It's a whole lot easier to generate electricity with that landfill gas and sell it to the power company

 

While all the BTTF mania about the date is flying around, I saw this bit of technology:

http://www.mouser.com/kemetdelor2000/

It is so well done. And someone at both Mouser and Kemet had to agree. It's nice to see some companies still have a sense of humor
I told folks at work I was going to do a group order, but they had to have told me last week to be on the list.

 

Toyota Mirai : Mirai Trunks = Future Trunks => Mirai = Future => Toyota Mirai = > Toyota Future trying to sound fancy. Lame.

 

It's a whole lot easier to generate electricity with that landfill gas and sell it to the power company

I don't disagree...I'm just making fun of America's resistance to positive change. "We" love to change for the sake of changing, but changing something because it will be better for us?! Pssssh! Get real!

 

They had me until all of the pie in the sky "harvesting gas from landfills" talk. Not gonna happen on a scale large enough to be impactful or practical. I hate to be Nathan Negative, but it's just too far fetched to work in American culture--for now. Turn off the flow of oil and sure, people will power their over-priced enviro-cars with decomposing crapped diapers.

Jackson County NC has been doing it for several years. Smaller scale, and it's used on site. They built a facility of local artists that rent out space and use the gas to fire the heaters for gas blowing and ceramics, etc. Much smaller scale. But cool none the less. IIRC, another county in WNC is doing the same thing. One of the companies we deal with turns used oil into bio fuels for their trucks and sells some locally.

The main issue with these bio power ideas is that they are almost always small scale uses. It's not like one big facility will run a large area. It would take lots of small local facilities. Which is not cheap or as practical. Solar is great, but it's small scale mostly. Large scale solar and wind has it's own environmental impacts that no one wants to talk about.

Love the commercial though. They did that one right.

 

They had me until all of the pie in the sky "harvesting gas from landfills" talk

There is a waste water treatment plant that I help out at when they need an extra certified operator. They now power their entire plant off of methane gas, and have extra that has to be burnt off. They are fully functional and have been "off the grid" for about 6 months.
I'm not saying its going to happen tomorrow but in our life time we will find aa quality replacement energy source.

 

I don't doubt the science nor the application in small, site-specific cases. It's the big power plant thing in his model that I rolled my eyes at, along with the drilling and piping of landfills. There's a crap ton of happy save the bunnies and get off the grid talk out there until it comes time to pony up and do it. Then nothing happens. Again, on a large scale to make "hydrogen pumps available everywhere." It's like electric car charging stations: fantasmic idea until someone realizes "hey, you gotta pay for that juice." Next thing you know, a city's grand scheme to be progressive and put charging stations everywhere is whittled down to 10 plug in stations. Not exactly empowering enough to convince people to ditch the gas pump.

I would gladly give up my gas guzzler in exchange for a few concessions:

• Give me the same torque and horsepower
• Give me easy access to refill stations
• Make them affordable
• Make them reliable and have a comparable lifespan (i.e. get 100-200k miles out them with acceptable levels of maintenance--not replacement)

I don't think I'm asking too much.

Oh, and don't try so damn hard to make them look like props from a cheesy futuristic sci-fi movie that scream "put a liberal bumper sticker on me."

 

Not only does the juice cost money, but the infrastructure to deliver the juice can cost big bucks, if you are talking about increasing the current flow to a facility substantially. Yep, when actual money comes due, even the socialists often clench up.

 

Yep, when THEIR OWN actual money comes due, even the socialists often clench up.

Fixed it for you. lol

 

I have a buddy who works on the generators at the landfill in Sampson County. they have 3 generators that run off of Methane. Him and another mechanic is there on a regular basis working on them. Methane is a nasty fuel source and are hard on engines. Hopefully they have the newer ones running better.

Give me a reliable and economical option and I will buy into it then.

 

Running some raw numbers:
Electric car = 15,000 miles = $540 = $0.04 / mile.
Gas car = Per article - $1600 for 15,000 miles = 453 gallons = $906.52 @ $2/gallon = $0.06/ mile.

So, you're saving about $360 per year at current prices with an electric car. However, you're paying more upfront for the car(let's say a Chevy Volt), the battery needs to be replaced in a few years(very expensive), meaning that unlike a gas car, an electric or hybrid car has terrible resale value. True electric cars don't have much range or power. And everyone thinks you're closeted gay.

The Toyota Mirai, on the other hand, has clean running hydrogen, that is good for the environment. Except for the natural gas that they used to refine it. And the fact you're driving with liquid hydrogen( ) , and has the same battery replacement problem as other hybrids. The 5 gallon capacity is estimated to cost $15/gallon. And, while it takes about 6kwh of energy to produce a gallon of gas, it seems it takes over 50kwh to produce compressed hydrogen in this manner. Oh, and it costs $60k.

A lot like the CFL bulbs. A decent idea, but they should've waited for the really useful tech(LED).