NATURAL GAS AND CO2 GENERATION

Recent technological advances have greatly increased our recoverable natural gas reserves. A great opportunity is opening for reduction of greenhouse gasses from electricity generation (pipeline natural gas releases only 57 percent as much CO2 as coal). The situation is quite different different for CNG (compressed natural gas) when used as a transportation fuel. CO2 releases are tabulated by The EIA (Energy Information Administration) as part of the 'Voluntary Reporting of Greenhouse Gasses Program'. I have used Gasohol (gasoline with 10% ethanol) as the standard because it is the most common fuel, even if not so stated on the pump.

Percentage of CO2 release compared to Gasohol

Gasoline = 107%
E85 (gasoline with 85% ethanol, called Flexfuel) = 22%
CNG = 80%
Propane (a natural gas by-product) = 95%

note: EIA gives ethanol 100% credit for the CO2 absorbed during plant growth.

Inventors

Recently Ohio citizens chose a new statue to represent the state in the U.S. Capitol Rotunda. Thomas Edison won, followed closely by the Wright Brothers. I find the choice of Edison ironic, since he left the state to do great things. But another issue comes to mind – in this great era of technological innovation, why are contemporary inventors so anonymous? I don't know the answer, but here are names of people who made useful inventions that we did not have (or use) when we were first married (1960). My original list of inventions contained only one person that I have heard of – Steve Jobs, inventor of the personal computer. The list plus sources:

Kidney Dialysis – Willem Kolff (abt. 1942) – washingtonpost.com

Microwave Oven – Percy Spencer (1947) – galawa.com

Velcro – George de Mestral (1955) – Inventors Hall of Fame (?)

Hand Calculator – Jack Kirby, et al. (1967) – pbs.org

Digital Watch – Peter Petroff (abt. 1970) – allbusiness.com

E-Mail – Ray Tomlinson (1971) – itmanagement.earthweb.com

Statin Drugs – Akira Endo (1973) – tracerkinetics.engr.iupui.edu

Voice Mail – Steven J. Bois, et al. (abt. 1975) – en.wikipedia

Wheeled Luggage – Bob Plath (1985) – guide4home.com

In addition, I could not find the names of the inventors of the DVD (Introduced 1994), Saran Wrap (Dow Chemical, 1949), and Zip-Lok Bags.

EXAMPLE LETTER TO PUBLIC OFFICIAL

Nottingham Ladies League
7 Priory Lane
Sherwood Forest

July 17, 1189

His Majesty King Richard
Winchester Palace
Winchester

May it please your Majesty:

The League of Women Voters has long and vigorously advocated for efficient and effective human services. We, in Nottingham County, are proud to have a superb Anti-Poverty Agency, directed by Robin of Locksley. They have struggled against great odds to provide essential services to the least of your subjects.

However, I regret to report that the Sheriff of Nottingham has undertaken a vicious campaign to abolish this Anti-Poverty Agency. He even refers to our Robin as Robin Hood, as if he were a common criminal. This Sheriff has even applied violence to obtain his goal.

We urge your Highness to remove this remove this miscreant from office and replace him with someone who has the interests of the County's poor at heart.

I remain your most humble and devoted servant,

Maid Marian
Sherwood Forest

Ohio Alternative Energy Motor Vehicles

I have estimated the number of alternative-energy motor vehicles in Ohio. The result, in thousands, is Ethanol (E85) = 210 , Hybrids = 164, and all others = 4. The total is about 3.4 percent of the registered motor vehicles in Ohio . Percentage-wise Ohio is not very different from the U.S. as a whole.

Details of the analysis

TABLE 1:ALTERNATIVE ENERGY VEHICLES, Millions [a]

	Total	Alternative Energy	Percent Alternative
US	252	10.9	4.3
Ohio	11.1	0.37	3.4
Percent Ohio	4.4	3.2	N/A

[a] Data for 2008; Registrations from RITA/BTS are accurate; see table 2, below, for estimates of number of alternative energy vehicles.

TABLE 2: KINDS OF ALTERNATIVE ENERGY MOTOR VEHICLES

	E85 [b], Millions	E85 [b], Percent	Hybrid [c], Millions	Hybrid [c], Percent	Other [d], Millions	Other [d], Percent
US	7.1 [e]	65	3.7 [f]	34	0.3	2
Ohio	0.210 [e]	56	0.16 [f]	43	~ 0 [g]	1

[b] Ethanol-capable vehicles, also known as flex-fuel.

[c] Gasoline-electric hybrids only.

[d] Compressed Natural Gas, All-Electric, Hydrogen Fuel Cell, Liquid Natural Gas, Liquid Petroleum Gas.

[e] Data from EIA. For E85; they report both US total and number of fleet vehicles, with fleet vehicles being 1/16 of total. For Ohio, they only report fleet vehicles and this number was multiplied by 16 to provide the entry in Table 2.

[f] EIA sales data show that all but a negligible number of hybrids are light vehicles. R.L. Polk 2008 data show that 2.6 percent of all light vehicles are hybrids and this result was used to calculate the table entries.

[g] Actual number = 4,200