Energy Discussion

[Jim123]

Might not be 80 lbs of brains - could be just a big noggin - a virtual planetoid - with its own weather system…

?

That was offsides, wasn't it?

So I Married an Axe Murderer (1993) clip with quote That was offsides, wasn't it? Yarn is the best search for video clips by quote. Find the exact moment in a TV show, movie, or music video you want to share. Easily move forward or backward to get to the perfect clip.

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[taxi1]

I'm picturing more of a seven dwarves mashup with a business casual-dockers-polo shirt, high tech, industrial park office building bungalow/cubicle culture, cultish workplace, 70 hour work week with a strong work from home component, young millionaire vibe.

Only one out of seven is happy, which is sad.

Which one gets replaced by Nerdy?

 

[Notanaviator]

?

That was offsides, wasn't it?

So I Married an Axe Murderer (1993) clip with quote That was offsides, wasn't it? Yarn is the best search for video clips by quote. Find the exact moment in a TV show, movie, or music video you want to share. Easily move forward or backward to get to the perfect clip.

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“SPHERICAL YET QUITE POINTY IN PARTS!!”
The Pentavirate part is consistently one of the funnier bits I’ve ever seen.

 

[Flash]

The Pentavirate part is consistently one of the funnier bits I’ve ever seen.

Funny enough to make a series out of it apparently.

 

[SlickAg]

Hmmm. Looks like we’re in good hands. Nothing to see here.

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1463244773914025984

 

[Randy Daytona]

Am hearing that gas shipments from Russia to Europe have dropped dramatically- and in some cases the gas flow is now reverse. I noticed that the price of natural gas in Europe is trading at the equivalent of $340 per barrel of oil. ABMD - any observations?

Europe Faces Full Blown Energy Crisis As Gas Prices Smash All Records | OilPrice.com

Europe's energy crisis got even worse on Tuesday as a shortage of natural gas, nuclear outages, declining wind power output, and cold weather boosted prices

oilprice.com

Europe Faces Full Blown Energy Crisis As Gas Prices Smash All Records​

 

[Brett327]

any observations?

Dependency on known bad actors makes for a suboptimal energy policy.

 

[ABMD]

Am hearing that gas shipments from Russia to Europe have dropped dramatically- and in some cases the gas flow is now reverse. I noticed that the price of natural gas in Europe is trading at the equivalent of $340 per barrel of oil. ABMD - any observations?

Europe Faces Full Blown Energy Crisis As Gas Prices Smash All Records | OilPrice.com

Europe's energy crisis got even worse on Tuesday as a shortage of natural gas, nuclear outages, declining wind power output, and cold weather boosted prices

oilprice.com

Europe Faces Full Blown Energy Crisis As Gas Prices Smash All Records​

Dependency on known bad actors makes for a suboptimal energy policy.

I'll just post this here. The US could play a MAJOR part in supporting our allies energy needs without them having to rely on Russia if we could only get Washington to get onboard. Simply put, we need to stop attacking oil and gas companies domestically and allow them to continue to grow and market our natural resources to the world (in the form of LNG). Getting rid of coal burning power plants in places like India and China will have a faster impact to carbon emissions than giving people a tax credit to buy an electric vehicle.

I listened, for 3 HOURS!, to a energy market professional this past week talk about Hydrogen as a replacement for natural gas since it doesn't contain carbon. However, the cost, especially for "green" hydrogen, is like 20x natural gas and since it doesn't have the same energy content as an equivalent about of natural gas it takes considerably MORE hydrogen to get the same energy output. I was not convinced it is a viable alternative to natural gas and neither were several of my colleagues also in the meeting.

I said it earlier, in 2021 the US saw a dramatic increase in NG futures and in Europe is was worse. However, the US has seen a significant retraction in gas prices, futures are about 40% below where they were just a few months ago. Producers, especially in the Marcellus, have ramped up production to take advantage of prices and a warm start to winter all helped contribute to downward pressure on prices. The weather forecast has a lot to do with prices, and Nov-Dec have been well below normal for most of the country (especially the Mid-Atlantic and East Coast). January is supposed to see a double digit increase in demand relative to Jan 2020, but the market isn't pricing that in at the moment.

 

[taxi1]

and since it doesn't have the same energy content as an equivalent about of natural gas it takes considerably MORE hydrogen to get the same energy output.

Per volume?

 

[sevenhelmet]

Per volume?

Yep, Hydrogen about 1/3 the energy content per cubic foot as compared to methane. That, along with the energy-intensive methods for obtaining and storing it are why I don't believe Hydrogen is going to be a widespread player in our energy future (politics notwithstanding).

 

[taxi1]

Yep, Hydrogen about 1/3 the energy content per cubic foot as compared to methane. That, along with the energy-intensive methods for obtaining and storing it are why I don't believe Hydrogen is going to be a widespread player in our energy future (politics notwithstanding).

I’m working on a DOE-funded project to look at alternative energy for trains to cut carbon emissions. Focus now is on batteries and hydrogen-powered fuel cells, with high pressure, cryo storage, or whatever they think of next. Nice thing about a train is you can tack on tenders to the engine.

 

[Brett327]

I’m working on a DOE-funded project to look at alternative energy for trains to cut carbon emissions. Focus now is on batteries and hydrogen-powered fuel cells, with high pressure, cryo storage, or whatever they think of next. Nice thing about a train is you can tack on tenders to the engine.

I know the majority of the railways aren't electrified in the US. Wonder what the cost/benefit would be of simply stringing up overhead wires along certain routes vs. inventing a completely novel energy source?

 

[taxi1]

I know the majority of the railways aren't electrified in the US. Wonder what the cost/benefit would be of simply stringing up overhead wires along certain routes vs. inventing a completely novel energy source?

We’re looking at it. Makes a lot of sense.

The big challenge is out west. But even in the East, there used to be quite a bit of freight moved that way, but now only passenger is electric. Diesel was just so cheap and easy, and who cared about carbon?

An in-between idea is to have sections of track with the catenaries (overhead wires) to charge the batteries, or to help in sections requiring “full grunt”.

One interesting thing is essentially they are all electric right now. The diesels turn generators that turn motors on the wheels. They brake by running the motors as generators, and heating up a big bank of resistors. Where the batteries rock is in capturing that braking energy instead of creating waste heat.

FLXdrive™

Wabtec is leading the transition to low-carbon rail operations with FLXdrive — the world’s first 100% battery-electric, heavy-haul locomotive.

www.wabteccorp.com

 

[sevenhelmet]

Hybridizing trains to recapture braking energy makes a LOT of sense. I’m sort of amazed that hasn’t happened already. Hydrogen as a fuel for trains does not make sense, at least not in our current economy. It will end up being dirtier than existing diesel platforms.

I get the impression people are grasping at straws with Hydrogen, assuming it’s environmentally clean since it burns clean. But, just like assessing the environmental impact of batteries and outsourcing energy production, you’ve got to trace the whole life cycle of the system (building systems for longevity is key). Unless you only care what happens in your backyard.

 

[Brett327]

Hybridizing trains to recapture braking energy makes a LOT of sense. I’m sort of amazed that hasn’t happened already. Hydrogen as a fuel for trains does not make sense, at least not in our current economy. It will end up being dirtier than existing diesel platforms.

I get the impression people are grasping at straws with Hydrogen, assuming it’s environmentally clean since it burns clean. But, just like assessing the environmental impact of batteries and outsourcing energy production, you’ve got to trace the whole life cycle of the system (building systems for longevity is key). Unless you only care what happens in your backyard.

(Taxi beat me to it) WRT locomotives, they essentially already do regenerative braking, but there's no battery to get charged so that energy just gets dumped into a big resistor and the heat is dissipated. having a battery tender makes a lot of sense.

I'm with you on the hydrogen panacea. Making that stuff in bulk quantities is usually an energy intensive process, and that energy has to come from somewhere, and ~60% of the electricity in the US relies on fossil fuels.