from alternative energy sources

[Energy_minded]

Well, today there is great enthusiasm about the development and increased production of our global energy needs from alternative energy sources. I’ve read a lot about so-called biogas experiments, using bio-battery and so on. But recently I’ve known that it’s just the development in renewable energy technologies at some German plant, attached to Hamburg University, caused outbreak of E. coli there! The matter is that the plant has been involved in experiments on production of certain ferments, on the base of which scientists received new energy sources.
It turns out that this matter is more dangerous than even usage of nuclear energy! Well, maybe, it would be better for us to produce energy from such traditional sources as, for instance, coal, oil or natural gas...

 

[KissMy]

Joule Unlimited Claims It Can Make Diesel Fuel With Sun, Water & CO2

Joule Unlimited has invented a genetically-engineered organism that it says simply secretes diesel fuel or ethanol wherever it finds sunlight, water and carbon dioxide.

The Cambridge, Mass.-based company says it can manipulate the organism to produce the renewable fuels on demand at unprecedented rates, and can do it in facilities large and small at costs comparable to the cheapest fossil fuels.

 

[waltky]

What happens when we run out of water & energy?...

US Energy Production Facing Limits of Water Scarcity
January 09, 2012 - Scientists, climatologists and energy experts share a growing concern: the need for water in the production of energy, especially in regions that are experiencing serious drought. Generating power - whether it be from fossil fuels or renewable energy sources - requires large amounts of water.

Nearly all forms of energy production use large amounts of water. Coal, which generates nearly 50 percent of the electricity in the U.S., needs water for mining and transport, and to cool and lubricate equipment. Water is also used to cool fuel rods at nuclear plants and to generate steam to power turbines. The biofuel industry needs water for irrigation, fermentation and the production of ethanol and biodiesel fuels. Alexander Ochs, director of climate and energy at the Worldwatch Institute, says that adds up to a lot of water. “Per megawatt hour, coal uses 500 to 1000 gallons of water for the production of just one megawatt hour of electricity," said Ochs. "If we look at all the plants combined in the U.S., all the thermo-electric plants [powered by steam] in the U.S. in 2008 alone, they drew 60 billion to 170 billion gallons of water, per year.”

Without water, most types of energy could not be produced. Even renewable energy, like geothermal and solar, use water to cool equipment and to clean the collector panels. Those requirements have led California, Massachusetts and several Midwestern states to halt the operations of some power plants. “Places like the Midwest where water is a very scarce resource already today, a number of power plants have actually been halted, and this is actually true for across the United States," said Ochs.

David Brown directs programs for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration across the southern United States. NOAA collects data on climate patterns. Brown says the drought in the American Southwest, the worst in a century, is prompting changes in the energy industry. "Energy companies are also being forced to be more efficient in the way they use water, whether it is for electricity production in a coal factory or in the mining of natural resources through the fracking [hydraulic fracturing to extract natural gas] process," said Brown. "These companies are also realizing that water resources are strained and will continue to be strained as the climate continues to warm,”

The NOAA expert says water systems in the American Southwest will be under even greater stress over the next several decades. The agriculture industry is the prime user of water in the United States, closely followed by energy production. Experts say competition for water resources - from a growing population, and from the agriculture and energy industries - will require difficult decisions, eventually, by local and national governments.

Source

 

[waltky]

Dependence on foreign oil is our weak link...

OPINION: America's Achilles' heel
March 8th, 2012 - EDITOR'S NOTE: Mike Breen is Vice President of Truman National Security Project and a former US Army Captain. Breen is a national security expert and the founding director for the Iraqi Refugee Assistant Project.

From Mike Breen, Special to CNN:

As a young Lieutenant on my first combat tour, I served on an isolated fighting camp south of Baghdad in an area known as the “Triangle of Death.” My unit was entirely dependent on daily fuel convoys to power our generators and fuel our vehicles. Recognizing this, Iraqi insurgents consistently ambushed the convoys while my infantry company fought to protect them. That meant almost daily firefights which we jokingly called “fighting for our supper.” The insurgents had recognized a crucial weakness, one that Osama bin Laden referred to as “America’s Achilles heel”: our dependence on oil as a single source of fuel.

Not surprisingly, Iran has identified a similar weakness in our national energy posture. Oil fuels almost our entire transportation sector – and thanks to decades of inaction, we lack comprehensive alternative options to gasoline. This permits Iran to significantly influence the price of gas at the pump. Rising oil prices sap our national strength, driven by U.S. consumption and ever-increasing demand from developing economies. America sends more than $1 billion per day overseas for oil. It should not be a surprise, then, that oil is the single largest contributor to our foreign debt, outpacing even our trade deficit with China.

Iran reaps the benefits of our single-source dependence. For every $5 rise in the price of a barrel of crude oil, the Iranian regime receives more than $7.9 billion annually, a Truman National Security Project analysis found. Over 50% of Iran’s entire national budget comes from the oil sector, according to the CIA world fact book. That’s enough to pay for Iran’s nuclear program, support for terrorism, and aid to dictators like Syria’s Assad. So not only does our dependence make us vulnerable to their whim, it also puts constraints on our foreign policy choices.

Meanwhile, Iran continues to use oil prices – and the threat of price shocks – as a bargaining chip. Over 20% of the world’s oil supply flows through the Straits of Hormuz, a narrow waterway the Iranian military has threatened to close in response to U.S. pressure to end its nuclear program. Each time Iran escalates tensions, fear of supply disruptions drives the price of gas upward, inflicting damage on western economies. Iran knows this, of course – and periodically uses bellicose rhetoric and military posturing to inflict economic pain.

More OPINION: America's Achilles' heel – CNN Security Clearance - CNN.com Blogs

 

[waltky]

Ethanol saves man's life...

Doctors 'save man's life by using alcohol'
24 December 2012 - A small amount of absolute alcohol was injected to produce a small controlled heart attack

UK doctors have saved a man's life using an unconventional treatment - a shot of neat alcohol into the arteries supplying his heart. Ronald Aldom, 77, from Portishead near Bristol, had an unusual heart rhythm called ventricular tachychardia that can be fatal if left unchecked. Medics had tried to treat it using standard methods but with no success. They resorted to using pure ethanol to trigger a controlled heart attack and kill off some of his heart muscle.

Ethanol ablation

The procedure involved passing a catheter into a blood vessel in the groin and guiding it up towards the heart. Once the catheter identifies which part of the heart the dangerous rhythms are coming from, the ethanol dose can be delivered. This kills the area of the heart muscle causing the problem allowing the heart's rhythm to return to normal. This rare treatment has only been conducted a handful of times in the UK.

Cardiologist Dr Tom Johnson, who carried out the procedure at the Bristol Heart Institute, said Mr Aldom was now "much better". "He wasn't going to leave hospital unless something was done. There was no other option." Mr Aldom, who is now out of hospital, said: "I think it's wonderful that the doctors tried everything to help me. "If they hadn't have done this I wouldn't be here now."

BBC News - Doctors 'save man's life by using alcohol'