How coal may fit with China's new energy plan
Wed, Aug 18
SHANGHAI | Wed Aug 18, 2010 10:08am EDT
SHANGHAI (Reuters) - China's plans for energy are unlikely to offer direct support for carbon capture technologies as Beijing remains wary about their cost and feasibility, industry officials said on Wednesday.
Xu Shisen, chief engineer at the science and technology center of state-owned China Huaneng Group, the country's biggest utility, said policy makers were likely to wait until carbon capture and storage (CCS) had been tested on a commercial scale before offering any substantial policy support.
"In the near term, a large-scale demonstration project has to be set up, whether in China or elsewhere," he told reporters on the sidelines of a conference.
CCS covers various technologies aimed at stripping climate-warming carbon dioxide (CO2) from burning fossil fuels and burying it. The International Energy Agency has identified the approach as one of the crucial components in the global fight against climate change, particularly in China.
Overseas utilities like Duke Energy and American Electric Power, facing possible CO2 abatement bills at home, are counting on Beijing to lead the global effort to develop CCS, but Xu said it was still too early to tell whether or not the technology was commercially viable.
"It's meaningless right now to talk about commercialization, no matter what country you are in. Once demonstration projects are up and running after 2015, the U.S. and Chinese governments can make policies and decide on subsidies," he said.
"The government needs proof -- is the technology really mature?"
Huaneng, China's largest power provider, has already launched two pilot carbon capture and utilization projects at power plants in Beijing and Shanghai, selling off small volumes of sequestered CO2 to local beverage makers.
Its CCS project at the Gaobeidian power plant in Beijing captures just 3,000 tonnes of CO2 a year, a negligible fraction of the plant's total emissions.
Although its Shanghai facility is designed to catch 120,000 tonnes a year, a capacity of at least 1 million tonnes was essential if the technology was to move forward, Xu said.
Skeptical voices in industry and government have complained that CCS incurs a substantial "energy penalty," and as much as a fifth of a plant's power output could be spent on capturing CO2.
FOREIGN HOPES
Despite the caution, industry officials and researchers from other countries say Beijing is well placed to lead the world's CCS drive.
"They have the ability to move more quickly here. That's very important. They don't have the same bureaucracy as in some countries. They have a huge amount of technological ability. If they move quickly, we could see some frog-leaping going on," said Nick Otter, chief executive of the Global CCS Institute.
Duke Energy has already signed deals with Huaneng to work on post-combustion CCS and underground coal gasification (UCG), and American Electric Power is hoping to do the same, said Nicholas Akins, executive vice president of generation at American Electric Power.
"China is growing quickly and there are a lot of projects to be put in place we can learn from," he said.
Direct state support was unnecessary at this stage, but China was likely to emerge as the front runner once large-scale demonstration projects are launched, probably in five years time, said Jiang Kejun, director of energy system analysis at the National Development and Reform Commission's Energy Research Institute.
"China has the largest market. In 2050, China is likely to consume 2.5 billion tonnes of coal, and CCS will be a necessity. Without it, it is impossible to achieve the 2050 target for emission cuts."
(Editing by Anthony Barker)
Thursday, 19 August 2010
'Human-electric' hybrid car goes 30 mph uphill
The human powered HumanCar Imagine PS, which can seat four.By Alyssa Danigelis
Fred Flintstone could only dream of such a car. The HumanCar Imagine PS, a four-seater vehicle that uses hand cranks, can take on hills at 30 miles per hour, exceed 60 mph on flat terrain and is expected to hit the market next year.
HumanCar is the self-funded brainchild of Charles Samuel Greenwood, an engineer who has been working on developing the perfect human-powered vehicle since the late 1960s. Now, it looks like his car is actually getting somewhere. According to Autoblog Green, the lightweight Imagine PS is street legal and, if four people are cranking inside, can run on human power alone. "PS" stands for "power station," naturally. Based in Eugene, Ore., HumanCar Inc. is preparing to start producing the car.
The vehicle has electric plug-in capabilities, so it can still run if only one person is operating the hand-crank in a rowing-like motion (see the video showing the action here). When four people are all rowing, it can run on human power alone. This thing is truly a "human-electric" hybrid. The chassis is adaptable, and can work with different kinds of batteries and technology in the future without requiring an entirely new vehicle.
Getting it going looks a little bit like those wind-up toys: a few front-to-back pulls on the two-hand crank and it's ready to take off. Despite the physical requirement, the company says online that a senior citizen in decent shape could handle it and paraplegics have made suggestions on adaptability. The sleek vehicle could use a larger windshield, although there is apparently an all-weather shell available. Airbags are on the list to be included in future models. In the meantime, I'd probably wear a helmet while driving it.
Others have been hard at work on human powered cars, too. The American Society ASME runs an annual international Human Powered Vehicle Challenge, where students build aerodynamic vehicles. Next month teams will compete in Venezuela. Based on speed-endurance events that took place this year, the vehicles' top speeds are closing in on 20 miles per hour.
Higher speeds make the Imagine PS impressive. I can hardly get any miles per hour going uphill on a bike. Zooming uphill using my own energy looks so much more enjoyable. The car will cost $15,500 when it goes on sale next year, according to the HumanCar site. Potential owners can put down a refundable $50 placeholder for when the vehicles become available. So far, the company says it has 100 pre-orders and that production will begin when they reach 800.
I like that getting somewhere in a car could require more physical activity, as well as encourage teamwork and carpooling. Maybe these kinds of vehicles are the answer to both our energy and our health problems. At the very least, the car seems like more fun than those circular contraptions that tourists pedal through Times Square.
In addition, seeing that range anxiety remains an issue with pure-electric vehicles, I think major automakers should consider adding a backup human power mechanism. Then if the juice runs out far from a plug, the vehicle could be cranked back into action. Kind of like the early days of the automobile.
This YouTube video, which probably wasn't intended to be as funny as I found it, shows Greenwood operating a test version of his vehicle on the road. Now that's what I call a muscle car.
© 2010 Discovery Channel
Fred Flintstone could only dream of such a car. The HumanCar Imagine PS, a four-seater vehicle that uses hand cranks, can take on hills at 30 miles per hour, exceed 60 mph on flat terrain and is expected to hit the market next year.
HumanCar is the self-funded brainchild of Charles Samuel Greenwood, an engineer who has been working on developing the perfect human-powered vehicle since the late 1960s. Now, it looks like his car is actually getting somewhere. According to Autoblog Green, the lightweight Imagine PS is street legal and, if four people are cranking inside, can run on human power alone. "PS" stands for "power station," naturally. Based in Eugene, Ore., HumanCar Inc. is preparing to start producing the car.
The vehicle has electric plug-in capabilities, so it can still run if only one person is operating the hand-crank in a rowing-like motion (see the video showing the action here). When four people are all rowing, it can run on human power alone. This thing is truly a "human-electric" hybrid. The chassis is adaptable, and can work with different kinds of batteries and technology in the future without requiring an entirely new vehicle.
Getting it going looks a little bit like those wind-up toys: a few front-to-back pulls on the two-hand crank and it's ready to take off. Despite the physical requirement, the company says online that a senior citizen in decent shape could handle it and paraplegics have made suggestions on adaptability. The sleek vehicle could use a larger windshield, although there is apparently an all-weather shell available. Airbags are on the list to be included in future models. In the meantime, I'd probably wear a helmet while driving it.
Others have been hard at work on human powered cars, too. The American Society ASME runs an annual international Human Powered Vehicle Challenge, where students build aerodynamic vehicles. Next month teams will compete in Venezuela. Based on speed-endurance events that took place this year, the vehicles' top speeds are closing in on 20 miles per hour.
Higher speeds make the Imagine PS impressive. I can hardly get any miles per hour going uphill on a bike. Zooming uphill using my own energy looks so much more enjoyable. The car will cost $15,500 when it goes on sale next year, according to the HumanCar site. Potential owners can put down a refundable $50 placeholder for when the vehicles become available. So far, the company says it has 100 pre-orders and that production will begin when they reach 800.
I like that getting somewhere in a car could require more physical activity, as well as encourage teamwork and carpooling. Maybe these kinds of vehicles are the answer to both our energy and our health problems. At the very least, the car seems like more fun than those circular contraptions that tourists pedal through Times Square.
In addition, seeing that range anxiety remains an issue with pure-electric vehicles, I think major automakers should consider adding a backup human power mechanism. Then if the juice runs out far from a plug, the vehicle could be cranked back into action. Kind of like the early days of the automobile.
This YouTube video, which probably wasn't intended to be as funny as I found it, shows Greenwood operating a test version of his vehicle on the road. Now that's what I call a muscle car.
© 2010 Discovery Channel
The bike wheel that's too clever for its own good
The Copenhagen wheel turns a normal bike into an electric cycle, but it also adds extra weight and screams out to be stolen
The Copenhagen wheel captures energy dissipated while cycling and braking and saves it for when you need a bit of a boost.
File this cycling invention under "solution in search of a problem". A team of design engineers at MIT, led by Christine Outram and Carlo Ratti, last week won the US national round of the James Dyson award for their "Copenhagen wheel".
Effectively, it's a wheel that turns a normal bike into an electric one and throws in some "cycling 2.0" web elements, as Jack Schofield described it when it was unveiled during the Copenhagen climate summit last December. It stands to win £10,000 if it goes on to win the international prize of the design engineering awards, and production versions will appear next year.
I love gadgets and technology, but the Copenhagen wheel feels like part of a wider trend to overengineer bicycles and shoehorn in the web for the sake of techno-fetishisation rather than any genuine need. The result: more profit for makers of accessories and bikes; higher prices and more maintenance for cyclists. Just take a look at the evolution of modern cars from mechanical to digital beasts, or the electronic gears launched by Shimano last year (gears shifted by a button and electric circuit rather than good old mechanical action).
Besides, this so-called "smart" wheel seems surprising dumb to me. The battery in the hub stores energy from your braking and then theoretically gives you a boost when you need it. But electric bikes, which I'm a fan of, need big powerful electric motors and batteries like those on the Wisper models to be useful. The hub here looks potentially small enough to be underpowered but heavy enough to slow you down.
It can also lock the wheel using your phone. But you still need to lock it to something, so what's the point? More pertinently, surely a big red gadget like this would be a siren call to opportunistic bike thieves?
Promotional video for the Copenhagen wheel But, say its designers, if you have a Bluetooth phone: "It connects you with the things a cyclist wants to know: upcoming traffic congestion, road condition and pollution levels." Now, if you have a Bluetooth phone, you probably already have access to the free web apps that tell you how polluted cities are (for iPhone users, there's "Pollution" and "London Air", to name but two). And I don't need an intelligent wheel to tell me that I can usually nip around congestion and that the roads are full of potholes.
Dyson's judgment is usually spot on, from his own products (the energy efficient fan and Airblade hand dryer, for example) to the ultraviolet water steriliser that won the UK round of the James Dyson award. But Dyson, who called the wheel a "21st century upgrade to the bicycle", is wide of the mark this time. The clincher, surely, is the $600 price (£385) – for the same price you could get yourself a whole brand new bike instead of a fancy wheel.
• This article was amended on 19 August. It originally said James Dyson was a judge for this round of the award but in fact he only judges the final round. However, he did release in statement praising the Copenhagen wheel.
The Copenhagen wheel captures energy dissipated while cycling and braking and saves it for when you need a bit of a boost.
File this cycling invention under "solution in search of a problem". A team of design engineers at MIT, led by Christine Outram and Carlo Ratti, last week won the US national round of the James Dyson award for their "Copenhagen wheel".
Effectively, it's a wheel that turns a normal bike into an electric one and throws in some "cycling 2.0" web elements, as Jack Schofield described it when it was unveiled during the Copenhagen climate summit last December. It stands to win £10,000 if it goes on to win the international prize of the design engineering awards, and production versions will appear next year.
I love gadgets and technology, but the Copenhagen wheel feels like part of a wider trend to overengineer bicycles and shoehorn in the web for the sake of techno-fetishisation rather than any genuine need. The result: more profit for makers of accessories and bikes; higher prices and more maintenance for cyclists. Just take a look at the evolution of modern cars from mechanical to digital beasts, or the electronic gears launched by Shimano last year (gears shifted by a button and electric circuit rather than good old mechanical action).
Besides, this so-called "smart" wheel seems surprising dumb to me. The battery in the hub stores energy from your braking and then theoretically gives you a boost when you need it. But electric bikes, which I'm a fan of, need big powerful electric motors and batteries like those on the Wisper models to be useful. The hub here looks potentially small enough to be underpowered but heavy enough to slow you down.
It can also lock the wheel using your phone. But you still need to lock it to something, so what's the point? More pertinently, surely a big red gadget like this would be a siren call to opportunistic bike thieves?
Promotional video for the Copenhagen wheel But, say its designers, if you have a Bluetooth phone: "It connects you with the things a cyclist wants to know: upcoming traffic congestion, road condition and pollution levels." Now, if you have a Bluetooth phone, you probably already have access to the free web apps that tell you how polluted cities are (for iPhone users, there's "Pollution" and "London Air", to name but two). And I don't need an intelligent wheel to tell me that I can usually nip around congestion and that the roads are full of potholes.
Dyson's judgment is usually spot on, from his own products (the energy efficient fan and Airblade hand dryer, for example) to the ultraviolet water steriliser that won the UK round of the James Dyson award. But Dyson, who called the wheel a "21st century upgrade to the bicycle", is wide of the mark this time. The clincher, surely, is the $600 price (£385) – for the same price you could get yourself a whole brand new bike instead of a fancy wheel.
• This article was amended on 19 August. It originally said James Dyson was a judge for this round of the award but in fact he only judges the final round. However, he did release in statement praising the Copenhagen wheel.
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