Power Your Robots With Human Waste

Most people consider human excrement to be worse than worthless. But a new breed of robot is coming which sees human waste as its bread, butter, and milk of "life." Ideally, such a robot would be able to adopt the configuration of a toilet, to facilitate the "waste to fuel" transfer and transformation.

Just an IdeaThis combination toilet-et-robot allows you to visualise one possible example of waste-eating robot with a built-in fuel interface. But to be honest, the actual prototype looks more like the robot pictured below.

Tomorrow's new generation of self-sustaining robots might keep going nearly forever by grazing on dead insects, rotting plant matter or even human waste..."Robots that eat biological fuels could find enough fuel almost anywhere," said John Greenman, a microbiologist at the Bristol Robotics Laboratory, a joint venture between the University of the West of England and the University of Bristol. "There is organic matter anywhere on Earth — leaves and soil in the forest, or even human waste such as urine and feces."

...The EcoBot team's work with such technology has not gone unnoticed. They received funding from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation in late 2011 so that they could push the limits of stacking microbial fuel cells that help tackle sanitation and energy needs by turning human urine or waste into useful electricity for radios or other gadgets.

Human waste might also someday help power space robots that accompany astronauts on long-distance space missions or to planetary colonies, Ieropoulos said. On Earth, the robots might crawl through the debris of growing cities, or survive on their own for years in the great outdoors. _SciAm

Researchers are taking many approaches to the development of robots capable of roving the natural environment, and grazing off the landscape. The idea of recycling human waste directly, using waste-eating domestic robots which also clean the apartment -- and clean themselves while they are at it -- is a clever twist.

Prospecting the Vulcan Hills for Treasure

NewScientist
Until relatively recently, most used rubber vehicular tyres were buried in landfills and left to slowly rot. But now there are dozens of productive uses to which these rings of vulcanised rubber can be put. A better way of making steel is only one of them:

To conventionally make steel, coke, which is charcoal from coal, and limestone are shoved into a furnace heated to more than 1500º Celsius. The calcium in the limestone scavenges impure elements in the coke, such as silicon and aluminium, creating foamy slag and the product we're after - liquid iron. Just like cappuccino foam, the slag sits atop the liquid iron and insulates it, speeding up the processes of converting coke to iron.

Sahajwalla found that replacing some of the coke with recycled rubber created a more effective slag blanket. The extra heat produced from it reduced energy consumption, and produced more steel. It was the ultimate win-win. Following successful commercial trials in 2007, the technology is now being used in steel mills across Australia and has diverted well over 70,000 tyres from landfill. "It's so satisfying and so exciting," she said. _NS

Another intriguing use for old rubber tyres is to produce carborundum -- silicon carbide -- for tough bits, blades, and tools.

Silicon carbide, known commercially as carborundum, is formed of carbon and silicon atoms arranged in a diamond-like pattern, which results in diamond-like properties. On the Mohs scale of mineral hardness, which has diamond as ten, carborundum scores nine or better. It thus has a wide range of uses, from abrasives and cutting tools to bullet-proof vests and ceramic brakes in sports cars. It is also used as a semiconductor in high-voltage applications.

Normally, silicon carbide is produced by heating sand (which is made of quartz, or silicon dioxide) in an electric furnace with carbon made from oil or coal. The trick used at Tubitak is to get both the carbon and the energy from tyres.

First, the tyres are gasified, a process which is similar to burning but involves less oxygen. This releases a mixture of hydrogen and carbon monoxide, known as syngas, and leaves a residue of amorphous elemental carbon called carbon black. Tyres also contain sulphur, which is added as part of the process of vulcanisation that makes rubber into a suitably resilient material. Gasification liberates this in its elemental form, making it easy to recover. Burning a tyre, by contrast, produces sulphur dioxide, a noxious pollutant.

The carbon black is then mixed with sand and the mixture is heated to between 1,400ºC and 2,100ºC in a syngas-fired oven. The result is high-grade silicon carbide. _Economist

Tyres can also be used to produce valuable oils, carbon black for making more tyres (as reinforcement), and to generate electricity, via pyrolysis.

[Besides re-treading,] Other common uses for scrap tyres include sports and recreational surfaces, landfill engineering, carpet underlay/floor coverings, and road building. Roads manufactured using crumb rubber last longer, have better traction and reduce noise. _Source

Tyres can also be used as structural members when baled, or formed into special block structures.

One can build entire houses and other structures out of used tyres, using the "Earthship" method, the tire bale method, or other creative methods of recycling.

And of course there are always the tyre swing, tyre planters, concrete-filled tyres used as bases for upright poles, rubber sandals made from tyres, and many other commonplace home and hobby uses for worn-out tyres.

The basic point being made is that new and important uses are being found for what was once viewed as trash and environmental hazards. That is where the attention of environmentalists, Greens, activists, and concerned citizens should be focused. Toward innovations which turn the trash into treasure.

Turning Garbage into Treasure -- Human Imagination

Burning tires is like burning money, say executives at RTI Cryogenics, a company that designs and sells equipment and systems that help turn old rubber into cash.

...The Cambridge company installs technology that freezes old tires into a glasslike substance and breaks down that substance into a fine mesh or powder. It also has patent-pending technology that blends rubber with recycled plastic, to turn it into a thermoplastic elastomer that can be used in injection moulding machines. _TheRecord

ImageSource

Hundreds of millions of scrap tires per year are discarded in the US alone, many of them stockpiled, buried in landfills, or simply incinerated. But entire industries are growing up for the purpose of turning discarded tires into useful, high-value economic products.

In pyrolysis waste to energy technology all of the steel from the tires will be recovered and resold in the recyclables marketplace, slightly lessening our need to import steel. There are approximately three pounds of steel per passenger tire. In California then, the 18 million waste tires generated every year would produce approximately 26,000 tons of steel, with the current rate for recycled steel at about $250 per ton.

With a continuous feed of tires, the 5 to 10 percent carbon char that is generated by a pyrolysis waste to energy system has a myriad of practical uses. The char can be sold to manufacturers to produce many commonly used products. Once again we note that using this technology we not only generate electricity and valuable commodities, but we have nothing left over to go to the landfill – zero waste. _Examiner

Old tires can be turned into liquid fuels, gaseous fuels, electricity, plastics, fertilisers, and much more.

Novo Energies has been granted a worldwide exclusive license to use Precision’s proprietary gasification technology to convert plastic and tire waste into energy products including electricity, synthesis gases and other valuable commodities such as recovered steel.

...Antonio Treminio, CEO and chairman of Novo Energies, stated, “In our search for the most efficient and economical methods to convert plastic and used tires into valuable energy products, we have spent the last 12 months evaluating several technologies, including pyrolysis, gasification and microwave based systems. As a result of such efforts, we have selected Precision’s gasification technology based on the following:

1. 
   Allows efficient conversion of tires and plastic feedstock to energy.
2. 
   Environmentally friendly – the process produces zero toxic emissions, making it a green energy technology.
3. 
   The preliminary synthesis gas resulting from conversion of tires and plastic meets strict standards on quality and consistency.
4. 
   Has the highest carbon conversion of any known gasification system on the market.
5. 
   Self sufficient by using the produced syngas to power the process.
6. 
   Low cost of production.

Novo plans to demonstrate the pilot facility in Denver, Colorado, as a showcase unit for government officials, institutions, utility companies and the investment community, as well as augment its output to reach fully commercial quantities. _AmericanRecycler

Here are more innovative uses for scrap tires:

Highway Sound Barriers -- Many states are turning to absorptive sound barriers—structures that soak up sound—to reduce highway noise. The "Whisper Wall" used in Northern Virginia, starts as a mixture of concrete aggregate, cement, water, and small pieces of shredded rubber from scrap tires. The wall deflects sound waves among its nooks and crannies until they lose energy.

Athletic and Recreational Applications -- Several brands of resilient playground rubber surfacing material are being made from recycled tires and sold at major retailers across the US The material can absorb much of the impact from falls providing added safety to children. This material can also be used as a mulch replacement in medians or decorative areas. Athletic and recreational applications are a fast growing market for ground rubber. An estimated 80 million pounds of scrap tire rubber were used in 2001 for athletic/field turf applications (50 million pounds)—above or below the ground—and as loose cover (30 million pounds).

Railroad Ties -- Highly durable, rubber-encased railroad ties are being produced using scrap tires. These railroad ties have a steel-beam core filled with concrete that is then encased in 80 pounds of ground-up scrap tires and discarded plastic bottles, held together with a special binder or glue. These railroad ties are over 200% stronger than creosote-soaked wooden ties, enabling railroads to use fewer ties per mile. Moreover, rubber-encased railroad ties could last 60 to 90 years versus 5 to 30 years for wood. _Source

Scrap Tire News

Problem-solving human imagination is in short supply these days, largely due to shoddy education, neglectful child-raising, and a culture that is focused on time-wasting entertainments and faux crises at the expense of raising generations of new problem-solvers. The human imagination has been referred to as The Ultimate Resource, and as The Mainspring of Human Progress (PDF). It is both of these and much more.

Empowered by language, it represents much of the difference between humans and apes, and between advanced societies and more primitive societies of humans. Those who can imagine ways of transforming garbage into treasure have much more of a future than those destined to drown in their own detritus.

When Garbage is Golden

ImageSource
Cities are beginning to find significant energy sources in their own back yard -- garbage and waste! Turning garbage and waste into energy is turning into a billion dollar business for some enterprising businesses.

Huge amounts of money are spent daily buying energy from foreign nations that have no real respect for our well-being. Permitting America to be dependent on such nations can only lead to complications, especially during times of economic crisis or war....

...Turning garbage into energy calls to mind the 1980s film “Back to the Future,” which inspired whimsical images of future cars powered on waste. Since that time, the technology for turning trash and commercial waste into electricity and biofuel has come a long way. In just the past decade, research and experimentation has brought about a cleaner and more efficient conversion system...... _CSM

Companies such as Waste Management are ideally situated to cash in on this new energy bonanza. Several smart city managers across the US are also catching on to this approach to turning garbage to cold. Cities from Milwaukee to Seattle to Rochester to Gibson City and more, are at various stages of taking control of their own garbage and energy destinies.

Solid wastes can be converted to energy by gasification, pyrolysis, incineration, etc. Wastewater can be used to grow algal energy crops, can be digested to methane, or can be converted to energy via other imaginative methods.

Toxic and hazardous wastes can be safely and completely consumed via certain particularly high temperature gasification and incineration methods. In fact, soon there will be almost no type of waste that cannot be conveniently converted into clean energy and benign by-product.

Some types of long-lived radioactive waste materials are resistant to easy conversion and disposal, but advanced methods are being developed to render even those hazards safe.

The nightmare fears of being drowned under oceans of toxic waste are a partial explanation of why "environmentalists" have been driven to lie about "climate change catastrophe" and other faux end-of-the-world crises. Fears about shortages of energy and resources are further explanations. But as Julian Simon showed in his book "Ultimate Resource", the mental energy wrapped up in all of those fears could be better put to use devising creative solutions to problems.

Jutht Thit On It, Athole!

If only we could train our dogs to carry their own composting toilets! But this invention by industrial designer Virginia Gardiner called the Gardiner CH4 is meant for people. Certainly for times when one cannot find a public toilet, such carry-along potties might come in handy. Preferably with a fold-up curtain to fend off the curious, and a can of deodorant spray. ;-)

After the user does his or her business, a mechanical “flush” drops the package into a lining-wrapped sealed container. Like rolling luggage, the person trucks the container to a community biodigester unit, which composts the waste to produce methane gas. _PopSci

Hence the name, "CH4", methane. Such a contraption would have been quite the thing in DC the last few days, with millions of atholes milling about--particularly media atholes. How could anyone object to anything so "green"?

Skipping Ethanol: Going Directly to Gasoline

Ethanol as fuel for automobiles seems to work alright for Brazil. But modern infrastructure is built for gasoline, and most North American automobiles were built to run on gasoline. What if biofuels producers could go directly from cellulose biomass to gasoline, without producing alcohols? With the right sequence of processes and the proper catalysts, it could be done. The problem is doing it efficiently, with high yields.

By speeding up the formation of certain products and slowing down the formation of others, catalysts effectively steer a reaction to a subset of possible products. In the refinement of biomass-to-fuel, catalysts can steer reactions to the most valuable biofuels and bioproducts thereby minimizing costs associated with product separation and feedstock recycling. “This is the real magic and promise of catalysis,” Auerbach says.

...Christopher Jones, a chemical engineer at Georgia Institute of Technology, works from a number of different angles when it comes to biofuels research. The common thread to his team’s projects, however, is that they all focus on lignocellulosic feedstocks, mainly pine and switchgrass, as opposed to edible starches. One of their ongoing projects is gathering data on the behavior of mineral acids such as sulfuric acid in the pretreatment of biomass. “It’s not a particularly interesting or sexy catalytic process,” Jones says. “Mineral acids have been used for a number of years to break down biomass but there are only small, isolated studies in the literature.” Jones’ team is taking a single biomass and systematically studying the effect of certain types of acids and reaction temperatures to gain a greater understanding of how these catalysts act.

...Brent Shanks, a chemical engineer at Iowa State University, first gains an understanding of the characteristics of a reaction and then designs catalysts around that. He calls this “rational design.” His approach is one of bio-inspiration in that it aims to take certain characteristics of enzymes and build them into chemical catalysts. “Enyzmes are beautiful catalysts but they have some issues such as sometimes they’re too specific, too selective, and also you can’t go to high temperatures with them,” he explains. “With chemical catalysts you can go to higher temperatures but they’re not nearly as specific as enzymes.”

...In a different approach, the team at PNNL, which Holladay is a part of, uses high-throughput screening to test multiple catalysts at a time and to increase the number of experiments they can do over a given period of time. This method for identifying new catalysts is carried out at PNNL’s Combinatorial Catalysis Lab. Initially, robotic equipment is used to form each catalyst to be tested. Solids handling robots weigh and add an appropriate amount of solid support to a small well on a microtiter plate. Each plate holds 96 wells, so up to 96 catalysts can be developed and tested together. Liquids handling robots then add a salt solution of metals, which fill the pore spaces of the support. The liquid is evaporated leaving the metals embedded in the support. Once the catalyst is treated to set the metals in the active state, the plate is moved to a reactor system where the biomass to be tested is applied to each well. The reaction is carried out in a second reactor and then another set of robotic systems draws samples from each well for analysis, Holladay explains. _EthanolProducer

Different approaches are being taken by different research groups, because it is still very early in the game of thermochemical conversion of cellulose to hydrocarbon fuels. Ethanol producers will have at least a decade to prove what they can do--in terms of efficiencies and yields, not to mention making a profit.

In today's uncertain (and rather deranged) political environment, where entire blocs of nations chase after the "climate change" delusion, one can never predict what will be encouraged and what will be prohibited, politically. We live in an age of "political peak oil", which distorts energy costs significantly, and makes it much harder for entrepreneurs and venture capitalists to plan new ventures and startups.

As usual, our friends at Oynklent Green [OTC:OYNK] are following the situation closely, putting themselves into a better position to react as situations warrant.

Waste to Energy in Iraq

The oil rich countries of the Persian Gulf understand the need to diversify their energy approaches. High oil and gas costs affect their own domestic use of fuel, and push them toward nuclear electricity and renewable energies like solar. Although these desert countries are not necessarily richly endowed with biomass potential, wherever there are cities there is municipal waste and garbage. Current waste to energy approaches in Iraq are being spearheaded by the US military and its contractors. Once the Iraqi government sees how well the process works, perhaps they will want to use it to avoid the fate of Egypt's cities.

Various wastes including food slop, plastic, paper and styrofoam are fed into TGER and converted by the hybrid systems using thermochemical and bio-catalytic technologies into either synthetic gas (similar to low-grade propane) or hydrous ethanol, respectively. The ethanol combined with the synthetic gas can be used to power a 60kw generator, however, there are additional options for utilizing the energy. TGER is capable of converting the non-biological materials into fuel pellets, and the biological waste into ethanol that can be stored and burned later. Power from the TGER could be stored in batteries or the technology itself could be literally plugged into the local power grid, a large electrical network that powers basic appliances on demand.
TGER was created through a partnership with Defense Life Sciences, LLC, the visionary and system Lead for TGER, its academic partner Purdue University and the ECBC. Motivated by a study conducted in 2001 by the National Research Council, which identified opportunities in power and energy, ECBC's Scientific Advisor for Biotechnology, Dr. James J. Valdes, responded by writing a Small business Technology Transfer Research Program (STTR) topic on tactical energy. _Source

All of the cities of the world produce abundant waste and garbage. The smarter cities such as Vancouver BC, and Austin TX, are beginning to tap into that waste stream to supply energy for city operations. In fact, for many areas of North America landfills are starting to be seen as the new oil fields.

Manure & Garbage Cut Biofuels Costs

Producing bio-ethanol takes a lot of energy. And energy is expensive--especially natural gas and oil. Bio-ethanol manufacturers are substituting manure, plastics, paper, rice hulls, and other garbage for natural gas--saving many millions of dollars in production costs!

The world's first manure fired ethanol plant is expected to go online in the next two months. Not only will it be environmentally friendly but it will also save Panda Ethanol about $30M a year. ___Source (good video)__via__QiBioenergy

A wider array of garbage and waste can be used to fire bio-ethanol plants using a new flex-fuel boiler developed by EPI.

Substantial savings are realized by using in-plant waste streams as fuel. Paper mills produce a paper sludge waste that is typically land filled but can be utilized as a fuel to produce steam for the paper making operations. Other industries may have plastics, paper, cardboard, oat hulls, rice hulls, distiller’s grains, syrup, glycerin or other byproducts that could be converted into usable energy utilizing EPI’s flexible fuel fluidized bed system. ___Source (PDF)__via__QiBioenergy

This move away from natural gas and oil-fired boilers for bio-ethanol production helps reduce costs of production for bio-ethanol--making it more competitive economically--and it makes more natural gas available to the parts of thegeneral market which may have more difficulty making the same type of substitution.

Such flex-fuel boilers will be equally as useful when cellulosic alcohol processing is more common in 5 to 10 years. The same technology will be useful as well for various biomass to liquid fuel thermochemical processes which are expected to take over most of the biofuels industry within 20 years--unless Craig Venter and his merry band of synthesists can create a new life-form that makes a better, cheaper biofuel from CO2 and sunlight.

Most analysts of bio-energy seem to be lost in a haze of misinformation. Blaming biofuels for high food costs is one clear sign of confusion on an analyst's part. But these things have a way of sorting themselves out.

Oil costs between now and the November US Presidential elections are likely to be kept high, by various machinations. Behind the scenes currency manipulation is only one tactic that seems to be working for now. US government budgetary and Federal Reserve Bank monetary policies have made such manipulation fairly easy. Other reasons for high oil costs--high demand, temporary short supplies due to manpower and infrastructure shortages etc.--are simply part of doing business in any industry. Oil is not just any business, however, and its price has repercussions that propagate throughout the geopolitical globe.

Radical 7000 Degree Celsius Plasma Reactor Converts Hazardous Medical and Radioactive Waste to Energy and Useful Products

Image Source

Garbage and hazardous waste are becoming valuable energy feedstocks, thanks to researchers from Ukraine, Russia, and Israel. Even low level radioactive wastes, medical wastes, and toxic wastes can be converted to useful products and energy, using a new high temperature plasma reactor.

Using a system called plasma gasification melting technology (PGM) developed by scientists from Russia's Kurchatov Institute research center, the Radon Institute in Russia, and Israel's Technion Institute - EER combines high temperatures and low-radioactive energy to transform waste. "We go up to 7,000 degrees centigrade and end at 1,400 centigrade," says Moshe Stern, founder and president of the Ramat Gan-based company. Shrem has said that EER can take low-radioactive, medical and municipal solid waste and produce from it clean energy that "can be used for just about anything including building and paving roads.

Shrem added that EER's waste disposal rector does not harm the environment and leaves no surface water, groundwater, or soil pollution in its wake. The EER reactor combines three processes into one solution: it uses plasma torches to break down the waste; carbon leftovers are then gasified and finally inorganic components are converted to solid waste. The remaining vitrified material is inert and can be cast into molds to produce tiles, blocks or plates for the construction industry.

EER's Karmiel facility (and its other installation in the Ukraine) has a capacity to convert 500 to 1,000 kilograms of waste per hour. Other industry solutions, the company claims, can only treat as much as 50 kilograms per hour and are much more costly.

"We are not burning. This is the key word," Shrem said. "When you burn you produce dioxin. Instead, we vacuum out the oxygen to prevent combustion."

EER then purifies the gas and with it operates turbines to generate electricity. EER produces energy - 70% of which goes back to power the reactor with a 30% excess which can be sold.

"In effect, we are combining two of the most exciting markets in the US - the environment and clean energy," says Stern, "We also reduce the carbon footprint."

The cost for treating and burying low-radioactive nuclear waste currently stands at about $30,000 per ton. The EER process will cost $3,000 per ton and produce only a 1% per volume solid byproduct.__NextEnergyNews

This is but one of many exciting new "garbage to energy" processes coming on line currently, and within the next year or two.

Safe conversion of toxic waste, medical waste, and radioactive waste that also produces energy and useful materials for construction, would appear to be exactly what environmental groups such as Greenpeace, the Sierra Club, Earth First and WWF would promote. Unfortunately, many of those groups have more mundane monetary and power concerns other than actually making the environment better. Watch and see what they are actually promoting, as opposed to what they ignore. A cleaner, more energetic world may not be what they actually want.

Energy Where You Least Expect It

Can you really get energy from garbage? From exhaust gases? From forestry and agricultural biowaste? In all the brouhaha about biofuels taking food out of the mouths of babies, who would have the imagination to take a negative such as garbage and exhaust gases, and turn them into a positive such as useful energy? Only intelligent people, which is why you hear so little about the idea in the mainstream media.

Brian Westenhaus at New Energy and Fuel looks at the "pyrolysis reaction," one of several ways of extracting useful energy from waste.

Modern science is exploring and improving on pyrolysis. Scientists know what temperatures yield what products and how time at temperature can affect the product production. The modern goal is to have no oxidized products and yield products that can be made into other products. What is common is to try to yield pyrolysis oil, a complex mixture of oxygenated hydrocarbons that can be refined into most things that crude oil can also be used to make. The advantage is that modern techniques yield liquid products that are much easier to use, easier to transport and can be made into a wide array of products.

The latest technology is in gaseous pyrolysis. Gaseous pyrolysis has been around for well over 100 years when coal was first treated by pyrolysis to make “coal gas” that was piped around to homes and businesses for lighting lamps before electricity became commonplace. Today the target is “syn-gas” or “syngas” and to achieve the highest yield with the least possible liquid and solid products.

Its not all that simple, pyrolysis is a complex reaction and results can be products out of equilibrium with difficult to predict properties. Nevertheless, technology marches on and the control expertise has good results now in managing the process temperatures, the timing, ambient surroundings, and the “contaminates” of oxygen, water and other gases. A pure or consistent feedstock can yield excellent results. Keep in mid that only a very small fraction of the energy locked in the feedstock is all that’s required to make the necessary heat run the pyrolysis.___NewEnergy

Pyrolysis reactions are the subject of intensive research by those who understand the energy revolution that is coming.

Here is more about energy from garbage, and energy from exhaust gases. Even the US military in Iraq is learning to replace diesel generators with trash fueled generators.

For those who are stuck on stupid the mainstream media's perceptions of biofuels, take a quick peak at the different approaches to biomass energy and energy from garbage. No need to do anything as drastic as to change your mind. Just let some new information in, and allow fermentation to occur.
;-)
Image Source

New Hybrid Cycle Steam Engine Runs on Glycerol

Here is more information on the Cyclone external combustion engine that is set to power ten 1-MW electric generators. I call it a "hybrid" cycle engine, because it has features belonging to Rankine, Carnot, Diesel, and Stirling cycle engines.

The parties' plans are to power these industrial generators using a glycerol-based synthesis gas produced through Florida Syngas' proprietary plasma process called GlidArc™. Glycerol, the waste product of the bio-diesel industry, is a hydrogen rich, carbon neutral gas with its only waste products being hot water and useable heat. Under the agreement, Florida Syngas will design and build the synthesis gas converters, and Advent Power Systems will develop the engines and generator sets utilizing Cyclone's patented engine technology. Development of the equipment will be co-located in both Grant and Coconut Creek, Florida.___Source

The primary components of the engine include a condenser, steam generator and the requisite valves, cylinders, pistons, pushrods, main bearing, cams, and camshaft. Ambient air enters the engine through the intake blower, which circulates it through the condenser. According to Schoell, the flat-plate condenser �looks like a set of stacked record albums where air goes around the outside of the discs while the vapor on the inside is spun.� It is then directed through heat exchangers, and the air is pre-heated, enters the steam generator, and is mixed with atomized fuel that is also spun in the centrifuge.

...The power output is controlled by a rocker arm and cam design that opens and closes a needle valve in the head. This introduces high-pressure, high-temperature steam into the cylinder and provides the expansion force necessary to drive the pistons. Because it relies on the expansion of the fluid and not the expansive capacity of the fuel to create power, the Cyclone engine is fuel independent.___Autofieldguide

Whereas the old steam engine wasted most of its thermal energy (as much as 90%), the Cyclone Engine is highly efficient due to reheat and regeneration that recycle more than 30% of the heat generated from burning fuel. The engine operates at supercritical pressure (3,200 PSI) and temperature (1,100 degrees F) which makes the superheated steam behaves like a fluid rather than a gas so improving efficiency and making for a more compact engine. The overall thermodynamic efficiency is in the range of the Diesel engine (30-36%). The main advantages are: its capacity of using a wide range of fuels - gasoline, diesel oil, ethanol, kerosene, powdered coal, natural gas, etc.; continuous and complete combustion of fuel, creating less emissions than current gasoline or diesel powered internal combustion engines; high torque at start (700 ft/lb) which eliminates the need for a clutch and gearbox, simplifying the project and cutting down on power losses in transmission; the working fluid, water, is used to lubricate the engine, what avoids the long-standing problem of steam engines, the contamination of lubricating oil by water.___Wikipedia

Using glycerol-derived syngas for fuel is reasonable at this time, since glycerol is an inexpensive byproduct of biodiesel manufacture.

The Florida plans for 10 cyclone driven 1-MW generators, combined with the plasma syngas operation, demonstrates yet another "energy from garbage" approach. Forida appears to be in the vanguard of the advanced energy-from-garbage industry. That is unfortunate from the viewpoint of tourists who were hoping to see huge mountains of landfill dotting the Florida landscape in the near future. At this rate, Florida will be importing half the world's garbage before long--to use as fuel.

Cyclone Power Technologies

More Information on Cyclone engine operation

Renewable Energy: High-Tech Wind, and Fuel from Garbage and Sewage

Update 4Feb08: Be sure to check out this careful analysis of the FloDesign turbine at New Energy and Fuel.

Although solar energy gets most of the press coverage among renewables, wind energy is experiencing some impressive high-tech design evolution as well. This interesting design allows wind turbines to be smaller, more efficient, and less expensive.

FloDesign Wind Turbine has developed a turbine capable of Nor’ Easter gale force winds in subzero conditions. The system uses fixed shrouding in lieu of large rotating blades. The shrouds are used to entrain air beyond the shrouds maximum diameter and convert the energy to a backpressure on a smaller blade. The key component is the Mixer/Ejector. FloDesign is a recognized leader in Mixer/Ejector technology. This allows for a smaller, more durable blade. The low inertia small blade provides energy extraction at both lower wind speeds and higher wind speeds. The small faster spinning blade also reduces/eliminates the need for complex gear boxes. The primary components of the shroud are, an integrated Mixer Ejector, Inlet vanes to eliminate swirl, shielding to eliminate tip losses and high circulation ringed airfoils._____FloDesign_via__EcoGeek_via_Ecofriend

A less trendy form of renewable energy is the use of an unsavoury blend of sewage and garbage to produce methane--which can be converted to electricity via either gas turbine generator or fuel cell generator.

Landfill garbage breaks down relatively slowly due to the small amounts of bacteria and the separation of the organic matter by plastic bags and other non-degradable materials. While landfills do promote decomposition and the production of methane, this process is quite slow. With the Septage Bioreactor Landfill technology, septage is blended with ground garbage, allowing the organic matter to decompose much faster than it otherwise would. This creates large quantities of methane in a short period of time, which can be tapped for fuel. The other advantage of this technology as a fuel source, is it produces methane constantly as long as there is organic material fed into it. We have no shortage of garbage or sewage, so this will create a very plentiful and reliable source of energy.___GreenGeek__via_Ecofriend

One can easily imagine the coming "garbage wars" and "sewage wars" where various energy producers compete among themselves for access to landfills and waste treatment plants. The old eco-fears of "death by garbage" only apply to the news media these days.

Yet another form of "energy from waste" being explored, comes from the new Biofuel Research Centre at Napier University, Edinburgh.

The most promising line of development now focuses on butanol, a fuel that potentially can be produced by fermentation from a diversity of organic material, including waste products from industrial processes, thus ensuring that the raw materials and harvesting involve no extra emissions.

The molasses left behind by sugar production is one of the most suitable bases; whey from cheese production is another possibility. Butanol has several advantages over ethanol: it has a higher energy output, is easily blended with diesel and, because it is less subject to evaporation, is easier to transport....Tangney adds: “We are putting together an EU consortium to identify dominant waste products across different regions and assess how many could be used to produce fuel.”___Times

Even nuclear wastes are likely to become much in demand by future, safer nuclear reactors (thorium, gen IV, etc) that will safely utilise discarded fission rods.

More Biofuels News: Going High-Tech

This is impressive: scientists at Purdue University and Chrysler LLC have genetically engineered poplar trees to function for both phyto-remediation of pollutants, and as a feedstock for cellulosic biofuels.

In a study Meilan co-authored, published last October in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, poplar cuttings removed 90 percent of the TCE (trichloroethylene) within a hydroponic solution in one week. The engineered trees also took up and metabolized the chemical 100 times faster than unaltered hybrid poplars, which have a limited ability to remove and degrade the contaminant on their own, he said....The transgenic poplars contain an inserted gene that encodes an enzyme capable of breaking down TCE and a variety of other environmental pollutants, including chloroform, benzene, vinyl chloride and carbon tetrachloride....TCE, the most common groundwater pollutant on Superfund sites, is a probable human carcinogen and causes various health problems when present in sufficiently high levels in water or air.

....Besides their utility in phytoremediation, or pollution removal, poplars have promise as a feedstock for cellulosic ethanol. To investigate their potential in this area, the U.S. Department of Energy awarded a $1.3 million grant to Meilan and two colleagues, professors Michael Ladisch, agricultural and biological engineering, and lead researcher Clint Chapple, biochemistry....They are currently investigating ways to alter the composition of poplar lignin, which provides rigidity to the plant cell wall by binding to strands of cellulose, a complex sugar that can be converted into ethanol.___NextEnergy

Transgenic poplars that extract, process, and eliminate pollutants--AND--can also be used to make cellulosic biofuels. Impressive.

Meanwhile, Oxford Catalysts is devising better catalysts for converting biomass to liquid fuels.

FT catalysts are ... important in the emerging field of biomass-to-liquids (BTL) which yields ultra-clean synthetic biofuels from lignocellulosic biomass.

Developing new catalysts can be a time consuming process, and each catalyst has to be custom-made for a particular application to suit a customer's requirements. Having this expanded lab facility will allow us to carry out the necessary testing to provide our customers with the essential information they need about a catalyst more quickly. It will also help us to develop further new and innovative catalysts at a rate that will allow us to meet demand for new applications within the clean fuels area as they continue to arise. - Derek Atkinson, Business Development Director, Oxford Catalysts___Source

The government of India's Department of Biotechnology is investing in cellulosic biofuels and other renewable biologically generated liquid fuels.

The University of Washington is financing research to turn forestry and agricultural waste into useful biofuels.

Canadian company Outlook Resources Inc. is getting into the "biomass fuel cube" business. Fuel cubes made of biomass are a sustainable alternative to coal and gas for traditional heating and power generation uses.

It is becoming clearer that those who denied the potential of bio-energy could not have been more wrong. Now that the potential is finally becoming reality--as particularly now that bio-energy is going high-tech--the sky is the limit.

Garbage to Energy: An Update

Nothing signifies a society's determination to hit back at entropy so much as using its garbage to generate energy, or to produce other usable goods from garbage. Currently, there are several approaches to creating energy from garbage in North America. The video above demonstrates some of the methods, while the link below presents much more detail from six different companies.

Who would have ever thought that junk and sewage could be cost-effectively turned into a valuable commodity? It turns out that there are several approaches being developed -- and even some already in commercial operation -- that, with tipping fees, can turn a profit from turning garbage and sewage into electricity and fuel.

According to their Vice President, Lynn Brown, Waste Management, the company the comes around to haul off garbage, is increasingly turning some of that garbage into energy -- enough to power over one million homes -- the equivalent of 14 million barrels of oil per year or 3.6 million tons of coal. And the company has a goal to double that amount to 2 million homes by 2020. (http://www.wm.com/thinkgreen)

Some landfills now capture the methane that comes out of the buried trash, which used to escape into the atmosphere as a potent greenhouse gas. Instead, they now burn this methane to run generators. Solar Hydrogen Energy Corporation (SHEC Labs) has developed a process that uses solar energy to convert this methane into hydrogen, and expect that within 5 years they will compete with the cheapest sources of Hydrogen.

One approach being pursued by several companies is to turn the incoming waste into plasma through a high intensity electrical arc. In the plasma state, the inflow is broken down to its elemental components -- individual atoms. What comes out is a burnable gas and an inert solid that can be used for things like pavement, bricks, and other building materials. Starting out, they are targeting medical waste because of its high tipping fees.

Green Power Inc has developed a method of inexpensively converting biomass and municipal waste into high quality diesel fuel, solving the world's energy and waste problems at the same time, without upsetting the CO2 balance. Peswicki

Visit the Peswicki website quoted above for much more information. Anyway, speaking of garbage, most people value pond scum at the same level as garbage. But would you believe that pond scum algae may be one profitable approach to dumping fossil fuels in favour of clean sustainable energy?

Innovation in the energy industry is spurred by higher fossil fuel prices. For the next two or three decades--until fossil fuels are largely unnecessary--prices will remain high. But that is exactly the incentive necessary to spur ingenuity in creating alternatives.

Energy Links ++

One of the more interesting themes in the age of higher oil prices, is the move to turn garbage into energy. The latest effort to do this is a partnership between startup Coskata and General Motors. Coskata aims to produce ethanol from garbage, waste, and old tires.

The new US Geothermal Inc. Idaho geothermal power plant utilises a binary cycle technology.

The Raft River project employs binary cycle technology, in which the geothermal fluid is pumped through a heat exchanger to vaporize isopentane, an organic compound that vaporizes at lower temperatures than water. The isopentane vapor drives a turbine, which spins a generator to produce power. The vapor that exhausts from the turbine is then condensed and returned to the geothermal heat exchanger, forming a closed loop....A new report from the Geothermal Energy Association (GEA) claims that binary cycle technology revolutionized the geothermal power industry by allowing power production from medium-temperature geothermal resources.

Source
GM announced the 2009 Saturn "pluggable hybrid" with "two-mode" transmission. The design incorporates regenerative braking, and the ability to combine electric drive with gasoline engine drive for extra power. With a 3.6 liter V6, it should leave other hybrids in the dust.

This ultracapacitor hybrid may turn out to be an example of wishful thinking (150 mpg), but it is clear that the only way to replace internal combustion engines with electric power at this time, is to use batteries + ultracapacitors, with the possible addition of fuel cells.

What is the sound of a banana farting? Vrrroooom! Methane from banana peels and stems may be just the ticket for the methane moon rocket.
With the possibility of a little ice age appearing on the near horizon, it may be time to learn to live with ice--a lot of ice. You may want to schedule your next vacation in one of the ice hotels above.

But just because we will be living in ice is no reason to accept ice crystals in our ice cream. This edible antifreeze may be what we need to keep our frozen desserts nice and creamy.

Can Your Microwave Do This?

Microwave ovens are indispensable for the modern hurry-up lifestyle. But did you know that you can also use microwave ovens to convert garbage to useful fuel?

With 50 cents' worth of electricity for the large microwave he [Pringle] has fabricated, he turns a single 14-inch car tire, one small piece at a time, into 1.2 gallons of diesel fuel, 7.5 pounds of carbon black, 50 cubic feet of combustible gas and two pounds of high-strength steel. Source

Or did you know that microwaves can beam solar energy from Earth orbit to ground antennas to provide 24 hour solar power?

The energy captured by space-based photovoltaic arrays would be converted into microwaves for transmission to Earth, where it would be transformed into direct-current electricity. source

Did you know that microwaves can cure cancer?

In the latest clinical trial, fifteen patients received two microwave heat treatments, known as thermotherapy, along with four rounds of chemotherapy before surgery. The goal was to shrink tumors sufficiently to enable a breast-conserving lumpectomy procedure instead of the expected, and more invasive, mastectomy. Surgeons concluded that fourteen of the tumors shrunk enough for this to be possible. source

Microwaves can also reach out to your automobile and shut down its electronics, cold.

Eureka Aerospace have managed to find a way to focus microwave energy and direct it at a moving target, disrupting the electronic impulses in the car’s electronic control unit (ECU) and in some cases even burning out these circuits. source

Microwaves can be used to control riots.

Booen points to many potentials for such technology, such as defusing a terrorist attack in a crowded marketplace. Instead of firing traditional weapons at the target, he said, directed energy could achieve two key goals: neutralizing the enemy and eliminating collateral damage among innocent bystanders.
source

For the B.H. crowd--you know, Black Helicopter, Bush Hitler, etc--there is the mind control microwave device.

Microwaves provide vital terrestrial and extraterrestrial communications links. Radar uses microwave frequencies. Microwaves are used in semiconductor processing. Microwaves are used for some types of biomedical imaging.

The trick is in finding the right frequency for the proper use.

Key to GRC’s process is a machine that uses 1200 different frequencies within the microwave range, which act on specific hydrocarbon materials. As the material is zapped at the appropriate wavelength, part of the hydrocarbons that make up the plastic and rubber in the material are broken down into diesel oil and combustible gas. New Scientist

Would you be surprised if microwaves have some tricks yet to pull out of the hat? Nor would I.

New Sources of Domestic Hydrocarbon Fuels

The technology featured in the video above is but one technology of several that are coaxing large amounts of new oil out of old North American oil wells once thought depleted. The graphic below illustrates how oil wells that have "peaked" may be re-energised to "peak" again.There are a lot of reasons to suspect that "peak oil" has been hyped far beyond any contact with reality.

The U.S. DOE calculates that amount of oil in already discovered U.S oilfields at less than 5000 feet to be more than 218 billion barrels. Keep in mind that just 10% of that equals 10 years of OPEC imports at today’s rates, all of it is enough to run the U.S. economy for 25 years. All of which is just sitting there, in known places, thousands of them that at the 5000-foot and shallower level which exceed the proven reserves of Saudi Arabia. It also leaves out all the oil left behind when wells ran dry – which comes to 300 billion barrels. It’s a resource that the 7000 or so non “Big Oil” U.S. oil companies can bring to market.

New Energy and Fuel

Better drilling and discovery technology is likely to bring in a lot of new conventional oil. What other new petroleum resources are in the pipeline?

In a massive new multivolume report on energy strategy in the United States, a high-powered federal task force puts "peak oil" into perspective. On the one hand, it says, the country has already consumed, in 150 years, 446 billion barrels of its own fossil-fuel endowment. On the other hand, it says, the country has 8.59 trillion barrels left - or more "oil equivalent" than the rest of the world combined. More than 95 per cent of America's oil reserves, in other words, are still in the ground.

Key phrase? "Oil equivalent". Wrap your head around that - "more "oil equivalent" than the rest of the world combined."

For instance - oil shale:

"North American oil shale and [oil] sands alone far exceed all the remaining proven and undiscovered oil resources of the entire world," the task force reports. "They represent 3.5 trillion barrels of oil resources. America's commercial-quality oil shale resources alone exceed two trillion barrels. This shale can be processed to generate ultraclean, high-quality diesel and jet fuels, along with high-value chemicals - with existing technologies under normal economic conditions."

Q and O

Several other interesting technologies for producing new hydrocarbons include energy from garbage (landfills), oil from discarded automobiles (tires, foams, plastics etc.), oil from biowaste (with catalysts, T, P) and oil from synthetic micro-organisms. Many more ingenious energy technologies are in the pipeline. $100 a barrel oil is a powerful incentive for innovation.

As I have stated before, I am a firm believer in photovoltaics, wind energy, micro hydro, OTEC, tidal energy, geothermal, and other clean forms of energy. I am also a proponent of using safe nuclear energy as a way of easing the transition from dirty oil and coal to cleaner, sustainable power.

It is time for the pop media and other influential but unserious voices to stop promoting false images of doom such as CAGW and Peak Oil. We need to outgrow these childish tendencies to promote dishonest scare tactics just to get attention. We need all the brainpower we have to effect a fairly smooth transition to long term clean energy, while also working to bring about the next level.
Hat tip Philosophical Detective

Peak Oil: Meet Oil from Wood

It is getting harder and more expensive to find large new reserves of petroleum. While "peak oil" is impossible to calculate without better knowledge of true global oil reserves, it is almost certain that the cost of oil will continue to trend upward--and energy planners should take those higher costs into account.

But while we transition from a fossil fuel dependency to a more sustainable and diversified energy repertoire, what other "tricks" may science/technology hold up its collective sleeve?

The way to make cellulosic biofuels viable, says Bioecon's founder, Paul O'Connor, is to use catalysts to convert biomass into a hydrocarbon biocrude that can be processed into gasoline and diesel in existing petroleum refineries. After decades developing catalysts for the petroleum industry, O'Connor started Bioecon in early 2006 to develop methods for converting biomass directly into biofuels. His first success is a catalytic process that can convert cellulosic biomass into short-chain hydrocarbons about six to thirteen carbon atoms long. Khosla Ventures agreed to provide an undisclosed amount of series A funding to spinoff Kior in order to commercialize the process. Vinod Khosla, founder of the venture fund, believes that converting biomass into liquid transportation fuels is key to decreasing greenhouse-gas emissions and compensating for dwindling petroleum reserves. Khosla is funding a number of biofuels startups with competing technologies and says that Kior's approach is unique. "They have some very clever proprietary catalytic approaches that are pretty compelling," he says. "They can produce relatively cheap crude oil--that's attractive."

Technology Review

Alternative processes for making usable hydrocarbons from cellulose/lignin involves high temperature and pressure processes to produce syngas as an intermediary. This is too expensive at current oil prices. Likewise, previous methods to use catalysts in the conversion have had low yields.

Kior's method would reportedly:

would eliminate the need for the superhigh temperatures and toxic catalysts used in other thermochemical methods for cellulosic-biofuel production. While O'Connor says that he is still improving Kior's catalyst, his first versions are different kinds of modified clays, which are both cheap and environmentally friendly. The product is high quality as well, containing less acid, oxygen, and water. These characteristics make it suitable for burning as heating oil or for use in petroleum refineries, which can use existing processes and equipment to convert it into the longer hydrocarbon chains of gasoline and diesel fuel.

It may take up to five years for this method to prove itself in the marketplace. But it is certainly reasonable to look for technological ways to "speed up" the conversion of bio-waste to hydrocarbons--to use industrial processes to produce in days what nature takes millions of years to produce. Once nanotechnology learns to create more efficient catalysts, the process will be speeded even more--and decentralised as well.

The next 5 to 10 years are the pivot. While peak oil scenarios are being spun for maximum impact on the public imagination, real scientists and engineers are busy creating alternative paths from here to there--paths that do not involve massive death and destruction such as that imagined by peak oil enthusiasts.

Hat tip KurzweilAI.net

Improving on Garbology in an Idiocracy

Remember the "Great Garbage Avalanche of 2505?" If modern garbology tycoon David Stoller has his way, there will never be a great garbage avalanche. Stoller aims to shrink-wrap garbage in a clean and efficient manner, so that the garbage can later be used to generate energy through plasmas or fuel cells.

TransLoad's equipment compresses tons of garbage into dense cylindrical bales and seals them hermetically in several layers of plastic film. The company intends to load those bales into boxcars, and ship them to its landfills.

TransLoad claims that the combination of compaction, shrink-wrapping and rail-based shipping makes the system cost-effective and eco-friendly.

....Compressing the garbage at a rate of 1,400 to 1,600 pounds per cubic yard prevents liquid from pooling in the bales, which in turn prevents putrefaction and foul odors.

Sealing the waste in impermeable plastic prevents the escape of groundwater-polluting leachate associated with standard landfill storage.

And shipping by rail eliminates the need for greenhouse gas-emitting trucks, a point the company's PR firm is quick to emphasize in the wake of Al Gore's Oscar win for An Inconvenient Truth.

....A variety of conversion technologies, including ones that use landfill gas to generate electricity, are being explored by garbologists in Europe and the United States.

Thompson notes that several bioreactors are already in operation across the country. And a company called Geoplasma plans to build a facility in St. Lucie County, Florida, that will use plasma arc technology to convert waste into gas that can be used to generate electricity.

Stoller looks forward to the day when TransLoad's bale-stuffed landfills will function as enormous trash-powered fuel cells.

Source

Rather than a health hazard, garbage may come to represent a rich new source of "renewable" energy. One small step toward sustainability, when combined with optimal recycling technologies.

Patriotic US Pigs Volunteer to Contribute 10 Million Barrels of Crude Oil per Day!

I am simplifying the math slightly, but using the simple formula: 4 gallons crude oil per pig per day X 100 million pigs divided by 42 gallons per barrel, that comes to slightly less than 10 Million barrels of crude oil per day, from pig excrement. Yes, professor Yuanhui Zhang, a bio-environmental engineer at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, says he can get almost 4 gallons of crude oil from each pig, every day.

Zhang's big breakthrough is that he's designed a more efficient process: a continuous reactor. Instead of converting hog waste one batch at a time, Zhang's lab, which is funded in part by the Illinois Pork Producers Association, has developed a method to feed waste continuously into a reactor, which is essentially an industrial-strength pressurized oven. And, Zhang boasts, "We don't even need pre-drying."

Chemically, pig dung isn't as different from oil as one might think. In Zhang's reactor, a process known as thermochemical conversion partially breaks down hydrocarbon molecules that make up most of the excrement, and voila: porky petrol.

Similar but not identical to the black gold it took Mother Nature eons to brew, Zhang's fuel behaves like diesel.

Now the plan is to move from the lab to a full-sized pilot reactor on a farm somewhere Downstate. Zhang predicts the process could get 3.6 gallons of crude oil a day out of each pig. Illinois brings some 7.2 million hogs to market each year and the nationwide industry is about 100-million hogs strong.

Theoretically, the resulting millions of barrels of crude a day could make a significant dent in America's dependence on nonrenewable, and often imported, oil. More at source.

This may be one reason arabs hate pigs so much. They do not like the competition!
:-)