Chu began his presentation with two predictions that the price of oil will continue to rise in coming decades as demand for oil from developing countries increases, and that humans will live in a "carbon-constrained" world in which carbon emissions aggravate rising global temperatures. While scientists still do not fully understand the land-biosphere interaction, data from the past 35 years show steep increases in greenhouse gases that cannot be attributed to natural fluctuations, he said.
The "energy race" to develop more efficient energy sources is an international undertaking that all developed and developing countries will need to join in the future, Chu said.
Past U.S. energy policies have been inefficient and only "hope for the best and plan for the best" a mentality that could cause the nation to fall behind China and other countries that benefit from cheap labor and other production costs, Chu said. China, for example, employs the most high-voltage transmission lines which travel 1,200 miles across the country and lose less than 70 percent of their energy in the process of any nation. The transmission lines used in the United States, which are not designed to transmit energy over long distances, lose over 80 percent of the energy they carry, Chu said.
"[The United States] is not only not a leader in clean energy manufacturing, but we are also not a leader in manufacturing," he said. "We've lost a lead in high-tech manufacturing like electronics and pharmaceuticals."
The world is currently on the cusp of a "biofuels revolution," as engineers and physicists have made serious breakthroughs that have increased energy efficiency and reduced its costs, according to Chu. President Barack Obama plans to reduce oil imports by one-third by 2025, invest in research and development and embrace a more diverse energy portfolio that provides consumers with more options, he said.
Scientists from various disciplines have made recent breakthroughs in energy-saving measures, Chu said, recalling a study in which scientists re-programmed metabolic pathways in Escherichia coli bacteria to produce biofuels after consuming sugar. These biofuel outputs serve as direct substitutes for gasoline, diesel and jet fuel, according to Chu.
Future breakthroughs that increase the energy density defined as energy storage per unit volume of batteries will also be instrumental for the energy market, Chu said. The addition of a small mixture of manganese to lithium-ion batteries, for example, resulted in a 50 to 100-percent increase in energy density. Scientists are currently looking to develop re-chargeable versions of lithium-air batteries, used in pacemakers and hearing aids, since they have the highest energy density of all available batteries, he said.
Government support for research and development in the domestic clean energy sector will also be integral to creating an American market for energy, which will be the "most rapidly developing technological market" in the future, Chu said.
Energy standards implemented by Obama will incentivize technological developments in the clean energy sector that will not only drive innovation but will also increase sales on the domestic and international level, Chu said.
"If you look at the number of students graduating with degrees in natural sciences and engineering, the U.S. is relatively flat, but one country has grown remarkably China," Chu said.
Chu discussed the role that supercomputers machines designed for calculation-intensive tasks will play in future energy development projects. Supercomputers developed a new, streamlined truck model that redesigned the shape of the airfoils below and above the body of the truck, Chu said. The new design allows for fuel savings of 7 to 12 percent, he said. A supercomputer also designed a new type of diesel fuel that was made into a prototype in a lab and sent directly to production. This innovative process bypassed an "entire engineering cycle," Chu said.
Chu's lecture, titled "Energy Innovation and America's Competitiveness," was the keynote speech at the Thayer School of Engineering's third annual Great Issues in Energy symposium. The symposium brings speakers dedicated to a single issue in the energy field to campus each year.
