“Green Gasoline”: Like Gasoline, But Made from Cellulose : TreeHugger
Though they may share many of the same compounds and properties, “green gasoline,” the creation of UMass chemical engineer George Huber, differs from regular gasoline in one important respect: it can be produced from biomass sources. And, unlike the various forms of ethanol that have been bandied around, green gasoline can take advantage of the existing gas infrastructure and be pumped into cars as is.
To produce this biofuel variant, Huber and his students heated plant cellulose in the presence of solid catalysts and then rapidly cooled the products – leaving behind a liquid that already contained many of the compounds typically found in gasoline, such as naphthalene and toluene. The whole process takes less than 2 minutes to accomplish and needs only moderate heat; the final liquid can be further refined or immediately used as an alternative to a high octane gas blend.
I guess the big questions are: what is the cost of the catalysts and are they a reusable or expendable agent? This sounds wonderful, but if it’s this simple why is it gonna take them 5 years at a minimum to get it to the pumps? I realize that scaling up is gonna make a difference and building the infrastructure will take a while but still sounds like there are things about this process or the resultant fuel that they don’t bring up.
That said I hope this works out and results in a viable fuel making process using biomass. 😎
Cloud EV – Home
The motors and controllers aren’t cheap, nor are the batteries, but with the cost of fuel skyrocketing with no end in sight I’m looking at converting something to electric or building it from scratch. Going to have to spend some serious time doing research as to the how, which, and what… 😉
DIY Electric Kawsaki Motorcycle : TreeHugger
This is freaking awsome! Has a 15 mile range and a top speed of 40 mph. Gonna have to look through the bits and pieces of several motorcycles that I have in the barn and start looking for a motor and pricing batteries. 😯 😎
Tapping the Power of the Mighty Mississippi: Thousands of Hydrokinetic Turbines Could Generate 1600 MW : TreeHugger
Makes a LOT of sense to do it this way vs the huge dams and massive turbines. Instead have a LOT of small units. One goes out just put another in it’s place. Hope they get the permits and go ahead.
Steam powered Generator
Quite a nice little (?) setup. Tis something I have always wanted to do but never gotten around to.
The Brickley Engine Configuration, 15-20% Increase in Fuel Efficency, 15-20% Decrease in CO2 Emissions.
Interesting demo. I think I have seen this info somewhere before. Maybe on the compressed air car site? Not sure but the action demo is one I have seen. Would like to see a working model. Neat stuff!
Startup Says It Can Make Ethanol for $1 a Gallon, and Without Corn
I hope they can do it. But the picture on the page just SCREAMS the GhostBusters Theme to me for some reason!
Candle Heater or the way he (miss)spells it, KandleHeeter. Cute but really…
Not sure about these inventions. I remember the heat stick from way back when, but it was another one of the neat ideas but just not sure it was worth the time, energy expended, space taken up in the room type devices.
Gonna have to get some flower pots and make one of the Kandleheeters just to see if there is more heat given off by this device than just the candle alone. There are laws about this stuff if I remember my physics right but it may be that some of the radiant energy is converted to heat via the ceramic pots and metal screw, washers, nuts combo. Time and experimentation will tell.
The greenhouse is interesting. Kinda reminds me of one I built back in the early 80’s that was just too small to be of much use but the one I built was a standup inside unit with an isle in the middle whereas his you raise the wall to work with the plants.
Solar Power From Contracting Wires (TreeHugger)
Now that’s really different. A way to use solar energy and transform it into rotational force. Hot stuff!
Inventor says “miracle tube” produces more energy than it consumes – Boing Boing
And we always believe inventors. Me thinks that it all depends on how it’s tested and what the figures are that they are testing it against.
Or it could just be gas…
Power Your TV, Cell Phone, or Laptop by Pedaling (TreeHugger)
Whereas the video of him playing the video game isn’t that thrilling, the concept that he proves will work with is rather interesting.
The high speed start up is what keeps me from using an old stationary bike for this. Problem is the wheel is too small. Could use a smaller pulley on the alternator. May look and see if a knerled sleeve would fit over the alternator shaft where the pulley mounts and try for a spring loaded drive right off the wheel. That might get the speed up enough to self energize. Will have to do some math and see how close I can come that way.
Lighter Footstep – Review: EarthLED’s Bright Idea
LED house lights are here and cost is starting to get, if not reasonable, then closer to it. The 3 watt units claims to output the same light as a 40 watt bulb and are under $30.00 us each. At 50,000 hours expected life thats cheap per hour. With the added benefit of not containing mercury like the compact fluorescents if these are on the shelves at the store they are gonna sell! Glad to see these on the market.
New Microbial Fuel Cell Design Boosts Electricity Production
From the article –
The new design developed by the OSU researchers involves sandwiching a cloth layer between the anode and the cathode parts of the microbial fuel cell, a configuration that greatly reduces the internal resistance, resulting in a much higher power density, Liu says.
In lab experiments, Liu’s team successfully generated 1,010 watts per cubic meter of reactor, or enough to power 16 60-watt light bulbs. The highest previous level of sustainable electricity generated from a cubic meter of air cathode microbial fuel cell is less than 115 watts. In experiments done even more recently, Liu and colleagues have generated more than 1,500 watts from the same reactor volume.
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Size to power ratio is not quite there yet for home use anyway but in a large wastewater treatment plant, that’s not near as critical. Wonder what the ratio of gallons per hour of treated water to power generated per cubic meter is? I think that’s the right phrasing of the question… 😉
A Better Way to Make Biofuel (TreeHugger)
Looks promising. This could also be used to run farm equipment right off the waste biomass left over after harvest. I hope it scales well.
Sycamore Ceiling Fan: Works Smarter, Not Harder (TreeHugger)
Interesting concept. From what is posted in the comments the efficiency is way on up there for the amount of air it moves. Cool! in more ways than one. 😉
Fusor.net
Build a fusion reactor in your basement or garage now. It’s as easy as machining stainless steel! ;-) Interesting site anyway.
MAYAPEDAL
Now this is some serious pedal power! Lots of pix of bike powered machines. Good stuff. I wish is that they had a bit more in the way of how-to’s on the site but they state that they are willing to share designs with other non-profit orgs.
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