Butanol Biofuel

I have just read that they are starting to use Butanol in the UK as an alternative to Ethanol and Petrol.

New British biofuel plan beets ethanol

Ben Webster, London

August 24, 2006

BRITISH drivers are to be offered a new fuel made from crops that will be less harmful to the environment - but there will be no need for them to modify their engines.

Sugar beet, grown in East Anglia in eastern England, will be fermented to produce butanol, which will be blended with petrol and sold at more than 1200 petrol stations.

The Government plans to accelerate the introduction of butanol and other biofuels by setting oil companies tough targets for producing renewable fuels, which have much less impact on the environment.

Ministers are considering doubling the target for biofuels from the current requirement for 5 per cent of all fuel sold by 2010 to 10 per cent by 2015.

Companies will pay a penalty for failing to hit the target.

The Energy Saving Trust, the British government-funded environmental body, said butanol was more promising than other biofuels, such as ethanol or biodiesel, because it did not rely on drivers buying special cars or spending hundreds of pounds adapting their engines.

Car manufacturers permit drivers to fill up with fuel that contains a maximum of 5 per cent biofuel and 95 per cent ordinary petrol or diesel. This is because of concerns that biofuels can corrode tubes and gaskets in engines. But butanol has a less corrosive effect than other biofuels, allowing suppliers to create a blend that contains only 80 per cent petrol. Butanol also has a much higher energy content than other biofuels.

Richard Tarboton, the trust's head of transport, said: "Butanol is a big step forward because motorists won't need to worry about what is going into the tank. They can fill up as normal."

British Sugar, which is building Britain's first butanol plant in Norfolk, eastern England, plans to produce 70 million litres of the fuel a year. Butanol is expected to be introduced in all 1250 BP petrol stations by 2010.

Phil New, BP's head of biofuels, said the Norfolk plant would use surplus sugar beet, which can no longer be sold abroad under EU rules.

He said Britain did not have enough spare land to supply all vehicles, but said BP was experimenting with other crops that could produce more of the fuel.

The Times

Now Australia could a leaf out of the UK's book and start developing plans and incentives to use biofuels. Australia has the opportunity to become a major player in the world energy market if we just start now and figure out our options and put some investment into it.

Sunset Bay

The Last regatta for the season went off with out a hitch ... ...well nearly without a hitch. The trip down to Mackay was a bit long but nice and we got to our hotel before dark which was nice. We had the sprints in the morning and the Marathon just after midday. Then I had the OC2 after at about 4:30. Well the day started off an hour late and went down hill from there, so there was not much chance of me doing my OC2 race on time but I had hoped to finish the race in daylight.
The Sprint went really well it was a 500m sprint and untill the 250 mark we were up with everyone else then we started to tire and dropped back a bit, but we still didn't come last. A time of 2min 4sec which is pretty Awesome.
The marathon went much the same way we were battling two other crews for the first kilometre or so then they started to pull away then we would make a charge and come back a bit get close. then the would pull away again. the good thing is that we finished 5th out of 8. There were 3 other boats that finished behind us. This is a big change we were only a little way off of coming third.
Racheal and I did reasonably well in the OC2 race but i was stuffed by this time and couldn't paddle the way I should've but we didn't come last and we didn't fall out.
I got paddler of the month from Maggie Island Paddlers and Had a fun presentation. It ended up being a really fun it's a bit of a pity that that was the last regatta for the year. Oh well train up and start blitzing them next season.
Yah

Biodiesel

The Government is trying to lower fuel prices without cutting into it's margins from the fuel excise. What it should see this as is an oportunity to promote alternative fuels, renewable fuels, environmentally responsible fuels. Ethanol is one of these fuels and can be produced from waste celuloe however current engines would need modification to run on pure ethanol. Current engines could run on a E20 mix though with no adverse affects. Last night BP and I think Caltex anounced that they would sell E10 at a discount price as Ethanol is currently cheeper than Petrol. So Ethanol is a good alternative but at the moment it is only a Mix-in to 'Ordinary Fuel'.
Biodiesel on the otherhand does run in current Diesel engines with no modifications to the engines. Beyoned that Biodiesel extends the life of a diesel engine because of Biodiesel being slightly more oily that regular Diesel. Biodiesel produces less of the harmful sulfides in the exaust because the sulfur compounds do not exist in the oil to start with. Biodiesel can be made from Vegetable oil and Ethanol providing a huge market for Farming products. This would help farmers and the beleagured sugarcane industry to recover, helping many communities that are currently struggling witht the impact of low price of sugar and impacts from narural disasters.
The next benefit would be to reduce Australias Carbon debt. Biodiesel comes from oil produced by plants so there is no net CO2 output into the atmosphere. Then if we Joined up with the Kyoto Protocol we could begin Carbon Trading, selling the carbon credits that we would have from our reduced emissions. Increaseing the input to the economy from this one industry that could be huge. Once the Biodiesel industry has become big enough we could then also be an exporter of Diesel. The Next benefit to the environment is that Biodiesel breaks down easier that fossil fuel Diesel, and so in the event of a spill there could be less damage to the environment.
With the High price of crude oil we have the perfect oportunity to promote the use of Biodiesel, encourage it's production and reduce Australia's Carbon debt. Instead though the Government Increases the Tax on Biodiesel so that a fledgling industry, that benifits farmers, the community and the environment, is burdened with increased cost instead of being given some tax breaks. If there was no Fuel Excise on Biodiesel it could be sold for about 50c a litre. People would buy it because it would be cheep incouraging the growth of a new industry that could provide employment and provide a way forward away from the relience upon fossil fuels that are found in politically unstable areas or in poorly maintained facilities (BP in Alaska).

The Quoll is done for the Year

BIG BIG weekend is behind me and IMD2 is off to a good start. It all started Saturday Morning at 6am when I went for a paddle and Min went to Rowing. At paddling we had 8 people so we took out 2 canoes 4 people in each. It's a lot harder to paddle a 6 person canoe with only 4. Anyway we paddled out almost to Picnic Bay Jetty and back. Which adds up to about 16km. Then went home had breakfast and packed the car for The Trip up to Lake Tinaroo where the Quoll Adventure race was. Picked Min up from her place she was a bit stuffed as I was from our respective training. Then we were off up the coast and the Gillies Highway to Lake Tinaroo. The Campsite and the start of the race was at the Lake Tinaroo Education Centre only meters from the lake near the town of Tinaroo.

We arrived about 5pm set up camp and pottered around waiting for the briefing at 7:30. Found out at 8 that the briefing was at 11pm. We quickly ate some dinner and got in the Tent for a quick power nap (we were going to need all of the power we could get). Woke up about 10:30pm got into our adventure racing gear and went to the briefing. We got our maps and were told the rule and the conditions of entry. Also we were informed that the Police were making it rather difficult and were taking the equipment needed way above what the road rule were. We had to have Two front lights one fixed and one flashing and on all major roads we had to dismount and cross the road on foot to make a right hand turn. About 1 minute before the race begins, at 12am mind you, I remember that I had forgotten One of the essential pieces of safety equipment (you get disqualified without) my safety whistle. Run down get my whistle and hear Go. Mount my bike and ride across the startline about 30sec behind everyone else. Start of Race 12:00:30am.
The first stage was a 2hr bike ride about 25km (we had to stop and get markers along the way) from Lake Tinaroo to Atherton via the back roads. We were the last team in but we got all of the markers and finished with about 1-2 minutes to spare. 1:59:00am.

Second stage was a Hiking through the bush Rogaine style for three hours. We did quite well in this event and got about 2 thirds of the markers better than most other teams (everyone else seemed to have trouble finding the markers). We came in about 20mins early, which gave us time to get our stuff together for the next stage. We didn't know what that was yet but hey we would be ready. We covered about 15km on the hiking stage. 4:41:00am.

Then we found out that the next stage would be a 5hr Bike Rogaine collecting as many markers as you could on the way back to the Start of the race next to the lake. At the start of this part of the race it was absolutely freezing. It was about 2 degrees C and you actually wanted to ride up hills as it warmed you up. I started to have some problems at about 7am. I felt a bit sick in the stomach and after about another 5km I was seeing stars whenever I stopped riding. Then I thought about it I had been expending large quantities of energy but I had failed to eat anything so far. I quickly munched down a powerbar and when ever we stopped to get a marker I had either a Apricot delight (Cube of processed Apricot and sugar) or a bite of Powerbar. By about 9am I was feeling better and we made better time. Min was amazing at this stage she was feeling good and kept us going and trying to get more markers. We wouldn't have done so well at this stage if it wasn't for Min. Finally climbed the last hill and coasted down to Adventure HQ. 9:41:00am.

Last stage is a paddle and hike Rogaine combined. We had 5hrs to do a paddle course and a 90min Rogaine on one of the peninsula's sticking into the Lake. Finally something I would be at least as good as the other groups in I thought. We had been a bit slower than the other teams on both of the bike legs (Note More bike training for next year). Problem was that some other teams had brought their own two person Kayaks with paddles and these things were about twice as fast as the bath tubs that the Race organisers provided (If any organisers read this I really appreciate the fact that you organised canoes for us that made it possible for Min and I to do the Race so Thankyou. They were not however very fast canoes).

We finished the first half of the paddle course and Mins Arms were about to fall off (you don't use your arms much in Rowing) and I was feeling tired but alright. We got all but one of the marker in the first half because we didn't read the clue that said it was 30m inland, we were looking for one hanging off of a tree over the water like all of the others. oh well. A quick tour of the peninsular for the bush Rogaine and we had collected just under half of the marker in 40min. Good time to get back to the paddling so we could do well in the paddling course. We got 7 out of the other 8 markers and then paddled for home. My arms were about to drop off after the paddle so Min put in an Absolutely mammoth effort. 2:10:00pm.
Then I went to sleep for about 30min woke up by Min who was falling asleep in her chair. We went to the Presentations ( there were some very impressive teams there). Found out we did Like second best out of all teams across all Events (7, 15 and 33hr)in the paddling leg of the Race. Ate a Meal and went to sleep 5:01:00pm.
Didn't wake up till 7 the next morning then got up SLOWLY and paked up drove home. Awesome Weekend and good start to the Month. Now I just have to compete in my 5 races at the Sunset Bay regatta and I have achieved my goal for the month. Oh as well as turning another year older

Photo.

Aurthur bay in Winter.

This is why I love living up here in the North. Winter is such a marvelous time. It's sunny and warm it would be perfect if I could spend summer on the south coast of NSW.

Oh well we can all dream.

Scary but still Fun

So I get into work this morning and I have 3 emails from the Quoll organisers. the First 1 says that I have registered in the 34hr Quoll adventure race. I imediately start to write to them to say I have actually registered in the 14hr event. Then I stop and think wait maybe they know. I read the second email "Sorry Lewis thanks for registering in the 16hr event". I am now confused I didn't know there was a 16hr event. Oh no they have increased the size of the race. Time to ring Min let her know the "good" news.
The 3rd email lets me know more detail about the race and what we should take etc. but it also tells me about an unusual scoring system for a race, quote "We are using a combination scoring system to add to the challenge of the event". You know we need more of a challenge than running through the bush for 16hr.
Anyway the scoring system goes like this. Scoring will be based on the number of minutes available for each stage of the event. For example, a 3 hour stage will have 180 minutes available. The checkpoints on the course will each be worth differing numbers of minutes. Each team will start the stage at -180 minutes, each checkpoint your team collects decreases the number of minutes you are in the negative by the value of that checkpoint. The aim being to end up at 0 minutes by the end of the stage if you “clear the course”. There are no credits for coming in from a stage early unless you have collected all checkpoints for that stage, in which case you will be given a time credit of the number of minutes you are early to the end of that stage. There will however be a time penalty for being late – 2 minutes for every 1 minute you are late (ie if you are 10 minutes late your penalty will be 20 minutes).
All joking aside this is going to be fun there are paddling stages and running stages and biking stages. This means that It is going to have to be close to a lake or dam. I'm hoping that it is near lake tinnaroo that is some awesome countryside. It's on this weekend so early next week I can post about the big event.

Big Weekend

So I had grand plans this weekend gone by. I was to paddle in the Townsville regatta on saturday then recover go out saturday night to the presentations at the Seaview hotel. Then on Sunday I was to go in the Paluma Push.
What happened is that I went in the regatta paddled increadibly hard with some results. We finished last in the Marathon(12.5km) and 4th or 5th in the Sprints. We did so poorly in the Marathon because we flipped over about 2km from the finish line. After the Regatta I was absolutely shattered so I went home and went to sleep and only got up to go to the presentations. Went home went to sleep agian. When I got up on Sunday morning at 5am I was still shattered I had sore legs let alone my arms and shoulders. With that in mind I decided to call off the paluma push mission. I cannot afford to get sick before IMD2 now can I? (Min has a bit of a cold at the moment).
I am still not quite fit enough to do 2 big things inone weekend. Oh Well the Quoll is only one thing, and tha is comming in 2 week.

Monkeys

They say that a million monkeys writing for a Million year would eventually produce the bible. Here you can test that theory. Crazy what a bit of hard core statistical theory can produce. Good to see it's put towards a worrth while use as well.

High Temperature

Europe and the US are suffering a heat wave This Aritice says that many people are dying from heat exaustion etc. The problem that I see is that the temperatures that they are complaining about are 30-35 degrees C which is a decent daytime (Night time is the same temperature just darker) for the summer here in the good old Tville. You wouldn't call it a heat wave untill the Temp went above 40 for like a week straight.
These people need to work on 42C day in an old john deere 760 elevating scraper with the door bolted open and clouds of dust turning you red. Of course I didn't mind that the door was bolted open as the air rushing into the cabin from the engine had been heated to about 50C, which ment that the 42C air from out side just felt like a cool breeze (albet a slightly dusty breeze).

Scientist Shortage

I recieved this from ABC news mail this morning:

*Govt audit finds Australia facing scientist shortage*

A Federal Government audit has found Australia is facing a severe shortage of scientists.
The Department of Education and Science has found within six years there will be a shortage of 20,000 scientists and engineers.
Federal Minister for Education, Science and Training Julie Bishop says there needs to be a national framework to address the problem.
She says children and students must be encouraged to study in the field.
"We must increase the number of students going into teaching in these areas so we can increase the number of high quality teachers in our schools," she said.
"It will take a coordinated comprehensive effort across the nation and that's what I'm calling for.
"I am aiming for a national approach to science education across the country."

It is all very good and well to say we need more education in the sciences and that will encourage people to go into science when they get older. They have a problem though. That problem is that there is no reward for being a scientist. You work through school and then into undergraduate university then Honours and then a PhD. You are 21 at the end of undergraduate and more like 25 by the time you finish your PhD. You have been scrapping a living off of very little for 7-8 years by this time and you are looking forward to earning any money that might support a slightly better life style Then you can finall get a paying position as a postdoctoral fellow and ear $50 000 a year. That position will only last a few years (3 max mostly 2) then you will have to prove that you are a good little researcher so that you can get another Postdoc (Mostly it will be at another institute). If you are really lucky you will get a pay rise up to 55-60K a year. Your pay wouldn't be likely to rise above 90K a year, unless you are truely exceptional and get one of the 2-4 Federation fellowships that are offered each year. To get these though you would have to be in the top 0.01% of researchers and be increadibly highly recognised.

Lets contrast this with two other situations. An Engineer and a Tradesman. The Tradesman leaves Highschool at the end of year ten and starts in the trade earning a pretty abysmal wage, but they are still earning more than the people still at school. In their last yearof their apprentiseship they would be earning about 34 000 a year. After that as a fully qualified tradesman they could definately be earning between 50 and 70 thousand a year. So by the time a scientist leaves undergraduate uni the tradesman has been earning money for about 5 years and they earnings are up around 60 000 a year. The scientist still has a Honours year and a PhD to go (which will take between 4 and 6 years all up) while the tradesman continues earning maybe starting there own business and earning even more. This senario definately put being a trady as a much better option than being a scientist.

The next comparison between the Scientist and the Engineer you might think is more fair as both groups have to go through University. Neither then will be able to earn much in the way of money untill they have completed their Bachelors Degree. The engineer doesn't have to do a Honours year (though they could and it wouldn't hurt thier career) or a PhD and in their first year out they can be earning over $100 000 a year. My friend dave, his first job out of uni earned him $110 000 a year.

In conculsion if you want more scientists you need to make it an attractive option. Otherwise people will do degrees that will make them a living, or they will take up a trade. Given the options I think you would have to be crazy like me to want to do Science.