Tag: fuel

Credit Card Fraud = Bombs on Wheels!

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❝ These criminals lug huge amounts of stolen gas across South Florida’s roadways, hiding hundreds of gallons in modified trucks and SUVs.

Authorities refer to the gas thieves’ converted trucks as moving bombs because of the hazard they pose if one were to crash and explode. “They’re out there, they’re so common — trying to blend with people who go to work every day,” said Florida Highway Patrol Trooper Alexis Otano. “God forbid one of these vehicles gets into an accident…”

❝ Since pulling over his first bladder truck in 2017, Trooper Otano has become an expert in identifying the modified trucks as they trundle down South Florida’s roads, laden with stolen diesel fuel.

According to him, the trucks function like “mobile gas stations,” their drivers using stolen credit card numbers to siphon off gas for free and then resell it to truckers in depots or to construction companies and tradesmen.

RTFA. Alas, such was part of my misspent youth. I recall – not fondly – driving a souped-up 1938 Ford Pickup from Western Massachusetts down to Danbury, Connecticut, with 200 gallons of high test in the hollow bed of the truck.

Pay was great…for a sixteen-year-old. A hundred buck$ in 1954. Still, good sense prevailed and I only did it one time. [That truck up top is only for illustration BTW.]

Navy is developing coatings for ships that may reduce fuel, energy costs 40-80%

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❝ It can repel water, oil, alcohol and even peanut butter. And it might save the U.S. Navy millions of dollars in ship fuel costs, reduce the amount of energy that vessels consume and improve operational efficiency.

The Office of Naval Research (ONR) is sponsoring work by Dr. Anish Tuteja, an associate professor of materials science and engineering at the University of Michigan, to develop a new type of “omniphobic” coating. This chemical coating is clear, durable, can be applied to numerous surfaces and sheds just about any liquid.

❝…In addition to omniphobic coatings to lessen friction drag, ONR is sponsoring other types of coating research to prevent corrosion on both ships and aircraft and fight biofouling (the buildup of barnacles on hulls). Similar coatings can also prevent ice from forming on ships operating in cold regions, or make ice removal much easier than conventional methods like scraping.

The Navy thinks it’s a big deal to consider coatings for the outside of ships, other devices. They should also consider coatings for the inside of pipes. About 30% of all energy consumed for everything from heating and cooling your home to performing similar functions – and more – aboard ship happens inside pumps and pipes connected by pumps. Just a suggestion.

India’s caste system even includes access to cooking fuel and electricity

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❝ Among their many privileges, India’s wealthiest households can rely on a consistent supply of electricity and access to cooking gas. The situation is rather different for other social groups, however. My research has shown lower caste and tribal households have 10-30% less access to electricity and clean cooking fuel, even when controlling for other factors like income or education.

This is just one outcome of India’s caste system, which divides the country’s population into rigid and hereditary social strata. Caste discrimination was declared illegal in the Indian constitution – and positive discrimination was introduced to correct historical injustices. Those assisted by the constitution are the “scheduled castes”. They make up about 16% of India’s population and, despite affirmative action, still face many disadvantages.

❝ The “scheduled tribes” are another disadvantaged group. They include tribal or indigenous communities throughout India, and are outside the Hindu caste system. They comprise about 8% of the population.

❝ Despite substantial progress since independence, India still contains the largest number of energy-deprived people in the world, especially among these marginalised social groups. Access to modern energy has obvious direct benefits (lighting, cooked food, and so on), but it can also help micro-enterprises flourish and improve health and environmental quality.

An article worth reading in its entirety. Democracy not only must confront right-wing ideologues from fascists to supposed republicans, a significant part of the problem in many lands is the history of the dominant religion.

How much of the world’s arable land is used to grow food?

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food vs fuel&feed
Crops grown for food (green) versus for animal feed and fuel (purple)

Just 55 percent of the world’s crop calories are actually eaten directly by people. Another 36 percent is used for animal feed. And the remaining 9 percent goes toward biofuels and other industrial uses…

The proportions are even more striking in the United States, where just 27 percent of crop calories are consumed directly — wheat, say, or fruits and vegetables grown in California. By contrast, more than 67 percent of crops — particularly all the soy grown in the Midwest — goes to animal feed. And a portion of the rest goes to ethanol and other biofuels.

Some of that animal feed eventually becomes food, obviously — but it’s a much, much more indirect process. It takes about 100 calories of grain to produce just 12 calories of chicken or 3 calories worth of beef, for instance.

The map itself comes from Jonathan Foley’s fascinating, visually rich exploration in National Geographic of how we can possibly feed everyone as the world’s population grows from 7 billion today to 9 billion by mid-century…

There are lots of possible strategies here. Farmers could increase agricultural productivity by boosting crop yields — either through new farming techniques or through improved crop genetics. But even if the rapid rate of improvement in crop yields over the 20th century continued, that still wouldn’t produce enough food for everyone…

One implication of that is that, as countries like China and India grow and consume more milk and meat, the pressure on global farmland will grow. But, alternatively, if the world shifted even a small portion of its diet away from resource-intensive meats or grew fewer biofuels, we could wring more food calories out of existing farmland.

There are many more strategies – which almost always fall under the category of tweaks. Poisonally, I’d rather see the production of flavorful vegetable-based protein continue to move forward, become practical and affordable. Yes, flavorful means “tastes like meat, tastes like chicken, tastes like fish”.

I think philosophical discussions about the life and death of animals that evolved along omnivore humans won’t change public opinion anymore in the next couple of centuries than was achieved in the last couple. Make veggie-based stuff that consumes fewer calories of potential energy and tastes like the stuff we grew up consuming, furry, finned or feathered – and costs less – and you have a winner.

Fortunately, there are a number of folks working on that. That’s the side I’m on.

Fighting wildfires with science

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Fire modeling tools rely on information from the National Weather Service, detailed maps of fuel layers in forests and other factors. They estimate how fast the fire will burn and how it will spread in relation to vegetation, trees, homes and other properties.

For Joe Hudson and Byron Bonney, the WFDSS program calculated the Johnson Bar fire’s potential spread within a 26,000-acre planning area where firefighter actions could slow or stop the fire. The modeled fire behavior informed them on the potential effects on threatened values: homes along the Selway and in nearby Lowell, a rustic lookout, the historic Tahoe Trail, habitat for fish, and timber and replanted forests.

“Once the fire has escaped initial direct attack, the goal is to protect the values at risk and contain the fire,” said Hudson.

Hudson called in the Incident Management Team, an interagency group that manages large fires. The IMT set up camp Aug. 8 at the Kooskia airport, 20 miles west of the fire.

Winds were pushing the fire north. Winds were gusting 35 mph on the ridges, triggering an Aug. 12 flare that doubled the size of the fire in one day. People living in the 30 homes along the Selway already had been evacuated.

The IMT kept the fire from spreading and establishing itself on the other side of the river. The WFDSS analysis was helping guide their decisions.

With the fire spreading down the slopes of the Selway and Middle Fork Clearwater River, the managers decided to perform burnouts using the rivers as barriers.

It worked. Welcome rains helped tame the fire. Firefighters were able to establish containment lines.

There are a few sections to this article – each valuable. It all leads up to fire science, divining the factors affecting heat, fuel and oxygen – the determinants of a fire.

Read the article. Especially if you live in the Moiuntain West.

TechKnow on Aljazeera America had a good segment on these studies a week or so ago. Here are the producer’s notes. Haven’t a video of the segment, yet – only a promo for the show.

Thanks, Mike

Fuel from the sea proof of concept — Naval Research Lab

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Fueled by a liquid hydrocarbon—a component of NRL’s novel gas-to-liquid process that uses CO2 and H2 as feedstock—the research team demonstrated sustained flight of a radio-controlled P-51 replica of the legendary Red Tail Squadron, powered by an off-the-shelf and unmodified two-stroke internal combustion engine.

Using an innovative and proprietary NRL electrolytic cation exchange module, both dissolved and bound CO2 are removed from seawater at 92 percent efficiency by re-equilibrating carbonate and bicarbonate to CO2 and simultaneously producing H2. The gases are then converted to liquid hydrocarbons by a metal catalyst in a reactor system…

The predicted cost of jet fuel using these technologies is in the range of $3-$6 per gallon, and with sufficient funding and partnerships, this approach could be commercially viable within the next seven to ten years. Pursuing remote land-based options would be the first step towards a future sea-based solution…

The process efficiencies and the capability to simultaneously produce large quantities of H2, and process the seawater without the need for additional chemicals or pollutants, has made these technologies far superior to previously developed and tested membrane and ion exchange technologies for recovery of CO2 from seawater or air.

Delightful stuff. Field expediency and cost efficiency over time – both potentials addressed in a single experiment.

Thanks, Mike

Scary enough making an emergency landing in Syria – the plane is running on empty – the crew has to pass the hat to buy fuel!

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Air France asks passengers for whip-round to pay for fuel after emergency stop in Damascus…The plane had been due to land in Beirut on Wednesday night but was diverted due to violent demonstrations near the airport of the Lebanese capital.

The captain first announced the plane would land in Amman in Jordan but due to lack of fuel he was forced to divert to Syria, where rebels are fighting to oust the dictatorial regime of President Bashar Assad.

Once on the ground, the crew told the 174 passengers they were unable to use the Air France company credit card to refuel the plane because of financial sanctions imposed on Syria by the West.

They then asked for a whip round among the mainly French and Lebanese travellers to pay for the thousands of litres of kerosene needed to reach Larnaca in Cyprus – the nearest safe airport…

An Air France spokesman later confirmed that the passengers had been asked for money after in landed in Damascus on Wednesday.

“As a precaution and in anticipation, the crew asked how much money the passengers had in cash to pay to fill up with fuel.

“However a solution was finally found to fill up the plane without borrowing cash from the passengers and the plane took off for Larnaca two hours later.”

I’ve heard of flights to nowhere – but, never one where you had to raise the cash to pay for a fill-up.

Har!

Ships’ sulphur emissions down 66 pct since 2010

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Sulphur dioxide emissions, which cause acid rain, have dropped by 66 percent from ships in European Union ports since a new policy on shipping fuel began in 2010…

Scientists at the EU Commission’s Joint Research Centre measured air quality in Mediterranean harbors before and after the entry into force of the low-sulphur requirements for ships at anchor in January 2010.

In European Mediterranean harbors (Civitavecchia and Savona in Italy and Palma de Mallorca in Spain), they found an average decrease of 66 percent in concentrations of sulphur dioxide, while measurements taken in the non-EU port of Tunis showed no decline.

“This shows that the decreases in sulphur dioxide are a direct consequence of the application of the EU requirements,” the Commission said in a statement.

“The study also confirms a correlation between sulphur dioxide and chemical elements typically emitted from ship stacks, which demonstrates that ships were the main source of sulphur dioxide in the harbors.”

Sulphur dioxide is one of the main chemicals responsible for formation of acid rain, which harms plants, aquatic animals and infrastructure. It can also contribute to cardiovascular and respiratory diseases.

Always useful to witness verification of good science used to aid health and life in general. Too bad there still are a number of politicians both sides of the pond still missing in action in the fight for healthier life on this planet.

Our American EPA just instituted a similar regulation for all coastal waters, east and west.

Pic of the Day

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Containers on the stern deck of the 47,230 ton Liberian-flagged Rena hang precariously, about 12 nautical miles from Tauranga, on the east coast of New Zealand’s North Island October 20, 2011. The recovery of fuel oil from a stricken container ship grounded off New Zealand resumed on Thursday as salvage teams worked to minimize the damage in the country’s worst environmental disaster in decades. Two days of strong winds and high seas had prevented the pumping of oil from the Rena, which has been stuck for more than two weeks on the Astrolabe Reef.