According to data, since 1900, humans have consumed 197.2 billion tons of oil, 134 trillion cubic meters of natural gas, and 379.3 billion tons of coal. In the past 70 years, China has consumed 10.9 billion tons of oil, 2.56 trillion cubic meters of natural gas, and 83.7 billion tons of coal.
The survival and development of human society are inseparable from various materials and energy. These substances that can provide a large amount of energy for mankind are called "energy resources" and are divided into two categories: "conventional energy" and "new energy".
However, the use of energy comes at a price, especially conventional energy. The earth's resources are increasingly depleted, and the destruction and deterioration of the ecological environment are becoming more and more serious. The search and development and utilization of efficient, environmentally friendly, safe and sustainable new energy has become a top priority.
01 Conventional energy transition is a historical necessity
Environmental protection issues and climate change issues make it necessary for human beings to carry out energy transformation. The end of the era when coal, oil and other conventional energy sources are the mainstay is inevitable. But the end does not mean that petroleum and coal will not be used, and the future may be mainly chemical. For example, if oil is converted from fuel to raw material, global oil consumption will relatively decrease. Environmental protection and climate change have forced the entire international community to accelerate the energy transition.
Generally, oil consumption is not the direct consumption of crude oil, but oil products, which involve many aspects of the national economy and people's lives. In terms of products, nine major products such as gasoline, kerosene, diesel, lubricating oil, liquefied gas, fuel oil, chemical light oil, petroleum coke, and asphalt account for more than 90% of the total. In terms of consumption, transportation oil accounted for 55% of total oil consumption; followed by chemical raw materials, accounting for 14%; industrial fuels and civil life fuels accounted for 11% and 5%, respectively; the other was agricultural and construction oil. Although the proportion is small, it is closely related to people's livelihood. Statistics show that 95% of the energy required by the global transportation industry comes from petroleum.
02 The development of new energy is the general trend
At present, my country's dependence on foreign oil exceeds 70%. In 2019, our country's oil consumption continued to grow. Oil consumption has had a serious impact on China's environmental protection, energy security and high-quality economic development. The development of new energy industries represented by lithium batteries, photovoltaics, and hydrogen energy will become the key to our country's escape from energy geopolitical issues.
Here is a quote from Wei Jie, a famous scholar and economist, on strategic emerging industries, in which new energy and new energy vehicles are specifically mentioned. The main content is:
The concept of strategic emerging industries has two keywords: strategy and emerging; two characteristics are obvious: the market is huge; technology can break through in the short term. New energy will become a trend in the next five to ten years. There are eight specific points:
(1) New energy. Fossil raw materials are traditional energy sources, and non-fossil raw materials are collectively classified as new energy sources in six forms: hydropower, wind power, geo-energy, bio-energy, solar energy, and nuclear energy;
(2) New materials. New materials belong to a strategic emerging industry, and many industries in the future will be promoted by new materials. In the future, many industrial upgrades in China will be completed by new materials;
(3) Life Bioengineering. Currently, the market has huge demand for life bioengineering, involving agriculture, medical treatment, health, etc., and technological breakthroughs are relatively fast;
(4) Information technology and new generation information technology. Focus on three areas: information components and equipment, information terminal use, big data and security;
(5) Energy saving and environmental protection. Solving resource conservation and pollution is a big problem, but the solution to this problem cannot rely on laws and policies alone. The ultimate solution is to rely on technology. Once a technological breakthrough occurs, it will become an industry. The market demand is huge and the technological breakthrough is fast.
(6) New energy vehicles. Now our cars are all traditional energy cars, which cannot solve the pollution problem. Eventually, it will turn to the research and development of new energy vehicles, like electric vehicles. The country has made new energy vehicles a key direction for future development.
(7) Artificial intelligence. This era will come soon.
(8) High-end equipment manufacturing. my country's high-end equipment manufacturing, such as magnetic resonance, relies on imports.
The continuous development of the above eight points has gradually made strategic emerging industries the pillar industries of our country. This is a great challenge for current industrial enterprises. It is recommended that you pay attention to strategic emerging industries. The first point of new growth is the so-called strategic emerging industries. Because the market value it brings us is very large. Preliminary estimates indicate that the total annual GDP generated by strategic emerging industries should be more than 36 trillion yuan. What is the concept of 36 trillion? Our total GDP in 2016 may be 71 trillion, and one industry will bring 36 trillion. New growth points will have great prospects.
03 Constantly enriching the connotation of new energy
Although new energy has a clear concept, its connotation is not static, because it is a relative concept, and the connotation is different in different periods. For example, in the stone age and agricultural era, conventional energy is mainly firewood and charcoal, while oil and natural gas are relatively silent. It is new energy. After the steam and electrical era after the industrial revolution, coal, oil and natural gas have become conventional energy sources, and the connotation of new energy in the new era is greatly enriched, including: solar energy, geothermal energy, hydrogen energy, Nuclear energy, lithium batteries, combustible ice, methanol energy, wind energy, tidal energy, wave energy, etc.
Nuclear energy, geothermal energy, solar energy, wind energy, tidal energy, wave energy, combustible ice, etc. are mainly used for power generation. Lithium batteries, hydrogen energy, and methanol energy are used for vehicle energy. Geothermal energy and combustible ice can also be used in daily life.
Combustible ice: This is a solid compound combined with water. Its appearance is similar to ice, so it is called "combustible ice". Combustible ice, the scientific name "natural gas hydrate", is a crystalline substance formed by gas molecules and water molecules at low temperature and high pressure. After being decomposed into gas, the methane content is generally above 80%, and the highest can reach 99.9%. The appearance of combustible ice is very much like ice and snow, and it can burn in fire. It is also called "gas ice" and "solid gas". According to scientists' calculations, the reserves of combustible ice are more than the combined amount of coal, oil and natural gas on the earth.
Chlorella Hydrogen Energy: When oil and natural gas are exhausted, hydrogen may be an ideal fuel. The problem is to find a cheap way to produce hydrogen fuel. Scientists say that the answer to this question may be an ordinary pond green Algae. Currently, one liter of green algae culture can produce 3 ml of hydrogen per hour. Researchers believe that the efficiency of green algae production of hydrogen can be increased by at least 100 times, and this needs to be further improved in technology.
Methanol Energy: The "Golden Triangle of Alcohol-Hydrogen Chain" technical route, that is, to replace the internal combustion engine with a methanol fuel cell route. The carbon dioxide produced by the cracking of methanol is first recycled on the vehicle, and then hydrogen is produced by electrolysis of clean energy electricity, and finally synthesized with the carbon dioxide For methanol, it forms a closed loop. This idea was first put forward by Wang Jianming, chairman of Suzhou Gaomai. He also believes that the problems of "long charging time, short cruising range, and difficult charging pile layout" cannot be promoted in depth for pure lithium battery (EV) vehicles. In addition, the sword of secondary battery pollution is hanging in the future. The hydrogen fuel cell route (FCV) that is being promoted by Hyundai has problems such as the "production, storage, transportation, and refilling" of hydrogen and difficulties in infrastructure construction. To this end, the alliance proposes a new set of solutions-the "Hydrogen, Hydrogen, Carbon Recovery and Alcohol Closed Cycle Golden Triangle", a complete, sustainable and recyclable technical route for new energy vehicles.
Wave energy: the ocean wave energy. This is an inexhaustible and non-polluting renewable energy source. According to scientists, the electric energy contained in the ocean waves on the earth is as high as 90 trillion kilowatts.
Nuclear energy: Nuclear energy resources refer to nuclear fuel resources such as uranium and thorium used for fission reaction and deuterium, tritium and helium used for fusion reaction. Here we will focus on uranium and helium resources.
Uranium is the most important natural nuclear fuel. According to Chen Deshao, Chief Financial Officer of CGN Mining, a nuclear power plant is a high-energy, low-material-consuming power station. Taking a power station with a generating capacity of 1 million kilowatts as an example, if coal is burned, it will consume about 5,000 tons of coal per day. It consumes about 1.5 million tons of coal annually. If you switch to uranium nuclear power generation, one refueling can run continuously for one year at full power, and only consume 1.5t enriched uranium (U235 greater than 90%) per year, that is, low enriched uranium 30-40t (U235 about 4%), that is, natural uranium is about 200t (U235 is about 0.72%).
The nuclide helium-3 was once too hot because it was a raw material for clean nuclear fusion power generation.
There are several isotopes of helium, from helium-2, helium-3, helium-4 to helium-10. However, only helium-3 and helium-4 are stable nuclides, and other helium isotopes are extremely short-lived, and even helium-2 and helium-9 are only theoretically available so far. In the universe, helium-3 and helium-4 are extremely abundant, not as hard to find on the surface of the earth.
