Transport: Planes, Trains, Boats, Autos, and Rockets

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Nonc Hilaire
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Re: Transport: Planes, Trains, Boats, and Autos

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Re: Transport: Planes, Trains, Boats, and Autos

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A Cadillac that runs for a century on a single fill-up.

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http://www.industrytap.com/thorium-fuel ... tury/15649
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Re: Transport: Planes, Trains, Boats, and Autos

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Nonc Hilaire wrote:A Cadillac that runs for a century on a single fill-up.

Image



http://www.industrytap.com/thorium-fuel ... tury/15649
Wider Implications of Thorium

According to Robert Hargraves, “low or non-CO2 emitting energy sources must be cheaper than coal or will ultimately fail to displace fossil fuels.” The United States uses 20% of the world’s energy today and, according to Hargraves, if it cut its CO2 emissions to zero, 80% produced by other countries would still be a problem. With CO2 emissions climbing seemingly beyond all bounds, pessimism is rampant and bold ideas are needed.
I always have felt that the only way forward for the human race is the advance of technology. Which can be encouraged but not pushed.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thorium_fu ... clear_fuel
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Nonc Hilaire
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Re: Transport: Planes, Trains, Boats, and Autos

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I think this is how manufacturers figure out gas mileage claims. They make sure the wheels go sideways as much as possible so the odometer readings are reduced.

WUO-lPubXeI
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Re: Transport: Planes, Trains, Boats, and Autos

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Reinventing the wheel

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Re: Transport: Planes, Trains, Boats, and Autos

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kw3m7bqrQ64
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Re: Transport: Planes, Trains, Boats, and Autos

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Cool idea. Hövding airbag for cyclists. Protects the neck as well as the head.

0aX-WXBMI8I
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Re: Transport: Planes, Trains, Boats, and Autos

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Boeing reveals “the biggest breakthrough in biofuels ever”

[...]

What researchers at the Masdar Institute have been studying is a category of plants called halophytes. These plants have naturally evolved to be able to live on salt water. Not only that: they are also able to live in arid lands, in deserts. “If you look around you here [in Abu Dhabi], most of the plants you see are halophytes.”

Clearly if it is possible to grow plants in deserts around the world, and use them for biofuels, that would be an ideal solution. It would solve the major problems of traditional biofuels – use of fresh water and arable land – at one stroke. “Twenty per cent of the world’s land is either desert or becoming desert through overuse or mal-use”, Morgan notes. “And 97% of the world’s water is salt water. So if you can use those two factors that turns the scarcity problem that plagues all biofuels on its head.”

Boeing and its partners Honeywell UOP and Eithad Airways founded a research consortium called the Sustainable Bio-Energy Research Consortium (SBRC) which was invited by the government of Abu Dhabi to set up shop in Masdar City. Since 2009, the researchers at Masdar have studied the possibilities of halophytes. Remarkably, the consortium discovered that not much work had been done on halophytes up to that time. “We started to ask, who is working on this, because there is a lot of biomass potential out there. The science was there. The science said this can be made into biofuels pretty well. But if you looked at the patents, who is doing this, not really anybody. It was a whole new realm that nobody was looking at.”

And the researchers made a very pleasant discovery. It turned out, Morgan says, “that the types of halophytes we are working on are very amenable to being converted into sugars.” This is crucial in terms of the potential the plants have to produce energy cost-effectively, Morgan explains. “Plants contain lignin that keeps them stiff. The cellulose in the plant has to be separated from the lignin to liberate the sugars. Production costs are heavily influenced by how easy or difficult it is to do this. This is the name of the game for next-generation biofuels.”

“What the scientists here have found”, he adds, “is that the halophytic family tends to be low in lignin and high in the right type of sugars, which can be converted into hydrocarbons. These plants tend to liberate these sugars relatively easily, so you need relatively low temperatures in the production process. Nobody knew this. It is a huge discovery that was made here. We found it and repeated it.” This was about six months ago.


Combination with aquaculture

The consortium then decided to set up a pilot production facility which is now being built in Abu Dhabi right next door to Masdar City. There is yet one more element to this to complete the story, because what the researchers decided to do in this pilot project is also unique: they decided to combine the production of biofuels from halophytes with aquaculture.

Morgan explains the reason behind this. “With the earth’s oceans increasingly being emptied of fish, aquaculture is growing fast all over the world. The problem with aquaculture, however, is the waste it produces. This goes right into the ocean and creates a lot of environmental problems.” This “fish waste”, he says, is essentially a fertilizer containing nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium suspended in salt water. “And guess what halophytes need to grow? Fertilizer containing nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium suspended in salt water.”

“Integrating those two systems you get sustainable acquaculture that does not pollute the oceans and biomass that can be used for fuels”

“So the concept we took up here”, says Morgan, “is to build a pilot facility that integrates aquaculture with the growing of halophytes. Integrating those two systems you get sustainable acquaculture that does not pollute the oceans and biomass that can be used for fuels. We are now figuring out the optimal combination of the two systems.”

Morgan expects that the two-hectare pilot facility will up and running in a year. If all goes well, they will then develop a plot of land of 500 acres in western Abu Dhabi for the initial scale-up. “After that, if the results are what we expect them to be, you will start seeing thousands and thousands of hectares being developed”.

He notes that while the technology is being developed in Abu Dhabi, it has potential for the entire world. In fact, everywhere where there are deserts.

Does this mean we could see the world’s deserts turn into agricultural land producing sustainable biofuels that will be able to replace oil in transport? “Yes”, says Morgan. “I believe this will be the big gamechanger for biofuels. Nobody has looked at this before.” And it would not just be relevant for the air transport sector. “It will be much bigger.”

So far, Boeing and its partners have not given much publicity to their expectations. They did announce the results of their research, but in fairly technical terms. “We have been quiet about it”, says Morgan. But he is too excited to keep quiet any longer. “To me this is the biggest breakthrough out there. The 20th Century saw Norman Borlaug’s Green revolution, this is the next step after that.”
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Re: Transport: Planes, Trains, Boats, and Autos

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Re: Transport: Planes, Trains, Boats, and Autos

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Re: Transport: Planes, Trains, Boats, and Autos

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like

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Re: Transport: Planes, Trains, Boats, and Autos

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Nh-kfmxROkk

Scientific American: Is 2014 the Year of the Fuel Cell Car?
[...] Steady advances in fuel-cell technology, new opportunities for hydrogen production and a growing commitment to building hydrogen infrastructure have led many major automakers to believe "this is the moment" for the next generation of hydrogen fuel-cell vehicles, said Mike O'Brien, vice president of product and corporate planning for Hyundai. [...]
Breakthrough in hydrogen fuel production could revolutionize alternative energy market
BLACKSBURG, Va., April 4, 2013 – A team of Virginia Tech researchers has discovered a way to extract large quantities of hydrogen from any plant, a breakthrough that has the potential to bring a low-cost, environmentally friendly fuel source to the world.

“Our new process could help end our dependence on fossil fuels,” said Y.H. Percival Zhang, an associate professor of biological systems engineering in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences and the College of Engineering. “Hydrogen is one of the most important biofuels of the future.”

Zhang and his team have succeeded in using xylose, the most abundant simple plant sugar, to produce a large quantity of hydrogen that previously was attainable only in theory. Zhang’s method can be performed using any source of biomass.
[...]
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Re: Transport: Planes, Trains, Boats, and Autos

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90069626
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Re: Transport: Planes, Trains, Boats, and Autos

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Parodite wrote:Nh-kfmxROkk

Scientific American: Is 2014 the Year of the Fuel Cell Car?
[...] Steady advances in fuel-cell technology, new opportunities for hydrogen production and a growing commitment to building hydrogen infrastructure have led many major automakers to believe "this is the moment" for the next generation of hydrogen fuel-cell vehicles, said Mike O'Brien, vice president of product and corporate planning for Hyundai. [...]
Breakthrough in hydrogen fuel production could revolutionize alternative energy market
BLACKSBURG, Va., April 4, 2013 – A team of Virginia Tech researchers has discovered a way to extract large quantities of hydrogen from any plant, a breakthrough that has the potential to bring a low-cost, environmentally friendly fuel source to the world.

“Our new process could help end our dependence on fossil fuels,” said Y.H. Percival Zhang, an associate professor of biological systems engineering in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences and the College of Engineering. “Hydrogen is one of the most important biofuels of the future.”

Zhang and his team have succeeded in using xylose, the most abundant simple plant sugar, to produce a large quantity of hydrogen that previously was attainable only in theory. Zhang’s method can be performed using any source of biomass.
[...]
The researchers chose to use xylose, which comprises as much as 30 percent of plant cell walls. Despite its abundance, the use of xylose for releasing hydrogen has been limited. The natural or engineered microorganisms that most scientists use in their experiments cannot produce hydrogen in high yield because these microorganisms grow and reproduce instead of splitting water molecules to yield pure hydrogen.

To liberate the hydrogen, Virginia Tech scientists separated a number of enzymes from their native microorganisms to create a customized enzyme cocktail that does not occur in nature. The enzymes, when combined with xylose and a polyphosphate, liberate the unprecedentedly high volume of hydrogen from xylose, resulting in the production of about three times as much hydrogen as other hydrogen-producing microorganisms.
Ok Human engineered microorganisms that turn plants into hydrogen. I wonder what the macroscopic effects of that might be if these organism were released in nature and thrived???

Also the article claims almost no CO2 production However the process inherently produces one CO2 for each two hydrogen. That is not exactly nothing. Also the amount of BTUs needed is not stated anywhere that I can see.

Here is the chemical process diagram:

Image
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Re: Transport: Planes, Trains, Boats, and Autos

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Re: Transport: Planes, Trains, Boats, and Autos

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.
.
Chinese experts 'in discussions' over building high-speed Beijing-US railway

'China-Russia plus America line' would run for 13,000km across Siberia and pass under Bering Strait through 200km tunnel

..

China is considering plans to build a high-speed railway line to the US, the country's official media reported on Thursday.

The proposed line would begin in north-east China and run up through Siberia, pass through a tunnel underneath the Pacific Ocean then cut through Alaska and Canada to reach the continental US, according to a report in the state-run Beijing Times newspaper.

Crossing the Bering Strait in between Russia and Alaska would require about 200km (125 miles) of undersea tunnel, the paper said, citing Wang Mengshu, a railway expert at the Chinese Academy of Engineering.

"Right now we're already in discussions. Russia has already been thinking about this for many years," Wang said.

The project – nicknamed the "China-Russia plus America line" – would run for 13,000km, about 3,000km further than the Trans-Siberian Railway. The entire trip would take two days, with the train travelling at an average of 350km/h (220mph).


.
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Re: Transport: Planes, Trains, Boats, and Autos

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Cool online gallery of the High Museum of Art exhibition Dream Cars

Image
Chrysler (Ghia) Streamline X "Gilda," 1955

http://www.high.org/Art/Exhibitions/Dream-Cars.aspx
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Re: Transport: Planes, Trains, Boats, and Autos

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Re: Transport: Planes, Trains, Boats, and Autos

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http://www.nbcnews.com/business/autos/n ... as-n149496

New Hyundai Genesis Can Outfox Speed Cameras
By Paul A. Eisenstein

Even the best drivers occasionally press their foot a little too hard on the gas pedal.

But the engineers at Hyundai have come up with a way to save speeders from their own bad habits. The automaker is showing off a new system that not only alerts the driver to hidden speed cameras, but will automatically slow the vehicle down to avoid a ticket.

"It knows there is a speed camera there," spokesman Guido Schenken told reporters during a session marking the Korean launch of the newly redesigned 2015 Hyundai Genesis sedan. "It knows where the speed camera is and it will adopt the correct speed."

The system relies on some basic technology. Its onboard navigation system has a database showing where speed cameras are known to operate, and that information is linked to the sedan's auto-brake system. Drivers are given an audible alert about a half-mile before they approach the camera. If the motorist doesn't slow to the speed limit, the automatic braking system kicks in, gradually slowing the vehicle.

The speed camera system is the first offered by any automaker and is part of a broader suite of electronic safety, comfort and convenience features on the new Genesis sedan, which was designed to compete against such established luxury competitors as the BMW 5 Series and Mercedes-Benz E-Class.

Only in South Korea

For now, the speed camera detection system will only be offered in South Korea. But questions surrounding the legality of the technology are likely to arise if it makes its way over to the U.S.

Several states, Canada and a number of other countries ban the use of radar detectors. But the Hyundai system relies on a database of known locations, rather than a detector system. That difference means, however, that the technology would not work against cops scanning speed from radar detectors on the side of the road.

For American motorists who want to avoid speeding tickets without slowing down, there are a few options. Where legal, some radar detectors now have access to speed camera databases, as do a number of the portable navigation systems sold by Garmin.

There also are speed camera apps for smartphones, such as CamSam, which claim to offer continuously updated databases. Like the Garmin navigation units, they provide warnings ahead of a camera, but unlike the Hyundai system, it's up to a driver to respond in time.
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Re: Transport: Planes, Trains, Boats, and Autos

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Nonc Hilaire wrote:Cool online gallery of the High Museum of Art exhibition Dream Cars

Image
Chrysler (Ghia) Streamline X "Gilda," 1955

http://www.high.org/Art/Exhibitions/Dream-Cars.aspx
Very cool. Thanks.

Image

The Stout Scarab was ahead of it's time.

Probably failed as the concept of soccers moms ferrying their kids everywhere had not developed . . .
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Re: Transport: Planes, Trains, Boats, and Autos

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May the gods preserve and defend me from self-righteous altruists; I can defend myself from my enemies and my friends.
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Re: Transport: Planes, Trains, Boats, and Autos

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I can't see teh Video CS For some reason adobe flash keeps killing my browser But is this similar to the Mazda rotary engine in that the rotary engine's piston was free of the crank shaft? I am thinking it may be but without seeing it I don't know.
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Re: Transport: Planes, Trains, Boats, and Autos

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Doc wrote:
I can't see teh Video CS For some reason adobe flash keeps killing my browser But is this similar to the Mazda rotary engine in that the rotary engine's piston was free of the crank shaft? I am thinking it may be but without seeing it I don't know.
It's a gas piston powered linear electric generator to provide electric power directly to EVs.
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Re: Transport: Planes, Trains, Boats, and Autos

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Typhoon wrote:
Doc wrote:
I can't see teh Video CS For some reason adobe flash keeps killing my browser But is this similar to the Mazda rotary engine in that the rotary engine's piston was free of the crank shaft? I am thinking it may be but without seeing it I don't know.
It's a gas piston powered linear electric generator to provide electric power directly to EVs.

OH that's cool. :)
"I fancied myself as some kind of god....It is a sort of disease when you consider yourself some kind of god, the creator of everything, but I feel comfortable about it now since I began to live it out.” -- George Soros
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