Some numbers, concerning fossil fuels

• 85 million Barrels of Oil required every day to sustain global needs
• 120 million Barrels of Oil, will be required in 2030
• 1 Barrel of Oil pumped out of an oil-well today in Iraq, costs about $1. It's efficiency, is compared to 25.000 hours of manual work
• Making an average microchip, requires 630 times its weight in fossil fuels
• Fermentation of organic matter for millions of years created the earth's oil reserves
• 250 years, is more or less the total time for mankind to use most of these reserves
• According to analysts, a world without fossil fuels would be able to sustain 1,5 to 2 billion people

Some numbers concerning Oil & Transportation

• 70% of each Barrel of Oil is used for transportation while 98% of all transportation use oil derivatives
• The increase of global fuel needs by 2030, will be 35%. 3/4 of it, will be due to transportation needs
• Annual increase of alternative energy in transportation is 5,6%
• By 2030, the total use of alternative energy in transportation, will be 9%
• Every year, trucks, merchant ships and goods trains, require 3 to 4 times more oil compared to passenger cars, ships and trains
• European passenger vehicles, will be 0,3% more efficient each year while commercial vehicles will be 1,1% more energy consuming
• Asian passenger vehicles will require 0,1% more energy annualy, while commercial transport will consume 1,5% more fuel
• In Western Europe, there is 1 car for every 2 citizens
• 4 billion people, live in regions where 1 car corresponds to 20 citizens
• About 250 million cars today in Europe, 93 million in East Asia & Middle East
• About 290 million cars in 2030 in Western Europe, 336 million in East Asia & Middle East

So small, yet so expensive. Yet...

First thing you hear driving a hydrogen car, is a low frequency noise coming from the compressor. Second thing, is a high frequency noise as the electric motor fulfills your need for more speed. Third thing you hear, is the noise coming from the tyres and yourself inhaling. The smoother the road, the less you must breathe. Υour hydrogen car will be friendly to drive but with little space for luggage. Carrying about 4kg of compressed hydrogen, requires a tank twice the size of a normal spare wheel.

Talking about hydrogen, you always get the question about safety. Right now in Europe's roads, drivers are about 95% to blame for accidents, while cars' proportion is 2,5%. So the first answer is that the driver of a fuell cells car, is much more dangerous than the car itself. Moreover, a discussion with Honda's Senior Engineer -Automobile Advanced Technology Research Dept- Thomas Brachmann last week in Frankfurt, has given the feedback we already were aware of: hydrogen tanks, are almost as safe as natural gas tanks. There is a matter of question on whether rear collisions could provoke problems or not, but all car makers answer that this type of crash tests, is the most usual in fuel cells cars. According to Brachmann's statements specifically on the FCX Clarity, there are six hydrogen cells. If one of them encounters some kind of problem, it stops functioning and the other five keep on moving the car. Answering where could we possibly store hydrogen ready for use, he said: "Storing it underground is easy and there is no necessity to be in liquid form". In other words no need to be under pressure: ex. the FCX Clarity's tank pressure is at 5.000psi.

Filling a hydrogen tank of 4kg means having a range of 460km, when driving a car of about 100KW output. In other words, most probably the majority of European citizens will need to refuel once or twice a week. Taking into account the fact that hydrogen is more expensive than petrol and diesel, adding the fact that there is limited network of stations to fill your hydrogen tank, one could easily say that for the time being, leasing hydrogen cars to companies is the best possible action. Car makers get the feedback they want, while executives promote themselves as environmetnally friendly individuals. For someone to buy a hydrogen car today, would be like throwing money out of the window and expecting the wind to blow some back in. Hydrogen will be one of the main electricity suppliers in future vehicles, but not yet. Even when this happens, it won't be the cheapest way of moving. It will only be, by far, one of the cleanest.

Dr. Stamos Stournas*, answers on the present and future of Global Energy Mix

Q: Could the phrase "energy crisis" depict the near future? 

You know, this is a subject of discussion for 30 years with colleagues at conferences and workplaces. Discussions, based of course on the fact that sometime in the future, all the deposits of mineral resources will end. The important question, however, is when this will happen. Today we have confirmed more recoverable oil reserves than we had 30 years ago. And 30 years ago, we had confirmed less reserves than those used afterwards. Moreover, one should always have in mind the phrase "recoverable mineral resources": they are the reserves, able to bring profit when being exploited. The high price of oil, therefore, at times, favors the extraction of parts that are more costly to be extracted in other times. Extracting a significant amount and increasing the supply, pusches the price down, making some fields, less interest. What I mean is that a constant amount of economically extractable oil, is usually there. There are cycles, that depend on technology and demand. In general, i believe that problems may occur in approximately 100 years. It would be wise to remember that any graph showing peak oil extraction should be taking into account the latest technology advancements and of course, the demand of fossil fuels.

Q: So, you are saying that scenarios heard from time to time, are a bit stiff to believe.

My view is that when the problem becomes acute, life-style will not be much affected. As the years pass, the impact of peak oil, will be less. Also, remember that the three main users of oil are: industry, residences and transport. In recent years, the one that showed growing requirements of oil, is transport. Industry and residences can more easily become independent of oil and right now, this is what they are doing. There is also a reason for the transfers can not gain their independence so easily. First of all, the infrastructure. Consider the time and cost needed to build a network of "alternative fuel" stations. Moreover, one should keep in mind the engines: they evolve for over a hundred years and strategically, they should keep on being used for many years to come. Right now, internal combustion engines are optimized for gasoline and diesel. Thus, most efforts are made to change the format of the engines, converting them to use other fuels, than create new ones. In other words, it is more acceptable to convert natural gas into gasoline for use by the existing engines, rather than changing the engine itself.

Q: Natural gas, diesel, petrol, coal are all environmentally harmful. 

There is no doubt that using oil, gas and coal as fuels aggrevate global warming. However let us consider this: carbon derived from the fermentation of plant organisms and oil from zoic organisms. 200 million years ago, these organisms flourished, buried and fermented. This time, the Earth's atmosphere was much like that of Venus today: large amounts of CO2, used by plants to grow and eventually become raw material for the creation of large hydrocarbon deposits. Meanwhile, CO2 decreased making the atmosphere able to sustain human life. Some imply that today, using the hydrocarbons created by the life that flourished in the world then, we tend to push the climate in standards where man could not survive. This is certainly a strong argument. What is not said, however, is that about 95% of the carbon created by the fermentation of these organisms, dispersed on nearly everything we can hold in our hands today. This ultimately means that concentrations of carbon converted into fossil fuel reserves is about 1-2%. So even if we were able to drain the earth's reserves it would be impossible to make the atmosphere toxic to an extent that it would not sustain human life. Of course I'm not saying that this 1-2% is not enough to cause problems. What I'm saying is that things are not so severe as some imply.

Q: Improving technology has given us the opportunity to extract more oil than expected. On the other hand, economic growth requires increasing quantities of fossil fuels. For the time being at least.

That's right. Many countries are now boosting their economy, augmenting at the same time the standard of living of their inhabitants. Right now, there is a debate between developed and developing countries on the means of oil consumption and environmental friendliness. Developing countries of course, argue that since the others used fossil fuels to advance, this is what they will do. This is a strong statement and i do not really know what someone could answer.

Q: Alternative energy sources beyond the renewable?

Many developing countries produce biofuels. This however, sometimes means denying citizens their food. Ethanol for example, is produced from corn. Many producers who probably are landowners prefer to sell their production expensive in Europe than to supply the local market -which is less profitable. This is called "Food vs Fuel". The optimal use of biofuels could come from the by-products of crops. There are no silver bullets in the energy sector. Each country should see what works and what can be better exploited. If some fuels are very burdensome for the environment, we should find better ways to use them
 

Q: Could Hydrogen be a solution for the future?
The element with the smallest molecule. If a baloon is inflated with hydrogen, it will be deflated much faster compared to one inflated with air. So in order to use it, we should increase its density. Also remember that when mixed with oxygen, it is very explosive. This means that if it is to be used as fuel say for cars, it is very likely to provoke major problems, mostly due to untrained staff. Moreover, there is again the issue of infrastructure. A nice thought about hydrogen, is to be produced by electrolysis of water and not from hydrocarbons. Electrolysis, that could be done with the use of solar energy. I believe that hydrogen will play an important role in the future, but not yet.

*Dr. Stamos Stournas got his Chemistry Degree in Harvard University, continuing his studies for Master's and PhD degrees in Columbia. After working for ten years in the USA for Mobil, he went back to Greece. Right now, he is the Director of the "Liquid Fuels' and Lubricants' Technology Lab" in the Polytechnic University of Athens.

Daimler AG Celebrates anniversary of 125 years

Exactly 125 years to the day after Carl Benz registered his “vehicle with gas-engine drive” under patent number 37435 with the Berlin Patent Office in 1886, Daimler AG has celebrated the anniversary of the automobile.

World tour of fuel cell vehicles has started

Daimler and Mercedes-Benz clarify commitment in the field of green technologies, sending three B-Class cars with fuel cell drive on a world tour. Convoy, is to travel around the world in 125 days. 

Patent granted for battery technology

125 years after Carl Benz registered his patent and more than 80,000 patents later, Daimler was granted another technology patent during the anniversary celebrations. Cornelia Rudloff-Schäffer, President of the German Patent and Trade Mark Office, presented Dr. Zetsche with the patent certificate for the so-called bipolar flat-cell frame. This technology is now in the development stage at Daimler and is potentially a further step along the way to the industrialization of lithium-ion batteries.

Milestone: 30 million Mercedes-Benz cars

Right on time for the 125th anniversary of the automobile and after 65 years of post-war production, the Mercedes-Benz brand has reached a new milestone. 30 million automobiles with the three-pointed star have been delivered to customers since 1945.

Sculpture “Aesthetics 125”

The latest sculpture from the Mercedes-Benz design team, “Aesthetics 125,” was unveiled. The sculpture continues the designers’ philosophy that “Mercedes-Benz design is art” and is an extension of the sculptures presented previously, “Aesthetics No. 1” and “Aesthetics No. 2.” Like them, “Aesthetics 125” provides an outlook on the future design language of Mercedes-Benz. It combines elements of an automobile’s interior and exterior by means of sweeping, almost soaring shape transitions

Support for the Gottlieb Daimler and Karl Benz Foundation

Daimler is making a gesture of social responsibility, and will increase the capital of the Gottlieb Daimler and Karl Benz Foundation (www.daimler-benz-stiftung.de) to 125 million euros. This foundation was established in 1986 and deals primarily with long-term research projects concerning the ever changing relationship between human beings, the environment and technology.

The long road to the birth of the modern-day automobile

As far back as the eighteenth century there had been first experiments with automobiles driven by steam engines, in particular in England and France. In the course of the 19th century countless engineers, developers and inventors all over Europe worked at the further development of steam engines. Electric motors were also tried for the first time. However, the decisive steps that led to Gottlieb Daimler and Carl Benz’s invention of the modern motor car took place in Germany with the invention of the four-stroke engine (gas engine) by Nikolaus August Otto.

Both Daimler and his congenial partner, Wilhelm Maybach, as well as Carl Benz realised that their opportunity lay in the reduction of size and weight of the engine coupled with an increase in power output at the same time. The resoluteness with which Carl Benz and Gottlieb Daimler developed their ideas further, and patented, implemented and tested them to finally lead to their application in series production and market maturity, makes them the fathers of an invention that was to change the world – socially, culturally and economically.

Totems of the Uncivilized

If you believe that the city you live in serves your needs, think again. (published in Car Magazine's Greek Issue Nov'10 by E.P.)

According to a report of the United Nations for the past and the future of the World Population in Cities -published in 2007- during the '50s, about 737 million people lived in cities, representing 29,1% of world population. During the same period, rural areas have provided housing for 1.8 billion people (70.9%). By 2050 the scenery will be completely different, with 69.6% (6.4 billion) residing in large urban areas and only 30.4% (1.8 billion) in the province.

From 1950 to 2005, the annual growth rate of urban population was stable between 2% and 3%. In 2005, it started shrinking and will continue to fall to 1.5% and 1% without, however, reaching zero or negative values. In other words, cities will continue to attract new residents. Meanwhile, according to the UN report, the population in rural areas will continuously be decreasing.


Since the '80s, having lost control of their daily life, people live as dictated by their cities of residence

The growth of population in cities becomes problematic when the "rate of newcoming residents" is bigger than the "rate of infrastructures' improvement". This leads to reduced personal space, undermining the quality of life. Since 1980, many cities are far from their original target to "serve the people". Having lost control of their personal lives, citizens today live as dictated by the cities of residence. The economically strong cities, have already invested heavily in studies, public awareness and infrastructure projects aimed at optimizing quality of life. In other cities, people are forced to reduce their personal space, consequently suffering of mental illness. In areas where infrastructure cannot cope with the demands of the public, high rates of unrest are recorded. Air pollution and noise pollution, traffic jams and over-concentration of people in the streets, lack of open spaces that would allow sport and leisure activities, trigger nervousness and irritability.

For future cities of the world, the main concern will be to offer the best quality of life. Public Transport will dominate, green areas will be increased, distances for the average citizen will be reduced. Vehicles will be free of emissions and noisy engines will only be heard in digital libraries. Projects already presented, refer to urban centers where noises will not exceed the noise levels of the countryside.Developed countries such as Germany, have already taken measures, enforcing laws that allow any citizen to sue the city where he resides, if bothered by noise.

The ultimate aim of the projects is to allow people to live in cities, without compromising the quality of life. If all these plans become reality, it is clear that many present cities will be labelled as a new "Middle Age". Future citizens will wonder how was it possible for someone to dealing with traffic jams, spending one more hours on the road to reach his office, alone in a private vehicle, inhaling harmful substances and how exactly his auditory system dealt with the horrendous noises. Ultimately, they will wonder how could 50,6% of us could be stacked in cities, that did not serve even the basic of needs. When refering to us, they will most probably be using words such as "uncivilized" and "primitive". What else could someone be called for suppressing his basic needs and sacrifising his personal freedom in order to worship his present Totems made of concrete, steel and glass.



1950: 29.1% of the world's population lives in cities
Comfortable transportation
Working areas, are separated by areas of residence. Distances are small, people and goods move easily.
1960: 32.9% of the world's population lives in cities
Friendly cities
The population is growing. Creation of new infrastructure to facilitate movement. People start living in the suburbs. Roads are increasing in length, width and number.
1970: 36.0% of the world's population lives in cities
Urbanism
The influx of new residents in the cities increases. The need for even more facilities increases proportionally.
1980: 39.1% of the world's population lives in cities
Saturation
Many cities are 'stifled' by the people and the demands of transportation. Many cities are unable to sustain new infrastructure. Appearance of first residents leaving urban centers.
1990: 43% of the world's population lives in cities
Standards of living, are deteriorating
Traffic jams and noise pollution, are everyday routine. Air pollution and toxic rains are common. The major cities of Western countries review their road plans.
2000: 46.6% of the world's population lives in cities
Looking ahead
Developed countries pay attention to residents. A city is not functional if people are not satisfied. Public transportation becomes extremely important.
2010: 50.6% of the world's population lives in cities
Today
Citizens in developed countries start feeling "relieved".
2020 - 2050: 54.9% - 69.6% of the world's population lives in cities
The future
Transportation problems and unrest of citizens are past. Despite the great numbers of people in cities, correct infrastructure provides quality of life.
 

*Leipzig Charter 2007
The studies concerning cities, change over time and are constantly improved based on prediction models. This theme was based on «Leipzig Charter» 2007, passed by the European Minister for the creation of urban centers, based on sustainable development.

Efficiency, Painted Βlack

Efficient transport, is fighting against the shovels of workers throwing charcoal in industrial furnaces to produce electricity. The kind of electricity we use to charge the batteries of electric cars. (Published in Car Magazine's Greek Issue Feb'11 by E.P.)

Transport is responsible for 25% of carbon emissions worldwide, with cars and trucks emiting 75% of the total amount. Researches show that by 2050, energy demand for transportation will be two times more than today, while gas emissions must be half. In other words, by 2050, the ratio of "energy consumption / emissions" should be fourfold compared with the current data. The question that naturally arises is whether the international community is prepared to deal with such numbers...

Japan distributes its energy basis for the production of electricity, to coal and natural gas. Americans use coal as well, giving to nuclear energy an important piece of their energy pie. The charcoal is the main choice for the British, while the Germans still have a long way to go in order to disengage from it. Nuclear Energy is the main power for France's electricity, a fact that brings the country among the most friendly towards the environment, worldwide. At the same time, Spain and Italy, base their production of electricty on natural gas, which is much cleaner than oil but not free of CO2 emissions. The same applies to Russia, one of the richest countries in natural gas deposits.

All car companies have plans for the future of mobility, following -more or less- a path of bolts. The Japanese, being immersed in tanks of petrol, promote the use of hybrid engines, using gasoline and electricity. This is why Japan's first environmentally friendly moves, are in elliptical orbits around hubrid petrol engines. In the US, similar hybrid researches are under way except that pure electric transport is more widespread. In Italy, the Fiat Group promotes the use of LPG and natural gas, trying at the same time to get the best out of internal combustion engines (Multiair, Twinair). "The next day" for the Italians is also hybrid, combining different types of fuel: LPG - petrol, hydrogen - petrol, biofuels - petrol, are some examples. Of course, similar applications will be seen in diesel engines. This one, is a strategy that France is already embracing, with its diesel hybrid cars being the next in the production line. Models like the Citroen C-Cactus, the C-Metisse and Hypno, are equipped with such power units. Fuel consumption in these vehicles, which are currently concept cars- sounds paradoxical: the C-Metisse, is powered with a V6 Diesel Hybrid engine generating 208hp, requiring 6,5 lt/100km. As a step further, the French group is preparing engines that will use the E10 fuel: a mixture of gasoline with ethanol, 9 / 1. The French, of course, are not the only ones doing this and this mixture is probably the most prominent example for all future energy mix.

In November 2010, German Chancellor Angela Merkel attended in Munich the opening of facilities that will be the first mass production line of electric vehicles. The line is owned by BMW, which after the Mini E, prepares the Active E: also an electric vehicle based on the floor of the BMW 1 Coupe. In line with the BMW come the movements of Audi, who signed a pact with the International Organization "Desertec Industrial Initiative". The aim of the pact is the environmentally friendly production of energy for new generation vehicles, with Rupert Stadler Managing Director of Audi AG, declaring that with this move, Audi is committed to produce clean energy using the arid lands of North Africa and Middle East: "Generating energy from renewable sources, is a circle. We shouldn't forget the way we produce electricity to power the batteries of electric cars" said Mr Stadler signing the agreement, pointing out that the challenge of efficient transport, cannot be focussing only on the construction of "green vehicles". It should also refer to environmentally friendly infrastructure to produce the electricity.

Considering that the major thrust for future travelling will be based on electricity (Daimler, GM, Ford and others follow the same path) careful planning to support energy needs, is what we mostly need. Nowadays, both the prevelance of internal combustion engines and the way electricity is generated downgrade living standards. Meanwhile, ease of use and low cost of energy for the time being, act as barbed wire that we are not yet willing to surmount.


KEY SOURCES OF POWER TODAY *,**


ENGLAND: 33% coal, 45% n. gas, 14% nuclear, 1.8% renewables

FRANCE: 4% coal, 4% n. gas, 77% nuclear, 13% renewables

GERMANY: 46% coal, 14% n. gas, 23% nuclear, 5% biomass, 11% renewables

GREECE: 52% coal, 22% n. gas, 16% oil, 10% renewables

U.S.: 49% coal, 21% n. gas, 19% nuclear, 2% renewables

JAPAN: 27% coal, 26% n. gas, 24% nuclear, 13% oil, 8% renewables

ITALY: 54% n. gas, coal 15%, 10% oil, 18% renewables

RUSSIA: 48% n. gas, 18.1% coal, 16% nuclear, 16% renewables


* The total of individual percentages may not be 100% as there are some additional sources of energy, with small percentages, not mentioned

** SOURCE: International Energy Agency