Palm | Kelapa Sawit

In some of my previous posts I have blogged about alternative fuels and the growing need for viable options. I have come to realize that a simple list of different alternative fuels would be helpful and informative. Alternative fuels come in several different forms from ethanol to natural gas. The goal in using alternative fuel is to become less dependent on foreign petroleum and to be better stewards of our environment.


Go to www.fueleconomy.gov for more specific information.

A small French company Moteur Development International produced an air-powered car which will be driven by compressed air stored in carbon-fibre tanks. These tanks are built into the chassis and are filled with air from a compressor in only 3 minutes - quicker than a battery car. These air compressors can be installed at each gas station.

When the car reaches 35 miles per hour its internal air compressor will start working to add more speed. The motor for compressor will run on small amount of fuel (eco-friendly or fossil fuel).
The driver would be able to choose between fossil or biofuels.
The designers say that on long journeys the air car will do about 120 m.p.g. And in town, it will be even cheaper.
One tank of gas will be enough to travel from Los Angeles to New York.
Of course, it sounds great - to have such a little fuel expense for your car.

And it is only a matter of time when first cars will be available for sale for about $5,000 to $15,000 which is an important consideration during our volatile gas prices.

These cars will also be good for the environment - they will produce almost zero emissions.

Air cars are designed to be much more lighter than conventional cars which will make them fuel efficient and help them go faster for longer periods of time.

You can watch very interesting YouTube movie about the air-powered car.



Guy Negre, an engineer and inventor of the first compressed-air engine has been working on it for the last decade. Still, the problem is in finding individual entrepreneurs to set up factories and to find investors to produce more air-powered cars. With just a few alterations, inventor Negre claims a hybrid version of his new engine could even be used to power aircraft.

To read more about air-powered cars go to http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/may/14/air-powered-car-hybrid-france.

-Peter Y.

The people at Portland International Airport are concerned about the environment too. According to this article PDX is moving towards using alternative fuels. "The Portland International Airport (PDX) in Oregon has become a dedicated user of alternative fuel vehicles in almost every aspect of operation from baggage loading vehicles to shuttle buses, police vehicles, and street maintenance equipment". Alternative fuels like biodiesel play an important role in lowering emission and vehicle longevity.

Go to this blogger post to learn more about what PDX is doing to go green.

I read an interesting article online about the energy situation in Hawaii. I agree with the author Shermakaye Bass who says that Blue Hawaii needs to go green in order to be energy self-sustaining state.
Currently, Hawaii gets 90 percent of its energy from imported oil, while its isolation makes it vulnerable to frequent power outages. Price for electricity here is from 25 to 55 cents per kilowatt hour which is - three to five times the national average. Gas prices are the highest in the US..

On the other hand, Hawaii has some of the best wind, some of the best solar, some of the best access to the ocean to use wave power, a lot of waste-biomass, and one of the most volcanic activity to use for geo-thermal power.
All of these sources can and will be used to produce alternative energy for the island, says Kimura, solar-tech pioneer and the founder of clean-energy/eco-friendly Sopogy company. His company recently introduced a new rooftop Concentrating Solar Power (CSP) collector which are about 30 percent cheaper than traditional solar collectors.
These new solar power collectors represent one of nearly $1 billion in clean energy projects which will be implemented in Hawaii during the next two decades.

The article says that in January 2008, during her State of the State address, Gov. Linda Lingle told constituents she would make energy a priority. Within a few days after her speech, Honolulu had signed the historic Clean Energy Initiative with the U.S. Department of Energy (DoE), whereby America’s 50th state would shift from a fossil-fuel driven economy to one that buzzed with power from wind, sun, water (and biofuel and geothermal tech and hydrogen fuel…) by 2030. Specifically, the plan calls for Hawaii to get 70 percent of its power from clean energy – 40 percent from actual renewable power, 30 percent from energy efficiency and consumer conservation.

To read the rest of the article you can go to this website: http://www.greenrightnow.com/kabc/2009/10/28/blue-hawaii-getting-greener-every-day/
-Peter Y.

Although using vegetable oil as an alternative fuel source is becoming more popular it still has many draw backs and things to improve upon. In the article, "Can I really burn used vegetable oil in my car?", by Ed Grabianowski, answers the question "Is Vegetable Oil Worth the Cost"? The general consensus at this point is no, it is not cost effective. Not only is the oil itself expensive but it is also costly to convert a regular car engine.
The hope is that with more consumers looking for alternative fuel the cost will become more acceptable and cost effective. There are no perfect answers but with education and hard work bio fuels can become a household word.

To read more about cost effectiveness go to this How Stuff Works article.

To make a vehicle work some sort of energy must be used. Gasoline and diesel are the normal sources but other products are coming to the forefront of alternative fuels. As the cost of conventional fuel rises consumers are demanding cheaper and more environmentally friendly ways to run their vehicles.
In the article, “Grease Guzzlers”, by Zachary Gonzalez-Landis we learn about this alternative fuel. Diesel engines are being converted to run on vegetable oil. “Vegetable oils are biofuels, renewable raw materials from which one can extract the same kind of energy as found in fossil fuels, such as natural gas and coal”. The process of converting a diesel engine is actually often less than buying a new car. Besides the cost effectiveness of SVO or straight vegetable oil the benefits to the environment are astounding. “It’s a recycled resource; reduces air pollution and greenhouse gases; biodegrades and is non-toxic; decreases dependence on imported oil; and offers better fuel economy than diesel. Overall, biodiesel presents the lowest carbon footprint of any alternative fuel. And it’s cheaper”.
The only downfall is the lack of diesel vehicles in the United States. According to the article less than five percent of all cars in the U.S. run on diesel. How can we get the U.S. to take advantage of this cost saving environmentally friendly alternative? Any ideas?

Check out inthesetimes.com to read the rest of this informative article.

When I think about comparing fuels or using alternative fuels I automatically think of cars, and buses. While looking around the Internet I discovered an article about using alternative fuels for airplanes. It makes sense, there are thousands of flights a day and those huge airplanes just fly through fuel, why not use better fuels in the skies as well?

The article Alternative Jet Fuels Put To The Test, we learn that researchers along with NASA are testing 2 types of fuels, both not petroleum based. For these tests the alternative fuels will be used on a DC-8 aircraft. The aircraft will remain on the ground so that the researches can test the exhaust. For these experiments they will use a 50/50 blend of fuels and also a 100 alternative fuel.

I wonder if it would cost more for the airline to use alternative fuels? Would you as a passenger be willing pay more per ticket if your airline was more environmentally friendly? Could it be cheaper to produce these fuels?

NASA/Langley Research Center. "Alternative Jet Fuels Put To The Test." ScienceDaily 1 February 2009. 15 October 2009

When it comes to alternative fuel sources for transportation nowadays, everyone seems to be shouting “biofuel!” A large group of people seem to think that it’s the end-all-be-all answer to global warming and the shortage of fossil fuels. It seems like a fantastic idea – a fuel source that’s renewable and easy to create, but in the long run, depending on the type in question, there can be some nasty repercussions.

Before there was biodiesel, the response to the outcry against petroleum based fuel was ethanol. Ethanol is an alcohol that can be created from several different sources, the most common of which is corn. All in all, it sounds like a sound solution. However, due to it being a much cheaper alternative to petroleum and the easiest option being to produce conventional ethanol (ethyl alcohol created from feedstocks such as corn, soybeans, or wheat), corn ethanol-based biofuels now rival food for land and water. National Geographic Magazine’s June 2009 issue addresses the problem as part of a special report on the global food crisis. However, there are alternative sources for ethanol, which don’t involve converting feedstock into fuel. Cellulosic ethanol is created from plant waste, including agricultural plant waste, plant waste from industrial processes, and growing energy crops such as switchgrass as an alternative. Both processes involve extracting sugars and fermenting them.

Another hidden problem in biofuel production is highly unethical practices on the part of corporations involved in the industry. Mother Jones (magazine) in their March/April issue featured a segment on “Smart Growth,” involving different ecological and environmental issues. In the article “Slash and Burn,” the author, Heather Rogers, argues that biofuels may be as dangerous to the planet as petroleum. According to the article, Archer Daniels Midland (ADM) destroyed 15,000 acres in Borneo that belonged to the indigenous tribes (known as the Dayak) – land that the Dayak argued were vital to their tribes’ survival and which they have legal rights to under Indonesian law – in order to make way for a massive plantation of oil palms. The oil is rendered and refined into biodiesel. After the seizure of the lands, the tribespeople registered legitimate complaints to the government, but went completely unheeded. Due to the razing of the forest and the planting of a single crop, their subsistence gardens fell to pests. The tribe later obtained a map showing the long-term plan of the company – to clearcut 50,000 acres.

British Petroleum (BP) also plans a massive biofuel project, known as ProCana. They plan to use nearly 75,000 acres to plant sugar cane to produce ethanol. Also from the same spread in Mother Jones, author of “Trouble On the Limpopo” Adam Welz states that as of 2007, biofuel investors applied for rights to use about 12 million acres in Mozambique. (An interesting note – one of the officials of the company behind ProCana freely admits that they are attempting to plant in one of the most arid areas, but are investing a fortune in drip irrigation because “You can’t produce a green fuel and waste water.” Another interesting note? Despite the drip irrigation, the project will use 108 billion gallons of water a year.) In addition, the project will force 9,000 people to relocate from their homes, and a map of the project shows that the same land promised to these people for grazing areas has also been promised to ProCana as part of their plantation land.

Biofuels are a great idea in theory, but in practice, some of them are just as bad as the petroleum fuel companies. Because more impoverished areas are easier to buy land in, the people on those lands can be forced off their property with very little effort, and they receive little support from their governments. In reality, the best, most globally-friendly transportation you can get is a bicycle, but if people are unwilling to give up their cars, it may perhaps be a better ethical choice to look further into making hydrogen fuel cell technology more readily available. In reality, it is the cleanest option available (even biofuel produces as much carbon from its initial production to being burned as petroleum) and it may be easier to avoid ethical problems, such as the ones encountered in Borneo and Africa.

For further info on these stories and sources, you may visit:

. http://www.harvestcleanenergy.org/enews/enews_0505/enews_0505_Cellulosic_Ethanol.htm

www.motherjones.com

http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2009/06/cheap-food/stanmeyer-photography