Renewable Energy Source.infohttp://www.renewable-energy-source.info/Copyright Renewable Energy Source.infosNewsA Brief Description: Butanol or butyl alcohol is an alcohol with a 4 carbon structure. Butanol is primarily used as a solvent, as an intermediate in chemical synthesis. Butanol may be used as a fuel in an internal combustion engine. It is in several ways more similar to gasoline than ethanol is. Butanol has been demonstrated to work in some vehicles designed for use with gasoline without any modification. It can be produced from biomass as well as fossil fuels. Some call this biofuel biobutanol to reflect its origin, although it has the same chemical properties as butanol produced from petroleum. Butanol can be produced by fermentation of biomass. The difference from ethanol production is primarily in the fermentation of the feedstock — producing butanol rather than ethanol like primary fermentation product and minor changes in distillation. The feedstocks are the same as for ethanol — energy crops such as sugar beets, sugar cane, corn grain, wheat and cassava as well as agricultural byproducts such as straw and corn stalks. Existing bioethanol plants can cost-effectively be retrofitted to biobutanol production. Butanol also better tolerates water contamination and is less corrosive than ethanol and more suitable for distribution through existing pipelines for gasoline. Switching a gasoline engine over to butanol would in theory result in a fuel consumption penalty of about 10% but butanol's effect on mileage is yet to be determined by a scientific study. While the energy density for any mixture of gasoline and butanol can be calculated, tests with other alcohol fuels have demonstrated that the effect on fuel economy is not proportional to the change in energy density. Biobutanol can be made entirely with solar energy, from algae (called Solalgal Fuel) or diatoms. Mon, 12 Feb 2007 22:20:19 +0000http://www.renewable-energy-source.info/what-is/butanol-fuel/http://www.renewable-energy-source.info/what-is/butanol-fuel/A Brief Description: HEV is a vehicle using gasoline (petrol) or diesel to power internal-combustion engines and electric batteries to power electric motors. They are low-polluting and low-petroleum consuming cars. Modern mass-produced hybrid cars recharge their batteries by capturing kinetic energy via regenerative braking. When cruising or in other situations where just light thrust is needed, "full" hybrids can use the combustion engine to generate electricity by spinning a generator (often a second electric motor) to either recharge the battery or directly feed power to an electric motor that drives the vehicle. This contrasts with all-electric vehicles which use batteries charged by an external source such as the grid, or a range extending trailer. Hybrid cars have gained more and more popularity as oil price surges and concern over global warming looms. However, it is also clear that the high premium on hybrid car price won't get paid out of saving on gas bill over the life of the vehicle, at least at the current gas price of about $2-3 per gallon. There are more variations of HEVs including plug-in hybrid vehicle (PHEV) and hybrid motocycle. Mon, 05 Feb 2007 01:10:09 +0000http://www.renewable-energy-source.info/what-is/hybridelectric-vehicle/http://www.renewable-energy-source.info/what-is/hybridelectric-vehicle/A Brief Description: The controlled use of nuclear reactions to release energy for work including propulsion, heat, and the generation of electricity. Human use of nuclear power to do significant useful work is currently limited to nuclear fission and radioactive decay. Nuclear energy is produced when a fissile material, such as uranium-235 , is concentrated such that the natural rate of radioactive decay is accelerated in a controlled chain reaction and creates heat - which is used to boil water, produce steam, and drive a steam turbine. The turbine can be used for mechanical work and also to generate electricity. Nuclear power is used to power most military submarines and aircraft carriers and provides 7% of the world's energy and 17% of the world's electricity. The United States produces the most nuclear energy, with nuclear power providing 20% of the electricity it consumes, while France produces the highest percent of its energy from nuclear reactors - 80% as of 2006. International research is ongoing into various safety improvements, the use of nuclear fusion and additional uses such as the generation of hydrogen, (in support of hydrogen economy schemes) for desalinating water, and for use in district heating systems. Mon, 05 Feb 2007 01:04:20 +0000http://www.renewable-energy-source.info/what-is/nuclear-power/http://www.renewable-energy-source.info/what-is/nuclear-power/A Brief Description: Electric bikes, electric scooters are part of a whole range of Light Electric Vehicles (LEVs) that provide local point-to-point transportation. Generally designed for one person and small cargo capacity, range, speed, and cost of most electric bikes, electric scooters or other light electric vehicles are moderate. For most of us, half of our errands and trips are less than 10 miles - within the range of most LEVs. Clean, quiet, and efficient are the main attributes of light electric vehicles. For under $1000, you can be riding your first electric bike or electric scooter. Enjoy the advantages of an extra car without the burdens. Replace that costly extra car with an e-bike or scooter, and use the savings to rent a car when you really need one. Or simply enjoy the fun and freedom of a vehicle that goes almost anywhere - including into public buildings. Thu, 01 Feb 2007 10:29:59 +0000http://www.renewable-energy-source.info/what-is/lev/http://www.renewable-energy-source.info/what-is/lev/A Brief Description: An automobile which uses hydrogen as its primary source of power for locomotion. These cars generally use the hydrogen in one of two methods: combustion or fuel-cell conversion. In combustion, the hydrogen is "burned" in engines in fundamentally the same method as traditional gasoline cars. In fuel-cell conversion, the hydrogen is turned into electricity through fuel cells which then power electric motors. With either method, the major byproduct from the spent hydrogen is water that can move also a micro-turbine. Hydrogen can be obtained from decomposition of methane (natural gas), coal (by a process known as coal gasification), liquid petroleum products, biomass (biomass gasification), high heat sources (by a process called thermolysis), or from water using electricity (electrolysis). A primary benefit of using pure hydrogen as a power source would be that it uses oxygen from the air to produce water vapor as exhaust (and very little nitrogen oxides from the nitrogen in the air when burning at high temperatures). Another benefit is that, theoretically, the source of pollution created today by burning fossil fuels could be moved to centralized power plants, where the byproducts of burning fossil fuels can be better controlled. However, as explained below, the technical challenges required to realize this benefit may not be solved for many decades, if ever. The major challenges in using hydrogen in cars, are the very high costs and the low energy efficiencies, with low probabilities so far, for successful solutions for the several challenges. Therefore, only a few demonstration vehicles have been made at high cost. Wed, 31 Jan 2007 23:12:16 +0000http://www.renewable-energy-source.info/what-is/hydrogen-vehicle/http://www.renewable-energy-source.info/what-is/hydrogen-vehicle/