Biofuel startup ZeaChem has begun building a biofuel pilot plant that will turn cellulosic feedstocks such as switch grass and wood chips into ethanol via a novel biomimetic process that uses microbes found in the guts of termites. It makes perfect sense to use the termite model to turn hard to digest cellulosic materials into simple sugars. Termintes have been happily munching wood millions of years. They have a proven process.
The company says the ethanol yields from the sugars of its cellulosic feedstocks are significantly higher than the yields from other biofuel production processes. ZeaChem says its process also has the potential to produce a plastic feedstock.
From Technology Review:
Bugging out: A pilot scale cellulose to ethanol plant is under construction by ZeaChem and partner Hazen Research in Golden, CO. The plant will soon pump out 250,000 gallons of fuel per year.
ZeaChem employs a hybrid approach that uses a combination of thermochemical and biological processes. It first uses acid to break the cellulose into sugars. Then, instead of fermenting the sugars into ethanol with yeast, as is typically done, the company feeds the sugars to an acetogen bacteria found in the guts of termites and other insects. The bacteria converts the sugar into acetic acid, which is then combined with hydrogen to form ethanol.
“It’s a little more complicated than a conventional process. It’s not the obvious, direct route, but there is a high yield potential,” says Jim McMillan of the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Golden, CO.
In more conventional biofuel processes, much of the carbon content locked up in the sugars is lost to the formation of carbon dioxide when the sugars are fermented into ethanol. Converting the sugars into acetic acid and then ethanol, however, yields no carbon dioxide. As a result, this method has the potential to raise biofuel yields by as much as 50 percent, according to ZeaChem.
I’ve worked with Dr. Norbert Muller on a variety of projects. (Note: my role on these projects has always been modest). But what I have noticed about Norbert’s work over the years is the intellectual rigor that goes into his designs and his absolute dedication to creating a sustainable future. Norbert is one person you should watch. A variety of very cool, affordable and sustainable technologies are in the works in his labs.
Last Fall he showed me a sketch for an engine that uses shock waves instead of pistons to compress a fuel-air mixture. An engine that takes the best from “wave rotor” technology and turbine engines such that the engine has only one moving part, it doesn’t need water cooling and it uses fuel much more efficiently than anything on the market. Check it out:
Associate professor of mechanical engineering Norbert Mueller believes his wave disk engine could signal a breakthrough for hybrid electric vehicles. Mueller leads a team of Michigan State University engineers and scientists that recently received a $2.5 million federal stimulus grant from the U.S. Department of Energy to build and develop their engine.
The engine uses turbo combustion “shock wave” technology to convert either liquid fuel or compressed natural gas or hydrogen into electrical power. Fuel efficiency for hybrid vehicles could increase five times compared to internal combustion engines while reducing costs by 30 percent.
“Well, it’s lighter than an (internal combustion) engine, it’s smaller and it’s cheaper to produce because it’s all you need to produce,” Mueller said.
“It has no valvetrains, it has no overheads, it has no radiator, and all these things, and no water cycle, it’s pretty easy and simple. You only need to connect a generator on the back, which we call a pot-sized generator and that would be, basically be the engine which drives your full utility vehicle.”
The goal of Mueller’s team is to produce an engine that would give hybrid vehicles a 500-mile driving range and reduce carbon dioxide emissions by as much as 95 percent.
“That’s what we want to do, and we are committed to do in the next two years,” Mueller said. “I want to see you in three years, driving this full or hybrid electric vehicle with this engine in there.”
The Appropriate Technology Collaborative has provided construction drawings of our sustainable, affordable and low cost technologies to 1,200 nonprofits (NGOs), individuals and Governments in the last 15 months. We have had feedback from a couple dozen organizations who are using our technologies but with so many downloads we would like to get a better idea of how many groups are using our designs (that are always Open Source and free).
If you are an organization or individual or you know of someone using our designs we would appreciate a short note sent to: info (at) apptechdesign (dot) org.
If you have an interest in new sustainable appropriate technologies please check out www.apptechdesign.org
Your help with this is much appreciated. We are updating our ability to collect data on the efficacy of our work and making a Google Earth map of where our technologies are being used around the planet.
Thank you,
John Barrie, Executive Director, The Appropriate Technology Collaborative
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About 2 million people around the world die each year of diseases preventable by widely used vaccines. In Africa and parts of Asia over half of all vaccines that require refrigeration spoil before they can be administered. Millions of lives and billions of dollars are lost due to a lack of refrigeration.
Solution:
For vaccines to be safely administered in rural parts of Africa and Asia one needs a novel inexpensive, easy to maintain refrigerator that provides World Health Organization and UNICEF compliant “chain-of-cold” storage of vaccines. It should run on free non-polluting solar energy and it should be built in-country.
Description:
The Appropriate Technology Collaborative (ATC) worked with engineering students and professors at Michigan State University to create a unique refrigeration technology.
The ATC Solar Vaccine Refrigerator is a robust, easy to maintain technology that can be made in the country or region where it is to be used. It is made out of simple materials that can be found in most cities: steel, charcoal and ethanol or methanol. The finished product has no moving parts that need maintenance and it doesn’t use electricity of any kind. One simply places it in sunlight and it freezes. Period. (Note: If the sun doesn’t shine it can run on biofuels)
Design:
Simplicity and sustainability guided the design of the Solar Vaccine Refrigerator. There are only a few parts connected together by pipe. A steel box filled with activated charcoal, a series of pipes with cooling fins and a container of ethanol. There are no valves in the system.
How it Works:
The steel box is the solar collector/adsorber. The box is painted black so that it converts sunlight to heat. When the solar collector gets hot in sunlight the charcoal rejects ethanol vapor. The rejected ethanol vapor flows into the condenser, which is a series of pipes with cooling fins. The temperature of the ethanol vapor is reduced to the ambient air temperature and it condenses into a liquid. The liquid then flows by gravity into the evaporator which is located inside an insulated box. At the end of the day we have liquid ethanol in the evaporator and cool charcoal in the adsorber. Cool charcoal can absorb ethanol vapor once again. At night some of the liquid ethanol is adsorbed back into the charcoal. The ethanol that remains behind in the evaporator becomes very cold and the temperature in the insulated box gets down to our pre-determined design temperature of 0 to -10 degrees Celsius.
Once each day the refrigerator goes through one cooling cycle. Thermal mass inside the insulated box keeps the internal temperature even throughout daily temperature swings.
Refinements:
We have also changed the geometry from the original prototype to use steel pipes filled with activated charcoal instead of the steel box. The round shape of pipe is structurally superior to a flat box so we can use thinner material and have fewer joints that need to be welded.
To vote they ask you to register with the site :( However the last time we did this we didn’t get any spam Your support is greatly appreciated.
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In the early ’90s I designed a shipping container made out of Structural Insulating Panels (SIPs). I even got a patent for it, though I didn’t have the business savvy to make any money from the patent.
The idea of modifying existing shipping containers has a lot of promise. They are waterproof, strong and relatively cheap. The drawback is that the ceiling height is pretty low. Shipping containers come in two heights, one is about 8′-0″ tall and the other is 9′-6″ tall. The taller of the two allows for some overhead space for heating and cooling ductwork + some space for drainage from plumbing fixtures above.
One way to get beyond the box is to use the space between boxes as part of the living space.
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While we all wait for the X-Prize car to be announced we should remember that a couple of students at Western Washington University managed to create a high efficiency car with off-the-shelf parts more than two decades ago. From their website:
The Avion was developed as a lightweight and aerodynamic and very fuel-efficient sports car. The prototype was completed in 1984 and set the Guinness world record for fuel economy in 1986 at 103.7-mpg average driving from the Mexico border to British Columbia Canada border.
The plan at that time was to manufacture the Avion but at the time fuel economy was not as big a concern 20 years ago and we lacked the expertise and the money to tool up and produce the cars.
The car has been designed to be manufactured in small volume using recycled components from the automobile recycling yards. Utilizing standard engines and drive trains installed in the Avion’s light weight and aerodynamic body we can achieve significant improvements in fuel efficacy and performance making the Avion both fun to drive and while getting great mileage. In our testing the car we were able to achieve 80mpg At 70 mph and an astonishing 114mpg at 55mph driving from Eugene Or. To Portland OR.
An Idea twenty years before its time.
From the Rocky Mountain Institute:
Transportation uses 28% of our energy and produces 30% of our GHGs. Three quarters of this comes from cars and trucks. These numbers can be reduced by 30-35% or more with technologies that exist today. The real question is how quickly these new technologies can penetrate the market in significant numbers. Programs like cash for clunkers can help accelerate this, though analysis shows that the savings achieved came with a high price tag.
Amory Lovins endorses the idea of using “feebates” in the book Winning the Oil Endgame. A feebate system using a combination of rebates and fees to help reduce the average fuel economy of our fleet. New vehicles with fuel economy above the target level receive a rebate, while those below the target are assessed a fee, which helps to fund the program. Proponents claim that a feebate of $70 per mpg above or below the target would be sufficient to improve the national fuel economy by one percent annually.
I like the idea of taxing “bads” like fuel guzzling cars and supporting the purchase of fuel efficient cars. Kind of like Robin Hood. I’d even support a couple of hundred dollars per MPG over the set point to help low income families pay for fuel efficient cars.
Your support is greatly appreciated.
