

• Multiple countries sharing river systems: Mekong, Brahmaputra, Jordan, Nile, Euphrates
• Global warming and Himalayan plateau
• Economic pricing of what many view as free resource vs. distribution, storage, treatment costs
• Incentives for conservation, efficient use, capital cost of technology application

V. Life science breakthroughs, tradeoffs in food, water and energy supply/demand

A. Monitors, sensors and controls for nutrient delivery and limiting fertilizer runoff

• Enhance and extend drip irrigation to include nutrients and water to individual plants
• Sensors to detect need, monitors to control volume flow, controls for safety and security
• Capital costs plummet and water supply shortage will encourage drip delivery technology application
• Globalization promotes rationalization of production areas, framework for marginal production when needed

B. Biotech seed technology for drought resistance, growth speed, nutrient value

• Plants
• - Extension of hybrids for productivity, quality
• - Continued focus on seed characteristics: drought tolerant, pesticide, insecticide, other resistance
• - Seed resistance to weed, inset, and pest killers

• Animals
• - BT growth hormones for increased meat quality and quantity
• - BT non meat production improvements, such as milk
• - Disease, drought resistance, higher feed to meat conversion
• - Cloning for reproductive speed, consistency of best of breed

C. Challenge of fears, threats and education

• Spread of synthetic new foods that threaten human health or environment
• Invasive species type threat of diminishing biodiversity
• Unknown human health and environment threats from new biotech modification
• Education on improved nutrition and relation to better health, longevity, resource use, energy efficiency
• Intellectual property rights and affordable access conflicts similar to health vaccines

VI. Reconciling technology potential to environment, human values and politics

A. Costs and Benefits of Technology to Sustainability, Global Warming, Environment, Rights

• Fossil versus renewable fuels as energy sources
• Individual property rights related to land use and environmental concerns
• Technology potential to reduce costs and build competitive economies of scale

B. Varying ethical and commonweal values and beliefs on technology application

• Genetic engineering potential for increased food supply, productivity and nutritional value
• Risk of accidental new species spread to biodiversity
• Risk of accidental pollution, environmental or human threats in food, water, energy

C. Nation State Values of Citizen Rights, Economic Growth, Development Systems

• State capitalism prominence in energy and other critical industries and economic sectors
• Challenge of resource rich countries to create new wealth and populace opportunities
• Country cooperation on world environment, sustainability, climate change challenges

D. Interrelationships, complements and conflicts among food, water, energy

• Energy use for water distribution systems, food production and processing
• Land use tradeoffs for food production, biofuel development, clean fresh water
• Climate and environment threats from industrial pollution, fossil fuels, tropical deforestation, population
• Water availability for energy production, food growth and processing
• Electronic, telecommunication information technologies to reduce scarce food, water, improve and increase energy