Hot Rock to the Rescue - 280

The study of climate change is not just a depressing observation of our deteriorating weather. Our climate will be saved if we act; learning about the solutions is exciting and encouraging. When you start to explore what our scientists, entrepreneurs, leaders of industry, and financers are accomplishing, it is an exploration and discovery of what the human spirit can create and build.

This article is about how industry loves cheap energy. Business gravitates to it. Here is a close-to-home example. The UP had some of the richest deposits of iron ore. Why didn't the captains of industry locate the smelters and refineries in the UP? To create steel, they also needed heat, and coal was the best source of heat. It came from Appalachia. Our ore was loaded on the Big Lake Freighters and shipped to the steel mills along the shores of Lake Michigan, Erie, and Ontario, where our ore met cheap coal.  

The challenge for American Science and Engineering is to completely decarbonize our energy system. How do we replace coal, oil, and gas with clean energy? The biggest CO2 emitters in the industrial sector include cement, steel, petrochemical, glass, ceramics, and refining industries. The CO2 comes from the heat of burning coal, oil, and gas. How do we replace these fossil fuels?

 Can wind and solar provide industry 24/7 with both heat and electricity? This is no small task because one-quarter of our energy is devoted to the now fossil fuel-dependent industry. The sun, especially in our southwest, provides cheap and nearly unlimited energy, but only during the day. The wind is super productive and inexpensive and comes from our Great Plains. But even in our windy Midwest, there are some days when the wind is not blowing.

The challenge is to build heat batteries. Wind and Solar energy production is the cheapest, not to mention cleanest, way to create power. If you can develop systems to store heat and electricity inexpensively, you can out-compete anything from a coal mine or oil field. The techies are on this problem with money to back them.

There are substances that can be heated with electric resistance coils (like a toaster) to extremely high temperatures. With insulation, these heat batteries can store extreme heat with little loss. The question now is not if but which heat battery will be dominant. Here is a quick rundown of companies and their hot rocks:

Rondo using alumina refractory bricks.                                                                                                              Brenmillers using crushed volcanic bricks.                                                                                                               Malta uses molten salt.                                                                                                                                       Antora Energy uses solid carbon blocks.

Antora is especially interesting, and an interview with their CEO, Andrew Ponec, switched me on to this rather old/new technology. Antora heats their carbon blocks so hot they glow white. (2000 C or 3500F) They can move this very hot energy to where it is needed by focusing the white light of these carbon blocks onto whatever they want to heat. As a bonus, the white light can be focused onto unique solar panels and create electricity efficiently. 

These inexpensive old/new ways to bring energy to the marketplace have exciting possibilities. For instance, western Minnesota has a lot of wind and solar potential waiting to be developed. Could this energy be shipped to clean refining/smelting facilities next to Minnesota's taconite ranges, eliminating the loading, shipping, and unloading of trains and ships to Ohio's old fossil-fueled smelters and refineries?

White Pine, at one time, had smelting and refining capabilities. We know the UP has wind power potential. Could this be harnessed, power lines erected to transport the clean electricity to White Pine? Early proposals to build wind turbines in L'anse Township were shot down by NIMBY (Not in my backyard) residents. If this resistance to save the climate via clean energy projects dominates, I cannot imagine a company justifying a clean smelter/refinery.

The promise of clean energy, a stable climate, and the industry and jobs that come with this revolution are not guaranteed. It will take educated voters to make it happen.

The information used here came primarily from a "Volt" podcast. In the podcast, David Roberts interviewed the CEO of Antora Energy, Andrew Ponec.

Additional interesting information is available at the "The Gigaton" site.

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