Sustainability Group - what's the purpose?

Recently, I've had second thoughts about starting and establishing a new sustainability group in Seattle - after realizing the amount of work that is involved. Also, I have noticed that when I share with people the idea of creating such a group, that many people do not get it. Some people probably think I have nothing better to do. Others think issues to do with sustainability is what I am most passionate about. And I suspect that others think I just don't know what other "better" things I could be doing with my time.

So in this post I hope to quickly explains where I am coming from, and why the idea to start another sustainability group.

First of all, I'd like to suggest that striving to make your and my lifestyle a sustainable one is about responsibility. If you don't understand this, then please read on. But let me tell you right now that having actions that promote sustainability is not what gives me pleasure or what I love to do in life. I love doing activities that are energy-intensive. For example, I love driving; always have. I love snowboarding, and the long drive that it takes to get to the mountain each time. I also enjoy jet-skiing and snowmobiling. These are very fun activities, but with the current technology we have (which is centered around the Internal Combustion Engine) make is it very improbable that we will be able do these things in generations to come. Now, I say that based on what premise???

I say that based on the "theory" that fossil fuels are finite. It is that simple. It is the "belief" or understanding of a particular process: that a gasoline car will not go up if the tank is empty of gasoline, and that gasoline comes from an oil field, and that an oil field gets empty after the oil is extracted, and that the number of oil fields that on planet earth that we can tap into to extract the oil is finite, that is, it gets used up and there's no more. If you can follow this much logic, then you understand that oil gets used up and then there's no more. So a lifestyle that is dependent on petroleum is not sustainable, which is to say that when there's no more oil those activities will come to an end. This includes everything that depends on petroleum, and petroleum is pretty much on everything around us - not just in the form of liquid fuels.

I'd like to suggest that one reason why people don't easily and readily understand this connection is because we have been living in a delusional society that pretends that we will forever have fossil fuels to burn. Of course this is not the case. And one thing that has contributed to that is language: the fact that oil companies claim they "produce" oil. But we humans - thanks to the great work of oil geologists - understand that no one can make petroleum. There's no formula for making petroleum. We have a grasp of what this formula is, but it takes millions of years and the right "cooking" conditions of the planet for dead matter to be converted to oil. In short, oil companies simply extract oil from underground, but they do not produce oil. Yet the term "oil production" subliminally tells us that there will always be oil, and as a result the way our fossil fuel based societies function and our lifestyles will never have to change. But we humans who are doing some thinking know that this is not the case.

So, once you understand this logic of resources being finite, which introduces the topic of unsustainability, a question inevitably arises. The question is "how much oil (in our case) do we have left?", which is another way of asking "for how much longer can we carry on our current lifestyle?"

Well, some people have already tried to come up with the answer to this question. Being that there's so much secrecy around the numbers that indicate the amount of oil reserves that each country has, it's virtually impossible to come up with an answer that is accurate. But I trust that we can come close. If economic activity continued to increase as well as the world oil consumption which has grown steadily at 2% per year, then we should have about 90 years left before petroleum completely ran out; give or take some years.

If I look at it this way, then my lifestyle of driving is irresponsible because if I have children and grandchildren, I am contributing to a world where in their lifetime there is no oil left. It is hard to imagine what that world will be like, but it will be a very different world.

I have written this just so people can understand that building and promoting a sustainability group is not what I like to do. It's not even in my comfort zone. But it is what I consider the responsible thing to do. I still love driving. But what future will I build for myself and future generations if my actions remain the same? What future will you build if you make no contributions to building a lifestyle that is sustainable.

If the earth's resources - and we're focusing on fossil fuels here - are finite, then we can use the analogy of a pie. The pie represents resources. With an ever-increasing world population and a pie that gets smaller by the day, you can start having an idea of what the future holds for humanity: more people competing for less pie, or fewer resources. This is not a pretty picture. But if we learn to live sustainably, then it can be. There's hope, but it lies in how much we can and are willing to adapt so that we do not rely on finite resources for our sustenance. How to achieve such lifestyle will be the focus of our sustainability group: in the form of discussions that will provide solutions, and actions to implement those solutions and make them part of our lives.

Lastly, I want to say that I am still open to the idea of new technologies that will allow us to have a particular standard of living. But I am taking no responsibility for inventing those technologies, and I don't trust that anyone else will. Notice that when these technologies for "free energy" are mentioned by someone, they are always referring to "someone else or company out there" coming up with such solution and not themselves. Because I don't believe that I can come up with or participate in inventing such solutions, I am choosing to promote actions that are sustainable that can be part of our lifestyle now and in the future.

Thank you for reading.

The Recycling Machine.

Posting a link and the content of a web site that talks about this revolutionary product called "the recycling machine".

http://www.popsci.com/popsci/flat/bown/2007/innovator_2.html

INNOVATORS

Left: Frank Pringle [right] and Hawk Hogan [left] feed the Hawk recycler, which extracts oil and gas from waste like tires.

Green Tech
THE MICROWAVE MAGICIAN

Frank Pringle has found a way to squeeze oil and gas from just about anything

I’m not sure if I’m watching a magic trick, or an invention that will make the cigar-chomping 64-year-old next to me the richest man on the planet. Everything that goes into Frank Pringle’s recycling machine—a piece of tire, a rock, a plastic cup—turns to oil and natural gas seconds later. “I’ve been told the oil companies might try to assassinate me,” Pringle says without sarcasm.

The machine is a microwave emitter that extracts the petroleum and gas hidden inside everyday objects—or at least anything made with hydrocarbons, which, it turns out, is most of what’s around you. Every hour, the first commercial version will turn 10 tons of auto waste—tires, plastic, vinyl—into enough natural gas to produce 17 million BTUs of energy (it will use 956,000 of those BTUs to keep itself running).

Pringle created the machine about 10 years ago after he drove by a massive tire fire and thought about the energy being released. He went home and threw bits of a tire in a microwave emitter he’d been working with for another project. It turned to what looked like ash, but a few hours later, he returned and found a black puddle on the floor of the unheated workshop. Somehow, he’d struck oil.

Or rather, he had extracted it. Petroleum is composed of strings of hydrocarbon molecules. When microwaves hit the tire, they crack the molecular chains and break it into its component parts: carbon black (an ash-like raw material) and hydrocarbon gases, which can be burned or condensed into liquid fuel. Pringle figured that some gases from his microwaved tire had lingered, and the cold air in the shop had condensed them into diesel. If the process worked on tires, he thought, it should work on anything with hydrocarbons. The trick was in finding the optimum microwave frequency for each material—out of 10 million possibilities.

Pringle has spent 10 years and $1 million homing in on frequencies for hundreds of materials. In 2004 he teamed up with engineer pal Hawk Hogan to take the machine commercial.

Their first order is under construction in Rockford, Illinois. It’s a $5.1-million microwave machine the size of small bus called the Hawk, bound for an auto-recycler in Long Island, New York. More deals loom: The U.S. military may use Hawks in Iraq on waste such as water bottles and food containers. Oil companies are looking to the machines to gasify petroleum trapped in shale.

Back at the shop, Pringle is still zapping new materials. A sample labeled “bituminous coal” goes in and, 15 seconds later, Pringle ignites the resulting gas. “You see,” he says, “why they might want to kill me.” —RENA MARIE PACELLA

The Recycling Machine.

Posting a link and the content of a web site that talks about this revolutionary product called "the recycling machine".

http://www.popsci.com/popsci/flat/bown/2007/innovator_2.html

INNOVATORS

Left: Frank Pringle [right] and Hawk Hogan [left] feed the Hawk recycler, which extracts oil and gas from waste like tires.

Green Tech
THE MICROWAVE MAGICIAN

Frank Pringle has found a way to squeeze oil and gas from just about anything

I’m not sure if I’m watching a magic trick, or an invention that will make the cigar-chomping 64-year-old next to me the richest man on the planet. Everything that goes into Frank Pringle’s recycling machine—a piece of tire, a rock, a plastic cup—turns to oil and natural gas seconds later. “I’ve been told the oil companies might try to assassinate me,” Pringle says without sarcasm.

The machine is a microwave emitter that extracts the petroleum and gas hidden inside everyday objects—or at least anything made with hydrocarbons, which, it turns out, is most of what’s around you. Every hour, the first commercial version will turn 10 tons of auto waste—tires, plastic, vinyl—into enough natural gas to produce 17 million BTUs of energy (it will use 956,000 of those BTUs to keep itself running).

Pringle created the machine about 10 years ago after he drove by a massive tire fire and thought about the energy being released. He went home and threw bits of a tire in a microwave emitter he’d been working with for another project. It turned to what looked like ash, but a few hours later, he returned and found a black puddle on the floor of the unheated workshop. Somehow, he’d struck oil.

Or rather, he had extracted it. Petroleum is composed of strings of hydrocarbon molecules. When microwaves hit the tire, they crack the molecular chains and break it into its component parts: carbon black (an ash-like raw material) and hydrocarbon gases, which can be burned or condensed into liquid fuel. Pringle figured that some gases from his microwaved tire had lingered, and the cold air in the shop had condensed them into diesel. If the process worked on tires, he thought, it should work on anything with hydrocarbons. The trick was in finding the optimum microwave frequency for each material—out of 10 million possibilities.

Pringle has spent 10 years and $1 million homing in on frequencies for hundreds of materials. In 2004 he teamed up with engineer pal Hawk Hogan to take the machine commercial.

Their first order is under construction in Rockford, Illinois. It’s a $5.1-million microwave machine the size of small bus called the Hawk, bound for an auto-recycler in Long Island, New York. More deals loom: The U.S. military may use Hawks in Iraq on waste such as water bottles and food containers. Oil companies are looking to the machines to gasify petroleum trapped in shale.

Back at the shop, Pringle is still zapping new materials. A sample labeled “bituminous coal” goes in and, 15 seconds later, Pringle ignites the resulting gas. “You see,” he says, “why they might want to kill me.” —RENA MARIE PACELLA

A world without oil (article)

This is an article that was on today's front page of The Independent, titled “A world without oil”.

The article is worth reading, especially for those not yet familiar with Peak Oil. I do think some day all people will realize how precious petroleum is, and we will consider our choice of internal combustion engines for moving cars an absurd way to use our finite oil.

The article says that our coal reserves (coal is a source of energy we’ll likely start relying on more heavily once oil starts becoming scarce) is enough to last 155 years. I believe that number is incorrect. It is incorrect because it does not account for the expected increase in demand worldwide. It is a fact that China, a country that's #2 in coal reserves, is importing coal for their energy needs.

Furthermore, the demand for coal will be much higher once it becomes evident that oil reserves are depleting – something the public has not been warned about.

So I’ll write Daniel Howden (the writer of this article) an email to bring this issue to his attention.

- Ricardo Parker

A world without oil (article)

This is an article that was on today's front page of The Independent, titled “A world without oil”.

The article is worth reading, especially for those not yet familiar with Peak Oil. I do think some day all people will realize how precious petroleum is, and we will consider our choice of internal combustion engines for moving cars an absurd way to use our finite oil.

The article says that our coal reserves (coal is a source of energy we’ll likely start relying on more heavily once oil starts becoming scarce) is enough to last 155 years. I believe that number is incorrect. It is incorrect because it does not account for the expected increase in demand worldwide. It is a fact that China, a country that's #2 in coal reserves, is importing coal for their energy needs.

Furthermore, the demand for coal will be much higher once it becomes evident that oil reserves are depleting – something the public has not been warned about.

So I’ll write Daniel Howden (the writer of this article) an email to bring this issue to his attention.

- Ricardo Parker

How much oil is required for manufacturing, maintaining and driving a vehicle?

Well, this question is definitely hard to answer. There's so much that goes behind building a car in terms of energy expenditure, that I consider impossible to get an accurate number. But we may be able to get an estimate. Here's a great question: which requires more energy - manufacturing a car or driving and maintaining it? In the case of electric vehicles no oil is necessary to power the car and the energy can come from 100% renewable sources as mentioned in my previous post. EVs require very little maintenance in comparison to ICEs; something I'll get into details later.

According to Colin Campbell, it takes between 17 and 50 barrels of oil to manufacture a single car. Of course no auto plant is built for the purpose of building a single car (not typically anyway), so this information is broken down and the impact on the environment is always from manufacturing large numbers of vehicles and not just one. But let's use these numbers as a basis until we get something more accurate. What is the amount of oil that it takes to drive a car? This last question is a little easier to answer, though it'll require some research. I'll probably use the Toyota Camry for this measurement since it's the "best-selling passenger car in America". I'll use the average miles-per-gallon (MPG) of the Toyota Camry to calculate how much gasoline it uses in its lifetime. For the lifetime I'll probably use 300,000 miles since I believe that's how long those engines last on average. Then the last step will be to convert the energy in a gallon of gasoline to the energy in a barrel of oil. This should give us an estimate. If anyone has any ideas or pointers, please let me know. In the meantime I'll be working on this. Please check back soon!
- Ricardo Parker

Source: http://www.energy.ca.gov/gasoline/whats_in_barrel_oil.html

How much oil is required for manufacturing, maintaining and driving a vehicle?

Well, this question is definitely hard to answer. There's so much that goes behind building a car in terms of energy expenditure, that I consider impossible to get an accurate number. But we may be able to get an estimate. Here's a great question: which requires more energy - manufacturing a car or driving and maintaining it? In the case of electric vehicles no oil is necessary to power the car and the energy can come from 100% renewable sources as mentioned in my previous post. EVs require very little maintenance in comparison to ICEs; something I'll get into details later.

According to Colin Campbell, it takes between 17 and 50 barrels of oil to manufacture a single car. Of course no auto plant is built for the purpose of building a single car (not typically anyway), so this information is broken down and the impact on the environment is always from manufacturing large numbers of vehicles and not just one. But let's use these numbers as a basis until we get something more accurate. What is the amount of oil that it takes to drive a car? This last question is a little easier to answer, though it'll require some research. I'll probably use the Toyota Camry for this measurement since it's the "best-selling passenger car in America". I'll use the average miles-per-gallon (MPG) of the Toyota Camry to calculate how much gasoline it uses in its lifetime. For the lifetime I'll probably use 300,000 miles since I believe that's how long those engines last on average. Then the last step will be to convert the energy in a gallon of gasoline to the energy in a barrel of oil. This should give us an estimate. If anyone has any ideas or pointers, please let me know. In the meantime I'll be working on this. Please check back soon!
- Ricardo Parker

Source: http://www.energy.ca.gov/gasoline/whats_in_barrel_oil.html

Welcome Folks!

Welcome to ElectricKar.com!

My goal is to make this the #1 site for electric vehicles with the intention of educating the public, answering all questions and promoting EV technology. We will use a blog to start and upgrade as needed. After 6 months of research I believe I can provide the answers to most questions that are out there. So please challenge me with your questions! If I don't have the answer I promise to do the research necessary to get it. I'm that passionate about electric vehicles.

Why Electric Vehicles?

Unlike conventional cars which use an Internal Combustion Engine (ICE) and require some sort of liquid fuel for propulsion, Electric Vehicles (EVs) require only electricity. The large majority of cars on the planet run on gasoline, which is a product of oil. Aside from the numerous disadvantages of burning oil - air pollution, contribution to Global Warming and the threat to US national security that comes from importing energy that comes mostly from unfriendly nations - oil is a finite resource. It's estimated that we humans have burned just over 50% of all the oil available, in a period of roughly 150 years. Because world demand for oil keeps increasing in an oil-fueled global economy that is conditioned to grow, it's estimated that at current rates it will take us 91 more years to use up the remaining oil. So, whether this happens sooner or later is irrelevant: the fact is that the primary source of energy used to move our vehicles (among other activities) will come to an end, and not too far from now. Electric Vehicles are one answer to this serious issue that we all face. EVs do not require the burning of fossil fuels for propulsion since electricity can be generated from renewable energy sources such as solar power, wind power, biomass, and other sources that we may discover and develop. Unlike other fuel alternatives for vehicles (hydrogen, biofuels, etc) which require the building of an infrastructure for providing the fuel, it's fair to say that the infrastructure for powering EVs already exists: electric outlets can be found in our homes and offices. Cars are not being driven most of the time, so when they are parked they could be charged for the next trip. While the typical 110v electric outlet is not ideal for charging an electric car because it can take up to 8 hours to fully charge one, power stations with a much faster energy transfer rate can be installed at parking lots, rest areas, and convenience stores. With a power outlet an electric car, such as the soon to be released Tesla Roadster, can be charged in 30 minutes or less. The amount of time to charge any electric car will likely decrease greatly once EV technology is developed further. But even if it will take 8 hours to fully charge a car on an 100v outlet: this may be a good alternative for some people already, who have their cars parked for 8 hours or more in their workplace while they work.
- Ricardo Parker

Welcome Folks!

Welcome to ElectricKar.com!

My goal is to make this the #1 site for electric vehicles with the intention of educating the public, answering all questions and promoting EV technology. We will use a blog to start and upgrade as needed. After 6 months of research I believe I can provide the answers to most questions that are out there. So please challenge me with your questions! If I don't have the answer I promise to do the research necessary to get it. I'm that passionate about electric vehicles.

Why Electric Vehicles?

Unlike conventional cars which use an Internal Combustion Engine (ICE) and require some sort of liquid fuel for propulsion, Electric Vehicles (EVs) require only electricity. The large majority of cars on the planet run on gasoline, which is a product of oil. Aside from the numerous disadvantages of burning oil - air pollution, contribution to Global Warming and the threat to US national security that comes from importing energy that comes mostly from unfriendly nations - oil is a finite resource. It's estimated that we humans have burned just over 50% of all the oil available, in a period of roughly 150 years. Because world demand for oil keeps increasing in an oil-fueled global economy that is conditioned to grow, it's estimated that at current rates it will take us 91 more years to use up the remaining oil. So, whether this happens sooner or later is irrelevant: the fact is that the primary source of energy used to move our vehicles (among other activities) will come to an end, and not too far from now. Electric Vehicles are one answer to this serious issue that we all face. EVs do not require the burning of fossil fuels for propulsion since electricity can be generated from renewable energy sources such as solar power, wind power, biomass, and other sources that we may discover and develop. Unlike other fuel alternatives for vehicles (hydrogen, biofuels, etc) which require the building of an infrastructure for providing the fuel, it's fair to say that the infrastructure for powering EVs already exists: electric outlets can be found in our homes and offices. Cars are not being driven most of the time, so when they are parked they could be charged for the next trip. While the typical 110v electric outlet is not ideal for charging an electric car because it can take up to 8 hours to fully charge one, power stations with a much faster energy transfer rate can be installed at parking lots, rest areas, and convenience stores. With a power outlet an electric car, such as the soon to be released Tesla Roadster, can be charged in 30 minutes or less. The amount of time to charge any electric car will likely decrease greatly once EV technology is developed further. But even if it will take 8 hours to fully charge a car on an 100v outlet: this may be a good alternative for some people already, who have their cars parked for 8 hours or more in their workplace while they work.
- Ricardo Parker