Renewable, yes, but is it sustainable?

While attending the Apeiron Sustainable Living Festival at the beginning of June, I was introduced to a new concept in alternative power source vehicles. A Dave Nichols of Killingly, CT was demonstrating and speaking about the virtues of a biomass powered Ford F-150 (1989 I believe). While the concept is cool, and a few such vehicles running around the roads certainly wouldn't cause an issue, how much biomass would need to be available in order to power a large deployment of such vehicles? Based on the information given during his presentation, I've set out to try to estimate that. According to Mr. Nichols vehicle can travel about 2 miles per pound of consumed wood or other similar biomass. I've done some back of the envelope type calculations below to figure out what the equivalency to gasoline is and how much wood would be required to power a vehicle exclusively for 1 year. Never mind that it would really only work in a vehicle with a cargo area available to stick the converter such as a pickup truck, at the expense of cargo area. (heck, you need cargo area to haul the fuel...hence why liquid fuels are so desirable and convenient).

• 1 pound of wood for 1.5 to 2 miles
• energy content of 1 pound of wood (well dried) = ~8000 BTU
• energy content of 1 gallon of gasoline = ~125,000 BTU
• energy content of 1 fl. oz of gasoline = ~968.75
• 1 pound of wood =~ .069 gallons (8.832 oz)
• @ 14mpg, 8.8 oz = ~0.96 miles
• volume of wood per pound = 600kg /cubic meter ( ~ 1 pound per 61 cubic inches or a solid square of wood, 6 x 5 x 2 inches per side, eg: about 6 1/4 inches of a standard US 2x6, or about 4.25" x 1 x 12 [.42 board feet])

Assuming an average miles driver per year of 15,000, that reduces to 7,500 pounds of wood, or, using the 2x6 example, about 3,750 linear feet of 2x6, or 3150 board feet, or about a fourth of the wood required for a 2000 square foot home. Making that number more interesting, about 375 10 foot long 2x6's. Or, more directly, a cube of wood nearly 7 feet high, 10 feet long and 4 feet wide. (for a very non-nonsensical attempt to give that number real world meaning, I calucated this: On 16" centers, that's enough wood to build 1420 feet of standard stick frame wall, enough to enclose a 126 thousand square foot (3 acre) area. )

To realistically implement this would require a huge lumbering industry, and lots of time, or even more wood in order to use the much more common and fast growing pine. At around $4 per board foot, if one were purchasing this form of energy, it's equivalent to about $2 per gallon, ignoring impact of increased demand on prices. The other issue I see, is how many trees and acres of trees are required to yield that volume/energy density of wood, plus processing into small chunks for gasification, and transport to local distribution points. My guess is that on a widespread basis this isn't practical, but if one owns a few acres of trees and were to use such a vehicle, and were willing to harvest and process biomass locally, it could be done, without denuding the land.

To be fair, trees give up a lot of biomass in the form of leaves every year, compressed blocks of dried leaves could work well without cutting trees to supply fuel, and really anything that can be rendered to a syngas at 2200 degrees Fahrenheit could be used (as mentioned, grass clippings, trash (essentially, anything compostable).

While I was watching the demo, I couldn't help thinking of the Mr. Fusion from the end of the first Back the Future movie. I suspect that the energy density of a banana peel is probably not high enough to power a car for more than a few seconds...

For other media coverage, The Norwich Bulletin has a brief article up, and wtnh.com has a video article up, which you can see here:


Footnotes/Resources:

1. BTU of wood comes from an article by Sam Foote, P.Eng in a PDF on Masonry Heater Association of North America's web site.
2. BTU per gallon of gasoline (US) from Wikipedia article on Gasoline.
3. The 14mpg above comes from fueleconomy.gov for that model and year.
4. Density to volume conversion based on ash (a soft wood) from Allmeasures.
5. Wood required for a 2000 square foot home via Realty Times.
   

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Odyssey Route: As Final as it Gets

After much stressing, and a way too busy life, the 4th of July holiday has given me time to focus on getting the map finalized. Coupled with having a pseudo-decision from Family to have a large gathering on August 15th at the "country estate". On the upside, this means I'll have an enforced rest day. Downside is it forces a 100 mile day, assuming I don't choose to sag the last 100 miles into Pittsburgh. Of course, getting to the farm also implies a bit of a northward jog. Perhaps I'll redo the route off of the water gap to remove the need to work north again on day 7. This means I now have semi-fixed dates of travel. Leaving Providence on Saturday the 8th, arriving Patchinville, PA on Friday the 14th, Arriving Pittsburgh on the 16th. Only question now is how to get back after spending a couple of days in Pittsburgh visiting friends.

There comments embedded in each days route about my expectations for that days riding, unfortunately, I wanted to keep the entire route on a single page, so I eliminated all of the routes that would have indicated the more southern route implied by following the Adventure Cycling Atlantic Route to Norristown and then catching PA Bike Route S.


View Prov to Pitt Bike Route in a larger map

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Bike Lane shirt at Cycle Dallas

Hrm, cool design, but may be a bit too confrontational to actually wear. I don't think it will win any friends among drivers already disposed against cyclists in their lane.


From Cycle Dallas.

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Odyssey Gear: Devotec Solar Charger

In researching solutions for portable charging, I found the Devotec Solar Charger that seemed to be a good fit to my needs. 1800mAh storage battery, rechargeable from a built in solar panel, USB port, or wall socket... essentially, all the features of a Solio unit except for the swiveling triple panel and a little less expensive.

The unit is nice and small, perhaps even a little too small. I like that it has an LED on it to indicate if it is receiving enough solar power to charge, and the LED varies in intensity with different lighting conditions. It has a second LED labeled charge, but I've not yet seen it lit.

It comes nicely packaged and well equipped with changeable tips to charge darn near any device, and with a USB female converter, almost any device that isn't represented can probably be covered too. (like, say a digital camera with a funky not-quite mini-USB connector).

Only downsides I've found so far is that there is no way to figure out how much of a charge is currently stored in the battery. Reading the instruction sheet only indicates that the charge light comes on when the unit is fully charged using a USB or wall socket, presumably to prevent overcharging/overheating.

I've also had some issues with getting it to connect to my iPhone and charge it, almost as though there is a slightly loose or mismatched connector, as jiggling the connector yields the charging connection tone. In theory the unit when fully charged can recharge the iPhone just short of twice.

Since I can't see how charged the battery is, I can't gauge how much power is being collected and stored on a sunny day on my kitchen window. Based on 2 attempts at charging the phone, the answer, at least on cloudy days is, unsurprisingly, not much.

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Are bike racks installed and used incorrectly?

I had a paradigm shifting experience recently when I saw a bike locked to a standard "circle on a post" parking area that has me wondering if the majority of these 2 bike racks aren't oriented and used incorrectly.

Almost invariably, I would have said invariably before last week, what you see is a bike locked to one or the other sides of the rack parallel to the metal hoops that extend to make the circle. I've often found that if someone is already using the other side of the rack, there is no choice but to move their bike a bit in order to get clearance to thread the lock through rack and to take care not to accidentally create a knot of interconnecting locks.

My eureka was in seeing a a bike locked perpendicular to the extension, thereby placing the bike a little way from the post, and leaving a wide unobstructed half circle extending in the opposite direction for another person to use, without needing to in any way be concerned about the existing occupant. This seems a much more intelligent and correct way to use the rack for a number of reasons and I'm embarrassed to say that I never even thought of that, even when parking at an unoccupied rack. Another advantage is that the extended hoop gives something to lean the bike against, in the case that it doesn't have a kickstand, and that doing that lean isn't going to impede another person using the rack, or require them to touch someone else's bike and/or lock in order to park.

I suspect that part of the reason is that the racks are installed in corners and adjacent to streets with the circle jutting out in parallel to the street or wall. This doesn't leave enough space for a bike to be locked perpendicular to the rack. Add to this a conscientious cyclist who prefers to park their bikes out of the way and don't want them extending perpendicular to the curb or wall into a pedestrian walkway.



While I'm on the topic of racks, have some lovely photos of a bike rack that is too close to a wall, though of a different type, and what has got to be the worst bike rack design out there, as you can see from the bikes parked already at the on on the right. Positions are too close together, not designed for getting anything other than a cable lock (hope you have a long one) through it with whichever wheel you trust to it. I try to park outside the rack on the ends and lock the frame to it when I can, otherwise, rear well goes in to get the frame closer to the rack.


Images from Flickr/SteveVance

After doing a quick search, lots of people talk about the correct things to lock up and and how on the bike to a (semi-)permanent object, no one says how to actually position the bike with respect to a rack.

Oh, and to make this even a little bit relevant to locals, does anyone trust the new racks (parallel to the curbs!) installed around Kennedy Plaza that appear to be bolted to the bricks adjacent to the parking lane and sidewalk ramps on Exchange Terrace?

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Double Refraction

In an echo of the David over at Greater City: Providence, a post of a TED video, that I should have linked to long ago.

James Howard Kunstler on the design of buildings, public spaces and the physical arrangement of accommodations for people, rather than our autos. Strong language, humor and just possibly something to make you think (or, to quote a Jethro Tull song: I may make you fell, but I can't make you think." - hopefully this video does both)

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Self-Supported Odyssey planning

Setting new goals to challenge myself for the year, I've decided that one of this years cycling goals is a one week self-contained trip. I'll be making a series of posts tagged under "cycling" and "odyssey09" to share the planning and hopefully completion. For my first such trip, I've settled on cycling from Providence, RI to Pittsburgh, PA sometime in late July or early August.

I'm still gathering the equipment, thinking about how much and what gear I want to carry with me, reading a lot, and planning the route.

So far, for equipment, I'll be using my Breezer Liberty, to which I've already had added a Jannd front rack and some extra battery powered blinkies. I have a pair of sealed pannier's in the REI Novarra brand, and need to acquire another set. I haven't determined the size, as I don't konw if they would be okay as front panniers and to get a second set with larger volume, assuming using them for lighter items (clothing) or if I should invest in a set of panniers marketed as front's for their smaller size.

The route is pretty well decided, though exact details will be pretty fuzzy until the moment my wheels go by. I've been looking at a couple of different routes to intersect with the Adventure Cycling Atlantic coast route in northeast Connecticut, somewhere near North Woodstock. From there I'd follow their route as far as Norristown, PA. From there, I'm thinking to use PA Bicycle Route S to get across the state and follow the Great Allegheny Passage into the city. Since Route S follows the trail for a portion of its length, this should be okay. Hopefully I'll have a google map up with a route track on it to share soon.

I anticipate needing to do on the upper end of 60-80 miles each day in order to complete the journey in a week, have a little time to visit with friends, and then catch the train (I hope) back to Providence. I have some trepidation about being able to get the bike back home by train as I don't think that it can be checked through. One of the annoying features of Amtrak service is the lack of baggage services on many trains on the routes that I find myself using (across PA only one of the 2 trains each day has baggage service).

For the remainder of the gear, I anticipate that I'll be taking a tent for wet/cool nights, a small hammock for warm nights and a small stove. From reading Ken Kifer's anecdotes and suggestions, I'm hoping to do a little back country camping, at least in Connecticut where campgrounds are not located at suitable distances for my use. I also need to figure out in the next couple of months if a smaller tent would be a good investment. I'm hoping to do a couple of weekend or overnight excursions within the state to test my gear and loading choices. Expect updates as those occur.

To supplement any printed maps I take, I'm hoping to use a GPS device with maps along the way to help resolve last minute routing decisions, assist when lost, or really need to find something like a motel or McDonalds (for the bathroom, of course). The problem I'm foreseeing with any of the electronics I might bring is keeping them charged. I've considered purchasing a portable solar charger, such as one of the models from Solio. Since I expect the device to be off most of the time, I might be able to go a whole week on a single charge, but it would be a real pain to be wrong on that account.

And most importantly, on the safety side of things, I just received my new RoadID. I opted for the updated style which provides a phone number that emergency personnel can call to get my personal, vital information. Or, they can login to a website to get my emergency information such as blood type, insurance info, contacts, etc. I expect this will be somewhat more useful than the simple list of names and numbers of the old ID, as I have the ability to update the information available at any time without having to get a new ID.

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