A Texas company, Synfuels International, has come up with a way to turn natural gas into gasoline and other liquid fuels that is much cheaper and cleaner than established processes, namely the Fischer-Tropsch approached used since Nazi Germany converted coal and coal-bed methane into diesel fuel back during the Second World War.

Now why would anyone convert natural gas into gasoline? It’s not that all natural gas would undergo this process. The target is natural gas that results as a byproduct of oil extraction in remote locations. Oil companies, more focused on getting at the oil, usually flare or vent natural gas that comes to the surface because it’s too expensive to build a dedicated pipeline that would collect it and send it to market. A lot of this gas is wasted this way. The World Bank estimates about 150 billion cubic meters every year is flared — the combined total gas consumption of France and Germany. The associated greenhouse gas emissions are enormous.

Some, such as BP and Shell, have counted on Fischer-Tropsch plants as a less expensive alternative to building a dedicated natural gas pipeline. The plants would convert the natural gas into gasoline, diesel or jet fuel and transport it by truck/ship, or send it to market inside existing oil pipelines. Unfortunately the cost of Fischer-Tropsch still remains too high. Synfuels hope to change the game, offering plants that have a third the footprint of a Fischer-Tropsch plant but with the same output. “Why use a sledgehammer when you only need a hammer?” said Synfuels president Tom Rolfe. Scientists behind the company figure they can produce, on small scale, a barrel of gasoline from natural gas for about $25, compared to $35 for a Fischer-Tropsch plant benefiting from economies of scale. They also say their plant is cleaner, producing none of the hard waxes, toxic byproducts and other “crud” associated with Fischer-Tropsch.

For a full story on the Synfuels technology check out this article in MIT Technology Review. I don’t typically write about better ways to use fossil fuels, but in this case if we can put more natural gas to use rather than flare/vent it, and at the same time displace the use of oil, then it’s something that should be pursued.

Pacific Gas & Electric Co. announced a deal today that will see it purchase 550 megawatts of solar power capacity from Topaz Solar Farms LLC, a subsidiary of low-key thin-film startup OptiSolar Inc. of California. Another deal, this one with SunPower Corp., involves the purchase of 250 megawatts of solar capacity. Together, the two solar farms are expected to deliver 1.65 billion kilowatt-hours of renewable energy annually to California electricity customers.

“These landmark agreements signal the arrival of utility-scale PV solar power that may be cost-competitive with solar thermal and wind energy,” said PG&E chief operating officer Jack Keenan.

This is a huge boost for OptiSolar, which also plans to build more than 200 megawatts of solar PV in Ontario to take advantage of the province’s 42-cent per kilowatt-hour feed-in tariff. A 500 MW manufacturing plant is being built in Sacramento to supply the modules, and product from OptiSolar’s first but smaller plant in Hayward is already being shipped to projects in Sarnia, Ontario.

OptiSolar executive vice-president Phil Rettger, who is also a company co-founder, said in an interview this afternoon that the deal with PG&E is a clear sign that solar PV has become an economic option at utility scale. “Based on the fact we won these contracts through a competitive bidding process, the market seems to indicate this,” he said. He wouldn’t say how large OptiSolar’s project pipeline has grown, but said the company is in active negotiations.

One interesting point made in the PG&E press release should be highlighted, however: “Both projects are contingent upon the extension of the federal investment tax credit for renewable energy and processes to expedite transmission needs.”

Yet another wake-up call for U.S. federal politicians asleep at the switch.

WaterFurnance Renewable Energy Inc. continues to cut through the U.S. economic downturn like a hot knife through butter. The company, which makes ground-source heat pump systems for homes and businesses, reported today that sales in its second quarter had increased by 21 per cent to $31.3 million and profits jumped 64 per cent to $3.43 million. “Sales in the U.S. residential business were robust despite the slowdown in residential new construction and the tight lending markets,” said CEO Bruce Ritchey. “Our dealers are finding that homeowners are very interested in saving money on their heating and cooling bills and in doing the right thing for the environment.”

In other words, the cost of operating a home — i.e. day-to-day energy costs — is becoming just as important as the cost of the home itself. Low-temperature geothermal is a growth story deserving of more attention.

Geothermal power generation is also showing solid growth, with Santa Rosa, Calif.-based ThermaSource LLC another example of the opportunities ahead. The company announced today it has completed a $41.5 million (U.S.) private equity financing with Riverstone Holdings LLC, US Renewables Group, and Rustic Canyon Partners. ThermaSource is a provider of drilling and engineering services to the geothermal industry. The lack of specialized drilling gear is a huge bottleneck for the market, so companies such as ThermaSource are expanding to meet the demand. The company has raised $93 million in equity and debt over the past two years to fuel its growth. It currently has 210 employees and plans to double that to 420 by year’s end.

For a recent overview of the market — both low-temp and high-temp geothermal — read this recent article in the Chicago Tribune.

There is so much emphasis these days on how we power vehicles — i.e. gasoline, diesel, biofuels, electricity, or a combination of each — we often forget the importance of reducing vehicle weight. Making lighter vehicles, as Amory Lovins has been arguing for years, is the key to increased efficiency and will result in less fuel/electricity consumption per mile/kilometre driven. A Toronto-based company called Morph Technologies has come up with a process for making certain vehicle parts out of nanometals that it claims is more economical. The company recently got project funding from Sustainable Development Technology Canada that involves collaboration with an auto parts maker in hopes of demonstrating two applications of its technology, called MetaFuse — a nanocrystalline metal/polymer hybrid. Essentially, MetaFuse is a nanometal coating that goes over thermoplastics, but the nanometal can also be made into parts directly.

According to the SDTC project description: Morph Technologies Inc. has developed a nanometal polymer which offers up to 47% weight reduction in engine and drive train vehicle components over equivalent steel parts. The MetaFuse technology combines the cost advantages and formability of plastics with the mechanical properties of metals by marrying high strength nanometal claddings with engineering polymers. This combination allows new designs that reduce the weight of the parts produced, resulting in improved fuel economy and reduced air emissions. The project focuses on different technology applications like: fuel rails (for pressure), valve rockers, transmission spool valves, shift forks (for stiffness and load bearing) or transmission damper skates (for wear).

Morph is a spin-off from Integran, another Toronto-based nanomaterials company with close ties to the University of Toronto. Dupont Engineering Polymers (also an equity investor) and Algonquin Automotive are also partners in the Morph Technologies joint venture and will be actively participating in the SDTC project. The goal is to produce lightweight parts, often with complex shapes, that have the stiffness of magnesium or aluminum but are much stronger. Potential parts include brake pedals, steering wheel columns, fuel rails, oil pans and accelerator pedals.

A short story on EEStor appeared today on MIT’s Technology Review site. A few thoughts to walk away with:

1) The company has certified that its equipment and procedures can make the materials it needs to go into high-volume production of its ceramic ultracapacitor.

2) It took longer than expected to get to this stage because EEStor raised the bar on its production standards so it could develop production materials for mission-critical applications — i.e. military stuff.

3) Voltage breakdown concerns have been addressed, primarily thanks to the alumina that coats and seals the composition-modified barium titanate.

4) Beyond materials and powder production, the rest — i.e. component and EESU manufacturing — is relatively simple, at least compared to disk drive manufacturing.

5) EEStor is also having serious talks with solar and wind companies regarding the use of EESUs in grid-scale storage applications.

Now, some other stuff that Weir said during an interview that wasn’t in the Tech Review article:

6) Weir is keeping the name EEStor, despite rumours it might change. He said the brand recognition now is too great to let it go.

7) Weir’s relationship with Lockheed Martin runs deeper than first thought. “Who’s best at certifying what we’ve got? Lockheed,” said Weir. “They’ve seen our factory. I’ve been working with them since 2001.”

It seems that Lockheed may be an investor in EEStor. I come to this conclusion by this statement: “We told our investors we can do it better, and we did.” Weir made this statement when explaining the reason why they took an extra year to meet its certification milestones for “advanced technologies,” such as military applications. Not sure ZENN or Kleiners, the only known investors, have demanded such higher standards. Obviously, if Lockheed and its demands are the source of this delay, then it’s reasonable to assume its partnership with EEStor is also in the form of an investment. “We fully plan to do a major expansion on this to meet anybody’s requirement as we go forward,” he said.

9) Weir said the production lines will be modular and highly robotic.

10) A corporate Web site will go up once the components are being manufactured.

11) He hinted that he was expecting competitors to challenge EEStor, and that his advantage will be the ability to move quickly and stay several steps ahead. “If we get challenged, we’ll move to scale up,” he said. “We have a lot of knowledge built up.”

I truly got the sense that Weir is going to start talking more about this company, probably come this fall. But I also got the sense EEStor is more heavily involved with Lockheed than originally thought — i.e. there’s a big focus here on developing military applications using the technology. He called what he’s working on as “Manhattan II.” It makes sense, given that many great technological innovations have trickled down from work originally done at the military level — GPS, the Internet, nuclear power.

Anyway, food for thought. Thanks, Dick, for the update.