Monday, September 05, 2005

Intriguing alternative to diesel: fish oil and vegetable oils. But not even fucking close to the super cheap natural gas underneath my butt.

Top of the morning gents,

My addiction to racing away fossil fuels with my lead
foot may soon come to an end.

Fuck, shitty regular unleaded pegged out an all time
state record: $2.66 - that's gotta hurt if yer filling
a Crown Vic or Chevrolet V-8 patrol car.

We're paying pert near $3.50 a gallon here in Barrow,
but most of the utility and muni rigs here burn both
natural gas and gasoline. You know those enviro-
friendly propane/conventional gasoline/natural
gas lefty loosey switch hitter AC/DC 'green cars'
driven by lefty loafer man-hugging tree boffers.

We got the cheapest natural gas in the entire world.
No shit, my ass is sitting on top of enough clean
burning fuel (CH4-methane burns into water vapor and
carbon dioxide) we could fuel every car in the world
for a hunnert fucking years. The switch-over kit is a
bit under $200.00.

35 to 55 trillion CF cubic feet is buttload of gas,
sure wish I could power my snogo and 4-wheeler with
the stuff. Heck, I imagine all the new 4-stroke (4-cycle)
boat motors could burn a hot NatGas fuel/air ratio
mixture to produce enough horses to put yer ass
back in yer seat.

Imagine the sound and fury if we tinker around with
inter-cooled turbo-chargers or belt driven
super-chargers to boost efficiency and power output
ratios.

I can't remember Professor Price's Physics
conversion equations to convert BTU's to joules, to
horsepower; shit even simple torque curves display
the beauty of burning vaporized gasoline, but what does
a natural gas power curve look like with or without
compressed air forced down yer pie hole.

Every heavily armed rural Alaskan knows that
Earth's atmosphere is pert near 20% oxygen, intercooled
turbo-chargers shove almost 30% oxygen down yer
intake manifold, and Nitrous Oxide can raise yer
combustion chamber oxygen levels to fucking near
40%, hence why cop cars can't tail a souped rice burner
nor Kompressor German car fer shit.

My fondest memories are of me and Cully and my dad
swapping Volvo motors, steam-cleaning 304
International Harvester V-8's and keeping secrets from
me mum about spin outs, wipe outs and near flips. My
fucking dad ate, read, and likely shit sports car magazines
from the old school days of Sterling Moss, Mario Andretti,
and meaner'n fuck good 'ol boy Shelby. Names comparable
to Jensen-Healy, Austin-Healy, and Aston-Martin.

Analogous to programmed assassins with 3 names, Euro
brilliance smells mighty bipolar, dudes.

The secrets we promised to keep from mummik with
a Scout's Honor salute and handshake; "Don't tell yer
mother about our little mishap, she'll get madder'n a
wet hen." Or some shit.

Hell, Me and Cully were little blue-eyed Jews: pedigree
hyperactive Scandinavians. Figure it out, we were honored
to be part of our Dad's secret genius experimentation in
the over-steering characteristics of British sports cars
and Swedish 544 Sport coupes.

Ever see a bearded man, smoking a pipe aside 2 fair skinned
first generation American boys pushing a freshly tuned and
cleaned Triumph TR-3 out a fucking ditch a few miles above
Grandpa's golf course?

"Those Triumphs, Sunbeams, and Vauxhauls were quick,
rakish, and un-Detroit." (Dieter Prost-Kotzebue 1990)

We looked forward to spin outs and crossing it up
sideways under full throttle. Our reckless father was
our race car driver and mechanic. That delinquent and
irresponsibly intelligent Finn was also our hero and
we bragged to our mates on the playground about
every one of his speeding tickets.

Behavior that has taken me 4 fucking decades to
unlearn. Fuck me in the goat ass. Good parenting hurts
everybody, and for good reason, my childrearing injuries
occurred when I made the error in infant-Viking logic
and assumed dad was my best pal 24/7 and only strict
with my 6 other sibling. This occurred precisely when
I discovered one more contradiction in pain and
pleasure; good father versus my hero from the foothills
above the Killing Fields of the Pacific Northwest.

Back to the issue of family propensity for obesity, diabetes
and alcoholism, addiction to automobiles and paranoia of
mass transit: fat folks like cruising: it's the tasty trim we see
roller-blading, skating, biking and jogging from within our
high-dollar resource eating, faster'n light speed, bullet proof
coffin.

I'm easy either way, private cars or public transit.

Wrong state, and wrong country maggot fuck. Americans,
and most of all: Alaskans absolutely loathe public
transit.

Barrow's Bus system has been eliminated and the Taxi
Commission raised rates: $6.00 to go across;
Browerville to Barrow side (one way) and $12.00 out to
Cake Eater, Gas Well Road, and Ilisagvik. Do the math:
I gotta pony up $24.00 dineros if I want to have lunch
with my pretty Siberian wife.

I'm biking my fucking ass off; hope I don't develop
cancerous growths on my gonadular structures! Flying
mountain bikes are notorious for punching yer abdomen,
yer thorax too. Some fast rides'll give ye cramps in
the gut. Bruised onions or some shit.

I don't have a clue how all you poor bastards are
affording heating oil, Jesus fuck that's gotta hurt.

Grab yer nads and cover yer ass, it's only gonna get
worse until the approaching exorbitant NS crude oil
prices make a natural gas line deliciously profitable.


Who wants to merely break even? $80.00 a bbl oil would
likely trigger some locked in natural gas delivery
contracts all over Hell and back. Lesser 48 too.

I just gotta be patient and sit tight on this huge
reserve directly under my arctic computing station
North of 70 Lat. If we tap our coal seams, I'm fucked.
Clean coal may be the future of cheap electricity
generation rendering this gas reserve under my butt
cost prohibitive.

Did you know that there is an estimated 2000 Prudhoe
Bays worth of energy contained in our Healy Coal Seam
alone?

When we see long lines of customers with bellies up to
the bar and money on the table, that's the precise
moment our offer and their agreement magically
transforms into rich gas contracts and thus triggers a
pipeline reaching from my backyard all the way through
Canada and into America's heartland out West; Chicago.

Fuck all right mates?

Keep yer powder dry and yer dick hard and the world
will turn.

Karl.

---

AAA says Alaska gas has hit all-time high
by Rebecca Palsha - Friday, September 2, 2005

Anchorage, Alaska - It's a new record and not a good
one for drivers in Alaska. The American Automobile
Association, or AAA, says self-serve regular gas in
Alaska hit the highest average recorded price in the
state's history.

AAA says the average price for self-serve gas is $2.66
a gallon. A year ago the price was around $2.11 a
gallon.

But we don't have it as bad as the rest of the country
where the average price of gas is $2.87 a gallon.

---

Alaska fish processors try using fish oil for fuel
Sunday, September 4, 2005

By JEANNETTE J. LEE
Associated Press Writer

ANCHORAGE, Alaska -- Oil cooked out of piscine heads,
entrails and skeletons is generating heat and
electricity for fish processors on the Aleutian Island
of Unalaska.

Alaska companies are among the first in the world to
use fish oil on a large scale as a cheaper,
cleaner-burning substitute for diesel fuel.

At Unisea Inc., in Dutch Harbor, thousands of gallons
of pollock fish oil are mixed each day with diesel and
used to power the seaside plant's electrical
generators and boilers.

Replacing diesel with fish oil cuts costs, as well as
harmful emissions such as sulfur and particulates,
Unisea officials said.

The seafood company, one of the largest in the world,
also saves on the expensive shipping rates it would
otherwise pay to send the fish waste to buyers outside
Alaska, such as aquaculture companies who use the oil
as fish feed.

Unisea officials would not share the company's savings
figures, or the costs of its truckloads of diesel.

Don Graves, research and development manager for
Unisea, said only that processing and burning the fish
oil is worthwhile.

"You have to figure the fish oil is equivalent in
value to the diesel fuel, so there's some benefits
savings-wise and environmentally to doing this,"
Graves said. Depending on the fishing season, Unisea
generates 4,000 to 15,000 gallons of fish oil a day
and uses all of it in-house.

The orangish hue of pollock oil comes from the tiny
krill the fish feast on in the Bering Sea. Blending
the oil with diesel yields a pale yellowish liquid
that leaves no fishy odors.

"There's no smell at all," he said.

Unisea and fish processors in Dutch Harbor, Kodiak,
Cordova and several sites in Bristol Bay have used
fish oil to run their boilers for years, but in 2001
Unisea, with the help of state funding, became the
first to power its electrical generators with the
renewable fuel.

Other companies, the state and the National Park
Service are all running tests to see how well fish oil
biodiesel works in engines that are more complicated
and delicate than those at Unisea.

U.S. Seafoods, based in Seattle, is considering a
processing facility on board one of its fishing
vessels. The 297-foot boat would use the guts of
flatfish, cod and atka mackerel for oil to power its
engines while hauling in its catch from Alaska waters.

"We want to be able to utilize our fish waste," said
Jonathan Spool, a partner in the company. "With the
price of diesel fuel these days, we have to think
economically." The company hopes to conclude tests by
the end of the year.

Researchers this year are also testing fish oil
biodiesel in engines at the University of Alaska
Fairbanks and in trucks and electrical generators at
Denali National Park and Preserve.

Park officials say a fish oil spill in the Alaskan
wilderness would dissipate and be consumed by microbes
more quickly than a diesel mishap.

"In higher-risk or more pristine areas, a spill means
clean-up is short-term and residual effects are much
less," said Tim Hudson, a Park Service officer at
Denali.

On the whole, fish oil biodiesel is less destructive
to air quality than diesel. Compared to emissions from
diesel used in most road vehicles, fish oil showed
significant drops in carbon monoxide and particulate
levels, said John Steigers, a Colorado-based
consultant for Unisea.

Sulfur levels in the biodiesel are similar to
ultralow-sulfur diesel, Steigers said. However, fish
oil's release of nitrogen oxides, a source of
respiratory problems, is higher than diesel by a few
percentage points.

Alaska's lack of an in-state refinery and frigid
temperatures are a challenge to the fledgling
technology.

Denali receives free fish oil biodiesel through the
study, but would otherwise pay about $5 a gallon,
Hudson estimates. About $2 of that covers the cost to
send the fish oil for processing at one of Alaska's
nearest biodiesel refineries -- a plant owned by
Pacific Biodiesel in Hawaii.

Fish oil and its biodiesel product thicken at a higher
temperature than conventional diesel and just below
the freezing point of water, Steigers said.

Chemical treatments to prevent the oil from gelling
would not alter its emissions levels, but would likely
bump up the price, Steigers said.

Fish oil also generates up to 15 percent less energy
per gallon than diesel, but the economics "have still
been very favorable," Steigers said.

About 8 million gallons of fish oil are produced by
Alaska's major fish processors each year, according to
Peter Crimp of the Alaska Energy Authority, a state
corporation that works to reduce energy costs.

The technology could help ease dependence on expensive
diesel for the many impoverished villages scattered
along Alaska's coasts and Interior region. Rural
residents, most of whom are Alaska Natives, rely on
diesel for heat, electricity and fuel for vehicles
used on hunting and fishing expeditions.

About 28.3 million gallons of diesel fuel were
imported into Alaska's rural communities for the
fiscal year from 2004 to 2005 at a cost of $51.4
million, Crimp said. That's an increase of 36 percent
over the last two years.

Salmon swim by the millions up Alaskan rivers each
year and possess a fat content of up to 30 percent.
The fish are used for subsistence by many Alaska
Natives, but are a virtually untapped source of power
generation.

"We'd like to see what local energy sources there are
in any area to reduce the amount of cash exported for
diesel," Crimp said.

As the state and other processors research fish oil's
possibilities, Unisea plans to continue burning all of
its stock.

"They can go out in the marketplace and say 'We're
processing and using green energy,"' Steigers said.

0 Comments:

Post a Comment

<< Home