Perpetual Innovation

Category: biofuel

  • Sustainability and the Future of Self-Driving Cars and EVs

    IntellZine
    just wrote an article on how to     Invest in the Future of Self-Driving Cars
    and EVs (    https://www.intellzine.com/2020/12/invest-in-future-of-self-driving-cars.html).


    What’s not really covered is the
    Sustainability of EVs, self-driving cars etc. Internal combustion engines predominantly
    use fossil fuels but they can use renewable ethanol or biodiesel. Electric cars
    have the most promise because it is much easier to produce electricity from
    renewable sources like hydro, wind and solar. Plus, wind and solar have become
    the best and cheapest source of stationary electricity, even considering the impact
    of batteries.

    But one mobile power method that is
    not considered as much is hydrogen. In terms of stationary electricity, fuel
    cells can be used for emergency backup power (nearly instant on) and/or for
    continuous power. Although there are lots of ways to make hydrogen, all you
    really need is energy and water. (How to get hydrogen from Energy.Gov.)
    Currently, the most common method, by far is from NatGas or Ammonia.

    Fuel cell has interesting solutions
    to the battery problems, especially for range extension. Plus, hydrogen filling
    stations are being added along major routes, but nothing like electric charging and NatGas (see chart here). As the IntellZine article
    discussed, some of the fuel cell companies have gone up wildly over the last 6
    months, especially Plug. Plug (PLUG) built its business on fuel cell forklifts;
    a super clean and very efficient approach. Investors might be looking at the
    future markets for fuel cell and pricing for it. Or, they might simply be
    wrong.

  • Make your own fuel, while air conditioning (HVAC). Carbon Capture.

    Imagine a great idea that is entirely possible with new technology coming down the pipeline from various sources. That is what an article in Scientific American by Richard Conniff envisions based on a paper published in the Nature Communications which proposes a partial remedy based on A/C units:  Heating, ventilation and air conditioning (or HVAC) systems move a lot of air. Dittmeyer, Klumpp, Kant and Ozin (2019) describe the idea of using renewable energy from solar, wind and water to produce immediate energy and also produce a portable fuel as the democratization of energy.

    Basically, the idea is to take excess energy from the A/C condenser unit (heat dissipation in cooling mode) and extract hydrogen and carbon from the air and produce a hydrocarbon fuel. Sounds cool enough. And surprisingly not way-out there futuristic because some of the basic technologies are already developed. This is a great application of Carbon Capture and Sequester (CCS) technologies. It is extremely local, and would create a local fuel that could be portable (hydrogen and/or synthetic oil).

    Personally, I like the fuel cell concept where the fuel cell uses hydrogen and can go basically instant-on, thereby serving as a backup generator. Energy (from any source) can be used to make hydrogen from air, water and other sources including methane and alcohol. As an example, a miniature fuel cell can be implanted into the human body with hydrogen as the fuel, and recharged through the skin (reversing the fuel cell process with hydrogen and oxygen on one side and water on the other); thereby creating a low toxic battery solution.

    Implied in this article is the idea of using centralized power plants and then at the point of use, home or business, creating a CCS which also creates a local, portable fuel. This brings us back to industrial solutions where the CCS is done at the plant where about half of all the energy produced is lost (heat from turbines) and CO2 is intense vs the 410 (to 900) parts per million in the atmosphere (and in buildings).

    Hidden in this whole discussion is that scenario that is here and now, not futuristic. Renewable energy is cheaper and massively cleaner than conventional energy, and it can be located anywhere. Storage, in some form, is really the bottleneck; and storage in the form of synthetic fuels is a really, really cool (partial) solution.

    References

    Dittmeyer, R., Klumpp,
    M., Kant, P., & Ozin, G. (2019, April 30). Crowd oil not crude oil. Nature Communications. DOI: 10.1038/s41467-019-09685-x

  • To Eat or Knot to eat Knot Weed – WSJ

    Pittsburgh Tries to Eat Its Way Through a Savage Weed – WSJ:

    What do you do, with Kudzu?

    Invasives like kudzu and Japanese Knotweed, can take over square miles. They really go wild in strip mines and disturbed areas, and completely take over. Once started, the weed pushes out anything and everything in the surrounding areas — an ugly mono-culture that disrupts entire ecosystems much like Melaleuca has done in Southern Florida.

    Melaleuca trees transplanted to Florida to attempt to dry up the Everglades is not the same type that is found in herbs, incense  and oils. Ours tree apparently burn toxic, so firewood is out. One of the best uses of it is to make mulch… A rather cool business model where there’s an endless supply, and land owners will typically pay you to take it. Getting paid twice for the same job, land owners and customers, while doing a good turn for the environment and society, has got to feel both good and green.

    One of the best uses of kudzu, that invasive vine that has taken over the South (all the way down through Georgia), is to feed it to goats. Goats will eat anything. Once they eat all the kudzu in a field, they simply have to rest a while while it grows back.

    Eating Knotweed is an interesting idea. It tastes a little like chicken, oops, no, that’s an invasive animal. It apparently tastes somewhat like rhubarb. There is a limit to how much garnish people are willing to eat, however. I’m not sure that we could get everyone in the US to eat a couple helpings of rhubarb each day. Knotweed might require three helpings a day.

    Unfortunately, knotweed often grows in disturbed soils like river banks and spent strip mines where the quality of the soil is not only poor, but often semi-polluted. Metals and heavy metals from coal dust/mines will make many knotweed harvests non-nutritious, at best. Modestly toxic at worst.

    One of the best uses of knotweed would probably be biomass uses that go directly to incinerate, or are processed into ethanol. But, yet another kick in the pants: transporting knotweed  to the refinery/incinerator when in bloom, will spread the seed of invasion into fresh new virgin territories.

    The weed is easily propagated from “cuttings” so 4-wheelers or trucks can readily spread the weed to places where it is not.

    As with most (all?) invasives, this is a gift that keeps on giving.

    ‘via Blog this’

  • Next generation of biofuels is still years away | Hattiesburg American | hattiesburgamerican.com

    Next generation of biofuels is still years away | Hattiesburg American | hattiesburgamerican.com:

    Biofuel is a byline in the energy mix.

    So biofuel is mandated. And because it is ordered to be true, it must be.

    And because it is ordered to be true, the mandate must meet the expectations.

    Thus is the problem with government subsidies… Burning food for fuel (corn to ethanol) is still a rather dumb idea, even though it is finally getting efficient enough that there is a small net gain gallon-equivalent per gallon of ethanol.

    What would work perfectly well, from an economics point of view, is to raise taxes on non-renewable sources of fuel and energy. A simple carbon tax would do it. It could be progressive over time.

    Then the more accurate costs of non-renewables would allow for the energy economy to shift and make its on path forward. The types of renewable fuel would decide themselves and the government would be out of the picture setting mandates in less-than-smart — some might say foolish — areas.

    Of course the politicians who set the wheels in process for a carbon tax or a cap-and-trade (tax?) will soon find themselves out to pasture shoveling biowaste.

    ‘via Blog this’

  • Ethanol Producer Magazine

    Issuu – bbiinternational – Documents:

    Check out issues of Ethanol Producer Magazine… And other Biomass, biodiesel, biomass, biofuel rags. (Reading these online is surprising smooth once you get the swing of it.)

    Great info in this month’s edition of Ethanol Producer. Because of the trade-off between burning our food (corn) and eating it, the use of corn-ethanol as a fuel is critical. It’s especially critical during times of drought. It takes a lot of water to grow corn, and it takes a lot of water to process ethanol.

    Ethanol is down, corn-based ethanol is down, exports are down, etc.

    But what’s interesting is the field tests (pun intended) of new corn crops that are more drought tolerant.

    If you haven’t yet ventured off into this genre of magazines, you will find it very interesting and surprisingly relevant. Relevant, if you drive, if you eat food, if you have interests in the economy. . .

    Make no doubt about it, the drought is gonna impact us all in food, fuel and more, for at least the next couple years. What we have just learned this year about droughts will be useful for the rest of the world, too, in seasons to come.

    Hang on for the bumpy ride.

    ‘via Blog this’ (also blogged at IPZine)