In the middle of receptions, the President’s Ball and the football game, about 20 alumni took a break from the weekend’s Homecoming activities to discuss the future of the energy industry.
Vikram Rao, executive director of the Research Triangle Energy Consortium and former chief technology officer of Halliburton, led the Saturday discussion. Lincoln Pratson, professor of energy and environment in the Nicholas School of the Environment’s division of Earth and Ocean Sciences, facilitated the talk by asking and fielding questions from the audience about the oil and energy industries.
Although the discussion covered many topics, Rao focused primarily on the BP oil spill, which was the largest underwater blowout in U.S. history.
“The spill is what we call a perfect storm, a combination of errors, some [mechanical] failures and some human error,” Rao said.
The main failure that led to the blowout was that the blind shear ram, a valve that cuts through a pipe and seals it when there is too much pressure, did not function. Rather than question why it did not function, Rao suggested that all pipes should have two blind shear rams as a fail-safe.
“No competent operator will drill without at least two blind shear rams now,” Rao said.
He added that another problem was that data from nine hours before the spill was lost.
Rao noted, however, that it is not possible to completely eliminate the risk of a blowout. Rao suggested that the industry implement a system to plug any spill within three days. He added that such a system could be engineered within six months.
“We cannot prevent these disasters, the next one could be tomorrow,” he said, emphasizing the importance of being able to stop the spills quickly.
Eliminating offshore drilling altogether also has environmental consequences, Rao said. Such a measure would mean more oil imports and therefore more oil tankers. Additionally, most U.S. oil imports come from Canada, and Canadian oil has a greater carbon footprint than U.S. oil.
“As long as the U.S. stays addicted to oil, there will be environmental consequences,” Rao said.
Most audience members were interested in alternatives to oil, and many of those attending the event work in the energy industry. In response to questions from the audience, Rao discussed biodiesel, other hydrocarbons and renewable forms of energy, such as wind energy.
Prompted by a question from an audience member, Rao said natural gas could be “a game changer,” adding that countries such as India use it to fuel public transportation.
James Harper, senior vice president of Corporate Development at eTc Holdings, Ltd. and T ’59, asked about shale oil, an oil resource that is difficult to utilize.
“Many people don’t know this, but it was a Soviet state secret that we can use anolyte and catholyte [solutions] to rinse the oil from shale,” Harper said. “Why aren’t we doing this?”
Rao replied that even if such a process existed, most shale oil is kerogen, which must be cooked before it can be used, a process that uses a large amount of energy and creates harmful emissions.
One audience member, Eve Olive, asked about whether renewable energy sources—such as wind energy—could be effective.
“I am fond of wind power,” Rao said. “I think it is easy to engineer so that it is below 10 cents per kilowatt hour.”
He added that nuclear power would be incredibly cost-effective if scientists found a way to deal with waste.
Rao noted, however, that the most effective way to reduce oil consumption is also the most difficult—getting people to use less energy.
“That’s a behavioral economics problem,” he said, citing the example of urban commuting. “It is crazy to have everyone living in the suburbs and driving downtown. It is a failure of urban planning.”
Even though many audience members work in the energy field and used the event to network, members without prior technical knowledge said they learned from the discussion. Billy Olive, Engineering ’48, said he and his wife were both fascinated by the discussion even though they do not work in the industry. “I really enjoyed it,” Olive said after the event.
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