Great article on cellulosic ethanol seeing progress with declining production costs. Read it here.

On February 10, 2010, the Ocean Energy Institute and the National Corrosion Center presented a Gulf of Maine to Gulf of Mexico Symposium, “Gulf to Gulf”, highlighting the dawn of ocean energy. Matt Simmons, Founder of the Ocean Energy Institute and Emil Peña, Founder of the National Corrosion Center, presented the following agenda:

8:30 am           Welcome and Introductions
Emil Peña- Executive Director of Rice NCC and Matthew  Simmons, Founder of the Ocean Energy Institute 

8:50 am           Corrosion and Other Challenges
Dr. Enrique Barrera – Rice University
Dr. Robert Lindyberg – University of Maine

9:30 am           Update on Global Initiatives: “Europe Today and Beyond”
Carsten Hein Westergaard, Vestas

10:20 am         Break

10:30 am         Update on Texas Wind (Moved to luncheon in place of federal wind discussion)
Jerry Patterson, Texas Land Commissioner

11:00 am         Offshore Texas – Coastal Point Energy
Former Senator Tommy Hudson

11:20 am         Offshore Maine:
Robert West – OEI – The State of the State of Maine
George Baker – Fox Islands Wind Project
John Holbrook – NHThree, LLC – Ammonia as a Fuel   

12:00 pm        Luncheon Speaker: Update on Federal Wind and Other Ocean Energy Programs
(replaced with Jerry Patterson discussion)

1:30 pm          “Technology Transfer, Standards and Protocol for a New Industry-
Offshore Energy”   
Enrique Barrera, Rice University (Panel Lead)
Ed Horton, Chairman, Horton Deepwater Development Systems
Kurt Lawson, DNV

2:30 pm          Afternoon keynote- U.S. Army Corps of Engineers

3:00 pm          Break

3:15 pm          The Federal Future
Paul Kelly, Sean O’Neill

3:45 pm          Discussion on Future of Ocean Energy Institute
Matt Simmons / Robert West

4:15 pm          Q & A on all topics
Panel discussion:  Matt Simmons, Emil Pena, Bob West, John Holbrook, Laurenz Schmidt, others

 5:00 pm          Closing Remarks, Adjourn Reception

Matthew Simmons is the founder and Chairman Emeritus of the world’s largest energy investment banking firm, Simmons & Company International. He was past Chairman of the National Ocean Industries Association, and served as energy adviser to President George W. Bush, among others. Simmons is author of the book Twilight in the Desert: The Coming Saudi Oil Shock and the World Economy, which examines oil reserve decline rates to help raise awareness of the unreliability of Middle East oil reserves.

Emil Peña is the Founder and Executive Director of the National Corrosion Center, a forum for research, exchange of knowledge and expertise on corrosion assessment, mitigation and prevention technologies. Mr. Peña also serves as the Executive Director of the Energy & Environmental Systems Institute of Rice University. Always a powerful advocate of clean energy and responsible environmental policy, Mr. Peña has formed the Houston Clean Energy Park (“HCEP”), an 80 acre facility adjacent to a utility substation allowing for harmonization and delivery of clean power into the ERCOT electric grid; along with this clean power is the development of the 80 acres into a technology park focusing on tenants with market competitive clean energy, environmental or infrastructure technology firms. Mr. Peña also served in the U.S. Department of Energy, Deputy Assistant Secretary for the Office of Natural Gas and Petroleum Technology, Office of Fossil Energy, during the Clinton Administration.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

Blue Marble Partners launches Corrosion Effects

Houston, Texas – October 1, 2009 – Blue Marble Partners launched corrosioneffects.com to address the pressing need for greater awareness of the effects of corrosion on advanced energy.

“Everyone is talking about sustainability, alternative energy, and green collar jobs,” says John Nixon, Prinicipal at Blue Marble Partners, “but no one is talking about corrosion.” “Corrosion represents an insidious challenge as scientists and engineers on the new frontier of energy advancements must contend with corrosion, even as petro-professionals have always dealt with this challenge for legacy fossil energy production.”

CorrosionEffects.com is focused on drawing together information on corrosion inhibition advancements, technology development, research discoveries, and emerging fields of study coupled with education and news.

Blue Marble Partners (“Blue Marble”) is a confederation of global professionals working to bring planet-conscious business and technology to profitability. With our office in Houston, Texas, the energy capital of the world, Blue Marble is working to make Houston the advanced energy capital of the world. Contact us today to launch your technology or firm into the advanced energy future.

Contact:
Blue Marble Partners
bluemarble@bluemarble-partners.com
Houston, Texas
USA
www.bluemarble-partners.com

###

Blue Marble Partners has launched a website called Corrosion Effects. Corrosion affects everything around us; it is the constant march of time, wearing away infrastructure.

Sustainability is the “catch phrase” of the day yet, people forget that corrosion engineers have been around for over a century, working to preserve, to sustain, infrastructure.  “Corrosion was the original ‘green collar job’,” said John Nixon, Principal at Blue Marble Partners. “Corrosion engineers are key to the future of alternative energy. Without them, offshore wind would corrode, LEED certified buildings would deteriorate, and any other sustainable initiative would fail to live up to its potential.”

Corrosion engineering is a blend of civil, mechanical and chemical engineering that is a rare find, even today. Some organizations, like the National Corrosion Center, are working to raise awareness of the global need for corrosion engineers, and working with NACE International, develop curriculum specific to corrosion education.

At Corrosion Effects, the desire is to bring the world of corrosion together and serve the information to industry, to companies, and to the individual.

Rice University, supported by Blue Marble Partners, has established a National Corrosion Center where researchers will develop better technology for preventing corrosion — a problem that is estimated to cost $276 billion a year in the U.S.

To develop the center, Rice is working closely with NACE International, an association of more than 20,000 scientists, engineers and technicians around the world who are involved in virtually every industry and aspect of corrosion prevention and control.

“Anything made with steel corrodes, so our system of highways and bridges, our pipelines for transporting water, oil and gas, our buildings, our aviation and transportation industries are all at risk,” said Emil Peña, executive director of the new center and also of Rice’s Energy and Environmental Systems Institute (EESI). “We will focus on corrosion prevention and mitigation technologies that not only have the potential to improve the reliability and safety of just about everything made of steel, but also can save billions of dollars in repairs and rebuilding. This research even has biomedical implications.”

Corrosion is a “silent destroyer of our nation’s critical infrastructure,” said NACE International’s Cliff Johnson. “Because it is a slow process that usually occurs out of sight, it is not uncommon for corrosion mitigation measures to be delayed or never implemented. Unfortunately, when this occurs, the problem grows dramatically and shortens the useful life of the asset, similar to what we saw with recent bridge collapses in the U.S. or the pipeline failure in Carlsbad, N.M., in 2000.”

The National Corrosion Center (NCC) intends to change the discussion on corrosion from being an afterthought to being part of the upfront decision-making about an asset and its projected life, while also advancing technological solutions. “We know that you can more than double the life of an asset if corrosion prevention and mitigation solutions are implemented,” Johnson said.

One of the techniques for preventing corrosion involves coatings. With Rice’s expertise in nanotechnology, Peña is optimistic about developing superhydrophobic nanocoatings that can keep water away from the steel surface. “If you don’t have fluid, you won’t have corrosion,” he said.

Researchers from Rice’s George R. Brown School of Engineering and Wiess School of Natural Sciences and various institutes at Rice will be involved with the NCC, as will experts from other universities.

Given Rice’s location in the oil capital of the U.S., NCC researchers will focus much of their initial work on the oil and gas industry. A 2001 study by the Federal Highway Administration found that corrosion costs the oil and gas industry $13.4 billion per year.

The NCC is seeking government and private funding. Because corrosion is not a problem exclusive to the U.S., the center is open to collaborations and support from international institutions and businesses. Panama, for example, has already signed a memorandum of understanding through its technology institute, the City of Knowledge, which will include major construction projects.

“This is a global problem, and we’re looking for global solutions,” Peña said.