Energy Club - new forum threads

Recep of 'Next Generation Biofuels in North America'

Sun, 31 Oct 2010 00:04:31 +0000

Mike Muston gave us a brief recap of his career, mostly in the agricultural industry and on the business or commercial side. The company he currently works for, Otoka Energy, is not developing new biofuels technology but is commercializing existing technology.
Mr Muston provided a general description of the process involved in setting up a biofuels plant. He explained that it takes anywhere from 4 to 6 years to design the plant, complete all the legal work, find funding from grants, get permits, and then actually build the plant. He stressed that in the biofuels industry, finding grants is extremely important because you need a significant amount of money in order to start being competitive.
While Mr Muston used to work for a biofuels company that made ethanol (from corn), Otoka Energy is looking to use other sources of Biomass such as forestry products, remains from orchards, vineyards, etc.
Mr Muston also addressed to food vs. fuel debate explaining that in the United states, farmers were actually being paid NOT to grow corn by the government in order to keep the price of corn high enough which indicates that there isn't a panic about fuel products taking over the land designated for food. Also, the remaining part of the corn for example, that is not used in biofuels can be fed to livestock so corn could serve a dual use. Mr Muston also explained that the food vs fuel debate was a marketing scheme, popularized by oil companies in the states in order to create an aversion to biofuels when oil prices were quite low. Another point that was brought up is the role of Carbon in the energy cycle. In biofuels, the plants take up some of the carbon from the atmosphere where as with other sources such as coal and oil, carbon is simply released.
Overall, Mr Muston stressed that setting up a plant in the biofuels industry is expensive and requires a lot negotiating with the government, however Alberta is a good place resource-wise for setting up a plant because our forestry sector is an underutilized industry.

Pledges

Sun, 09 May 2010 19:06:50 +0000

Would this be a good place for updates regarding the pledge project?

APPEGA talks Nuclear

Thu, 25 Feb 2010 02:45:37 +0000

'Doing Nuclear: the future of nuclear energy in Alberta' is the cover story for The PEG Feb 2010 edition

http://www.apegga.org/Members/Publications/Magazines/ThePEG/2010/February/issue1/index.html

Embedding things on a wiki page

Thu, 11 Feb 2010 17:00:47 +0000

It is possible to embed all kinds of things on a wiki page. Check out http://www.wikidot.com/doc:embedding for several examples.

To display Google docs, we can use the iframe tag. It will look something like this:

[[iframe http://docs.google.com/pub?key=... width="100%" height="500"]]

So we need to specify a link/URL (which I've truncated here with …), a width and a height. How do we get the URL, you ask? Just create a new Google doc (or open an existing one), click the "Share" button in the top-right corner, and then click "Get the link to share". You will see a popup window like the following:

You will want to check the first box so that anyone can view the document, and optionally check the second box if you also want anyone to be able to edit it (by anyone, I mean anyone who knows the link — i.e. anyone who visits the wiki). Finally, you need to copy the link, click "Save & Close", then paste the link into your wiki code.

The procedure is much the same for a Google spreadsheet, except that there is a little extra work if you would like to enable editing. Essentially, one cannot edit an embedded spreadsheet directly on a wiki page, but we can include an extra link that will open up the actual Google spreadsheet editor.

Here's an example that's taken directly from our volunteer-opportunities page:

[[iframe http://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=tpZsx-U6CncTAlOFXMzS6Uw&output=html&widget=true width="100%" height="560" frameborder="0"]] > **[*http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=tpZsx-U6CncTAlOFXMzS6Uw CLICK HERE TO EDIT THE SPREADSHEET]** >> This will open the spreadsheet in a new window. >> Note that changes are saved automatically, so you don't need to click File, Save, or anything like that.

The second line in this block of code contains a link that the user can click in order to edit the spreadsheet. The link/URL is the same as the one in the iframe tag, except that we removed everything that appears after the first ampersand (&) sign, as it's not needed here. The last two lines just display some extra information to the user.

Here's the result:

CLICK HERE TO EDIT THE SPREADSHEET

This will open the spreadsheet in a new window.
Note that changes are saved automatically, so you don't need to click File, Save, or anything like that.

That's it! Please post any questions that you may have in this discussion forum thread.

Feedback

Thu, 21 Jan 2010 23:34:47 +0000

The Energy Club would love to hear what you think of our events!

If you attended the Solar Alberta discussion panel on Jan 19th, please follow the link below to take a brief survey (ten questions)
http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/WPS9K9J

Food vs. Fuel

Wed, 16 Dec 2009 20:18:40 +0000

I have a lot of my own opinions about this topic, but I am interested in hearing other peoples ideas. How do you feel about biofuels using cereal grains (corn, wheat, etc.) as its feedstock to create fuel?

One word: bioplastics

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 22:01:43 +0000

http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2009/bioplastics.html

Uploading Posters

Thu, 12 Nov 2009 11:35:28 +0000

Hi Ken,

How do I upload a poster to the wiki for an event?

All about coal pollution fatalities

Wed, 28 Oct 2009 18:12:09 +0000

Good article on the health effects of pollution from coal-fired power plants.

http://www.spectrum.ieee.org/blog/energy/renewables/energywise/coal-pollution-fatalities

Career Forum

Fri, 16 Oct 2009 00:42:19 +0000

We're in the planning stages of a career forum for the beginning on Winter Semester 2010.

Any Companies you'd like to see come out?

Location:
-How about having the purposed career forum in SUB where companies can set-up tables infront of large volumes of people?
-Dinwoodie?

Style:
-Career Fair (several tables, walk around)
-Included presenations?

Would there be any interest in hearing more about biofuels?

Thu, 08 Oct 2009 16:45:09 +0000

My professor is very knowledgeable about biofuels. He has projects with algae, bio-butanol, and bio-ethanol. He even manages an extensive network about the conversion of biomass into fuel involving government, industry and academics. The conversion network is interested in chemical, thermal, and other technologies to boost the production and yields of biofuels.

Before I ask him for his time, would there be any interest in hearing a lecture on biofuels? Most people in the club are in engineering and have more interest in solar, geothermal, and wind - or so it seems. This is a small piece of the pie though because all these technologies will need to be combined to displace or replace fossil fuel use.

How can the UofA be more sustainable? Ideas?

Wed, 07 Oct 2009 22:02:39 +0000

http://www.uofaweb.ualberta.ca/sustainability/pdf/SustainabilityInitiativesupdate_2009Mar6small.pdf

So a friend of mine Karen Robinson passed along a great document which outlines all the Sustainable Initiatives at the UofA. There are far more going on than I realized, I was a bit surprised. It is definitely worth a read. Just as important tho are ideas on how to move forward into a larger realm of sustainability, so…

Question on the table: How would you like to see the UofA be more Sustainable???

Aligning Tables

Wed, 07 Oct 2009 03:35:19 +0000

How can I align a table to the left?

Shell pushing for tough action on climate change?

Mon, 05 Oct 2009 21:49:05 +0000

http://www.canada.com/technology/climate+change+exec+tells+industry+government/2068689/story.html

Shell looks to be talking the talk, with a hard cap on emissions not intensity based targets. This is good talk to have before the Canadian government flies over to Copenhagen. Although, it would be even better if Canadians (and Americans for that matter) had a clear defined plan to actually take climate change seriously.

Bury CO2: Fix or Folly? - Graham Thomson

Sun, 04 Oct 2009 17:49:23 +0000

A great read to prep for the October 19th Panel Discussion!

Check out the Sunday Reader Section in the October 4th Journal
or
http://www.edmontonjournal.com/business/Thomson+Burying+folly/2064972/story.html

New wind farm in Ontario thanks to Samsung?

Mon, 28 Sep 2009 04:40:45 +0000

http://www.google.com/hostednews/canadianpress/article/ALeqM5i4_F2L0fdiMvApDlGUmBvQsA_ORA

Cool article showing some preliminary interest by Samsung to create a 200 turbine wind farm in Ontario. The feed-in tariff system was probably instrumental in attracting Samsung's interest. Plus there is potential for the creation of some 'green' manufacturing for Ontario's hard hit industry. Watch this one and see how it plays out. A positive outcome would build some much needed momentum for renewable investment during this (brief?) downturn in oil prices.

Sustainability Scores for Canadian Schools

Sun, 27 Sep 2009 21:45:17 +0000

http://static.corporateknights.ca/KnightSchools2009.pdf

I ran across this article today on the EcoAmmo website (www.ecoammo.com). This short article looks at Sustainability in Education. The best UofA rank is 4th for both our MBA programs (up 2 spots) and Teacher education (new category this year). We didn't really do too great on incorporating sustainability into our Public Policy school however.

Hybrid cars - could pose some environmental issues

Mon, 14 Sep 2009 17:06:59 +0000

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/32632068/ns/us_news-environment/

I am not sure how rare Earth mines are set-up, but this does seem to be a disadvantage to using hybrid vehicles. When the electricity is produced from coal, I wonder how much less CO2 emissions are produced anyways? Anyone know a way to find out?

Algae biofuels being tested by the DoD (USA)

Wed, 09 Sep 2009 16:37:55 +0000

http://www.defense-aerospace.com/article-view/release/107911/pentagon-to-test-naval-fuel-made-from-algae.html

Here is a link that shows some promise in the algae biofuel industry. A contract of this size would mean great things for expanding biofuels made from algae into popular domain. If the product meets military specifications, it should do the trick for commuters.

Grants for energy courses

Wed, 02 Sep 2009 02:43:02 +0000

Someone came up with a great idea to apply for grant $ to allow our members to attend courses like those offered by the Solar energy Society at Grant Mac

Suggestions for Movie Night

Fri, 07 Aug 2009 03:02:19 +0000

"Garbage! The Revolution Starts at Home is a feature documentary about how the family household has become one of the most ferocious environmental predators of our time.

Concerned for the future of his new baby boy Sebastian, writer and director Andrew Nisker takes an average urban family, the McDonalds, and asks them to keep every scrap of garbage that they create for three months. He then takes them on a journey to find out where it all goes and what it's doing to the world.

From organic waste to the stuff they flush down the potty, the plastic bags they use to the water they drink out of bottles, the air pollution they create when transporting the kids around, to using lights at Christmas, the McDonalds discover that for every action there is a reaction that affects them and the entire planet.

Everyday life under a microscope has never been so revealing. By the end of this trashy odyssey, you are truly inspired to revolutionaize your lifestyle for the sake of future generations."

Source: http://www.garbagerevolution.com/watch.html

Creating a new page

Tue, 28 Jul 2009 03:43:56 +0000

How can I create a new page under the 'User-created content' Tab?

Carbon capture guy at ARC

Tue, 21 Jul 2009 21:58:35 +0000

http://www.ualberta.ca/CMENG/GRS2009/Bachu.html

He came to talk at the GRS, very good perspective. His science was used in IPCC report and the Gore documentary, so he sort of has at Nobel Prize.

Fusion Energy - Fact or Fiction

Tue, 12 May 2009 19:12:14 +0000

Fusion Energy has been the Golden Goose of energy production. It's energy generation would outstrip anything Nuclear or Coal could produce, replacing these two as a dependable base-load power source. But is it a Golden Goose chase? What are you thoughts??

Here's a 60 minutes video on I recently came across:
http://newenergytimes.com/v2/news/2009/60MinutesColdFusion.shtml