billvon 3,120 #26 February 3, 2008 >Aint ya proud of me Bill... I don't know, Jeanie. This may delay your goal of giving Washington a San Diego-like climate! Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
billvon 3,120 #27 February 3, 2008 >I doubt any single alternative fuel will be. Agreed. The future of fuels will include a lot of different individual fuels. Some will include: Biodiesel, as this thread discusses. Will go to powering trucks, trains and some cars. Ethanol. Right now it's barely better than gasoline, but with cellulosic ethanol we'll see a significant improvement in cost/water usage/energy usage. Will work as a car and aircraft fuel. And as PHEV's become more common, our demand for all liquid fuels will drop - allowing a greater percentage of our fuel intake to be renewable. Natural gas/biogas. Will be used more and more often to power buses and cars. Buses already use it, and the Honda GX is an example of a natural gas powered car. Plus you can make it from garbage. Syngas/coal gas. Another gaseous fuel that may be useful as a replacement for natural gas. Use natural gas for automotive fuel and syngas to heat homes and cook. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Amazon 7 #28 February 3, 2008 Quote >Aint ya proud of me Bill... I don't know, Jeanie. This may delay your goal of giving Washington a San Diego-like climate! Yeah I know.. it sucks.... but I am tired of driving the RED BEAST in traffic... and trying to park it with all the speed bumps eveyone else is driving now. Plus it was not going to happen in my lifetime anyway... Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Rdutch 0 #29 February 4, 2008 Quote>I doubt any single alternative fuel will be. Agreed. The future of fuels will include a lot of different individual fuels. Some will include: Biodiesel, as this thread discusses. Will go to powering trucks, trains and some cars. Ethanol. Right now it's barely better than gasoline, but with cellulosic ethanol we'll see a significant improvement in cost/water usage/energy usage. Will work as a car and aircraft fuel. And as PHEV's become more common, our demand for all liquid fuels will drop - allowing a greater percentage of our fuel intake to be renewable. Natural gas/biogas. Will be used more and more often to power buses and cars. Buses already use it, and the Honda GX is an example of a natural gas powered car. Plus you can make it from garbage. Syngas/coal gas. Another gaseous fuel that may be useful as a replacement for natural gas. Use natural gas for automotive fuel and syngas to heat homes and cook. I was interested in hearing your take on the Algae biofuel idea. Especially with the solar concentrated desalination/powerplant providing the water needed. This is almost a self sustaining power source. Do you think it will work, or ever happen? Ray Small and fast what every girl dreams of! Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
rhys 0 #30 February 4, 2008 QuoteThis is almost a self sustaining power source. Do you think it will work, or ever happen? Not if the oil companies have anything to do with it. Look at what happened with the EV1's etc. It seems plug in Hybrids will save the day? A deisel hybrid would be a good buy no?"When the power of love overcomes the love of power, then the world will see peace." - 'Jimi' Hendrix Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
billvon 3,120 #31 February 4, 2008 >I was interested in hearing your take on the Algae biofuel idea. Especially >with the solar concentrated desalination/powerplant providing the water >needed. Well, two different ideas there. The first is the solar concentrator distiller/power generator. Both can work, but I do not think that combining the two will give you much in the way of additional efficiencies. I'd think you'd be better off optimizing for the output you wanted (water or power) and going for that i.e. building the distiller on the coast and the powerplant inland where it's sunnier. But the concept works and is very straightforward. The second is the use of algae to produce fuel. I have seen proposals to produce biodiesel, ethanol, hydrogen and methane in such a manner. The "long pole" there is the engineering of the organisms. Once that's accomplished I think the process has a lot of potential. (Interesting but useless fact - ordinary trees produce ethane, a hydrocarbon that can be used as a feedstock to make other fuels.) Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
