Waste Based Society

[Surly1]

The link does indeed work; yet the article itself is not visible in the archives. Or does not everything appear in the archives?
Just curious.

Yeah only feature articles are listed in the front page archives. But commentaries still show up in the main sections linked at the top, i.e. finance, energy, and earth

Thank you; I did not know that.

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[JoeP]

blah blah blah...is despicable

I think "despicable" is a pretty strong adjective for this.  For the most part, my intent was humor...but I can see how you might not find my comment very funny.  But people have told me I have a "strange" sense of humor - so maybe you're right.

Here's what I think is funny. 

Ilargi is obviously having a nervous meltdown of some kind.  Anyone that has taken one college level psych course can see this.  I think this started sometime after he gave out that "alarmist" advice (about 8 or 9 months ago) to TAE readers to take money out of the banks because there were going to be a crisis...and it never happened...and a lot of readers were really pissed off.  Ilargi made a stupid prediction and gave the wrong advice to readers and they started asking questions......meltdown begins.  So now he's riding high on his censorship horse...that part is funny to me.  I won't even go into some of Stoneleigh's bad predictions - that was covered earlier in the "Jeff Rubin and Oil Prices Revisited" comments.

It's also funny that at the same time Ilargi is cautioning readers against making "long comments", his boy (Ash-Hole) is writing fundy comments (at another blogspot) that are chapter-size.  Am I the only one that sees a little irony here?
 

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[RE]

It's also funny that at the same time Ilargi is cautioning readers against making "long comments", his boy (Ash-Hole) is writing fundy comments (at another blogspot) that are chapter-size.  Am I the only one that sees a little irony here?
 

The ironies and hypocrisy abound here.  The reason Watson comes over here to Bible Thump is because he self-censors it on TAE because Ilargi wouldn't like it.  Watson criticizes Diners here for yakking about TAE stuff, when the very REASON they are yakking about it here is because they CAN'T on TAE.

Then Ilargi goes and tells Commenters not to make long posts, when his Article is well over 2000 words.  Only Admins get to write Long stuff? If you are going to do a detailed deconstruction of an article, it's bound to be just as long as the original was, often longer.

Far as a nervous break down goes, I wouldn't be surprised.  Everybody is wound up a little tight these days.  Some folks respond being Born Again as Fundies, others move to Area 51 and still others Snatch the Pebble from Kwai Chang Caine's Hand.

As for me, I was Born Again to Josey Walesism.

RE

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[agelbert]

ALL ABOUT DUCKWEED


Snippet 1:

Researchers at North Carolina State University have found that a tiny aquatic plant can be used to clean up animal waste at industrial hog farms and potentially be part of the answer for the global energy crisis. Their research shows that growing duckweed on hog wastewater can produce five to six times more starch per acre than corn, according to researcher Dr. Jay Cheng. This means that ethanol production using duckweed could be "faster and cheaper than from corn," ]says fellow researcher Dr. Anne-Marie Stomp.

"We can kill two birds – biofuel production and wastewater treatment – with one stone – duckweed," Cheng says. Starch from duckweed can be readily converted into ethanol using the same facilities currently used for corn, Cheng adds.

A LOT of hogs are raised in the USA and many other countries as well. Do the math on the win-win situation of vastly increased ethanol production from duckweed while simultaneously stopping nitrogenous and fecal coliform waste which contaminates water and contributes to ocean dead zones. And remember that duckweed isn't particular; it can use ANY animal feces as fertilizer.

High nutrient removal rate from swine wastes and protein biomass production by full-scale duckweed ponds
NOTE: Don't be confused by the above term "nutrient" in the Sciencedirect article; they are talking about algae "nutrients" from animal waste that cause algal bloom and ocean dead zones from de-oxygenation. Shit causes algae to grow a LOT. In this case it is a bad thing and duckweed prevents it.

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0960852412003343

Duckweed is the smallest flowering plant known to man. Being aquatic, it uses most of the solar energy gained from photosynthesis to grow its buoyant fleshy leaves, avoiding the energy intensive requirements of slow growing woody root systems. This ultra-efficient use of energy is the main reason it grows so fast.
Note: Unlike GM plants tinkered with to grow fast or forced to do so with chemical fertilzers, Lemna minor (duckweed) sacrifices nothing in it's nutrient value for animals (it is edible and nutritious for humans too - In a world environmental collapse this humble angiosperm may be the key to preserving life, health and energy for millions of humans).

Global pork production in 2012 is revised upward 924000 tons from the last forecast to. 104.4 million tons.
http://www.fas.usda.gov/psdonline/circulars/livestock_poultry.pdf

Snippet 2:

The duckweed system consists of shallow ponds that can be built on land unsuitable for conventional crops, and is so efficient it generates water clean enough for re-use. The technology can utilize any nutrient-rich wastewater, from livestock production to municipal wastewater.

Snippet 3:

Cheng says, "Duckweed could be an environmentally friendly, economically viable feedstock for ethanol."
"There's a bias in agriculture that all the crops that could be discovered have been discovered," Stomp says, "but duckweed could be the first of the new, 21st century crops. In the spirit of George Washington Carver, who turned peanuts into a major crop, Jay and I are on a mission to turn duckweed into a new industrial crop, providing an innovative approach to alternative fuel production."

Source:
http://environmentalresearchweb.org/cws/article/yournews/38605

Duckweed for electricity at 3 CENTS per kwh:

Snippet 1:

It's a little, water-born plant that doubles in mass every 24 hours. The ducks really like it," Behrens said. Two pounds of duckweed seed in a 32-foot tank in Philadelphia grew to a depth of 2 inches in 10 days, he said.
"It's very easy to harvest," Behrens said. "That was the undoing of a lot of algae concepts. You can't spend too much energy removing fuel from water, otherwise on your balance sheet you haven't made any energy."
Duckweed is smaller than a grain of rice, but a million times bigger than an algae cell, he said. The duckweed is harvested with a nylon mesh, similar to screen doors, then dried.
In many ways, it's similar to wood-products waste, another type of biomass, which is used to generate electricity in White City and other places around the country.
"Trees don't grow fast enough, so we found something that grows faster," Behrens said. "The key is growing fuel on site, because shipping it in is too costly. We just had to find a fast-growing plant -- and there are plenty of those -- and then create an artificial environment that optimizes plant growth."

The artificial environment -- BioEnergy Domes -- is where Pacific Domes comes in. There are four sizes of BioEnergy Domes, ranging from a backyard-sized, 5,000-kilowatt version that can supply energy for one home to a commercial-size, 60-foot-diameter unit, such as the initial unit in a Philadelphia industrial park. The generating unit sits outside the dome and runs silently.

Behrens said it costs about $750,000 to $800,000 to install the largest BioEnergy Domes, and the payback time is only two years.

"You are able to generate electricity at the cost of 3 cents per kilowatt hour, the same as coal or nuclear plants," Behrens said. "It's completely controllable, unlike wind or solar power, and generates on demand like a fossil-fuel plant."

http://www.kgw.com/news/Ore-company-uses-duckweed-to-generate-electricity-117942849.html

While I laugh at the idea that the actual cost of coal or nuclear power is just 3 cents per kwh because the EROI numbers on those two poisonous energy products exclude massive subsidies and environmental costs, I see no reason to doubt that the 3 cents per kwh is bonafide with duckweed. Nuclear fuel EROI of 10.0 and coal  EROI of 80.0 are corporate pseudo-scientific Procrustean Bed lies (See this article: http://www.doomsteaddiner.org/blog/2012/07/17/hope-for-a-viable-biosphere-of-renewables/ ) Even if it is only in the wind EROI range of 18 it is still a far better alternative than any fossil fuel planetary poison. Furthermore, transportation costs would be next to nothing as well because duckweed infrastructure would be decentralized and local. Renewable energy produced this way also provides jobs for the community.

In addition, duckweed can be pelletized and used as food for tilapia fish farming or fuel in furnaces (after a low tech drying process).



sources:
http://xa.yimg.com/kq/groups/22406406/1260766168/name/duckweed++final.pdf
http://www.permies.com/t/13500/stoves/you-burn-duckweed-rocket-heater

Duckweed has great potential!

Drying duckweed on a screen

Duckweed is easy to grow. Just add water and poop.

What about those that claim that renewables like duckweed, wind, photovoltaic, etc. are just niche energy markets and will never actually replace fossil fuels as number one?

Snippet 1:

4. Clean energy investment has surpassed investments in fossil fuels
Last year was the first time global investments in renewable energy surpassed investments in fossil fuels.

The global market for clean energy was worth a whopping $250 billion.
The United States is currently leading in corporate R&D and venture capital investments in clean energy globally, and last year retook the top spot in overall investment with a 33 percent increase to $55.9 billion.

Snippet 2:

6. Fossil fuels have gotten 75 times more subsidies than clean energy
To date, the oil-and-gas industry received $446.96 billion (adjusted for inflation) in cumulative energy subsidies from 1994 to 2009, whereas renewable energy sources received just $5.93 billion (adjusted for inflation).

Renewable energy investments should be put in proper historical perspective. According to the Energy Information Agency, “focusing on a single year’s data does not capture the imbedded effects of subsidies that may have occurred over many years across all energy fuels and technologies.”

The U.S. government is showing a smaller commitment to renewables than it showed in the early years of the oil-and-gas industries. A study showed that “during the early years of what would become the U.S. oil and gas industries, federal subsidies for producers averaged half a percent of the federal budget. By contrast, the current support for renewables is barely a fifth that size, just one-tenth of 1 percent of federal spending.”

Snippet 3:

Here are the top six things you really need to know:

1)  Clean energy is competitive with other types of energy

2) Clean energy creates three times more jobs than fossil fuels

3) Clean energy improves grid reliability

4) Clean energy investment has surpassed investments in fossil fuels

5) Investments in clean energy are cost effective

6) Fossil fuels have gotten 75 times more subsidies than clean energy

Source:
http://idigmygarden.com/forums/showthread.php?t=53750

Given all these real world facts about the main energy investment trends and the promise of EROI increases from renewables such as wind, photovoltaic and duckweed free of the environmental hazards of fossil and nuclear fuels and the prospect of much reduced government energy subsidies that we-the-people will benefit from,  isn't it folly to cling to the concept that centralized power systems will remain dominant in the energy markets?

http://www.doomsteaddiner.org/blog/2012/07/17/hope-for-a-viable-biosphere-of-renewables/

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[agelbert]

How can renewables replace poisonous energy sources practically in the light of the massive resistance from the fossil and nuclear fuel corproations. Well, my purpose in the two recent articles and many of my comments is to define the problem and outline proposed solutions to it. It is a complex problem and the proposed solutions necessarily require a lot of boring detail, especially in the light of my firm belief that the energy grid will be mainly decentralized in order to harmonize with the biosphere and provide stable jobs for many. Furthermore, it doesn't matter whether I or anybody else thinks switching to renewables is a great idea and we just need to convince the reptiles pushing fossil and nuclear poisons onto the planet to do it or else we off them. As I have pointed out in this article: http://www.doomsteaddiner.org/blog/2012/07/17/hope-for-a-viable-biosphere-of-renewables/
, the switch is inevitable; the more the delay, the more the pain for all life forms, including the 1% that believe they can wait out the environmental collapse in their bunkers. I certainly am trying to convince those in the catbird seat that they need to wake up and realize that cooperation must replace competition in their world view but I have no plans to recruit a mutant ninja turtles hit team to put horse heads on their pillows if they remain in denial. These people are truly blinded by their greed. Their reasoning faculties have atrophied. Granted, a group of them are incorrigible due to the fact that they are psychopaths but that is a subset of TPTB that is running the show and if enough of the others can take their greed blinders off they will proceed to isolate the psychopaths in a display of truly enlightened self interest (not the cockamamie Wall Street predatory capitalist distortion of Adam Smith's' writings**) which encompasses a concern for the community to a greater degree than petty greed does. I have no control of when or how this may or may not take place. I'm just laying it out there because I haven't seen anybody try to put this thing together in a big picture format covering the last 150 years or so. I am a human being concerned with God's garden and the creatures that live in it.
But suppose I received a visit from Representatives of all the top zip codes in the USA (for starters - the other heavily industrialized country elite would need to be on board) and they said to me they just figured out that the NBC (nuclear biological chemical) filters on their 40 year food supply bunkers are only good for 20 years and their scientists have estimated no environmental rebound from collapse for at least 30 years. IOW, the bunkers will turn into coffins. Due to this newfound knowledge, the elite have suddenly decided it is in their best interests to embrace (teeth fully gritted) egalitarian socialism and put game theory in the circular file. So now, inflated with pride from all this reptilian elite attention and entranced in illusions of grandeur (time joke - laugh when you want), I proceed to outline the steps for the big switch:
1) Immediately implement the Energy infrastructure detailed in Table 1* of the "Renewables, why they work and fossil and nuclear fuels never did" article.

2) Convert all nuclear power plants into geothermal power plants. Use the steam turbines from fossil fuel power plants in new geothermal installations through a crash program similar to the U.S. WWII industry switch from making cars to tanks, ships and planes.

3) Divert all fossil and nuclear industry subsidy money to micro-renewable energy systems at the town, factory, and residential home level making absolutely any ordinance requiring permits or imposing restrictions on the freedom to install renewable energy systems to be null and void as well as lawn requirement ordinance elimination. When both "1)" and "3)" are globally implemented, a proper mix of renewable energy extraction sources will be in place.

4) Eliminate all ordinances limiting cottage industries in residential homes.

5) Modify property taxes so what people pay is directly proportional to their carbon footprint.

6) Funnel 90% of all military and gestapo wannabe security as well as intelligence (a truly Orwellian term) agency budgets worldwide to renewable technology R&D.

7) Teach steady state economics in all universities and stop the "growth is good" lies.

  Clean up the mess starting with everything that is radioactive. Find a high, dry location where the aquifer is a mile or more below the surface, dig a 2,000 to 3,000 ft cylindrical hole with a football field size diameter, line it with laminated (to avoid cracking from expansion and contraction) reinforced concrete about 30 feet thick (when all the layers are in place) and store ALL the nuclear poison, reactors and all the nuke bombs there and seal it with tons and tons of concrete.
When they begin to stutter and sputter at all this, I'll add that all the above are positive motivations. I haven't gotten into the punitive measures yet.
When they insist on some compromise or a more  "practical", "real world" incrementalist implementation of the whole renewable energy enchilada, I will calmly explain that the future of this planet is, at present, fixed. There are no alternate doors they can walk though where the massive environmental collapse followed by multispecies extinction "TIGER"  isn't waiting to eat them alive. I will further add that THEY are the ones who built this car we are all in hurtling towards the environmental collapse cliff. THEY built the car so that people, like myself, who aren't part of the movers and shakers, have no access to the steering wheel or the brakes. THEY are the only ones that can put the brakes on while they turn the car away from the cliff and towards a renewable, sustainable future. The ball is in THEIR court. The rest of us are screaming our heads off trying to get THEIR attention; so far to no avail. The planet earth is talking to THEM in many ways. The EARTH, in Dirty Harry fashion, is telling them, "GO AHEAD MAKE MY DAY!".
The planet will survive human greed but humans won't. This is the core message. Humans, get over your egocentric ways or die. That's the way the cookie crumbles in the REAL WORLD.

So what can people of conscience but without decision making authority do? Well, along with practicing all the skills learned in blogs like the Doomstead Diner to reduce our carbon footprint and live sustainably, we must educate, communicate and warn. We must expose Hill & Knowlton type propaganda lies and distortions that claim wind generators "cause increased ground temperatures" or "contribute to global warming" and other spurious half truths like geothermal installations "increase radon caused cancer risk" (radon is easily vented). Every time the Wall Street Journal or Fox News comes out with some slick "scientific study", find out who the spokesperson is and who they really work for and WRITE ABOUT IT in your blog. For those who say, "Hey, there are a lot of environmental blogs out there and our beat is economics and monetary systems and we swim in this peer group", I say, stop with the Pontius Pilate imitation. Go review Maslow's hierarchy and you will find that peer group acceptance is quite a bit lower in priority than eating and breathing. We peons need to keep planting well fertilized (with reasoning and logic) seeds in the rocky soil of elite greed with the view of getting those among them who are not totally blinded by greed to understand that that homo sapiens is a sap to willfully commit suicide through environmental degradation as well as wake the brainwashed among the 99%. Anyone who understands the gravity of this situation should stop the procrastination and get to WORK! To give up in the face of overwhelming odds is cowardice as well as hypocrisy from those who claim to let truth be their guide, wherever the chips may fall. Those that don't WALK the TALK are empty suits. For the rest of us, we must recognize the high probability of failure due to entrenched elite stupidity and evil. SO WHAT!!? We have to give it the old college try because it's the right thing to do!
For more information renewables are cost effective and fossil and nucler fuels NEVER were go here:
http://www.doomsteaddiner.org/blog/2012/07/17/hope-for-a-viable-biosphere-of-renewables/
*This is a table of the proposed Energy infrastructure:

Table 1
Energy production mix proposed
Type	Power fraction (%)	Capacity factor	Rated power (MW)	Units
Wind turbines	47.5–51	0.31	4.66–5	3,837,000
Stirling plants/air cooled CSP	28	0.25	300	50,460
Parabolic stations, 12 h storage	12	0.4–0.75	300	9800
Hydroelectricity	9	0.88	1300	900
Attenuators	0–3.5	0.4	0.75	0–1,123,000

*

"Adam Smith didn’t say that pursuit of maximum profits and growth by large, corporate organizations would result in the greatest benefit to society as a whole. The economy of Smith’s day was quite different from today. In the late 1700s, most economic enterprises were small, family operations. For such operations, land, labor, capital, and management often resided in essentially the same entity, and farming was still the dominant occupation.
http://web.missouri.edu/ikerdj/papers/Rethinking.html

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[RE]

How can renewables replace poisonous energy sources practically in the light of the massive resistance from the fossil and nuclear fuel corproations. Well, my purpose in the two recent articles and many of my comments is to define the problem and outline proposed solutions to it. It is a complex problem and the proposed solutions necessarily require a lot of boring detail, especially in the light of my firm belief that the energy grid will be mainly decentralized in order to harmonize with the biosphere and provide stable jobs for many. Furthermore, it doesn't matter whether I or anybody else thinks switching to renewables is a great idea and we just need to convince the reptiles pushing fossil and nuclear poisons onto the planet to do it or else we off them. As I have pointed out in this article: http://www.doomsteaddiner.org/blog/2012/07/17/hope-for-a-viable-biosphere-of-renewables/...

You want to make this into a Blog Article AB?

RE

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[agelbert]

RE,
Not right now. Maybe later. The reason is that I have been posting at Environmental issue articles at Grist, common Dreams & alternet with snippets of the posts on this thread and linking to the recent article. It is my hope they will read the article, then the others and then peruse the forum posts. When I first got here I couldn't find my ass with both hands so I don't want to confuse newbies.  There is one guy out there called Robert Riversong that is a walking encyclopedia. He can really turn a phrase too. I think you would get a kick out of watching him post. He is colorful and knowledgeable. He also cuts to the chase and doesn't suffer fools easily. He would liven up the any thread he posted on. I asked him to come and comment on my article. We'll see.

Thanks for the suggestion ,though.

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[agelbert]

Centralization of power sources was a wrong turn for human society and decentralization is the key to a livable society in the looming environmental collapse. I am reading Kevin Carson's free online book "Homebrew Industrial Revolution" recommended by alan2012. I find it to be very informative and educational in recounting details of the different inventions and their contribution to industrial development and the energy sources that powered them. As I go through it, I plan to share some quotes that stand out as a guide for future sustainable human behavior.

Today I would like to share this one with you. It is a core issue the worshippers of finance capital do not want to deal with because doing so would expose the reality that  and capital concentration is detrimental to society and civilization rather than an asset. Any emphasis in the text has been added by me.

The diffusion of power was an aid to the diffusion of population: as long as industrial power was represented directly by the utilization of energy, rather than by financial investment, the balance between the various regions of Europe and between town and country within a region was pretty evenly maintained. It was only with the swift concentration of financial and political power in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, that the excessive growth of Antwerp, London, Amsterdam, Paris, Rome, Lyons, Naples, took place.3

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/4116166/2.%20Chapter%20One-A%20Wrong%20Turn%20%281%29.pdf

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[agelbert]

THIS looks positive:
23.7 Gigawats solar energy potential from the PEIS areas is nothing to sneer at even though a lot is still on paper. The journey of a thousand miles begins with the first step.
Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement (PEIS) for solar energy development in six southwestern states—Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, and Utah.

July 25, 2012

Administration Maps Solar Energy Development on Public Lands

These areas are characterized by excellent solar resources, good energy transmission potential, and relatively low conflict with biological, cultural, and historic resources. The final PEIS identifies 17 Solar Energy Zones (SEZs), totaling about 285,000 acres of public lands, as priority areas for utility-scale solar development, with the potential for creating additional zones through ongoing and future regional planning processes. The blueprint also allows for utility-scale solar development on approximately 19 million acres in "variance" areas lying outside of identified SEZs. It also excludes 78 million acres from solar energy development to protect cultural or natural resources. In total, the final PEIS estimates that 23,700 megawatts could be developed from the 17 zones and the variance areas, enough renewable energy to power 7 million U.S. homes.

http://apps1.eere.energy.gov/news/news_detail.cfm/news_id=18512

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[agelbert]

The most common element in the universe is HYDROGEN.

July 25, 2012

Energy Department Investments to Advance Hydrogen Infrastructure

The Energy Department on July 18 announced a $2.4 million investment to collect and analyze performance data for hydrogen fueling stations and advanced refueling components. The five projects—located in California, Connecticut, and Illinois—will track the performance and technical progress of innovative refueling systems at planned or existing hydrogen fueling stations in order to find ways to lower costs and improve operation. These investments are part of the department's commitment to support U.S. leadership in advanced hydrogen and fuel cell research and to help related industries bring hydrogen technologies into the marketplace at lower cost.

For those not up on what has been going on with hydrogen, there's a drone built in California that uses the Ford Fusion engine with a slight modification. They want the drone to fly for very long periods so they have an on board fuel cell supplying the engine with hydrogen fuel. Yep they have an off the shelf, mass produced engine that has been tweaked with YOUR MONEY to run on hydrogen. So how come you can't put up a solar panel in your house running an electrolizer that creates hydrogen fuel for your converted ford fusion? GOOD QUESTION!

Notice the quote below is from TWO YEARS AGO!

Boeing's 'Phantom Eye' Ford Fusion powered stratocraft

Twin car engines let robocraft make 4-day flights
 
By Lewis Page 

Posted in Science, 13th July 2010 15:31 GMT
 
US aerospace mammoth Boeing yesterday rolled out its "Phantom Eye" unmanned strato-plane, able to cruise high above the airlanes for up to four days - powered by two ordinary Ford car engines running on hydrogen.

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/07/13/phantom_eye_rollout/


WHAT'S AN ELECTROLIZER? I'm glad you asked.

Although wave power is attracting a lot of attention as a renewable energy source, it is possible to generate power from still water. All you need is an electrolyzer, which separates water into its two components, hydrogen and oxygen, then feeds them into a fuel cell. Electrolyzers, however, require catalysts to get the process rolling. While hydrogen production catalysts aren’t much of a problem, the platinum catalysts used for oxygen production are expensive, don’t last very long, and the creation of them incorporates toxic chemicals. This Monday, however, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) announced the development of a new oxygen production catalyst that is 200 times more efficient than platinum. The nickel-borate-based catalyst has been licensed to Sun Catalytix, which is hoping to be producing safe, super-efficient electrolyzers within two years.

http://www.gizmag.com/new-catalyst-makes-electrolyzers-more-efficient/16112/

Again, notice how these great new innovations come out and they get BURIED. Oh, they just weren't "competitive" of they weren't "practical". The reality is that they step on fossil and nuclear fuel pig toes and anyone with a shred of honesty will admit that is the way it works in oil pig land.

Here's one innovation from a year ago that, no doubt, The oil pigs are busy burying. While our pigs bury innovations, other countries like Germany and China are probably making this stuff work for them.

Stanford overcomes major hurdle to solar-powered hydrogen production

Jun. 22, 2011 (12:15 pm) By: Matthew Humphries

The downside to water splitting when your energy source is heat (high-temperature electrolysis) is the amount of power required to extract a high amount of hydrogen from the water in the first place. Typically you need temperatures of between 800 and 1,200 degrees Celsius for water splitting to occur. As you can imagine, generating such temperatures uses a lot of energy which nullifies the process as an efficient way to produce more power. However, if the source of energy comes from focusing solar power you have a completely clean system using a base fuel (water) that is abundant.

A Better Solar-Powered Water Splitter

http://www.geek.com/articles/geek-cetera/stanford-overcomes-major-hurdle-to-solar-powered-hydrogen-production-20110622/

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[agelbert]

A solar powered electrolyzer that has been on the market for over two years!

HIDRO SELF POWER is a compact, easy to transport and assemble Hydrogen refuelling system, which generates hydrogen from clean solar energy, without any environmental impact in absolute autonomy. The 1kW photovoltaic canopy transfers solar energy to Acta’s hydrogen generator HSP200 that transforms and accumulates solar energy in pure, compressed and dry hydrogen fuel, consuming only distilled water. The Hydrogen storage capacity is 1200Nl.

HIDRO SELF POWER canopy takes limited space (approximately 3m x 2m) and could be easily installed anywhere.

We are looking for Hydrogen consumers who want an independent source of hydrogen for their home energy, boats or vehicles.

Details

http://www.fuelcellmarkets.com/3,1,9763,18,28977.html

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[agelbert]

Geothermal heat pumps are an example of passive geothermal power.

Just look at the fuel oil and natural gas alone that we would NOT USE if we had geothermal heat pumps in all US homes. Then remember that many homes are cooled by electricity as well as some heated by it and you have a MASSIVE (at least 50%) energy reduction just from switching to geothermal heat pumps. Remember that just a short distance below the frost line all over the US the temperature is about 54^o year round.



[url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Energy_in_the_United_States]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Energy_in_the_United_States[/url]


<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/y_ZGBhy48YI?feature=player_detailpage" target="_blank" class="new_win">http://www.youtube.com/v/y_ZGBhy48YI?feature=player_detailpage</a>

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[agelbert]

CSP (Concentrated Solar Power) runs 24/7 at about 570^o C. That is the SAME temperature range nuclear power plant steam before it hits the steam turbine. The night time operation is obtained by storing heat in molten salts that provide the steam to the turbines until daylight. The steam turbine in the CSP plants is the same technology as those for nuclear or fossil fuel power plants WITHOUT radionuclide danger or CO₂ pollution.

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/LMWIgwvbrcM&amp;feature=player_detailpage#]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LMWIgwvbrcM&amp;feature=player_detailpage#[/url]&fs=1" target="_blank" class="new_win">http://www.youtube.com/v/LMWIgwvbrcM&amp;feature=player_detailpage#]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LMWIgwvbrcM&amp;feature=player_detailpage#[/url]&fs=1</a>

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[agelbert]

Fun with mendacity for money through the fossil fuel corruption of scientists for the purpose of producing gamed (e.g. The Oil Drum published EROI studies) "scientific" studies that make fossil fuel extraction techniques look cost effective and environmentally benign.   

 

Details

Smelling a leak: Is the natural gas industry buying academics?

Last week, the University of Texas provost announced he would reexamine a report by a UT professor that said fracking was safe for groundwater after the revelation that the professor pocketed hundreds of thousands of dollars from a Texas natural gas developer. It’s the latest fusillade in the ongoing battle over the basic facts of fracking in America.

http://grist.org/natural-gas/smelling-a-leak-is-the-natural-gas-industry-buying-academics/

One comment from a wide awake Texan:

Kim Triolo Feil

Regardless of the academia studies.....I'm not a rocket scientist and speak from experience.
I live in Arlington TX - home to 55 urban drilling padsites in a 99 sq mile area...these are my concerns besides the water waste, disposal issues, and the related seismic events. 

The industry has a failure of emission control technologies and accident prevention layered protocols to prevent ....

1) drilling hazards like drilling mud that "dries and flys into the air", Bentonite's MSDS says it is toxic to the lungs

2) fracking silicia dust blowing off the sites (silicosis is a permanant disease)

3) flowback emissions they try to call "steam" but has hydrocarbons than can and HAS killed a worker last January-even Green Completion equipment is late to be deployed and exposes us to "top flowback" water vapors

4) diesel emissions in neighborhoods during all phases of the life cycle of the wells (diesel has benzene in it and is a carcinogen).

5) accidents that should be a zero tolerance in urban areas and the acknowledgement that the build out being so big that aggregate emission events and spills are not an "acceptable risk"

6) methane leaks that speed up climate change

7) piping that is not earthquake & leak proof over the test of time

Gas fracking is an obscenity:

<a href="http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=44367635" target="_blank" class="new_win">http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=44367635</a>

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[Golden Oxen]

Quote Agelbert" Fun with mendacity for money through the fossil fuel corruption of scientists for the purpose of producing gamed (e.g. The Oil Drum published EROI studies) "scientific" studies that make fossil fuel extraction techniques look cost effective and environmentally benign.   "

Remember way back the Scientific Studies the tobacco industry made showing smoking and lung cancer were not linked. That one always galled me the most. Happily they have paid dearly, but is of no value to the lives they destroyed. Joe Camel just popped into my mind also,  boy

Details Joe Camel

Joe Camel

were they ever good at brainwashing!

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