Gasifier Experimenters Kit - Pole Shift Survival Information

Gasifier Experimenters Kit - Pole Shift Survival Information Gasifier Experimenters Kit - Pole Shift Survival Information

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Biomass Energy Foundation: MethanolBecome aMemberof theBiomassEnergyFoundationUnfortunately the oil and motor industry was less thanenthusiastic. A few months later a grant of $1,000,000was given to the MIT Energy Laboratory. We wereinformed that the oil companies were the real experts inthis field and so the permission to run the tests wasrevoked after we had spent 6 months and $50,000developing our test methods.In 1975, SCIENCE sent a reporter, Allen L. Hammond, toMIT to investigate the project cancellation. Sciencepublished a news article 1 , "Methanol at MIT: IndustryInfluence Charged in Project Cancellation", (vol 190, p.761, November 1975).It is interesting - and fruitless - to speculate on how historymight have been different if the US had developed anaggressive synthetic fuel program in the 1970s. The threatof alternate production from gas, coal or biomass wouldhave tempered future rises in oil prices and reduced ourfunding of the Near East oil sheikhs. It would haveprevented the Iran-Iraq war and the US Iraq wars and theterrorist attacks and 9-11 and saved thousands of life; itwould have also saved millions of dollars. And we wouldhave a much better estimate of the cost and means ofproducing the alternate fuels that we will need as the oilruns out."Of all sad words of tongue or pen, The saddest are these"It might have been" (Whittier)Now, 30 years later and facing another presidentialelection, we can hope that we can develop a sensibleenergy policyhttp://www.woodgas.com/methanol.htm (2 of 5) [10/9/2008 08:23:07]

Biomass Energy Foundation: Methanol~~~Permit me a little personal history of how I came to beinterested in alternate fuels. In 1972 I was working at theMassachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in crystalgrowth. I ate lunch occasionally with a Peter Robeck whogrew up in Germany and knew a great deal about theNazis synthetic fuel program during WWII. He flew aspotter plane at the battle of Stalingrad fueled with whatwe now call "gasohol", a high octane mixture of gasolineand ethanol (the drinking alcohol made by fermentation ofcorn etc) .Oil, diesel and gasoline have become such a major baseof our society that I first heard concerns about "when theoil runs out", in 1959, and we still do. I became interestedin the question of alternate fuels in 1973 when my bossasked me to look into "hydrogen from sunlight" as apossible new energy source. However, hydrogen does notoccur in nature and Mother Nature has had 3 billion yearsof development on renewable fuels throughphotosynthesis. So I began inquiring about alcohols asfuels. Ethanol is easily made from any starchy plant andHenry Ford predicted that some day our case would berunning on fuels growing beside the road.However, methanol is by far the simplest and cheapest($0.15/gal at that time) synthetic fuel to makesynthetically. It is used in preference to gasoline at therace track, and I learned in 1973 that student teams hadconverted cars to methanol and won clean air car races. Itis made in enormous quantities, mostly from natural gas.It is also be made in well known processes from coal,wood, agricultural and forest wastes and municipalhttp://www.woodgas.com/methanol.htm (3 of 5) [10/9/2008 08:23:07]

Biomass Energy Foundation: MethanolBecome aMemberof theBiomassEnergyFoundationUnfortunately the oil and motor industry was less thanenthusiastic. A few months later a grant of $1,000,000was given to the MIT Energy Laboratory. We wereinformed that the oil companies were the real experts inthis field and so the permission to run the tests wasrevoked after we had spent 6 months and $50,000developing our test methods.In 1975, SCIENCE sent a reporter, Allen L. Hammond, toMIT to investigate the project cancellation. Sciencepublished a news article 1 , "Methanol at MIT: IndustryInfluence Charged in Project Cancellation", (vol 190, p.761, November 1975).It is interesting - and fruitless - to speculate on how historymight have been different if the US had developed anaggressive synthetic fuel program in the 1970s. The threatof alternate production from gas, coal or biomass wouldhave tempered future rises in oil prices and reduced ourfunding of the Near East oil sheikhs. It would haveprevented the Iran-Iraq war and the US Iraq wars and theterrorist attacks and 9-11 and saved thousands of life; itwould have also saved millions of dollars. And we wouldhave a much better estimate of the cost and means ofproducing the alternate fuels that we will need as the oilruns out."Of all sad words of tongue or pen, The saddest are these"It might have been" (Whittier)Now, 30 years later and facing another presidentialelection, we can hope that we can develop a sensibleenergy policyhttp://www.woodgas.com/methanol.htm (2 of 5) [10/9/2008 08:23:07]

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