[Rhodes22-list] alternative energy

[Saroj Gilbert]

Interesting Robert... I've been interested in growing hybrid poplars for 
years... and you're actually doing it!  I've heard that they can be cloned 
quite easily from twigs... have you experienced that?

Is your friend's truck a diesel? That's the only engine I've heard of that 
can use fry oil... but wondered.

I wonder about wood pellets... how much energy does it take to make them as 
opposed to sawing and splitting a tree... it seems a bit too yuppy for me... 
although it does manage the issue of not being around to tend the fire...and 
I suppose easier to transport to areas where there isn't an abundance of 
trees... when my family heated a 5 BR house with wood, we installed 
baseboard electric to (a) satisfy the approval powers-that-be and (b) to 
keep the pipes from freezing if we happened to be away during the winter... 
when properly laid it would hold 12 hours on a low flow of air altho that 
isn't great for the stove pipe... esp in our installation which had two 
stories to go through...

Saroj

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Robert Skinner" <robert at squirrelhaven.com>
To: "The Rhodes 22 mail list" <rhodes22-list at rhodes22.org>
Sent: Wednesday, May 17, 2006 7:52 PM
Subject: Re: [Rhodes22-list] alternative energy


> We have a guy up here in Portland, Maine who is
> collecting used fry oil, filtering it and
> precipitating adulterants, and burning it in his
> truck.
>
> Stoves are being fitted with augers to feed wood
> chips and boilers are being converted to use
> grass pellets.  My clone of hybrid poplar
> (adapted to Maine weather) grows 5' a year and
> produces biomass at a greater rate than most
> other vegetation.
>
> I believe that some grasses produce greater
> biomass per square yard than any tree, and straw
> is a byproduct of grain production, so I guess
> that grass pellets are the best long-term
> solution to heating requirements, assuming that
> we are not able to harness solar, tidal, and/or
> wind energy.
>
> With the large number of deep finger bays we
> have in Maine, and our 9 to 20 foot tides, I
> suspect that we will be tapping tidal flows
> for electricity generation.  Unfortunately,
> that will put paid to some of our best
> gunkholing.
>
> /Robert Skinner
>
> Saroj Gilbert wrote:
>>
>> Brad... I just heard that it is legal to own an ethanol still... didn't
>> catch if it was national or state-wide... but seems it would have to be
>> national... for those die-hard and very committed alternative energy
>> folks... not sure I'm up for it yet, but my dear friend might be... I 
>> also
>> heard from my son that there is a coop in No. Calif.  that collects used
>> restaurant oil and processes it... they are sharing the results... diesel
>> fuel at .18 a gallon... yes, folks... that's eighteen cents...
>>
>> I just sent the link to the water to hydrogen product for "home" use... 
>> a
>> video clip...  water is still pretty cheap except in the desert states 
>> :-)
>>
>> Saroj
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