Fuel and Energy Alternatives

Pirates raiding ships have been in the news off and on in recent years. It’s been steady, but nothing really high profile. It’s probably passed underneath many peoples radar. This week though, the price of gas climbed $1 a barrel on news that a large oil tanker had been captured by Somali based pirates. After reading that linked article. It sounds as though, we’re seeing something not too different from the Barbary Coast Pirates of old (first overseas expedition of the US Marines (“To the shores of Tripoli”…))

(more…)

I haven’t looked around too much, but saw a price of $1.98 at the Woodland Hills (19/23 New Stock Road Exit) Ingles. (The other gas station there has it cheaper with a car wash.)

This is the first time I’ve seen the price under $2 in I don’t know when.

Here’s hoping we see $1.50 gas by Christmas. (Of course, I’d take it if it were lower too.)

We can’t let the lower prices though make us lax with our gas saving habits and the true need for more domestic production and development of alternatives! So, keep using gasoline carefully and let’s keep looking at alternatives and domestic production so we can stop sending so much money to the parts of the world that don’t have our best interests at heart.

The county of St. Lucie, Florida will be home to the first plasma gasification plant in the US. They’ve contracted with Geoplasma to construct the plant which will use plasma to rip apart 1500 tons of garbage each day. From what I recall reading before the primary byproduct is an obsidian like residue. The process also powers turbines which creates electricity. I’m not quite sure that the whole process creates energy though…. I would be interested in hearing the complete process and get the numbers of power input to output from the whole process.

(more…)

Wow! I just read this article over at the Guardian about miniature nuclear reactors that could power 20,000 homes, cost $25 million US dollars and essentially be buried underground, refueled every seven to ten years.

(more…)

This from the WOW – “where can I get some of that” category. A fungus has been found growing in the Patagonian Rainforest that naturally synthesizes a hydro-carbon compound that dramatically resembles diesel. From the article:

(more…)

Last night our local news had a story on the exciting potential of the Jatropha nut for biofuel purposes. They talked about how well it grew in marginal soils, so I looked online. The first thing I found was this story. The Jatropha plant can grow in barren, marginal land that it appears otherwise would not support other major crops. However, it isn’t without it’s drawbacks.

(more…)

You’ve probably heard a fair amount about the “Pickens Plan“. So, what is it?

Essentially, the idea is to bolster domestic electrical production with a massive investment in wind turbines through the wind corridor between Texas and North Dakota. All vehicles under the plan would be fueled by biofuels and natural gas. Clean fuels that we can have abundant supplies of. There are already Natural Gas Vehicles (NGV’s) and the price of natural gas is lower than that of gasoline (even $1 a gallon in some areas) not to mention that it burns cleaner.

Ultimately…. here’s what I think all of this gets at.

(more…)

Today I saw gas under $2.50 a gallon ($2.46 to be exact.) So, the price is still working it’s way down. I’m hoping it will get down another 20-30 cents by Thanksgiving.

On the downside for some people, I have seen news stories of people that “locked in” heating oil prices back in the summer because “everyone knows that the prices will keep going up.” Unfortunately for these people they took a risk and will be paying the price with higher heating oil and fuel costs this winter. This is no different from the oil futures market speculation. Sometimes you put your money where your prediction is and you get burned.

In the Asheville area of North Carolina we seem to be recovering from the recent shortages quite well. I’ve seen a few places selling gas for as little as 2.99 a gallon or so which is the first time in a while we’ve been on the low side of 3 dollars per gallon. I’m seeing news reports that this is a national trend and hopefully we’ll all be seeing the price down in the low 2 dollars per gallon soon. I know the current economic uncertainty is having some bearing on the matter, but lower gasoline prices really should help our overall economic situation as it cuts costs for people that need to 1) get to work or 2) need to move goods from point a to point b among other things.

While the Chevrolet Volt is a hybrid that is still not available for purchase, there are ways of converting existing cars to be VERY high mileage hybrids. Some can get as much as 100 miles per gallon. Essentially, there are companies selling a retrofit kit for existing hybrids like the Toyota Prius and Ford Escape. The kits can run from $5000 up to $35,000 but mileage can average around $100 per gallon. Depending on your vehicle usage this could be a fantastic upgrade!