Jul
17
Picking on the Pickens Plan
July 17, 2008 | Leave a Comment
“Ah! Out with the sharp knives mates.” T. Boone Pickens has his idea of launching wind power so strongly made and out so fast that natural gas could be used for cars instead of some of the gasoline we’re using. Can it stand the test of close examination? Make no mistake; this Pickens fellow is [...]
Jul
14
It’s Not What You Use, It’s What You Waste
July 14, 2008 | Leave a Comment
The popular attention is getting a tighter focus on the costs for gasoline, diesel and jet fuel – the fuels we use to get ourselves where we want to be and get the things we want close enough to buy them. Those costs are on a steep climb up. You’re going to hear a lot [...]
Jun
19
Iowa Floods – You Might Pay More
June 19, 2008 | Leave a Comment
The flip side to food vs. fuel is that the corn crop may come up short enough to drive ethanol in part off the market for gasoline addition. Estimates are putting the price increase at 15% or nearly 60 cents per gallon. At 10% in E-10 mixes that could be high but even at a [...]
Jun
13
How Much at What Pressure and Temperature?
June 13, 2008 | 1 Comment
The American Petroleum Institute had me out for a tour of the premier oil refinery in the U.S. Located out or up in Billings Montana, depending on where you are, this refinery is in a truly beautiful and picturesque location smack in the middle of a mid sized city. It’s an easy walk from the [...]
Jun
10
Sitting down and just talking with really smart people can be a terrible disappointment. On the other hand, sometimes the really smart people surprise you with down to earth, sensible, insightful and carefully reasoned commentary. I found one.
There is a dichotomy between being educated and having common sense. Education, as practiced in the U.S. often [...]
Jun
3
Getting to the Best Source of Fuel
June 3, 2008 | 1 Comment
The ratio that matters, carbon to hydrogen, has a new technology for getting free hydrogen to combine with carbon to make fuels. To recap, wood has a carbon to hydrogen (C:H) ratio of 10 to 1 or wood has 10 carbon atoms for each hydrogen atom. Coal boosted the C:H ratio way up to 2 [...]
May
23
The Agony and No Ecstasy
May 23, 2008 | Leave a Comment
I was honored to be asked to participate in a conference call with Peter Robertson of Chevron Tuesday afternoon. This is the link to read the text of it. This is the link to the recording of the conversation. (May 20, 2008 API Blogger Conference Call. Also, the audio will download but [...]
May
20
The Next Fuel Craze May be Methanol
May 20, 2008 | 2 Comments
The week before last saw the Basques offer they have a fuel cell that can be fueled by methanol. With in a day I had received multiple notices that MIT in Massachusetts and Sharp of Japan were also in the hunt for methanol fuel cells. There is a lot of valuable “why” in [...]
May
13
So, How Much Electricity to End Gasoline?
May 13, 2008 | 4 Comments
One blogger I admire is Robert Rapier who writes the R-Squared Blog who posted on Monday about the solar base of electricity needed to displace the equivalent of today’s gasoline use. It is an interesting concept that is rife with problems of equivalency.
The U.S. is reported to be going through 389 million gallons of [...]
May
12
How to Play Benevolent Dictator
May 12, 2008 | 2 Comments
Family is an interesting and informative exercise in people watching. In conversation the informed, ill informed, intelligent, ignorant, and indifferent all can be seen in as a microcosm of the community as a whole. Conversation for holidays that lack a lot of traditions rituals and activities lead to discussions in my family and [...]
