Chattanooga Engineers Club

Monday, January 18 – NO MEETING, In Observance of MLK Day

NEXT MEETING________________________

Monday, January 25 – Noon – “Nuclear Power Today and in the Future”

Speaker: Dr. H. Lee Dodds, Professor of Nuclear Engineering, UT Knoxville.

Dr Dodds holds a B.S., M.S. and PhD from U.T. Knoxville. He has been a member of the faculty since 1970, and Head of the Department of Nuclear Engineering since 1997. Prior to UT, Dr Dodds worked for DuPont at the Savannah River National Laboratory for several years.

FUTURE MEETINGS________________________

Monday, February 1 – Noon – To be determined.

Monday, February 8 – Noon – “Protecting the New Orleans Inner Harbor from Hurricane Flooding”

Speaker: Maurice Bandy, Arcadis

PREVIOUS MEETING____________________________

Monday, January 11 – Noon – DOUBLETREE HOTEL, Inspiration Room (407 Chestnut Street, Chattanooga, TN 37402)

Jim Schwall presented certificates for those who have been members of the club for 50 or more years. Jim acknowledged Coca Cola as a new club sponsor. He noted that we have new officers for 2010. Ralph Boroughs was elected Vice President, and Joe Robbins succeeds Jim as President, but we are still seeking a candidate for secretary. Jim presented the President’s Gavel to Joe.

“Renewable Energy Solutions for the Future” - Dr. Sam Weaver

Dr Sam C Weaver spoke about the enormity of the world energy problem and approaches to address this problem being developed by two of his companies. He noted that the world’s energy supply is threatened by the scarcity, cost, and insecurity of fossil fuels, even while two billion people do not have access to electricity.

Dr Weaver is less worried about global warming than the sustainability of fuels. He presented charts which show the cyclic nature of world average temperatures and greenhouse gas concentrations over the last 400,000 years, but which also show that both temperature and CO₂ concentrations are beginning to exceed any past maxima.

He noted that world population is expected to grow from a current 6.8 billion to a peak of 10 or 11 billion. Meanwhile, the per capita energy use worldwide, now less than 2 kW, is expected to peak at about 12kW, as it has in the USA. He showed that energy use is closely correlated with the standard of living, as measured by per capita gross domestic product.

Order-of-magnitude estimates were shown for remaining years of energy supply under a number of scenarios, using various technologies. One scenario assumed world energy usage would be constant at current values; another assumed the current population, but with average usage increased to 12 kW and a final scenario with 11 billion people using an average of 12 kW each.

Under this last scenario, remaining fossil fuels would provide only about 10 years supply and known nuclear reserves would provide only another 15 years of energy supply. Dr Weaver views nuclear as a bridge technology to enable our transition to a renewable energy supply, and noted that advanced nuclear technologies could greatly extend the sustainability of nuclear power.

One of Weaver’s companies is developing technologies to store solar thermal energy, and then use Stirling engines to provide heat and electricity as needed. He estimates that solar thermal will require half the investment of solar photovoltaic power, and notes that the availability of solar energy is virtually limitless.

Another of his companies is developing a low cost process to generate hydrogen from biomass (such as sawdust or junk mail) at very low cost, potentially $0.30 to $0.78 per kg Hydrogen. (One kg Hydrogen is roughly equivalent to 1 gallon of gasoline in energy content.) At this cost, electricity could be generated at $0.02 to $0.04 per kWh.

MEETING LOGISTICS_______________________

The Chattanooga Engineer's Club meets at the DOUBLETREE HOTEL, CHATTANOOGA, Inspiration Room (407 Chestnut St., Chattanooga, TN 37402). Free parking is available in the gated parking lot on the south side of the Hotel. The gate will be open from 11:30 a.m. - 1:00 p.m. Plan to arrive at about 11:30 a.m., if you intend to park in the limited space available. No additional parking is available in the pit east of the Hotel on Chestnut Street.

QUESTIONS and SUGGESTIONS______________

If you have any questions, items that would be of interest to the Chattanooga Engineers Club, or suggestions for future programs, please contact Ralph Boroughs by e-mail at rdboroughs@gmail.com or by phone at 423-227-0412. You can find membership application forms, references to future programs, historical data, and other info at: http://www.ChattanoogaEngineersClub.org. To receive future meeting announcements by email, join the Chattanooga Technology Organization mailing list at: http://www.ChattanoogaEngineersClub.org/email.

Looking for details on a local society meeting? Links to local engineering societies are available to you at: http://www.chattanoogaengineersclub.org/engineer