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Fuel Tanks Made of Corncob Waste
Roland Piquepaille writes "The National Science Foundation is running a story on how corncob waste can be used to created carbon briquettes with complex nanopores capable of storing natural gas. These methane storage systems may encourage mass-market natural gas cars. In fact, these 'briquettes are the first technology to meet the 180 to 1 storage to volume target set by the U.S. Department of Energy in 2000.' They can lead to flat and compact tanks and have already been installed in a pickup truck used regularly by the Kansas City Office of Environmental Quality. And as the whole natural gas infrastructure exists already, this new technology could be soon adopted by car manufacturers."
Perhaps they could use this technology for the tailpipe, too...
If brevity is the soul of wit, then how does one explain Twitter?
That's all great, until I go out in the morning and find that the damned raccoons have eaten through my gas tank and drunk all my biofuel. Varmints!
Do we even have enough natural gas for this to work? I thought it was expected to run low about the time petroleum was.
"Hooey, it's hot in here. Hey, bob, what's that popping sound outside?"
"Oh, my God! My car!"
Compressed natural gas (mostly methane and low C alkanes) has been in use in Argentina for years, it's cheaper and cleaner than gasoline, the autonomy of compressed gas is lower but for city driving it doesn't matter, and cars can still use gasoline because the engine has only minor modifications. This method seems to admit lower pressure in the tank, and might enable to store more gas without need of thick heavy steel was for containing it. Sounds like a good idea to me.
It's already being done. Been to Disney lately? Their trams and many other vehicles arlready run on natural gas. Same with the National Park Service in some areas. You probably have an LP tank sitting there under your back yard BBQ grill. When was the last time you heard of one of these blowing up? The problem with this is not the nature of the fuel, but in how you store it. Pretty strict regulations are in place in the US that regulate the manufacutre and limit the life of LP tanks (I think it's 12 years). I can't recall ever hearing of one of these accidentally exploding. Granted, adding it to a fast moving (highway speed) vehicle increases the danger but it's already in use in a lot of slower moving vehicles.
What if the Hokey Pokey really is what it's all about?
While I am not a big fan of ethanol I have to say the problems you are having are because E85 cars are flex fuel cars.
If you knew that you where only going to run ethanol you could run a much higher compression ratio in the engine and or much more spark advance. That would give you mileage and performance much closer to gasoline.
You can actually make more power running alcohol than gasoline that is why they use in at Indy and for dragsters. Top alcohol dragsters are faster than gas powered cars. Now Top fuel uses alcohol because it mixes better with nitro.
See my blog http://ilovecookes.blogspot.com/ for light hearted technical information.
To demonstrate to the general public that it works with the vehicles they drive. Small pickup trucks are very popular and have lots of uses. It is a good way to show the public they don't need to drive some California-left-winger-little-wind-up-toy vehicle. Like it or not, that is the perception many people have hybrids and alternative fuel vehicles. It is a lot easier to simply say "no, it's a pickup truck" than try and educate everyone and change their tastes.
Learning HOW to think is more important than learning WHAT to think.
Different engines react differently to E85. Saab has a 9-5 series car with a turbo that runs differently depending on what fuel is used. With regular Gas, it runs the turbo at around 9 Pounds (if memory serves), but with E85, which has a 105 octane rating, it bumps the PSI to 17-18. The performance numbers are not too shabby. The problem happens when you have these "Flex Fuel" cars that will run both, without changing any parameters. Right now, they are probably statically tuned to get more out of Gas, and not so much E85 (I can't back that statement up). But consider that the octane rating of regular unleaded is around 89. Timing becomes critical depending on the octane rating (the more octane, the more aggressively you can set your timing) and you are bound to have the type of performance degradation you were talking about.
Feel free to rip this unsubstantiated post apart! =)
As a rule, I never trust dark brown ketchup.
I hope they also use mesquite in their charcoal. I like my car exhhaust to have that flavor that only mesquite can deliver.
Will the new engines come with a grill?
It is by the juice of the coffee bean that thoughts acquire speed, the teeth acquire stains. The stains become a warning
Here's a neat poster (pdf link) about how these briquettes are made.
It looks ultra simple to do. This poster references only 120:1 storage ratio, so maybe there have been process changes that have improved storage capacity. Maybe this will also help with fuel cells that run on methane to provide portable electrical power too. I think this could be an exciting development.
...you're a bunch of alarmist buffoons.
Anything you can do with natural gas from a well can be done with methane. It's very easy to produce. Here's how it works. You've got a pond with a tent over it. The pond is full of beneficial bacteria. "Fresh" water (can be contaminated) and sewage are introduced into the bottom center of the pond. Over time the system is colonized with algae. The algae and other organisms digest the sewage, resulting in lots of algae (a resource itself), fairly clean water, and methane (mostly.) The methane can be captured and the algae can be harvested; the algae can be used to make either alcohol or biodiesel depending on what kind it is - some have more carbohydrates, some have more oil.
Right now, a lot of our sewage treatment systems, even the ones that look like oil refineries, are producing and flaring off methane. This is stupid. It should be captured and used. In fact a lot of agricultural producers of shit, like pig farms, are starting to use this technology to power their farms - and in many cases they actually produce enough power not only to run their operation, but to actually make a profit by selling excess to the grid. The resulting effluent has been "cooked" to the point where it can be applied directly to the crops as fertilizer. Normally this is achieved by storing it in an uncovered holding pond for months, where the methane simply escapes.
If we simply applied this technology to waste treatment plants and forced it on those who have a lot of animal shit currently posing a health hazard, we could get a lot of power and it would actually save money for everyone involved.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
Here is the source... The "ALL-CRAFT" of the University of Missouri. http://all-craft.missouri.edu/
You're laughing, but Henry Ford made a car out of corn plastic and hemp fiber. Obviously parts of it were still metal but not the chassis or body. A famous picture (should be easy to google) has him attacking it with an ax and failing to make more than scuffs. Unfortunately Hearst and DuPont lobbied against hemp to protect their paper and plastics industries (respectively) and thus helped make marijuana illegal - quite a change from the pre-war "HEMP FOR VICTORY" etc.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
I want a corn cob and pig manure powered Ferrari. :)