Alaska poised to lead a green world

Alaska’s second energy boom is banging loudly at the door. An opportunity to lead the world in green energy stands before us and it’s just a small step up to the top of the podium of the world stage. Alaska will shortly be leading the world in green synthetic fuels. Our fellow Alaskans who decorate their cars with bumper stickers wishing for another energy boom are about to have their prayers answered.

The new energy future for Alaska is synthetic fuels made out of our abundant natural gas. It is possible to take natural gas and refine it into ultra-clean oil or diesel. Synthetic diesel can reduce hydrocarbon and particulate emissions by 30 percent, increase gas mileage by 30 percent over gasoline and make diesel the fuel of choice at the pump for all Americans.

Gas to liquid (GTL) technology is not new. In fact, it was invented by two Germans (Franz Fischer and Hans Tropsch) in the 1920s and was used to extensively power the Nazi war machine during World War II. This Fischer-Tropsch technology has matured over the years, is now ready for mass industry and is about to send a tsunami through the world energy markets. The liquid green energy of the future has arrived.

U.S. companies have improved this GTL process and have broadcast the availability of this new technology to the world. Unfortunately, about the only ones listening were the Australians who have some of the greatest natural gas fields in the world in Western Australia. The Ausies plan on achieving energy independence by making their own green synthetic diesel fuel and then running all their vehicles on it. They, along with Brazil and their ethanol production, are fast moving toward energy independence.

The North Slope has an estimated 37.5 trillion cubic feet of geographically trapped natural gas. The proposed pipelines to bring this gas to market are not commercially viable at today’s natural gas prices. The price of crude, though, is about to hit the roof with increasing world demand and decreasing world supply. It’s high time to build a GTL plant on the North Slope with a two-fold purpose. The first is to make synthetic crude to augment the falling crude flow rate in the trans-Alaska pipeline. The second is to make high-quality diesel for the Alaska domestic market and for export. One could either build a substantially cheaper dedicated diesel pipeline (as opposed to a natural gas pipeline) to Valdez Harbor or take it to market via super tanker in the summer months and store it in holding tanks during the winter.

I envision a period in the not-too-distant future where Alaskans and all Americans enjoy clean burning diesel at a substantially cheaper cost than today’s prices, getting greater gas mileage, and producing fewer emissions. I see a future where the U.S. joins Europe and Australia in its about-face on the use of gasoline, which diesel technology is rapidly replacing as the fuel of choice.

Why do most Americans use gasoline engines when the rest of the world is going diesel? First of all, diesel is more expensive per gallon even though it’s cheaper to refine. Why is this? One reason is that legislators have figured out a way to slap a fuel tax on interstate truckers who can’t vote against them at the polls. Unfortunately, this tax net also catches innocent people such as farmers who operate diesel trucks. We’ve reversed subsidized diesel vehicles by taxing diesel fuel into second place at the pump.

Another reason is the lack of new diesel technology available in cars on the U.S. market. Most U.S. citizens are unaware of the outstanding advances in diesel technology now available in Europe. I ride in diesel cars all the time while traveling on business in Europe and they are nothing short of amazing. They are quiet, don’t rattle, don’t stink and it is almost impossible to tell them apart from gasoline engines as a passenger. Americans seem to prefer the new gasoline hybrid technology over new diesel technology and they are largely unaware that it gives similar mileage performance.

Alaska is sitting on a fossil fuel gold mine. The North Slope gas field is huge and ripe for the world’s leading GTL plant. Alaska shortly can be a world producer of the cleanest diesel, operate the greenest cars and lead the rest of the country by example. Even as the rest of the nation struggles to establish a coherent energy policy, Alaska can set the pace for the rest of the world. The call of the future has been sounded.

Daniel Hamm lives in Palmer and is an international Boeing 747 freight pilot who is interested in alternative energy.