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Coconut oil jet fuel matches kerosene's efficiency in engine tests

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Re: Coconut oil jet fuel matches kerosene's efficiency in engine tests

#181

Post by runako »

bluGill wrote: post #170
xp84 wrote: post #137

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You still need all those things for a high speed train. The only reason it’s a little less today is that almost nobody takes passenger rail. Keep in mind these old downtown stations built in 1900 won’t be able to handle the kind of passenger counts that would “need” to be shifted from the airports, so don’t delude yourself into thinking you wouldn’t need big train stations built in the outskirts, crowded and irritati…

But your high-speed train enables a lot of things that are not really feasible to do on an airplane. speed train enables a lot of things that are not really feasible to do on an airplane. You should be thinking about a train for things where I could drive my own car but it'd be a little bit annoying to spend an hour on the road. I happened to be in Des Moines a few years ago and waiting for my airplane an announcemen…

Exactly all of this. HSR in the US makes a lot more sense if you look at it as a regional phenomenon. AtlantaMiami, DCNYC, NYCChicago, HoustonDallas, ChicagoNashville. Those all fit the prescription of being around the same time as driving.

MiamiSeattle is not going to fit neatly in HSR. The distance is too great. A realistic HSR network in the US will also involve changing trains in the midwest because there are too many pairs of big cities involved. MiamiSF, AtlantaLA, DCSF, PhiladelphiaPhoenix, etc.

The other hindrance for HSR in the US is our family sizes. "It's about the same time to drive" is a solid argument for 1 traveler, it's less so for 4 travelers with 4 HSR tickets. Many people will keep driving shorter distances for this reason alone.

Re: Coconut oil jet fuel matches kerosene's efficiency in engine tests

#182

Post by Retric »

WalterBright wrote: post #141
asgraham wrote: post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Microwaving takes less attention and less skill, though. And less cleanup. And you don’t need to own a pan. And you don’t need to own spices (steak is a bad example ofc). And you don’t need to think about the side dishes. And you don’t need to agree on what’s for dinner. And I think it’s worth repeating, you don’t need any skill and can’t really screw it up. And you don’t need to worry about it going bad because you…

Throwing a steak in a frying pan is about the same effort as a microwave frozen dinner, and is objectively cheaper. There's no universe where processed food is cheaper.

You can microwave a meal by tossing it into the microwave and walking away, you need to actually participate in cooking a steak and then clean up several surfaces. The stake is conservatively 10x as much effort and time is money, plus microwaves use far less energy.

Processed food isn’t a single unified thing, the prices definitely overlap but the minimum and maximum prices for processed foods are lower. That’s why our food supply ended up looking like it does, economies of scale beat home cooking. That’s true even going back thousands of years where communal cooking drastically reduced the fuel needs in warm climates.

Re: Coconut oil jet fuel matches kerosene's efficiency in engine tests

#183

Post by brikym »

dofm wrote: post #111

So we can't have the dark chocolate Bounty bar anymore but we can use coconuts to fuel planes? This isn't the future I want.

They've already got coconut content down to 20% but I'm sure the food scientists are working on the next iteration; A new low calorie environmentally friendly 'fun size', '3-for-1' bounty containing bleached cellulose flakes, synthetic coconut flavor and hydrogenated seed oil.

Re: Coconut oil jet fuel matches kerosene's efficiency in engine tests

#184

Post by bluGill »

runako wrote: post #181
bluGill wrote: post #170

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But your high-speed train enables a lot of things that are not really feasible to do on an airplane. speed train enables a lot of things that are not really feasible to do on an airplane. You should be thinking about a train for things where I could drive my own car but it'd be a little bit annoying to spend an hour on the road. I happened to be in Des Moines a few years ago and waiting for my airplane an announcemen…

Exactly all of this. HSR in the US makes a lot more sense if you look at it as a regional phenomenon. Atlanta Miami, DC NYC, NYC Chicago, Houston Dallas, Chicago Nashville. Those all fit the prescription of being around the same time as driving. Miami Seattle is not going to fit neatly in HSR. The distance is too great. A realistic HSR network in the US will also involve changing trains in the midwest because there a…

I have regularly taken two-day trips in the US because the cost of an airplane for 5 is much more than the cost of my car even including hotel rooms. Lately I've been taking Amtrak, which is a little bit cheaper, but it's still annoying enough that I would only do it because I hate driving.

It also helps the economics to realize that there are very few places in the US that anyone would go that not having a personal car is a reasonable thing and so you have to have the cost of a rental car to anything other than grabbing your own.

Re: Coconut oil jet fuel matches kerosene's efficiency in engine tests

#185

Post by senectus1 »

please dont use bio fuels that encourage the growing of plants for fuel.

we have a food shortage issue already globally..

waste products, yeah fine. but cutting down large area of forrest/food producing land for the growing of non food plants for fuel is just self destructive corp greed.

Re: Coconut oil jet fuel matches kerosene's efficiency in engine tests

#186

Post by jrflowers »

fragmede wrote: post #151
jrflowers wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Processed foods are not cheaper than healthier options. I have bad news for you about flour

I have some good news for you about insects! https://3cricketeers.com/products/pure-cricket-powder

Only fifty dollars per pound for crickets? That’s a steal

Re: Coconut oil jet fuel matches kerosene's efficiency in engine tests

#187

Post by KennyBlanken »

clickety_clack wrote: post #6

Do coconuts grow particularly efficiently? Edit: The US created biofuel subsidies a few years ago and it’s led to poor use of land with questionable climate impact. It’s effectively become a wealth transfer to support poor rural American communities, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing but there’re probably more effective ways to do that intentionally.

> The US created biofuel subsidies a few years ago

A few years ago? Corn ethanol subsidies have been a thing for my entire life.

It's a net-negative fuel. Costs more fuel to produce than it provides. It's literally just a way to waste water, farmland, huge quantities of diesel (burned by engines exempt from any sort of emissions), labor, etc.

What changed is that ethanol has been forced by regulations into more and more use over time. That has driven up demand for corn, and one of the worse side effects is that a major food staple for Mexico has gone up dramatically in price.

> effectively become a wealth transfer to support poor rural American communities,

If you think that's bad, stop and think for a moment about what purpose the US military serves for rural America, both directly through personnel but also indirectly through all the incredibly wasteful equipment, service, and supply contracts.

The US military's primary reason for existence is force projection, but its secondary is keeping rural American's uneployment from skyrocketing.

Re: Coconut oil jet fuel matches kerosene's efficiency in engine tests

#188

Post by chr15m »

Around one million coconuts required to fly from Tokyo to Los Angeles.

Around 40 million flights per year.

40 trillion coconuts required for all flights, or 1000x current production.

To scale up coconut production we need 12 billion hectares, or 80% of the Earth's surface for coconut trees.

We need 100k cubic km of water per year, or twice the renewable fresh water on this planet.

Ok cool. We will need to terraform Mars before we can fly by coconut.

Finally I understand the mad billionaire's plan.

Re: Coconut oil jet fuel matches kerosene's efficiency in engine tests

#189

Post by chr15m »

JoeAltmaier wrote: post #123

50 MTons of coconut oil are produced per year (approximately). Is this a significant amount, compared to oil derived from crude (where gas currently comes from).

No.

Around 3.5 million tonnes of coconut oil per year.

Around 4.5 billion tonnes of fossil fuel oil per year.

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