Alternative Energy and Fuel for Cars
Today I stumbled upon a great post by admin, posted earlier today, over on Rainharvest.co.za entitled Alternative Energy and Fuel for Cars that I would strongly suggest all of you read. I’ve included a couple of little extracts in the hope of whetting your appetites!
Like battery-powered and fuel cell vehicles, the compressed air powered car transfers energy production to a central utility. And like hydrogen, the process requires a great deal more energy than you get out of it.With more renewable power options coming into play at the central utility level, the various storage ideas (battery, fuel cell, compressed air) become more attractive as a method to decrease carbon production, and reduce our dependencies on fossil fuels. The various biofuel ideas, though, have ethical concerns associated with them that are hard to get past, at least while food crops are still being used to create the fuel.
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Now, reading admin’s article got me thinking so I did a google search for some other posts on the subject and discovered some more greats. i.e. The New Role of Microbes in Bio-Fuel Production posted yesterday, by unknown, on a blog called Earn from your Blog:
Currently biofuel is produced from plants as well as microbes. The oils, carbohydrates or fats generated by the microbes or plants are refined to produce biofuel. This is a green and renewable energy that helps in conserving fossil-fuel usage. But a new research has led to a new discovery of getting the microbes to produce fuel from the proteins instead of utilizing the protein for its own growth. The research is being done at the premises of University of California in Los Angeles. Focus The focus of the experiment was to induce the microbes under the study to produce a specific kind of proteins rather than what they otherwise might be inclined to produce. This special protein can be refined in to biofuel.
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The task is to make the microbes produce only this kind of protein rather than utilizing it for their own growth and growth related activities as they otherwise do. Different from prior practice This kind of biofuel production is different from the traditional behavior of microbes where they use the protein only for growth. This is like tricking the microbes to deviate from that and produce fats or material that can be converted to biofuel. In the words of UCLApostdoctoral student and lead researcher, Yi-xin Huo -”We have to completely redirect the protein utilization system, which is one of the most highly-regulated systems in the cell.” First attempt at protein utilization This has been claimed as the first ever attempt to use the proteins as a source for generating energy. Until now the biofuel-producing algae has not made use of the protein like a carbon supply for biofuel. It was only used for growth.
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A fringe benefit By this process, they are letting the cells to retain the nitrogen and take out just the ammonia. Once done with the biofuel production, the residue is a better kind of fertilizer thanks to the low nitrogen levels. This in turn will lessen any greenhouse emissions that happen during the fertilizer production. The new process will reprocess the nitrogen back and will help in maintaining a nitrogen neutral state and less harmful emissions during fertilizer production. Future plans The Nature Biotechnology Sunday issue has published the team’s findings.
Finally, another fantastic post came from Nat over on Montreal Dog Blog posted yesterday, entitled Election Reply #3: Danny Polifroni, Green Party which is also definitely worth reading!
â The use of electric prods; clubs and other inappropriate weapons should be banned. â A ban on live animal exports from Canada. Animal transport time limits will decrease fossil fuel consumption, promote local businesses, create additional employment, dramatically reduce suffering of millions of farmed animals annually, and bring Canada up to European standards for farmed animal welfare. Puppy Mills and Gas ChambersThe Green Party of Canada will develop municipally managed animal control programs parallel to the one implemented by the City of Calgary, which has virtually eliminated euthanasia of unwanted animals and dramatically increased rates of return of companion animals in a cost effective way that is largely funded out of licensing. As with Calgary, this program will include an aggressive licensing and micro-chipping program for animals, subsidized spay/neuter/emergency vet care for those in financial need, and funding for cruelty investigations. The Green Party of Canada will restrict breeding of companion animals while surpluses of unwanted companion animals exist in shelters across the country.