GEOSPAS (HAWAIIAN ONSENS)

Hawaii tourism will significantly suffer from the current oil price escalation. Perhaps the time has come to expand our ecotourism opportunities. For more than twenty years now I have tried to interest the State and investors about Hawaiian Onsens. The following is excerpted from SIMPLE SOLUTIONS for Planet Earth (http://simplesolutionsbook1.com/).

One of my earliest entrepreneurial pursuits was initiated during this period of the 1980’s when I was serving on the board of the Natural Energy Laboratory of Hawaii. This was a time when the Hawaii Ocean Science and Technology (HOST) Park was created adjacent to the ocean thermal energy conversion research facility at Keahole Point on the West Side of the Island of Hawaii. So I spearheaded a campaign to give equal time to geothermal power on the East Side and proposed a Geothermal Utilization and Environmental Science and Technology (GUEST) Park. The “environmentalists” and residents of the Puna region actually supported the concept, but the lack of geothermal effluents, orchestrated by them, closed down the facility.

I thus shifted my interest to starting a new business: Hawaiian Onsens. With Donald Okahara, who ran the largest engineering consultant office on the Big Island, Ronald Kunimitsu, a principal for an architectural firm in Honolulu, and Harry Olsen, a campus geologist, we formed The Pacific Geo-Spa Group to provide services to developers who had an interest in building an onsen (natural spa) in Hawaii.

What about the foul smelling hydrogen sulfide. Well, on trips to New Zealand, I learned that this odor actually attracted tourists to the resort town of Rotorua. The stench, by my standards, was horrific. But, apparently, sulfur is said to be of medicinal value, plus, there were these psychological benefits. I’ve been to a wide variety of these natural spas throughout the world, and every one came with gradations of this aroma.

In Japan, 100 million regularly visit their thermal springs, and so do Europeans to Bath and Baden-Baden. Many of them vacation in Hawaii, so what better than another eco-tourist adventure? In fact, with a volcano that has been continually erupting for more than twenty years (I was actually golfing at the Volcano Golf Course about a quarter century ago when, on the tenth hole, there was a shuddering of the ground, followed by a visible fountain of lava no more than a couple of miles away—this was the beginning of this Kilauea eruption), Hawaii then, and till today, has nothing resembling a geo-spa. Our team would provide local knowledge, scientific evidence of potential hot spots, fusion designs blending East and West and the right contacts for environmental approval and political support. An early supporter, State Senator Richard Matsuura, was instrumental in passing legislation (S.B. No. 3285 in 1990) exempting geothermal fluids below 150 degrees F from environmental restrictions and water drilling constraints.

Harry Olsen, the Spark Matsunaga Fellow in Renewable Energy Engineering, directed the Hawaii geothermal drilling program at that time. He had the capability to use slim hole drilling equipment to prospect for the ideal sites.

In the 1980’s, Jim Woodruff and I presented a paper at one of the geothermal conferences in Hawaii on “Geothermal Spas: A New Business Opportunity in Hawaii,” which helped solidify the foundation for development. In December of 1988, Grant Thornton produced a study for Hawaii on health spas and reported the concept to be highly promising.

In addition to various locations around the island of Hawaii, we found an ideal beachfront property next to the Makena Prince Hotel on Maui. The hotel then was owned by Yoshiaki Tsutsumi, dubbed the richest man in the world. However, I regularly, in those days, stayed at the Seiyo Ginza (in Tokyo) owned by his half brother, Seiji Tsutsumi. So I struck up a conversation with Seiji’s people to consider developing the first onsen resort in Hawaii. Those talks never materialized, and today, poet and businessman Seiji, now in his 80’s, has largely become irrelevant, and Yoshiaki, lord of Seibu, has been scandalized and might well end up in jail. Morgan Stanley supposedly bid $19 billion for Seibu, so a lot of dollars are being tossed around.

In the 1990’s, Seiji Naya, a former campus colleague, became director of the Hawaii Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism. Taking on the role of university partner to assist in economic development, I drafted white papers, met with potential developers from Japan he recommended, toured them around potential geo-spa sites and, at one, point, actually helped trigger a project to build a spa at a golf course. Alas, even this never happened. However, on my world travels I now and then stopped off at onsens throughout the world to further gain experience and continue to build contacts. I vividly recall spending a night at one along the slopes of Mt. Unzen on Kyushu in Japan, snow falling, a glass of hot sake in hand, just soaking. A few weeks later, there was an eruption, wiping out this onsen. Pompeii…Unzen…that is a concern for geo-spas in Hawaii.

But while the opportunity remains, the Pacific Geo-Spa Group is dormant. I still visit onsens when possible, and now and then talk to interested developers. This is an idea whose time came a long time ago but lacked the right person to lead the way.

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DOUG CARLSON IN HIS BLOG TODAY INCLUDES AN UPBEAT HARVARD OTEC REPORT. GO TO: http://HawaiiEnergyOptions.blogspot.com

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Oil ended today just below $137/barrel.

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DAY 2: Kyushu University Energy Week

After arriving at the Washington Canal City Hotel last night, I finally went to sleep way after midnight Kyushu time, and woke up at 5:30 in the morning to begin my arduous day, which will last through dinner, hopefully only at 8PM or so.

Breakfast at the hotel is fabulous, only $15, but free if you stay here.  I took a little bit of a lot.  I gain weight in Japan mostly because of this temptation.

There are four HNEI staffers staying at this hotel, and we were picked up at 7:45AM and taken to the Ito campus, a distance of almost 16 miles.  Coincidentally this is also day 2 of Energy Week, which really started yesterday.

The site of most of the presentations is Shiki Hall, a truly fine concert/lecture hall, outside and inside:

The first three plenary presentations were supposed to represent China, U.S. and Europe.  I'll skip over the other talks, but I replaced the current director of the Hawaii Natural Energy Institute, Rick Rocheleau,  for the U.S. portion, while Jean St. Jean of Hawaii told us what HNEI is doing today.  I first gave the history of HNEI and ended with the future, but more so, how Kyushu University and the University of Hawaii might  best cooperate.  My foci were on the politics, relationship-building and selection of topical pathways, and, further, how important changing events, needs of the community and   fresh concepts were in determining objectives and goals.

I began with a few slides about my roots, starting with my father's father, Kenjiro Takahashi, who was sent from Utashinai, Hokkaido to America sometime in the 1890's, and learned something.  No details have been found.  However, on his way back to Japan, he stopped off on Kauai, met and got married in Kilauea, and was instrumental in the construction of a hydroelectric power plant at Wainiha.  He unfortunately fell and died at site a few months before commissioning of the facility.  It produced 3 MW then, and I showed a photo of me at the power plant more than a century later, where the equipment still generated around 3 MW.  Thus, my family has been involved with renewable energy for more than a hundred years, plus, this explains why I grew up in Hawaii rather than Japan.

I then skipped to the early 1970's when I first joined the University of Hawaii's College of Engineering and, for my initial research project, was funded by the National Science Foundation to be the reservoir engineer for the Hawaii Geothermal Project.  We succeeded in finding the hottest geothermal well in the world and there is now 38 MW of geo-power being generated in Hawaii.

Then in 1973 came the first energy crisis.  The dean of engineering, John Shupe convened a meeting of ten faculty, gave us a list of ten topics to choose, starting with the most senior member, and the tenth one left for me as the newest hire, was wind energy.  So I became the wind power expert for the state.  Note two things that happened.  With a PhD in biochemical engineer I became a reservoir engineer and the leader of wind energy.  There was no justification for me to lead these fields, but here is what happened.

In 1974 I took a trip to Washington, D.C. to meet with the wind person in the Energy Research and Development Agency.  The Department of Energy had still not been created.  Lou Divone kind of laughed at me and said Hawaii has no wind.  I asked him how did he know.  He reached back and pulled out an almanac of wind averages from throughout the U.S.  Turned out these were from airports.  So I said airports tend to be built in low wind locations.  Hawaii has mountains that amplify the wind, and wind energy increases with the cube of the speed.  Notice that the best wind regimes in Hawaii are in the ocean.  He conceded that was a good point, and indicated that the Wind Energy Division of the American Solar Energy Society would be meeting the following week in Denver, and I should ask them for help.

In the meantime, I was already scheduled to attend the first gathering of hydrogen enthusiasts at the University of Miami hosted by Nejat Veziroglu (left, today).  Why, I think had something to do with my interest in the use of hydrogen for aviation, for this gas provided the greatest energy/weight.

Flight schedules could then be changed without penalty, so I did show up in Denver and walked into an already darkened room of the wind experts, at which I made a short comment about seeking their assistance for a future Hawaii wind power program.  An hour later I was elected chairman of the Wind Energy Division of the American Solar Energy Society.  How did this happen? I learned an important lesson, that kept repeating in different ways throughout my career.  What was that lesson?  Not sure, but being confident while asking for help might be a clue.

I then skipped to 1979 at the heat of the second energy crisis when I found myself working for U.S. Senator Spark Matsunaga in Washington, D.C.  In the three years I spent with Sparky I drafted the hydrogen and ocean thermal energy conversion (OTEC) bills that pretty much led to national programs on those subjects.  I was also the Senate staff link for the wind energy bill which initiated this technology in the U.S., leading to formation of the American Wind Energy Association.  I was also chief staff for passage of the Hard Minerals Act, for manganese nodules, cobalt and rare earths

This initial work led to:

• wind energy now being more cost-effective for electricity than natural gas and geothermal
• geothermal next to wind in production cost/kWh
• the Hawaii Natural Energy Institute becoming national centers for
• Hydrogen Research and Education (Department of Energy)
• Marine Minerals Technology (Department of Interior)
• Marine Bioproducts Engineering Research (National Science Foundation)
• the Blue Revolution
• companies I helped form for

• Ultimate Ocean Ranch
• Rainbow Pearls
• Hawaiian Onsen

The final third of the presentation was a suggestion on future research areas of potential importance to Kyushu University, Japan and the world:

• Blue Revolution
• next generation aviation (hydrogen powered)
• direct methanol fuel cell

My presentation said a lot more, including three slides by Richard Rocheleau on HNEI's collaborative energy program in the Orient, seeking the involvement of Kyushu University.  I indicated that much of what I said can be found in the three recent books I had written.  I provided a copy of each to Akari Hayashi, who was the key force behind Energy Week.

There were many questions, a follow-up discussion panel in the afternoon, ending with a reception.  Some highlights during information exchange:

• I stressed building relations over accomplishing personal goals, making friends not enemies (for they can someday come back to bite you), embracing the political process, and the importance of proceeding with confidence and integrity.
• I talked about how Paul Yuen and I formed the Pacific International Center for High Technology Research (which was grossly mis-named by a governor who I will not mention) to serve as the bridge between academic research and industry, and integrating international cooperation, where two major $25 million projects we initiated were:

• the 210 kW open cycle OTEC experiment at the Natural Energy Laboratory of Hawaii, where one third the funds came from Japan
• the Maui biomass to methanol project (where we would develop the direct methanol fuel cell for vehicular applications--we never succeeded, mostly because of the incompetence of Westinghouse, our partner)
• On a question posed during a panel on whether one should stop at the master's level instead of getting a PhD, my response was:

• get any degree, and a PhD if you can
• this will expand your horizons and optimize your ability to take on larger objectives
• I would not have gone on to work for the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory on laser fusion nor the NASA Ames Research Center on the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence nor the U.S. Senate if I did not have a PhD
• the degree gives you a special badge of respect and opportunity to Save Planet Earth and Humanity

I walked around a bit on campus:

The reception at the end of the day was excellent:

• The cuisine and drinks were exceptional, and they kept coming.
• As an invited guest I was asked to give any impression I might have had that day:
• I indicated that Kyushu University has significantly changed from the first lecture I gave here almost a third of a century ago.
• This has become the most progressive Japanese university for international cooperation, links to industry and education.
• This new campus, interacting with the surrounding environment, provides an ideal setting to expand their quest of sustainability.
• They have also embarked on a major long-term effort for the Hydrogen Economy.
• Below, the two conference leaders, Masato Wakayama, executive vice president of the university, and Akari Hayashi, professor of hydrogen energy systems:

I'll end with a photo of the other three Hawaii Natural Energy Institute staff members in attendance here, Tatyana Reshetenko, Godwin Severa and Jean St. Pierre:

Tomorrow, the four of us have a the day free, so we plan to tour Fukuoka.  I will leave everything up to them.

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THE FUTURE OF MY WORLD

Every so often I wake up at night and can't go back to sleep.  While tossing around last night, some thoughts formed in my mind on the future of the world according to Pat, me.  While most struggle, enjoy, coast, whatever, through life, a few of us through circumstance and fate are placed in a privileged, or cursed, role to make a difference for Planet Earth and Humanity.

I can look back to the Second Energy Crisis of 1979, and, more specifically, my stint in the U.S. Senate beginning almost forty years ago, to pinpoint when this enormous sense of responsibility suddenly appeared.  I was working for the summer at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory on laser fusion, and was summoned to join U.S. Senator Spark Matsunaga in Washington, D.C.  In that 3-year period, I became involved, and in some instances, personally created, the following future pathways:

• Controlled fusion, which then looked generations away, and today, still is seemingly going nowhere.  But if the Sun and all the stars used this mechanism to create energy, why not us?  That was my thinking early in my life.  Laser fusion is definitely stalled and magnetic confinement at ITER in France is moving oh too so slowly.  The future for commercialization?  Beyond 2050, and that is being optimistic.

• While we're at this, what about cold fusion?  Unfortunately, my review now three years old still remains the current reality.  But here is the 17 February 2018 issue of Cold Fusion Times.  I personally think there is something to this process, but I'm a dreamer.

• The U.S. House was progressing on a wind energy bill, and as Matsunaga was pro-solar and on the Energy and Natural Resources Committee, he was asked to be the key link in the Senate.  In the mid-1970's I was chair of the Wind Energy Division of the American Solar Energy Institute, but was generally discouraged at how slowly this field was moving.  Congress did pass the first wind energy bill to initiate the national effort, but it turned out that the key to the success of this field was Sparky's initiatives on the Finance Committee.  His general counsel was Ed Ing, who was instrumental in passing the necessary tax incentives to spark commercialization.  Ed went on to at one point become president of the American Wind Energy Association, which was started by Tom Gray, the House staff lead for wind research legislation.  I just last week had dinner with Ed and Chris (who also worked in the same DC Senate office) in Honolulu.  Wind and geo energy are now the lowest cost electricity producing energy options, safer and cleaner than natural gas, and much cheaper than coal or nuclear (click on that bar graph below to read the details, and click on that above link to understand the terms):

• Lockheed had just succeeded with Mini-OTEC (Senator Matsunaga secured Navy approval to use that barge) in Hawaii, and I was asked to work with the staff of the Energy and Natural Resources Committee to draft the first OTEC bill.  The OTEC Act passed in 1980 and re-initiated work on this marine energy technology started a century earlier by Jacques d'Arsonval in France.  When I returned to Hawaii in 1982, I helped form the Pacific International Center for High Technology Research, which succeeded with a 210 kW open cycle OTEC prototype at the Natural Energy Laboratory of Hawaii Authority a decade later.  While Lockheed Martin, in partnership with China, has been has recently been trying to perfect this option, back in 1990 or so I began a campaign for the Blue Revolution, which will depend on the availability of this esoteric energy source.  The world awaits funding from an imaginative multi-billionaire.  Timeframe?  Less than a decade for operation of the Pacific Ocean International Station, maybe.  I'm here at the Paris Hotel to give a talk to the world's top aquaculturists on the Blue Revolution, for the Ultimate Ocean Ranch will be one phase of this evolution.

• The field of hydrogen has recently progressed well.  Even the U.S. Department of Energy said this.  Oh well, that was five years ago.  However, later in this summary you will learn that Toyota and Honda are actually today selling commercial hydrogen powered cars.  I joined Senator Matsunaga's staff most specifically to introduce hydrogen legislation.  In the mid-1970's, a couple of studies completed by the Hawaii Natural Energy Institute at the University of Hawaii, which I directed, indicated that the future of transportation was crucial for the state.  The price of oil was jumping, and there was fear about how that would influence jet travel for tourism.  The solution clearly was the hydrogen jetliner, plus, we also thought that methanol was the best replacement for gasoline, not ethanol,  To produce methanol from biomass, a key ingredient was lower cost hydrogen.  Then, too, I was linked with Lawrence Livermore on fusion, and this technology depended on isotopes of hydrogen.  I have written a series of articles for The Huffington Post on hydrogen, and expressed some reservations about the timing of this option.  Well, my discussions with Toyota and Honda representatives earlier this month at Energy Week hosted by the University of Kyushu, returned me to some optimism.  They are actually already selling hydrogen powered fuel cell cars anticipating profits as far into the future as the 2030's.  Perhaps my proposal to make hydrogen free now has some re-gained some relevance.  At the PyeongChang Winter Olympics, featured is the Hyundai Nexo compact SUV hydrogen car with a range of 378 miles.

•  The hydrogen jetliner?  Rinaldo Brutoco was developing the H2 Clipper, but I have seen no recent progress.  The Matsunaga Hydrogen Act stimulated a $2 billion mostly black Department of Defense program in the 1980's, which loosely continues.  Until Airbus or Boeing gets seriously involved, I suspect nothing much will happen.  I've suggested that the USA, European Union and Japan (Mitsubishi) initiate an international partnership for the long term, but I see no movement.  Perhaps beyond 2050 for a next generation hydrogen Mach 5 aircraft.

• Seabed mining legislation became law as shepherded by Senator Matsunaga in the Senate.  It was on my watch, and I got deeply involved with manganese nodules, the Hughes/CIA-led Project Azorian and the Law of Sea Treaty.  Each of those topics would take many books to provide sufficient information.  However, this experience led to my institute at the University of Hawaii becoming the Department of Interior's Marine Mining Technology Center with the University Mississippi. More recently, interest has re-surfaced because of the presence of rare earth minerals and marine methane hydrates (MMH) at the bottom of the ocean.  China, in particular, is getting very active.  Interestingly enough, both of these marine resources are best found in the Pacific Rim of Fire.  MMH is the cause of the Venus Syndrome, a book in an early stage of conceptualization.  These new developments have given me some fresh ideas on how to proceed.  I have found a villain.  Solution?  Not there yet.  Timing?  Rare earths from the sea bottom commercialized in a decade or two, MMH after 2050 and the book, perhaps this coming year or two or more.

I've also thought about Rainbow Pearls, International, Hawaiian Onsen (geospas, an ecotourism venture) and more.  Go to my Mensa talk for details.

What I'm really doing these days is nothing much.  In only a little more than two months, this blog site will no longer be a daily.  So I can get serious about really doing nothing.

This curse of Saving Humanity and Planet Earth never goes away.  So to anyone out there desiring to become rich and famous, feel free to seek my advice.  I won't even charge you a buck.

Regarding the Blue Revolution, don't bother unless you happen to be that imaginative billionaire.

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