War On Oil

I would like this country to declare war. Not the kind of war we are used to. The kind of war we need to engage in is much more difficult. It will be a war without blood and guts, but a war that will require real heroism.

The war we need to declare is the one against oil. This will be a war on oil, not the countries that produce it. How do we begin? First, use all of the present technology we presently have, and then go on from there.

Technology Development
The technology that will be generated by this concerted effort has value to the U.S. far beyond our own supply of electricity. We can sell this technology to the world creating an inflow of dollars that will bolster our economy. The technology we sell to others will further diminish the need for oil from other nations. As that happens the oil producing countries have to change their basic economies. At present most oil producing countries don’t share that wealth with their people. Nigerians are, for example, dismally poor. Depriving that country would have a very small economic impact on the people, but a large impact on those that are presently exploiting that resource.

Global Warming
As we develop carbon neutral solutions to energy we clean up the air as a by-product and slow down the progression of climate change. Some people will argue that burning fossil fuels or anything else does not cause global warming that human beings do. I disagree, but instead of having that argument, why not point out that cleaner air is just plain healthier. This healthy air that is available for us to breathe will reduce health costs.

Electric Power Conservation
Electric power is wasted in this country in ways that other countries find hard to believe. The litanies of possible improvements are enormous, but let’s start with conservation:

Light Emitting Diodes (LED) use about 3% of the power that is used by an incandescent lamp. Presently they are suitable for traffic lights, exit signs, and numerous other 24/7 applications. (Traffic lights have four 150 watt lamps on at all times, that is 600watts 24 hours per day 365 days a year. The total kilowatt hours per year are 5,256 @ 12cents/kwh which costs the municipality $630 per traffic signal. The annual cost of operating an LED traffic lamp is $19.

Buildings
The best building codes in the country have heat transfer guidelines that are woefully lower than what we’ve known to be possible for at least 40 years. We can double the requirements on homes and commercial establishments. We can do this with no new technology. The additional cost of a $300,000 home is about $10,000. The annual savings is about $1,000 estimating a 900 gallon savings at $2.50. Payback will be less than 5 years. If the cost oil increases the payback period will be shorter.

Motor vehicles
At the same time double the required gas mileage on trucks and personal cars. At the moment the only technology that can achieve this is the Hybrid engine design. The cost of driving a car 20,000 miles that gets 20 miles per gallon, using gas that costs $2.80 per gallon is $1,800. Presently the hybrid costs about $3,000 more. The payback is less than 3.5 years and maintenance costs are lower.

All Electric cars are on the horizon and we will see production of these vehicles this year.
The electric car will obviate the need for liquid fuel. It will also make power plants more economical as otherwise idle power plants produce during the night. The economic gain to power producers will stabilize or reduce electric rates.

Hydrogen powered cars using fuel cells will eventually be practical and the benefit here is also a no oil result. Equally important there are no emissions. The chemical process that drives the car has a waste product of pure water. In this case we need a cost that would make it acceptable. We’re not there yet!


Rail Transportation
Maglev
Developing Maglev will mean that no oil will be needed for this means of transportation.
CSX runs advertisements that tell us they can transport a ton of freight almost 500 miles on a gallon of diesel fuel. That’s excellent, but it’s still oil. The Maglev can do a lot better than that using of clean electric energy generation. The Maglev being a frictionless mode of rail is extremely efficient. Using Maglev we can move freight at high speed. Perishables that we move by truck can be transported longer distances without spoilage when we reduce a 4-½ day journey to one day. For intercity passengers, Maglev will reduce airline traffic. Airplanes are one of the most obnoxious polluters, and what is worse is that they pollute at high altitudes where they do the most damage to the earth’s protective envelope. Here the benefits are many. We reduce significantly our need for oils, streamline intercity travel, clean up the air, and make the nation more efficient for conducting commerce.

Geothermal
Heating and cooling can be accomplished by extensive use of ground source heat exchangers. These systems use only a small fraction of the power required by electric resistive heating and no on premise burning of fuel.

In Summary
If we as a nation resolve to utilize these measures we put ourselves in a very good negotiating position when we deal with the rest of the world. Instead of rolling out billions of dollars worth of military equipment to secure our share of the world’s oil we merely tap our own resources. With all these measures in place America will have enough oil from domestic sources.
We have given these dictators around the world a cudgel with which they periodically beat us. By embarking on aggressive energy programs we merely take back the weapon we gave them

An America without a need for foreign oil dramatically changes our foreign policy. The technology allows us to deal with difficult regimes without fear of being cut off from our supply. I believe it was George W. Bush who used the term “addiction to oil”. It was a very apt term. Drug addicts behave in irrational ways to secure what they need. Robbery and burglary committed by the addict to provide funds for the addiction is comparable to the U.S. going to war to secure a stable supply of oil.

Whenever large vision efforts are undertaken there are many unforeseen fortuitous gains. When we went to the moon we needed a better computer. The on-board board computers that were on the first Apollo mission were less sophisticated than your pocket calculator, but the quest for better devices was set in motion giving the marvelous computers we now take for granted.

When we embark on the road to new discoveries we never know where we will wind up. Just ask Christopher Columbus. He was looking for India, and look what he found. Discovery is exciting but we will never meet the challenges that are there if we don’t change some fundamental elements. Our education systems range from very poor to extremely good, but even in the best schools we may be missing the boat. The schools in some Long Island districts have great teachers and students that are truly achieving, but if you drill down and see what they are learning they may not be learning what they need in a world that wants to make things. Turning out the brilliant minds that can dream up new financial instruments that can get them rich, may not be the skills that make the country rich. We have to ask our educators how many scientists, engineers and chemists are we producing. The answer is embarrassing.

Oil is Passé

Oil is the best liquid fuel that is available. It has far more heat value per gallon than propane, and ethanol. As far as ethanol is concerned you would need all of the arable land in the country and you would still not be able to meet the demand for liquid fuel and in the end you would have an inferior product that is also corrosive and creates problems in systems.

Our principal uses of oil are transportation, heating, and power generation. Natural gas is much less polluting than oil and can be easily used in stationary applications. Such as space heating and power generation. With a concerted effort we could convert 100% of those needs to natural gas.

In addition to using natural gas, power generation can employ a variety of generating methods including solar photovoltaics, wind power, river flow generation, conventional hydro, and yes, nuclear. In the development stages are electrical generation systems that will create even newer means. It is feasible with known technology we could eliminate oil for electrical generation.

However the same cannot be said about transportation uses of oil. Other than a relatively small number of electric and hybrid powered vehicles, cars, trucks, diesel locomotives, and airplanes need liquid portable fuel. You can make the argument that trucks and cars can use natural gas, but that too would require an enormous infrastructure.

Electric vehicles and trains are the only way to reduce or eliminate oil for surface transportation. The sources of electric generation are myriad and none of them would use oil big part of that transportation will no doubt be Maglev. More on that later.

Feel free to comment.

Ernie Fazio

Maglev - A Vision of Future Transportation - printed in Newsday, December 4, 2009

Two hundred seventy miles per hour was the reading on the digital speed indicator as we swiftly moved from Shanghais to the airport. We were riding the Maglev in China. The Maglev is a transportation system that travels on a dedicated guideway and is supported by a magnetic field and moves without mechanical friction. The result is a very quiet, efficient, and fast mode of transportation.

The Chinese Maglev was the product of an effort that was made on Long Island by Drs. Gordon Danby and James Powell while they were working at Brookhaven National Laboratories. The Germans built this Maglev train, employing the inventors as consultants.

There is a version of the technology that has been built in Japan as well, also inspired by the inventions of Danby and Powell. It is remarkably successful. The Japanese version has carried many thousands of passengers and has recorded its highest speed of 361 MPH. Japan is now building a 300 mile link connecting Tokyo and Osaka. They plan on being able to move 100,000 passengers per day at 300 MPH.

Senator Patrick Moynihan passed a bill in the Senate in the early 90’s that provided $750 million for the testing and building of the first Maglev in America. But corresponding legislation was killed in the House of Representatives because of the pressure created by various interests including, airlines, truckers and auto manufacturers.

Creating a working American Maglev is a matter of national pride. It is also a matter of not letting an economic opportunity slip through our fingers. If we do not manufacture enough of the world’s important technology, we will be beholding to those countries that do. In the process we lose the high skilled, high paid jobs that the American worker has proved that he or she can do. We can’t afford to lose that segment of our society. We need to create those jobs again.

America has an extensive rail network. That network and right-of-ways are an incredible resource. We can move freight on that network using Maglev, and we can do it inexpensively. In fact we can move entire tractor-trailers in aerodynamic envelopes across the country at 300 MPH and save $3,000 worth of fuel and tolls. The trip will take less than a day and deliver a refreshed driver on the other end. The trip will be half the cost to the trucker , and profitable to the Maglev owners.

This is a more advanced Maglev system than the first generation system now operating in Japan and China. The cost of making this new system is a fraction of the cost of those versions. The Chinese Maglev floats on a magnetic cushion that has very critical clearances (about ½ inch). The process of building that system is costly and time consuming.

Danby and Powell have never stopped improving their Maglev design. Their second generation superconducting Maglev system allows the vehicle to float 4 ½” to 6” above a guideway. That system can be built in a factory and shipped by truck to a construction site, and be quickly erected using ordinary cranes. The higher clearances allow the vehicle to operate in ice storms, and snowstorms. Another innovation that Danby and Powell have solved is the compatibility with existing rail tracks. The modification is low in cost and allows conventional trains to operate alternately.

This project will take as long as Eisenhower’s Interstate Highway System. There will be jobs created on a long-term basis. We project Maglev manufacturing, and guideway fabrication will extend thirty years out, and all of that investment can be privately funded because it will be profitable. Presently the inventors and the Town of Riverhead have government grant in process to prove the new technology an a three mile track at Calverton

Ernest M. Fazio, Director of Communications- Maglev 2000 and Chairman of Long Island Metro Business Action (formerly Long Island MidSuffolk Business Action)