AC water heater

On a hot day the refrigerant in the coils of the compressor outside can be >130 F. At these temperatures, not only is the AC very inefficient, but a source of heat is wasted.
By putting a by-pass to the outside coils and putting secondary coils in a water filled preheat tank, the refrigerant can dump the heat into the water, warming it. As I mentioned in the previous post every degree you preheat water from ground temperature saves significant energy, and over a day a 6 ton AC unit can easily heat 100 gallons of water to 80 or higher. Using a tankless water heater and given the current cost of a KWH ($0.1) this can result in a savings of $0.6 a day, depending on the location this can be >$70 a year in direct savings. As long as the outside temperature is hotter than the water the AC would continue to use the water jacketed coils. In Houston and Phoenix this can mean final water temperatures above 100 F for several months a year, meaning saving of more than a dollar a day. Combining this with the savings in energy from the AC running more efficiently the yearly savings can double or more.

By making the system about to bypass the inside coils and use the water jacketed coils and the outside coils, the heat pump effect could actually heat the water to usable temperatures during most of the year in a significant part of the country. Yes a heat pump water heater would be a slow way to heat water but it would be an extremely efficient way. In colder areas, where night time temperatures are too low for heat pumps, larger tanks could be heated to 70 or 80 during the day, and then used for hydronic heating through out the night, as a way to supplement a traditional furnace.

This winter’s must have accessory

With fuel prices through the roof, this winter’s must have accessory for fuel heated homes besides a sweater, is a window heat pump unit. Yes, heat pumps only work well when the temperature is above 20 F, but when conditions are right they are far more efficient than fuel fired heating, since they move heat with energy not make it. This means that for part of “heating year” even a kluge like a window heat pump, if it has a super insulated window insert and excellent seals can take a significant load off the furnace. I did some calculations with numbers I got off the web and throughout most of the Northeast with window heat pumps supplementing gas or oil furnaces people could shave >$100 a month off their heating costs. (If they installed a dual fuel system and we discount the cost of heating water the savings would be >$200, assuming electricity if $.1/KWH and heating oil is $4.50 a gallon.)

What would be most interesting would be the addition of solar thermal panels to supplement the efficiency of air sourced heat pumps. (Solar thermal panels are sheets of glass and anodized aluminum separated by a vacuum so the incident light heats the metal and the working fluid behind it, so they are cheaper than photovoltaic cells.) Like AC units that make ice during the night, during the day the solar thermal panels would heat up and transfer the heat to a thermal mass or phase change media. The coils would then absorb heat from the media and heat the house. Even in the dead of winter if it is sunny a south facing solar thermal panel can heat up to over a hundred degrees. This system could give low cost air sourced heat pumps SEER ratings approaching 3.5. In times of excess capacity or when the AC is on, the system could be used to preheat domestic hot water. Water comes out of the pipes at ~55 F so warming it to 115 F requires its temperature to rise 6o degrees. So raising the temperature of a 40 gallon tank to usable levels requires almost 20,000 BTUs, or a tenth of a gallon of heating oil, a tenth of a Therm of natural gas, or almost 6 KWH of electric. If you can increase the temperature of the water to 75 or 80, you can almost halve the number of BTUs needs, the savings add up quickly.

More microwave tech

With the price of oil as high as it is, alternative fossil fuels are becoming more attractive. Methane hydrates are hard to harvest because they are temperature and pressure dependent, if they become unstable a whole deposit can gasify, and explode. This makes harvesting methane clathrates very risky. However, if you could control the rate of heating then it is possible to slowly harvest the methane. Yes I seem to have a thing for microwaves, but they have interesting properties. Like that microwaves will heat the ice slower than the surrounding water allowing the methane to be released in a controlled fashion. The hydrates would have to be harvested from the edges, but using microwaves the massive untapped methane deposits in the ocean could be extracted with minimal impact to the sealife.

Microwave pyrolysis

With the price of oil as high as it is, alternative fossil fuels are becoming more attractive. For example it is possible to turn coal into automotive fuel, but mining and transporting coal is not an efficient process. This is way power plants and steel mills are generally built near coal deposits. However, converting minable coal into liquid fuel would increase energy prices since the fuel would be diverted from power plants, etc. There are deposits of coal and oil shale that are not economical to mine, so they are of little economic value. However, in situ pyrolysis allows these deposits to be liquefied while still underground, and pumped like oil.

The current process requires heaters to be put into the deposit to heat the material up to 800-950 F, this is an inefficient process that requires a huge amount of energy to be input. However, the advances in microwave chemistry and nano-catalysts could allow more effective conversion of coal and kerogen into an oil-like substance. The microwave process could work with coal best since it is a less dispersed in a matrix. However, with oil shales there are interesting possibilities that arise from the high Aluminum content of the matrix.

Damn good chicken finger sauce

I do not claim to have invented the basic concept of this sauce since it is a basic Cajun Remoulade. However, I did do some original experimentation to give it the taste I like.

1 cup mayonnaise (use real mayo!!!)
1/2 cup ketchup
1 tablespoon garlic powder
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
1.5 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
¼ teaspoon of Accent
Generous amount of fresh medium grind black pepper (cover the surface two or three times and mix in. At least a half teaspoon, but more to taste is ok.)
If desired a few drops of Tabasco can bring up the heat a bit.

Mix well and let it rest in the fridge for at least 3 hours. For use spoon out what you will need, and let it warm up a bit before eating.

If you are curious Accent is pure MSG. You need the MSG to give the sauce that rich mouth feel. Before you condemn me for using MSG in home cooking, you will notice except what is in the Worcestershire sauce there is no salt in the recipe, so the MSG is a “healthier” way to get sodium into the food. (Food without Sodium tastes dead, and unpleasant.) If you skip the Accent, the sauce will be bland because the oil from the mayo will coat your tongue and deaden your taste buds, however the Umami taste will reduce that effect. The lemon juice is there to add a brightness and fruity acidity that you can not get from the vinegar in the ketchup.

Gamma rays and oil production

ome of the best ways to increase oil production from a well are to reduce viscosity via heating and increase solvation. Hard gamma rays are an excellent way to do both, since they could penetrate deeply into the rock, which would act like shielding and would be heated. Plus the heavy hydrocarbons would be made lighter by the ionization. The problem is getting gamma rays, since they are produced only in particle accelerators or via nuclear reactions. I would love to be able to say that we can shove radioactive waste underground and increase oil production, since we could, but I can’t. Yes, the heat and massive qualities of ionizing radiation of all types would free up oil and gas from the surrounding rock, but the neutron radiation would make everything else radioactive too… Plus the possibility of leakage, or theft of spent fuel...

We’ve already learned this lesson from Teller’s Project Ploughshare. Yes, he was able to get a nuclear bomb to fracture rock and release trapped natural gas, but the gas is radioactive and unusable… (He did show that if we could accept a bit of fall out, he could dig a new Panama Canal in a couple weeks...)

So until we can make particle accelerators that can go down a well, we will have to consider radiological sources. While Cobalt 60, would be the best source it is dangerous and since it has to be “made” by neutron bombardment of Co59 so it is costly. However, Cesium 137 which is a direct byproduct of fission could work too. Cs137 decays to Barium 137* via a Beta decay, then the Ba137* decays to stable Ba137 via a high energy gamma decay. The Beta/Gamma decay chain makes Ce137 the “prefect” down well gamma source for improving the yield of an oil well. Better still if the Cs container leaks as long as it is Cs and Ba sulfate the low solubility of the sulfate salts will largely immobile any leaked material in the reservoir. Even if the Cs or Ba did come up the well it would be separated out long before it could be made into plastic or fuel.

By mixing Cs137 and Sr90, and using a Lead (Pb) shield the effect could be increased due to the contributions of hard X-rays from Beta decay Bremsstrahlung, and the significant heating from the Sr90. Sr90 decays to stable Zr90 via two Beta decays, with the Y90 to Zr90 decay productive >2 MeV beta particle. I also suggest this since Cs137 and Sr90 have about the same half life, require thick shielding and can be separated together via solvent extraction of spent fuel.

While I wouldn’t put it past the Russian’s to increase well production using waste from spent fuel reprocessing I don’t see the US doing that. The next best thing would be to use electron guns to create X-rays via Bremsstrahlung. However, it might be a little too expensive to cram an X-ray machine down a deep deep hole. Now what could be put down a deep hole to produce heat, is a dielectric heater, aka a microwave. Yes, the lack of ionizing radiation would prevent a microwave or RF based systems from truly achieving maximum effects, be the oil and surrounding matter could be heated significantly. I will explore this further in a later post but the advent of microwave-based chemistry could allow down well catalytic cracking to lighten heavy crude so it could better solvate additional oil.

Where my radioactive well tool could be useful would be in securing the Strategic Oil Reserve. As I am sure everyone knows the US government has millions of barrels of oil stored in salt domes all over the Southeastern US, in case our oil supply is cut off, I won't go into detail. What you might not know is during the Cold War the Soviets weaponized microorganisms that eat oil with the intention of destroying the SOR, and starving the US for oil. Even without bioterrorism there are bacteria munching on our oil and turning it into more bacteria and sludge. By running a Cs137 containing “pig” down the borehole, and passing the incoming oil through a massively over-engineered irradiation chamber the gamma radiation could sterilize the oil and pipes. Plus, the SOR could keep magnetic pellets containing Cs137 on hand. In the event excessive bacteria activity was detected, they could put the pellets into the contaminated reserve and sterilize it in situ. Then if necessary they could use an electromagnet or large permanent magnets to recover the pellets. Since the SOR is tightly controlled, its security is a matter of national security, and since there is minimal lingering radiation after gamma exposure, deployment of Cs137-based systems are likely to be acceptable.

Honda Diesel: A disruptive technology in the US and Europe

I expect great things from Honda in the next few years. They have decided to address the fuel cost problem without resorting to unproven technologies, like exotic hybrid configurations. They showed off an Accord that gets >60 mpg highway, ~51 mpg combined and it’s a diesel not hybrid. Going diesel also means that Honda can finally be aggressive in going after the European markets, but I’ll come back to this.

At 51 mpg a diesel Accord makes a lot of sense, since the gas version gets only 24 mpg highway, 21 mpg combined. Even with diesel costing 50¢ more a gallon than ~87 octane gas, you save ~$30 per fill up (assuming a 350 mile range). This means that if you fill up weekly you will save ~$1,550 a year. But you might be thinking “well a hybrid can get that kind of mpg”, but a hybrid requires an expensive and heavy battery pack, and loads of other accessories. The hybrid option adds $7,600 to the price of a Civic, and Honda likely doesn’t have much of a margin. Applying the same math assuming an Accord hybrid could get 51 mpg (which it could not, even if they still sold them) you would save $1,700 a year on fuel verses the regular model. The pay back time is 4.5 years assuming no tax credits etc, but a diesel engine costs about $1,000 to $2,000 more than a gas engine, so the pay back is 0.7 to 1.5 years. The reason diesels are more expensive are because they have to be over built, but that also means they go forever. There is also a saying among diesel people: A diesel is only more expensive for the first 100,000 miles, the next 300,000 are much cheaper. i suspect the reason there isn't a diesel hybrid in near future is Honda’s plasma-based NOx reduction systems will likely not function as well if they are constantly cycling it on and off. Urea inject is better suited for diesel-hybrid applications but that has its own problems. Also, hybrids require their own assembly line, diesels can be built on the regular line, so the margins are much better.

Where the diesel can really shine is in Honda’s Acura product line. The high performance/compression engines in Acuras require premium fuel, so the diesel price difference is greatly reduced. A hybrid would not maintain that pushed back in your seat feel that Acura’s are known for, a diesel can. As long as there is no smoke cloud the Acura brand can live happily as a diesel. In the 17 mpg Acura MDX, getting just 35 mpg from a diesel would save the weekly filler almost $2,300 a year in fuel costs, with minimal loss in performance. In the 21 mpg TL getting 51 mpg would save the weekly filler $2,130 a year in fuel. These kinds of numbers could breathe new life in to Acura sales, since the sticker shock and fuel cost double whammy can scare off some buyers. The issue will be, whether or not Acura owners will accept diesel, which is smelly and viscous and in some places a bit hard to find.

A viable diesel means Honda can finally sell cars in Europe, where for tax reasons diesel is far less expensive. They will face an up hill battle since Japanese cars are considered a joke in Germany, but it is a battle Honda can win. Here’s how: In the rest of the world, Accords are huge with luxury features, many Hondas are made in the US, with the dollar the way it is, an Accord or Acura diesel would be a bargain luxury car in the EU. After all that is how Honda won the US, cheaper cars with good mpgs (or in this case kpls.) I certainly hope the European car makers are shaking in their boots, since the American family sedan from Japan is on its way, backed by “cheap” US labor, and a weak dollar.

I also hope the American car makers are taking notes.

Tesla’s problem

Nikola Tesla is the father of many inventions including the modern electrical system, a practical light bulb, radio, X-rays, and many many more. Yet he died basically penniless and probably insane. If he had had one great idea and followed through on it, he still would have died insane, but he would have ended up like Howard Hughes: insanely rich. Instead he invented something, proved it worked, and moved on. His gift was his curse.

Neuropathic pain treatments

There has been a lot of excellent progress made in creating drugs to treat neuropathic and other types chronic pain. A lot of these drugs simulate neuropeptides using non-standard amino acids or small molecule analogs. Being able to molecularly control the pain and pleasure sensors could lead break through therapies for people living with crippling and uncontrolable pain, but it will also lead to drugs that would make heroin look like Tic Tacs. Of course the FDA would never approve such drugs or would tightly control them. But there will be lots of failures, and once the research is done it can never be undone. High end dealers and rogue “organizations” can download the patents or buy the information from disgruntled scientists about compounds failed in Phase II and III for being addictive or overly narcotic. Then synthesize and market them possibility legally in countries without strong drug laws and illegally in countries that do. Imagine the social consequences of a pill that can leave you lucid-ish but feeling no pain, or a pill that can let you stay up and alert for days at a time.
If you doubt this could happen, read about heroin’s history. I am not saying we shouldn't continue this work since it is too important, we should just be careful.

Sustainable biofuels

While biofuels might be a way to reduce our dependence on oil, we haven’t found a way to reduce our dependence on agriculture for food, and since we don’t have enough food we cannot afford the trade.

We need to look else where for a place to grow our biofuels that doesn’t take up valuable farmland, food or fresh water. We need to look to the oceans and seaweed for our biofuels.

By putting large seaweed farms at the mouths of rivers, and on the edges of the continental shelves near large cities we can grow fuels near were they will be consumed. This will also allow the “farms” to soak up the nutrient rich runoff and CO2 and use it to increase the growth rate of the seaweed, instead of increasing the growth of algae causing eutrophication. Also, since fishing won't be allowed near the farms, and all the seaweed will offer cover for smaller fish, the farms can help restore fish populations.

Since most seaweeds are long lived and can withstand heavy pruning it is a very good source of harvestable biomass. The issue will be finding ways to convert agarose and other heavily substituted polysaccharides into monosaccharides for alcohol production.