Leaf Log using composted leaves as biofuel

Another great idea! Anyone who has raked leaves and done yard work knows the sheer volume of organic material that is burnt or composted.

“A business has struck green gold, turning composted leaves into ‘logs’ of biofuel that can provide green energy. The Leaf Log, as the invention is known, is the brainchild of Peter Morrison, who as chief executive of BioFuels International has already developed several of his green ideas into moneyspinners. The Leaf Log is made from 70 per cent fallen leaves compressed into a 1.2kg cylinder, which can burn for two hours. And, unlike other fuel products, the Leaf Log leaves behind just a tiny amount of ash, which itself can be composted.” – Source

New, Ozone-safe Refrigerant

Another incredible discovery that needs to be implemented worldwide as soon as possible.

“Richard Maruya said his HCR188c hydrocarbon blend is designed to replace current refrigerants in air conditioners, refrigerators and freezers that contribute “greenhouse” gases to the atmosphere, and use less electricity in the bargain. Maruya said independent testing has shown the amount of HCR188c needed is so small — about half a shot glass full for a home refrigerator and two for a car’s air-conditioning system — that there is little fire threat. Maruya, 59, is pushing HCR188c as a replacement for HFC-based refrigerants, which in turn were developed as a replacement for ozone-eating chlorofluorocarbons, or CFCs. HFCs are not ozone-depleting, but are a powerful global warming gas when released into the atmosphere. Davies called HFCs “a perfect greenhouse gas” because of their durability and heat-trapping properties. Hydrocarbons, like those in Maruya’s blend, have zero ozone-depletion potential and very low global warming potential. “At first I was just fooling around. … It wasn’t easy. It took me a while to figure this out,” Maruya said. What he hit upon was a blend of eight hydrocarbons that produce a refrigerant “where you use less, much less, and the flammability level is much lower,” he said. When he developed his mixture to the point where he needed only a third of the usual amount of refrigerant required for cooling, Maruya decided to take his invention to the next level by hiring a professional “blender” in California to achieve a more precise mix. With tweaking, the result was a 25 percent “charge,” meaning an HFC-based refrigerant could be replaced with only a quarter of the usual amount using Maruya’s HCR188c. After filing an EPA application, he submitted his hydrocarbon blend to the international testing firm Intertek, bringing even more good news. Among the test findings were that use of the smaller amounts of HCR188c in a refrigerator led to energy savings of 5 percent to 10 percent. Intertek scientists initially were “shocked” by the results, Maruya said, but now use one of the HCR188c test appliances as their employee fridge.” – Source

New Gold Extraction Technique Developed

This is a major contamination concern for recovering ore from tailings so I hope it is put into use around the world. I have no idea of the cost for this thiocyanate.

“Researchers from Siberian branch of Russian Academy of Sciences developed an original technique for extracting gold and silver from multi-component solutions. This technology avoids cyanide, a toxic reagent, which is widely used for extracting gold from ores and recoverable materials. Suggested alternative is much less toxic thiocyanate. Cyanide enters lakes and rivers, causing massive deaths of plants and animals.” – Source

A new Invention: Earth resistance solution, Benz Fill

Years ago, a friend named Dan Haley was assigned in a government capacity to Brazil. While there, he and his wife gained many new friends. Dan used to come to our Vanguard Sciences Roundtables in Dallas that went on for about 10 years or so. Later, a select group of us would go to an all night cafe like Ihop or Dennys and stay up til the wee hours chatting and swapping information.

In one of these after Roundtable sessions, Dan told us he met an older woman in her mid-50s or so while in Brazil. She told him when she was a little girl, her parents owned and operated a multi-story apartment building and her family lived on the penthouse.

That in itself isn’t the remarkable thing. She told Dan her father and grandfather had invented a way to generate all the power for the building but sometimes it would slightly fail with brownouts.

When that happened, the father would make one of the children run downstairs to ground level, get the water hose and apply water to deeply grounded thick metal rods. Water was applied until power was back to full intensity and it stayed that way as long as the ground stayed wet and damp.

Antennas were on the top of the penthouse, attached to insulated cables connected to the metal rods in the ground below. Apparently the load was connected between these insulated cables and the antennas to efficiently capture electrical energy directly from the air.

I never forgot that story as there are numerous patents claiming to be able to do this, including Stubblefields’ Earth Energy Battery system. So the news item below caught my eye and became ‘worthy’ of posting with this anecdote. The image above is from the Prentice Patent.

“A Cameroonian Electro-mechanical engineer, Dr. Benz Enow Bate, has invented an earth resistance solution capable of considerably improving the protection of electrical installations. The earth resistance-reducing paste has been named Benz Fill, after its inventor. Benz Fill reduces the earth’s resistance to less than 0.5ohms, a value believed to be very appropriate for conducting excess or faulty current into the soil. This technology, the inventor says, shall greatly reduced electricity related fire hazards. The earth’s resistance is reduced by injecting Benz Fill into the soil surrounding an earth electrode. Dr. Benz’s solution has been described as a breakthrough. If the procedure is vulgarised technicians shall abandon the traditional charcoal and salt mixture. A practise which Dr.Benz Enow says has its limitations because the corrosive characteristic of salt always ended up rusting the earth cables, and destroyed the earthing mechanism. His new solution is not easily washable and will not corrode metals but ensures that the earth is not resistant to faulty or excess current.” – Source

Water Is the Next Oil

And what are we doing to prepare for this next disaster?

“Biofuels are enormous consumers of water, says Jim Matheson, a general partner at Flagship Ventures, a venture capital firm in Cambridge, MA. And water is not always abundant where it’s most needed. “So, increasingly you’re going to see water as a scarce resource. I think it’s going to drive not just economics but also a lot of geopolitical dynamics. So, we’re trying to find technologies that can allow us to plug into this enormous value chain.” He’s interested, for example, in membranes and other water-treatment technologies that will allow biofuel-makers and others to reuse water. But he says there’s a big challenge to making these new technologies successful. There has to be a way to scale them up to bring down costs. “The problem is that water is like the Internet. People love it and they use it all the time, but they don’t want to pay for it,” he says. “So the question is, how do you come up with a business model that actually works?” One option, he says, is to develop technologies that can both clean up wastewater and extract energy from the waste, effectively adding value to the water.” – Source

Big Oil seems slick as U.S. turns to diesel cars

The sooner we get away from these parasites as our primary source of fuel, the sooner they can burn in hell.

“It’s high time for the big oil companies to explain one of life’s great mysteries; exactly how they fix the price of fuel at the filling station. The public has heard all sorts of explanations — market forces, regional instability, refinery issues and so on — but the logic behind the ups and downs (mostly ups) of gas prices is about as transparent as an IRS tax form. This topic is a burning concern not just because of costlier gasoline, which is, of course, a major drag on the U.S. economy and which affects all of our lives. It is also pertinent when it comes to diesel fuel, which, for no apparent reason, recently leapt up in price, well above the level of gasoline. Perversely, this has occurred just as consumer interest in fuel-efficient diesel vehicles is on the rise and as several major automakers are launching a new wave of advanced, clean diesel models.” – Source