This is a full length short documentary called Energy’s Future.  I would like to thank everyone who was involved and helped make this movie possible.  Plans are in the works to distribute this film through direct mailed DVDs to every high school in Montana.  Music rights have yet to be accquired and a short introduction by Governor Schweitzer will be coming in the near future.

I hope that this film gives high school students and the rest of the general public an idea of what it’s like to be a science researcher in college.  Enjoy.

- Devon

Governor Schweitzer stopped by the Black Box Theater at MSU to film an introduction for Energy’s Future. The thirty second opening monologue will introduce the film and discuss the importance of energy research and development.  The Montana Governor‘s words help to put in perspective the importance of research being conducted at places like Montana State University, as well as the young people and work profiled in Energy’s Future. The film shoot was covered by Bozeman local CBS and that coverage can be seen at http://www.kbzk.com/news/schweitzer-stops-at-msu-tours-bozone-ozone-bus/ Below are a couple stills from the filming session, including a group photo of the crew with Governor Schweitzer.

Danny Schmidt filmed the intro.  Seth Ring recorded sound.  Mackenzie Reed acted as AC, and Devon Riter directed.  All are graduate students in MSU’s Science and Natural History Filmmaking Program.

Image by Alaskan Dude via Flickr

Today Yellowstone atracts millions of visitors each year and it also atracts a great deal of scientific research and study.  The unique organisms living in the extreme environments of the park hotsprings have offered scienctists new ways of understanding the chemistry that will be vital in developing new renewable energy systems.  The following is a press release from a useful discovery made in the Yellowstone hot springs in 2007.

“A heat-loving bacterium that reveals a new way to harvest light energy has been discovered in the colorful microbial mats around the hot springs of Yellowstone National Park. For only the third time in 100 years, scientists have found a new group of bacteria that turns sunlight into chemical energy. ‘This organism provides insights into the history of photosynthesis and increases our knowledge of how solar energy is captured in this microbial community,’ said Dave Ward, a Montana State University professor who co-authored a scientific paper describing the bacterium. ‘Thus, this bacterium may have implications for alternative fuels.’”

In Energy’s Future Ari discusses how the park influenced her interest in science when she was young, and how now she is able to now do research on algae from the park.

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Ari in the lab

Trevor talking to his advisor

Joules taking notes

Kevin injecting a sample

Joules with her teacher

Kevin in the lab

Trevor is a senior at Montana State University.  He spends much of his time working in a biochemical engineering lab, trying to develop ways for bacteria to produce plastic.  According to the US Energy Information Administration in 2006, about 331 million barrels of liquid petroleum and natural gas were used to make plastic products in the United States.  So not only are gas prices affected by how much people drive but also by how many plastic bottles those same people buy.

When looking towards the future of energy, not only are scientists interested in improving transportation but also in developing alternative ways to produce products such as plastics, without the use of petroleum.  These scientists, however, are not the old white haired people portrayed on TV and the movies.  The people working in labs around the country are often college students like Trevor, and he discusses this fact in the movie Energy’s Future.

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Kevin spends his time in a biological chemistry lab, where he is working on developing proteins to be used as catalysts to make hydrogen.  His research might sound fairly abstract, but Kevin realizes that his work is building the foundation for new developments not only in protein science but in the efforts to develop hydrogen as a viable alternative energy resource.

In his 2003 State of the Union Address, President Bush announced the Hydrogen Fuel Initiative, a $1.2 billion commitment over 5 years to accelerate hydrogen related research to overcome obstacles in taking hydrogen fuel cell vehicles from the laboratory to the showroom.  Seven years later, there are still hurdles that researchers such as Kevin are dealing with in trying to achieve this goal.

Because transportation accounts for over two-thirds of the oil consumed daily, much of the international hydrogen research today is focused on developing hydrogen technology for the transportation sector.  Currently the Department of Energy has implemented a Hydrogen Posture Plan, which outlines the activities, milestones, and deliverables needed to support America’s shift to a hydrogen-based transportation system.  A positive commercialization decision by the DOE in 2015 will start the beginning of a mass market penetration of those objectives in 2020.

If the future of America is indeed cars fueled by hydrogen, then it will be due to the work of innovative researchers like Kevin.  The film Energy’s Future sits down with Kevin in his living room, where he discusses both his research and his reasons for going into science.  Here is a short clip from that interview.

Find out more about hydrogen in Montana by visiting hydrogen.montana.edu

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Ari working in her lab

Ari works in a biological chemistry lab at Montana State University, where she is optimizing the growth of algae which produce biofuels.  Her story of research and discovery will be profiled in the film Energy’s Future.