Friday, March 29, 2002

1:41 PM LINK

The Wankel Engine

(aka the "rotary engine". Last deployed in 1995 by Mazda).

article in today's N.Y. Times Automotive section about its "return"

"The engine's appeal lay in its elegant simplicity. The Wankel rotary, also known as the Wankel - after its German inventor, Felix Wankel - has only a handful of parts, compared with about 40 pieces in a four-cylinder piston engine."

hydrogen-fueled Wankel examples

Thursday, March 28, 2002

4:10 PM LINK

The watt-hour and the kilowatt-hour

A watt-second of energy is the amount energy transfered by a 1 W device during a 1 s interval. 1 watt-second is equal to 1 J.

By extension, a watt-hour (W*h) is the amount of energy transfered by 1 W device during one hour. Since there are 3600 seconds in one hour, this means

1 W*h = 3600 J

1 W*h = 3.6 kJ

A kilowatt-hour of energy is simply 1000 watt-hours:

1 kW *h = 3,600,000 J

1 kW*h = 3.6 MJ

where MJ stands for megajoule, meaning one million joules.

1:28 PM LINK

Hightower on Cheney

"Technically, Cheney's sales to Saddam were legal, even though they were against official U.S. policy. The trick was that he ran the deals through Halliburton's foreign subsidiaries, thus appearing to be politically clean while raking in dirty money."

1:04 PM LINK

Homebrewed Gasoline

"Two fifteen gallon barrels were filled with fresh oil and poured in the barrel. Then we started the fire about it....shortly thereafter the gasoline began to run out in a small stream. The first that came out was very high in octane, and would evaporate from your finger as soon as you dipped it in the mixture. But as it continued to distill, it became less volatile. We found from experience that the first ten gallons that we got made good automobile fuel, and that the next six or eight gallons was composed of varying grades of kerosene."

12:44 PM LINK

Refinery Distillation of Gasoline

"Separation starts by pumping crude oil into pipes running through hot furnaces and heating the oil to vaporize it.

Inside the towers, the liquids and vapors separate into components or fractions according to their density and boiling point. The lightest fractions, including gasoline and liquid petroleum gas (LPG), vaporize and rise to the top of the tower, where they condense back to liquids."

11:11 AM LINK

Gallons of Gasoline in a Barrel.

Q. How many gallons of gasoline can be refined from a one-barrel of crude oil?

A. About 18-19 gallons typically.

1:50 AM LINK

Chevron on Drilling

"Only about 1/4 the oil in a reservoir can be recovered through natural pumping. To get more oil out of a well, additional recovery methods are required. ...water flooding, ...chemical flooding, ...or heat methods.

1:37 AM LINK

Fuel Conversion Chart

Q. Rank the following according to potential energy, from most to least.

1 pound of wood
1 pound of coal
1 gallon propane
1 gallon gasoline
1 gallon #6 fuel oil
100 cubic ft of natural gas

answer:

1 gallon #6 = 150,000 BTU
1 gallon gasoline = 125,000 BTU
100 cubic ft nat. gas = 103,000 BTU
1 gallon propane = 91,600 BTU
1 pound coal = 12,000 BTU
1 pound wood = 3,500 BTU

Wednesday, March 27, 2002

8:51 PM LINK

Oil and Gas Wells in the State of New York

Green=crude oil
Red=natural gas

"since the mid-1800's over 70,000 wells have been drilled in New York State"

12:51 AM LINK

The watt and the watt-second

In engines, generator, light bulbs, etc., energy is transformed from fuel into useful work.

For example, chemical potential energy of gasoline becomes energy of motion. Gravitational potential energy of water at the top of a hydroelectric dam becomes first electrical energy and then is transformed again int light energy in someone's house.

The point is : energy in different forms can be "equated." That is a certain amount of chemical potential energy in fuel can be equated to a certain amount of light.

The different forms of energy are light different nations with their different currencies. The joule is a like a base currency, though which the different national economies are linked. 100 J of potential energy disappears, 100 J of work energy created.

Devices such as generators and engines are designed to create this kind of energy transformation--from chemical potential energy into electrical energy, or electrical energy into work energy.

The amount of energy that a given engine transfers is proportional to the amount of time over which it operates.

The significant parameter for an engine or generator (or heat emitter, light emitter, etc.) is the power of the device. The power of a device is defined as the rate at which it transfers energy from one form to another.

The SI unit of power is the watt, abbreviated W.

The watt is defined to be an energy transfer rate of one joule per second:

1 W = 1 J/s

Thus a 1 W light bulb effects an energy transfer of 1 J per second.
That is, during a one second interval, the light bulb effects a transfer of 1 J of energy from electrical energy into light and heat. After ten seconds, it will have transfered 10 J from electrical energy into light and heat.

A 100 W light bulb transfers 100 J of energy in the same one second interval. A 1000 W light bulb transfers 1000 W, and so on.

A energy transfer rate of one kilowatt is a transfer of 1000 J in one second.

It is meaningful to call one joule of energy as one watt-second:

1 J = 1 W^s

That is, a joule is the amount of energy that a 1 W device would transfer in one second.

Tuesday, March 26, 2002

11:36 AM LINK

The Connection Between Zoroastrianism and Natural Gas.

The natural gas vents in the Caspian are considered to the be the origin of the 'Sacred Fire.'

"In Azerbaijan you can visit a Zoroastrian temple near Baku in Surakhany. This temple is built near the natural vents of flaming gas and has a permanent fire. With the introduction of Islam to the area the local Zoroastrian temples were destroyed. The exiting temple dates from the 18th and 19th centuris and is probably built over the ruins of an older structure."

In Zoroastrianism, fire comes in different grades. The highest and purest form of fire is the Atash Bahram, or "fire of victory."

There are only ten current Atash Bahrams, eight in India and two in Iran. They are strictly off limits to anyone but Zoroastrians.
Parsis gather in them whenever possible to say their prayers; though these fires are known as "cathedral" fires, there is no huge
liturgical space such as there might be in a Catholic Christian cathedral. The interior of an Atash Bahram temple is very simple
and unadorned; nothing takes away from the symbolism of the great fire itself, which is set in its own room away from the public
but visible to the worshippers.

1:42 AM LINK

Bill Greider vs. the Enr*n Democrats awesome must read.

1:38 AM LINK

Dykes to Watch Out For vs. Enr*n. hilarious must read.

Monday, March 25, 2002

10:19 PM LINK

The calorie and the kilocalorie.

Alternatively, energy can be measured in units of calories, abbreviated as cal. One calorie of energy is appoximately four times as much energy as one joule. The conversion is

1 cal = 4.1868 joules

or by simple arithmetic

1 J = 0.23885 cal

One kilocalorie is defined as 1000 cal:

1 kcal = 1000 cal

The chemical potential energy of food is often expressed in "food calories", which are actually kilocalories:

1 food cal = 1000 cal

thus:

1 food cal = 4186.8 J

1 food cal = 4.1868 kJ

1 food cal = 3968.7 BTU

1:04 PM LINK

The joule and the BTU

Energy is a measured physical quantity. In physics, work is measured in units of energy as well.

In the SI system, energy is measured in units of joules, using the symbol J.

The kilojoule and megajoule are defined respecitvely as :

1 kJ = 1000 J

1 MJ = 1000 kJ

Just as time may be expressed in different units (seconds, minutes, hours, centuries, etc.), so may energy be expressed in different unit systems. In the U.S. energy is often measured in British thermal units, using the abbreviation BTU.

The conversion is, approximately,

1 BTU = 1.055 J

That is, they are almost equal, with the BTU being about 5.5% bigger.

By simple arithmetic,

1 kJ = 947.9 BTU

1 MJ = 947,900 BTU

Officially, one joule is defined as the amount of work done by a force of 1 newton over a displacement of 1 meter. That is, one joule is exactly one newton-meter:

1 J = 1 Nm

Sunday, March 24, 2002

5:21 PM LINK

The Caspian Sea Region

Proven oil reserves estimated at 17-33 billion barrels (proven is defined as having a 90% probability of holding at least that amount).

Possible additional reserves of several hundred billion barrels (50% probability that it holds at least 233 billion additional barrels).

Proven gas reserves estimated at 177-182 trillion cubic feet. A 50% probability exists that it holds an additional 293 Tcf.

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