Mineral Extraction powered by Geothermal Energy- Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion

"OTEC" Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion, just a quickie for old colleagues
("May auld acquaintances be forgot and never brought tae mind! quote from Robert Burns).

Mineral Extraction: extracted quote from NREL

The Japanese found that developments in other technologies (especially materials sciences) were improving the viability of mineral extraction processes that employ ocean energy. "

"Not yet exploited to its full potential is the opportunity OTEC could provide to mine ocean water for its 57 elements dissolved in solution. In the past, most economic analyses showed that mining the ocean for trace elements dissolved in solution would be unprofitable because so much energy is required to pump the large volume of water needed and because it is so expensive to separate the minerals from seawater. However, because OTEC plants will already be pumping the water economically, the only problem to solve is the cost of the extraction process. The Japanese recently began investigating the concept of combining the extraction of uranium dissolved in seawater with wave-energy technology and found that..."

Link

Of course there are a host of OTEC applications can be used to generate electricity, desalinate water, support deep-water mariculture, and provide refrigeration and air-conditioning as well as aid in crop growth and mineral extraction.

These complementary products make OTEC systems attractive to industry and island communities even if the price of oil remains low.

NB Google supports Geothermal Energy Applications but I don't appear to have spotted partners and investors in OTEC - Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion...Yet. Could my AdSense providers be waiting to be certain there investment sites do not become submerged sub as in sub...marine.

Thoughts About K4D: "RESEARCH FUNDING: European Science Not As Intense As Hoped"

ref

Thoughts About K4D: "RESEARCH FUNDING: European Science Not As Intense As Hoped"

"R&D intensity" (research spending as a percentage of gross domestic product) pretty much stuck at about 1.84%--a long way from the E.U.'s self-imposed goal of reaching an R&D intensity of 3% by 2010.

The Year 2008 in Materials from MIT's Tech Review

Just reviewed and up-dated my RSS feed, tarrying on MIT's Tech Rev. Fortunately I did not give-up in face of the such advanced topics and the complexities of the underlying materials science. Note in passing the incredible revival in these metallurgical and materials fields.

You may have noticed that perseverance, "courage" is of great assistance in serendipity-good luck.

On instinct I picked a couple of stories from the MIT Tech. Rev:
(you may wish to follow this lead and find your own hopefully inspired by my unfinalised RSS approach and remarks)

Story 1: Super-Resolution Imaging and a $10 Microscope
key words which caught my a attention "low cost (10$)" and "metamaterials"

Super-Resolution Imaging and a $10 Microscope Metamaterials are usually lauded for their potential to direct light around an object, completely hiding it. This year brought the first designs for acoustic metamaterials, which will shield objects from sound. But the earliest application of metamaterials, usually made up of metals carefully structured on the nano- or microscale to tailor their interactions with light, is likely to be in super-resolution imaging. Light microscopes with resolutions on the scale of biological molecules will help biologists understand not just what proteins are at work in diseased cells, but also how they interact with other molecules to cause disease. Nicholas Fang of the University of Illinois is using metamaterials made up of metals structured on the nanoscale to make superlenses, which increase the resolution of biological light microscopes by an order of magnitude.

Read More...


Story 2. Tough, Strong, and Sticky
Key words new ceramics - negative overplayed "gecko" almost made me skip this

Some of the year's coolest new materials were made possible by mimicking the nanoscale features of natural structures. For years, researchers have been trying to make materials that are as tough as nacre, the material that lines abalone shells, with limited success. This year, materials scientists created a new ceramic that's better than nacre; it could eventually be used as a structural material for buildings and vehicles. Like nacre, the new ceramic is a composite of a hard material and a gluey one. Researchers have also finally outdone the gecko, which uses arrays of nanoscale hairs on its paws to scale walls and ceilings. Arrays of carbon nanotubes with two layers--one vertically aligned, the other tangled--mimic gecko-foot structures but are 10 times as sticky.


As one thing leads to another -> Other Top Choice Topics are:
Graphene, the strongest material ever, the tip of an atomic force microscope!

Nanomedicine and Nanomaterials Safety.
Hey there!
Two studies in mice suggested that carbon nanotubes could behave like asbestos in the lungs, causing cancer.
Read More...

Record-Breaking Pittsburg Steelers from well-named US Coal Mining and Steel Town win US - Football’s Super Bowl_Bigger CCS Records need Breaking!

Link to full post Record Breaking Pittsburg Steelers of famous well-named US Coal Mining and Steel Town win US - Football’s Super Bowl_Bigger Record needs Breaking

Will Pittsburg be Bull's (New York) or Bears (Chicago) in CO2-CCS and not just Steal-Off into the shadows?Pittsburg Steelers of the famous well-named and one time booming US Coal Mining and Steelmakers (Carnegie) Town win Super Bowl for a record 6th time.Mind you, other more important record are at stake, global ones. Here as indicated above, I have chosen once again CO2-CCS and more precisely carbon storage and sequestration (CSS).The following key words "Pittsburg", "Super Bowl", "Chicago Bull's supported by President Obama". To crown it all the headline Steel Curtain Call shed dread to many, if not all metallurgists provided the chemical spark to write.

Full post:
Record Breaking Pittsburg Steelers of famous well-named US Coal Mining and Steel Town win US - Football’s Super Bowl_Bigger Record needs Breaking

Coal Research Forum_Minerals and Coal Mining Concerns, Efforts and Progress Tackling Global Energy and GHG-CO2 Emissions Challenges

Today, I wish to take a couple of minutes of your time to bring to the fore the Advanced and Mature Minerals and Mining Communities concerns and efforts, pitting their wits to face the global energy and greenhouse gas emissions challenges represented here by the focus on CO2.

I shall largely base my enquiry upon the rich resource offered by the Coal Research Forum (CRF).

Such is the abundance of high quality freely available online CRF contributions, that, I can only trust many of you, globally will help me read, digest and bring the best "Options For the Future for a Global Future " to the fore.

In previous posts, I started to dress the Venn Diagramme presentation, whose focus is CO2-GHG reduction , posting briefly, too briefly on the green power field or universe, and on the planetary UN-blue metallurgical, materials science, industries and markets field_universe. Now we shall take a rapid look at things from the coal, minerals and mining perspective.

To help a reader new to the field come to grips rapidly with these issues, I find the divisional structure of the forum useful cf below.

Divisions

1. Advanced Power Generation.
2. Coal Characterisation.
3. Coal Conversion.
4. Coal Preparation.
5. Combustion.
6. Environment.
Divisions, Division Chairmen and contact details

Conference Meeting Titles and the freely available Online Papers are obviously of incredible assistance. Main Title Headings and full links to papers are given below.
-Coal Preparation Division Seminar.
- EU Conferences on Coal Research and its Applications
-Industrial perspective.
-Research Events
-Combustion/Coal Characterisation/Coal Conversion Divisional Meeting.
-Understanding the Low Carbon Economy.
-Zero Emissions Power Plant, with Annual Meetings of the Coal Research Forum and the Coal Utilisation Subject Group.
-Recent Developments in Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS).
Link to all the conference papers listed under the above headings

More information and global links from The Minerals Engineering Society...

NB. Jobs, Jobs, Jobs...!

As I post this a "new mining environmental theme" has been brought to my attention, namely, the project to pipe leaching residue-acid and heavy metals- waste from nickel mining and separation into a lagoon in New Caledonia-Nouvelle Caledonie by a large mining group (Brazilian) involved in Nickel mining in New Caledonia-Nouvelle Calédonie. ref the reputable Thalassa longest runing TV prog.(FR3) in France. All data highly appreciated. Follow-up all next week by Thalassa.

New Video links Superalloy Metallurgical Processing Videos and Papers

I have just added New Video links section on Superalloy Metallurgical Processing Videos and Papers to my side bar menu.

PS good for brushing-up on spoken and written technical english - american, short and relaxing.
Enjoy your science and engineering.

Source:
especially Lynette Karabin on TMS Forum many thanks.

Carbon Dioxide Reduction Technologies - Get Help from Extraction Metallurgists

North American Extractive Metallurgical Communities recognise that Worldwide commitments to reduce CO2 emissions to pre-1990 levels in the next 12 to 13 years pose a formidable challenge.



Some metal ores are converted to metals using energy other than carbon-based fuels—such as electricity. CO2, and H2O—which are similar to metal ores (oxides, sulphides etc.) and can be modified to non-global-warming forms by techniques well known to extractive metallurgists.

It is in these layman terms that N R. Neelameggham, introduced his excellent summary of the Transactions of the (US) Materials Society - TMS Symposium 2008 dedicated to CO2 reduction Technologies.

"When converting minerals into metals, energy is consumed. Even though energy in various forms can be used in achieving this conversion, or reduction, typically a reductant that can carry the anion of the mineral away from the desired element is used. The potential for economic production of common fuels from the respective oxides of carbon (CO2) and hydrogen(H20) by simple chemical reductions was the inspiration for the CO2 Reduction Metallurgy Symposium at the TMS 2008 Annual Meeting."

Several clear statements emerge :

1. The world needs fuels in all three states of matter: solid, liquid, and gaseous. Naturally available solar, wind, and hydro-energy (marine, wave) can be converted into the mobile forms of fuel(nb. position on the Venn Diag. above) by using carbon dioxide and water. When such conversions can be affordably achieved, perhaps one cause of global warming— carbon emissions—will be minimized.

2. Most of the gaseous emissions from the use of fuels are emitted at temperatures higher than ambient temperature. This mass of gases, when mixed with ambient atmosphere, increases the atmospheric air mass temperature. Present-day fuels release both CO2 and H2O, along with hot air, in their exhaust. Of these, the non-condensable CO2 (under atmospheric conditions) continues to increase and is easily measured. In addition, these tri-atomic molecules participate in the radiative heat transfer in the atmosphere [whereby the balance is heat-warming compared to a H20 base-line, hence the label "Greenhouse gas"-JA].

3. Unless another cooling medium can dissipate this thermal emission by some other mechanism, global warming will persist. We can only minimize the rate of global warming and not eliminate it as long as the energy conversion from one form to another happens with certain uncontrolled emission of heat. This necessitates the reduction of thermal emission and its constituents. Minimizing the temperature of gaseous emissions by simple methods will go a long way toward minimizing the rate of increase in atmospheric temperatures.

4. Extractive metallurgists can reduce any oxide compound to its elemental form. Examples of this are the making of iron from iron oxides, aluminum from aluminum oxides, and hydrogen from hydrogen oxide (or water). Carbon dioxide is just like any other oxide and can be reduced to its respective elements by applied energy, a process that could minimize the amount of CO2 released in the air and result in improved fuel self sufficiency.

More...

The symposium was divided into three major sessions [pdf link]:

1. Mechanisms (5 papers)

2. Ferrous metallurgy (5 papers), and

3. Electrolytic approaches (7 papers)

introduced by a Keynote address by Meyer Steinberg, ex-Brookhaven National Laboratory, co-author with M. Halmann, of a detailed treatise Greenhouse Gas Carbon Dioxide Mitigation: Science and Technology based on more than 30 years each of expertise in this field

M. Steinberg’s review covered the principles of removal and recovery from power plant stacks, the oceanographic and geological disposal of CO2, and the conversion of CO2 to gaseous and liquid transportation fuels.

This symposium is the first of its kind in applying extractive metallurgy techniques.

It is complimentary to several international conferences on CO2 utilization. There have been eight such symposia so far, the last of which was held in Oslo, Norway in 2005, which by chance, allows me to introduce CO2 uses and eventually the Carbon Economy and Industries[pdf conf outline-link] as referenced in the Venn Diagramme above ),2 and minor symposia on the subject by the American Chemical Society, American Institute of Chemical Engineers, Electrochemical Society, etc., in promoting pertinent know-how in solving these global concerns.

Approaches to CO2 emission reductions in metal production by improved energy efficiency in life-cycle fuel use, (cf. recent posts on LCA-Life Cycle Analysis 1. previous post and 2. JM Pearce's et al approach for example) , reduction in carbonate based flux/raw material usage, and thermodynamically feasible reactions leading to lower emissions are all part of this program.

The topics discussed give useful pointers to researchers, project managers and business innovators.
More...

CO2 Chemistry


UK Extractive Metallurgy Resource cf Journal Cover





Warning- It is well worth periodically reading-up and checking-out Climate Change and GHG effects at the "Source"

Sources:
1. Most reputed blog: RealClimate ™
2. The World Authority UN - IPCC
3. My Blogs eg Conversations give various links as I build my knowledge base.


PS:Ours is a very energy intensive industry. I still believe that current official policy, strong recommendations-EU directives... to sink CO2 must not be hindered by our current professional tastes. Such policy choices are made taking into account multiple criterion: people (are still people), societal, technological, powerful lobbies... They must be taken seriously-more seriously than at present. LCA appears to be the only objective, correct, way forward in all our professional activities. Indeed it ought to start in the Lab. and in University education irrespective of you religous faith, or not:
"remember your creator
or if you prefer more order
the atoms and molecules
you are now made of
in the days of your youth!"

Comments, suggestions, information, or question welcome.