April-June 2000 Issue


News Items

Six companies have become charter members of the Energy Laboratory's new industrial consortium focusing on carbon sequestration (see e-lab, January-March 2000). The companies are American Electric Power, Ford Motor Company, General Motors, Norsk Hydro (Norway), Texaco, and TotalFinaELF (France). The membership represents most of the key sectors of the energy industry: oil and gas, electric power, and transportation. Howard J. Herzog, director of the new "Carbon Sequestration Initiative" and a principal research engineer in the Energy Laboratory, is now discussing possible membership with additional companies, including those in the coal industry. Additional information about the consortium can now be found on the World Wide Web at http://web.mit.edu/sequestration. The site provides a brief overview of the technology, a prospectus describing the objectives and activities of the consortium and member benefits, and contact information. Also included are selected articles prepared by Energy Laboratory researchers that will provide additional information about various aspects of sequestration. The consortium is part of the Energy Laboratory's Energy Choices Program, a major initiative launched in 1997 that focuses on finding ways to meet the expanding demand for energy services worldwide while reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

On June 21-23, the Joint Program on the Science and Policy of Global Change held its sixteenth Global Change Forum in Berlin, Germany, titled "Key Non-Linearities and Uncertainties in Climate Policy." Topics included ocean response and the stability of the thermohaline circulation; aerosols and clouds; the response of the terrestrial biosphere; integration of components into overall uncertainty analysis; emission control decisions under uncertainty; and progress of the climate negotiations and expectations for the sixth Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP-6). The keynote address was given by Rainer Baake, State Secretary, the Federal Environment Ministry (Germany). Meeting participants included about 100 representatives from industry, government, and academia, worldwide.

On June 20-21, the Energy Laboratory hosted the Annual Technical Review Meeting of the MIT/Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory (INEEL) Collaborative Program of Research in Engineering Sciences. At the meeting, MIT and INEEL researchers discussed their ongoing projects with the program's outside technical advisory committee. Current collaborative projects focus on developing new techniques for predicting fractures in welded structures and on understanding the physics of metal transfer in gas metal arc welding, with the objective of developing advanced intelligent welding machines. MIT principal investigators are Professor Thomas W. Eagar of the Department of Materials Science and Engineering and Professors Frank A. McClintock and David M. Parks of the Department of Mechanical Engineering. The program, funded by the US Department of Energy, Office of Science, Basic Energy Sciences, was initiated in 1985 in response to a federal call for closer collaboration between national laboratories and universities. The MIT/INEEL collaboration has provided opportunities for productive synergies that are difficult to develop in other programs. The INEEL provides well-qualified staff and sophisticated and expensive experimental facilities, and MIT provides researchers and graduate students with different perspectives, talents, and new ideas. In addition, both the INEEL and MIT draw on their close ties to the private sector to engage industrial collaborators. The annual review of the program by outside experts ensures productive collaboration, relevance to important industrial needs, and technology transfer.

János M. Beér, Professor Emeritus of Chemical and Fuel Engineering, has been reappointed to the National Coal Council (NCC) by the Secretary of Energy, Mr. Bill Richardson. The NCC is a Federal Advisory Committee to the Secretary of Energy. Its purpose is to advise, inform, and make recommendations to the Secretary of Energy on matters relating to coal as an energy carrier. The NCC has published several technical reports on scientific and engineering aspects of clean coal utilization. The most recent report is entitled "Research and Development Needs for the Management of Carbon Dioxide." Professor Beér has served as a member of the NCC since 1993. For more information about the NCC, go to on the World Wide Web.

During the past six months, researchers in the Energy Laboratory's Analysis Group for Regional Electricity Alternatives (AGREA) have traveled to China, Mexico, and Switzerland to meet with collaborators in projects designed to help those countries evaluate potential strategies for dealing with complex energy and environmental issues. Directed by Mr. Stephen R. Connors, an Energy Laboratory staff member, AGREA performs scenario-based multi-attribute trade-off analysis to assist stakeholders in comparing the potential impacts of various options for dealing with energy and environmental issues of local, regional, and global importance. Ongoing "integrated assessment" projects move beyond traditional energy planning to incorporate life cycle assessment, risk assessment, atmospheric science, and analysis of public health impacts, all with the goal of helping local and regional decisionmakers make more informed choices. Meetings such as those in China, Mexico, and Switzerland are a critical component of the research, as they permit AGREA and its collaborators to interact directly with local decision-makers and stakeholders. Such interactions ensure that the analyses are responsive to local needs and constraints and that the information generated flows to those who can best use it.

Meetings in March and June of this year in China have brought together researchers and stakeholders of the China Energy Technology Program (CETP), part of MIT's Alliance for Global Sustainability (a joint program involving MIT, the Swiss Federal Institutes of Technology, and the University of Tokyo). The CEPT is looking at a broad range of electricity alternatives for Shandong Province, located in Eastern China. Sponsored and coordinated by ABB, the effort includes MIT and collaborators at the Swiss Federal Institutes of Technology (Zürich and Lausanne), the Paul Scherrer Institute, and the University of Tokyo as well as participants from Chinese universities, environmental and economic development ministries, and the local power company. Shandong faces numerous challenges. It needs both advanced generating technologies and alternative fuel supplies. (It now relies almost exclusively on coal.) Moreover, any policies must also support the region's continuing economic growth, improve air quality and water use, and meet other environmental constraints. AGREA therefore collaborates closely with other teams that perform life cycle assessment, risk assessment, energy-economic modeling, and decision support.

Meetings held in January at MIT and in June in Mexico brought together participants of the Integrated Program on Urban, Regional, and Global Air Pollution. In this program, AGREA's trade-off analysis takes into account not only electricity supply and demand but also household, commercial, and industrial energy uses and emissions from transportation. The initial case study focuses on the Mexico City Metropolitan Area and also involves atmospheric modelers, who are looking at the unique meteorology of Mexico City, and public health researchers, who are exploring the impacts of poor air quality on Mexico City's inhabitants. The Mexico City project is led by MIT Institute Professor Mario Molina and involves a multidisciplinary team from MIT and Harvard as well as representatives from many local and state-level agencies and six universities in Mexico. The Mexico City project was initiated by MIT under the Consortium for Environmental Challenges.

A recent series of meetings with Swiss colleagues focused on disseminating results from a three-year project exploring electricity alternatives for Switzerland. This program, also part of MIT's Alliance for Global Sustainability, demonstrates the types of results achievable with integrated assessment. The analyses point to the need to better balance electricity supplies from Swiss nuclear and hydropower sources with supplies from sources in Western Europe, especially as the European electricity market becomes more competitive. In addition, Switzerland--like many industrialized nations--will need to rethink how it acquires and uses energy to meet day-to-day needs, as current levels of energy intensity cannot be sustained if targets for greenhouse gas emissions reductions set forth in the Kyoto Protocol are to be met. This assessment confirms and quantifies the challenges involved in meeting those targets.

AGREA and its research colleagues are identifying new areas of research whereby cost-effective options for reducing emissions can be identified and communicated to decisionmakers.