The Greasecar Vegetable Oil Conversion System is an auxiliary fuel modification system that allows diesel vehicles to run on vegetable oil in any climate.
The Greasecar kit comes with everything you need to convert your diesel vehicle to run on straight vegetable oil. Including hand crafted aluminum heated fuel cell, Quick-flush switching and 10 micron filter.
What does it really take to, for real, completely and totally, have a car which has zero carbon footprint. This is a phrase that's bandied around but what does it really mean. The Zero Carbon Car is a book which explores these questions. The author built his own plug-in hybrid electric vehicle to explore these questions.
Supplier of tools, equipment, information and training to produce 100% biodiesel.
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This is a very deeply interesting documentary about oil, oil supplies, the peak oil phenomenon, and the coming looming disasters which await us. The documentary is not "balanced" in that they gave no voice to the other points of view, but I suppose they think those other points of view are so far out of truth to not be worth addressing.
It starts with some assertions of truth: Oil is the Blood of the Dinosaurs, Oil is the Bloodstream of the Global Economy, Oil is the Blood of the Earth
Our arrangements of using Oil is making ourselves dependent on unstable regimes in nasty parts of the world. This isn't covered in the documentary, but I wonder how much of that instability is due to geopolitical machinations launched by the U.S. to secure the supply of oil. In any case it's obvious from the daily news that the middle east is unstable, and this is where our oil is coming from.
Assertion: It's important (to some) to keep us dependent on oil for as long as possible.
It would be in the business interests of the oil companies to keep the world dependent on oil. Clearly if the world continued its dependence on oil, the world will continue to ship money to the oil companies.
Most people have no inkling of the problem we're facing. The looming crisis includes unemployment, bankruptcy, starvation.. all this is the normal behavior of a collapsed society.
Assertion by Colin Campbell: The bulk of the worlds oil was formed in two periods of extreme global warming, 90 million years ago, and 150 million years ago.
If this is correct it makes oil a one time resource which will "never" be recreated on this planet. I'm a little surprised and will need to double check this assertion by Dr. Campbell. I always thought there was a continuing process of creating new oil, it's just that the planet takes a long time to do the process.
The work value of oil is phenomenal. Scientists can equate units of human labor to the energy, and the energy content of $1 worth of oil contains the energy equivalent to 25,000 hours of human labor. In other words the drive to my job, 10 miles, uses energy equivalent to 40,000 hours of human labor. But I know from personal experience I can ride a bicycle for that same distance, it takes me 45 minutes to ride, so there's a huge wastage of energy (40,000 hours of human labor to drive my car versus the 45 minutes of human labor it takes me to ride my bicycle).
Assertion: "Oil is our God" and that whatever religion we profess to, what we really worship is oil. Eh? What do they mean by "worship"?
70% of oil is used for transportation fuel
98% of transportation energy comes from oil
Constructing products like cars or computers or food, all these things by modern production methods require more weight in oil to produce the thingy than the thingy itself weighs. In Agriculture, for example, it's widespread to use petroleum based fertilizer. Oil makes plastics, insecticides, cosmetics and more.
"They're not making a lot of dinosaurs any more"
"Oil is a magnet for war. Oil starts wars." This speaker goes on to claim the conflict in Darfur is really about oil. There are oil supplies in southern Sudan, recently found. The Sudanese government (based in the north) wants to control the oil, and are therefore ethnically cleansing southern Sudan so the northern Sudanese can control the oil.
However this "Oil starts all wars" is a strange short-sighted statement. What about the wars which begun before Oil was discovered and brought into use by humans? There were many wars fought before the age of Oil, and clearly those wars were not fought over oil resources. However it's ominous that she claims World War I was really about oil (??Was it??). Many events in World War II were affected clearly by oil supplies, especially the German attack into Russia so that Germany could gain control of the Baku oil fields.
The first war purely about Oil was the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait. This was absolutely and fundamentally about a dispute over an oil field.
In the more recent U.S. stupid illegal invasion of Iraq, the U.S. military did not secure the WMD areas. Supposedly the war was to control WMD's, so why didn't they secure Iraq's military depots? By not securing Iraq's depots the arms and other military supplies in there instead were looted and were made available to the insurgents, who have been blowing up U.S. troops ever since. Anyway, instead of securing the WMD depots the U.S. military secured the oil fields. Instead of securing the museums in Baghdad, the museums which contained the original records of human civilization, the museums which contained the cuniform tablets that are the earliest form of writing, instead of securing the museums which were looted, the U.S. military secured the oil ministry.
We're "Always just a drill bit aqway from a major new discovery" but it's been a very long time since the last significant discovery.
Extracting oil from tar sands and other heavy deposits, it's technically possible however it requires more energy to do so than you get from the resulting oil. The Fischer-Tropsch process was invented by German scientists before World War II and is how the Germans were able to fuel their war machine while not having a supply of oil. They converted coal into oil using this process.
Use of this process is only feasible as a last resort, because it's so expensive to do.
"Sustainable peak supply" -- what does this phrase mean?
They assert that oil allowed world human population to explode. At time of christ, 300mil, by 1700's it'd doubled to 600mil. But as soon as oil was discovered the population exploded to the 6billion it is now. They're saying population increase came as a direct result of better energy supplies. Maybe so, but weren't there other effects? Better medicine? Also better food supplies, though better food is due to better oil supply.
Richard M. Nixon: If our energy resources are sensibly developed they can provide for us for centuries to come
There's a belief many have had that oil is limitless and will always be cheap. Businesses have written into their assumptions that oil will continue being supplied as it is today. Again most people are clueless as to what's about to happen.
A 30-40-50 mile commute only makes sense when there's cheap oil. In the U.S. we've reconstructed the cities to make for 30+ mile commutes, with people driving everywhere, the cities are organized for the convenience of drivers, and there is resulting very little mass transit. This is short sighted thinking which led us to suburbanize U.S. cities under the belief that there would always be cheap oil and gas.
The U.S. evolved our cities for cars. The end of cheap oil means we'll have to rebuild our cities from scratch to a denser style. Perhaps.
e.g. riding bicycle's would be the kind of adaptation people will have to make. But most people are unwilling to ride bicycles for any serious amount of riding.
There are two options: a) militarize the taking of oil by force, b) prepare properly for the coming end of cheap oil
Technology can come to the rescue. Natural resources can be exhausted, but human ingenuity is inexhaustible.
Projections of current trends in energy demand say the human population will require 14 terawatts of energy in 2050. This is tremendous. It would require thousands of new nuclear plants (for example) and by doing this with nuclear power would mean the uranium supplies would reach their peak uranium production very quickly.
Living in the style to which we have become accustomed is not sustainable. It is going to create for us a crisis. How will we get through this?
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Today I want to talk about the Peak Oil situation and do an overview of some of the current news related to this.
Let's start with a quick primer on what this is.
Adapted from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peak_oil http://www.7gen.com/website/peak-oil/23988-peak-oil
Peak oil is the point in time when the maximum rate of petroleum production is reached. The peak oil occurs at every level, for each oil field, for each country, and for the global production. After the peak oil point is reached, the rate of production enters its terminal decline. If global consumption is not mitigated before the peak, an energy crisis may develop because the availability of conventional oil will drop and prices will rise, perhaps dramatically. M. King Hubbert first used the theory in 1956 to accurately predict that United States oil production would peak between 1965 and 1970. His model, now called Hubbert peak theory, has since been used to predict the peak petroleum production of many other countries, and has also proved useful in other limited-resource production-domains. According to the Hubbert model, the production rate of a limited resource will follow a roughly symmetrical bell-shaped curve based on the limits of exploitability and market pressures.
The same pattern happens for other limited resources. There will be a copper peak, a coal peak, a natural gas peak, a fish peak, etc. In each case there is an increasing demand for a resource, and a fixed maximum capacity to deliver that demand, and once the capacity is reached it damages the resource such that it can no longer produce as it did before.
Oil is the most critical resource for our societies existence and it is with oil that this Peak Resource phenomenon was discovered.
Oil is the key to transportation. Current transportation technologies generally require liquid fuels, and society has chosen that the only way to get liquid fuels is to use fossil oil. The direct result of tight oil supplies will be expensive transportation, and that will contribute to several secondary results to be covered later.
The ever-increasing demand for oil partly occurs as a natural byproduct of rising population. Each person who exists is responsible for consuming resources, so of course the more people there are the more resources which are used. Another cause is a shift from manual technologies like bicycles or horse drawn carts to mechanized technologies like cars and trucks. Some countries, especially India and China, are industrializing and are causing an increased rate of demand. As countries industrialize the amount of resources consumed per person raises as well.
Peak Oil
http://www.7gen.com/article-summary/peak-oil/23991-peak-oil
http://www.cbc.ca/news/background/oil/peak-oil.html
An interview with the authors of Transport Revolutions: Moving People and Freight Without Oil they suggest the U.S. might become so desperate for oil they would invade Canada to get its oil. Maybe the NAFTA is at least partly due to the need to have ready access to Canadian oil.
"The likely outcome of not dealing with this issue is not an environmental catastrophe. It's an economic and social catastrophe that may leave us unable to deal with the environmental catastrophe," Richard Gilbert said in an interview. The effects brought by oil in our society are so critical and fundamental to how we live, that without cheap oil we face starvation, riots, collapsed economies, more wars, and more.
The gushers are gone - "It's the end of the Beverly Hillbillies oil. The kind of oil that you stick a hole in the ground, and it starts squirting a gusher out under its own power." - All the big discoveries have already been made. There are two peaks in oil supply, the first peak is the peak in the rate of discovery of oil, and the second peak is the peak of oil production. The peak of the discovery rate has to precede the peak of production, and the peak of oil discovery is long past.
There's more in this article but we're focused on understanding peak oil here.
World Energy Outlook
http://www.7gen.com/website/government-and-environment/23994-world-energy-outlook
World Energy Outlook 2007 Edition
http://www.7gen.com/website/energy-policy/23996-world-energy-outlook-2007-edition
As Dr. Fatih Birol, Chief Economist of the International Energy Agency, said in testimony to Congress in January 2007: "The world is facing twin energy-related threats: that of not having adequate and secure supplies of energy at affordable prices and that of environmental harm caused by its use. " Not only is the supply threatened, the use of fossil fuels is threatening us all from environmental harm. The burning of fossil fuels releases poisons which directly cause a wide range of diseases. The burning of fossil fuels release greenhouse gasses which are directly causing climate change to be worse. Purchasing fossil fuels results in large capital flows into the Middle East.
"Oil supply is increasingly dominated by a small number of major producers, most of them in the Middle East" which then connects to a variety of global geopolitical manipulations. The oil industry needs to do massive investment in developing oil fields and infrastructure, a total of $4.3 trillion dollars between 2005-2030. However it is uncertain whether the key Middle East countries will actually do so, and it's possible they will deliberately keep investment lower than predicted. Why should they increase production when keeping production low keeps the price high? Or it's possible that a credit crunch might prevent producers from expanding capacity due to a lack of money to pay for the investments.
The U.S. imports more energy than the next 2 highest importers. Most of U.S. imports come from shaky or unfriendly suppliers. Many of the key suppliers are 1-2 months travel time away. There are many scenarios in which "energy" (a.k.a. oil) supplies to the U.S. can be disrupted. One of these unfriendly suppliers could turn downright nasty and cut off oil to the U.S. Or storms could wreck shipping facilities, refinery facilities. Or a war with Iran could block the mouth of the Persian Gulf, preventing shipment of oil from the Middle East.
In other words we have to be smart enough to realize the game is changing. That we can no longer continue life in the style to which we have become accustomed. We have to change our ways.
The Shape of Oil to Come
http://www.7gen.com/article-summary/peak-oil/23980-shape-oil-come
http://www.theoildrum.com/node/3060
There are approximately two thoughts to how the peak oil phenomena plays out. The "sharp peak" model says production reaches a peak and rapidly declines. Nobody who has studied this carefully says we will "run out", instead the debate is in how quick is the decline. There are those who think production will, instead, "plateau" for a long time for one reason or another.
Oil megaprojects
http://www.7gen.com/website/oil-industry/23982-oil-megaprojects
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oil_megaprojects
On Wikipedia the Oil Megaprojects page tracks the known huge oil projects. It's a useful resource to look at and ponder.
The rise of the new energy world order
http://atimes.com/atimes/Global_Economy/JD17Dj04.html
http://www.7gen.com/article-summary/peak-energy/24136-rise-new-energy-world-order
The world energy crisis is upon us. Dwindling supply and rising demand leads to a simple economics lesson, rising cost. The old equation was cheap energy lead to untold wealth. The new equation is gonna lead to a totally different world power structure.
Home page for Ken Deffyes, a Princeton researcher specializing in the Peak Oil phenomenon.
a clearinghouse for information regarding the peak in global energy supply. We publish news, research and analysis concerning:
* energy production statistics, models, projections and analysis
* articles which provide insight into the implications of peak oil across broad areas including geopolitics, climate change, ecology, population, finance, urban design, health, and even religious and gender issues.
* a range of information to help preparedness for peak energy, such as:
o renewable energy information
o alternative financial systems
o low energy agriculture
o relocalization
* any other subjects that could lead to better understanding the implications of an energy production peak
a grassroots group of concerned local citizens, from different backgrounds, with different interests, who've separately become aware of the looming crisis caused by the peaking of world oil supplies. Portland Peak Oil puts on events every Wednesday night in Southeast Portland. We feature relevant speakers, show films, hold small and large discussion groups, host workshops, etc. Between 30-120 people come each week. In between Wednesday evenings, there are monthly meetings of our working groups: Outreach, Preparedness, Policy, and Business. These monthly meetings are usually regular (e.g. the Business meeting is first Sunday of the month at 6pm). All Wednesday evening events and monthly meetings are posted to the events calendar.
We've already burned through almost half the world's supply of oil. How will we ride out the slide down the other side of Hubbert's Curve? For more information, go to: http://www.energychallenge.tv/
Information portal related to Peak Oil. "Peak Oil Portal is a website that focuses on the topic of Peak Oil, sometimes also referred to as Hubbert’s Peak and its potential ramifications to the global economy. Additionally, we also provide resources on energy trading such as our crude oil, unleaded gas, heating oil, and natural gas futures trading blog. We hope you find the resources on this website useful in your attempt to educate yourself on topic of Peak Oil, a subject that could easily be argued as one of the most important topics facing human civilization in the years ahead. If we can be of any assistance to you please contact us."
We are entering the Peak Oil era. The growth of oil production is slowing, driving up oil and gasoline gas prices, firing inflation, driving unemployment, straining our global economy, and threatening to collapse our entire system. We are reaching Peak Oil and we are unprepared. Teacher Aaron Wissner, in a compact 10 minutes video summary, details Peak Oil, the evidence, the impacts, and the solutions. See the full one-hour video at LocalFuture.org. Also, at YouTube, see the conclusion, of that presentation, part 5 of 5, which highlights the impacts, underlying problem, and solutions to Peak Oil.
Group blog and information site providing oil industry analysis especially concerned about peak oil analysis.
A prominent blog presenting news and information and analysis about the peak oil phenomenon.
Named after the late Dr. M. King Hubbert, Geophysicist, this website provides data, analysis and recommendations regarding the upcoming peak in the rate of global oil extraction.
Civilization as we know it is coming to an end soon. This is not the wacky proclamation of a doomsday cult, apocalypse bible prophecy sect, or conspiracy theory society. Rather, it is the scientific conclusion of the best paid, most widely-respected geologists, physicists, bankers, and investors in the world. These are rational, professional, conservative individuals who are absolutely terrified by a phenomenon known as global "Peak Oil."
M. King Hubbert, who devised the peak theory, correctly predicted in 1956 that oil production would peak in the United States between 1965 and 1970[1]. Hubbert further predicted a worldwide peak at "about half a century" from publication and approximately 12 gigabarrels (GB) a year in magnitude, though he revised this estimate in 1974 to 40-Gb/yr in 1995.[2] "if current trends continue". In a 1976 TV interview Hubbert added that the actions of OPEC might flatten the global production curve but this would only delay the peak for perhaps 10 years[3].
The Hubbert curve projects the rate of oil production over time, and is the main component of Hubbert peak theory. It was first proposed by geophysicist M. King Hubbert in the mid 1950s during his tenure at the Shell Oil Company, and has gained a high degree of popularity in the scientific community for predicting the depletion of various natural resources, as well a prominence in peak oil discussions.
Basing his calculations on the peak of oil well discovery in 1948, Hubbert used his model in 1956 to accurately predict that oil production in the contiguous United States would peak around 1970.
Marion King Hubbert (October 5, 1903 – October 11, 1989) was a geoscientist who worked at the Shell research lab in Houston, Texas. He made several important contributions to geology and geophysics, most notably the Hubbert curve and Hubbert peak theory (or peak oil), with important political ramifications. He was often referred to as "M. King Hubbert" or "King Hubbert".
The Hubbert peak theory posits that for any given geographical area, from an individual oil-producing region to the planet as a whole, the rate of petroleum production tends to follow a bell-shaped curve. It is one of the primary theories on peak oil.
The big question is, do biofuels really contribute to reducing greenhouse gas emissions?
Research suggests that once the greenhouse gases produced by the the process of growing the crops for biofuel are factored in - from ploughing the fields, making the fertiliser, harvesting the crops, processing them, to transporting the finished fuel - the environmental benefits are seriously compromised.
One recent study investigated the impact of fertiliser on biofuel production. Using sugar cane, according to the research, does offer greenhouse gas savings of between 10% and 50%.
But using rapeseed and corn for biofuel manufacture can actually produce between 50% and 70% more greenhouse gases than using fossil fuels. Professor Keith Smith, one of the team of scientists who worked on the research, says he is "concerned that the adoption of biofuels so enthusiastically means we're running ahead of the science".
In February, transport secretary Ruth Kelly announced an enquiry into biofuels before committing the UK to any higher targets than those already set.
The fuels' future seems uncertain, yet in a step that even green campaigners support, the industry is now investing to develop "second generation" biofuels from non-food crops like straw, woodchips and even algae.
This is still some years off. Until then, the quest to find an alternative to petrol and diesel will continue to fuel debate, even if it does not fuel all our cars.
The big question is, do biofuels really contribute to reducing greenhouse gas emissions?
Research suggests that once the greenhouse gases produced by the the process of growing the crops for biofuel are factored in - from ploughing the fields, making the fertiliser, harvesting the crops, processing them, to transporting the finished fuel - the environmental benefits are seriously compromised.
One recent study investigated the impact of fertiliser on biofuel production. Using sugar cane, according to the research, does offer greenhouse gas savings of between 10% and 50%.
But using rapeseed and corn for biofuel manufacture can actually produce between 50% and 70% more greenhouse gases than using fossil fuels. Professor Keith Smith, one of the team of scientists who worked on the research, says he is "concerned that the adoption of biofuels so enthusiastically means we're running ahead of the science".
In February, transport secretary Ruth Kelly announced an enquiry into biofuels before committing the UK to any higher targets than those already set.
The fuels' future seems uncertain, yet in a step that even green campaigners support, the industry is now investing to develop "second generation" biofuels from non-food crops like straw, woodchips and even algae.
This is still some years off. Until then, the quest to find an alternative to petrol and diesel will continue to fuel debate, even if it does not fuel all our cars.
The big question is, do biofuels really contribute to reducing greenhouse gas emissions?
Research suggests that once the greenhouse gases produced by the the process of growing the crops for biofuel are factored in - from ploughing the fields, making the fertiliser, harvesting the crops, processing them, to transporting the finished fuel - the environmental benefits are seriously compromised.
One recent study investigated the impact of fertiliser on biofuel production. Using sugar cane, according to the research, does offer greenhouse gas savings of between 10% and 50%.
But using rapeseed and corn for biofuel manufacture can actually produce between 50% and 70% more greenhouse gases than using fossil fuels. Professor Keith Smith, one of the team of scientists who worked on the research, says he is "concerned that the adoption of biofuels so enthusiastically means we're running ahead of the science".
In February, transport secretary Ruth Kelly announced an enquiry into biofuels before committing the UK to any higher targets than those already set.
The fuels' future seems uncertain, yet in a step that even green campaigners support, the industry is now investing to develop "second generation" biofuels from non-food crops like straw, woodchips and even algae.
This is still some years off. Until then, the quest to find an alternative to petrol and diesel will continue to fuel debate, even if it does not fuel all our cars.
Mick Gilbert, Global Green Solutions' VP, discusses algae biofuel on Marketwatch.
Craig Harting, COO, Global Green Solutions, www.globalgreensolutionsinc.com, discusses algae biofuel on Full Focus Show, KPBS TV
5-19-2008 Algae Fuel Summit-Opening Ceremony & Speakers Part one, "Opening Ceremony and Speakers", featuring Dr. David Bransby, Ron Putt and David James.
5-19-2008 Algae Fuel Summit-Opening Ceremony & Speakers Part one, "Opening Ceremony and Speakers", featuring Dr. David Bransby, Ron Putt and David James.
5-19-2008 Algae Fuel Summit-Opening Ceremony & Speakers Part one, "Opening Ceremony and Speakers", featuring Dr. David Bransby, Ron Putt and David James.
5-19-2008 Algae Fuel Summit-Opening Ceremony & Speakers Part one, "Opening Ceremony and Speakers", featuring Dr. David Bransby, Ron Putt and David James.
5-19-2008 Algae Fuel Summit-Opening Ceremony & Speakers Part one, "Opening Ceremony and Speakers", featuring Dr. David Bransby, Ron Putt and David James.
Part two, "Vehicles Running On Green Fuels", explains which fuels are being used and in which vehicle. There is also a detailed explanation, a post event interview, that explains how the tractor was set up to run multiple fuels(not simultaneously).
May 21, 2008: David James explains how to process algae, into three different types of green fuels, using a gasification process. Green gasoline, green diesel and biodiesel can all be produced from the same algae feedstock.
If you do not understand the English language, or wish to read the transcript of this video, it can be found here: http://algae.tcoalternativefuels.com/algae-to-fuel-methods-presented-by-david-james
