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Inventor harvests methane gas from ditches and ponds to power his moped

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Re: Inventor harvests methane gas from ditches and ponds to power his moped

#101

Post by yunohn »

jhgb wrote: post #82
adamius wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was trying to stay within the non-electric aspect of this. Solar isn’t exactly something you can make yourself. Methane however is vaguely doable given a bit of effort and skilling up. Edit: when I write "make" I don't mean "install".

You can very easily do a solar installation yourself. But even more interestingly, even biomass-derived methane is more efficiently burned in a CCGT plant (>60% efficiency) to generate electricity for charging an e-bike than in an ICE engine on a moped (~20-25%?). And even better, a smart charger can charge an electric vehicle from an electric mix (NG/wind/solar/nuclear) optimally, so you can run from whatever is bes…

> Solar isn’t exactly something you can make

I think “make” is the important part here, not buy and install.

Re: Inventor harvests methane gas from ditches and ponds to power his moped

#102

Post by aaron695 »

qwertox wrote: post #34

Searching for the terms "secu" and "safe" doesn't yield any results. I know this is more of an art project, but in a photo he's driving through a city. What are the security implications of this? Also searching for "poly" doesn't yield any results, so I'm left to hope that the is using polycarbonate to provide some kind of safety shielding in case things go south. Also not on http://uitsloot.nl/sloot-motor/

His "Safety testing" video might have something?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cJxmQ3vFyVY

Re: Inventor harvests methane gas from ditches and ponds to power his moped

#103

Post by cartoonworld »

bullen wrote: post #80
Cthulhu_ wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Probably motor oil, these mopeds normally run on a fuel/oil mixture.

True, so he injects the motor oil with the gas so the cylinder doesn't jam? But has he prooved there is only lubrication oil in there, oil also burns, maybe the methane bubble is just for show and he has actually converted the engine to some sort of diesel/ethanol/any other oil engine! ;D I want to se the engine stop when the ballon is empty! :\ Also now I watched the video: he spends more energy collecting the gas t…

Moped is a 2-stroke engine, the fuel is also the lubricant, It won't combust on oil alone.

Re: Inventor harvests methane gas from ditches and ponds to power his moped

#104

Post by jhgb »

ashtonkem wrote: post #90
jhgb wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can very easily do a solar installation yourself. But even more interestingly, even biomass-derived methane is more efficiently burned in a CCGT plant (>60% efficiency) to generate electricity for charging an e-bike than in an ICE engine on a moped (~20-25%?). And even better, a smart charger can charge an electric vehicle from an electric mix (NG/wind/solar/nuclear) optimally, so you can run from whatever is bes…

From a global warming perspective, harvesting free methane and burning it is probably a net benefit given how much stronger methane is of a warming agent than the CO2 it burns into.

And we're already harvesting biomass to turn it into biogas. You can do it on a larger scale and it's still more efficient than running a moped motor.

Re: Inventor harvests methane gas from ditches and ponds to power his moped

#106

Post by danuker »

tolerant_sol wrote: post #100
ortusdux wrote: post #92

My local landfill growing up had an decent sized methane burn-off flame running 24/7. I would put it on par with a wide open hot air balloon burner. My dad told me it was there to commemorate all the unknown meals that people threw in the trash, so I should always finish my dinner out of respect.

As a kid I am sure that made more sense than “to save the planet a little”.

A thousand-mile journey begins with the first step. Even a little helps.

Re: Inventor harvests methane gas from ditches and ponds to power his moped

#107

Post by dheera »

calebm wrote: post #105

I've heard of people collecting methane gas from composting toilets. It would probably be a big improvement.

Read the title at first as "Investor harvests ..." and was like holy shit an investor that actually understands how to build something ....

Re: Inventor harvests methane gas from ditches and ponds to power his moped

#108

Post by istjohn »

toomanybeersies wrote: post #93
kleton wrote: post #64

There aren't a lot of places that use anaerobic digesters (fermenting waste to methane) to treat wastewater. Anheuser-Busch does it at their breweries because their wastewater is particularly rich. If more municipalities built those at their wastewater treatment plants, then it would be a sizeable amount of carbon-neutral fuel. There are already 1200 municipal wastewater treatment plants in the US that do this accord…

The energy generated from biogas recovery at Melbourne's two main sewerage plants (~100 GWh) isn't even enough to make them net generators [1]. The main environmental benefit isn't actually from the carbon footprint of biogas, it's the reduced methane and NOx emissions from capturing the gas. [1] https://www.melbournewater.com.au/water-data-and-education/e...

I imagine it also greatly improves the air quality for anyone down wind from the treatment plants.

Re: Inventor harvests methane gas from ditches and ponds to power his moped

#109

Post by krab »

b112 wrote: post #53
ChrisRR wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

At an average pace you could walk 20km in half that time

When I was growing up, we walked that to school each day, uphill, in a snowstorm!

Oh, you lucky bastards! I could dream of walking to school. We were taking lessons in the snowstorm.

Re: Inventor harvests methane gas from ditches and ponds to power his moped

#110

Post by oh_sigh »

danuker wrote: post #106
tolerant_sol wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As a kid I am sure that made more sense than “to save the planet a little”.

A thousand-mile journey begins with the first step. Even a little helps.

With the obesity epidemic it is probably better to tell people they can just compost their food if there is too much and they can't eat it. And then cook a little less next time.

I keep 100% of foodstuff out of my trash, and an added benefit is that you never get stinky trash that needs to be taken out. I take my trash out every 2 weeks and it never smells at all.

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