[Gasification] Re: NREL

[Mark Ludlow]

Dear Dr. Reed and List,

Every promising technology has to "turn the corner" from being an academic
curiosity to demonstrating promise of being a scaleable alternative to
in-place technologies.

The work done at NREL is invaluable. It creates a foundation for those who
would hope to expand the theoretical and experimental underpinnings done
there to systems functioning in daily use at various scales. It represents a
substantial body of knowledge. The "Encyclopedia" may be more aptly named
the "Bible".

For the impending energy crisis there exists no single "silver bullet". Some
technologies, such as anaerobic digestion, trump gasification when the
inputs dictate as much. Paul Sandford's efforts to bring clean-combusting
cook stoves to the billions of people who could benefit from them is
admirable and, in my opinion, well-targeted. The impact may not be great on
the First World's gluttonous energy demand but the potential impact on the
health and well-being of the great mass of the Earth's population is
enormous.

I would ask the List for their viewpoints: What is the "sweet spot"? It
seems obvious that we can't haul woody biomass from all over Florida, after
a hurricane causes a massive lowdown, to a large gasifier; neither can we
expect anyone but a hobbyist to create and maintain a front-to-back system
to fuel a single IC prime mover powering a generator. Is there a regional
scale that minimizes fuel infeed costs and creates the lowest possible cost
per energy unit produced?; I use the palm oil plantations of Indonesia as a
model here.

In the final analysis, the ultimate efficiency of most energy systems (save
nuclear) reflects the relative recovery of incident solar radiation, in some
way or another.

Mark Ludlow



-----Original Message-----
From: gasification-bounces at listserv.repp.org
[mailto:gasification-bounces at listserv.repp.org] On Behalf Of Mark & Elena
Gallmeier
Sent: Saturday, June 10, 2006 9:34 AM
To: gasification at listserv.repp.org
Subject: [Gasification] Re: NREL


Dear Dr. Reed & All,

>>It is sad that the current National Renewable Energy Lab (NREL, here 
>>in
>>Golden) no longer does fundamental work in biomass.<<

But they do issue periodic economic analysis every 18 months or so 'proving'

that biomass gasification technologies won't be 'economical' for another 20 
years.    I saw a number of these extending back into the middle 1990s, in 
which era I stopped looking through the online NREL indexes for useful
information.  The earlier ones called for 2015-2020.  The more recent ones
were giving dates of 2025 or so.

Do you think that as more gasifiers are built, they'll increase their update
frequency of economic studies?

Best Wishes,

Mark 

_______________________________________________
Gasification mailing list
Gasification at listserv.repp.org
http://listserv.repp.org/mailman/listinfo/gasification
http://www.repp.org/discussiongroups/resources/gasification