SCAF Makes A
Difference
In a field served with
carbon dioxide we would expect to get 200 bushels per acre and use half the water.
This would mean our crop would be safe even if rainfall fell to 19 inches
of rain. In a normal year we would be adding over 11 inches of water to
the underground aquifers to restore water tables that have fallen
throughout the Middle West. Water does
not migrate very swiftly and underground rivers have virtually no detectable
flow.
The CO2 supplemented crop will be worth $800 per acre plus whatever value can be attributed to the water, but in cash terms the farmer is better off by $320 per acre at full market price. On the other side we can see the he will need 36 tons of carbon dioxide that someone had to pay $100 per ton to get rid of so we will assume the farmer will have not had to pay much if anything for it or may be paid to put it in the ground.
We expect the business arrangements to evolve from experimental where the farmer and CO2 sequestration company cooperate with the farmer standing the capital cost of the underground system. Before that the sequestration company may distribute CO2 with sub-soil plows at no cost to the farmer, but as the system gains popularity and demand exceeds supply a charge will be made for the service. After several years it may be attractive to install an underground water and CO2 distribution system still obtaining the gas at no or very little cost. Eventually, as value is seen and publicized the market will settle on prices for the gas and services with the price of sequestration falling as well.
The CO2 supplemented crop will be worth $800 per acre plus whatever value can be attributed to the water, but in cash terms the farmer is better off by $320 per acre at full market price. On the other side we can see the he will need 36 tons of carbon dioxide that someone had to pay $100 per ton to get rid of so we will assume the farmer will have not had to pay much if anything for it or may be paid to put it in the ground.
We expect the business arrangements to evolve from experimental where the farmer and CO2 sequestration company cooperate with the farmer standing the capital cost of the underground system. Before that the sequestration company may distribute CO2 with sub-soil plows at no cost to the farmer, but as the system gains popularity and demand exceeds supply a charge will be made for the service. After several years it may be attractive to install an underground water and CO2 distribution system still obtaining the gas at no or very little cost. Eventually, as value is seen and publicized the market will settle on prices for the gas and services with the price of sequestration falling as well.
The Car of the Future
If
economics prevail we will be driving something more like what we have than not
and it will be something fueled by a liquid we can get at the filling stations
already we have. Electric batteries are very expensive and last but
a few years as they poison themselves with side reactions.
Crash Resistant Cars
Hydrogen is gas notoriously hard to compress, contain and keep safe. It burns with a flame invisible in sunlight and is the fireman's worst nightmare. Electric cars have to get the electricity from somewhere and take hours to charge so any pollution saving vanishes at the power plant and always with a bonus of waste due to transmission losses.
Given these realities and what is available we expect the car of the future to be made with a composite shaped space frame like race cars. It will be covered with panels of carbon fiber sealed in plastic of the kind now used to make Formula I race cars. These are very strong and can be designed to crunch in ways that protect the passengers. The final vehicle will weigh 1/3 to 1/2 what today's cars and get two to three times the fuel mileage as a result.
The NatroX™
System
Carbon dioxide
will be collected with a Natrox™
system. In an automobile it is little more than a light metal box about
the size of two or three mufflers loaded from the top with a proprietary
compound that captures and chemically compresses every cubic foot of carbon
dioxide down to a salt with a volume of 1.5 ounces. The box is unloaded
and reloaded every time the fuel tank is filled the charge is modest as the
active chemical is recovered as well the carbon sequestered.
The car will be powered by a small turbocharged Diesel engine that can burn almost anything, but will most likely be running on butanol. This is the four carbon alcohol that can be made from wood chips and waste, brush and leaf cuttings, corn stalks and just about anything that has ever been a green plant. We have a bacterium that consumes waste and exudes butanol in exchange. Butanol is 100 octane fuels naturally; it has more energy per pound than gasoline. It is not as volatile, flammable or dangerous.
Butanol can be put into existing pipelines, which ethanol cannot and it uses what we have been burning, burying and wasting up to now. It will not force the price of corn up astronomically as will current ethanol fuel plans and where the source material is waste the only cost of that is collecting, chopping, much of which is done now in preparation for landfills. We know that we already have enough source material to power the nation with butanol when we build the plants for making it and that is not the case for corn.
The car will be powered by a small turbocharged Diesel engine that can burn almost anything, but will most likely be running on butanol. This is the four carbon alcohol that can be made from wood chips and waste, brush and leaf cuttings, corn stalks and just about anything that has ever been a green plant. We have a bacterium that consumes waste and exudes butanol in exchange. Butanol is 100 octane fuels naturally; it has more energy per pound than gasoline. It is not as volatile, flammable or dangerous.
Butanol can be put into existing pipelines, which ethanol cannot and it uses what we have been burning, burying and wasting up to now. It will not force the price of corn up astronomically as will current ethanol fuel plans and where the source material is waste the only cost of that is collecting, chopping, much of which is done now in preparation for landfills. We know that we already have enough source material to power the nation with butanol when we build the plants for making it and that is not the case for corn.
The car of the future could be modular with the original design in the "hatchback" format. Removing the hatch window and the rear panel would allow an insert converting the vehicle to a small truck. These inserts could be rented for special occasions or purchased by the frequent user. A larger, longer version with an additional wheel or two could make the temporary truck a larger capacity unit for hauling lumber and building supplies for the weekend warrior, moving or buying furniture, change the add-on body parts, click on the "Performance" chip and go racing.
Ethanol
is thought by some to be our future fuel where corn is our largest agricultural
crop. We appear to have an abundance of it thanks to federal price
supports, but analysis of ethanol economics shows that converting the entire
corn crop to fuel will only support 1/3 of our motor vehicles, eliminate the
production of meat and our major grain export.
Interest in ethanol from corn has increased the price, but much of it is market anticipation more than from the demand over supply price equation. Commodity traders are very good at boosting markets on fear. $100 a barrel oil has at least $50 worth of fear in it.
Ethanol brings problems to the fuel market. While it will mix with gasoline it is not transportable in existing pipelines. It dissolves the seals and causes leaks. It is also hygroscopic, which means it acquires water from air diluting the product, rusting pipelines ultimately rendering the gasoline and ethanol mix unusable as fuel. Chemically removing water from ethanol is expensive.
Ethanol a consumable intoxicant and heavily taxed in that form. If we produce large amounts of pure ethanol it must be expected some of it will go into bootlegging operations where ersatz whisky, gin and vodka can easily be made by mixing pure alcohol with syrups and flavors to avoid taxes. This would balloon the ATF bureau while the price of world corn skyrockets to create international problems inflating the price of beef and the tortillas of Mexico, a diet staple and politically sensitive commodity.
Butanol, the four carbon alcohol solves all these problems, and many more. It is 100 octane, ping free and produces as much power as octane, the prototype gasoline molecule. Butanol is less volatile than gasoline. This means it does not evaporate as quickly and produces much less flammable vapors making it a safer fuel in storage and accidents. Butanol can be used in today's cars without modification. It can be transported in pipelines as it is not corrosive to the present seals used in pipelines and their pumps.
Butanol can be made from corn and wheat stalks, grass clippings, wood chips, sawdust and any other cellulosic material or "stover" now considered waste. The bacteria responsible for this bio-chemical miracle is Clostridia acetobutylicum. It has been in wide use since 1916 and it can be bred to work in a wide range of temperatures and with virtually any cellulosic raw material including cheese whey, now an industrial waste.
Butanol fermentation systems working entirely on sun powered heaters won’t need expensive carbon based fuels. Those require one time building and assembly being little more than plumbing and computer controlled pumps. They should run for decades with very little maintenance. Where yeast fermentations need a lot of heat and only produce 15% product the bacterial kind work over a wider range of temperatures and produce up to 35% product before the product poisons the process.
Bacteria are easy to modify as their generations are short lived. Were we to set up ten samples of a strain of Clostridia acetobutylicum using a particular kind of raw material we would find that one of the fermentation vessels worked a little better than the others. We could use the contents of that vessel to seed the next round of fermentations and another would be the winner in our set of conditions. In eight or ten rounds of this work we would soon have a new variety of Clostridia acetobutylicum ideal for our location.
We can fine tune the bacteria to work well from Canada to Texas where enough Mesquite grows every year to supply butanol to one-sixth of our nation's motor vehicles annually. With existing computer technology we can build robot harvesters that could wander our wastelands 24/7 gathering and chopping Mesquite, Sagebrush and weeds into a celluosic mash perfect for the Clostridia acetobutylicum bacteria.
Politics hold this technology back while the elected class titillates the farm lobby and runs the price of corn up. The nation is more important than any special interest group. Butanol technology is here now. It is the fuel of the future.
SCAFcom LLC
Interest in ethanol from corn has increased the price, but much of it is market anticipation more than from the demand over supply price equation. Commodity traders are very good at boosting markets on fear. $100 a barrel oil has at least $50 worth of fear in it.
Ethanol brings problems to the fuel market. While it will mix with gasoline it is not transportable in existing pipelines. It dissolves the seals and causes leaks. It is also hygroscopic, which means it acquires water from air diluting the product, rusting pipelines ultimately rendering the gasoline and ethanol mix unusable as fuel. Chemically removing water from ethanol is expensive.
Ethanol a consumable intoxicant and heavily taxed in that form. If we produce large amounts of pure ethanol it must be expected some of it will go into bootlegging operations where ersatz whisky, gin and vodka can easily be made by mixing pure alcohol with syrups and flavors to avoid taxes. This would balloon the ATF bureau while the price of world corn skyrockets to create international problems inflating the price of beef and the tortillas of Mexico, a diet staple and politically sensitive commodity.
Butanol, the four carbon alcohol solves all these problems, and many more. It is 100 octane, ping free and produces as much power as octane, the prototype gasoline molecule. Butanol is less volatile than gasoline. This means it does not evaporate as quickly and produces much less flammable vapors making it a safer fuel in storage and accidents. Butanol can be used in today's cars without modification. It can be transported in pipelines as it is not corrosive to the present seals used in pipelines and their pumps.
Butanol can be made from corn and wheat stalks, grass clippings, wood chips, sawdust and any other cellulosic material or "stover" now considered waste. The bacteria responsible for this bio-chemical miracle is Clostridia acetobutylicum. It has been in wide use since 1916 and it can be bred to work in a wide range of temperatures and with virtually any cellulosic raw material including cheese whey, now an industrial waste.
Butanol fermentation systems working entirely on sun powered heaters won’t need expensive carbon based fuels. Those require one time building and assembly being little more than plumbing and computer controlled pumps. They should run for decades with very little maintenance. Where yeast fermentations need a lot of heat and only produce 15% product the bacterial kind work over a wider range of temperatures and produce up to 35% product before the product poisons the process.
Bacteria are easy to modify as their generations are short lived. Were we to set up ten samples of a strain of Clostridia acetobutylicum using a particular kind of raw material we would find that one of the fermentation vessels worked a little better than the others. We could use the contents of that vessel to seed the next round of fermentations and another would be the winner in our set of conditions. In eight or ten rounds of this work we would soon have a new variety of Clostridia acetobutylicum ideal for our location.
We can fine tune the bacteria to work well from Canada to Texas where enough Mesquite grows every year to supply butanol to one-sixth of our nation's motor vehicles annually. With existing computer technology we can build robot harvesters that could wander our wastelands 24/7 gathering and chopping Mesquite, Sagebrush and weeds into a celluosic mash perfect for the Clostridia acetobutylicum bacteria.
Politics hold this technology back while the elected class titillates the farm lobby and runs the price of corn up. The nation is more important than any special interest group. Butanol technology is here now. It is the fuel of the future.
SCAFcom LLC
While the fastest way to implement and capitalize on new
technology is to put it in the hands of an existing manufacturer in the field
this can be an uphill struggle due to the resistance to outside inventors and
the royalties they want. We can develop much of this technology ourselves
and with prototype builders. Then, do testing with college
agriculture departments. We may be able to get government grants without the
strings and strictures due to the high interest in this area. We can
prepare budgets for each area when real interest arrives.
NatroX™
This device is little more than a sheet metal box with perforated
cylinders in it. It needs an induction pipe for loading and a trapdoor
bottom to be unloaded. The interior must conduct internal combustion
exhaust gases through the NatroX™ salts to capture the CO2.
The efficiency of capture will not be 100%, but we can optimize it
by experimentally determining the optimum amount of radioactive catalyst.
The radioactive material ionizes the air immediate to the hydroxide
tendrils growing on the NatroX™ "X" forms.
In
Field Fertilization
This process will need a lot of development work given the many
types of soil, degrees of water saturation and variation over growing
periods. We have some rough figures that are probably representative, but
need to better formalize the procedures and develop a database in order to
better design the delivery of the gas. This would be an ideal project
area for work with a college agriculture department as they have demonstration
farms that are well documented and would give our data more validity.
The gas may be delivered by subsoil plows or gas conducting articulated spikes as shown on other pages. All of this hardware needs to be developed. It is all straightforward, simple and obvious, but needs to be made.
The gas may be delivered by subsoil plows or gas conducting articulated spikes as shown on other pages. All of this hardware needs to be developed. It is all straightforward, simple and obvious, but needs to be made.
Permanent Installations
The permanent installation systems are very similar to drip systems and should be able to use much of the same hardware as water will be delivered by the same tubes if needed. The valves offer us a special opportunity as those working like stomata, swelling shut with the passage of amounts of gas or water as the molecules are similar, simplifies and perfects the system. One problem with systems of this kind is that they tend to over water the plants the near the source and underwater those at the ends of the tubes if they are long. The valves near the source end will shut first and eventually all will constrict, raising the pressure in the system signaling the controls to shut it off. This is a major, but not expensive development project for which we have the skills to execute, but only need to set up a workshop, lab and test field.
SCAF
Gas Generators
The SCAF gas generator uses carbonates from the NatroX™
scrubbers. They only require heating the salts over 300 Celsius degrees until
all the material is converted to oxides and gas production stops. The
generators are nothing more than metal "bombs" with an exit for
the gas, a pressure reading port plus a safety valve and perhaps a blowout
plug. All of this should be assembled from existing gas handling and
production equipment for which we would use a consulting engineer to design the
system.
Much of the gas we will use will come from other existing capture and production systems so we have to incorporate existing gas systems. This will not complicate anything as we are starting from nothing and bread boarding these systems will be very straightforward.
Continue to The Application
Table of Contents
Much of the gas we will use will come from other existing capture and production systems so we have to incorporate existing gas systems. This will not complicate anything as we are starting from nothing and bread boarding these systems will be very straightforward.
Continue to The Application
Table of Contents
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