Alternative Energy

Todd Marsh, president and chief executive of DTI Energy Inc., is not given to understatement, at least not when it comes to his company's pollution-free energy technology. "The direct-methanol fuel cell is as revolutionary [to the energy industry] as DOS was to the personal computer industry," Marsh proclaims. "It will be at the core of a broad range of energy uses."

Princeton University's Tokamak Fusion Test Reactor, the world's most powerful tool in the effort to harness the form of energy that powers the sun, shut down Friday because of federal budget cuts. Even in its final hour, the 15-year-old reactor was doing cutting-edge experiments. "We've done some truly historic accomplishments," said Rich Hawryluk, the reactor's project director for six years. Fission, the process that powers nuclear reactors, involves splitting atoms.

The buzzwords in futuristic automotive circles these days are "fuel cells." These nifty little power plants, which gained fame during the Gemini spacecraft years because of their ability to convert hydrogen into electricity, are finally being seriously considered as a nonpolluting alternative to internal combustion machines--a step beyond electric cars powered by heavy, troublesome batteries.

American scientists said Wednesday that they had found a tantalizing new energy source in vast stores of methane locked beneath the ocean floor. They report in Nature that they found a reservoir of methane in the form of a solid gas hydrate equivalent to about 15 billion tons of carbon at Blake Ridge in the Western Atlantic. Underneath that, to their surprise, they found as much or more methane in the form of gas bubbles amid the sediment.

L.L. Knickerbocker Co., a marketer of collectible dolls and teddy bears, said its affiliate, Pure Energy Corp., has hired Merrick Andlinger, an investment banker in New York City, to be president and chief executive. Andlinger will work for the Rancho Santa Margarita firm from a New York office. Pure Energy, with seven employees, is developing a low-cost alternative fuel source made from "societal waste."

The first annual meeting of the L.L. Knickerbocker Co., a marketer of collectible dolls and teddy bears, was the stuff of Hollywood melodrama. Actress Farrah Fawcett, a company director, caused a delay at the start by arriving late, but she was reelected anyway. Entertainer Marie Osmond, a shareholder who peddles the company's biggest-selling product, also glided in late, a victim of nasty airport traffic.

The first annual meeting of the L.L. Knickerbocker Co., a marketer of collectible dolls and teddy bears, was the stuff of Hollywood melodrama. Actress Farrah Fawcett, a company director, caused a delay at the start by arriving late, but she was reelected anyway. Entertainer Marie Osmond, a shareholder who peddles the company's biggest selling product, also glided in late, a victim of nasty airport traffic.

Not every scientific experiment comes out like it's supposed to. The so-called "bio-fuel" cell that budding engineers at Harvey Mudd College tried to produce is proof of that. As a class project, the Claremont students set out to develop an alternative fuel supply for peasants who live in a Guatemalan mountain village where firewood is scarce. The technique: burning a self-renewing resource--human-produced solid waste.

Hundreds of yards from a room in the Huntington Library holding the oldest Bible written in English is what energy experts hope will be the new form of urban energy in the 21st century--row after row of solar panels. Affixed to a concrete slab over an empty reservoir, the photovoltaic panels generate 100 kilowatts that are dispersed into Southern California Edison's power grid, providing power to the Huntington and the stately surrounding San Marino neighborhood.

At a modern nuclear power plant nestled amid the pines, workers in protective white suits and masks scrub away a fine layer of sodium snow. The crystals are the last traces of an accident in December that caused the reactor's indefinite shutdown--and froze one of the world's most ambitious nuclear power programs. Tadao Aoki, a veteran nuclear engineer, removes his mask and goggles and reveals the pained eyes of a man who has seen his life's work put on hold.