First Flight of Manned Hydrogen-Powered Airplane in History
Today Boeing has announced the first hydrogen-powered manned flight in aviation history. The aircraft climbed to 3,300 feet over Madrid, Spain, using only electricity and probably several bottles of yummylicious Ribera del Duero wine and Iberian Pata Negra ham rations. The airplane then cruised for 20 minutes at 62mph using only hydrogen cells.
A question would by why would you want to replace the APU? Existing APU’s run off the same fuel as the primary engines, feed off the same fuel tanks and are proven reliable. by greggantic at 09:01 PM on 04/03/08 Reply by Email * is it possible…
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FYI: New Path to Produce Butanol
A team of researchers headed by an environmental engineer at Washington University in St. Louis has developed a new techniques to produce butanol, a biofuel superior to ethanol. It can be derived from lignocellulosic materials, which are plant biomass parts that range from woody stems and straw to…
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Little nation has big green ideas
P’rtugal may become a real-life test case for renewable energy. The country has no coal, no oil. Though Portugal is heavily agricultural there’s no corn lobby, no rapeseed industry, no huge dependence on fertilizer, no local auto companies. Chief exports for Portugal include wine, fish, beef, olive oil, cork. A major […]
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Virgin Atlantic Flies Biofueled Commercial Jet
Today Virgin Atlantic made the first commercial aircraft flight powered by biofuel. The trip went from London to Amsterdam. This trip was to show Virgin is making an effort to cut down on carbon emissions produced by their jets.
Virgin’s President, Richard Branson, said “This breakthrough will help Virgin Atlantic to fly its planes using clean fuel sooner than expected.”
He also noted the flight would provide “crucial knowledge that we can use to dramatically reduce our carbon footprint.”
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Two Near-Zero Emission coal plants to be built by Duke Energy
The proposal for building two Duke Energy coal-fueled power plants has recently been approved by Americans For Balanced Energy Choices (ABEC). The two power plants under consideration are—the Cliffside Steam Station (North Carolina) and the Edwardsport Station (Indiana). Advanced technologies are going to be used in both these plants to reduce air emission levels. The plants would also help in generating electricity in North Carolina and Indiana.
Coal is the most abundant, affordable and safe source of power in USA, and the two new power plants would go a long way in proving that, advanced, clean coal technologies can indeed generate enough power for supporting aN economy and population. The power plants would also showcase the prowess and capacity of clean coal techniques to provide sustained superior environmental performance.
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Rolls-Royce Eyeballing Fuel Cells
Upscale automobile manufacturer and one of the world’s leading aerospace engineers, Rolls-Royce is looking to commercialize fuel cells within the next 2 years. By 2010, Rolls-Royce wants to develop devices for the SOFC (solid-oxide fuel cell) market.
These stationary devices will be able to generate clean energy for factories, hospitals and universities. They may also be scaled up for use in military applications and for marine use.
Rolls-Royce wants to tap into the $50 billion power generation market with its industrial scale fuel cells. If all goes well, perhaps the aerospace company will also consider using SOFCs in its line of high end automobiles. Rolls-Royce Silver Phantom Fuel Cell anyone?
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Biofuels in the news this week.
Some recent studies published yesterday in Science conclude that the growing of feedstock for biofuels is causing more harm then good. This is discouraging news, but at the same time there is also some encouraging news about developments in friendlier feed stocks such as waste products, algae, and switch grass.
NPR’s Science Friday 2/8/08 […]
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BIODIESEL ROYAL ENFIELD BULLETS
Ever since I posted on the Coskata ethanol production method and how it could lead to a new generation of E85 powered bikes, and the military diesel Kawasakis (M1030M1s at the USMC Combat Motorcycle School), I’ve been thinking of alternative fuels for motorcycles. This morning I googled “BioDiesel Motorcycle” and found this really cool article at Kneeslider. Apparently it’s a bike built by Colorado Biodiesel© and MotorEarth© to promote diesel use and was then auctioned on Ebay. Paul Crowe at Kneeslider reported on this amazing bike.
Paul later followed up with an article on Royal Enfield Bullet biodiesel conversion by Charles Altmann. Altmann Machines in Germany takes the original Royal Enfield Bullet engine out and replaces it with a Yanmar 406cc, single cylinder, direct injection diesel engine.
So with fears of oil becoming scarce, more and more people are saying they would downgrade to smaller cars. Perhaps one day as fuel prices go higher and higher they may even downgrade to two-wheelers. The next step? Alternative fuel bikes. They’re already here.
Let’s Follow Israel’s Lead
God likes to play little jokes, like making the Jews roam around the desert for 40 years and placing them in an area with no oil taps like the rest of the middle east. Israel must scrounge around like us and buy what petroleum they need from the Arabs and Chavez. These people might hate the Jews, but they love money from whoever is willing to pay for a barrel of their oil.
The best news is, if all goes according to plan, www.projectbetterplace.com – Project Better Place will make Israel very close to being independent of oil by 2011 - that’s 4 years away! Shai Agassi, an entrepreneur has raised $200million for this electric car project with Renault-Nissan. It should be looked upon as a model and beginning for a new world policy.
Israel IS smaller than the USA, they don’t have that far to go from one end to another, so there will be “half a million charging stations” around Israel to make it oil free. The reality is we need to clean up our earth ASAP! Electric cars and alternative fuels would be so much cleaner, the planet healthier and the terrorists poorer.
What the Hell is the USA waiting for? We are so far behind! We need to go nuclear like the Europeans, but that’s another story…
We listen to our own President say “we are addicted to oil” and yet, he is always kissing Saudi ass for more! In almost 8 years he has not done shit to help wean us off “our addiction”, NOT ONE THING!
We know Bush’s heavy duty love for the Saudis, it was Salem Bin Laden, Osama’s brother who helped financially bail Bushy boy’s failing oil company, Arbusto out of debt. Arbusto became Bush Exploration (BE, And BE became Spectrum, Bush was Chairman and CEO and they lost over a million dollars but for some reason, Harken Energy asked Bush to join Harken’s Board of directors and finance committee. Abdullah Taha Bakhsh became the third largest investor. Harken was given a contract to drill for oil off Bahrain even though they had NO previous experience drilling offshore. The company was going down and Bush hurried and sold off his own shares weeks before Harken announced their $23million dollar loss. Good thing his father’s very good buddy, Richard Breeden was in a position to make sure Young Bush was not touched. (reading from Breeden bio) “1989 to 1993 as Chairman of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Mr. Breeden served as a senior financial and domestic policy advisor to President George H.W. Bush during his tenure as Vice President and President.”
So SOB - (Son of Bush) as usual got a pass on any big investigation into his sketchy sale and luckily SOB’s father has lots of great connections and Bush was never prosecuted for his insider trading and other issues. That GHW Bush is good about bailing out his sons after the rob us, what a dad! (another story)…
As for our President, he is still using the US treasury as an extension of his own personal checkbook…. Too bad Poppy can’t bail him out on this presidency. But that’s another story too, back to Israel…
Israel has the right idea, we MUST take a cue from this progressive effort! We should have long ago taken an initiative through big grants to Universities, college students and independent labs to find better ways to get us off foreign oil. Why don’t we offer multi million dollar rewards or bonuses, some big incentives to those who can make alternative energy forms that can be cost effective and won’t screw with the environment.
Israel should be applauded, there should have been huge headlines so people here are outraged that we have done nothing while this Schmuck Bush continues to pander to the oil barons. Where is our media? Guess they are too busy trying to second guess the nominees for the next presidential election, lets hope whoever is in office next follows Israels lead…
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WIRED article makes the case for cellulosic ethanol as an alternative fuel
Cellulosic ethanol recently made an appearance on the cover of WIRED magazine. The article provides a clear overview of what cellulosic
ethanol is, how it’s made and the issues keeping it from being
commercialized on a grand scale. Beyond the overview, three researchers
are profiled for their work in microorganisms and enzymes, all focused
on how to more efficiently breakdown the cellulose found in biomass.
Major investment in researching cellulose can be seen through BP’s $500
million for an Energy Biosciences Institute run by the University of
Illinois and UC Berkeley, DOE’s $385 million investment in cellulosic
demonstration plants, and the DOE’s most recent awards of $125 million
to three bioenergy centers.
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