[biofuels-biz] Alfalfa as a Fuel--and a Plastic?
STORY LEAD: Alfalfa as a Fuel--and a Plastic? ___ ARS News Service Agricultural Research Service, USDA Don Comis, (301) 504-1625, [EMAIL PROTECTED] July 16, 2002 ___ U.S. Department of Agriculture bioenergy funds are being used to convert alfalfa into the first dual-use biofuel plant. The leaf serves as a factory for raw, biodegradable plastic beads, other industrial products or better livestock feed, while the stem goes to ethanol production. JoAnn Lamb, a plant breeder who serves on a team of five scientists at the Agricultural Research Service's Plant Science Research Unit in St. Paul, Minn., has created the parents for new alfalfa varieties by crossing European varieties with unusually thick stems with modern alfalfa varieties developed for dairy feed. The thick stems provide more raw material for ethanol production. Team member Deborah Samac, an ARS plant pathologist, has transformed alfalfa so it can manufacture plastic. The process isn't practical yet, but it could be, if a cell wall barrier could be prevented from trapping beads of plastic. With the USDA funding, ARS animal scientist Hans Jung will develop tests to screen alfalfa plants to find those with the most sugar and starch in their stems and the most digestible fiber. These types of stems would provide more material for conversion to ethanol by fermentation microbes. ARS will also use the funding to hire a biochemist/geneticist to find genes that further improve the stems' conversion to ethanol. Besides plastics and fuel, alfalfa may be a renewable resource for replacing other petroleum-based products and nonrenewable resources, such as nitrogen and phosphorus fertilizers. Carroll Vance, team member and unit research leader, has isolated many genes for creating new varieties, including one that helps alfalfa fix more nitrogen from the air and take in more phosphorus. Because alfalfa absorbs nitrogen from deep in the soil, ARS soil scientist Michael Russelle sees a major role for alfalfa in preventing fertilizer from polluting water. More information on this alfalfa research can be found in the July 2002 issue of Agricultural Research magazine, online at: http://www.ars.usda.gov/is/AR/archive/jul02/legume0702.htm ARS is USDA's chief scientific research agency. ___ * This is one of the news reports that ARS Information distributes to subscribers on weekdays. * Start, stop or change an e-mail subscription at www.ars.usda.gov/is/pr/subscribe.htm * The latest news is always at www.ars.usda.gov/is/pr/thelatest.htm * [EMAIL PROTECTED] | www.ars.usda.gov/is * Phone (301) 504-1638 | fax (301) 504-1648 Yahoo! Groups Sponsor -~-- Save on REALTOR Fees http://us.click.yahoo.com/Xw80LD/h1ZEAA/Ey.GAA/9bTolB/TM -~- Biofuels at Journey to Forever http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html Biofuel at WebConX http://www.webconx.com/2000/biofuel/biofuel.htm List messages are archived at the Info-Archive at NNYTech: http://archive.nnytech.net/ To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
[biofuels-biz] Minibus drivers protest government ban on diesel cars
http://enn.com/news/wire-stories/2002/07/07172002/ap_47875.asp - 7/17/2002 - ENN.com Minibus drivers protest government ban on diesel cars Wednesday, July 17, 2002 By Associated Press BEIRUT, Lebanon - Minibus drivers and owners protesting a ban on diesel-operated vehicles tried to march on Parliament Tuesday but were stopped by antiriot police. About 300 owners and drivers of the minibuses in which many Lebanese commute to work took part in the demonstration, heading from downtown Beirut's Martyrs' Square toward Parliament, 500 meters (yards) away. Wives and children of the owners and drivers also took part. Roads leading to Parliament were sealed off by army and police. Riot police stopped the marchers about 100 meters (yards) from Parliament, where legislators were meeting to discuss economic and social issues. Eight people, including women, fainted in the melee, security officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity. Hundreds of minibus owners and drivers, some accompanied by their families, have been camping out since last week at Martyrs' Square to protest the ban on diesel-powered minibuses that went into effect Monday. Some protesters started a hunger strike Monday. A liter of gasoline cost 1,050 Lebanese pounds (about US$2.66 a gallon), while a liter of diesel is about one-third the cost at 375 pounds (95 cents per gallon). The ban on the cheaper but dirtier fuel is part of government attempts to fight air pollution. A ban on diesel-operated cabs went into effect a month ago. Minibuses used to charge commuters 500 pounds (33 cents) a ride. Shared taxis cost 1,000 pounds (66 cents) a ride. Since the ban on diesel cabs, some drivers doubled the fares, though increases had not been approved by the government. A few months ago, the government doubled to 6,000 pounds ($4) a day a transportation allowance for all employees to be paid by employers. The bans affected about 20,000 diesel-run cabs and 4,000 minibuses and small trucks out of the 50,000 vehicles that ply the streets of Beirut and other Lebanese cities. Thousands of long-haul trucks and large public transport buses operate on diesel, but they are not included in the ban. The minibus protesters say the ban should also extend to such vehicles or not be applied at all and demand a better compensation package. The government last month approved a compensation package for the taxi cabs and minivans. The owners of five-passenger diesel-operated cabs will get 1 million Lebanese pounds ($660) to encourage them to switch to gasoline. The owners of 15-passenger diesel-powered minivans will get 6 million pounds ($4,000). The government has also offered minibus owners up to 50 million pounds ($33,333) in low-interest loans to help them buy gasoline-powered vehicles. The government also approved customs duty and registration exemptions for transport vehicles to help in the changeover from diesel to gasoline-fueled cars. Copyright 2002, Associated Press Yahoo! Groups Sponsor -~-- Save on REALTOR Fees http://us.click.yahoo.com/Xw80LD/h1ZEAA/Ey.GAA/9bTolB/TM -~- Biofuels at Journey to Forever http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html Biofuel at WebConX http://www.webconx.com/2000/biofuel/biofuel.htm List messages are archived at the Info-Archive at NNYTech: http://archive.nnytech.net/ To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
[biofuels-biz] EREN Network News -- 07/17/02
=
EREN NETWORK NEWS -- July 17, 2002
A weekly newsletter from the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE)
Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Network (EREN).
http://www.eren.doe.gov/
=
Featuring:
*News and Events
One Wind Plant Planned for Illinois, One Halted in Nevada
DOE Grants Support Carbon-Fiber Research for Wind Power
DOE to Award $12.6 Million for 138 Energy-Saving Projects
New Projects and Laws Advance Manure-to-Energy Systems
Wisconsin Utility to Use 5 Percent Renewable Power by 2011
ExxonMobil Commits to Early MTBE Phase-Out in California
High-School Solar Car Race Now Underway in Texas
*Site News
GasNet
*Energy Facts and Tips
At Halfway Point, 2002 is the Second Warmest Year on Record
*About this Newsletter
--
NEWS AND EVENTS
--
One Wind Plant Planned for Illinois, One Halted in Nevada
This week saw good and bad news for the U.S. wind industry, with
funding approved for one of the first wind plants in Illinois, but
plans for the first wind plant in Nevada cancelled.
In Illinois, a $2.75 million grant from the state's Renewable Energy
Resources Trust Fund will go toward developing a 50-megawatt wind
facility in Mendota, located about 80 miles west of Chicago.
Governor George H. Ryan announced the grant to Navitas Energy Inc.
last week. The Mendota Hills Wind Farm is expected to add
$50 million to the local tax base and provide $130,000 in annual
lease payments to area landowners, while generating enough power to
meet the annual electricity needs of 15,000 households. The wind
turbine installations should begin in 2003. See the press release on
the Illinois Department of Commerce and Community Affairs Web site
at: http://www.commerce.state.il.us/.
The Mendota project may not be the first wind plant in Illinois: a
51-megawatt wind plant is planned for construction in nearby
Tiskilwa, and is expected to be complete in mid-2003. See the July
3rd edition of EREN Network News at:
http://www.eren.doe.gov/news/archive.cfm?date_enn={d '2002-07-03'}
In Nevada, efforts to install an 85-megawatt wind power facility at
the Nevada Test Site, the former site of nuclear weapons testing,
were stopped due to concerns expressed by the U.S. Air Force.
Officials at nearby Nellis Air Force Base believe the rotating wind
turbine blades could interfere with their radar, impacting Air Force
operations on the nearby Nevada Test and Training Range. Because of
those concerns, DOE's Nevada Operations Office terminated their
efforts to gain approval for the wind site. See the July 12th press
release from the Nevada Operations Office at:
http://www.nv.doe.gov/newspubs/newsreleases/default.htm.
The Nevada Power Company had already agreed to purchase wind power
from the planned wind plant, which the developers had hoped to
eventually expand to 260 megawatts in capacity. See the March 6th
edition of EREN Network News at:
http://www.eren.doe.gov/news/archive.cfm?date_enn={d '2002-03-06'}.
Meanwhile, a proposed 420-megawatt wind farm in Nantucket Sound, off
the shores of Massachusetts, is causing environmental groups to draw
battle lines. While a coalition of wildlife groups hope to block the
construction of even a wind test tower, the Massachusetts Public
Interest Research Group (MASSPIRG) is encouraging its members to
send a letter in support of the project to the state's Executive
Office of Environmental Affairs. Other groups are cautiously
supportive: for instance, the Conservation Law Foundation (CLF)
commented on the project and noted that ...if New England chose not
to tap the wind resource in the offshore area that includes
Nantucket Sound, it appears that it would be choosing to exclude
most available wind power from its climate change strategy. See the
press release from the International Wildlife Coalition (in Adobe
PDF format only) as well as the MASSPIRG and CLF Web sites at:
http://www.iwc.org/nantucket.pdf,
http://masspirg.org/MA.asp?id=117id3=MAid4=MAFS;, and
http://www.clf.org/advocacy/offshore_windpower.htm.
DOE Grants Support Carbon-Fiber Research for Wind Power
Two $100,000 grants recently awarded by DOE will go toward
investigations of the use of carbon fibers for two major wind
turbine components: the towers and the blades.
Wind turbine towers are typically made of steel, but PYRAmatrix
Structures, Inc. plans to develop taller, lighter-weight towers made
of carbon fibers, fiberglass, or a combination of the two. By using
a unique lattice structure in the composite materials, the company
claims it can reduce tower costs for a 1.5-megawatt wind turbine by
37 percent while cutting the weight by 96 percent. For a 5-megawatt
wind turbine, a 511-foot steel tower would weigh
[biofuel] Alfalfa as a Fuel--and a Plastic?
STORY LEAD: Alfalfa as a Fuel--and a Plastic? ___ ARS News Service Agricultural Research Service, USDA Don Comis, (301) 504-1625, [EMAIL PROTECTED] July 16, 2002 ___ U.S. Department of Agriculture bioenergy funds are being used to convert alfalfa into the first dual-use biofuel plant. The leaf serves as a factory for raw, biodegradable plastic beads, other industrial products or better livestock feed, while the stem goes to ethanol production. JoAnn Lamb, a plant breeder who serves on a team of five scientists at the Agricultural Research Service's Plant Science Research Unit in St. Paul, Minn., has created the parents for new alfalfa varieties by crossing European varieties with unusually thick stems with modern alfalfa varieties developed for dairy feed. The thick stems provide more raw material for ethanol production. Team member Deborah Samac, an ARS plant pathologist, has transformed alfalfa so it can manufacture plastic. The process isn't practical yet, but it could be, if a cell wall barrier could be prevented from trapping beads of plastic. With the USDA funding, ARS animal scientist Hans Jung will develop tests to screen alfalfa plants to find those with the most sugar and starch in their stems and the most digestible fiber. These types of stems would provide more material for conversion to ethanol by fermentation microbes. ARS will also use the funding to hire a biochemist/geneticist to find genes that further improve the stems' conversion to ethanol. Besides plastics and fuel, alfalfa may be a renewable resource for replacing other petroleum-based products and nonrenewable resources, such as nitrogen and phosphorus fertilizers. Carroll Vance, team member and unit research leader, has isolated many genes for creating new varieties, including one that helps alfalfa fix more nitrogen from the air and take in more phosphorus. Because alfalfa absorbs nitrogen from deep in the soil, ARS soil scientist Michael Russelle sees a major role for alfalfa in preventing fertilizer from polluting water. More information on this alfalfa research can be found in the July 2002 issue of Agricultural Research magazine, online at: http://www.ars.usda.gov/is/AR/archive/jul02/legume0702.htm ARS is USDA's chief scientific research agency. ___ * This is one of the news reports that ARS Information distributes to subscribers on weekdays. * Start, stop or change an e-mail subscription at www.ars.usda.gov/is/pr/subscribe.htm * The latest news is always at www.ars.usda.gov/is/pr/thelatest.htm * [EMAIL PROTECTED] | www.ars.usda.gov/is * Phone (301) 504-1638 | fax (301) 504-1648 Yahoo! Groups Sponsor -~-- Save on REALTOR Fees http://us.click.yahoo.com/Xw80LD/h1ZEAA/Ey.GAA/FGYolB/TM -~- Biofuel at Journey to Forever: http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html Biofuels list archives: http://archive.nnytech.net/ Please do NOT send quot;unsubscribequot; messages to the list address. To unsubscribe, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
Re: [biofuel] Re: Mercury Free dry cell recycling
There is a warning on the label saying dry cell could leak or explode when recharged. Did this ever happen to you. What makes it explode. Ken At 05:27 AM 7/17/02 +0900, you wrote: Sorry for the lack of specifics, Ed. It has been a few years since I purchased my unit, and there are probably better ones on the market now, but my unit does Ni-Cd batteries, alkaline manganese batteries, manganese batteries, silver oxide batteries and zinc air batteries, including AAA/AA/C/D/button types. (My unit will probably do NIMH batteries as well but at least when I purchased my unit it made sense to get a recharger designed specifically for NiMH batteries.) There is no way to tell for sure whether a dry cell will be rechargeable simply by snip Yahoo! Groups Sponsor -~-- Free $5 Love Reading Risk Free! http://us.click.yahoo.com/TPvn8A/PfREAA/Ey.GAA/FGYolB/TM -~- Biofuel at Journey to Forever: http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html Biofuels list archives: http://archive.nnytech.net/ Please do NOT send quot;unsubscribequot; messages to the list address. To unsubscribe, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
Re: [biofuel] The future of fuel?
Greetings Mr Jain Dear Mr. Addison, Can you please throw some more light on the process. It says: You just dissolve sugar in water, then add a little acid and bring it to a boil, and a half hour later, this fuel is floating in water, It does not mention the use of sawdust or wood. Which acid and in what concentration is to be added? Please give, if possible some more accurate details. It's just a newspaper article, that's all there was. There are contact details at the site, I suppose you could write to the reporter and ask for more information, or for an address for Robinson and ask him direct. The URL mentioned is not accessible. It works fine for me, try it again. Here's the contact address though: Odessa American 222 E. 4th St. Odessa, Texas 79761 915-337-6262 (OAOA) 1-800-375-4661 E-Mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Do let us know if you find out any more. Best wishes Keith Y. K. Jain Keith Addison wrote: http://www.oaoa.com/news/nw071102a.htm OA Online News The future of fuel? Odessa professor's process of turning plants into fuel shows great promise. Thursday July 11, 2002 By Julie Breaux Odessa American Chemistry professor Mike Robinson holds up a small, glass bottle containing a scant fourth-cup of liquid and a world of possibilities. The liquid is jet fuel, plain and simple. But what makes it so special and of interest to major energy producers is that Robinson can make it in about 30 minutes using only sawdust, sugar water, heat and an acid. No eons-old fossil fuels, no drilling rigs necessary in a deceptively simple process, he says. You just dissolve sugar in water, then add a little acid and bring it to a boil, and a half hour later, this fuel is floating in water, said Robinson, a longtime organic chemistry professor at the University of Texas of the Permian Basin. To a novice watching that happen, it's just that magical. Robinson has been rehearsing his scientifically based magic show for the past 30-plus years. From the late 1970s to 1990, Robinson worked to unlock the mystery of converting hard and soft woods, grasses and other starchy foodstuffs into a hydrocarbon-based fuel. Robinson remembers when the idea first came to him. It was 1978, and Americans were paying record high prices for fuel after the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries had cut off crude shipments to the United States. Robinson used the OPEC embargo to challenge his young chemistry students at UTPB to use their knowledge to find solutions to modern-day problems. He said he asked them to look at more economical means of converting plant sugars into fuel. At the time, the only manmade, plant-based fuel was ethanol, an alcohol-based fuel made from corn. Robinson believed converting plant sugars into hydrocarbons was more economical and efficient. Unfortunately, none of his students bit, but Robinson did, returning to his office from class that day, unable to get the idea out of his mind. The more I thought about it, the more I worked on it, the more interesting it became, and, in fact, no one had done it, he said. After years of research and experimentation at UTPB, Robinson's big breakthrough came in 1990 when the university purchased a gas chromatograph-mass spectrometer. The GC-MS allowed Robinson to analyze the byproducts of his lab experiments molecule by molecule. It turns out when we first started we were just trying to repeat some of the chemical reactions found in the literature, and then serendipity happened, he said. Through gas chromatography, Robinson finally saw the years of fits-and-starts research pay off when he discovered one of his chemical conversion recipes had yielded hydrocarbon-based jet fuel, the only one of its kind in the world, he said. The University of Texas System now owns the patent to the jet fuel, which was proven compatible with the gasoline engine in 1996 during field tests conducted by Phillips Petroleum Co., Robinson said. The process is clear. The research we're trying to do today is to change things and marry them to other processes. Later this summer, two post-doctoral students will begin a full-time study of a working, tabletop plant that will produce jet fuel continuously, he said. One of the students, a chemical engineer, will create computer software in which every segment of the production can be scaled up in order to produce barrels a day as opposed to milliliters per day. That would give us a fairly firm economic data, Robinson said. The back-of-the-envelope kind of things we're estimating now might be a little loosey-goosey, not a real good bankable kind of estimate. If the process proves profitable, Robinson said he would devote more time marketing it to major chemical and petrochemical companies, which could use his plant-based hydrocarbons to produce unleaded gasoline, diesel fuel, kerosene and home heating
[biofuel] Minibus drivers protest government ban on diesel cars
http://enn.com/news/wire-stories/2002/07/07172002/ap_47875.asp - 7/17/2002 - ENN.com Minibus drivers protest government ban on diesel cars Wednesday, July 17, 2002 By Associated Press BEIRUT, Lebanon - Minibus drivers and owners protesting a ban on diesel-operated vehicles tried to march on Parliament Tuesday but were stopped by antiriot police. About 300 owners and drivers of the minibuses in which many Lebanese commute to work took part in the demonstration, heading from downtown Beirut's Martyrs' Square toward Parliament, 500 meters (yards) away. Wives and children of the owners and drivers also took part. Roads leading to Parliament were sealed off by army and police. Riot police stopped the marchers about 100 meters (yards) from Parliament, where legislators were meeting to discuss economic and social issues. Eight people, including women, fainted in the melee, security officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity. Hundreds of minibus owners and drivers, some accompanied by their families, have been camping out since last week at Martyrs' Square to protest the ban on diesel-powered minibuses that went into effect Monday. Some protesters started a hunger strike Monday. A liter of gasoline cost 1,050 Lebanese pounds (about US$2.66 a gallon), while a liter of diesel is about one-third the cost at 375 pounds (95 cents per gallon). The ban on the cheaper but dirtier fuel is part of government attempts to fight air pollution. A ban on diesel-operated cabs went into effect a month ago. Minibuses used to charge commuters 500 pounds (33 cents) a ride. Shared taxis cost 1,000 pounds (66 cents) a ride. Since the ban on diesel cabs, some drivers doubled the fares, though increases had not been approved by the government. A few months ago, the government doubled to 6,000 pounds ($4) a day a transportation allowance for all employees to be paid by employers. The bans affected about 20,000 diesel-run cabs and 4,000 minibuses and small trucks out of the 50,000 vehicles that ply the streets of Beirut and other Lebanese cities. Thousands of long-haul trucks and large public transport buses operate on diesel, but they are not included in the ban. The minibus protesters say the ban should also extend to such vehicles or not be applied at all and demand a better compensation package. The government last month approved a compensation package for the taxi cabs and minivans. The owners of five-passenger diesel-operated cabs will get 1 million Lebanese pounds ($660) to encourage them to switch to gasoline. The owners of 15-passenger diesel-powered minivans will get 6 million pounds ($4,000). The government has also offered minibus owners up to 50 million pounds ($33,333) in low-interest loans to help them buy gasoline-powered vehicles. The government also approved customs duty and registration exemptions for transport vehicles to help in the changeover from diesel to gasoline-fueled cars. Copyright 2002, Associated Press Yahoo! Groups Sponsor -~-- Save on REALTOR Fees http://us.click.yahoo.com/Xw80LD/h1ZEAA/Ey.GAA/FGYolB/TM -~- Biofuel at Journey to Forever: http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html Biofuels list archives: http://archive.nnytech.net/ Please do NOT send quot;unsubscribequot; messages to the list address. To unsubscribe, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
[biofuel] Students build engine they hope will revolutionize the snowmobile industry
http://enn.com/news/wire-stories/2002/07/07172002/ap_47866.asp - 7/17/2002 - ENN.com Wednesday, July 17, 2002 By Nick Wadhams, Associated Press DENVER - Colorado State University students have built a dramatically cleaner and more efficient version of the internal-combustion engine commonly found in everything from scooters to motorboats to snowmobiles. If taken seriously, they say, it could help overhaul the snowmobile industry and influence the debate on whether to allow the vehicles in national parks. If the debate is about emissions, noise, and power, this is a revolution, said environmental engineer Lori Fussell, founder of the Clean Snowmobile Challenge, in which university teams compete to develop a quieter, cleaner snowmobile engine. It could very much be the answer. Though proponents say the engine is promising, snowmobiling groups are taking a wait-and-see approach. There are questions about durability, reliability, and cost. The modified two-stroke engine would add about $500 to snowmobiles already costing from $6,000 to $8,000. Snowmobiling is a very discretionary product, and if it's priced too high people simply won't buy it, so there has to be a belief that the market will purchase the machine, said Ed Klim, president of the International Snowmobile Manufacturers Association. Two-stroke engines are found in most snowmobiles, all-terrain vehicles, and motorboats. They are used in many power tools and are far lighter than automobile engines, which use a more complicated four-stroke system. The advantage is in their simplicity, but they emit heavy pollution and have low fuel economy, mostly because they push a great deal of fuel out of the exhaust pipe when the pistons fire, said Bryan Willson, associate professor of mechanical engineering at Colorado State University. The CSU engine was developed for the Clean Snowmobile Challenge and was the top two-stroke engine to finish. It won third place. There's absolutely no reason these engines need to be dirty as they are, said Tim Bauer, one of 10 students and three professors who worked on the project. The entry was a modified Arctic Cat ZRT 600 that cut emissions from the standard two-stroke engine by 99 percent and was about 35 percent more fuel efficient. Willson said the engine had a minor malfunction during the contest and its noise level was 74.5 decibels, a half-decibel above the challenge's maximum of 74. Everyone assumed that the only way you could make a clean engine was to switch to a four-stroke, Willson said. In life, power-to-weight is king, and it is going to be hard to do that with a four-stroke engine. At its heart, the CSU engine is a fuel-injection system designed by Australia's Orbital Engine Corp. and similar to those found in some motorboat engines. There is also a catalyst to reduce wasted fuel and dirty emissions and a modified muffler. The engine reduces hydrocarbon emissions by 99.7 percent and carbon monoxide emissions by 99.9 percent, Willson said. It could play an important role in the hotly debated issue of whether to allow snowmobiling in Yellowstone and Grand Teton national parks. Pollution has gotten so bad that Yellowstone issued respirators to gate workers who complained about headaches, nausea, and dizziness on days when hundreds of snowmobilers lined up at a busy park entrance. The Environmental Protection Agency recently softened its opposition to snowmobiles in the parks, saying clean air standards could be met with newer machines using stricter pollution controls. But it noted that the technology is not yet available. Snowmobile maker Bombardier will release a semidirect-injection engine in 2003, the first of its kind, but so far there are no immediate plans among the other big three snowmobile makers to introduce similar engines. We knew there would come a time when we needed to address this concern, Steve Cowing, a Bombardier spokesman, said of the pollution issue. Neither Bombardier's plans nor the CSU engine has impressed environmentalists. Some don't care what kind of engine is in the snowmobile; they simply object to the snowmobile itself. What you end up having is not just thousands but literally tens of thousands of machines charging through wildlife corridors where the animals are hard-pressed just to survive the harsh winter, said Jon Catton, spokesman for the Greater Yellowstone Coalition. Copyright 2002, Associated Press Yahoo! Groups Sponsor -~-- Save on REALTOR Fees http://us.click.yahoo.com/Xw80LD/h1ZEAA/Ey.GAA/FGYolB/TM -~- Biofuel at Journey to Forever: http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html Biofuels list archives: http://archive.nnytech.net/ Please do NOT send quot;unsubscribequot; messages to the list address. To unsubscribe, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject
Re: [biofuel] Renewable Energy Transportation
Ther is plenty of wasteland where you can grow oil crops. This in connection with economic use of energy will lead us further. Reinhard Henning womplex_oo1 [EMAIL PROTECTED] schrieb: How to maintain our freedom to travel when oil supplies run out is a big problem. Renewable fuels are available in such small quantities that it won't be economical to use vehicles that get less than 200 miles/gal fuel economy, and the only way to achieve that range is to make cars smaller, lighter, slower, and able to use multiple fuels. Cargo-proporational transportation is composed of a car that is just large enough to carry its intended cargo. If the main purpose is to carry a person over long distances, then a vehicle not much bigger than a bicycle is used; if it carries extra gear then an aerodynamic cargo trailer is used. The choice of vehicles was a Greenspeed or Windcheetah recumbant tricycle with airflow fairings: Windcheetah: http://www.windcheetah.co.uk/MEDIA/Gt.jpg Greenspeed: http://www.greenspeed.com.au/RedReflexa384.JPG This vehicle can tow up to 100 lbs of cargo using tow-trailers such as these: http://www.bykaboose.com/trailers/newt-specs.html This vehicle would be retrofit with a small 5-10 horsepower single- cylinder Briggs Stratton Model 20 engine: http://www.briggsracing.com/racing_engines/sae_intek.html American Carberetion sells do-it-yourself conversion kits for this engine to allow it to burn gasoline, propane or natural gas. http://www.uscarburetion.com/ Since it can burn natural gas, it also isn't much of a stretch to get it to burn hydrogen. But hydrogen is expensive, and storage is heavy. For example Quantum Inc. sells 5000 psi compressed natural gas and hydrogen cylinders that store up to 11.3 wt% hydrogen, that is a 100-lb tank can hold 11.3 lbs hydrogen. Besides the weight however compressed gases can be dangerous, and the electrolysis and compressor are extremely expensive. A safer hydrogen storage method is available from Millennium Cell (www.millenniumcell.com) who have a liquefied hydrogen storage medium that achieves 8-wt% hydrogen storage capacity in a far safer way, but at greater weight. Given the fact that hydrogen cannot be manufactured in very large quantities, using it in vehicles as fuel would necessitate a reduction in the size of the vehicle. To use any renewable fuel the same size reduction is necessary to increase the range, so it may be that a biofuel such as ethanol is still superior to hydrogen. Therefore I should modify the engine to run either gasoline or ethanol, depending on the cost availability at the pumps. I estimate that a motorized recumbant trike would get upwards of 200 mpg fuel economy, but to be pessimistic let's say it gets 100 mpg (far better than most vehicles). If I drive 60 miles per day, 5 days per week, to my place of employment, then I would consume at most 3 gal/wk of fuel for transportation. My question is: 1. How much would an adequate homebrew ethanol plant cost? 2. Is it possible to run the homebrew plant on solar power, without burning extra biomass for heat? 3. How big a greenhouse would be needed to grow enough biomass to be fermented? Biofuel at Journey to Forever: http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html Biofuels list archives: http://archive.nnytech.net/ Please do NOT send quot;unsubscribequot; messages to the list address. To unsubscribe, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/ -- bagani GbR, Reinhard Henning, Rothkreuz 11, D-88138 Weissensberg, Germany Tel: ++49 8389 984129, Fax: 984128, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] internet: www.bagani.de Yahoo! Groups Sponsor -~-- Save on REALTOR Fees http://us.click.yahoo.com/Xw80LD/h1ZEAA/Ey.GAA/FGYolB/TM -~- Biofuel at Journey to Forever: http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html Biofuels list archives: http://archive.nnytech.net/ Please do NOT send quot;unsubscribequot; messages to the list address. To unsubscribe, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
[biofuel] EREN Network News -- 07/17/02
=
EREN NETWORK NEWS -- July 17, 2002
A weekly newsletter from the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE)
Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Network (EREN).
http://www.eren.doe.gov/
=
Featuring:
*News and Events
One Wind Plant Planned for Illinois, One Halted in Nevada
DOE Grants Support Carbon-Fiber Research for Wind Power
DOE to Award $12.6 Million for 138 Energy-Saving Projects
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Wisconsin Utility to Use 5 Percent Renewable Power by 2011
ExxonMobil Commits to Early MTBE Phase-Out in California
High-School Solar Car Race Now Underway in Texas
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NEWS AND EVENTS
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One Wind Plant Planned for Illinois, One Halted in Nevada
This week saw good and bad news for the U.S. wind industry, with
funding approved for one of the first wind plants in Illinois, but
plans for the first wind plant in Nevada cancelled.
In Illinois, a $2.75 million grant from the state's Renewable Energy
Resources Trust Fund will go toward developing a 50-megawatt wind
facility in Mendota, located about 80 miles west of Chicago.
Governor George H. Ryan announced the grant to Navitas Energy Inc.
last week. The Mendota Hills Wind Farm is expected to add
$50 million to the local tax base and provide $130,000 in annual
lease payments to area landowners, while generating enough power to
meet the annual electricity needs of 15,000 households. The wind
turbine installations should begin in 2003. See the press release on
the Illinois Department of Commerce and Community Affairs Web site
at: http://www.commerce.state.il.us/.
The Mendota project may not be the first wind plant in Illinois: a
51-megawatt wind plant is planned for construction in nearby
Tiskilwa, and is expected to be complete in mid-2003. See the July
3rd edition of EREN Network News at:
http://www.eren.doe.gov/news/archive.cfm?date_enn={d '2002-07-03'}
In Nevada, efforts to install an 85-megawatt wind power facility at
the Nevada Test Site, the former site of nuclear weapons testing,
were stopped due to concerns expressed by the U.S. Air Force.
Officials at nearby Nellis Air Force Base believe the rotating wind
turbine blades could interfere with their radar, impacting Air Force
operations on the nearby Nevada Test and Training Range. Because of
those concerns, DOE's Nevada Operations Office terminated their
efforts to gain approval for the wind site. See the July 12th press
release from the Nevada Operations Office at:
http://www.nv.doe.gov/newspubs/newsreleases/default.htm.
The Nevada Power Company had already agreed to purchase wind power
from the planned wind plant, which the developers had hoped to
eventually expand to 260 megawatts in capacity. See the March 6th
edition of EREN Network News at:
http://www.eren.doe.gov/news/archive.cfm?date_enn={d '2002-03-06'}.
Meanwhile, a proposed 420-megawatt wind farm in Nantucket Sound, off
the shores of Massachusetts, is causing environmental groups to draw
battle lines. While a coalition of wildlife groups hope to block the
construction of even a wind test tower, the Massachusetts Public
Interest Research Group (MASSPIRG) is encouraging its members to
send a letter in support of the project to the state's Executive
Office of Environmental Affairs. Other groups are cautiously
supportive: for instance, the Conservation Law Foundation (CLF)
commented on the project and noted that ...if New England chose not
to tap the wind resource in the offshore area that includes
Nantucket Sound, it appears that it would be choosing to exclude
most available wind power from its climate change strategy. See the
press release from the International Wildlife Coalition (in Adobe
PDF format only) as well as the MASSPIRG and CLF Web sites at:
http://www.iwc.org/nantucket.pdf,
http://masspirg.org/MA.asp?id=117id3=MAid4=MAFS;, and
http://www.clf.org/advocacy/offshore_windpower.htm.
DOE Grants Support Carbon-Fiber Research for Wind Power
Two $100,000 grants recently awarded by DOE will go toward
investigations of the use of carbon fibers for two major wind
turbine components: the towers and the blades.
Wind turbine towers are typically made of steel, but PYRAmatrix
Structures, Inc. plans to develop taller, lighter-weight towers made
of carbon fibers, fiberglass, or a combination of the two. By using
a unique lattice structure in the composite materials, the company
claims it can reduce tower costs for a 1.5-megawatt wind turbine by
37 percent while cutting the weight by 96 percent. For a 5-megawatt
wind turbine, a 511-foot steel tower would weigh
Fwd: Re: [biofuel] Re: More an acrylamide...
More on this from Joe Cummins: The WHO and government agencies are pretending that acrylamide arises in cooked vegetables. It is bizarre that they have not mentioned the published studies showing that 20% to 30% polyacrylamide solutions are used in herbicides formulations used directly on genetically modified crops or on normal crops during soil preparation or between rows of food crops. The published studies showed that acrylamide is released from polyacrylamide during heating. One bureaucrat replied to my report by stating polyacrylamide is not toxic, but the bureaucrat ignored my report showing that heating releases toxic acrylamide from polyacrylamide. Such agriculture bureaucrats seem very cold blooded in protecting the interests of herbicide manufacturers over the health of consumers. None of those studies showing acrylamide in cooked food have reported acrylamide in organic food. Sincerely, Prof. Joe Cummins The last sentence is a bit ambiguous. They also wouldn't report it if there hadn't been any specific studies of organic food. Is there acrylamide in cooked organic food? Is there acrylamide in organically grown starch foods deep-fried in organically grown oils? I'll try to find out. Best Keith H.., Multiple carcinogenic opportunities? Breakdown of polyacrilamides originating from pesticides and herbicides under high heat conditions, as well as possible glycerin decay into acrolein and acrilamides from tryglycerides exposed to high heat? Says volumes for sticking with organic in the first place. Yes, doesn't it. It will also prove interesting to see the results of some studies on foods where pesticides were applied to the ingredients during their growth cycle and foods where they were not. ... which there just might be some difficulty getting funding for. One way might be to demand that the American Council on Science and Health PROVE that there's acrylamide in Whole Foods Market's organic bread as they charge. The onus is on them, right? - not on Whole Foods Market to prove their innocence. If Whole Foods Market has Joe Cummins's report (and willing help, I'm sure), they should perhaps do just that: kills two birds with one stone - at least two. Nasty backfire on ACSH, even nastier one on Monsanto, which backs them (and which makes Roundup), vindication for organics, more well-deserved mud slung at factory farming, and all at ACSH's expense. I like it. If it's true, that is. But it probably is true. Joe Cummins is a good man, never known him get it wrong yet. Environmental Health Watch might then have to do the same with its legal action against McDonald's and Burger King, well, too bad. Now that is damned interesting science. Tip of the iceberg it'd be. Close your eyes, get someone to spin you around four times and chuck a dart while you're spinning, you're bound to hit a bullseye. Did you note what I posted the other day about hazwaste heavy metals routinely added to commercial fertilizers? Donna Fezler of Grand Cypress Ranch did a funded, controlled study of the nutritional value of grocery-store vs free-range eggs. She had three groups of chicks, fed on free-choice non-medicated commercial feed, with one group fed a supplement of cooked free-range eggs twice a day, a second fed the same amount of grocery-store eggs, and the third a control getting only the free-choice feed. The grocery store egg fed group ate more than any group by 28 days and weighed the least ... the grocery eggs were actually negative nutrition. The birds in that group had poor feed efficiency, consuming the most feed and having the least weight gain. The free-range egg fed birds were 22.4% heavier than the grocery egg fed birds... There were residual effects of the grocery egg on the chicks' development... There is an issue here: grocery store eggs did not even provide the same nutrition as nothing at all with these chicks. So what exactly are those eggs doing to you? Substantial Equivalence - BS. Not even unusual, there have been a lot of similar studies and they all have similar findings. You don't find these studies in the major journals though. Joe's right: Public relations has replaced full and truthful reporting in science journals. The New England Journal of Medicine is relaxing its strict conflict-of-interest rules for authors of certain articles because it cannot find enough experts without financial ties to drug companies. - New York Times, June 13, 2002 Published investigations have found consistent bias in such studies when compared with truly independent studies, to the extent of gross distortion. Keith Todd Swearingen - Original Message - From: Keith Addison [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: biofuel@yahoogroups.com Sent: Sunday, July 14, 2002 10:17 PM Subject: Re: [biofuel] Re: More an acrylamide... Todd wrote: Don't know why anyone would have a problem with such suits coming up. Kind of a shame that Fresh
[biofuel] Jerusalem Artichokes feedstock for ethanol
This site indicates that at 3 harvests annually the Jerusalem Artichoke, which is also adapted for northern climates, would by far outperform any other plant variety for the production of ethanol. http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel_library/ethanol_motherearth/meCh3. html#alcoholyield Anyone care to comment? Yahoo! Groups Sponsor -~-- Save on REALTOR Fees http://us.click.yahoo.com/Xw80LD/h1ZEAA/Ey.GAA/FGYolB/TM -~- Biofuel at Journey to Forever: http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html Biofuels list archives: http://archive.nnytech.net/ Please do NOT send quot;unsubscribequot; messages to the list address. To unsubscribe, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
[biofuel] Re: [green-energy-options] NYTimes.com Article: Nanotech Revolution
If you think nanotech is science fiction, think again. --- [The prospect of a strand that is long, strong and thin conjures dreams of epic engineering like spinning a 22,300-mile-long cable out of nanotubes to tether a satellite in orbit around the earth, and then building an elevator that goes from the ground floor literally into outer space.] July 16, 2002 : By KENNETH CHANG : BOSTON - It is stronger than steel and far sharper than a pin. It shoots electrons and draws away heat. It can become the thinnest of wires and, potentially, electronic devices almost as minuscule as molecules. In the last decade, the cylindrical molecule of carbon known as a nanotube has become a do-all wonder substance, touted for future use in everything from X-ray machines to paint. Nanotubes are already sprinkled in more than half of lithium ion batteries: their ability to carry electricity hastens recharging, and they act like tiny springs to hold apart the sheets of graphite in the battery, extending its lifetime. More than 200 scientists attended a Nanotube 2002 conference here from July 6 to July 11 to learn about some of the latest news. Nanotubes glow in infrared light. They can be welded together. They can be used for fluorescent lights. The reasons for nanotubes' remarkable properties are chemical and architectural. In one form of carbon, the orbits of its outer electrons form three lobes that flare outward at 120-degree angles. Each lobe bonds with a lobe of a neighboring carbon atom, forming a honeycomb pattern that looks like a piece of chicken wire. The bonds between the carbon atoms are strong - stronger than those of diamond. This flat chicken-wire configuration of carbon is well known; it's graphite, the stuff of pencil lead. But graphite sheets do not cling very strongly to one another, so a lump of it is soft and easily rubs off. Just as a piece of paper is stronger when rolled up, graphite becomes extraordinarily stiff when the opposite edges of a rectangular sheet are connected, forming a cylinder. That is a nanotube. This is the strongest material that will ever be made, said Dr. David E. Luzzi, a professor of materials science at the University of Pennsylvania. And very thin. The nanotube gets its name from nanometer, or a billionth of a meter, which is roughly the diameter of the thinnest of nanotubes. = The prospect of a strand that is long, strong and thin conjures dreams of epic engineering like spinning a 22,300-mile-long cable out of nanotubes to tether a satellite in orbit around the earth, and then building an elevator that goes from the ground floor literally into outer space. = The present reality is more modest. In May, researchers at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, N.Y., reported in the journal Science that they had produced the world's longest nanotubes - eight inches. But scientists have already coaxed shorter nanotubes to line up and stick together into long strands. At the conference, Dr. Philippe Poulin, a scientist at the National Center for Scientific Research in France, described how nanotubes could be dispersed into a liquid, mixed with polymers and spun into a fiber thinner than a human hair. At present, the nanotube fiber is not as strong as some other artificial fibers like kevlar. But Dr. Poulin said he expected scientists to find ways to strengthen the bonds between individual nanotubes, perhaps by heating the fibers or dipping them in a chemical. The fibers could also find use in tiny machines. Adding electrical charge expands the bonds between carbon atoms, lengthening the fiber by a small fraction. If the nanotube fiber is glued to a strip of another material that does not shrink or expand, the voltage causes the fiber to bend like an archer's bow. You're making it a muscle, Dr. Poulin said. Because of the strength of nanotubes, the fiber would exert 50 to 100 times as much force as a human muscle of the same size. Many scientists also expect that nanotubes will be an important component in future molecular-scale electronic circuits. Nanotubes vary in diameter and in how they are rolled up. If a nanotube is rolled evenly, like a sheet of paper with the top and bottom edges lined up, it is a metallic conductor, efficiently carrying electricity. Adding metallic nanotubes to plastic, for example, changes it from an insulator to a conductor - allowing an automaker, for instance, to use electrically charged paint that adheres better to conducting surfaces. If a nanotube is twisted askew, like a misbuttoned shirt, then its electrical properties can change to those of a siliconlike semiconductor whose current can be switched on and off. Researchers at I.B.M. have already built transistors with performance comparable to present-day silicon ones. (But the transistors are not particularly small, and I.B.M. has no idea how to mass-produce them.) Scientists have also found they can further alter the electronic behavior of nanotubes by stuffing other molecules inside.
[biofuel] dino diesel extender
can wvo be added to dino diesel (filtered ) without any processing and can used motor oil .7 micron filtered be added as well . also about 20 years ago I read an article (in popular science when synthiecs were coming out) that 1% of1 % ruined the lubricancy of oil ., and I just found and ariticle that said 20ppm of water could reduce mineral oil effectivness by 48% this could possibly be the sourse of injector pump wear. on the subject of the killer fries, remember the herbicide /insecticide industry came from chemical warfare of our past. 2.4 d a common herbicide was in agent orange! used extensively in Vietnam and is in virturally any ferterlizer that is weed and feed .think of it this way the end of both words end in ICIDE which means death. Yahoo! Groups Sponsor -~-- Save on REALTOR Fees http://us.click.yahoo.com/Xw80LD/h1ZEAA/Ey.GAA/FGYolB/TM -~- Biofuel at Journey to Forever: http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html Biofuels list archives: http://archive.nnytech.net/ Please do NOT send quot;unsubscribequot; messages to the list address. To unsubscribe, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
Re: [biofuel] dino diesel extender
Hello Robby can wvo be added to dino diesel (filtered ) without any processing You mean the wvo is filtered? Depends on the motor - with an old Mercedes you'll get away with anything. Just about. Otherwise, same as mixing with kerosene: http://journeytoforever.org/biodiesel_make.html#1mixing Others will be less cautious. Up to you. and can used motor oil .7 micron filtered be added as well . I think some members here know a lot about this. also about 20 years ago I read an article (in popular science when synthiecs were coming out) that 1% of1 % ruined the lubricancy of oil ., Sorry, 1% of what? and I just found and ariticle that said 20ppm of water could reduce mineral oil effectivness by 48% this could possibly be the sourse of injector pump wear. We've discussed that quite a lot. Water won't dissolve in dinodiesel, and water in the fuel then causes damage, but it does dissolve in SVO and biodiesel, to an extent, which is a different matter. There's a lot of ongoing work using dinodiesel with water emulsions to improve combustion efficiency and reduce emissions - once dissolved, it doesn't damage anything. on the subject of the killer fries, remember the herbicide /insecticide industry came from chemical warfare of our past. 2.4 d a common herbicide was in agent orange! used extensively in Vietnam and is in virturally any ferterlizer that is weed and feed .think of it this way the end of both words end in ICIDE which means death. Similarly the chemical fertilizer industry was born from the explosives industry of WW1 when peace broke out. The pesticides followed a bit later - amazing how increased chemical fertilizer dependence unbalances the soil life in just such a way as to increase pest attack, and the need for pesticides. Truly the devil's work, such fortuitousness. But acrolein, acrylamide, polyacrylamide, pesticides, RR GMOs, deep-fried starch foods, organic food and oil, and perhaps the future availability of WVO - bit different. Joe Cummins would seem to be onto something with his suspicions of a cover-up - he's currently under attack on the SANET list by the Astroturf group industry shills, including ACSH. Not just paranoia at all, check this out: CORPORATE GHOSTS There's a web of deceit over GM food, says George Monbiot - -The Guardian, 29 May 2002 http://ngin.tripod.com/deceit7.html THE FAKE PERSUADERS Corporations are inventing people to rubbish their opponents on the internet, says George Monbiot -The Guardian, 14 May 2002 http://ngin.tripod.com/deceit4.html KERNELS OF TRUTH Virulent criticisms were anything but academic - - The East Bay Express, 29 May 2002 http://ngin.tripod.com/deceit8.html AMAIZING DISGRACE A dirty tricks campaign leads straight to Monsanto's PR company - - The Ecologist, May 2002 http://ngin.tripod.com/deceit2.html SEEDS OF DISSENT Anti-GM scientists are facing widespread assualts on their credibility. Andy Rowell investigates who is behind the attacks - Big Issue, 15-21 April 2002 http://ngin.tripod.com/deceit3.html SCIENTISTS IN A SPIN How scientists have become embroiled in a PR dirty tricks campaign - letter to The Guardian, 16 May 2002 http://ngin.tripod.com/deceit5.html Yahoo! Groups Sponsor -~-- Save on REALTOR Fees http://us.click.yahoo.com/Xw80LD/h1ZEAA/Ey.GAA/FGYolB/TM -~- Biofuel at Journey to Forever: http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html Biofuels list archives: http://archive.nnytech.net/ Please do NOT send quot;unsubscribequot; messages to the list address. To unsubscribe, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
[biofuel] Re: [green-energy-options] NYTimes.com Article: Nanotech Revolution
Hey, MikeF, you still thumping on about nanotubes? Why so shrill? And what's wrong with science fiction - excepting that that's a really lousy name for it, or for the best of it anyway. But it stuck, too bad. Arthur C. Clarke (not my favourite, but he stuck too) wrote about your space elevator decades ago. So what? You reckon it's going to help feed hundreds of millions of deprived people in a world bursting with excess food and wealth, fix the climate, patch up the hole in the sky, stop corporate globalisation wrecking the joint? I keep referring you to this when you talk about nanotubes, three times now I think, I bet you haven't read it yet: ETC Century: Erosion, Technological Transformation, and Corporate Concentration in the 21st Century, February 19, 2001 - PDF (828 kb) http://etcgroup.org/article.asp?newsid=159 And you keep referring me to Drexler's Engines of Creation - The Coming Era of Nanotechnology , 1986, which I read some years ago. Throughout all this sporadic argument across several mailing lists, I can't recall anyone saying nanotubes were pie-in-the-sky, if that's what you mean by science fiction. Carbon-7 Buckyballs have been around for quite a while. More important, more than a dozen patents were issued for molecular self-assembly in 2000, and I've seen a number of developments and breakthroughs announced since then. Nanotech is about at the same stage of development as biotech was 15 years ago, but the pace of progress will be much faster with nanotech. It's real, whatever that means. But just how Whizz-Bang a new technology might be really doesn't matter a damn, all that matters is how it will be used, where it will be used, for whose benefit, at whose expense, whether it's appropriate to a given situation or not. There IS no best technology, it's entirely context-sensitive. Like GMOs now, nanotech holds immense promise, but, just like GMOs now, that promise is highly likely to translate into an array of useless junk with unforeseen side-effects of unfortunate ilk proliferating in every direction, because its development is in the hands of the same kind of wisdomless dumbos who've already given us so much to be less than thankful for. (Or the very same ones - there'll be a progressive merging with all the usual suspects.) At worst, it could be rather more grim than that. If it's human benefit (without wrecking the joint) that you're after, you're looking to altogether the wrong folks. Pat Mooney of the ETC Group isn't very hopeful about nanotech and the way it's developing. So you won't read it, eh? Or will you? You should look at this while you're at it: #747 - Controlling Technologies -- Part 1, July 11, 2002 http://www.rachel.org/bulletin/index.cfm?issue_ID=2223 Keith If you think nanotech is science fiction, think again. --- [The prospect of a strand that is long, strong and thin conjures dreams of epic engineering like spinning a 22,300-mile-long cable out of nanotubes to tether a satellite in orbit around the earth, and then building an elevator that goes from the ground floor literally into outer space.] July 16, 2002 : By KENNETH CHANG : BOSTON - It is stronger than steel and far sharper than a pin. It shoots electrons and draws away heat. It can become the thinnest of wires and, potentially, electronic devices almost as minuscule as molecules. In the last decade, the cylindrical molecule of carbon known as a nanotube has become a do-all wonder substance, touted for future use in everything from X-ray machines to paint. Nanotubes are already sprinkled in more than half of lithium ion batteries: their ability to carry electricity hastens recharging, and they act like tiny springs to hold apart the sheets of graphite in the battery, extending its lifetime. More than 200 scientists attended a Nanotube 2002 conference here from July 6 to July 11 to learn about some of the latest news. Nanotubes glow in infrared light. They can be welded together. They can be used for fluorescent lights. The reasons for nanotubes' remarkable properties are chemical and architectural. In one form of carbon, the orbits of its outer electrons form three lobes that flare outward at 120-degree angles. Each lobe bonds with a lobe of a neighboring carbon atom, forming a honeycomb pattern that looks like a piece of chicken wire. The bonds between the carbon atoms are strong - stronger than those of diamond. This flat chicken-wire configuration of carbon is well known; it's graphite, the stuff of pencil lead. But graphite sheets do not cling very strongly to one another, so a lump of it is soft and easily rubs off. Just as a piece of paper is stronger when rolled up, graphite becomes extraordinarily stiff when the opposite edges of a rectangular sheet are connected, forming a cylinder. That is a nanotube. This is the strongest material that will ever be made, said Dr. David E. Luzzi, a professor of materials science at the University of Pennsylvania. And very
Re: [biofuel] The future of fuel?
Keith Addison wrote: http://www.oaoa.com/news/nw071102a.htm OA Online News The future of fuel? Odessa professor's process of turning plants into fuel shows great promise. Thursday July 11, 2002 By Julie Breaux Odessa American Chemistry professor Mike Robinson holds up a small, glass bottle containing a scant fourth-cup of liquid and a world of possibilities. The liquid is jet fuel, plain and simple. But what makes it so special and of interest to major energy producers is that Robinson can make it in about 30 minutes using only sawdust, sugar water, heat and an acid. No eons-old fossil fuels, no drilling rigs necessary in a deceptively simple process, he says. You just dissolve sugar in water, then add a little acid and bring it to a boil, and a half hour later, this fuel is floating in water, said Robinson, a longtime organic chemistry professor at the University of Texas of the Permian Basin. To a novice watching that happen, it's just that magical. Robinson has been rehearsing his scientifically based magic show for the past 30-plus years. From the late 1970s to 1990, Robinson worked to unlock the mystery of converting hard and soft woods, grasses and other starchy foodstuffs into a hydrocarbon-based fuel. Robinson remembers when the idea first came to him. It was 1978, and Americans were paying record high prices for fuel after the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries had cut off crude shipments to the United States. Robinson used the OPEC embargo to challenge his young chemistry students at UTPB to use their knowledge to find solutions to modern-day problems. He said he asked them to look at more economical means of converting plant sugars into fuel. At the time, the only manmade, plant-based fuel was ethanol, an alcohol-based fuel made from corn. Robinson believed converting plant sugars into hydrocarbons was more economical and efficient. Unfortunately, none of his students bit, but Robinson did, returning to his office from class that day, unable to get the idea out of his mind. The more I thought about it, the more I worked on it, the more interesting it became, and, in fact, no one had done it, he said. After years of research and experimentation at UTPB, Robinson's big breakthrough came in 1990 when the university purchased a gas chromatograph-mass spectrometer. The GC-MS allowed Robinson to analyze the byproducts of his lab experiments molecule by molecule. It turns out when we first started we were just trying to repeat some of the chemical reactions found in the literature, and then serendipity happened, he said. Through gas chromatography, Robinson finally saw the years of fits-and-starts research pay off when he discovered one of his chemical conversion recipes had yielded hydrocarbon-based jet fuel, the only one of its kind in the world, he said. The University of Texas System now owns the patent to the jet fuel, which was proven compatible with the gasoline engine in 1996 during field tests conducted by Phillips Petroleum Co., Robinson said. The process is clear. The research we're trying to do today is to change things and marry them to other processes. Later this summer, two post-doctoral students will begin a full-time study of a working, tabletop plant that will produce jet fuel continuously, he said. One of the students, a chemical engineer, will create computer software in which every segment of the production can be scaled up in order to produce barrels a day as opposed to milliliters per day. That would give us a fairly firm economic data, Robinson said. The back-of-the-envelope kind of things we're estimating now might be a little loosey-goosey, not a real good bankable kind of estimate. If the process proves profitable, Robinson said he would devote more time marketing it to major chemical and petrochemical companies, which could use his plant-based hydrocarbons to produce unleaded gasoline, diesel fuel, kerosene and home heating oil. The products we get can feed right into a conventional refinery, and they can make several different products out of it and still fit right into the normal infrastructure we have today, he said. What our process does offer them is a feedstock for the future. Interesting the chemical conversion efficiency using this process sort of reminds me of chemically contrived biodiesel. Ought their not be more interest in added value of oilseed crop Contact Information Dr. Mike Robinson http://www.utpb.edu/artsci/chem/facu-jmr.htm CHEMISTRY - Research Projects Computer Assisted Chemical Education Liquid Fuels and Chemicals from Biomass via Chemical Processes Medicinal Drug Synthesis - Streptonigrin Molecular Modeling - Chemical Visualization on the Web Precious Metals Analysis and Mineral Beneficiation Waste Motor Oil Reclamation http://www.utpb.edu/artsci/chem/ Research University of Texas of the Permian Basin College of Arts and Sciences
Re: [biofuel] Waste Vegetable Oil
oops I ment the wvo was to be filtered and the 1% of 1% was water sorry , Robby Keith Addison wrote: Hello David Hello, I am currently researching the use of WVO as a fuel for generation of electricity in a diesel generator. I have read that deacidified veg oil is the best bet for use in a diesel engine. Does anyone know how this process is done? Here's one way: Make your own biodiesel - page 2: Deacidifying WVO http://journeytoforever.org/biodiesel_make2.html#deacid It depends on the diesel and on the oil. Diesel generators are good candidates for SVO use - see: Guide to using vegetable oil as diesel fuel -- Straight vegetable oil as diesel fuel: http://journeytoforever.org/biodiesel_svo.html#guide If the oil is in good condition, you might not need to deacidify it. You'd test that by titration - if it titrates at less than 2-3 ml, you might be okay, especially with a generator. Basic titration, Better titration -- Make your own biodiesel - page 2 http://journeytoforever.org/biodiesel_make2.html#titrate Are there any examples of the results of sustained use of SVO/WVO in large diesel engines? http://www.biodiesel.org/cgi-local/search.cgi?action=view_reportid=GEN-292 (See section concerning Fels, South Africa, indirect injection engines, 1800 hours, warranty issuance from manufacturer based on results) That should be Fuls. J., Hawkins, C.S. and Hugo, F.J.C., 1984, Tractor Engine Performance on Sunflower Oil Fuel, Journal of Agricultural Engineering Research 30:29-35. Hope that helps. Best Keith Thanks, David Penfold Biofuel at Journey to Forever: http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html Biofuels list archives: http://archive.nnytech.net/ Please do NOT send quot;unsubscribequot; messages to the list address. To unsubscribe, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/ [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] Yahoo! Groups Sponsor -~-- Will You Find True Love? Will You Meet the One? Free Love Reading by phone! http://us.click.yahoo.com/ps3dMC/R_ZEAA/Ey.GAA/FGYolB/TM -~- Biofuel at Journey to Forever: http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html Biofuels list archives: http://archive.nnytech.net/ Please do NOT send quot;unsubscribequot; messages to the list address. To unsubscribe, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
RE: [biofuel] Re: Mercury Free dry cell recycling
Hi Edward and Chistopher.
I discover it too, only last moth { :( } , that my old (purchased in 1994)
Ni-Cad batteries recharger works for dry cell manganese batteries as well.
It has a meter with dead, charge and full, very similar to Chistopher's
discription.
I read on the batteries do not recharge, but I do not follow that advice
anymore, they may not be able to take 1000 charges like the Ni-Cad but it
is worth trying, IMO.
I check the batteries, the same like Chisthoper does for leaks, corroded,
etc. and then with an analog Multimeter, those that measure volts, ohms,
amperes, and transistor type, used by electricians, if the voltage is over
0.9 V, I just put the dead dry cell in the recharger for 6 - 8 hours
later I take them out and check with the Multimeter set for volts and if
they reach at least 1.5 Volts, they are OK, them I put it to work again ;)
I do not know how many times it is possible to recharge them yet.
Regards.
Juan
-Mensaje original-
De: Christopher Witmer [SMTP:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Enviado el: Martes 16 de Julio de 2002 04:27 PM
Para: biofuel@yahoogroups.com
Asunto: Re: [biofuel] Re: Mercury Free dry cell recycling
Sorry for the lack of specifics, Ed. It has been a few years since I
purchased my unit, and there are probably better ones on the market now,
but my unit does Ni-Cd batteries, alkaline manganese batteries,
manganese batteries, silver oxide batteries and zinc air batteries,
including AAA/AA/C/D/button types. (My unit will probably do NIMH
batteries as well but at least when I purchased my unit it made sense to
get a recharger designed specifically for NiMH batteries.) There is no
way to tell for sure whether a dry cell will be rechargeable simply by
looking at it (although you can reliably eliminate any dry cell that
looks swollen, corroded or leaking). However it has been my experience
that the majority of dry cells that get thrown away are still
rechargeable. I wasn't keeping records but I'd say my success rate with
batteries from the trash has been better than 80%. My recharger lets me
know pretty quickly (in a matter of seconds to a few minutes) if it's
not going to work. If you go to Google and search on Alkaline Battery
Recharger you should see several units listed. I think I paid something
like $15 for my unit back in 1999. My unit's manual tells me I have the
EP-7 Battery Recharger but I couldn't bring it up in an internet
search. Happy hunting!
Christopher Witmer
Tokyo
Hall, Edward C. wrote:
You say a lot of dry cells are rechargeable, how can I tell the
difference
between those that can be recharged and those that should be left in the
trash? I often see dry cells in the trash and think what a waste, I'd be
great to reuse them. Reading the label (on the batteries) leaves me with
the
feeling that recharging shouldn't be done, is this marketing hype?
Thanks,
Ed
-Original Message-
From: Christopher Witmer [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Sent: Tuesday, July 16, 2002 1:37 PM
To: biofuel@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [biofuel] Re: Mercury Free dry cell recycling
A lot of non-rechargeable dry cells can be recharged. I do it all the
time. In fact, I used to go around on the designated days when dry cells
could be put out in the trash and collect dead dry cells, recharge and
use them. But now I have more dry cells than I can use . . .
Christopher Witmer
Tokyo
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Re: [biofuel] The future of fuel?
Step 1 is a reductive depolymerization of carbohydrate biopolymers. Cellulose is simultaneously hydrolysed in dilute acid and catalytically hydrogenated to glucitol (commonly named sorbitol) in near quantitative yields. Hemicellulose is similarly converted into zylitol and sorbitol. Lignin, if present, is simply removed by filtration after the reaction. Step 2 of the process is also a key reaction: the chemical conversion of polyhydric alcohols to liquid hydrocarbons. The major part of all the reduction requirements occurs during this conversion. Thus in Step 2, polyhydric alcohols such as sorbitol are reduced essentially quantitatively to a mixture of halocarbon and hydrocarbon compounds by reaction with hydriodic acid and a phosphorous type reducing agent, either phosphorous acid or hypophosphorous acid. The reaction occurs in boiling aqueous solution at atmospheric pressure for 1-2 hours. Reaction conditions were varied to give on one extreme about 99% 2-iodohexane, and on the other extreme about 86% hydrocarbons with the remainder being halocarbons. The immiscible products are simply removed as a separate phase from the water solution. So Step 2 not only provides a highly reduced C-6 compound but also C-12, C-18, and C-24 hydrocarbons. These groups represent fuels in the range of gasoline, kerosene, diesel, and fuel oil, respectively. Step 3 might be considered a cleanup reaction in that all of the remaining halocarbons in mixtures from Step 2 are subsequently converted to alkenes by an elimination reaction with sodium hydroxide in boiling alcohol. Vast differences in boiling points of hexene from the other higher mass hydrocarbons, 200 300 ¡C, allow facile separation by distillation of the final mixture. There are several optional steps to other chemicals (Step 4). For example, catalytic hydrogenation of hexene furnishes hexane, an important industrial solvent. Hydrolysis of 2-iodohexane to 2-hexanol is another optional reaction to a value added product. This multistep chemical process for reduction of biomass to liquid hydrocarbon fuels is the first of its kind. It stands in sharp contrast to other research areas that follow classical lines of bio- (fermentation) and thermal (pyrolysis) conversion. In fact, uncoupling the reduction process to a series of mild selective chemical reactions was the key to the problem. As a result, economic advantages abound. http://www.utpb.edu/artsci/chem/ Steve Spence Subscribe to the Renewable Energy Newsletter: http://www.webconx.com/subscribe.htm Renewable Energy Pages - http://www.webconx.dns2go.com/ Human powered devices, equipment, and transport - http://www.webconx.dns2go.com/2000/humanpower.htm [EMAIL PROTECTED] - Original Message - From: Keith Addison [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: biofuel@yahoogroups.com Sent: Wednesday, July 17, 2002 2:20 AM Subject: Re: [biofuel] The future of fuel? Greetings Mr Jain Dear Mr. Addison, Can you please throw some more light on the process. It says: You just dissolve sugar in water, then add a little acid and bring it to a boil, and a half hour later, this fuel is floating in water, It does not mention the use of sawdust or wood. Which acid and in what concentration is to be added? Please give, if possible some more accurate details. It's just a newspaper article, that's all there was. There are contact details at the site, I suppose you could write to the reporter and ask for more information, or for an address for Robinson and ask him direct. The URL mentioned is not accessible. It works fine for me, try it again. Here's the contact address though: Odessa American 222 E. 4th St. Odessa, Texas 79761 915-337-6262 (OAOA) 1-800-375-4661 E-Mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Do let us know if you find out any more. Best wishes Keith Y. K. Jain Keith Addison wrote: http://www.oaoa.com/news/nw071102a.htm OA Online News The future of fuel? Odessa professor's process of turning plants into fuel shows great promise. Thursday July 11, 2002 By Julie Breaux Odessa American Chemistry professor Mike Robinson holds up a small, glass bottle containing a scant fourth-cup of liquid and a world of possibilities. The liquid is jet fuel, plain and simple. But what makes it so special and of interest to major energy producers is that Robinson can make it in about 30 minutes using only sawdust, sugar water, heat and an acid. No eons-old fossil fuels, no drilling rigs necessary in a deceptively simple process, he says. You just dissolve sugar in water, then add a little acid and bring it to a boil, and a half hour later, this fuel is floating in water, said Robinson, a longtime organic chemistry professor at the University of Texas of the Permian Basin. To a novice watching that happen, it's just that magical. Robinson has been rehearsing his scientifically based magic show for the past 30-plus years. From the late 1970s to 1990,
[biofuel] elevated temperatures
Sunflower What is the consequence of doing the methoxide oil reaction at temperatures above 75 - 80 degrees C. ie after boiling off water? Neil Canberra Australia [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] Yahoo! Groups Sponsor -~-- Will You Find True Love? Will You Meet the One? Free Love Reading by phone! http://us.click.yahoo.com/ps3dMC/R_ZEAA/Ey.GAA/FGYolB/TM -~- Biofuel at Journey to Forever: http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html Biofuels list archives: http://archive.nnytech.net/ Please do NOT send quot;unsubscribequot; messages to the list address. To unsubscribe, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
Re: [biofuel] elevated temperatures
You would be operating at a temperature above the boiling point of the alcohol. Most certainly you would need a perfectly vapor tight and spark free system. You will probably find it far simpler to settle the water out at an elevated temp of ~49*C. It's less energy intensive and works just as well. By elevating the temp of the feedstock to the boiling point of water (plus some), you will have a tendency to actually drive some water into the oil. The temp has to be elevated for a prolonged period to ensure that all the water has been driven off. If you want to apply high temps at any point in the manufacturing process, you might want to hold out untill you get to evaporative/distillation recovery-purification process. Todd Swearingen - Original Message - From: Neil and Adele Craven [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: biofuel@yahoogroups.com Sent: Wednesday, July 17, 2002 10:48 PM Subject: [biofuel] elevated temperatures Sunflower What is the consequence of doing the methoxide oil reaction at temperatures above 75 - 80 degrees C. ie after boiling off water? Neil Canberra Australia [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] Yahoo! Groups Sponsor ADVERTISEMENT Biofuel at Journey to Forever: http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html Biofuels list archives: http://archive.nnytech.net/ Please do NOT send quot;unsubscribequot; messages to the list address. To unsubscribe, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to the Yahoo! Terms of Service. Yahoo! Groups Sponsor -~-- Free $5 Love Reading Risk Free! http://us.click.yahoo.com/TPvn8A/PfREAA/Ey.GAA/FGYolB/TM -~- Biofuel at Journey to Forever: http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html Biofuels list archives: http://archive.nnytech.net/ Please do NOT send quot;unsubscribequot; messages to the list address. To unsubscribe, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
Re: Re: [biofuel] Re: More an acrylamide...
That's the lynchpin. Todd Swearingen Is there acrylamide in cooked organic food? Is there acrylamide in organically grown starch foods deep-fried in organically grown oils? I'll try to find out. Best Keith Yahoo! Groups Sponsor -~-- Free $5 Love Reading Risk Free! http://us.click.yahoo.com/TPvn8A/PfREAA/Ey.GAA/FGYolB/TM -~- Biofuel at Journey to Forever: http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html Biofuels list archives: http://archive.nnytech.net/ Please do NOT send quot;unsubscribequot; messages to the list address. To unsubscribe, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
