Consider this, ethanol burns stronger and cleaner than gasoline and can be grown within the United States and other nations that have a climate which supports corn or switchgrass. The energy density of Ethanol is substantially less than conventional gasoline (31.1MJ/kg vs 47.1 MJ/kg) but it burns stronger because it’s less volatile (i.e. higher octane) …
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Geothermal News From Around the World
(Image Credit: Wikimedia) A number of intriguing events and changes in the geothermal scene prompted an update for the site — it’s been awhile since we recapped. In the U.S.A., a number of big geothermal projects are getting attention, and policy changes are making it likely that there will be continued improvements in the industry. But …
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Creating Biofuel and Fish Food from Food Waste and Flies
American calorie consumption has increased by 25% since 1970 and, according to the United States Department of Agriculture, nearly one-third of all calories consumed during this time were lost to spoilage or plate waste. Olive Lynch, an entrepreneur from New Jersey, USA, started Green Waste Technologies to recapture some of those losses. Her mission: to …
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Biofuel Powered Jets in the US Military
General Omar Bradley, the last five-star General of the United States Army from World War II and the first military head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, once noted that, “Amateurs talk strategy. Professionals talk logistics.” Military units can only accomplish what their equipment allows. Of critical importance to all modern armed forces is the …
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Reinventing Sewage Treatment with Biochar
A university team of Hertz Foundation Fellows called the Biochar Group recently won recognition and financial support from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Their winning entry into the “Re-inventing the Toilet Challenge” (RTTC) was a unique application of biochar, which is a process by which charcoal is created through the thermal decomposition of biomass. …
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Thermya Announces Construction of Three Biocoal Plants
We’ve covered Thermya before: It’s a company headquartered in France which has developed a process to create a coal biomass from dried-out husks and other waste products. Today they announced construction of three biocoal plants, validating their product and anticipating full-scale production before the end of 2011. Thermya is similar to a company that Google …
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Google Backs a Biomass to Gasoline Startup
Last week Google Ventures invested $20 million into CoolPlanetBioFuels, a company that has created a system to turn wood chips and corn stocks into gasoline or diesel. Yesterday an interview was posted with Partner Wesley Chan on Fortune covering more of the details but the technology really sounds like a hit. The process is Carbon negative, …
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Biomass Energy Overview
Biomass is a term that has been popularized to describe a clean source of combustible fuel. It is actually one of the oldest sources of energy known to man but has been overshadowed by oil and other fossil fuels in recent decades. Harvesting biomass energy can consist of burning plants such as corn, switch grass, …
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Thermya Releases TORSPYD: Biomass Torrefaction Technology
Villenave d’Ornon, March 19, 2010 – Thermya, a French engineering leader in biomass energy recovery, announced today the release of its TORSPYD technological process for the torrefaction of non-food biomass. Designed by Thermya, TORSPYD is the most advanced torrefaction technology currently available. To date, it is the only industrially-proven process in Europe which enables continuous …
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Thermya Information Review
Thermya is a French engineering company specializing in biomass energy recovery. They have developed a biomass torrefaction process whereby non-food biomass such as wood and wood co-products, bark, hemp straw, cereal straw, corn straw, wheat bran, and rice hull are dried out and compacted for future use. According to Thermya, raw biomass has a high …
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Heat to Electricity, Stirling Engine Discussion
Recently we were contacted by a visitor who is interested in Rankin Cycle Generators and Stirling Engines. He shared the following thoughts and we wanted to put them here to stimulate discussion and help find answers. Directly below is his question and below that is a response from an engineering consultant we’ve worked with on …
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Ecovative Compostable Styrofoam Replacement
Ecovative Design is a company located in Green Island New York dedicated to solving the problems that styrofoam creates in our environment by developing compostable solutions. Their two flagship products, Ecocradle and Greensulate replace styrofoam packaging you might find around your computer or TV set and insulation you might otherwise be using in the walls …
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Bio-fuels: A Band-Aid Approach
The world today is much different than it was a mere 200 years ago. Change is not surprising; it is a result of development, growth, and life itself carried out. Ian McHarg, in a speech entitled The Planetary Disease of Man stated, “We are engaged at adaptation for survival at every level — cells in …
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Enhancing Agriculture and Limiting CO2 With Biochar
The Discovery Science channel ran a series a few months ago called Ecopolis, which discussed a number of promising new technologies that could help citizens of a hypothetical future city deal with critical needs such as energy, food, water, transportation, and waste disposal. Each episode featured four technologies from which Nobel prize-winning energy scientist, Dan …
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Biofuel Vehicles vs. Electric Vehicles
When it comes to transportation, no battery technology even comes close to the energy density of liquid hydrocarbon fuels. Whether they be derived from ancient or recent biomass, the energy density of hydrocarbon fuels is many times that of even the most advanced battery technology. And energy density is one of the most important metrics …
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Can I Use Drinking Alcohol in My Flex Fuel Car?
The other day while pondering the effectiveness and durability of different “clean car” options available on the market, specifically flexfuel cars vs. veggie oil vs. EV, I began considering which fuel type would be the most convenient if the grid went down and suddenly gasoline became unavailable. I’ve heard that up here in Northern California …
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Using Sugar Beets for Ethanol and Methanol Conversion
One of our readers submitted the following: “After reading Robert Zubrin’s book Energy Victory I have two questions. Can ethanol production facilities make or be converted to make methanol; and are sugar beets being used to any significant degree in Colorado to produce ethanol as a substitute for corn?” These are great questions. The sugar …
This open source Google Map provides biofuel compatible vehicle owners with a resource for locating fueling stations around the United States and rest of the world. Stations are added on an ongoing basis by the Cleantech Authority Network staff and contributions are welcome using the input form below. You may also subscribe to the XML …
The biodiesel program at the University of Colorado in Boulder dates back to 2002 when five students from an engineering class designed and created a biodiesel processor. Around that same time, several students involved with the Environmental Center constructed biodiesel cars using old VW Rabbits. CU now has a wealth of campus resources dedicated to …
In my last article, we discussed how mushrooms can be used as a catalytic agent in the biodegradation of fossil fuels and plastics. As more researchers discover the unique properties of mushrooms, wide-spread applications are quickly being created. Several scientists have been experimenting with ways to use mushroom mycelium as an efficient and cost effective …
