Go Small

A lot of the energy solutions we talk about are massive — power plants with outputs measured in megawatts, wind turbines that tower above us, national energy strategies (or the lack thereof). Sometimes, though, the most innovative solutions to our energy woes are downright microscopic.

Take, for example, a pair of genetically engineered bacteria called Geobacter and Shewanella capable of converting carbon dioxide into fuel, such as butanol or octanol. Essentially, the using sunlight and carbon dioxide to produce fuel is simply the next step beyond biofuels — rather than trying to extract the chemical energy stored in plant matter that originally derived its energy from the sun, these microorganisms would jump straight to the fuel. And where current fuel cells are still struggling to reduce their size, these artificial microscopic organisms already function as microscopic fuel cells— stealing electrons via protein tubes that extend from their central mass and generating electricity.

A similar pilot project in Texas uses modified single cell organisms to convert sunlight and carbon dioxide into ethanol or diesel fuel. Using solar panels to collect sunlight — a method of enhancing the light absorbed that is also being used with the Geobacter and Shewanella bacteria — the organisms “sweat” out hydrocarbon fuel, which can then be easily separated from the water in which they’re suspended.

Add Flow’s earlier article “Water power” on a nanotechnology that allows water molecules to be split into their constituent hydrogen to those microorganisms, and you’ve got tantalizing glimpses into the microscopic world of energy generation. We’re often encouraged to go big or go home, but in a world where we can engineer microscopic solutions to our massive energy use, maybe sometimes it’s better to go small after all.

Image Georgia Tech

Bona Fide Water Power?

Generally, when we talk about generating power from water, we’re talking about hydroelectricity, a source of energy that uses the force of water’s movement to turn massive turbines. But what if we could actually derive energy from the water itself?

It’s already the way that plants and some microorganisms feed themselves, through photosynthesis. Sunlight is used as a catalyst to split water into its constituent molecules, with oxygen being released as waste and the remaining CO2 being converted into usable organic compounds. As a result, the fossil fuels that we use every day still ultimately depend on photosynthesis, given that the decaying organisms originally storing that sunlight have since been converted into hydrocarbons.

And all that brings us back to water.

A recent innovation by a team of MIT researchers allowed them to split a water molecule into hydrogen and oxygen atoms. The result: a ready source of hydrogen that could be used in the production of fuel cells and even liquid fuel.

It’s not the first time that MIT researchers have been able to split water molecules, but it is the first time that they’ve been able to initiate the process without electricity. In this new process, a virus is used to construct a biological “scaffold” that can assemble the nanocomponents necessary to split the water molecule.

Like so many new and exotic energy technologies, MIT’s water-splitting virus is a long way from being able to do its work at an industrial level. Even though the photosynthesizing  organisms we’re used to using in our gas tanks are millions of years old, it would be many more years before this particular technology could replace them. We don’t have the technology to create water-powered cars yet, unfortunately.

Still, with more than 70 per cent of the Earth’s surface covered in water, it’s hard not to be tantalized by the promise that, one day, we might also be able to use it to power our homes and vehicles.

The Great Oil Sands Journey Part 1

From waves to wells to wheels to winds

Next time you fill up your car to drive from Winnipeg to Waterloo, take a moment to ponder the full journey. Not your journey – the journey of your fuel, starting from the oil sands. Actually, let’s go further than that, beginning before the oil sands, when oil was just a sparkle on an oceanic wave.

Waves to Wells
Part one of a five-part series

In the beginning, and we’re talking hundreds of millions of years ago, the remains of tiny plants and animals, mainly algae, were buried in sea beds. As they became more deeply buried, they began to heat up at temperatures between 50 and 150 degrees, eventually turning into liquid hydrocarbons, sulphur compounds, CO2 and water. Some of the liquid hydrocarbons included “light” compounds, others included “heavy” compounds and the rest contained everything in between.

Next time you start to feel impatient when you’re stuck behind a slow driver, imagine how long it would have taken for this viscous oil to migrate from strata beneath the western sea, eastward and upward through 100 kilometers of rock until finally reaching and saturating the large expanses of sand and sandstones that we now know as Alberta’s oil sands. We’re talking about 50 million years.

Enter the bacteria who are, at once, the heroes and the villains of the natural world. Sadly, the heroic nature of bacteria, which are being tested in new technologies today to create biofuels, improve oil sand extraction efficiency, speed up tailings pond reclamation and to upgrade heavy oils into lighter, cleaner burning fuels underground, is for another story.

This particular story, on the origins of the oil sands, is about how the hungry bacteria feasted on the lighter hydrocarbons first, leaving the heavier ones and metal compounds that cannot be digested behind. To this day, oil sands bitumen contains the more heavy hydrocarbons, which is why they receive so much attention. It requires more energy to transform the carbon heavy bitumen from the oil sands into fuel for your car than it does to transform conventional crude. And, often, more energy equals more greenhouse gas emissions, particularly when the energy used is natural gas.

On the plus side, however, Canada’s oil sands are vast and bountiful, fueling not only North America’s planes, trains and automobiles, but our bustling economy as well. Who knew such tiny little critters bobbing aimlessly in the ocean would have such a huge ripple effect on how we power our lives today?

Next week: Wells to Wheels – Do I have to separate you three?