Unfortunately, we live in a time when our “leaders” simply tell us what they think we want to hear. Anytime, and especially in an election year, a U.S. presidential candidate stands up for an idea, it means that he believes that a majority of voters will stand behind him. Based on the events of the past few days, that implies both good news and bad news. (more…)
Well, my trip to see Doty Scientific was certainly worth the drive. After dozens of conversations and meetings with Dr. Doty and his team at venues all over North America, I finally got a plant tour, and had the opportunity to meet some of the other key players.
Most of the physical plant is dedicated to their core business, NMR (nuclear magnetic resonance), cutting-edge physics that helps scientists who are developing new compounds identify the exact molecules they’ve created. I was reminded of the mass spectrometer we had in high school in the early 1970s, which was a comparatively primitive attempt at the same idea. (more…)
Today it’s off to see Doty Windfuels, less than two hours’ drive south from my stops yesterday. This will require great concentration, as the advanced chemistry that is the mainstay of what they’re doing goes a bit over my head. I’ll post something later in the day.
Yesterday afternoon, I test drove one of the Vision Motor Cars light-duty all-electric pick-up truck, uniquely designed from the ground up for functionality at a reasonable price. Although I could see a few areas that could be improved, it was really fun to drive something with that level of torque – not obscene, like the Tesla Roadster, but quite impressive nonetheless.
I had breakfast yesterday with a venture capitalist in Greensboro, NC, who had expressed an interest in waste-tires-to-fuels. People are using pyrolysis in this capacity, with varying degrees of success, in plants all over the world, and I’ve noticed a growing amount of interest in making this happen here in the U.S., where we landfill 300 million such tires each year.
Within an hour of our meeting, I had connected him with the principals of two of the projects that I recommend in this space. We’ll see where this goes.
By the time I’ve driven my rental car off the Avis lot in any particular city, I’ve usually found a radio station that I think will speak to me. During the day, it’s normally the local NPR affiliate, but after hours, the choice becomes more interesting. Last night, it was WXYC, from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, whose late-night DJ “Riley” had a sweet and unaffected charm in her presentation of some terrific music. At her repeated suggestion, I called in a request. I knew it would make her evening to know that someone was listening, and I could tell by the sound of her voice when she took my call on the first ring that I was right. (more…)
I’m so glad I took advantage of today’s opportunity to interview Dr. Rajendra Pachauri, Nobel Prize winning climate scientist and chairman of the IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change).
At several points in the conversation, I was reminded of my discussions with my friend and colleague Wally Rippel, who often makes the point that we 21st Century Americans have astonishingly little regard for science. Any of us can name dozens of great athletes, actors, singers – even notorious criminals. But how many of us can name a few great living scientists? (more…)
With gas prices rising every month, people who don’t have a car yet are now having second thoughts because of such issues. While it’s true that we really can’t do something about our planet’s dwindling fossil fuel sources, we can, however, choose to get vehicles that are fuel efficient. Or perhaps, one could go straight to the challenge of getting vehicles run by electricity. (more…)
I’m writing this on a US Airways flight, kicking off my trip to interview Dr. Raj Pachauri. Everything’s running right on time so far.
To their credit, the airline has an active recycling program. But might they be overzealous? For the third time on this flight, they’ve come by to try to recycle the plastic cup I’m keeping to drink water. In another hour, they’ll be coming back through offering more water – and more cups to replace the ones they recycled an hour ago.
This, by the way, is why the adage: “Reduce, re-use, recycle” is in that particular order. If you can not use something at all, that’s best. If you have to use it, try to re-use it. If you cannot do either, recycle.
There are those who argue against the validity of the electric vehicle movement, on the basis that, in most cases in the US, putting additional load on the grid means burning more coal. Yet regardless of the extent to which this is true, the position completely evaporates in the face of distributed generation.
I’m going to be helping my friends at Continental Wind Power tell their story of midsized wind (200 – 900 kilowatts) to an audience of managers of factories, farms, schools and universities, municipalities, military bases, etc. It’s easy to see how well this plays into an integration of EVs. For instance, I would tell a farm: If you’re in a decent wind area, install one of our 400 kilowatt turbines and knock out about 2000 kilowatt-hours per day off your electric bill. Or install two, and, on top of that, charge your fleet of electric farm vehicles. Cut out all that diesel from your budget – and all that pollution from our skies.
Sounds pretty compelling to me.
