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FUEL ALTERNATIVES * USA
* Don’t Call It Waste, Call It Fuel !! - Gassing Up With Garbage
New York,NY,USA -The New York Times, by Matthew L. Wald -24 July 2008: -- Within months, it may become possible to purchase motor fuel made from wastes like wood chips, crop refuse, or garbage. Several small firms have said they will construct factories to make such fuels, while larger firms like General Motors (GM) are investing in the ventures as well. GM has invested in two companies in New Hampshire and Illinois that intend to use crops wastes to make fuel. Nationwide, there are currently about 28 small factories being built, in advanced planning, or already operational and conducting tests. Waste-to-fuel technologies have been in existence for decades, but they have not been economically feasible until now amid high energy prices... The U.S. government is offering grants to help establish the factories, and legislation passed in 2007 calls for the use of 36 billion gallons of biofuels annually by 2022. Of that amount, less than half comprises corn ethanol and the remainder should come from non-food sources. The government has also mandated a $1.01 per gallon subsidy for cellulosic ethanol... Consulting firm PFC Energy estimates that projects worth $1.5 billion will create more than 300 million gallons of capacity by 2011 if all get built. One company, Fulcrum BioEnergy, said will start construction later this year on a $120 million factory in Storey County, Nev., to convert 90,000 tons of garbage into 10.5 million gallons of ethanol annually by 2010... (Photo: Dick Kettlewell/The New York Times - Using a front-end loader, the lead operator, Keith LaCrosse, picks up a load of wood chips from the huge pile outside the KL Process Design Group plant to pour it into the shaker conveyor in the background)* New Material Could Help Save Petrol
Chicago,ILL,USA -Reuters (UK), by Julie Steenhuysen -25 July 2008: -- Scientists at Ohio State University and the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) say a new material may soon help vehicles get more energy from gasoline. Today, just approximately 25 percent of the energy generated by a conventional gasoline engine is used to propel the vehicle or run the wipers, radio, and other components. Most of the remainder is lost through the exhaust pipe. The scientists hope to recover some of the lost energy using a new thermoelectric material that is twice as efficient as existing ones. Caltech's Jeff Snyder estimates that a thermoelectric device could enhance a car's fuel efficiency by 10 percent. He forecasts that thermoelectric devices will be commercially available within five years to 10 years at a cost of $10 per unit or less. The researchers have applied for a patent for the material, which is composed of sodium-doped lead telluride and thallium and has an efficiency rating of 1.5 at 950 degrees Fahrenheit... (Picture by Luke MacGregor/REUTERS - A driver holds a fuel pump at a petrol station in London in this file photo) * Sapphire Energy turns algae into ‘green crude’ for fuel
Los Angeles,CAL,USA -The Los Angeles Times, by Elizabeth Douglass -May 29, 2008: -- A San Diego company said Wednesday that it could turn algae into oil, producing a green-colored crude that yields ultra-clean versions of gasoline and diesel without the downsides of current biofuel production... The year-old company, called Sapphire Energy, uses algae, sunlight, carbon dioxide and non-potable water to make “green crude” that it contends is chemically equivalent to the light, sweet crude oil that has been fetching more than $130 a barrel in New York futures trading... Chief Executive Jason Pyle said that the company’s green crude could be processed in existing oil refineries and that the resulting fuels could power existing cars and trucks just as today’s more polluting versions of gasoline and diesel do... (See Video)
Labels: alternative fuels
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