tagged w/ Alternative Fuel
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WITH the average price of petrol in America once again threatening the politically sensitive level of $4 a gallon as tensions mount over Iran’s threats to close the Strait of Hormuz, your correspondent has been puzzled by the deafening silence with which the current spike in pump prices has been greeted. Usually, when oil crosses the $100-a-barrel threshold and petrol prices soar, demands for drastic action fill the headlines. Given that this is election year, presidential candidates might have been expected to exploit the situation. There have been few such murmurings.
Methanol, the simplest of all alcohols, has a long history as a fuel for motor cars. It lost out to petrol in the early days of motoring because it packed only half the energy per unit volume (56,800 BTUs per gallon versus 114,100). All other things being equal, a car that gets 25mpg on petrol would get only 12.5mpg on methanol.
But all other things are not equal. Alcohols like methanol have higher octane ratings than petrol—typically 99 versus 87 for regular petrol. That means they can tolerate higher compression ratios without causing the air-fuel mixture in the cylinders to explode prematurely (“knock”) rather than burn smoothly. And the higher the compression ratio, the more energy stored in the fuel can be converted into useful work. In short, engines designed to take advantage of methanol's octane rating produce more power from the same cubic capacity, and can be more efficient in fuel-economy terms.
Full article at link
http://www.economist.com/blogs/babbage/2012/03/alternative-fuelsWITH the average price of petrol in America once again threatening the politically... more
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Engineers at Michigan State University led by Norbert Mueller have unveiled a "Wave Disk Generator" that could eventually replace the internal combustion engine. The new design boasts an up to 90% reduction in auto emissions in addition to being 400% more fuel efficient.
A typical car engine only uses 15% of the gas it consumes to move. In contrast, the new engine will use 60%. The new model contains no pistons, valves, crankshafts or transmission system...making the generator far cheaper to maintain over years. The invention also benefits from potentially being able to use gas alternatives such as hydrogen.
Naturally, this engine technology could revolutionize pretty much the entire world and its logistical systems. Everything would become much cheaper in transportation, requiring drastically less fuel and maintenance. Professor Mueller hopes that his engine model might reach the streets in 3 years.Engineers at Michigan State University led by Norbert Mueller have unveiled a... more
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this could prove to be amazing!
A prototype solar device has been unveiled which mimics plant life, turning the Sun's energy into fuel.
The machine uses the Sun's rays and a metal oxide called ceria to break down carbon dioxide or water into fuels which can be stored and transported.
Conventional photovoltaic panels must use the electricity they generate in situ, and cannot deliver power at night.
Details are published in the journal Science.
The prototype, which was devised by researchers in the US and Switzerland, uses a quartz window and cavity to concentrate sunlight into a cylinder lined with cerium oxide, also known as ceria.
Ceria has a natural propensity to exhale oxygen as it heats up and inhale it as it cools down.
If as in the prototype, carbon dioxide and/or water are pumped into the vessel, the ceria will rapidly strip the oxygen from them as it cools, creating hydrogen and/or carbon monoxide.
Hydrogen produced could be used to fuel hydrogen fuel cells in cars, for example, while a combination of hydrogen and carbon monoxide can be used to create "syngas" for fuel.
It is this harnessing of ceria's properties in the solar reactor which represents the major breakthrough, say the inventors of the device. They also say the metal is readily available, being the most abundant of the "rare-earth" metals.
Methane can be produced using the same machine, they say.
Refinements needed
The prototype is grossly inefficient, the fuel created harnessing only between 0.7% and 0.8% of the solar energy taken into the vessel.
Most of the energy is lost through heat loss through the reactor's wall or through the re-radiation of sunlight back through the device's aperture.
But the researchers are confident that efficiency rates of up to 19% can be achieved through better insulation and smaller apertures. Such efficiency rates, they say, could make for a viable commercial device.
"The chemistry of the material is really well suited to this process," says Professor Sossina Haile of the California Institute of Technology (Caltech). "This is the first demonstration of doing the full shebang, running it under (light) photons in a reactor."
She says the reactor could be used to create transportation fuels or be adopted in large-scale energy plants, where solar-sourced power could be available throughout the day and night.
However, she admits the fate of this and other devices in development is tied to whether states adopt a low-carbon policy.
"It's very much tied to policy. If we had a carbon policy, something like this would move forward a lot more quickly," she told the BBC.
It has been suggested that the device mimics plants, which also use carbon dioxide, water and sunlight to create energy as part of the process of photosynthesis. But Professor Haile thinks the analogy is over-simplistic.
"Yes, the reactor takes in sunlight, we take in carbon dioxide and water and we produce a chemical compound, so in the most generic sense there are these similarities, but I think that's pretty much where the analogy ends."this could prove to be amazing!
A prototype solar device has been unveiled which... more
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Ocean Energy can be the replacement energy the Big Oil companies have been missing, what's called a "Transition energy". Ocean Energy is obtained by lowering high-pressure containers (or old retired submarines) into the ocean depths then closing the doors or inlet portholes.
Ocean water 20k and 30,000 feet deep is like a semi-solid rocket fuel.
There it sits and here we sit, in the cold. Or standing at a fuel pump, in the cold. Or sitting without a payroll or unemployment or disability or retirement check, in the cold, many former Enron employees having had their 401k's wiped out by Wall Street thieves.
Ocean Energy is like Edward Woodward who played The Equalizer on TV.
Ocean Energy is your Equalizer.Ocean Energy can be the replacement energy the Big Oil companies have been missing,... more
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This is the fastest growing global social movement in history. We advocate a resource based economy with the use of science,technology and nature instead of politics,money and war. All working for common good for all human beings without social stratification. There are currently over 400,000 registered members.This is the fastest growing global social movement in history. We advocate a resource... more
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The Gasser '33 Hot Rod produces 650 horsepower and doesn't use a drop of gasoline. Instead, it runs on clean-burning domestically-sourced compressed natural gas. Captured on tape at the 2010 Alternative Fuels and Vehicles conference in Las Vegas, Nevada.
http://www.mpgomatic.com/2010/05/14/the-gasser-wild-cng-33-hot-rod/The Gasser '33 Hot Rod produces 650 horsepower and doesn't use a drop of... more
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This car and technology are available now. The Chu video talks about one of the solutions to making it happen is government subsidies. With the idea of leasing pump space at existing stations distribution is possible and the mainstream can buy it.This car and technology are available now. The Chu video talks about one of the... more
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US Energy Secretary Steven Chu speaks at the 2010 Washington DC Auto Show about the administration's commitment to advancing fuel efficient vehicles while helping to create clean energy jobs. Nissan Leaf program funding is discussed, along with a range of alternative fuel technologies, in addition to electrification.US Energy Secretary Steven Chu speaks at the 2010 Washington DC Auto Show about the... more
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Excerpt:
"I spoke to the Green party this morning, and discovered that Mercer had left out a crucial piece of information. The biodiesel used in its bus was made from waste cooking oil, not virgin oil. As I've been arguing since I first started attacking the practice of feeding cars rather than people, used cooking oil is currently the only sustainable feedstock for biofuel: once it is unfit for human consumption it can only be dumped or burned. It makes sense to burn it in place of fossil fuels. The Green party has now published a response in the comment thread and is requesting a correction.
Burning virgin vegetable oil is an entirely different matter. In doing so, you are directly commissioning farmers to do one of two things: divert cropland which would otherwise have been used to grow food, or break land which would otherwise have been left fallow. In either case you are harming people or the environment."
One more:
"Growing rapeseed to burn is crazy, growing oil palm to fill the gaps is madness on a different scale altogether, in view of the massive impacts on climate, indigenous people and wildlife when the forests of Indonesia and Malaysia are cleared to plant it."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/georgemonbiot/2009/oct/29/oil-climate-chan...
How could they not look at the big picture and understand that crops for energy is just plain foolish?
It's appalling to me.Excerpt:
"I spoke to the Green party this morning, and discovered that Mercer... more
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Maybe T. Boone Pickens is onto something ... MPGomatic.com gets the scoop on IMPCO's propane powered duel-fuel Ford Mustang at the 2008 Alternative Fuels and Vehicles conference.Maybe T. Boone Pickens is onto something ... MPGomatic.com gets the scoop on... more
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We eeek when they crawl past our toes or divebomb our drinks. We swat at them with hands, books and any blunt objects in our midst. We drag our heels across the floor in order to smoosh them into oblivion -- but wait -- what a shame that we're wasting all that organic goodness!
Insect invaders that enter our homes are generally on a collision course with death anyway, but we've never really made their lives mean anything...until now. That's what the Carnivorous Domestic Entertainment Robots are poised to change.We eeek when they crawl past our toes or divebomb our drinks. We swat at them with... more
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From source:
Algaeus claims 150 mpg on renewable algae-based fuel
Toyota and Sapphire are working together on a new project involving a Prius powered by gasoline created from algae. To promote the Prius, dubbed Algaeus, the vehicle along with other green automobiles will go on a cross-country road trip lasting ten days.
The Algaeus is a plug-in hybrid that runs a fuel that is algae-based and renewable. The cross-country trip is in part to celebrate the launch of a film called FUEL that shows green energy solutions. The special hybrid automobile claims to be able to get 150 miles to a gallon of fuel. The tour kicked off yesterday in San Francisco and is set to end in New York on September 18 with stops in other major cities along the way.From source:
Algaeus claims 150 mpg on renewable algae-based fuel
Toyota and... more
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PetroAlgae is the first renewable energy company to commercialize a drop-in replacement for fossil fuels. The company licenses an innovative commercial micro-crop technology that enables the large-scale production of green fuels as well as a high-value protein co-product. The company's fuels are functionally identical to petroleum-based fuels and therefore use the existing industry infrastructure.
PetroAlgae’s proprietary technology is 1) clean, 2) economically viable, 3) scalable, 4) resource efficient, and 5) ready for commercialization today. Our micro-crops consume more than twice their weight in CO² and produce yields up to 25x to 100x more productive than macro-crop (soy, corn, soy, jatropha, etc.) biofuel feedstocks.PetroAlgae is the first renewable energy company to commercialize a drop-in... more
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Idealist, "hippy" son convinces old-school businessman dad to go green with traditional family business. Now runs entire fleet of dad's delivery/service vehicles on their own self-produced biodiesel and operates the first commercial biodiesel processing facility in Atlanta.Idealist, "hippy" son convinces old-school businessman dad to go green with... more
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PCRE
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added this
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2 years ago
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Son comes home from college with "hippy talk" about alternative fuels and convinces his dad to go green with traditional, long-standing, family business. They now operate a fully operational biodiesel processing facility producing hundreds of thousands of gallons of clean, efficient, biodiesel from waste restaurant grease.Son comes home from college with "hippy talk" about alternative fuels and... more
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PCRE
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added this
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2 years ago
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I’ll admit, never saw this one coming–using Mountain Dew as fuel.
Inventor Paul Patone has created the GEET (Global Environmental Energy Technology) Fuel Processor. A mod that allows you to run your car on about 80% water.
Or possibly, just a nice cold Tab.
“I haven’t invented the engine; all I’ve invented is the fuel delivery system. And this system will fit a gas engine, a diesel engine, a furnace, a boiler, it will fit anything including jet turbines,” Patone explains.
Patone says that the unit vaporizes the soda additive before it even reaches the engine. But in order to run, some gasoline or diesel fuel must be added.
“You need to have about 20, 25 percent hydrocarbon. Then you can add the Mountain Dew to it or whatever you want to add,” he said.
The system has been 25 years in the making and it wasn’t an easy ride. According to the GEET website, he was the victim of inventor abuse by corrupt Utah officials and businessmen. After refusing to sell his patents and technology, he was framed for securities fraud and put in a mental ward at the Utah State Hospital in March of 2006. He was freed May of this year.
He currently lives in Albuquerque, N.M. Yah, I’d get the heck outta Utah too…just for the near-beer alone.
I wouldn’t say soda pop is the greenest fuel source around but I think this has potential. So far the invention has been used worldwide to gas up cars, tractors and lawn mowers.
I wonder how it runs on Jolt Cola.I’ll admit, never saw this one coming–using Mountain Dew as fuel.... more
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xiola
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added this
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2 years ago
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If you're not a year-round biking enthusiast, I certainly hope you've at least dusted off your wheels to enjoy the beautiful summer weather. All bicycles require a tune-up at least once a year, for the smoothest ride and the best conservation of your equipment. Most bicycle shops will take care of this for a small fee or even for free, but if you'd like to do it yourself the process is easy enough to learn. (To see the full story follow the link to our homepage then press "The Green Connoisseur Blog" tab to visit our blog!!!)...If you're not a year-round biking enthusiast, I certainly hope you've at... more
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After gaining the rank of the least fuel efficient 2-seater on the market, Lamborghini is making headway toward a more eco-friendly sports car. Exotic rival, Ferrari is also planning a new hybrid drivetrain that promises better efficiency, lower emissions, and... To see full story go to www.thegreenconnoisseur.com !!!After gaining the rank of the least fuel efficient 2-seater on the market, Lamborghini... more
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