MetaFilter posts tagged with fuel

the future of fuel?

kliuless — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 08:42:22 -0800

Using photosynthesis to power hydrogen production
Researchers have found that if they insert platinum nanoclusters into the photosynthetic machinery of bacteria, one acre could produce an amount of hydrogen equivalent to 79 gallons of gas per day. of course, "there's still the challenge of delivery," but if you're worried about how we'll fuel the planet, "further modification of the basic approach may make the hydrogen economy look relatively practical."

Rig of Fuel

Item — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 03:32:47 -0800

Walk the Line as it should've been. SLYT

A sea of green

Blazecock Pileon — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 02:33:49 -0800

"Algae is the ultimate biological system using sunlight to capture and convert carbon dioxide into fuel... I came up with a notion to trick algae into pumping more [fuel] out." Craig Venter's Synthetic Genomics partners with ExxonMobil in a $600M project to harvest biofuels from genetically engineered algae. "We have modest goals of replacing the whole petrochemical industry." [previously] "Over the next 20 years, synthetic genomics is going to become the standard for making anything. The chemical industry will depend on it. Hopefully, a large part of the energy industry will depend on it. We really need to find an alternative to taking carbon out of the ground, burning it, and putting it into the atmosphere. That is the single biggest contribution I could make."

Fly the biofuel skies…

Artw — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 10:21:53 -0800

Today Boeing completed the first test flight of a commercial jet-liner using a mix of conventional jet-fuel and a fuel created from algae and the african weed jatropha. Boeing hopes that biofueled flights will be common in just three years.

Gas Free

mygothlaundry — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 18:52:55 -0800

Gas Shortages Throughout the Southeast More than a week after Hurricane Ike, there's little or no gas around much of the American Southeast. Here in Asheville, you can check online to see if there's gas at any given station. But then when you get there, you'll wait for an hour or more, often only to find that they've just run out. Which leads to fights. Programs are being canceled, traffic is light and we hear that Atlanta and Nashville are just as bad.

Fuelly tracks your gas mileage.

goodnewsfortheinsane — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 19:26:58 -0800

Fuelly tracks your gas mileage over time, helping you save fuel and expenses as you drive.

Zed's zero carbon, baby: hydrogen-cell motorbikes

nthdegx — Wed, 14 May 2008 07:58:29 -0800

If hydrogen-cell cars are no good, how about hydrogen-cell motorbikes!

I hear that train a-comin....

pjern — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 06:56:34 -0800

Steam locomotives are dead, right? Awe-inspiring though they might be, labor issues and diesel fuel at 4 cents a gallon killed them in the 1950's and 60's, and they survive only in isolated pockets around the world and on tourist railways. A dedicated cadre of railfans and unusually sentimental railroad companies preserved some examples that can still be found running today, so that sixty years on, we can still appreciate the sound and fury of a great locomotive. Mainland China still uses them, and some of the Chinese locomotives have been imported into the US for tourist service. What is it about steam locomotives that will not die? Just the number will launch old time railfans into arguments resembling ed vs. emacs. 844. 610. 4449. 614. 3985. 4960. Back during the 1973 embargo, efforts were made to design new steam locomotives in response to the crisis. The technology, for something considered dead and buried, has continued to advance. Now, there's even a new company building standardized parts for steam locomotives. There have been arguments in railroading circles for years regarding steam vs. diesel power. With diesel fuel at $4.00 a gallon in the US, it might appear that the cost equation might be moving back in the other direction. Think we can't build a new steam locomotive any more? These guys did, from the rails up, and they're going to run it this year.

'Peak Oil' believers just got PWNED!

ItsaMario — Thu, 02 Aug 2007 03:36:45 -0800

Genetically Modified Bacteria to make "Renewable Petroleum" (A biotech startup describes how it will coax petroleum-like fuels from engineered microbes within three to five years).

Salt water burns - new energy source

stbalbach — Fri, 06 Jul 2007 12:28:10 -0800

John Kanzius can make salt water burn using radio waves. It is not yet practical for energy generation, more energy is consumed than produced, but increases in efficiency could make salt water a viable replacement for fossil fuel.

Send your gas receipts to your Senators

toddst — Fri, 15 Sep 2006 09:26:11 -0800

The Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) have launched an interesting campaign to bring more fuel efficient vehicles to our streets.

Fair Price Energy: A market-based approach to America’s Energy Crisis

stbalbach — Sat, 02 Sep 2006 08:42:39 -0800

Fair Price Energy. One persons idea for a free market solution to the fossil fuel problem.

Green by Necessity

Afroblanco — Fri, 18 Aug 2006 21:55:29 -0800

Green by Necessity : Armenia is blazing a trail in the move to cleaner fuels -- but not by choice.

Big Vegetable Oil Strikes Again

mr_crash_davis — Sun, 11 Jun 2006 10:19:22 -0800

Home-brewing of biodiesel is under attack in Salt Lake.

Boundless energy or bad math?

Espoo2 — Sat, 05 Nov 2005 06:04:20 -0800

Boundless energy or bad math? Randell Mills thinks he has the solution to our energy problems. In his company's patented process, "energy is released as the electrons of atomic hydrogen are induced to undergo transitions to lower energy levels producing plasma, light, and novel hydrogen compounds." It also implies that quantum mechanics is wrong.

Conservation doesn't include Air Force One

rzklkng — Tue, 27 Sep 2005 14:02:49 -0800

Petroleum Industry Christmas Wishlist Conservative pundits are quick to point out that no "new refineries have been built since 1976", and even quicker to blame "environmentalists". But the facts just don't support that. Refiners have chosen the environment that they do business in, and in some cases have willingly contributed to it. (Plenty of data here.) Here's why:

The government has allowed the industry to merge, consolidate, and restrict refining capacity, thus impacting pricing, supply, and demand.
The quest for profits has caused the need to run extremely lean supplies (ie. no stockpiles of crude - it arrives when you need it, not before) and has resulted in susceptability to wild volatility in prices, but has allowed refiners to operate at very high efficiency but with no margin of excess capacity for temporary shortages, disasters, etc.
Oil refiners trimmed back capacity after the Oil Crash of the early 1980s and have been unwilling to reinvest in new technologies unless environmental restrictions and local fuel cleanliness mandates are reduced.

As one would expect, Bush's solutions nicely match up with the wishlists of OPEC and US refiners, who in the past few decades have largely undone the breakup of Standard Oil (via) via mergers and joint ventures. Representative Joe Barton, (R-TX), Chairperson of the Energy and Commerce Committee, incidentally up for reelection and well funded, by "the industry" through various Political Action Committees, has released a draft of the predictably named (to be found here when released) Gasoline for America's Security Act of 2005 (committee discusion and webcast are scheduled for 9/28 at 8 am.) Given that new refineries are years away, there is still no solution for current prices or the (90%?) increase in prices since January of 2001.

PEAK GARBAGE!

loquacious — Wed, 14 Sep 2005 12:03:55 -0800

Your Mr. Fusion is ready. Sort of.

Fill her up! Now!!

Nugget — Sun, 11 Sep 2005 15:59:03 -0800

Can't beat a good protest, and when Less Tax On Fuel (catchy..) start then this definitely won't be a good protest. It'll be about as much fun as their last one, although their Forum's good for a laugh and will let you voice support when you're stuck at home cause the pumps have ran out as a result of their actions!

While everyone I know agrees that we pay too much for petrol here in the UK, blocking the roads and disrupting supplies isn't going to help. I don't know of anyone who supports a return to the protests of 2000.

And besides, there are some motorways in the UK where they'll be lucky to reach 20mph at rush hour. They might even speed things up..

What will we do when oil crashes?

graytopia — Wed, 31 Aug 2005 20:05:19 -0800

Resource wars and gas rations, what will be next ? I bet you didn't know we gobble oil like two-legged SUV's.

Gas prices too high? Try Europe.

Postroad — Sun, 28 Aug 2005 07:18:04 -0800

Gas prices too high? Try Europe. $7 a gallon? That's what drivers in Amsterdam pay. But Europeans have long adapted to high prices.

Around the world on 8 litres of fuel?

Fozzie — Wed, 29 Jun 2005 10:25:26 -0800

Around the world on 8 litres of fuel? I'd be more excited about this if the automotive industry hadn't been teasing us with cool, feature laden concept cars for years, and then actually producing boring combustion engine sedans.

Drive ten thousand miles on a gallon of petrol?

SharQ — Sat, 25 Jun 2005 05:19:12 -0800

Shell Eco Marathon UK is coming up in England (6-7 july). It is a race not for the swift, but for those who can drive immense distances in super-efficient vehicles. Two years ago, the current world record of 10,706 MPG was set at one of these events. The lessons learned are useful in development in other fuel-efficient cars, such as the 100 MPG Honda Insight. Interesting in these times of high oil prices, then, when considering that despite tactical driving, normal petrol cars rarely get better than 45 MPG. Diesels are slightly better, as illustrated on BBC Top Gear, where Clarkson drives an Audi A8 from London to Edinburgh and back on a single tank of diesel. That's 800 miles.

Thief Pumps $900 Worth Of Stolen Gasoline

azul — Sat, 16 Apr 2005 06:42:19 -0800

Gas Pump Hacker. "CHICAGO -- In a bold and outrageous theft staged in broad daylight, a driver pumped about $900 worth of gasoline at a suburban gas station. The man removed the panel of a pump in Country Club Hills and manipulated the mechanics of the pump so that it would continue to pump gas without registering inside the station... Other cars then pulled up to the pump and, apparently, cut deals with the thief, who then filled up their tanks and took off..."

Out of the frying pan and into the fire.

Specklet — Thu, 14 Apr 2005 13:04:31 -0800

I know this has been on everyone's mind, but I just read this article today and was astounded at my lack of foresight. Silly me, here I was worrying about global warming when what I need to be fretting about is the decrease in fuel's impact on the structure of international banking! Will we run out of fossil fuel before it's too late to save the environment from pollution and greenhouse gasses? The abiotic nuts think we've got plenty more. Personally, I think we can kiss the marvel that is suburbia goodbye and start contemplating the fact that the focus on the post-post industrial revolution will not be information, but rather agriculture. And since solar panels and windmills and the like are made of materials that are extracted, transported, and fashioned by using oil-powered machinery, my money's on the folks who're stockpiling uranium for all those shiny new nuclear plants we're going to need. So, do we have a plan? You bet we do! Oh. Well, we'll just rely on the advancement of technology to allow us to weasel out of it! Me? I've actually always wanted a horse.

The Future of the Car

Shanachie — Sun, 02 Jan 2005 11:01:34 -0800

Obsession: Mr. Singh’s Search for the Holy Grail American visionaries, cranks and con men have long sought the simple key to boosting the efficiency of the gasoline engine. Now a barefoot tinkerer in India believes he has unlocked the door. Is he for real?