IEEE Consultants' Network of Long Island

TRUCKERS TAP INTO NATURAL GAS BOOM—Carl Schwab

Fracturing or fracking for short has made big moves and is reducing the cost of NG, Natural Gas, in the continental US and indeed the western hemisphere. There are several big energy users that can benefit from the lower cost---one such is the heavy trucking industry. Examples of some large US truck fleets are LOWE’S Co., PROCTOR & GAMBLE Co., UNITED PARCEL SERVICE Inc. and others. These companies are accelerating a shift to NG, natural gas, replacing diesel and gasoline. Cost is the main driver. Also there are side benefits that some of the companies also rate highly---particularly the reduction of cost of routine maintenance.

Home-improvement retailer LOWE’S wants its delivery company to shift all of its several hundred trucks over to NG by 2017. P&G already has 7% of its trucks on NG and hopes to reach 20% in another 2 years. UPS says it plans to buy 1000 NG powered trucks by the end of 2014. FedEx corp. plans to shift 30% of its long trucks to NG over the next decade.

The nation’s supply of low cost NG is helping spur this shift. So are new NG engines that can power heavy-duty trucks that weigh up to 80,000 pounds. The first, a 12-liter CUMMINS Westport NG engine went on sale this past July. Next year, Volvo AB, the Swedish heavy truck maker, will introduce NG engines for its trucks. Long distance trucking companies are testing compressed natural gas powered trucks as they are awaiting more powerful engines and a nation-wide fueling and repair infrastructure. High initial cost of vehicle, scant number of NG vehicles suppliers and fuel availability are impediments. The take up is just starting: about 5% of all heavy duty trucks sold next year will run on NG—that is up from around 1% this past year. Barriers to wider use are coming down, driven by the relatively low cost of compressed NG or CNG, which sells for about $1.50 per gallon less than its equivalent in diesel which averaged $3.87 per gallon just this past week.

USEFUL  ASIDE---All being hydrocarbons, diesel, gasoline, and NG produce the same heat energy when compared on equal fuel weight basis.

A shift to NG for trucking has implications for US consumption of oil, domestic energy industry and air quality. Natural Gas, NG produces less carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide and sulfur-based pollution than diesel or gasoline per mile driven. The average heavy truck consumes about 40 times the fuel from a heavy sedan. Such trucks are about 1% of the vehicle count but consume 20% of the fuel. Diesel trucks of this size get from 5 to 7 mpg and average 100,000 miles driven per year per truck.

INFRASTRUCTURE—Clean Energy Fuels Corp, the largest NG fueling station company, is working on both the infrastructure and vehicle cost problems. The Irving, Texas-based company founded by oil man, T.Boone Pickens has more than 400 fueling stations and is building a network across the US. Recently the company offered a deal through GENERAL ELECTRIC Corp. leasing arm allowing trucking companies to lease a new vehicle for the same price as a diesel, if they agree to a fuel contract. This scheme has been successfully used several times in past US industrial history.

A Mr. Arthurs, president of CUMMINS WESTPORT, thinks the price of truck will come down quickly. He believes that industry will quickly provide the additional capacity needed.        

INTERESTING------

PhotoWorks Film Problem

Rainfall Enhancement with Evaporator Rafts - Dick LaRosa

The idea of rainfall enhancement with solar-heated evaporator rafts is described in my previous posts, the latest of which can be found by going back through the blog and clicking on the "next page" link. I have found that a black solar absorber surface slightly submerged in sea water can enhance the rate of evaporation from the sea surface. If the wind direction is favorable, the water vapor will be pushed up a mountain slope, and the resulting expansion, cooling, condensation, and precipitation can enhance the fresh water supply to people living at the high altitude. People living downstream will also benefit. The blog post referred to above contains a summary of raft locations on the coast and in the interior of the U.S.A. These were discarded for one reason or another. The final location examined was in Mexico, at the northern end of the Gulf of California. There is reason to believe that this raft location might benefit agriculture on the coastal plains of the Mexican mainland. The Gulf of CA comes close to the desert area in California and Arizona surrounding the southern end of the Colorado River.

The Sierra Madre Occidental mountain range lies to the east of the Gulf of CA. The rainfall occurs at high altitude on the western slopes of these mountains. The peak rainfall month seems to be August. Rivers carry the water down to the coastal plains. Google Earth shows that the rivers meander about when they reach the plains and that irrigation canals and ditches spread the water out to the farms. During August 2013, San Francisco Bay was occupying my attention, so I'm not certain that the Sierra Madre Occidental rainfall came from Gulf of CA evaporation, but if it did, evaporator rafts in the Gulf ought to increase the rainfall. Irrigation and farming would have to increase so that the increased rainfall would not flow uselessly back into the Gulf.

Yuma AZ is close to the US/MX border and its weather reports, particularly wind direction, can tell us whether water vapor evaporated from the Gulf of CA can be carried northward into the southwest USA desert. The Yuma rainfall peak is in August, with another peak in December-January. The Gila River joins the Colorado just north of Yuma, and both rivers are entirely allocated to agriculture, so more rain here would be welcome. I will need to learn a lot more, and will be reporting my progress.

IE9 and Downloading - John Dunn, Consultant, Ambertec, P.E., P.C.

I tried to download a PDF file today, a datsheet and could not do so. This is what happened.

 

This is not a unique experience with the Microsemi site, Instead, this happens over and over again with all kinds of websties. I cannot do a download like this from anywhere using IE9. However, although I can do the downloads using the Mozilla Firefox browser, Still, I want my normal IE9 back again.

The PC uses Windows Vista, the 32-bit version, so I cannot go to IE10. Although I tried to reload IE9, doing that had no effect on the problem. This raises a question.

Can I delete IE9 altogether without crippling this PC and then reinstall it using Firefox? Would that work?

Should I try doing something else?

William Byrne Knoble - John Dunn, Consultant, Ambertec, P..E., P.C.

It is with great sadness that we note the passing of William Byrne Knoble of De Kalb, N.Y., and formerly of Chestertown, N.Y., who died suddenly on Monday, Sept. 23, 2013, at the age of 67.  

Please see:    Bill Knoble

Bill operated a ceramics studio in Chestertown, NY to which I and my wife made many visits over the years. Our home has many items of Bill's work. His pottery has been put to regular use in our household.

Bill's world view is probably made most clear by the fact that he never owned a cell phone, but did have two tractors. He was a man of great calm. One day while we were at his shop, the contents of an electric kiln exploded within the kiln's chamber. It was quite loud. Fortunately, the kiln remained intact. Bill's reaction was an arched eyebrow and the quiet remark "I think I made a boo-boo."

He then explained that at least one of the ceramic pieces that was being fired had had too much moisture in the clay. Next time, he would be more careful about that.

One day, we found this curious looking object just lying on a back shelf, covered with dust. 

Bill explained that it was a kiln monitor. Each spike was a ceramic compound with a slightly different melting temperature. When this one was extracted from a wood kiln after a firing, it meant that the kiln had reached but not exceeded the proper target temperature. He gave it to us as a souvenir.

The following year, we saw several of these which had been crafted to look like little dragons. They were offered as a price of one dollar each.

So, why not, eh?

All the best, Bill.

 

 

Sloganeering - John Dunn, Consultant, Ambertec, P.E., P.C.

How many of these sound bytes do you recognize?

Hey Mabel, Black Label

It's Got Spongeability

From The Land of Sky Blue Waters

Pabst, The Beer That Made Milwaukee Famous

A Little Dab'll Do Ya

It's Not Nice To Fool Mother Nature

Tell 'em Groucho Sent You

When Your Tablets Are Down to Four, That's The Time To Buy Some More

Keeps On Going and Going and....

From The Valley of the Jolly, Ho-Ho-Ho, Green Giant

Don't Squeeze The Charmin

Wheaties, Breakfast of Champions

I'd Walk A Mile For A Camel

Better Living Through Chemistry

Progress Is Our Most Important Product

I'm sure there are plenty more of these lurking within our synapses. They were each devised to affect public thinking, to induce public desire for this or that product and/or to convey this or that public attitude and they were in many cases, very effective.

Sloganeering has always struck me as an insidious form of brain washing whether for good intentions or ill. Please now consider these few more examples of the art. ( I hope I've gotten them down accurately. )

Read My Lips

I Am Not A Crook

A Chicken In Every Pot and Two Cars In Every Garage

Fifty-four Forty or Fight

The Only Thing We Have To Fear Is Fear Itself

If You Can't Take The Heat, Stay Out Of The Kitchen

The ultimate slogan however, so I think, was in a short story I once read called "The Gostak and the Doshes". I've misplaced the book, I can't be certain who was the author although there are several on-line references to this story, but a simple five word line forms the core of the story and if you are fortunate enough to get a copy and read it, you will never forget it.

The Gostak Distims The Doshes

 

Relics - John Dunn, Consultant, Ambertec, P.E., P.C.

The artist Andy Warhol gave us the "fifteen minutes of fame" phrase. I don't know about the quantitative time span before fame vanishes, but like telephone booths, some things really are vanishing while others are more resilient.

These are top and bottom views of a spindle adapter that allowed a 45 RPM vinyl record to be played on an LP (long playing) phonograph turntable.

 

These flyers were once issued by the Internal Revenue Service. Check out their dial telephones. I wonder if the stepping relays in the phone company's buildings that once worked with these dials should be considered as analog components or digital?

 

This manhole cover is still with us, but LILCO (the Long Island Lighting Company) is long gone. It's present day successor, LIPA (Long Island Power Authority), seems ready to vanish too.

Some further historical artifacts we find at our feet: 

As near as I can tell, Flockhart is still with us.

Please see:  http://www.waltergrutchfield.net/flockhart.htm

Here's another relic on the outside wall of our local post office, a bit faded now for all of the passing years:

Imagine trying to take shelter from atomic bomb fallout in the basement of this post office building.

So, is that an iPhone in your pocket?

 

 

 

“BREATHE EASIER---I’M A HYBRID-----“---Carl Schwab

The above phrase is painted along the upper edge of the side of the smaller hybrid bus that is in use in the Huntington area. A companion hybrid bus that is about 15 feet longer only says “ELECTRIC HYBRID”. The writer has had an on-going interest in application of the HYBRID vehicle to the livery business. The local bus certainly fits into that area of interest.

Bus routes in the Huntington area include many routes that run along the local street routes that are actually originally various walking paths and sometimes farm carts lanes that originally were used prior to the Revolutionary War. Huntington, according to Wikipedia was founded in 1653. This is not unique to Huntington but almost any town that came into being before the automobile. This situation has created a demand for buses that can negotiate these narrow, windy streets hence the short wheelbase length vehicle. Some bus manufacturers offer their vehicle with a 4-wheel steer option to further increase the vehicle maneuverability. BTW much of what is said applies to laying out school bus routes and does lead to the situation wherein the parents may have to take their child a few streets away where the school bus can negotiate.

About some 8 years ago Huntington decided that its new busses should be hybrids. Because the busses have a working life up to 8 years and over 500,000 miles, the initial premium paid for hybrid can be recovered. Most of the hybrid buses used in the older part of town are the “short” version and have the “BREATHE EASIER---I’M A HYBRID” phrase painted high up on the side. But there are some longer routes such as the one that runs from down by the harbor, through route 110, all the way to Massapequa/Amityville. This is “long” bus hybrid and simply says “ELECTRIC HYBRID”.

How are the hybrid buses being received? There are several answers because it depends upon who you talk to. If you talk to the riders, they are generally positive. They like the lower sound level of the electric acceleration and braking compared to diesel engine noise, particularly during acceleration, of the standard buses. For the hybrid bus the diesel engine is ran under a much more constant load so the muffling is much more effective. If you talk to the drivers, as long as they get a pay increment increase to drive the hybrid they are happy. If there is no increase increment then they complain. The bus manufacturers much prefer that the drivers attend a school run by the manufacturer to make sure the drivers understand all the points necessary to get best performance from their hybrid.

One idioscyncrasy is that some of the hybrids, particularly the smaller ones may use gasoline engines rather than diesel. And in an even further move  there is a BIG shift to using NG, natural gas, whether hybrid of not. The most recent buses have been ordered using NG for fuel and avoiding the hybrid operation. This saves them the most money in the short run and saves major monies where engine maintenance is concerned. ICE ran on NG run much cleaner; get nearly 4 times the mileage per oil change. One company is warranting 10,000 miles between filter changes and 20,000 miles between oil changes. The one limitation is that the bus company will in almost all cases have to have its own refueling facilities at the bus shed (garage) where the bus will be stopped at every day for routine maintenance and checkout. The old cliche', “an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure” strongly applies.

A thing that is on all the bus owerner’s minds is when will the price of NG rise up to near the old figures which is essentially 2 to1. That is the cost of NG could go back up about 2 to 1 and they are doing their calculation based upon this possibility. But for now and the foreseeable future this is not likely to happen unless the environmentalist’ succeed in getting laws passed forbidding fracking. This is another hotly contested area that is more political than scientific on any rational basis.

INTERESTING--

A New Scam? - John Dunn, Consultant, Ambertec, P.E., P.C.

Look at what came in the e-mail today. Any comments?

Sand Trap - John Dunn, Consultant, Ambertec, P.E., P.C.

This happened to me a few days ago. I lost my grip on a weighted tape dispenser and it fell right on top of a keyboard.

The plastic shell of the dispenser fractured on impact and the contents within, lots and lots of sand, came pouring out and fell all over the place. Much of it got into the keyboard's little interstices.

That was the end of that keyboard. Those grains of sand got underneath everywhere and kept many of the keys from traveling downward as they should. I simply could not rescue the thing.

I guess this is another cautionary tale. Try not to repeat my mistake.