Experts to Discuss New Technology

Experts to Discuss New Technology

BY DANA DURBIN

Rice News Staff
Nov. 19, 1998

Emerging technology in the energy industry–including advancements in the automobile industry and in oil and gas exploration–will be the focus of an upcoming conference sponsored by Rice’s James A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy.

The Emerging Technology Conference is scheduled for Dec. 7-8 at James A. Baker III Hall on the Rice campus. Industry experts will speak on technology and the potential impact it will have on industry and markets as well as on the environment, said Amy Jaffe, energy research coordinator at the Baker Institute.

“The Emerging Technology Conference parallels the research and programs the Baker Institute has initiated on energy supply and security issues focusing on the Persian Gulf, the Caspian Basin and, currently, on Asia,” Baker Institute Director Edward Djerejian said.

“As we enter the next century, new technologies and environmental issues will have a major impact on energy supply and security. It is in this framework that we are bringing together an excellent group of participants to address developments in the emerging technology field and their significance,” he said.

Speaking at the conference on Dec. 7 as part of a 2 p.m. panel discussion on automobile technology will be Hiroyuki Watanabe, Toyota Motor Corp. director responsible for electric vehicle development, an industry in which Toyota has proven itself a leader.

Watanabe will discuss Toyota’s electric-powered and hybrid vehicles, including the Toyota Hybrid System-powered Prius sedan and an electric car powered by fuel cells.

Toyota officials announced in July that the Prius will be introduced in the United States in late 2000; the vehicle went on sale in Japan in December 1997.

The Toyota Hybrid System incorporates a 1.5 liter gasoline engine and an electric motor, operating on electricity at low speeds and switching automatically to the gasoline engine at higher speeds. The vehicle conserves fuel and dramatically reduces emissions, and it never needs to be plugged in to recharge.

Toyota also has been working to incorporate fuel cell technology into a fuel cell electric vehicle. The company has developed a fuel cell that uses methanol to produce electricity.

Three other panels will convene at the conference. A panel addressing oil and natural gas exploration, recovery and transportation technology is set for 9:15 a.m. on Dec. 7.

Speaking as part of this panel will be Bowen Loftin, a University of Houston professor involved in the UH/NASA Virtual Environment Training Laboratory, which uses virtual reality technology to analyze seismic data. Also on the panel will be Roger Anderson with Columbia University’s Lamont Doherty Earth Observatory. He will address technology 10 to 15 years on the horizon that will find oil where it has never been found previously.

On Dec. 8, a 9:15 a.m. panel on electricity/power sector technology will include Norman Rostoker of the University of California-Irvine, whose research focuses on producing energy through fusion, and a representative from the World Bank, who will discuss the Clean Coal Initiative aimed at producing energy from coal in a clean way.

The conference’s final panel, set for 2 p.m. Dec. 8, will address the future impact of emerging technologies on energy markets and prices and on the industry. Panel participant Robert Manning with the Council on Foreign Relations will address the outlook for energy demand, especially in Asia.

“Technology has played a huge role in shaping markets in the 1980s and will continue to do so,” Jaffe noted. “We can’t examine what energy markets might look like in the 21st century without frist understanding the scope for technological change.”