Engineers Developing New Alternative Technology

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Comment by Michael, Houston on November 1, 2008 at 7:43am

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Comment by Matt S on October 13, 2008 at 11:09am

Greetings Ladies & Gentlemen,

Personally, I'm all for "Full Cycle Energy Utilization". Since I (and my company) already know how to double, if not triple, or better the volume per area per time for algae oil production at a given North or South latitude, I will explain the "Ethanol is NOT a green fuel" issue and hopefully kill it dead, forever.

It goes something like this...

The byproducts of complete combustion of petroleum based motor fuels (ex. gasoline) are few. Water (vaporous), Co2, and heat. The byproducts of incomplete combustion of petroleum fuels are a few more. Water (vaporous), HC (hydrocarbons or raw, unburned fuel), CO (carbon monoxide or semi-burned fuel), Co2 (carbon dioxide), as well as NOx (Oxides of Nitrogen). Neglecting additives, this sounds kind of nasty, huh? But, this is about as toxic as gasoline and it's byproducts get.

BUT WAIT! THERE'S MORE!

The reason NOBODY wants Ethanol to become the world's new standard fuel is really simple, but determining and verifying this information required almost $4 million worth of gas analysis equipment. THE reason Ethanol is unacceptable for general use is that the combustion (complete or incomplete) of Ethanol mixed with air and under compression generates measurable quantities of some of the Aldehyde group of chemicals (exs. acetaldehyde and formaldehyde) are constantly billowing out the tailpipe. As these chemicals aren't usually found "a la carte" in nature, the environment will not easily reabsorb them as it does with Co2 etc. from gasoline.

Something for the speed freak in all of us...

Running E85 as a fuel for internal combustion engines regardless of displacement or engine type (this includes the Wankel rotary too) allows for some rather impressive hot rodding if you follow the rules for alcohol as a fuel. To keep the concepts of physics easy to understand, look at the dynamic this way, to produce the same horsepower & torque as gasoline requires at least 30% more alcohol to be consumed. But, (THIS IS THE GOOD PART) assuming an engine builder (who has a clue) gets involved in the revamping of an old (pre 70's) Chevy 350 ci engine to use Ethanol. The math is simple. With alcohol compression ratios must increase to unlock the energy stored within the alcohol which requires the volume of alcohol fuel consumed to double, with a directly corresponding increase in horsepower.

Ergo, double the fuel consumption and double the power output as opposed to gasoline. Kids are irresponsible enough without them figuring out they can turn their little late model 1.4 liter engines into something akin to a "Top Alcohol Funny Car" for literally almost nothing. I can hear the increase in casket production to keep up with the demand that Ethanol will bring with it.

In my next posting..... The BIG issue keeping algae based biofuels from common usage within the next 24 months, and what YOU can do bout it.

Comment by John R Cogar, Oregon 2nd. Congressional District Leader on September 15, 2008 at 11:19am

How about a Geothermal Agri-business Industrial Facility to creale economic development in the rural west??

Full Cycle Energy Utilization

An Integrated Meat, Feed, Fuel and Fertilizer Production Facility using Geothermal Energy in an Agri-Business Industrial Park as a basis for Economic Development.

Agricultural practices in the rural west have remained markedly unchanged for over a hundred years. Hay is cut, baled and stacked. Most of the hay is sold, loaded on trucks and exported. Local cattle are fed some of the hay over the winter, turned out to pasture in the summer, rounded up in the fall and sold to a middle man who ships them out to be "finished" in a feed lot prior to being processed into boxed beef somewhere far away from the community, then today, that meat is shipped back to our Oregon supermarkets.

This agri-business industrial park concept involves integration of agricultural resources and businesses in a Geothermal Energy based complex. The system produces branded, value added finished products, from local raw materials, using local labor, produced at the collection site, for local consumption and for export in a more efficient manner.

The synergistic result is a dramatic gain in profit returned to the farmer, the rancher and the community from the net energy efficiency of tying these systems together.

How does this work?

Geothermal energy is an abundant renewable resource present in many parts of the rural west associated with hay and cattle production. (All of the systems talked about in this concept are off-the-shelf technology, readily available for utilization and most have been available for the thirty years since this idea was developed). No one has ever before combined these systems together.

A geothermal production complex basically consists of a production well, a heat exchanger and a reinjection well. (This is exactly what the Town of Lakeview now has that heats the Oregon DOC minimum security facility.)

Geothermal energy is unique in that the same resource can be used many times, for different processes, once it is extracted from the earth. The highest temperature waters are used to generate electricity, refrigeration and binary power from the heat energy being extracted. The water is "cascaded" down to secondary uses like dehydration and process water that use lower temperatures, then used for space heating, green housing and aquaculture prior to returning to the heat exchanger to be reheated.

Renewable geothermal resources, and the fuel this system produces, can potentially provide all the energy necessary to power this agri-business facility, the local farming, ranching and logging industries, and eliminate importaiton of vast amounts of petro-fuels, (and coal/natural gas/hydro-electricity), thereby drastically shrinking our carbon footprint!

What is the facility?

This holistic system consists of six main components all linked together using locally grown agricultural products, and eliminating each other's waste by turning each waste product into a resource.

The Old Timers called this, Waste Not....Want Not

The first link would be a Geothermal Based feed mill to more efficiently process, transport and market local alfalfa hay and feed stock.

At present alfalfa hay production requires a field to be left dry, out of production, for 7 to 10 days and requires mulitple passes with expensive harvesting equipment. A geothrmal feed dehydration mill would potentially allow the farmer to be back in production in about three days and eliminate the need for two out of five present steps. This would yield more tons to the acre at lower costs.

The Geothermal Feed mill would produce a higher value, "branded" cubed feed product, that would allow one truck to transport the equivalent of three truck loads of baled hay to market by grinding the hay, dehydrating it with geothermal energy and mixing it with scientifically engineered organic additives. (This would provide sales for other high value crops which might be grown in the area for which there is no market at present, because there is no processing facility able to process them into feed). The mill will produce the food products for the feed lot needed to finish the cattle without the need to import expensive corn.

Next link in the circle would be a cattle feed lot. This system would be a geothermal temperature controlled, environmental feed lot, with automatic waste collection, (and very little smell), designed to increase weight gain in cold climates like here, in the Great Basin. Geothermal would be used to keep the feed lot warm in the winter and to collect the waste product for the geothermal methane fuel system.

Next link would be a Geothermal Packing Plant or meat processing facility to produce branded beef products, on the local level, with local labor, allowing the transportation of about 300 processed animals on one truck, (powered by low cost bio-fuel) verses about 80 live cattle shipped out today. This would keep the profit here and provide local jobs. Geothermal refrigeration, binary power and process water would be used. Carbon dioxide recovered from the waste management system would prolong the viable shelf life of the boxed beef product.

The next link would be a geothermal waste management system to produce fuel and fertilizer from the waste products of the feed mill, the feed lot and the meat processing facility Geothermal waters would heat the digester resulting in a 20% increase in yield.The fuel, methane, could be used on site for the ethanol distillation, (replacing petro-fuels), or generate electricity with gas fired turbines or used to power the heavy equipment of the farmers, the ranchers and the loggers that produce the raw materials for the agri-business industrial park.
.
(A 1977 study (DOE proposal ED 113077, Nov. 30, 1977) showed a 10,000 head feed lot like this one, would produce methane equal to approximately 2.7 million gallons of gasoline per year. At today's rates moving to $4.00 per gal that is equal to $108 Million dollars almost free just for collecting the waste and processing it!

Methane is a clean burning fuel that has no carbon as its base. Waste products of methane combustion are oxygen and water.

The liquid "waste product" of methane production is natural CO2 which would be used in a variety of ways and high grade fertilizer which would be returned to the farmers, (can be applied with existing sprinkler systems), thereby increasing productivity and lowering costs. Solids would be dehydrated, using geothermal, and sold as a branded "Organic" Steer Manure product for export.

The next link would be a Geothermal Ethanol production facility possibly using locally grown grain, sugar beets and potatoes as feed stock for a geothermal vacuum distillation plant burning methane! Geothermal would be used here to "cook" the mash eliminating petro-fuel, and geothermal binary energy could be used to produce vacuum, allowing distillation at lower temperatures, again saving fuel costs.

The waste product of distillation is a high quality resource called "brewer's yeast" or DDGS, (distillers dry grain stock), which would be cycled into the feed mill system. We all know the demand for bio-fuels is far outstripping production and the government has made substantial incentives availiable for building bio-fuel plants.

Another potential fuel system might be based on Bio-diesel production processing oil produced by the feed mill pressing equipment for soybeans, mustard, rapeseed and others. (Waste product of "pressing" is a high quality feed stock for the cube mill!) Waste cooking oil collected from the region and animal fat from the slaughter facility also can be used to make bio-fuels and solvents and soaps.

Even more exciting are the ongoing studies on Algae Bio-Diesel that would use the carbon dioxide and fertilizer from the methane production that could yield up to 10,000 to 30,000 gallons of fuel per acre, (depending on the study you read and the process used). John Sheehan, an energy analyst with the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) in Golden, Colo., believes these goals are within reach. “There is no other resource that comes even close in magnitude to the potential for making oil,” says Sheehan, who worked in the lab’s algae program before it was shut down by the Department of Energy.

A host of other businesses might want to locate in a community where such a manufacturing facility were located including the naturals like green housing and aquaculture. But others like food processing plants needing dehydration, cooking or refrigeration might come to use the low cost energy produced from this system. Others might come to use the available hides to make leather or bio-diesel glycerin to make soaps or cosmetics.

This facility would cut the costs of agricultural production and dramatically raise profits to the producers through branded marketing, efficient transportation and low cost locally produced fuel and fertilizer sources.

The bottom line is a facility like this one would provide local, family wage jobs that are needed to have a sustainable community. Family wage jobs mean jobs for others in the community like contractors to build houses and teachers in the school system. They, in turn, provide jobs for the people in the restaurants and sporting goods stores.

Economic development is not an option. It is a requirement if a community is to survive. Without focused economic development young people and working people have to move away, so the town becomes a bedroom community for a retirement home, loses its stores and sees its downtown boarded up.

A community, looking to its future, must be able to control its own energy costs, put its people to work processing its availiable resources and sell value-added finished products This creates a Sustainable Community in control of its own destiny!
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Full Cycle Energy Utilization is copyright and Patent Pending. All rights reserved.
______________________________________________________________

This is in the concept stage. We welcome ideas and feedback.

We are also seeking individuals and companies interested in participating in development, building, financing and operating such a facility.

Be Part of the Solution

Comment by Daniel Quale on September 1, 2008 at 2:05pm

Hello, My name is Daniel Quale, I have designed, tested, and applied for a patent on a new type of generator. It avoids the effects of Lenz's law. This makes it easy to turn under load with no back torque. See my Pickens page as well as my website. Also have a new wind turbine design. See images below of my wind turbine and generator.

Comment by BurgessKJ on August 20, 2008 at 10:58pm

Long distance Power Transmission Lines:
The government already has right of way along all Interstate Highways. We already use this to provide a conduction path for fiber optic trunks.
Why not HV transmission?
There are four MAJOR Highways, crossing the entire U.S. [I8, I10, I40, & I70], which would provide all the East - West access we need.

Comment by BurgessKJ on August 20, 2008 at 10:54pm

Solar Asphalt: Duh, thermal energy source, naturally. Either for hot water, or hydralics to drive turbines.

It makes sense.

Comment by Colorado Bob on August 15, 2008 at 5:17am

Solar Collector Could Change Asphalt Roads Into Renewable Energy Source
Through asphalt, the researchers are developing a solar collector that could turn roads and parking lots into ubiquitous—and inexpensive–sources of electricity and hot water.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/08/080812135702.htm

Comment by DB Parker on August 9, 2008 at 6:59am

Hi Everybelly,
Thought people might find this of interest

08/09/08 - $240,000 Funding for ɯcycle Generator






A manufacturer of direct drive generators that convert the mechanical energy produced by wind turbines into electrical energy, ɯcycle Technologies Inc. also designs power electronics converters that transform electricity into energy adapted to everyday needs. The firm's invention is based on the innovative adaptation of a transverse flux configuration and the use of permanent magnets in the generator assembly. This patented technology's very high low-speed torque eliminates the need for a gearbox on the wind turbine. The Transverse Flux Permanent Magnet (TFPM) generator developed by ɯcycle Technologies Inc. is lightweight, maintenance free and stands up to even the most extreme climates. Historically, wind turbines have relied on an assembly composed of a gearbox and a high-speed induction generator to convert the mechanical energy from the low-speed wind turbine rotor into electrical energy. The gearbox is constantly under high stress and its failure is often at the origin of wind turbine breakdown. ɯcycles answer to the gearbox problem is the combination of a high-torque permanent magnet and a power electronics converter. Its line of generators uses an innovative adaptation of a transverse flux configuration. A specially designed power electronics converter is matched to the generator to benefit from the superior efficiency of variable speed wind turbines. - Source

Comment by Colorado Bob on August 1, 2008 at 8:23pm

I have long thought that plants were going to give us the way forward when it comes to harnessing the sun. It seems that day is much closer than we think . MIT may have hit one out of the park.

"'Major Discovery' Primed To Unleash Solar Revolution: Scientists Mimic Essence Of Plants' Energy Storage System"

Comment by DB Parker on July 29, 2008 at 2:07pm

Hi Colorado Bob,

It's been quite a trip just gettin things this far, You are right it is a whole new concept that I cannot believe was not thought of before. I scoured the patent office for a very long time before I went forward. I still cannot believe that this approach has not been exploited before now. I believe this concept approach given a fair playing field will blow the tradition tri blades into the history books. I've other concepts that I want to bring forth buty I figure one at a time. I am hoping some visionary soul with some loot to boot comes forward and the project can go to market. Thank you Colorado Bob for the kind words and truth, Stay Strong. DB Parker

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