Re: [Biofuel] The Market Is Lying: Why We Must Tax Carbon, Not Subsidize It
Sweden has been using a carbon tax since 1991. It works. See http://www.carbontax.org http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/25/0/2108273.pdf If markets are to deliver a least-cost economy then prices have to be corrected to include costs external to market transactions. Taxes are the simplest and most efficient way to do this. Alfred Pigou introduced the concept in the 1920s. We're a little slow catching on. Doug Woodard St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada On 7/9/2011 8:53 PM, Keith Addison wrote: http://www.truth-out.org/market-lying-why-we-must-tax-carbon-not-subsidize-it/1309962187 [snip] ___ Biofuel mailing list Biofuel@sustainablelists.org http://sustainablelists.org/mailman/listinfo/sustainablelorgbiofuel Biofuel at Journey to Forever: http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html Search the combined Biofuel and Biofuels-biz list archives (70,000 messages): http://www.mail-archive.com/biofuel@sustainablelists.org/
Re: [Biofuel] Human Intelligence and the Environment
The scientists have reasons for their conclusions. For example, whales have vestigial legs. Doug Woodard St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada On 18/05/2011 8:46 PM, bmolloy wrote: Greetings all, Re whales choosing to return to the sea. [snip] As for warm blooded sea creatures such as whales, is there not a possibility they are simply a link on the chain going the other way i.e. out of the sea and onto land? Regards, Bob. [snip] ___ Biofuel mailing list Biofuel@sustainablelists.org http://sustainablelists.org/mailman/listinfo/sustainablelorgbiofuel Biofuel at Journey to Forever: http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html Search the combined Biofuel and Biofuels-biz list archives (70,000 messages): http://www.mail-archive.com/biofuel@sustainablelists.org/
Re: [Biofuel] Hydrogen fuel?
In the 1920s, Sir Harry Ricardo and his firm built an engine for the airship R-100 which ran on kerosene plus the hydrogen required to provide the lift for the kerosene burned (instead of valving off the hydrogen as other airships did). The engine ran very lean and consumed 0.30 pound per horsepower-hour of kerosene, so the heat energy in all the fuel burned was equivalent to kerosene at about 0.37 lb/hp/hr. This was at a compression ratio of 6:1. At the time, open chamber diesels got about the same fuel consumption but needed a compression ratio of 14:1 to do it (from my memory of the Guiberson radial and the Daimler-Benz airship engine as described in the 1944 edition of Paul Wilkinson's Aircraft Engines of the World). Supposedly for safety's sake the Air Ministry wanted duplicated drives for all the accessories (fuel pump, water pump etc.) on an engine of which I think there were 6 on the airship; engines which were not needed to stay up, on a craft which could be slowed or stopped in the air to make repairs if necessary. Due to the extra development time needed for this complication, the engines were not ready to fly when the airship was, and the R-100 crossed the Atlantic to Canada and returned to Britain in 1930 with Rolls-Royce Condor gasoline-fueled aircraft engines. The Ricardo engine *had* to run very lean to avoid detonation. I expect that modern experimenters would have the same problem, and might learn about it the hard way. When the airship program was shut down after the crash of the competing R-101 in France on its first long trip, the Ricardo technology was sold off. I haven't heard of it being used. All this is described in Ricardo's memoirs Memories and Machines (London: Constable, 1968); also in The Ricardo Story: the Autobiography of Sir Harry Ricardo, Pioneer of Engine Design by Harry Ralph Ricardo (Warrendale, PA: Society of Automotive Engineers, 1992) which is basically Memories and Machines expanded, not very usefully. Nevil Shute Norway's memoirs Slide Rule (London: Heinemann, 1954; and other publishers later) describe the R-100 program and the transatlantic trip. Doug Woodard St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada Keith Addison wrote: People keep talking about and writing about and asking me about and offering me H2 generators for gasoline engines, and making wondrous claims for their effectiveness, eg: On my 92 Ford F-150 with the 5.0 ( 302 CU ) engine, the truck at it's best mileage without the H2 generator was 17.9 mpg. with the 1st H2gen it went to 22.5 miles and modifying it I was getting 25 mpg. I made it from scrounged up stuff about the house, copper tubing, aluminium strips, house wiring, and a 1/2 gallon large mouth jar. I mounted it by the battery and ran a hose from the fitting to the air intake at the injector body. I had to change to a heavy duty marine battery, the type that is used for trolling motors. The truck needed a new battery anyhow. My neighbour built a larger unit and ran his 64 Triumph Spitfire off pure H2, He had to have 2 batteries and a more powerful alternator. Are they deluded? Or does strapping a couple of magnets to the fuel line also turn out to work? All best Keith ___ Biofuel mailing list Biofuel@sustainablelists.org http://sustainablelists.org/mailman/listinfo/sustainablelorgbiofuel Biofuel at Journey to Forever: http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html Search the combined Biofuel and Biofuels-biz list archives (70,000 messages): http://www.mail-archive.com/biofuel@sustainablelists.org/
[Biofuel] Altered microbe makes biofuel - Nature
For your information. Perhaps the process can be adapted to smaller-scale plants for local markets. Doug Woodard St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada ** Published online 27 January 2010 | Nature 463, 409 (2010) | doi:10.1038/463409a News Altered microbe makes biofuel Bacterium could work directly on grass or crop waste. Jeff Tollefson Switch grass could be made into diesel cleanly and quickly.PVSTOCK.COM/ALAMYIn a bid to overcome the drawbacks of existing biofuels, researchers have engineered a bacterium that can convert a form of raw plant biomass directly into clean, road-ready diesel. So far, biofuels have largely been limited to ethanol, which is harder to transport than petrol and is made from crop plants such as maize (corn) and sugarcane, putting vehicles in competition with hungry mouths. In this week's Nature, researchers from the University of California, Berkeley, and the biotech firm LS9 of South San Francisco, California, among others describe a potential solution: a modified Escherichia coli bacterium that can make biodiesel directly from sugars or hemicellulose, a component of plant fibre (see page 559). The method can be tailored to produce a host of high-value chemicals, including molecules that mimic standard petrol, and could be expanded to work on tougher cellulosic materials, the researchers say. The work identifies a potentially cost-effective way of converting grass or crop waste directly into fuel, filling gas tanks without raising global food prices or increasing hunger and deforestation in far-flung locales. Moreover, the process is much more climate friendly than manufacturing ethanol from maize, and produces higher-energy fuels that are interchangeable with current petroleum products. The next step is to scale the process up and adapt it to cellulose, which makes up the bulk of plant material. The process has a lot of promise for actually being commercialized. It's a nice milestone in the field of biofuels, and it has a lot of promise for actually being commercialized, says James Liao, a metabolic engineer and synthetic biologist at the University of California, Los Angeles. LS9's calculations, performed with the help of the Argonne National Laboratory in Illinois, show that the biodiesel that it is preparing to market reduces greenhouse-gas emissions by 85% compared with standard diesel. That calculation is based on using Brazilian sugarcane, which is a much more efficient feedstock than maize; LS9 says that the shift from sugars to biomass as a feedstock would reduce greenhouse gases even further. The company has been working to convert sugars into tailored molecules for several years, says co-author Stephen del Cardayre, LS9's vice-president for research and development. However, their university collaborators went two steps further, eliminating the need for additives and then folding in the ability to use hemicellulose as a feedstock. This paper is a representation of the types of efforts that are going to move us to biomass, he says. The researchers basically amplified and then short-circuited E. coli's internal machinery for producing large fatty-acid molecules, enabling them to convert precursor molecules directly into fuels and other chemicals. The team then inserted genes from other bacteria to produce enzymes able to break down hemicellulose. In all, the authors report more than a dozen genetic modifications. The results could buoy LS9, says Mark Bünger, a research director at business consultancy Lux Research in San Francisco. Like its competitors, including Amyris of Emeryville, California, and South San Francisco-based Solazyme, LS9 struggled for funding in 2008 and early 2009 because of the drop in oil prices and the economic downturn, Bünger says. But LS9 made it through, securing US$25 million in new funding from various sources, including a strategic partnership with oil giant Chevron last September. The company plans to open a commercial-scale demonstration plant later this year. --- End forwarded message --- ___ Biofuel mailing list Biofuel@sustainablelists.org http://sustainablelists.org/mailman/listinfo/sustainablelorgbiofuel Biofuel at Journey to Forever: http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html Search the combined Biofuel and Biofuels-biz list archives (70,000 messages): http://www.mail-archive.com/biofuel@sustainablelists.org/
Re: [Biofuel] U. S. Head of Military Intelligence Publically States 9/11 was Staged Event
No conspiracy was needed. Bin Laden knew what the U.S. wanted: an excuse for U.S. armies in the Middle East. The U.S. knew what Bin Laden wanted first: a major strike at the U.S., by preference at the World Trade centre (they had tried before, and it was highly symbolic). They differed on what the result of U.S. armies in the Middle East would be. Points to Bin Laden. Doug Woodard St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada Keith Addison wrote: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FFP_zKYU3aENR=1 Aarghh!! Youtube! Who's got 5 min 16 sec to spare? This is quicker... The headline says: U. S. Head of Military Intelligence Publically States 9/11 was Staged Event. But is he the Head of US Military Intelligence? No. It takes only the first 5 sec of Youtube for him to state that his name is Major General Albert Stubblebine, and another 10 sec to find this at wikipedia: Major General Albert Bert N. Stubblebine III was the commanding general of the United States Army Intelligence and Security Command from 1981 to 1984, when he retired from the Army. He is known for his interest in parapsychology and was a supporter of the Stargate Project. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albert_Stubblebine Ah, so he WAS a major general once, and indeed head of army intelligence, but he retired **25 years ago**. Not quite the same thing eh. (Walked through any walls lately Bert?) That saved 5 min 1 sec, and gave a much better result. Why the misleading headline? Not deliberate? Matthew Rothschild of the Progressive again: Enough of the 9/11 Conspiracy Theories, Already http://www.alternet.org/story/41601/ If it doesn't start off with the preferred conclusion-of-choice and then go in search of the facts to prove it, but instead simply goes in search of facts, along with all the patient and careful cross-checking that takes, and then emerges with a fact-based conclusion that checks out, or even with just some hard facts without a conclusion... well then, that's different. But AFAIK it hasn't happened yet, and don't hold yer breath. Best Keith ___ Biofuel mailing list Biofuel@sustainablelists.org http://sustainablelists.org/mailman/listinfo/sustainablelorgbiofuel Biofuel at Journey to Forever: http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html Search the combined Biofuel and Biofuels-biz list archives (70,000 messages): http://www.mail-archive.com/biofuel@sustainablelists.org/
Re: [Biofuel] Meet the Economist Who Thinks We're Doomed
Keith, there's a myth floating around among the rich and would-be rich, that some very smart people saw the Great Depression coming, and made fortunes out of it. It's a myth that just happens to be true. These greedheads may serve a useful purpose. If the financial people and the comfortably-off foot soldiers of the right wing start thinking that the system is rotten, that they've been swindled by their leaders, then the ruling circles of Wall Street and the politicians may think it's worthwhile to do something about it, especially if the market anticipates the crash to such an extent that it's impossible for the smart guys to make a killing on it. The wonders of free enterprise... Doug Woodard St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada Keith Addison wrote: Don't you just love the editor's note? - K - http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article20558.htm Exclusive Interview: Jim Rogers Predicts Bigger Financial Shocks Loom Fueling a Malaise That May Last for Years By Keith Fitz-Gerald Investment Director 19/08/08 Money Morning/The Money Map Report http://www.moneymorning.com/2008/08/19/jim-rogers/ [Editor's note: After interviewing legendary investor Jim Rogers at his home in Singapore back in March, Investment Director Keith Fitz-Gerald caught up with Rogers again in July - this time in Vancouver, where both were speaking at the Agora Wealth Symposium. Rogers talked extensively about the ill-advised bailouts of Bear Stearns, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and the potentially ruinous fallout from the financial Super Crash that's about to engulf the U.S. market. To find out how to get a report on the once-in-a-lifetime profit plays that will emanate from this so-called SuperCrash - and to also get a free copy of noted market analyst Peter D. Schiff's New York Times bestseller Crash Proof: How to Profit from the Coming Economic Collapse - please click here. And look for Part 2 of Money Morning's latest interview with Jim Rogers tomorrow (Wednesday).] [snip] ___ Biofuel mailing list Biofuel@sustainablelists.org http://sustainablelists.org/mailman/listinfo/sustainablelorgbiofuel Biofuel at Journey to Forever: http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html Search the combined Biofuel and Biofuels-biz list archives (70,000 messages): http://www.mail-archive.com/biofuel@sustainablelists.org/
Re: [Biofuel] Hormone use may make dairy farming greener-US study
Off the top of my head, I would say that rbST is part of a process of substituting cultivated grains for perennial forages in milk production, something which is not a good idea, especially looking at a declining supply of fossil fuels and mined fertilizers. Not to mention increasing the production and spread of E. coli and especially its more virulent forms. Doug Woodard St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada Keith Addison wrote: About the dumbest thing I saw all week. - K - http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/feedarticle/7621130 Hormone use may make dairy farming greener-US study Reuters, Monday June 30 2008 [snip] ___ Biofuel mailing list Biofuel@sustainablelists.org http://sustainablelists.org/mailman/listinfo/sustainablelorgbiofuel Biofuel at Journey to Forever: http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html Search the combined Biofuel and Biofuels-biz list archives (70,000 messages): http://www.mail-archive.com/biofuel@sustainablelists.org/
Re: [Biofuel] Monbiot: Peasantry necessary for human survival
See http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/jun/10/food.globaleconomy A relevant book is Robert Netting's Smallholders, householders: Farm families and the ecology of intensive, sustainable agriculture (Stanford University Press, 1993). Netting has interesting discussions of frugality, sacrifice for the common good, and the appropriate use of collective versus private property. Doug Woodard St. Catharines, Ontario ___ Biofuel mailing list Biofuel@sustainablelists.org http://sustainablelists.org/mailman/listinfo/sustainablelorgbiofuel Biofuel at Journey to Forever: http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html Search the combined Biofuel and Biofuels-biz list archives (70,000 messages): http://www.mail-archive.com/biofuel@sustainablelists.org/
[Biofuel] [iNFO] 376 mpg contest car
At 30 mph with limited driveability, but an interesting demonstration nonetheless. It may have uses in a more frugal future. See http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/351903_needle20.html Also http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAE_Supermileage_Competition Engine improvements are conceivable - stratified charge, fuel reforming using waste heat, recirculating the combustion chamber boundary layer to reduce pollution, etc. Along with producing biofuel one thinks about getting the most out of it. Think beyond the Citroen 2CV otherwise known as the peasant's friend. Of course, at a certain point a donkey becomes interesting. Appropriate technology. Doug Woodard St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada ___ Biofuel mailing list Biofuel@sustainablelists.org http://sustainablelists.org/mailman/listinfo/sustainablelorgbiofuel Biofuel at Journey to Forever: http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html Search the combined Biofuel and Biofuels-biz list archives (70,000 messages): http://www.mail-archive.com/biofuel@sustainablelists.org/
Re: [Biofuel] The Wisdom of Leopold Kohr
Thanks, Keith. This article is an excellent reminder of the work of Leopold Kohr, but I find that it is too much about Illich (a very serious, earnest and intellectual fellow) and what he thinks, and not enough about Kohr. After reading it one has no idea that Kohr's presentation of his thought largely used his extremely well developed sense of humour. Illich seems to have no sense of humour. I hope that every list member who is not familiar with Kohr will get one of his books such as The Breakdown of Nations and read it. It will be fun as well as enlightening. See http://www.bookfinder.com for the bibliographical information your library will want for an inter-library loan if necessary. I quote very roughly from memory: An hereditary subject of the Grand Duke of Lichtenstein who wishes to discuss affairs of state with his sovereign, goes up to the castle gate and knocks. A free citizen of the United States of America who attempts to discuss matters with his elected President will be immediately arrested by the Secret Service and confined in a mental hospital. Kohr cites at least one incident for the U.S. and goes on to point out that the difference is one of scale. You will enjoy the whole book, and the others if you have the time. Doug Woodard St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada Keith Addison wrote: http://www.resurgence.org/resurgence/184/illich.htm The Wisdom of Leopold Kohr IVAN ILLICH in association with Matthias Rieger. (Resurgence 184) [snip] ___ Biofuel mailing list Biofuel@sustainablelists.org http://sustainablelists.org/mailman/listinfo/sustainablelorgbiofuel Biofuel at Journey to Forever: http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html Search the combined Biofuel and Biofuels-biz list archives (70,000 messages): http://www.mail-archive.com/biofuel@sustainablelists.org/
Re: [Biofuel] [BULK] Re: Hydrogen Car Sighting
Actually, a fuel cell alone does have some resemblance to current (pre-hybrid) car technology. Batteries not only provide high power for acceleration and passing, but they recover energy otherwise lost in braking. Unless fuel cells become as cheap and light as combustion engines for the power they produce, they will need to be used with batteries or some other storage device. Doug Woodard St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada Frank Oliver wrote: I am confused about your analysis James. How is a fuel cell the same as a current car technology? A hydrogen fuel cell has 0 moving parts, and produces electricity for an electric car. The Fuel Cell is a replacement for batteries. Frank [snip] ___ Biofuel mailing list Biofuel@sustainablelists.org http://sustainablelists.org/mailman/listinfo/sustainablelorgbiofuel Biofuel at Journey to Forever: http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html Search the combined Biofuel and Biofuels-biz list archives (70,000 messages): http://www.mail-archive.com/biofuel@sustainablelists.org/
Re: [Biofuel] Sustainable Subsoiler and Other Questions
Within the last two decades I have seen (it might have been in the New Scientist a few years ago) a photo and brief description of a cable plow linked to a post on which was mounted a small gasoline engine, I think on the order of 2 hp or so, certainly easily liftable. I think it was experimental at the time. Doug Woodard St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada David wrote: Anyway, one of my problems is that I have very compacted clay and need to use a subsoiler. I don't want to invest in a tractor. I saw that you used one on the farm in Japan. Was it a tractor-pulled one or using some other form of energy? Do non-tractor driven subsoilers even exist? I haven't been able to find any information on them, I was considering driving posts into the ground and pulling a subsoiler to the post using an engine fixed to the post and a very strong cord of some sort (it seems potentially dangerous). Has anybody looked into such alternative arrangements? Keith wrote I rather agree with Randy about using posts, though I think there used to be such things long ago, with ploughs and subsoilers and so on dragged to and fro across fields by a large stationary steam engine, using cables and posts IIRC. ___ Biofuel mailing list Biofuel@sustainablelists.org http://sustainablelists.org/mailman/listinfo/sustainablelorgbiofuel Biofuel at Journey to Forever: http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html Search the combined Biofuel and Biofuels-biz list archives (70,000 messages): http://www.mail-archive.com/biofuel@sustainablelists.org/
Re: [Biofuel] [SPAM] The Alcohol Cure
The question of whether the farmlands of the United States are capable of fueling what Kunstler calles the Happy Motoring Society mech less the world, doesn't seem to interest this writer. Nor do the possibilities of building cars which don't need as much fuel, of getting around without cars. or even of building an economy and a society in which we don't have to move around as much and maybe don't want to flee the places where we live and work. I thought that editors were supposed to filter out articles by glittery-eyed lunatics, or at least get them to rewrite with a nod to reality. But it's probably true that I'm old-fashioned. Doug Woodard St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada Alan Petrillo wrote: http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=NGQ2OTA5ZGM1Y2Y2NGE1OTVlYzA3MDNlZGFkYTk0OGM= ___ Biofuel mailing list Biofuel@sustainablelists.org http://sustainablelists.org/mailman/listinfo/sustainablelorgbiofuel Biofuel at Journey to Forever: http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html Search the combined Biofuel and Biofuels-biz list archives (70,000 messages): http://www.mail-archive.com/biofuel@sustainablelists.org/
Re: [Biofuel] The real 9/11 culprit - Winston Churchill?
In June and July 1940 there were plenty of practical-minded appeasers like Lord Halifax and Rab Butler at the top of the British Conservative Party who were thinking about asking Hitler for terms. We owe Churchill a lot. The Russians may have done most of the fighting and shed most of the Allied blood, but they would have been in deep trouble without American supplies. They would also have been in trouble without British codebreaking (which owed much to the Poles originally). It seems that Lucy and the Red Orchestra in Switzerland who transmitted to Moscow, were fed carefully with Ultra intercepts by the British, presented to Moscow as the result of Soviet espionage. The successful German counterattack at Kharkov after Stalingrad seems to have occurred because von Manstein was able for a while to make decisions on his own without consulting German headquarters by radio and being exposed to British eavesdropping, because of the temporarily poor state of German communications due to the rapid retreat. Stalin and the Soviet system were responsible for the miserable state of the Russian army in 1941, and for Hitler's ability to catch the Russians ill-prepared to resist in the early stages of his campaign. Doug Woodard St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada Chris Burck wrote: did i sleep through a lecture back wien i was in school, or something? because i don't remenber about a loud outcry in favor of capitulation during the blitz. and where defeating nazi germany is concerned, the soviets deserve at least 50% of the credit, maybe even two thirds. ___ Biofuel mailing list Biofuel@sustainablelists.org http://sustainablelists.org/mailman/listinfo/sustainablelorgbiofuel Biofuel at Journey to Forever: http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html Search the combined Biofuel and Biofuels-biz list archives (70,000 messages): http://www.mail-archive.com/biofuel@sustainablelists.org/
