The Future of Energy
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00:00
Rubbia, CarloParticle physicsClockMinuteClimateCell (biology)Lecture/Conference
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ClimateGround (electricity)JuneLithium-ion batteryTemperatureGlacial periodSunlightOrbital periodPhotographic processingVostok StationMagnetic coreGlobal warmingMoonSwimming (sport)TiefgangYearBig BangGround (electricity)PlanetCardboard (paper product)TemperatureBook designIceTiefdruckgebietGlacial periodInterglacialEnergy levelOrbital periodLastPhotographic processingShort circuitClimateSunlightHot isostatic pressingPhotodissoziationDuty cycleMeasurementGround stationLecture/ConferenceMeeting/InterviewComputer animation
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MassHydropowerRenewable energyEuropa (record label)Global warmingTemperatureSound recording and reproductionEmission nebulaFuelMassBuick CenturyEffects unitPhotographic processingPorcelainIntensity (physics)Pickup truckAlcohol proofVideoYearTemperatureOrder and disorder (physics)NetztransformatorOrbital periodCurrent densityFACTS (newspaper)Key (engineering)Bending (metalworking)Progressive lensEmissionsvermögenChemical substanceForceGround (electricity)Radioactive decayAngeregter ZustandLecture/ConferenceMeeting/InterviewComputer animation
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MonthFuelSource (album)Emission nebulaPhotographic processingProgressive lensEffects unitPorcelainGlobal warmingSurfingRenewable energyFreileitungMeasurementGreenhouse effectDumpy levelMoonAutomobileHydrogen atomHydropowerWind powerSolar energyIntensity (physics)Angeregter ZustandCougarPit propAmplitudeClimate changePower (physics)SchiffsdampfturbineElectricityCapacity factorHot-dry-rock-VerfahrenEmissionsvermögenFinger protocolRulerRenewable energyFossil fuelProgressive lensEffects unitPickup truckGlobal warmingWind powerMembrane potentialOrder and disorder (physics)YearDrehmasseElectricityPower (physics)MeasurementSunriseSource (album)Primary energyRenewable energyHourWater vaporTracing paperMoving walkwayAmmeterVeränderlicher SternRail transport operationsBahnelementAngeregter ZustandClimate changeParticle physicsPhotographic processingAlternatorEngineRegentropfenGeothermal energyFACTS (newspaper)Hydrogen atomDayAstronomisches FensterShoringMetreElectric powerHull (watercraft)DistributorLecture/Conference
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CougarSource (album)ElectricityHot-dry-rock-VerfahrenWind powerTransmission lineCapacity factorSolar energyVideoTransfer functionJuneCoalHood (vehicle)Mitsubishi ColtRenewable energyMagnetCaptain's gigMeasurementNuclear powerClimate changeFood storageThermalSpecific weightAprilOrder and disorder (physics)Renewable energyKey (engineering)DesertionPower (physics)Wind powerNanotechnologyElectricitySolar energyTemperatureCosmic distance ladderWind farmHourSpare partInitiator <Steuerungstechnik>FACTS (newspaper)Source (album)Scale (map)Crystal structureCoalStarFossil fuelCut (gems)Angeregter ZustandPolradMechanicSunlightMembrane potentialYearCapacity factorCapital shipSea breezeTARGET2Display deviceHydropowerCommercial vehicleLecture/ConferenceComputer animation
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Power (physics)Photographic processingExtraction of petroleumCommercial vehicleFACTS (newspaper)YearEffects unitLecture/ConferenceMeeting/Interview
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Chemical substancePressureCoalSolidMatrix (printing)Water vaporOptisches PumpenGlobal warmingLocal Interconnect NetworkAutumnAmmunitionSteinmetzEffects unitHalo (optical phenomenon)ElectricityRedshiftEmission nebulaCardinal directionNanotechnologyPorcelainGenerationCapacity factorHydropowerAnalemmaSolar energyWind powerPower (physics)Transmission lineTin canSource (album)Dumpy levelData conversionFuelProgressive lensProzessleittechnikInternal combustion engineMaterialWire bondingTemperatureElectrical breakdownUnterseebootCrystal structureMembrane potentialExtraction of petroleumHull (watercraft)Electric currentThermalFinger protocolControl systemHydrogen atomCylinder blockThorPhotodissoziationSpontaneous fissionNuclear reactorReaction (physics)AC power plugs and socketsFilter (optics)Precipitation (meteorology)MeasurementHeat exchangerPunt (boat)Plane (tool)JuneNoise reductionPrimary energyElectricityEmissionsvermögenFACTS (newspaper)Energy levelPetroleum engineeringPower (physics)YearElectricity generationMembrane potentialCoalExtraction of petroleumPhotographic processingMinuteRenewable energyCartridge (firearms)NanotechnologyOrder and disorder (physics)OrbitMaterialWind powerHydropowerWater vaporGlobal warmingNoise reductionSolar energyFinger protocolProzessleittechnikHydrogen atomSpontaneous fissionCosmic distance ladderSource (album)BlackCrystal structurePlant (control theory)SolidTransmission lineDrehmasseBahnelementOceanic climateChemical substanceTemperatureSeparation processAtmospheric pressureProgressive lensAtmosphere of EarthTARGET2Controller (control theory)MeasurementDhowCardboard (paper product)MetalContinuous trackPorcelainSpaceflightTool bitIceGasFlavour (particle physics)KometenkernMonthBrake shoeEffects unitCell (biology)LiquidClockTextileTrade windAlcohol proofWire bondingMorningNear field communicationComputer animation
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ProzessleittechnikMode of transportEmission nebulaThermalSolidSiloSpantMuonMeltingMetalJuneDampfbügeleisenNuclear power plantHeat exchangerHeatFACTS (newspaper)Diving suitData conversionCartridge (firearms)MinuteComputer animation
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Hydrogen atomLiquidTransportFuelNanotechnologyChemical substanceEngineEmission nebulaVideorecorderFood storageProzessleittechnikTransmission lineData conversionCardinal directionPorcelainAccess networkSource (album)Cartridge (firearms)Hydrogen atomFuelEmissionsvermögenOrder and disorder (physics)LiquidTransportBuick CenturyAccess networkMinuteData conversionSource (album)SynthesizerCoalPrimary energyProzessleittechnikWater vaporGasSunriseEffects unitFood storageGentlemanDayMountainDiving suitLastYearMetalNuclear reactorHourCentre Party (Germany)Roll formingGround stationLecture/ConferenceComputer animation
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Lecture/ConferenceComputer animation
Transcript: English(auto-generated)
00:14
So we can see the clock started, yet. Your favorite's 30 minutes. From here at 29, 59, it's OK.
00:22
You lost four seconds. OK. Now, thank you very much. Now we are going to move ourselves to another subject, which is also really relevant to the future of mankind, which is the future of energy. And at the beginning, I will start to discuss a little bit briefly the climate of the past, which is a clear premise for the future,
00:43
for its future. Now, the Earth was created about 4.56 billion years ago, much later than the Big Bang. And the complex multicellular organic life was almost entirely born during the last 600 million years. And here you can show how the temperature of the planet Earth
01:02
over the last 600 million years, you see there have been many changes from low and high temperatures. Some very warm temperatures have taken place down to glaciation to the equator. And in some instances, we have been reaching almost ice at the level of the equator.
01:23
And various other periods, we were much higher and warmer than that. The last million years is represented by a large number of periods in which glaciations were reaching the equator and combined with climate optima about today's temperature.
01:43
And now the whole history of mankind is based on a remarkable uniform period, which you see in this graph, during the last 10,000 years, which has permitted to sustain the development of human civilization. So the little trace we have here at the end has been the one which has made us be where we are today.
02:04
Now, if you look at these things, so last period, for instance, using Vostok ice core from Antarctica, you can see that the situation is characterized by very, very short interglacial periods equal to present warmer presence,
02:22
surrounded by very long glaciers periods over the last half a billion year. You can see that the beginning, probable beginning of the Homo sapiens occurred something like 300,000 years ago that the earliest Homo sapiens moving to Africa was about 100,000 years ago.
02:41
And agriculture, which is the beginning of our present civilization, only occurs about 10,000 years ago. And notice the shortness of the warm period over very long glacial periods. And the question is, of course, the modern time, how long will it continue, how long will it last from this point of view?
03:03
Now, if you go on a shorter time scale, you look at the last 2,000 years, you can observe, for instance, the northern hemisphere, the changes naturally between cooler and warmer conditions on a period which is roughly over 1,000 years. At the Roman times, the temperature was warmer than today,
03:21
then we had the dark ages in the middle of the century, and then around the year 1,000, the temperature came up again. We had a little ice age around in 1600, 1700, and now we are coming to today's situation. You can see there, warmer and colder periods have been alternating.
03:41
Extratropical northern hemisphere, the current mean temperature variation relative to the variations are indicated in this graph with something like two standard deviation bars. Now, at the present moment, we have a major new phenomenon developing. The emergence of what is called anthropogenic era.
04:01
The permanency linked long stable period after the inter-Gussian period has been essential to create and sustain life and civilization as they are today. And, of course, it's an element for survival that we must preserve for our cost. But, as well known, we are presently facing a new phenomenon which was coined by Eugene Sturmer and popularized by the Nobel laureate Paul Crutzen,
04:22
the emergence of a man-made anthropogenic era. For the first time, human activities have made strongly influence the future of the Earth climate. For instance, since 1750, about one million or million tons, 1,000 gigatons of CO2 has been injected into the atmospheres,
04:41
to which many other pollutants have to be added. The first sign of such an anthropogenic era may have been already detected. This effect should be curved to avoid the irreversible effects of major climatic change. Now, the amount of CO2 accumulation is, of course, enormous.
05:00
You can see here the distribution of the planet. You can see that, for instance, in some of the countries, we are using more than 100 kilograms of CO2 per day in each individual person. The second effect is that the CO2 production so far appears as uncurbed. You see here the function of the time, the amount of emissions of CO2 to the whole planet.
05:21
You can see that there is a continuous line growing linearly exponentially. Now, the CO2 production, it's enough to fill with superfluid CO2 at 100 bars, which is a density similar to the water, a volume like the Lake of Geneva,
05:40
which is 80 kilometer cubed every four years. You can see the Lake of Geneva here, and you can see how it is, in fact, being affected by these situations. Now, the second question is, of course, how long does CO2 last in the biosphere? Now, here is a graph which shows the variations of the lifetime
06:01
of the CO2 in the atmospheres, and it appears to be about somewhere between 30, 35 kilo-years. You can see here what will happen over the time. You see here 600 years in this plot of certain emissions of CO2, which I assume will occur for the first few hundred years, and then they will stay steady for a long way to go.
06:21
As a comparison, for instance, the lifetime of plutonium-239 is 26 kilo-years, associated with today's public negative perception of nuclear energy. So we are talking about really incredible durations. The mean atmospheric lifetime of the order 10 to the four year is in contrast with a popular perception.
06:41
Many people think that in a few hundred years the CO2 will disappear. Now, let's see what are the predictions about the next 25 years. Those are particularly gloomy. You can see the plot here from the EIA, International Energy Agency from Paris. You can see that there is, observe here, a massive expansion of fossils burning with no scarcity of resources,
07:03
but a very slow growth renewable, hydro-included. You can see from this graph that in fact the renewable goes simply from 13% to some 18% of a quarter of a century. And the effect of this is coming from a situation which is very characteristic. You can see here that USA, Europe, and other OECD countries
07:21
essentially flat constant in intensity, China and India developing very rapidly together with the remaining developing countries and bringing the contribution of the CO2 by an increase of the order of about 33% over this famous period of 25 years.
07:42
Now, the immediate consequence of that is of course some change of the temperature of the Earth. You can see here the plot of the temperature of the Earth in the year 2015 referred to the baseline situation before the development of, between 1951 to 1980.
08:05
And you can see that in fact there is a very substantial increase in the temperatures, mostly the northern hemisphere right here and in our situation. And you can see that the overall effect over the period is substantial of the order of about one degree centigrade
08:21
above what it was in 61 to 1990 average. And there is a small little effect up here and down to the bottom of Antarctica, but fundamentally most of the civilized world is now warming up very substantially. Now, how do we go about this? That's the second question.
08:40
Now, of course, to do this we need, of course, new technologies. And we believe that, the statement is that new technologies are the only key to solving sustainability of the future of energy. And transformation of energy with lower emissions and a quantity of significant management of CO2 are the most important technology that challenges our time. Now, of course,
09:01
the current worldwide energy supply is dependent mainly on fossil fuels, which will remain in these tens of decades to come. But in order to curb environmental changes, it is necessary to proceed vigorously on two lines. One is the development and progressive utilizations of renewable energy sources.
09:20
And the second is the more efficient utilizations of fossil fuels, limiting the effect of anthropogenic CO2 and other emissions. Now, I will briefly represent here the main guidelines of major rules which are being followed by Europe with one hand, for United States on the other, and finally, the very, very countries like China to show what are the differences
09:42
in interest and behaviors about the future of energy. Now, let me start with the first pillar of high energy policy, which is Europe. During as many as 20 years, the energy policy in European Union has been determined by two main priorities. A first strategic priority of European Union has been one to present dangerous climatic changes.
10:03
The second consideration is based on the assumption that energy prices will rise inexorably as global energy demand rises and resources become scarce, and this will necessarily make renewable energy competitively the winners. By 2040, about 80% of the European primary energy
10:22
should be aggressively coming from renewable, abating both nuclear and fossils. And while the development and progressive utilization of renewable is a positive action, Europe has made substantially the consequences of technological progress and the U.S. successes of CO2-efficient, lower-cost, and abundant utilization
10:40
of unconventional natural gas, which we call also shale gas. So let me briefly show you the situation about European future. You can see, for instance, the example here of Germany. You can see that from 1990, the amount of CO2 in 2050 will collapse by a factor of 20, and you can see there the situation. You can also see that hydrogen, electrically produced by PV,
11:04
hydro, wind, geothermal, and solar are the main energy sources of industry transport. So according to Europe, which is specifically presented according to the German situation, the amount of fossils will eventually disappear almost entirely. It will be replaced by renewables.
11:22
Now, let me show you here as an example wind energy, which is a dominant element for Europe. You can see here that, in fact, most of the wind energy is really coming from Northern Europe, with few little traces around here near to France. And so, therefore, this is how it's distributed over Europe.
11:44
Now, let me show here how it's realized in practice. Wind offshore is probably the real solutions, and you see enormous efforts are being performed in order to carry out such a situation. Here you can see, for instance, how the average power now has grown up to something like six megawatts per unit,
12:01
that some of these units go under the water up to 700 meters in depth, that they are, in fact, distributed mostly in the operation offshore in the region which goes between England, Scandinavia, and Germany. Now, the real problem of wind is variability.
12:21
You can see here, for instance, the variability of wind in Germany, and you can see that, essentially, there are moments in which there is too much wind, and the moment there is not enough wind. Let me also point out that the power carried by wind goes like a cube of the speed of the wind, squared because of the one-half m e squared, and another v because of the speed at which the wind travels.
12:44
So, therefore, there are moments where the very large variability is a major problem that you can discuss. If you go more generally, you can see that the renewable energy can be done with biomass, geothermal, wind, and hydropower. The economic potentials of these various solutions are not very large
13:03
when you compare to the demand Europe will foresee by 2050 to have 7,500 terawatt hours per year of electric power, and you can see that the best you can do of economic potentials of these various alternatives of renewable energy are maybe of the order of much smaller than this number.
13:22
Therefore, long-term renewable dominance requires resources outside Europe. The key resource about Europe is, of course, the sun, which is an enormous amount of economic potential, 600,000 terawatt hours per year,
13:44
and which is, of course, dominating in the southern part of Europe, and most importantly, the Sahara and desert and so forth and so on. And you can see how little of that can do an enormous change. A total energy worldwide could be accumulated by covering with solar windows
14:02
a system of the order of this little graph you can see here around Africa. However, the situation now is not so clear because although the requirements for solar energy, the deserts are a necessity, you can see that transporting energy from Africa to Europe is not a simple one.
14:25
In fact, the major disaster is taking place recently because the desert technology industry initiative has an abandoned strategy to export solar power generated from the Sahara to Europe, killing the hopes of boosting Africa's share of renewable energy.
14:42
Therefore, the situation is not very clear what will be the situation in the future. Here you can see, for instance, coastal large-scale electricity, how they go as a function of the various systems. Conventional energies are hydro, geothermal, nuclear, and biomass.
15:01
Wind offshore and offshore, you can see them there. You can see the offshore wind is still reasonably acceptable, but the offshore wind has a major cost increase. Then you have also carbon sequestration, which is there, which is also again accumulating underground the coal,
15:22
the CO2 from the coal, and this is also very high in terms of temperature. You also see the solar energies are there, very nice, but of course extremely expensive. So you see money-wise, the situation is rather difficult to be understood in mechanical problems. In fact, there are two main problems in Europe.
15:42
One is a high cost as a function of a fraction of renewables. You see here a graph which shows, for instance, what is the cost of electricity with about 1,000 watts per capita, which is the situation of Denmark and Germany, and you compare that with the situation in the United States, which is down here, for instance, where you have in fact a much smaller renewable capacity,
16:03
but the cost of electricity is almost a factor too lower. Therefore, the second question is that there are not enough renewables within Europe to satisfy fully the domestic resources, and therefore something has to be done elsewhere, but there is a real difficulty in carrying over several thousand kilometers of energy
16:23
from Africa to Europe. So the key problem for renewable energy are, of course, the best energy is always the cheapest energy. Energy, however, must be available when it is needed. And the third important point is that electricity is now becoming the dominant source of energy
16:41
for renewable energies, but renewable energies require a much wider surface of collection located in specific locations in which production is optimal, and therefore electricity at very high powers must be transported over much longer distances than today, which is not technically very easy,
17:04
comparable to the one possible today for natural gas and oil. So this is the European situation. Now, what about the American situation? Now, the second main pillar is coming from the US, and this is essentially based on the question of this graph coming here from Time magazine, which says this rock could power the world.
17:22
Commercial extraction for oil shale is now something which has already started over the last 10 years, and in fact the development is quite remarkably growing nowadays. In fact, you can see that there are possibilities to do natural gas from shales. This is how it has been organized. Or coal bed methane, again another possibility,
17:42
which can be absorbed to produce unconventional natural gas. And the worldwide shale resources are global and massive. You can see that both America, Latin America, China, and Europe have large amounts of these resources. This coal bed methane, again, is very rich of different countries,
18:02
so there are plenty of resources there. Now, in Europe we also have plenty of resources for this, but as I said, resources are vast, but strong popular opposition forbids the use of these applications when it comes to Europe. So Europe is totally absent at the present moment in a practical sense to these solutions, which are very strongly developed in the United States.
18:21
Now, this has produced a very fundamental difference between the prices of natural gas in the US with respect to Europe and Japan. As you see from this graph, while in 2006 or 2008 the situation were in fact very similar, now in 2012-13 you can see that while the amount of prices in the US has been going down,
18:42
the situation in Europe and Japan are much higher, so there is a big difference between the predictions of the two systems. This has also introduced another important fact, that electricity production from coal is going down in the US thanks to the development of shale gas, and increase in the gas has increased. And so the result is that the US has introduced a very substantial reduction of CO2 emissions,
19:06
and then the primary energy production in North America is in fact rising rapidly while in Europe is decreasing. And the petroleum production in various countries shows here that now the United States is producing as much petroleum as Saudi Arabia,
19:22
which is a remarkable result. And you can see for instance the case of Texas, which shows clearly that over the development of shale gas has created really a revolution in the amount of oil which is being used. The third question I'd like to mention very briefly in the few minutes I've got left is the question of China.
19:41
China is the world's largest producer of electricity, surpassing the United States in 2011. Electricity generation in China has increased 9.6% annually, reaching a very large amount of terawatts. Now, the real problem is that coal-fired plants currently make up two-thirds of the power generation, which is of course the result of an abundance of coal in China.
20:04
The demands respect to be continuing to increase at a very rapid pace. However, the growth of electricity from coal-fired plants resulted in an increase in air pollution and general lack of efficiency. China is now moving aggressively to curb pollution and increase supply of renewable power.
20:20
China is the world's largest wind energy producer, with 90 gigawatts of installed power by the end of 2013, and 15% is the near-term renewable target for China. Now, here you can see how the renewables present themselves in China. Wind, solar, and hydro are there, and the electric demands are shown in this graph.
20:42
You can see why the wind and the solar and the hydro are optimal. In some regions, the electric demands is dominated, of course, where the people are, and there's a big business between the two distances. You can see here the power transmission requires a long transmission of power, as I mentioned already. You can see the several thousand kilometers of distance are required
21:01
between the best production, hydro power, wind power, solar power, and the presence of the main people occupations. You can see the situation in China. Now, shale gas is strongly developed by China. You can see here the various companies exploring shale gas, most of them American companies, which are going into China to get this system productive,
21:22
and you can see how quickly the shale gas has been developed in China to reduce the coal dependence. You can see here a graph showing the estimated annual production rising very rapidly with a very impressive aiming eye level of the situation.
21:44
Now, let me then continue asking ourselves, in the eight minutes I've got left, about the future of energy productions. Now, unconventional natural gas resources seem to be a major news effect,
22:03
which we have to take into account. The process of progressive decarbonization of oil goes necessarily through an increased use of and consumption of natural gas. Now, it's quite clear that natural gas could represent the practical talent to present the growing expectation
22:21
of coal as the main source of energy. In addition, many other new developments have to be introduced in order to ensure that the future can become a remarkable and cheap production for fossils. And the key element to this is novel methods.
22:44
Now, let me also point out to another new fact. The presence of a new source, untapped reserve for natural gas, the largest untapped reserve for natural gas on the crust are the thing called the clathrates. Maybe some of you people only know what a clathrate is.
23:03
The clathrate is a combination between some, you can see here, some water and some natural gas, which combine in a situation which is stable
23:21
at a temperature around zero degrees, and it's called a clathrate, and it's very rich of methane. For instance, one liter of methane clathrate, the so-called burning ice, will produce something like 168 liters of methane gas at the normal pressures, and you can see here the picture of a small amount
23:42
of this clathrate, which is now burning, producing natural gas, and you can see the molecule and the structure of the system like that. Now, the project appears purely academic. Now, the people realize that a very large amount of methane hydrate could be present in any environment
24:03
with suitable pressures and temperatures, and therefore, the potential amount of methane in natural gas hydrate is enormous, with current estimates converging around the conservative value of about 10,000 gigawatts of methane carbon, as a comparison, the total estimate of conventional natural gas and oil of the order of a few hundred gigatons.
24:20
So therefore, you can see here the location where clathrates were observed in the oceans. You can see almost everywhere around the world there are places in which recovered gas hydrate samples or inferred gas hydrate occurrences have been observed. The procedure is extremely simple.
24:42
You go underground, you can extract these materials and clathrates out of the ocean, and you can bring them either or eventually from the permafrost, and you can recuperate those amount in the system, either by having a depressurization or having a thermal change,
25:01
which eliminates the separates the natural gas from the water. Now, of course, the question is, how do we solve the questions of future global warming?
25:22
It's quite clear that natural gas is inevitably emitting CO2, although at a small fraction, which is half, compared to coal. So the new project, the new question is, how can we reduce even further the CO2 productions? And the project on which, by the way, also myself involved, is voided with the help of spontaneous thermal decompositions
25:41
at the sufficient temperature of methane into hydrogen and black carbon. You can see here the CH4, we transform itself into a liquid, into hydrogen and solid black carbon. And this method is quite valuable because it does not use more energy than the existing reforming process,
26:02
and which, however, can produce a lot of CO2, four tons of CO2 for each on hydrogen, and the black carbon can be recovered as a field level construction method. And this is processed under investigation. You can see here the initial attempts, which we did many years ago, in which we just took a tube,
26:21
we put in the tube at a suitable temperature, some kind of a natural gas, which becomes just naturally transforming itself into black carbon and hydrogen very quickly, and so forth and so on. And now the way the methane cracking
26:42
is more or less represented here, you can see here the methane input coming in, and through the methane cracking process, hydrogen and carbon are separately produced. The efficiency is high, and in fact the numbers that you can see can be explained comparing a standard method of producing CH4 with the emission of CO2,
27:03
or without emission of CO2, you can see that in both cases, sorry, oh my God. Excuse me. Anyway, the situation is that in fact, this situation is very similar.
27:21
You can see here that 40% energy is lost by conventional method, and about 42% is recovered and stored with a normal method in here. The technology, I cannot spend much time describing it, is represented by this picture here. It's very efficient. We have reached, in this case at 1,000 degrees,
27:41
something like a major fraction of methane conversion today. It works, and the cost is also very valuable. So let me use the two minutes I've got left by mentioning a few more questions. Now the question of the fuel for transportations. A lot of people have claimed that you should use hydrogen for transportation,
28:01
but however, what you really need in order to run the liquid for future transportation has to be a liquid. Now you can build a liquid by combining the amount of hydrogen produced by the previous method with remaining CO2, which is spent already,
28:26
where plenty of CO2 is being produced. In other words, the idea is to produce methanol through a process in which hydrogen plus CO2 transform itself into methanol plus water. And this is an example, very briefly how you do it.
28:40
You take in this graph here, essentially, the natural gas from the methane producing hydrogen with emission of carbon storage, and you take CO2 from already used CO2 and you combine them together in the methanol synthesis reactor, which then becomes a liquid,
29:00
and this transform is used as a future replacement for oil. Now let me therefore conclude. What are we talking about energy for the future? In my view, a new age of abundance is now being developing, and it is based on unconventional gas resources,
29:23
initially coal bed and shale gas in the foreseeable future, and methane hydrates later on, after the coal bed methane shale gas has been more or less distributed. North America, India, China, Africa, Latin America will all have access to cheap and abundant shale gas and oil.
29:43
Europe, of course, is still for political reasons still on hold. With both environmental sensitivity and gas consumption on the rise, the main question is how to recover this huge novel, natural gas resources, available for millennia to come and economically harvest the immense energy wealth in the most efficient and effective manner
30:00
with a minimal environmental footprint. I believe the natural gas sources with zero CO2 emissions are the winners. Shale gas, the ultimate clathrate, with the ability of becoming the dominant primary energy source for the tenth century to come. Thank you very much.