(Image: Spencer Wilson)
WHEN Peter Kearl waxes lyrical about microwaves, he’s not thinking about rustling up a quick dinner. An engineer who once worked at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee, Kearl sees microwaves as the answer to our energy woes. As the world debates whether fracking for oil and gas is an economic godsend or an environmental nightmare, Kearl thinks zapping the ground with microwaves could provide a cleaner, greener way to get those fuels out. He also knows how the idea will sound to most people. “We’re still trying to convince people that this is not something out of Star Wars,” he says.
Perhaps not for much longer. Big names such as BP and ConocoPhillips are also warming to an idea that, its proponents argue, could provide a cheap new source of oil and gas to bridge the gap while renewables get off the ground. Not only that, it could also store carbon, keep us from digging up pristine areas – and even generate clean water.
Too good to be true? Fracking, too, was once described as a “blue bridge to a green future”, but many would argue that any plan to extract yet more carbon-producing fossil fuel from the ground can never be a good idea. With microwave zapping, are we heading for fracking mark two?
“Fracking, too, was once described as the bridge to a carbon-neutral future”
Fracking is a corrosive and violent way of getting oil and gas from the ground – because it has to be. Hydraulic fracturing, as the technique is more properly known, involves injecting water and chemicals into the ground, and