Adventure Ausrama Blog

A new more efficient battery is needed. While computer chips have made fantastic gains, batteries have stood still. Lithium dominates the market. There seems to be no choice, but new research has come up with something. Lithium batteries came to the fore in the 1970s when they superseded lead acid, though not in cars. However, litio is getting scarce. The price has risen dramatically recently. People require storage devices: demand is rising. A completely new kind of device for storing electrical energy is on the horizon. It is called the proton flow battery and has been developed within Australia. A carbon electrode stores hydrogen. During the charging process carbon couples up with protons by splitting water. When in use H2O is reproduced with oxygen from the air; thus power is generated. Protons are moved to achieve this. Another type of cell has been around since the 1930s, the vanadium redox. Despite a lot of investment this has not taken off. Countries such as the UK have ...

Coal is not the only way of lighting up homes. Natural gas is a fossil fuel that is an option for a cleaner green ecosystem. || australia option future natural future notable green natural option gas natural gas natural green natural option blog green ||  For all the greenhouse gas reduction cacophony little is said about generating electricity with natural gas. For sure, like coal and oil it is non-renewable. However, it is not as dirty as these alternatives. Indeed, 13 percent of power comes from natural gas plants already. This is rising.         | gas green| Electricity prices are increasing, particularly in Australia. This has been caused by public and government pressure on coal power stations to close down. Note that there is solid support for coal in Liberal Party (read conservative) factions.      |||   | option then on future option |     Logic would tell you that there is no way sufficient power can be ge...

There is no doubt that the climate is changing. Usually moderate areas are becoming arid and other places are getting record rain. Countries are not prepared for this. Farmers must change to other crops to stay survive.    | __ .. .    The wheat yield in Australia increased 300 percent to 1990. Since that time output has been steady. Rain seems to be sufficient near the coast, but inland there is not much wet.  Government must do more to help those adapting.     | __ .. | | .. |         Wheat is a staple for everyone. If the shortfall continues the price will increase. Furthermore, Australia is a major world exporter of wheat. Farmers have changed practices : this has maintained production.   | __.... | not. | ....__       Over the last 26 years temperatures have risen by 1.05℃. Rain has declined by 2.8mm per growing season. It is hard to believe that even with this clear evidence there are still skeptic...

Carbon capture from power stations that are coal powered is not going well. coal-powered power pollution For decades there has been much talk about capturing carbon from coal-fired power stations. So far projects have failed to come up with a viable solution. Coal is dirty and it remains so. Nuclear is more realistic alternative but it is dangerous.   power station pollution carbon coal-fired capture soda ash power stations pollution A new attempt is about to be made in India by Carbon Clean Solutions (CCSL). Claims are being made of capture costs as low $30.00 a tonne, half of that achieved so far in other tests. Pollution is also claimed to be reduced to zero. Such figures are obviously totally baseless.       carbon coal-fired pollution power stations cement fertilizer  Reduction of carbon by salt and amines to soda ash is the method to be used. Soda ash is used for fertilizer and cement. There is more than one system. The list i...

Adopting battery powered cars is the worst thing societies can do. It is just a transfer from dirty oil engines to dirty oil power station. Removal of carbon at power stations is talked about a lot. However, nothing has been achieved. Experiments have largely failed. The distance barrier is still a problem for battery cars. To go more than two hundred miles requires an enormous battery, far to heavy to put in vehicles. Price is still an issue : there is little hope of a reduction even with mass production. Weak demand continues. Planners are saying that the lack of battery "charge" centers is the main barrier. This is only secondary. Where does the capital come from to build them? Battery swap stations were established by the Electric Light Company to service a fleet of electric trucks a century ago. Buses in China get new batteries en route. The trucks disappeared and Chinese buses are government run. Changing to a recharged battery is not cost effective. If ...

Telemetry and remote sensing significantly cuts labor costs on agricultural properties. Water supplies for stock are being monitored remotely with water levels being relayed via radio signals back to the homestead. Besides water levels at bores, animal weight can also be remotely monitored, but more work is needed on this. Water level, however, is by far the most important part of work on cattle stations. At Napperby station near Alice Springs the bore runs for 500km. This used to be checked three times a week. Now a physical check is done only once a week. The Fuel cost for motor vehicles is significantly reduced. Cattle are more easily monitored because they congregate as a group at water bores. Remote drafting and weighing of cattle is being perfected and this will contribute greatly to cutting labor costs. http://www.adventure--australia.blogspot.com/ http://www.tysaustralia.blogspot.com/ http://www.feeds.feedburner.com/AdventureAustralia http://www.technorati.com/blogs/ htt...

There isn't much doubt that as people adopt alternative means of transportation and relinquish the hold that the internal combustion engine has over us that costs will increase for alternative "fuels". A hope for the future is electric cars, the cost now being only a fifth of comparable petrol or diesel vehicles. If the majority of the population actually do buy electric cars the supply of electricity will have to be increased. More power stations will have to be built. The Japanese accident shows that nuclear is no longer an option for future power generation. This means more pollution from coal and oil power stations. Electric cars are not an easy solution to the pollution problem. It is just a cheaper means of transportation, for the present. The market always pushes up the price of alternatives. Households in the future will have a hefty electricity bill for lighting, heating and so on of their homes. Two tier pricing is not an option. All electricity will eventually ...

Countries are going ahead with investment in nuclear power despite very real dangers. Similar crises to Chernobyl and Three Mile Island will definitely occur in the future with catastrophic results for resident of neighboring nations of the country experiencing the problem. Where are they going to put the contaminated material after use? Putting it deep under landfill and into natural cavities in the earth have failed in the past. The only answer is to launch it into space on a trajectory to the sun. But what if the rocket explodes in the earth's atmosphere or crashes to earth? Nuclear power is also very expensive. It is too high a price to pay to reduce green house gas pollution. Electricity charges are already going through the roof in Australia and the green tax hasn't even been instituted yet. There is no way the use of uranium purchased from countries such as Australia can be policed. Once another country owns the uranium it can use it for military purposes, though all nuc...