Author

Philip Proefrock

Philip Proefrock is an architect and photographer in southeast Michigan. He is also a LEED Acredited Professional. His professional involvement with green building includes working as project architect for the award-winning Malletts Creek Branch Library for the Ann Arbor District Library, which received the 2005 AIA Michigan Sustainable Design Award, and which was the first completed commercial vegetated roof (green roof) in the state of Michigan. He is an active member of Green Drinks Michigan/o2 Network. In addition to being lead writer for Green Building Elements, he is also a contributing writer for EcoGeek.org and for JetsonGreen.com. spurious nelogism (personal LiveJournal) Green Options articles StumbleUpon profile

Coskata Pilot Plant Goes Plasma

written by Philip Proefrock

Earlier this year, headlines were made on the announcement of biotech start-up Coskata promising to revolutionize the production of ethanol with a process that could use a variety of feedstocks, ranging from wood chips and switchgrass, to old tires, and even directly from municipal waste. Most importantly, it did not rely on corn or other food stocks in order to produce fuel. At the time, Coskata was predicting an aggressive timeline, with a pilot demonstration plant to begin operation in 2009, and a first full-scale plant to be underway by 2011.

Last week Coskata announced the location for their pilot demonstration plant, a facility that will begin producing 40,000 gallons of ethanol per year, starting in 2009. While that is only a tiny drop in the proverbial bucket, it’s another step along the path to having a full-scale plant in operation and producing 50 to 100 million gallons of ethanol per year.

May 3, 2008 7 comments

Can Improved Spark Plugs Boost Both Fuel Economy and Performance?

written by Philip Proefrock

As has happened before, with gas prices continuing to climb, the demand for improved fuel economy will increase as well, and all manner of improvements and upgrades that promise to help get better mileage will be touted. Some offer real benefits; others are pure snake oil.

An improvement that offers both improved mileage and increased horsepower seems counterintuitive at first. After all, the tradeoff that hybrids and other economy vehicles offer seem to be one of reduced horsepower and acceleration in exchange for improved fuel economy. So how can you have both?

May 2, 2008 8 comments

DriveSlowly Encourages More Moderate Speed for Fuel Savings

written by Philip Proefrock

Despite our hopes and best plans, sometimes we still have to drive. And while that high-end, high-performance hybrid remains out of our budget, we’d still like to do better with the vehicles we have. One way to accomplish that is by just driving a bit more slowly.

April 19, 2008 5 comments

Pedal-Powered Car Case Laughed Out of Court

written by Philip Proefrock

The driver of an engine-less, pedal-powered 1986 Buick Regal who, last October, was stopped on the street by Toronto Police for “operating an unsafe vehicle” had the charges against him dropped and the case laughed out of court.

April 5, 2008 4 comments

Heat Recovery to Improve Highway Mileage

written by Philip Proefrock

Hybrid vehicles make great use of regenerative braking and the efficiencies of electric motors for lower speeds and stop-and-go driving. Some hybrids are so good that they have better MPG ratings in the city than they do on the highway. But out on the highway, a hybrid doesn’t fare any better than a vehicle with standard gas engine. Regenerative braking is the way hybrids recover energy during stop-and-go driving, but at highway speeds, there is nothing helping feed back energy into the system, and hybrids are at par with non-hybrids.

Honda has now come out with a demonstration vehicle (using a Japan-only Honda Stream hybrid) that recaptures waste heat from the gasoline engine and runs a small Rankine cycle generator from that to recharge the battery pack.

Continue Reading

February 25, 2008 2 comments

Coskata Announces Ethanol Plant for 2010

written by Philip Proefrock

Coskata, the ethanol technology company who made a major announcement about their biofuel technology at the North American International Auto Show earlier this year, has announced that they have established an alliance with ICM, Inc., a major producer of ethanol, to design and construct the first plant that will produce ethanol using Coskata’s bio-process. The plant is expected to open late in 2010, reflecting Coskata’s intentions to bring their technology rapidly to market. No location was announced for the site where this plant will be built.

Previous Coskata news on Gas 2.0:

GM Announces Biofuel Partnership: Cheap Green Ethanol

More About the Coskata Process

February 6, 2008 0 comment

More on Plasma Gasification Technology

written by Philip Proefrock

Plasma gasification has the potential to be a breakthrough technology. It can serve not only as a method of producing fuels, but also as a method for effectively dealing with hazardous wastes. In fact, the technology was initially developed to be a method for waste disposal, and the energy production potential was just a side benefit.

Plasma gasification was one of the more exotic methods that was discussed as a precursor for the Coskata process for ethanol production. Coskata’s method takes a stream of carbon monoxide and hydrogen (known as syngas) and feeds it through a bioreactor vessel where specialized strains of bacteria feed on the syngas and metabolize it to produce ethanol (or other alcohols, depending on the strain of bacteria in the reactor). There are numerous methods for producing syngas, some more than a century old, but others, such as the plasma gasification method, sound like the stuff of science fiction.

February 3, 2008 8 comments

More About the Coskata Process

written by Philip Proefrock

As you’ve almost certainly already heard by now, General Motors has announced a partnership with Coskata, Inc. to produce ethanol less expensively and without using food materials as feedstock for the process. This is exciting for a number of reasons. First of all, Coskata is close to completing a continuous demonstration stream at their laboratory. They also expect to have a pilot demonstration plant in place by the end of the year that will produce 40,000 gallons of ethanol. And later this year, they expect to announce the site for their first full-scale plant which will be capable of annual production of 100 million gallons of ethanol. The process also consumes less water resources (less than one gallon of water per gallon of ethanol produced) and delivers 7.7 units of energy per unit of energy used in the process.

The process relies on using anaerobic microbes that consume carbon monoxide and hydrogen and produce ethanol. Because the process uses specially bred strains of microbes, they produce ethanol exclusively, unlike other fermentation processes, which often produce a range of alcohols and which require further distillation. Furthermore, the flexibility of the Coskata process allows for other microbes to be used in the same process setup (or even a parallel setup). Other strains of microbes that produce other useful alcohols, including some used as precursors for plastic production, so that the same technology could be used in other applications to provide a petroleum replacement.

January 15, 2008 9 comments