One off the “forgotten” contributions for the climate “damaging” with dyno fuels is: switching from carburated version to injection version…
Yes, at normal operating temperatures, the engine “would” consume less per mile, but… people tend to have more power available and taking the car more because its so convenient…
More profound visible here in asia with the immense numbers of small motor bikes… people love and use them, on long trips the EFI’s use 1,4 liters per 100 km vs 2 liters for the carbureted version’s , but in real life, short trips they consume almost 4 liters…( stop and go shopping trips in the village )
I spoofed my CRF250 Temp sensor to make it look that its warm all the time, reducing my overall consumption from 3,3 to 2,4 Liters/100Km. ( switch just after starting the engine )
Its a bit more noisy, a little less power at cold state, but a huge difference at small trips…
Same is on the programm for the small wife’s bike… waiting for her approval…
Using the electronic’s in combination with DOW… now that’s a positive contribution to Climate Change…
Where as powerfull engines need the EGR to increase the Co2 content in the combustion to reduce the forming of NOX, and additional rich lean modes to use the catalyst, the DOW car benefits of slower combustion and the presence of Co2 in the producer gas.
hence, a special build DOW engine would outperform any other system compared dynofuel / emission…
We can not say this loud enough… Grow and use your energy… don’t waste dynofuel…
This is a good point, modern efi makes for a real easy car to live with, start up and go no matter what, and it is burning a load of fuel to make it happen.
Same thing with emissions systems, catalytic converters need a specific A/F ratio, and closed loop efi makes it happen no matter what - again burning a pile of fuel to keep those cats up to temp and reactive.
Nowadays, modern diesels clean out their DPF’s by - you guessed it - burning a big pile of fuel.
Seems to me some of our emissions have been transferred from the tailpipe to the Oil and Gas industry. We’re probably burning 15-20% more fuel than we need to for convenience and to keep the air cleaner, but what is the emissions increase from pumping and refining that extra 15- 20%?
Well the profit margin is 15 to 20% better…
I find this entire topic interesting. I hadn’t ever thought about the short trip milage compared to long trips but now that you mention it my truck does get really bad milage since I have not been driving as much. It also has a tendency to carbon up more.
My Tata, running on CNG takes 14 to 17 Kg / 100 Km running on short trips only ( less then 2 miles )
Now that i spoof the temperature sensor to “warm” just after startup, it takes 7,3 - 7,6 Kg.
Average speed <40 Kmh
Out of village, spoofing (running on 77ºC ECU Thinking 94ºC), on 90 Km/Hr it runs same average 7,5 Kg / 100Km
On Charcoal gas only, i keep the original temperature, 94, and the engine runs great…
Old style carburators and idling screws… if well tuned with gasoline, run’s average cleaner ( real life ) the nowaday’s pre-progamed ECU… ( who say’s that the sensor are up to their job or accurate ? i used a alcohol / mercury probe to test mine, the temperature was in range for the ecu, but about 30% out range from the reality… hence why i started spoofing… )
If you are doing mostly short trips, EVs actually become favourable. The regenerative braking helps, but it also allows an engine to run at a more efficient constant speed rather the revving up and down of the engine which in itself is rather inefficient.
Great posts your last three KoenVL
You show the wide difference between INDIVIDUALLY doing something about human activities effects on our planet versus just harping to blame/change others to “your” “better for all” creed.
Fellows trashing those who offload recreational motor around . . . .
Do realize all of the dino/waste/pollution made by ALL spectator stadium sports . . .
The Pollution/energy abuse use made by ALL spectator rah-rah events. Rallys. The mondo church gatherings.
Space exploration is extremly energy “wasteful” . . . rockets “pee-loot” . . . you can see the exhaust!!
Air transport a know energy “gobbler” . . .
There is a fellow recent wrote a fictional story set in the near future where the Greens energy PC police politically kept progressing themselves into total power and control.
Eventually then all had to stay home and power-walk a state designed power-board to grid-feed-in power, monitored, to “earn” the daily permission/unlock to go outside to see “nature”. See. Not touch. No. No. Nature now turned back to only the noble animals.
And of course NO soccer, football, basketball, tennis, racketball, swimming, anything that would divert personal energy from the social-obligation power-board generating/contributing to save gaia earth.
No “need” to jet around anymore. No need for personal transport at all . . . just stay at home, eating what they will feed you. Be a good matirx-contributor.
With of course the needed social-planners and enforces exempted as needing all of their personal energy/time for “the real work of man”. Planned Progressiveness.
Only those willing to DO for themselves, DO for their families, DO for their physically adjacent neighbors have any true human progress value. Jesus Christ. Mahatma Gandi. E.F. Shuemacher. Budda. Mother Teresa. Long, long list of folks who DID Doing daily by examples in out in the current world and throughout history.
Which do you choose to be? The whiner? The malcontent rabble rouser? The sheeple false profit follower?
Doer’s DO. Do not need a rah-rah’ed on following to spur them on.
Steve Unruh
Why is it that the oh so evil greens are always the bad guys in Sci fi? I’ve pretty much given up the genre these days at least the American flavours. Officious? yes, overly urban? for sure. But evil?
Good points. We all need to weigh the costs of our choices on everyone else and the planet and future generations especially.
I recall a coworker’s wedding arrangements, 200 guests coming from across the continent. Flights, thousands of miles of driving, vehicle rentals, gifts imported, etc. Probably enough energy embodied to launch a satellite.
We have all grown up in an energy fantasy land, and the danger is that as a culture and a species we have quite short memories, what we grow up with we assume to be acceptable and normal. People flying in pressurized cabins through the stratosphere across continents and around the globe is a miracle, a feat. But with a hellish price long term. Same with the car, highway, or in the sad case of Easter Island, the forest. Each generation uses the degradation and excess they were born into as their benchmark. And a little more never hurts, right? Or at least business as usual?
A foundations up reassessment might be a better starting point.
I feel targeted, I just crossed the Atlantic some weeks ago and it makes me feel guilty. I feel incoherent with my convictions. We live in a world of denial and if we do not enter the social mold we live from the isolation, the margilization
Airlines are starting to incorporate biofuels. It isn’t a -huge- ding to the fuel usage yet, but the market is growing. RedRock biofuels is one that is using forestry waste to make jetfuels.
My two cents on the airline topic. To me it isn’t about feeling guilty if we need to use air travel but to think first if it is the right choose. Like with everything in life, is it worth the cost of doing it? If you are aware the cost isn’t just dollars and cents but environmental impact then your awareness is taking a step in the right direction. I think about this alot when I order stuff. Farming it is very easy to just think I have hay in the field and need this fixed right now. With the old equipment and lack of local dealers I almost always have to order parts online. So I do take the time to think do I really need this part tomorrow even though the cost in dollars seems reasonable.
I guess my point is yes Sean it is better if they use boifuels but only if the high energy transport is needed in the first place. To me the over night air freight is a bigger issue then air travel. I think with air freight it is much easier to forgot how it gets here so fast because you just need something.
Koen is right try to live by your values first and teach others next.
I am trying to use resources closest to home as I can. Growing my own food getting wood for my heating. I am looking at installing off grid solar power this summer the numbers here actually look good. The ballpark numbers I have run show that installing the system myself it should pay off in 10.5 years just materials cost compared to my current electric bill. If my estimates prove to be correct there is a very good chance this will be my summer improvement project. I guess my point is simply that it took over 100 years for our society to go from a smaller local resources based model to the current global FF economy we live in today. It will take time to move away from that as well. I just focus on my own impact and hope to show the next generation that there is a choice which is also cost effective and an enjoyable quality of life.
I was just looking at the soapstone stove thinking about how it needs work to get it burning more efficiently again and how that is not only good for the environment but will also help keep the house warmer for the same or less effort cutting wood. Upgrading a 30 plus year old wood stove which had an EPA 73% efficiency to a secondary air system which has been proven to be 85% efficient is a good example of focusing on the little things we can do. Ideally I want a masonry heater which tests up around 95% efficency in EPA testing. While I would love to make that move here it is out of reach right now. But properly fixing the stove I have is within reach and will gain most of the benefit with much less cost. I guess my point is just to focus on what we can do everyday to live by our values and don’t worry too much about the larger socal problems. When people drive by and see that I am off grid and using local resources they will start to question their high energy methods of doing things. I saw that with my small 10 hp diesel tractor last summer. It was the talk of the town how I could use such a small tractor to rake hay and do so many other things here. I had more then one farmer ask how much fuel it saved. I keep thinking how much people will talk when I get to the the point where I am haying on fuels which come off my property. But while I have a long term plan I have to focus on the small steps I can take today. Life is a journey not a destination. OK I think this has turned into a middle of the night rant. But hopefully it will help others to not get overwhelmed by the larger picture of our times. Everyone in here is proof that there are people around the world working for their own reasons to improve our environment. It makes me feel less like the odd man out with what I am doing. Rather I feel like part of a true grass roots, world wide change taking place in our lifetime. The more we prove it can be done the more people will follow if only to save money on their own bills.
A difficult statement to make… Asking it as a question… Can we toggle / reverse the climate change / pollution ?
Lifting a small tip: study the drawing of a Kalle gasifier, notice the amount of CO2 he can inject…
IMO and by my experience, yes we can, if… :
if we eliminate the financial profits / politic gains from the “big few”
Then start using the technology , available, right under our eyes
We will be able to turn that plate in no time…
we only need to convince the “big few” that money can be made with doing the right thing…
Leave the fossil fuel where it is… use the already available carbon biomass, combined with the carbonoues waste, gasify that, convert it into liquid fuels if needed…
Don’t dig up new carbon as fuel, use your carbon / waste instead…
The intake from the gasifier is the best place to inject poluted air…
I would love to find the more suitable, passionated words , to convince the right people…
The tools to show it really works, i have already… i just can’t find the words…
Koen when I first looked at gasification I stumbled across a video where Gary Gilmore runs exaust gas back into his system. At the time all I could think was it reminded me of all the talk about perpetual motion machines. Not that I didn’t believe it worked I just couldn’t get my head around the concept of using exaust as fuel. I just read an interesting writeup on the gasificer you mentioned.
I will include a link to it here. Until I read how it was developed I didn’t understand how this process worked. I mean I understand that there is excess heat but it just felt like black magic.
I think I needed to view the gasificer and the motor as a complete cycle not as two separate systems one feeding the other. There is another question that keeps bouncing around in my mind. Can the motor coolant be used to pre heat the fuel or air for the gasificer? I keep thinking about how a kiln drys wood and thinking that engine waste heat must be able to be used to preheat the air and fuel in the gasificer.
I will be thinking on your challenge question about wording. My realization for the morning is what you discribed isn’t perpetual motion which we all know is not possible. It is a transportation system based on conservation of resources. A two part system designed to maximize efficiency and reduce waste by utilizing waste byproducts from each of the two processes in the other process. The gasificer waste heat is being used to sequester carbon out of the exaust from the internal combustion engine. Carbon sequestration is a big buzz term now and in reality that is what the 17% CO2 input into the gasificer is. Well that is all I have at the moment but I will let it simmer for a while and see if I come up with anything else that might help sell the idea. http://www.hotel.ymex.net/~s-20222/gengas/kg_eng.html
Any heat, not wasted but used, is , if placed at the right spot, beneficial to a gasifier.
I don’t want to re-start some of my other conversations/topics here ( Co2 converter stuf ) but its actually working… AND easy to copy…
Imagine a huge pile of glowing carbon… now blow Oxygen thru it; if partially done then 1 C will bind with 1 O to form CO
If you take Co2, it will strip 1 O from the Co2 and bind to 1 more C, resulting having 2 CO
If you take ozone rich air, it will strip into 3 CO
If you take H2O, it will make … ? ( CO and Hydrogen )
and so on…
The glowing carbon is an natural catalyst and the Oxygen or O containing substances ( not all ) will provide the O to bind with C to generate / reduce to CO
Actually, this is even done to make activated charcoal… ( using CO2 at high temperatures )
here is 2clips to show what i do in real life:
and
Injecting pure CO2 in the closed oven, output <1% CO2, 99%CO
This article about solar has a some good links in it one of them show incentives for systems based on your zip in the usa. The state of residential solar power | Ars Technica
I also found out my town has a property tax program for wood heating systems they have since 1981 and I didn’t even know about it. Now I have to see how that works maybe I can replace one of my outdated stoves that needs some work.
