preview

Alternative Sources of Energy Essay

Decent Essays

As the population continues to increase day after day, so does the demand for oil and other natural resources. Eventually we will get to a point where we will need to find different ways of efficiently producing energy at a low cost. Twenty to thirty years ago it was hard to imagine what sources of energy (other than obvious possibilities like solar panels and windmills) that could efficiently supply the world. The advancement of technology today is opening new doors in the energy field that are likely to change the way we think about energy. With so many different sources of energy that are prevalent around the world, the challenge is found in harvesting and securing the energy at its source, and doing so in an efficient …show more content…

Clearly there are many difficulties that would have to be addressed including maintenance, air space issues, safety, etc, but flying wind farms are a potential source of future energy. wind.png Another form of energy that could become very useful and resourceful in the near future is the transformation of human waste into energy. An article by Janet Zimmerman describes a process being developed by an engineering firm named UC Riverside. The new process "uses heat and pressure to turn human waste into clean energy," saving millions of dollars and reducing pollution in the process. This idea has the potential to change the energy industry since there will never be a shortage of human waste. The first step of the process "pumps a combination of municipal sewage, sawdust and water into a pressurized reactor that is heated to almost 1,400 degrees." (Zimmerman). A senior development engineer with UC Riverside, Junior Castillo, explained that the extreme heat transforms the mixture into different gasses like carbon dioxide, methane, and carbon monoxide. In the later stages, these gasses are converted into substitutes for natural gasses. The goal is to eventually use the gas product to heat the reactor to increase efficiency. Although this process is still under development, they plan to have a functioning plant running within the next five

Get Access