Thursday, July 18, 2019

Using plants & phytoplankton to absorb CO2

Some of you may or may not know that I am currently a software test engineer and specifically in the healthcare industry. More and more I have been contemplating where my career is taking me and what impact it has on humankind, and more specifically the environment / ecology, nature and the world.

With the current political climate and the heightened awareness of the extremely urgent need to stop (or at least reduce) our destruction to the environment, it is evident that climate change may be irreversible if drastic actions are not taken now. Change takes time, political will and legislation, etc takes time, but the time to act is really now.

In general, I'd think it is a 2 pronged approach. One would definitely be the reduction and complete conversion of burning fossil fuels to renewable energy as much as possible. The second would be to reclaim green spaces and also to take care of the ocean and waters to help oxygen producing phytoplankton thrive.

I read this recent UK's Independent article and it has intrigued me and also reinforced what I have been thinking of recently of employing plants and phytoplankton to help naturally and quickly absorb and lock away as much CO2 as possible. If I am not mistaken, this article from Wikipedia does mention that nearly 50% of the O2 is produced by these microorganisms. This makes sense as 70% of the world is covered by the ocean, making it a very large surface of abundance for the phytoplankton to thrive.

The other 50% is by plants, and to me, what makes most sense is something that grows fast, most efficient at producing O2, is hardy and also useful for consumption if possible.

Another thing to consider is the concrete jungle in cities and house roofs. For ever acre and hectare we consume permanently for buildings, we need to reload them with as much greens as possible. I envision a symbiosis between these buildings & residential homes: be it indoor plants else exterior wall with planters and unused rooftops / plant growing roofs would make the most sense to help "re-green" and reclaim these spaces to grow plants. I'd think that they are a good and natural insulator as a roof if properly constructed.

Phytoplankton that produces oxygen is a bit more elusive, but an interesting read on algae bloom and the advantages and disadvantages are covered here: https://articles.extension.org/pages/45651/if-algae-produce-oxygen-in-a-pond-how-can-having-too-much-algae-cause-an-oxygen-depletion

I scoured around online for resources and this is what I found that may make most sense:

Fastest growing:

Most O2 efficient:
Round the clock O2 production:
Utility / ability to be useful plants:




Monday, October 21, 2013

Gasification solution for 10 kW & 20 kW

I came a cross an interesting post from CNET

http://news.cnet.com/2300-11386_3-10018679-9.html


Not 100% sure why they would call it carbon negative since, as far as I know, the source, in general is still above ground type carbon matter 

http://www.enviroliteracy.org/article.php/478.html.

The only clue is the generated highly dense charcoal if indeed its aim is to bury them or to use as fertilizer and hence be a carbon trap to inhibit the introduction of more CO2 into the atmosphere.

I can definitely see this as a possibility for smaller scale residential heating and electrical power generation, and to a certain degree looping back again to the whole idea of DG (Distributive generation) rather than large scale wasteful power generation and long over the line distribution.

Friday, April 16, 2010

Wind energy

I was looking through my facebook and happen to see a post from my friend posting about wanting Entrepreneurial ideas and the will to do it and so I wrote to her mentioning the idea of starting a green energy company and installing Honeywell's Wind turbine. http://www.windtronics.com/

I dug around information of cost for this innovative design (no gears, it has the magnets on fan blade tip and coil generators are surrounding the tips to cut the flux and hence generate electricity) and came by this interesting article:

http://www.ecogeek.org/component/content/article/2871-would-you-buy-honeywells-home-wind-turbine

Many good points were pointed out and debated (from financial aspect, to turbine design types, to even a political view point), a good resource of references, calculations and even a free software to help you determine what's the best bet / feasibility of renewable energy: http://www.retscreen.net/ang/home.php

Check out the various designs advantages & disadvantageous in wiki:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wind_turbine

Overall I think Honeywell does have an innovative design, though the cost is quite very pricey and it's huge... about 6 feet / 1.8 meters diameter and weighing up to 150 lbs. And as usual there will be aesthetic debates as neighbors / residential management community may sue you for "putting that ugly windmill" thing.

I'm now in Seattle WA, checked out the wind maps and Seattle is so - so:

http://www.windpoweringamerica.gov/wind_resource_maps.asp?stateab=wa and I know MO from where I was before this, only the NW corner would be viable and not downtown St. Louis.

Thursday, June 25, 2009

New 2009 TDI's and B100

It's a good trend that automotive manufacturers are now moving towards diesel engine powered cars and sedans (average of about 40+ miles per gallon / 17 km per liter). One of them would be VolksWagen and you can truly tell by their pretty aggressive advertising campaign. I even do notice more VW's (in general) running on the roads these days.

The reason why I brought this topic up is that it is part knowledge sharing should anyone be interested in going B100 (100% biodiesel) on diesel automotive engines (and in no part saying anything bad about VW TDI's, they are good products).

It would be great and also especially for the Big 3 (General Motors, Ford and Chrysler) to keep those SUV's and Minivans, but have them run on diesel which is more fuel efficient and more power / weight ratio as demanded by the vehicle capacity.

VW introduced the post ignition injection technology in their TDI engines in order to burn away the soot in the collection area, and hence producing a cleaner exhaust for regular petrol diesel type fuel combustion. For regular petrol diesel (dino-diesel) or at max up to B5, the post ignition injection is ok and doesn't drip too much biodiesel into the bottom engine oil chamber.

For higher levels of biodiesel, what happens is that biodiesel is not as highly combustible as compared to dino-diesel, and the post ignition injection spray results in the wetting of the combustion chamber, and this is not needed especially if you are using B100 (no / very very very little soot), which results in the biodiesel escaping / dripping down from the cylinder walls into the engine oil below, and hence fouling up the cooling + lubricating system. This does lead to possible engine failure.

So if you are shopping for specifically VW TDI's, look out for these used year models which DOES NOT have the post injection technology in place:

The PD version were available in New Beetles (2004 - 2006), Jettas (2004 -2006), Jetta Wagons (2004 - 2006), Golfs (2004 -2005), B5 Passat (2004 and 2005), and the 2005 V10 Toureg. The PD found in the New Beetles, Jettas, and Golfs are rated at 100hp and 177ft.lbs torque from a 1.9l engine. The B5 Passat with it's 2.0l TDI pumped out 134 hp and 247 ft.lbs of torque. The king of power is the 5.0l 310HP V10 Touareg that puts out 553 ft.lbs of torque.

The above is quoted straight from this web site:
http://www.tdiclub.com/

Until they or someone figures out a way to disable the post injection electronic controls or substitute the post injection squirt with something else / blank air injection, your best bet would be to buy a young and in good condition slightly older models of the TDI's.

http://www.biodieselmagazine.com/article.jsp?article_id=2290&q=&page=all

http://www.biodieselsmarter.com/archives/2008/12/the_saga_of_the_09_tdi_and_its.php

Thursday, June 11, 2009

2009 Earth Day St Louis (Muny / Forest Park) April 26th

I had a really good time meeting up with members from the St. Louis Biofuels Club who volunteered to work the biofuels booth. Many people had stopped by our booth to find out more and Maud (moderator of the St. Louis Biofuels Yahoo groups) prepared small batches of used waste vegetable oils for the younger audience to mix with methanol and lye and to be clipped on a retort stand for the final biodiesel + glycerol separation.

The demonstration unit was also displayed and powered on for washing for a prior biodiesel batch. The generator which supplied the power was fueled by biodiesel too.

It was interesting to meet many people from all walks of life from College Professors (Principia) to home brewers and others who are simply interested or have always been wanting to find out more about biodiesel production or looking for a forum to post and find out more information on renewable energy / biofuels. We even had a couple who were trying the cutting edge by growing a pilot oily algae system.

It was a pretty windy day and the portable tents had the tendency to fly away even though it was weighed down.

I did get a chance to visit other vendors and displays and there were other interesting booths and showcases of renewable energy, even the local Ameren UE utility company had a large display, tips for energy conservation and their hybrid utility truck on display.

http://s170.photobucket.com/albums/u264/bambi_seller/2009_04_26_Earth_Day_2009_St_Louis_MO_Muny/

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Wednesday, June 10, 2009

Reposting from green Jobs now / wecansolveit.org

http://www.wecansolveit.org/page/community/post/biodiesel2008/BxW

I believe that the future for America is to adopt distributive generation and switching to diesel powered automobiles. Distributive generation is based on powering a house or a block or more of houses locally and this cuts down on transmission line losses. Home heating oils are nothing more than "dino-diesel" which contributes to additional carbon emissions into the atmosphere.

Biodiesel is derived from either used or new vegetable oils, and hence it's combustion does not contribute to the net carbon emission unlike petroleum based fuels which should have stayed underground.

With help from local leaders and Washington, financial incentives are needed to help encourage the adoption of clean and renewable power generation. For now, already thanks to www.renewmo.org we have the legislation of Missouri grant net metering whereby excess energy generated from clean sources may be reversed on your electric meter, and hence you only pay the net actual usage of electricity.

What I envision in future is that Americans are almost completely weaned off gasoline from the middle east, consume more biodiesel and be energy dependent free. What I know I can contribute is my knowledge and experience with biodiesel and biomass.

I urge anyone who is considering starting a biodiesel company to consider my services and expertise, or if you are wanting to do research and are looking for a Mechanical Engineer who has a passion for biodiesel and biomass power generation, do not hesitate to contact me.

The idea that I have is based on the fact that 60% or more of household energy is used for refrigeration, heating and cooling. Why not produce the fuel and have an integrated system which takes care of that and also for your diesel vehicle? It's never too late, but the sooner we adopt it, the better.

Reposting from Green Jobs now 2008 expo in St Louis MO

Original posting: http://www.wecansolveit.org/page/community/post/biodiesel2008/BCy

Repost:

http://events.greenjobsnow.com/greenforall/reports/5376

More pictures can be seen here:

http://s170.photobucket.com/albums/u264/bambi_seller/2008_09_27_green_jobs_now/



It was good to see the amounts of individuals with renewable solutions and educational / demonstration units, renewable energy vehicles etc. There were some companies which offered solar and wind renewable energy consultation and installation, and many advocate organizations.

Although it's good to see people taking initiative on renewable energy, the only low point about the event is that it just shows me that the Mid West and America in general is seriously lacking in aggressively encouraging renewable energy initiatives and efforts.

Picture below is landscape and you may click it to see the full picture.

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