MeanGene Rants 8
August 2002
Matthew Brown asks, what is it? And when is
Biodiesel day?
From John Pianezze's living room, to Los
Alamos, the answer is exactly 1.4 shit-loads.
Cool
Stuff
·
Run a
light backward!
OLEDs (Organic Light Emitting Diodes) are the hot new flat panel
display technology. When OLEDs are working as a display, you apply electricity
to the materials and they emit light. It turns out, however, that if you apply
light to these devices, you can get them to produce electricity; in other
words, they will run backward ... Not as efficient (power-wise) as standard
solar cells, but a lot cheaper to produce. http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,4149,381426,00.asp
·
Run a
subway backward???
The NYTimes (free reg required) explains how the NYC subways are
experimenting with flywheels to capture energy otherwise lost through braking. http://www.nytimes.com/2002/07/30/nyregion/30TUNN.html
What is
it? It is a fuel made from renewable fats or oils (think soybeans). It can be
used on its own, or mixed with standard diesel fuel. B100 is pure biodiesel,
B50 is 1/2 and 1/2, and B20, the most common, is 20% "bio". Biodiesel
is simple to use, biodegradable, nontoxic, and essentially free of sulfur and
aromatics and works without modifications, at any blend, in most diesel engines.
It is the only alternative fuel in the US to complete EPA Tier I Health Effects
Testing under section 211(b) of the Clean Air Act.
Compared
to regular diesel, biodiesel (not sure which blend) reduces ozone forming
hydrocarbon emissions by 50%, net CO2 emissions by 78% and similar reductions
in many other very ugly sounding compounds. http://www.biodiesel.org/pdf_files/CommonlyAsked.pdf
So what
is plain old diesel fuel, actually? The name comes from its inventor (see
below). Diesel fuel is all the rage in Europe. It offers better gas mileage and
low CO2 and hydrocarbon emissions. But (there is always a but) diesel fails to
meet California guidelines for nitrous oxide -- a precursor of smog -- and
particulate, or soot, emissions. VW, the only company to still sell Diesel cars
in the US thinks they can meet the California requirements (which will be the
national requirements as of 2004.) Working against them is the memory of
Americans of really bad diesel fuels of the 70's and 80's. http://detnews.com/2001/autos/0105/22/b01-226787.htm
Diesel
fuel is heavier than gasoline and kerosene. If you remember back to high school
chemistry, refining oil is the process of separating light hydrocarbon chains
like methane with only 1 Carbon atom, from heavier chains like gasoline
(C7-C11) to ones heavier still like kerosene (C12-C16) and diesel (~C18). After
that is lubricating oils and things like Vaseline (C20) and tar (about C26).
A diesel
engine is one that ignites its fuel without a spark. Air in the piston with the
fuel is so thoroughly compressed that the fuel temperature raises above its
ignition temperature. Diesel fuel then, is any fuel that can work in this type
of engine.
So
biodiesel is a heavy fuel that can work in a diesel engine, but is made from
soybeans, peanuts and of course, hemp (http://www.hempcar.org) which will
probably be illegal soon (the drug war you know!) http://www.hempcar.org/hempban.shtml
Biodiesel
is also, of course, a political movement pushed by the Agricultural lobby. In
Europe they want to make it 100% from taxes that apply to other fuels, Canada
is shooting for the same, http://www.biodiesel.org/news/bulletin/2002/072002.pdf.
In the US part of the massive Farm Bill that went through included credits for
farmers who produce crops that go toward biodiesel and other reductions are
being proposed. http://www.biodiesel.org/news/bulletin/2002/062002.pdf.
And in Minnesota the majority of diesel sold has to have some percentage of
biodiesel.
Biodiesel
has a day. Biodiesel day is celebrated March 18th. Diesel fuel was invented by,
who else, Rudolf Diesel the inventor of the internal combustion engine. He
demonstrated diesel fuel in 1900. The original source was peanut oil. http://inventors.about.com/library/inventors/bldiesel.htm
How much
energy is devoted to computing and related gadgets? Let's start with one man
and his home geek box. John Pianezze provides us with these measurements
obtained through his handy new power measuring toy.
"My
server, a celeron 450, runs 24x7, uses 90 watts $6 per month. Monitor uses 110
Watts. In power-save mode, uses 5 watts. 1.4GHz desktop machine uses 130 watts,
but with 100% CPU uses 150."
So how
many geek boxen are out there in homes and commercial buildings?
A 1995
estimate of the number of computers in commercial buildings was 43 million and
growing mightily. http://www.eia.doe.gov/emeu/consumptionbriefs/cbecs/pcsterminals.html
The
above study also estimates computers and other office equipment (faxes,
printers, phones) use 13% of all commercial electricity. Though a lower
estimate is given by the folks at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory:
"Office
equipment currently uses about 7% of all commercial sector electricity, with
that fraction projected to grow to 7.6% by 2010. Total Electricity used by office
equipment is projected to grow from 58 TWh in 1990 to 78 TWh in 2010 in the
absence of Energy Star or any other government policies."
http://enduse.lbl.gov/Info/37383-abstract.html
Using
1999 as a base year, LBL researchers estimated the annual electricity
consumption of all the office and network equipment in the United States at
about 74 terawatt-hours, or 2 percent of the nation's total. Factor in the cost
of manufacturing all that hardware, they said, and the figure rises to 3
percent. http://www.business2.com/articles/mag/0,1640,16568,FF.html
So the
answer is about two percent of the nations electricity for office and network
equipment, in 1990! In 2000, the Census Bureau estimated that 54 million
households had at least one computer, though we must assume that these weren't
likely to be on as often. Total energy for computers and related gear seems to
be nearing 65 TWh or so. That's 65,000,000,000,000 Watt hours.
On a micro-scale,
does anyone care how much energy their computers use? Yes. And not just the guy
in Britain who fried an egg on his CPU in 11 minutes. (Great photos at this
site http://www.handyscripts.co.uk/trubador_egg.htm)
At Los
Alamos national lab, two different visions of the future of supercomputing are
forming. One supercomputer they are bringing online now takes as much power as
5,000 homes. But a bigger one is waiting in the wings that will take 10 times
as much. 30MW for one big-ass computer! A second group at Los Alamos, however,
is taking a very different approach. This NYTimes article (free registration
required) gives a good summary. http://www.nytimes.com/2002/06/25/science/physical/25COMP.html
And
finally, does that Energy Star label mean anything? The LBL team estimates that
Energy Star devices will save between 10 and 29 TWh per year by 2010 which
translates to $700M to $2.3B per year. The manufacturers of Energy Star
products estimate the additional cost to be negligible. But I hate it when my
monitor doesn't come on right away!!! http://enduse.lbl.gov/Info/37383-abstract.html