Practice what you preach

Subsidized by SDG&E (our power company in San Diego) so only $2 for a pair. Not bad... good light too, not cold or inhospitable.

Who thought trans fat could rock so hard?

Rock on! This bike is awesome!

Die Moto, a motorcycle that runs on biodiesel, set national and international records on Monday, cruising to a top speed of 130.6 miles per hour.

Built by The Crucible, a group of industrial artists in Oakland, the bike has a modified BMW car engine and a handcrafted aluminum shell. And it's a green machine, too. Running on B100, or pure bioediesel fuel, the bike emits 78 percent less CO2 than a standard diesel engine. The team eventually hopes to crank it up to 160 miles per hour.

Built by a neat group too:

The Crucible is an educational facility that fosters a collaboration of Arts, Industry and Community. Through training in the fine and industrial arts, The Crucible promotes creative expression, reuse of materials, and innovative design while serving as an accessible arts venue for the general public.

I love that an "art school" made this. They also teach welding, blacksmithing, kinetics, neon and light... I'm going to make it a point to stop by here the next time I drive back to WA.

Video here, sounds MEAN!! You can hear the turbos spool when they give it some gas. I'm also really digging the long and low stance this thing presents. Conjures up images of Akira.

Gold mine of alternative energy info

Just getting through this site. It is a green-tech symposium (or, to use their word, a colloquium) where several ideas were presented including a self-recharging EV (electric vehicle). As I work through this site, I'll post some of the highlights but I wanted to get it out there.

The inevitable and infinite progress of technology

The battery may have serious competition:

The patent describes an "ultra capacitor", which functions similarly to other electric car batteries but can charge more quickly and has a more streamlined process of releasing energy. The result is an automotive system that charges in just a few hours and can run for hundreds of miles. The Associated Press reports that a car using EEstor's technology could run for as much as 500 miles before it would need a re-charge.

If you're not familiar with a capacitor, it is a very simple electronic device. It is used in electronic equipment to quickly store and release very small amounts of electricity. It works like a reservoir by allowing for sporadic flow TO the capacitor and steady flow FROM it. Imagine you wanted a constant flow of water but only had a sprinkler. You could attach something that gathered the water first and released it out the other end at whatever flow you wanted.

Not a lot of information to be released yet... the guy doesn't want his idea robbed, right?

What's going on at the #1 SMALL RESEARCH UNIVERSITY IN THE USA?

Life getting in the way of blogging... a tragedy I know!

I thought I would share an update on the research that I'm doing at school which is pertinent to the topic at hand. We're investigating gas storage capabilities of metal-organic frameworks. For those of you who don't have the benefit of a PhD to explain this stuff so you sound smart, these are low density (not a lot of material in a particular space) solids (crystals) which allow other molecules to reside inside of them. Think Fisher Price Construx or a building without walls, just the iron framework.

The organic ligands (or beams) can be almost anything with diametrically opposed (located on the two opposite ends) metal-grabbing groups (like an acid). In our case, they are one benzene ring (very common organic structure) with two carboxylic acids on either end (like citric acid, nothing too scary) and one amino group (a basic functional group found in proteins). The connectors (clusters at the corners) are zinc atoms surrounding one oxygen atom. This is what they look like at an atomic level. Cluster to cluster is about 12 angstroms or 1.2 x 10^(-9)m (1/1000th of the width of a human hair).



I know the perspective is messed up but here is the same thing in color. Keep in mind that these are CUBIC crystals so each ligand (beam) is perpendicular or parallel to all the others.



Grey is carbon, blue is nitrogen (or possibly a nitrogen... there is only one per ring), red is oxygen and green is zinc. Here are the clusters up close:



The theory is this: many kilograms of these crystals are put into a container (not pressurized). When empty, the tank is cooled slightly and hydrogen is pumped in. The crystals take on the hydrogen like a sponge would take on water. No chemical bonds are changed, no structures are affected and nothing crazy has been done. After the tank is full, it can return to room temperature, totally saturated with hydrogen. While the vehicle (or power plant or lawnmower or whatever) is running, the tank is heated gently to create a positive (low) pressure of hydrogen to ensure a constant supply. The tank can be bumped, shot, breeched, even burned and there would be no explosion or additional fire because the hydrogen is locked into this matrix.

If this doesn't blow your mind something is wrong.

Step 1: Steal Underpants Step 2: ?? Step 3: Profit

This is the much-delayed response to the article I posted a week or more ago written by the former GM exec who said that raised CAFE standard (i.e. industry-wide increases in MPG) takes too much money, technology and time. Here are several options the automakers can do to raise fuel efficiency without major R&D:

Lose weight, drag, RPMs and running time.

"We need solutions for the next 20 years, not just dreams," [Axel] Friedrich told the Journal. And to prove his point he hired a group of university engineers who managed to reduce the carbon emissions (and therefore improve gas mileage) of a regular VW Golf (aka Rabbit) by 25 percent using existing materials and technologies. Most of the changes made by Friedrich's engineers are straight out of Auto Engineering 101: reducing weight (lighter seats and carbon fiber hood) aerodynamic drag (substituting tiny cameras for side mirrors) and mechanical drag (fitting low rolling resistance tires). The team also installed longer ratios in the transmission to reduce engine revs at cruising speed, and put a gearshift indicator in the cabin to show the most efficient time to shift gears.The highest-tech change made by the team was to modify the Golf's engine so it stopped when the car was halted, and started when the driver depressed the gas pedal to move off. But even this is hardly cutting edge technology -- I can remember driving a prototype Golf fitted with a similar system developed by VW's own engineers at least 15 years ago.

Reduce friction and resistance; increase aerodynamics, gearing and induction.

Called the [Volvo] C30 Efficiency, this special car will sip diesel fuel at the rate of 4.5L per every 100 kilometers. That's 52.26 mpg to us Yanks. It achieves these numbers using a variety of techniques. For the engine, efficiency was increased by using low-friction transmission oil and optimizing the engine management software. An age old trick for good gas mileage, higher gearing, was used on 3rd, 4th and 5th gears to eek out a few more kilometers, as well. Low rolling resistance tires, another common strategy for higher mileage, were also used. Finally, Volvo made the C30 slipperier through the air by reducing its ride height, adding a special rear roof spoiler, new rear bumper, and even adding underbody panels to smooth out the car's belly. Even the new 16-inch rims are aero-optimized! The C30 Efficiency's engine is a 1.6L turbodiesel producing 105 hp. Not only does it achieve 52.26 mpg, but it also emits less than 120g of CO2 per kilometer.

Optimize navigation software for fuel consumption, teach people how to drive and assist the alternator (which, in turn, lowers engine loads) with electricity care of a mild hybrid regen system.

"the driver himself retains a major responsibility for a driving style that contributes to reduced fuel consumption. Individual driving style can reduce fuel consumption, and with it emissions, by up to 30 percent — without compromising on speed and dynamism." ...Audi's new nav system is said to incorporate "consumption-relevant data" and give route recommendations based on that information. "The necessary information about road conditions or traffic lights will be available with the next generation of digital road maps," Audi said. "Here, many Audi TDI and TSFI engines are equipped with an innovative energy management system, which uses the coasting and braking phases to generate and store electrical energy," it said. "At a standstill and when accelerating, this energy can be used to relieve the load on the alternator and the vehicle electrical system. Moreover, a new generation of start/stop systems is being developed."

Like Spaulding said, it isn't rocket science