If you ask experts in the oil and gas industry about threats to their sector, most of them will probably mention the rise of electric vehicles (EVs). The growing popularity of EVs would certainly seem to put a dent in the demand for traditional fossil fuels.
But what if those same fossil fuels could play a role in creating the very batteries EVs rely upon to power their electric engines? Wouldn’t that be ironic? If cutting-edge research comes to fruition, that could very well be the case.
According to a recent Mining.com article by Coco Liu, “[a]s more vehicles run on electricity and renewables become more widespread, the need for batteries and hydrogen fuel cells will only grow. But the rapid expansion of energy storage infrastructure has a cost.”
Liu notes that “[t]he global electric vehicle boom has resulted in a lithium supply shortage…[and t]he pressure of mining more minerals for batteries has also threatened some of the world’s largest, most diverse and fragile natural ecosystems.”
That’s why “scientists are scrambling to find new materials that could revolutionize energy storage.” And some of their potential solutions certainly sound a bit like science fiction. For example, would you believe scientists think keratin, a protein found abundantly in chicken feathers, could be used to create membranes for hydrogen fuel cells?
Or what about leftover wine and scrap iron? Researchers believe these industrial waste products could be used to manufacture anodes for EV batteries, replacing graphite that can be costly to mine and “bad for both human health and the environment,” according to Liu.
The battery alternative of interest to the oil and gas sector, though, is the one being created at a Northwestern University laboratory. Scientists there “have engineered a new type of molecule that can self-assemble in water. The final outcome, according to the scientists, is a novel material that could be charged just like a battery.”
This “new material is ferroelectric, a characteristic that allows it to store electrical energy when exposed to a voltage.” Liu notes that, while “conventional ferroelectric materials often contain rare or toxic metals,” the new material created at Northwestern is made from a combination of amino acids from food waste and…drumroll, please…petroleum!
In particular, the petroleum molecules used “are not as difficult to decompose as most petroleum-based products such as plastics are.” This means they could also potentially be biodegradable. While implementation of these cutting-edge materials could require years of further research and development, it’s exciting to see how scientists continue to break new ground.
In the meantime, the oil and gas industry continues to thrive despite new challenges from the up-and-coming EV sector. Indeed, oil and gas will continue to fuel our country for many years to come.
That means there will be no shortage of oil and gas jobs for the foreseeable future. In fact, many oil and gas companies still struggle to hire the skilled workers they desperately need. Moving forward, companies will need to continue to hire skilled workers while also upskilling current workers.
So how do oil and gas companies improve their focus on technical skills? For new and current employees, the answer is technical training. Oil and gas workers need both fundamental knowledge and hands-on technical skills with real industrial equipment they’ll encounter on the job. Be sure to check out Bayport Technical’s wide variety of hands-on oil and gas training systems to take your oil and gas training to the next level!
