A recent entry from another blog I write:

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The first, most important thing to understand about energy comes to us from the law of conservation of energy; energy is not created or destroyed, it simply changes forms. The trick is to capture an amorphous form of energy (such as the sun's light or geothermal heat) and concentrate it into a form which we can utilize to produce the type of energy we demand of it.

Through the transfer of energy from one form to another, there is loss. A good example of this loss is the use of an incandescent light bulb. Our goal when we flip the switch is to convert electrical energy (->coal->plants+millionsofyears->sun) into light energy. When we screw in an incandescent bulb, a majority of the energy goes into the production of heat energy rather than light, like a campfire. We've screwed up! If we were to use a compact fluorescent bulb, one of the newer spirally type, there is far less heat produced and just as much light produced, so there is less energy that must go into it to begin with.

Before I get into biofuels I want to address a common misconception. Hydrogen is not an energy source until it is created, and to create it, more energy must go into it than we could ever get by burning it. Additionally, when it is burned we are hoping to convert that energy into motion (for automotive applications), but not even all of that energy can go into motion, all along the way some is lost in inefficiencies. This is called entropy.

Now you may have heard of people that have on-board systems in their cars which produce hydrogen by using the car battery. They are getting increased gas mileage and not paying for the hydrogen, just a little water every now and then. So how is this possible? They are using the battery, taxing the alternator and decreasing gas mileage right? Not exactly. They are capturing inefficiencies by utilizing the power created by the alternator in excess or when no load is being put on the engine. Cars overproduce electricity regularly to recharge the battery, run lights, play music, and crank the starter. This overproduction can be captured and returned to the system in the form of hydrogen. This is very similar to modern hybrid vehicle technology.

Now, for biofuels.

The key to biofuels is isolating the plants which can capture the most carbon from the atmosphere and using photosynthesis, convert it into some useful form that can provide us energy. Early on in our time on Earth, this meant wood for fire and largely, that is still the case. Whether we are burning it for heat, or converting it into liquid or gaseous fuels, it is essential to optimize efficiency throughout the process. Determine demand, identify a feedstock, optimize the process, localize the distribution. Developing methods of passive energy capture is critical to reducing the cost of production. That may come from plants capturing solar energy through photosynthesis or from organic materials breaking down in an anaerobic environment, resulting in methane, a clean burning gas.

I guess the take away for all of this is that we should minimize the inputs in the conversion of energy into useful sources and maximizing the efficiency when using this energy. Duhhh!

Ohh yeah, please visit the website!

SteelCityBiofuels.psu.edu

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The importance of this blog entry comes with the underlying idea that we, as a people, will not be able to account for our current level of energy consumption with alternatives in the next few decades. Efficiency and conservation can never be stressed enough.

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