.: biofuel

Tuesday, January 17, 2012

How's that biofuel thingy workin' for ya?

It's great to be able to say that you are burning biofuel in the freight industry. It's another thing to prove a reduction in pollutants and greenhouse gases.

This is especially critical in shipping. According to a March 26, 2010 Coast Guard Compass article, the International Maritime Organization (IMO) announced a 200-mile Emission Control Area (ECA) around all U.S. coastlines. This new standard sets limits of particulates, nitros oxides, and sulfur oxides.

The problem for ships entering this zone is how to prove compliance. It's great that you have algae fuel in your tanks when inspected, but that still doesn't answer the question of what you were pumping into the atmosphere when you were in the ECA.

WR Systems developed a successful answer, Emsys. This system continuously monitors stack gases records the levels and time/location using GPS. Reports can be submitted in standard or custom formats electronically. At the same time, Maersk Line Limited has been contracted by the U.S. Navy to conduct at-sea tests of marine-grade biofuel. The shipping line has turned to WR Systems to install Emsys for timely and accurate monitoring.

You can learn more about this system at http://www.wrsystems.com/emsys.aspx.

Friday, November 4, 2011

Changing Critters in Biofuel

Fox News recently reported on a Massachusetts firm that shows great promise in delivering high-quality and high-volume diesel fuel using water and carbon dioxide. So what's different between this process and algae fuel? The difference is which "critter" is chosen to produce the fuel. Joule Unlimited is using genetically engineered bacteria instead of the more traditional algae to produce bio-diesel.

The company claims that it's process has an annual capacity of up to 15,000 gallons of diesel fuel per acre, per year. Joule also claims that the cost of production amounts to $20 per barrel, once government subsidies are factored in. At the time of this post, light sweet crude oil was being traded at a price of $89 per barrel.

Here is the link to the Fox News Story: http://www.foxnews.com/us/2011/08/02/energy-in-america-new-diesel-biofuel-faster-more-efficient-to-produce-says/

Joule Unlimited's web site can be found at: http://www.jouleunlimited.com/

About this blog

This blog serves as a resource for current articles, ideas, products, websites, and blogs about alternative energy and other "green issues."

I am a 21-year veteran of the U. S. Navy Submarine Service, serving as an Electronic Technician, Electronic Material Officer, and Master Training Specialist.

I teach Tidewater Community College's new Alternative Energy course. I have been interested in alternatives to fossil fuels for many years. I love teaching about this exciting new growth field.

Commitment to using alternative energy will benefit the environment and free US foreign policy from being concerned with the availability of oil from other countries.

Contact me at brucebremer@cox.net.

Go green energy,

Bruce Bremer, MBA

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Alternative Energy Quotes

Not only will atomic power be released, but someday we will harness the rise and fall of the tides and imprison the rays of the sun.

THOMAS A. EDISON

The wind blows to the south, and goes around to the north; round and round goes the wind, and on its circuits the wind returns.

ECCLESIASTES 1:6

You can drill in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, on every continental shelf and atop every hill in America for that matter, and you still won't reverse the fact that our oil production is in permanent decline. We're just sopping up what's left, digging ourselves into a deeper hole.

CONGRESSMAN ROSCOE BARTLETT (R-MD) “A tank of gas, a world of trouble,” Chicago Tribune

The use of solar energy has not been opened up because the oil industry does not own the sun.

RALPH NADER

To truly transform our economy, protect our security, and save our planet from the ravages of climate change, we need to ultimately make clean, renewable energy the profitable kind of energy.

BARACK OBAMA

But we shall not satisfy ourselves simply with improving steam and explosive engines or inventing new batteries; we have something much better to work for, a greater task to fulfill. We have to evolve means for obtaining energy from stores which are forever inexhaustible, to perfect methods which do not imply consumption and waste of any material whatever.

Nikola Tesla

We've embarked on the beginning of the last days of the age of oil. Embrace the future and recognize the growing demand for a wide range of fuels or ignore reality and slowly—but surely—be left behind.

MIKE BOWLIN chairman and CEO of ARCO (now BP)

Coal, the dirtiest fossil fuel, is the crack cocaine of the developing world.

ALAN ZAREMBO, L.A. Times

But for all the talk, clean-burning coal will likely remain an oxymoron for years to come. The utility industry, which uses coal to generate 52% of its electricity, faces formidable political, economic and technological obstacles to getting "clean." … Coal contains dozens of noxious chemicals, including lead, arsenic and other heavy metals; sulfur dioxide, which creates acid rain; nitrogen oxides, which create smog; tiny soot particles, which can invade and collect in human lungs; mercury, a toxic metal that accumulates in animals, fish and the humans who eat them; and carbon dioxide, which many scientists believe is artificially warming Earth's atmosphere by trapping more heat from the sun.

JOHN J. FIALKA Wall Street Journal

New ideas pass through three periods: 1) It can't be done. 2) It probably can be done, but it's not worth doing. 3) I knew it was a good idea all along!

ARTHUR C. CLARKE