Category: Technology (Page 7 of 7)

The world is changing. Is it getting worse? Is it getting better? It doesn’t matter. It’s changing. America has less than 6% of the world population and yet it consumes a quarter of the world’s oil supply. There is no way the rest of the world can live at American level’s of consumption. That doesn’t mean the rest of the world can’t enjoy a high standard of living. Technicallly it’s possible, but politically extremely unlikely. It would require very radical changes in the way we live and I won’t get into it here. The world population is putting extreme pressure on the biosphere. The rich countries are causing one set of problems and the poor countries are causing a different set of problems.

Where does butanol fit into all of this? I’m getting to it. To achieve sustainable living in America conservation, reuse and recycling is going to be base of our new technology. And using energy efficient technology and using renewable resources are the next step.

Ethanol as a replacement or supplement to gasoline is a scam. It has less energy, it’s corrosive, it’s a solvent, and it cannot be transported in pipelines. Why is it a scam? Most of the ethanol is going to come from corn. Forget cellulosic ethanol for a moment. Could we grown enough corn organically without subsidies, without fossil fuel based fertilizers and pesticides? Could the tractors run on biodiesel produced by the corn oil that also produce the starch that is converted to high fructose corn syrup to be fermented into ethanol? Oh and will there be enough water available to ferment. When I get to butanol water will also be an issue. I think the answer is yes, but industry won’t do it that way. They’ll continue to use fossil fuels and charge even more for ethanol it. So from a consumer standpoint it doesn’t make economic sense.

Butanol is basically organic gasoline, or rather it can be. It has almost as much energy as petrol and suffers none of the transport problems that ethanol does. It is a kind of alcohol like ethanol but is fermented from a different organism. It’s going to have some of the same drawbacks as ethanol but it’s positives outweigh ethanol’s negatives. Cars don’t have to be modified. It doesn’t absorb water like ethanol and it’s not a corrosive solvent like ethanol.

Replacing fossil fuel gasoline with organically produced butanol is a solution but not the solution. It’s only one part of the energy mix. Different solutions will depend on where you live. Things like climate and population density and driving distances will all play a factor. Places that are relatively flat with a good climate and close together would be a good place for lots of bicycles. The think globally act locally is a tired mantra but accurate.

I think the two fuels that we should move to are biodiesel and butanol for personal transportation and save the petroleum for planes and trains. The arguments in favor or biodiesel (not from soy) and organic butanol are very compelling and I think those fuels will figure very prominently for transportation in the near future. Ultimately, to have a high standard of living, we will have to radically change the way we live. Otherwise, we’ll still radically change the way we live, only we’ll have a very low standard of living.
One final comment. I’ve read of people wanting to produce hydrogen from coal. Coal is mostly carbon. So where they get the hydrogen from I don’t know. Apparently, it can be done, but it also produces lots of carbon dioxide. Needless to say on the surface this looks retarded. Hydrogen should be produced from electrolysis of water either using solar or wind energy.

You can read up on butanol and biodiesel if you like. I forgot to mention that cars, trucks should eventually be replaced with hybrids and all electric vehicles.

Our high tech society cannot continue to waste energy, whether it be fossil fuels, nuclear, geothermal, hydro, wind, solar, or any of the alternate fuels proposed to replace fossil fuels. We need to overhaul everything from energy production to energy consumption. Even if we came up with a 100% efficient solar cell or a superbattery, we still have to deliver the electricity. We lose power through electrical line losses, then energy is wasted by inefficient products, and if your house isn’t well insulated you use even more electricity to cool or heat it.

The most efficient conventional electrical conductor is silver followed by copper. We use aluminum for most electrical transmission and for tremendous distances. So how much of electrical power is lost through line loss? We’d save a tremendous amount of fossil fuel just using superconductors. High temperature superconductors are the holy grail.

Darn. I lost everything I wrote after grail. I suggested we replace what we can with superconductors and I suspected that generators would be easier than transmission lines. And I was write. They are closer to reality, but they are a marginal improvement in efficiency only because modern generators are very efficient already. However, superconducting generators are smaller and would have a longer life.

I’ve let this post rest for a few days and I have this to add. We can leave things alone and let nature take it’s course. The problem will be solved one way or the other. I’d prefer one that doesn’t involve the collapse of civlization or the collapse of nature.

Americans can change their wasteful consumer ways and still enjoy a high standard of living. The world as a whole cannot sustain American style consumerism for everyone. Conservation starts at home. I’ve found a great podcast called The Lazy Environmentalist. His philosophy is that you don’t have to suffer to be eco-friendly and we can incorporate eco-friendly technologies into our lifestyles. Eventually we’ll have to take more drastic measures, but we can begin the transition now to reduce our environmental impact.