Changing my coal-enabling ways

As I work in an engineering firm in the illawarra, our main clients are the surrounding coal mines, cement and steel works. We're growing and stretching our area so I've recently helped a company build plant that services a mine in Tasmania, and another one is coming in WA. 

I console myself that the plant in Tas stops the 40+ tonnes per day of product which is a large part just water being transported from the middle of NSW.

But I'm now using the expectation on my position of developing new clients to see if we can get work with the nascent geo-thermal and solar thermal power industry. Here's hoping!

Although in the meantime I'll be taking advantage of a trip to Dubai to do some business development as well. Most of which will be petroleum, but I'm hoping to see what other power industries they have going and, at the very minimum, develop some skills to position us to do some work with bio-fuel plants. (Such as the Soy-bio-diesel plant being built in Pt Kembla shortly.) 

I'm also trying to work out if I can justify a trip to San Francisco to check out the algae bio-diesel technology under development and all of the other technologies that have been bought and corralled there. The fact that I have friends I'd like to visit there is a bonus of course :)

And while I feel guilty about the air miles, I don't have the time or stomach to sail so I assuage my guilt by buying carbon offsets, and hoping they're real.

Sadly, our business strategists are firm believers that "the black stuff" will still be getting pulled out of the ground for decades to come. At least they're capitalist enough to not discriminate where the money comes from, so they accommodate my pursuit of green industry.

Vehicle Dilemma

So I own an over-sized gas guzzling ute, that is the antithesis of my current philosophy. Natural thought is to sell it and buy a more efficient vehicle, but then the realisation hit that by selling it, I'm just passing the problem on to someone else, and probably someone who doesn't care and drives more than I do. I could keep it, but I don't want to be displaying an apparent double standard.

I could take it to the scrap yard, but REALLY can't justify the loss in $'s. 

What to do???

Hrmmm, I wonder how much I could sell the motor for and convert it to electric...

Electric vehicles

After reading about a Victorian(?) politician who became part of a company called Better Place which is seeking to develop marketable electric cars and most importantly electric car "re-fuelling" stations, I checked out their website www.betterplace.com and signed the petition to show market support for the idea.
I sent that link to a bunch of people and one mentioned the AEVA (Australian Electric Vehicle Association) www.aeva.asn.au
It's great to see how many people have made the effort to convert a car themselves (also check out worldwide conversions www.evalbum.com )
The Garnaut report apparently says that electric vehicles are not significantly more energy/carbon efficient than petrol vehicles. However, this is based on the power coming from coal fired power stations via the national grid. As soon as you get it from renewable source (your own roof top solar/wind, or via suppliers such as Jackgreen 100%, then it's all clean driving.

So, I'm heading down the path of doing a conversion. Information and even parts are quite readily available but the hardest thing is deciding what vehicle to convert!

Options
1) Small, old, cheap car that will be cheap to buy and run (but will have a pretty ordinary interior, possible other mechanical failings and doesn't do anything to promote/sell electric as an attractive option)
2) Small, newer car that's cheap to run and is in reasonable condition (but again doesn't really promote electric as an option to the current market)
3) Light commercial vehicle, newish, more acceptable to current market (but more costly to convert)

I'm favouring 3 as my best chance to help change the world in some comfort and style but I'll need to first set my wants and needs in specifications and project parameters.
*Minimum travel per charge
*Charge time
*Conversion cost including:
-vehicle
-motor
-battery pack
-controllers
-vehicle mods
*Vehicle surplus capacity#
* Vehicle body style


# - Electric conversions can weigh more than the engine etc that they replace, so smaller cars with less spare GVM (gross vehicle mass) capacity can result in the car going over the legal GVM (such as www.mightyboyev.com ). So a bigger car, while needing more power, can actually be a better choice to be able to carry more than just the passengers.

Vehicles and powers sources

So following on the ethanol fuel question.

I'm currently of the opinion that the capitalist way that ethanol fuels are being developed and managed is a BAD thing.
Pros
* Short CO2 lifecycle (plants grow taking CO2 out of air, we burn fuel putting it back in)

Cons
* Food crops are being diverted to ethanol production due to simple market economics and as a result it is contributing to world food shortages. (Fuel producers and car drivers are paying more.)
* Forests are being cleared to produce the ethanol sources.
* Ethanol is borderline on energy efficiency (ie: net energy in is sometimes greater than net energy out, mostly depending on fuel source)


As a tip, if you buy E10 or whatever fuel due to cost, be aware that;
1) not all cars can handle ethanol due to gumming up the jets
2) In my tests, E10 gives about a 6% reduction in fuel efficiency (ie: less km/L), so if the price is not >6% less, you're paying more $/km.

Global warming - who's interpreting for you?

Amongst the noise and arguments about global warming which is now more generally accepted as being true than not*. One of the things we mere plebs have had to rely on is interpreted data. I found this website www.free-the-memes.net (by searching NASA hottest year on google).
I think it gives a good dose of context on the data for the more scientifically minded.

Now out of this, I decided two things;
1) Global warming is happening with a link to CO2 etc
2) Human activity is contributing to the rise but may not be solely responsible (but we can do something about it to protect health, wealth and happiness).

* - Interestingly baby-boomers/people who were around in the 70's who went through the "next ice age" scare seem most sceptical (understandably)

Renewables energy balance - data!!

What should be THE key question and the most commonly known answer in debates about renewables is the payback period for the energy embodied in the power generator.
(ie: Can you use one to make more than another one.)
Sadly it's not, and I've only just found the answer (albeit easily now that I've looked for it).

Here's one site with some good data
http://www.awea.org/faq/bal.html
and another well referenced source
http://www.csudh.edu/oliver/smt310-handouts/solarpan/pvpayback.htm

Short answer:
Solar in the 70's couldn't. Now it can (payback 3~6yrs with a total 15~20yr life)
Wind can easily (2~22 MONTHS)
But coal and nuclear can easily too (0.7 months), I'm guessing the ongoing energy cost is insignficant.


Hrmm, now to look at Ethanol fuels...

invention # ?

Beam balance piggy bank. One side a standard weight hung at the saving goal marker, the other side, coin boxes for each denomination at the right offset for value-vs-weight.
Now to work out how much each denomination weighs.

October/November adventures

So the ankle is on track for a slow recovery, but at least a recovery that has allowed me to fight again. And I was happy to find that I still had it, even if the muscles are a bit weak and slow. So more fighting activity and a white belt here I come. (Rowany Yule, Dec 8th, really really)

The A&S type thing I've been working on is making inkle looms and having a go at making pteruges (the cloth hanging strips below the musculata). Check out flickr.com/people/blaeney for the blow by blow.

Definitely enjoying the effort of trying something new.

What's in an ankle?

Technology is amazing stuff, and I'm a bit of an idiot.

Last November I "sprained" my ankle in crown tourney but was enjoying the fighting enough that I kept fighting ...and again the next day. Did I mention I walked half a km home at 4am?

Ankle's sprain right? Bit's tear slightly or inflame and get over it, no problem. Sure, except when you half break it. In hindsight, with the effect it's had on my life I wish I'd broken it properly and gone through a known and obvious healing program. As it is, after 6mths of physio with the last three not fighting and limited dog walking, it didn't look like it was going to take care of itself so I got an MRI and then went to a specialist.

On 5th Sept I went in for keyhole surgery with the view that a reasonably definite heal time is better than an uncertain one. After seeing the arthroscope pics from inside my ankle I'm glad I did as I don't think it would have healed properly otherwise.

I have to say I was disappointed with the anaesthetic experience. One minute I'm bored while waiting in the pre-op room, next the nurse is telling me I have to go to the toilet and do I want tea or coffee (and is your lift here yet so we can go home). No fading out while counting backwards, no pink elephants, just blackout and then feeling like a record player that's still switched on sounds as the power comes back on sporadically.

Anyway, overall it was apparently successful. There is still a certain amount of finger crossing though as the doctor also found I'd damaged the ligaments joining my tibia and fibula, which, if they give me trouble once the other one is settled, means going back in for a pin. Downside of that is 6wks on crutches and 6mths of taking it easy rather than the current 10 days and 6wks.

And here's the pics:

First the side view MRI, red circled bit is the area of damage. Light grey bit on lower bone is bone bruising (ie: crushed), the wiggly thin black bit above that is the cartilage and should be a smooth curve, the bright white bits are fluid which shouldn't be there.


















This is the front view through the middle of my ankle (cool huh?). The bit in the blue circle is the same as the one above, with the smashed cartilage and the bit in the blue box is where the ligament damage is. This pic really shows something I never knew about ankles, they're a square peg in a square hole. Hence why rotating sideways is bad news!




(Warning: Pics of bone etc inside my ankle following, if you are squeamish ... this is a good chance to desensitise.)





















Now this is inside my ankle during surgery. The first pic is what good cartilage looks like and on the right is what missing and flaky bits of cartilage looks like. (The silver thing on the left is one of the surgical instruments.)

First they clear away the loose cartilage (pic1) and then roughen up the bone surface to promote a scab to form which will apparently heal like a fibrous form of cartilage just not as good. And I'm guessing I'll really be paying for it in 20~30yrs time.
And this is the gap between tib and fib where ligaments should be tenaciously doing their job of stopping the square hole getting bigger.

All up it's kinda cool and gives me hope of the end being in sight. Although it' going slow at the moment and I'm having doubts about my ability to be off the crutches this weekend and am really quite dubious about being able to fight by November. The doctor said that I could expect to be "good on level ground by 6wks with some issues on uneven ground".