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Thoughts on Carbon Folly (The Book)
Keith Sanderson
Cofounder USA Energy Independence
President and Editorial Director
Thoughts on Carbon Folly (The Book)
For those who may have forgotten or perhaps weren’t aware of it, The United Nations demands that the United states reduce its CO2 emissions by eighty percent by the year 2050.
Congress has taken the unrealistic challenge and is now considering legislation that follows the misguided mandate set by the United Nations.
Donn D. Dears founder of TS August* , provides some thought provoking facts, questions and conclusions in his upcoming book CARBON FOLLY: CO2 emission sources and options, that is slated for release in April of this year.
What person who believes in global warming and their children’s future wouldn’t be for supporting congress in enacting Cap & Trade legislation that meets CO2 reduction goals by 2050? Unfortunately the answer is probably most. I would suggest that before these well meaning but misguided persons embrace the 80% CO2 reduction goal in lemming-like glee they and other concerned persons read CARBON FOLLY.
In CARBON FOLLY Dears asks a simple question. That question is if census population growth figures are correct and the United States population will increase by almost 140 million in 2050 “is it possible to cut CO2 emissions by 80% ? Or by any meaningful amount?”
Dears who is an engineer by training and who before founding TS August was a senior executive at General Electric uses his strategic planning know how and experience in domestic and international manufacturing, marketing and management operations to analyze each sector of the energy spectrum to determine if the 80% reduction goal is possible.
His conclusions are must reading for those who want to read a realistic appraisal of the consequences for American society if carbon regulations are established but the pressures of population increase the demand for more electricity, more cars, and more jobs.
For more information on CARBON FOLLY go to www.tsaugust.org
Keith W. Sanderson
President and Cofounder
*TSAugust is an acronym for "The Second of August".August 2nd, 1776 was the day most delegates signed the Declaration of Independence. These were patriots who believed in the country they were about to establish. Many of the delegates were farmers or landowners who viewed nature as a resource to be used and protected. Many were business people who understood the importance of commerce and economic development.
Topics Subclassifications and Background Information
Methanol, which is now produced from natural gas, can also be produced from biomass — although this is not economically viable at present. The methanol economy is an interesting alternative to the hydrogen economy. Biomass-to-liquid are fuels produced by catalysis from syngas, which is produced from biomass by gasification. [1]Ethanol fuel produced from sugar cane is used as automotive fuel in Brazil. Ethanol produced from corn is used mostly as a gasoline additive (oxygenator) in the US, but direct use as fuel is growing. Cellulosic ethanol is manufactured from straw (an agricultural waste product) by Iogen Corporation of Ontario, Canada; and other companies are attempting to do the same. ETBE containing 47% ethanol is the biggest biofuel contributor in Europe. Butanol is formed by ABE fermentation (acetone, butanol, ethanol) and experimental modifications of the process show potentially high net energy gains with butanol as the only liquid product. Butanol can be burned "straight" in existing gasoline engines (without modification to the engine or car), produces more energy and is less corrosive and less water soluble than ethanol, and can be distributed via existing infrastructures.
Mixed alcohols are obtained by biomass-to-liquid technology or by bioconversion of biomass to mixed alcohol fuels. Commonly used are mixtures of ethanol, propanol, butanol, pentanol, hexanol, and heptanol, such as ecaleneTM.
GTL and BTL produce fuels from biomass in the so called Fischer Tropsch process. The synthetic biofuel containing oxygen is used as additive in high-quality diesel and petrol.
Ethanol From Wikipedia
Currently the main feedstock in the United States for the production of ethanol is corn, but trials of a new crop, switchgrass, are showing much greater yields.The dominant ethanol feedstock in warmer regions is sugarcane.In some parts of Europe, particularly France and Italy, wine is used as a feedstock due to massive oversupply.The largest single use of ethanol is as a motor fuel and fuel additive. The largest national fuel ethanol industries exist in Brazil. The Brazilian ethanol industry is based on sugarcane; as of 2004, Brazil produces 14 billion liters annually, enough to replace about 40% of its gasoline demand. Also as a result, they announced their independence from Middle East oil in April 2006. Most new cars sold in Brazil are flexible-fuel vehicles that can run on ethanol, gasoline, or any blend of the two. In addition, all fuel sold in Brazil contains at least 25% ethanol.The products of the combustion of pure ethanol and pure oxygen (under ideal conditions) are water and carbon dioxide. The chemical combustion reaction of pure ethanol with pure oxygen is: C2H6O + 3 O2 → 2 CO2 + 3 H2O. However, the general reaction with stoichiometric air (normal atmospheric air) will produce a combination of water, carbon dioxide and an oxide of nitrogen. Nitrogen monoxide and nitrogen dioxide are possible products depending on combustion temperatures and reaction conditions.The United States fuel ethanol industry is based largely on corn. As of 2005, its capacity is 15 billion liters annually. The Energy Policy Act of 2005 requires U.S. fuel ethanol production to increase to 28 billion liters (7.5 billion gallons) by 2012. In the United States, ethanol is most commonly blended with gasoline as a blend of up to 10% ethanol, known as E10 and nicknamed "gasohol". This blend is widely sold throughout the U.S. Midwest, which contains the nation's chief corn-growing centers.In 2005, the Indy Racing League announced its cars will run on a 10% ethanol - 90% methanol blend fuel, and in 2007, the cars will race on 100% ethanol.
Thailand, India, China and Japan have now launched their national gasohol policies. Thailand started blending 10% ethanol for its ULG95 in 1985; now there are more than 4000 stations serving E10. The blending of 10% ethanol into 95 RON gasoline will be mandated by the end of 2006 and into 91 RON gasoline by the end of 2010. It is expected that once the production of ethanol from cassava and sugar cane molasses can be ramped up, a higher blending ratio like E20 or E85 or even Flexible Fuel Vehicles will be introduced to Thailand.Ethanol with a water content of 2% or less can be used as the alcohol in the production of biodiesel, replacing methanol, which is quite dangerous to work with.General Motors of Canada are preparing the launch of E85 flex-fuel vehicles, and will be sold at the same price as their gasoline-only versions. Most of these new vehicles are being produced in Oshawa, Ontario.General Motors in the United States states they have over 2 million vehicles on the road in all 50 states that are capable of running under a 85% ethanol-15% gasoline blend known as E85. In 2006, GM will produce more than 400,000 flexible fuel vehicles annually -- vehicles that can also operate on gasoline or E85 ethanol without any modifications or special switches.Unfortunately, ethanol cannot be transported by pipeline due to its chemical volatility. It currently is transported by railways and barges.Also some of the problems experienced with ethanol include:
To match the detonation characteristics of gasoline at high-power settings, the utilization of ethanol-based fuels requires fuel-flow volume increases of nearly 40%. This means that currently-published performance information is not accurate when using ethanol-based fuels.
Ethanol-based fuels are not compatible with some fuel system components. Examples of extreme corrosion of ferrous components, the formation of salt deposits, jelly-like deposits on fuel strainer screens, and internal separation of portions of rubber fuel tanks have been observed in some vehicles using ethanol fuels.
The use of ethanol-based fuels can negatively affect electric fuel pumps by increasing internal wear and undesirable spark generation.
E-85 is not compatible with capacitance fuel level gauging indicators and may cause erroneous fuel quantity indications in vehicles that employ that system.
E-85 is capable of dissolving large amounts of water at conditions down to -77°, thereby impeding the detection and removal of water from the fuel system.
E-85 may block fuel filters, thereby affecting fuel flow.
E-85 experiences heavy evaporation losses.
Ethanol has only 66% of the energy content of gasoline (in terms of lower heating value with units of "BTU/US gallons").Some believe butanol fuel is a better option since it can be made from the same corn and other natural products. It works in all existing cars not just flex fuel ones. It gets better gas-mileage than gasoline or ethanol and provides better octane levels. It also pollutes less than ethanol or gasoline per mile.
Worldwide production of vegetable oil and animal fat is not yet sufficient to replace liquid fossil fuel use. Furthermore, some environmental groups object to the vast amount of farming and the resulting over-fertilization, pesticide use, and land use conversion that would be needed to produce the additional vegetable oil.Many advocates suggest that waste vegetable oil is the best source of oil to produce biodiesel. However, the available supply is drastically less than the amount of petroleum-based fuel that is burned for transportation and home heating in the world. According to the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), restaurants in the US produce about 300 million US gallons (1,000,000 m³) of waste cooking oil annually.[1] Although it is economically profitable to use WVO to produce biodiesel, it is even more profitable to convert WVO into other products such as soap. Hence, most WVO that is not dumped into landfills is used for these other purposes. Animal fats are similarly limited in supply, and it would not be efficient to raise animals simply for their fat. However, producing biodiesel with animal fat that would have otherwise been discarded could replace a small percentage of petroleum diesel usage.The estimated transportation fuel and home heating oil used in the United States is about 230,000 million US gallons (870 million m³) (Briggs, 2004). Waste vegetable oil and animal fats would not be enough to meet this demand. In the United States, estimated production of vegetable oil for all uses is about 23,600 million pounds (10,700,000 t) or 3,000 million US gallons (11,000,000 m³)), and estimated production of animal fat is 11,638 million pounds (5,279,000 t). (Van Gerpen, 2004)Biodiesel feedstock plants utilize photosynthesis to convert solar energy into chemical energy. The stored chemical energy is released when it is burned, therefore plants can offer a sustainable oil source for biodiesel production. Most of the carbon dioxide emitted when burning biodiesel is simply recycling that which was absorbed during plant growth, so the net production of greenhouse gasses is small.Feedstock yield efficiency per acre affects the feasibility of ramping up production to the huge industrial levels required to power a signifcant percentage of national or world vehicles. The highest yield feedstock for biodiesel is hydroponicalgae, which can produce 250 times the amount per acre as soybeans. [1]
Jatropha
Jatropha oil is vegetable oil produced from the seeds of the Jatropha curcas, a plant that can grow in wastelands. Jatropha curcas grows almost anywhere, even on gravelly, sandy and salinesoils. It can thrive on the poorest stony soil and grow in the crevices of rocks. When the seeds are crushed, the resulting jatropha oil can be used in a standard diesel car, while the residue can also be processed into biomass to power electricity plants.[1]Developed in India as a fuel oil, it has received wide attention, particularly in Asia (e.g. Indonesia[2] and the Philippines,[3]) as a source of biodiesel.Myanmar is also actively pursuing the use of jatropha oil. On 15 December 2005, Head of State, Senior General Than Shwe, said “the States and Divisions concerned are to put 500,000 acres (2,000 km²) under the physic nut plants [Jatropha] each within three years totalling seven million acres (28,000 km²) during the period”. On the occasion of Myanmar’s Peasant Day 2006, Chairman of the State Peace and Development Council Senior General Than Shwe described in his a message that “For energy sector which is an essential role in transforming industrial agriculture system, the Government is encouraging for cultivation of physic nut plants nationwide and the technical know how that can refine physic nuts to bio diesel has also identified.” He would like to urge peasants to cultivate physic nut plants on a commercial scale with major aims for emergence of industrial agriculture system, for fulfilling rural electricity supply and energy needs, for supporting rural areas development and import substitute economy.[4] In a meeting in January 2006, Minister of Industry Aung Thaung spoke of using biodiesel from jatropha oil to meet Myanmar's fuel needs.[5] More recently, plans have been made to cultivate 7,000,000 acres (28,000 km²),[6] and the project is said to be going forward.[citation needed]The plant yields more than four times as much fuel per hectare as soybean, and more than ten times that of corn. A hectare of jatropha produces 1,892 liters of fuel.[7]Jatropha is a one-stage conversion to biodiesel and the oil produces 40-42 MJ/kg, as compared with 42.5-45 MJ/kg for standard diesel.[8]Researchers at Daimler Chrysler Research[9] explored the use of jatropha oil for automotive use, concluding that although jatropha oil as fuel "has not yet reached optimal quality, ... it already fulfills the EU norm for biodiesel quality."[10]
