Posted on 11/17/2019 4:51:22 PM PST by Western Phil
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my love of farms and farming never went away, and in 1999, I purchased my paternal grandfather’s 130-hectare (320-acre) property, Pinehurst Farm, which had been out of the family for 55 years. I wasn’t exactly sure what I’d do with the place, but by the time I retired in 2007, there was more and more talk about climate change due to human-caused carbon emissions. I knew that agriculture has a large carbon footprint, and I wondered if there was a way to make farming more sustainable.
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I recalled a conversation I’d had with my dad and his friend, Roy McAlister, right after I acquired the farm. Roy was the president of the American Hydrogen Association, and he owned a hydrogen-powered Nissan pickup truck. Both men were vocal advocates for replacing fossil fuels with hydrogen to reduce the United States’ dependence on oil imports. The same transition would also have a big impact on carbon emissions. And so, in 2008, I decided to create a solar-hydrogen system for Pinehurst Farm as a memorial to my father. I’d use solar power to run the equipment that would generate fuel for a hydrogen-burning tractor. Several years into the project, I decided to also make ammonia (nitrogen trihydride, or NH3) to use as tractor fuel and crop fertilizer.
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(Excerpt) Read more at spectrum.ieee.org ...
but the 130-hectare (320-acre) property is CARBON ,LOL
Must have one hell of a retirement package.
This fellow was a EE?
That takes lots and lots of math.
What happened to him?
More like what happened to the IEEE?
A magnificent obsession!
I read a very convincing article some years back in the IEEE Proceedings journal suggesting that over the very long term, a hydrogen economy was the way to go. In this scheme, hydrogen would be powered by a distributed network of relatively small solar installations and piped around. Rather than using photoelectric, these installations would use focused dishes to run sterling generators driven by solar heat, which would then use the resultant electricity to generate hydrogen. The article suggested that it was one of the only resource stable schemes around—thorium would be good but might last 1000 years; lithium is going to run out eventually; cobalt is limited, etc.
I wonder if this gentlemen was inspired by that same train of thought, although he’s using ordinary photocells for his electricity and hydrogen generation.
Well, given this ignorant statement... “... A ruptured ammonia tank won’t explode or catch fire as a propane tank will...” ... he probably died in a ruptured ammonia tank explosion.
My guess is that one of his inspirations was the 1950s Alis Chalmers fuel cell tractor. Fuel cells were and are too expensive, so he went with an easily modified conventional diesel running on hydrogen and ammonia.
There are old chemists and there are bold chemists, but there are no old, bold chemists!
“... Unfortunately, the additional heat weakened the outer steel shell, and the next time we attempted to make ammonia, the outer shell split open. The mixed gases, which were under pressure at 24 MPa, caught fire.
Toyne was in the equipment room at the time and noticed the pressure dropping. He made it out to the ammonia building in time to take pictures of the flames.
After a few minutes, the gas had all vented through the top of the building. Luckily, only the reactor was damaged, and no one was hurt.”
I asked a Millenial friend how much she would pay for carbon neutral beef. She said she would go up to $30 a pound.
There is money to be made.
The Amish have been engaged in carbon neutral farming for generations....except for their cows and horses farting.
In Texas, it has always been said that farming & ranching is a great way of life as long as you have a job in town.
Isn’t the combustion of hydrogen going to leave the most dangerous greenhouse gas of all behind? Water vapor, is not possibly dangerous if the atmospheric level increases, it is extremely dangerous.
https://www.popsci.com/environment/article/2009-03/top-ten-greenhouse-gases/
You would think that a scientist who worked at JPL, the organization which first documented outer planets an moons as made up of natural hydrocarbons, he should question where exactly earth’s oils supplies come from, and if are they replenish-able and in abundance like those other places.
I love my 24K BTU kerosene heater. I sit there and amazed by how efficient it is. No wires, no remote controls, it just converts hydrocarbons into heat. What's not to like.
A few years ago I had the opportunity to travel down the Ohio River from Marietta to Hunnington West Virginia. I happened to stop by one of the LARGEST coal fired plants in the nation. Nothing. No smoke, No fumes, just a bit of water vaport. People are so retarded that they don't understan how clean our coal plants are now.
By the way, I also have an awesome coal boiler in the baement and a bin full of coall. So if I get really pissed off I'll fire that bad boy. I also have a burn pile and some old tires down in the woods, and we are going to have some fun.
Have you kept your membership?
The Amish have been engaged in carbon neutral farming for generations
Not really. There are lots of pictures of horse drawn engine powered combines operated by Amish.
She will eat one pound of beef a year. No money there.
The smell? Actually it's not as bad as a diesel heater. Those really stink.
Modern kerosene heaters don’t smell that bad. But yes, back ii the day they did stink.
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