Fritz

E85 Ethanol; Balanced Basics

by Fritz on October 24, 2008 · 0 comments

Ethanol is probably the most well known alternative fuel in the world today, especially in corn growing states like Iowa, Illinois and Indiana. Ethanol is really nothing more than grain alcohol because it is made most often with corn. Using ethanol as an alternative fuel is a great way to help the environment and our farmers too. After all, the United States is an agricultural machine!

The main ethanal fuel product available nowadays for you car is E85.  E85 is made from 85 percent ethanol and 15 percent alcohol. There are many cars that can run on E85 fuel and many of you drive these cars and probably don’t even know it. If your vehicle is labeled as a “Flex-Fuel” vehicle, then chances are you can run it on E85.

Running your car on E85 is good for the consumer because it costs less! With the recent volatility of the oil industry and prices rising and falling like waves on the ocean, E85 has remained consistently cheaper and simple to produce. In addition, (and I don’t care what you hear from critics) E85 will not effect your gas mileage in any way. You car doesn’t know what it’s burning! It only responds to the weight or your lead foot, and not to the ‘drank in the tank.’

Environmentally speaking, E85 is much cleaner burning compared to its petroleum counterpart and is made from a renewable resource! These are two good selling points in the eyes of environmental watch dogs.

Are you catching the balance here folks? You can actually do something good for the environment without sacrificing quality or paying more to do it! That’s balanced green living!

Brazil, which is by far the largest producer in the world, makes ethanol from sugar cane. Projects are now underway in California to convert some of the state’s agricultural waste, like rice straw that is now burned in fields, into ethanol. Ethanol as an alternative fuel has really come a long way over the years and has turned out to be an extremely viable product for both consumers and activists alike. This is why we consider it to be one of the most well-balanced green initiatives to date.

Corn ethanol as an alternative fuel is made today by converting the starch in corn to sugars and then into alcohol in a process of fermenting. A company in Canada, Iogen, has invented a process for converting agricultural waste such as corn stalks, husks, etc. (corn “stover”) and other cellulose rich plant waste like straw into ethanol by using enzymes.

Using ethanol as an alternative fuel is only a part of the alternative fuel trend. There are many other alternative fuels being developed in the “green” movement and we will talk about each of them and report on their viability as we see it. The reality is that ethanol provides the most promise to date in use as an alternative fuel.

E85 is the perfect green product in that it is cheaper, performs well and offers less impact on the environment, now that’s balanced green living!

Alternative Fuels: Smart For Consumers, Good For Environment

by Fritz on October 24, 2008 · 0 comments

The easiest and quickest way to start down the path of eco-friendliness and balanced green living is to explore your options for alternative fuel for your automobile. This is a “win-win” because, as you know, being eco-conscious often requires you either sacrifice quality or pay more: …not so with alternative fuel. They are the wave of the future as scientists look for cleaner burning fuels that won’t damage the environment while providing great advantages to everyday consumers like you and me. Here are the top runners in the marathon of alternative fuels:

The most publicized and well known alternative fuel is Ethanol. Ethanol is often called grain alcohol as it is made from corn or soybeans. Right now on the market is E85 which is 85 percent ethanol and 15 percent gasoline. Even though it still has petroleum-based gasoline in it, ethanol burns much cleaner than regular gas and saves on gas mileage for those who use it. Ethanol can also be made from organic materials including agricultural crops and waste, plant material left from logging, and trash; including paper!

Another type of alternative fuel is methanol, a relative of ethanol, as they are both alcohol based products. Methanol is sometimes called wood alcohol and can be made from various biomass resources like wood, as well as from coal. However, today nearly all methanol is made from natural gas, or methane, because it is cheaper.

Propane, or compressed natural gas has long been used to provide energy to homes, but it is rising in popularity as a type of alternative fuel for vehicles. Like oil, this common fuel comes from underground. However, natural gas, as the name implies, is a gas much like air, rather than a liquid like petroleum. It has been found to be one of the most environmentally friendly fuels, and its popularity is growing.

You can find another type of alternative fuel in the form of good old fashioned electricity. In fact, electric vehicles have been around for a long time, and they are coming back in popularity due to environmental concerns. Electric vehicles don’t burn gasoline in an engine. They use electricity stored in the car in batteries. Sometimes, 12 or 24 batteries, or more, are needed to power the car.

One of the most interesting and promising type of alternative transportation fuels is hydrogen. While mostly only experimental vehicles are operating on this fuel now, the potential for this unique energy source is excellent. Hydrogen is the lightest of all elements and is easy to produce which is why it is gaining much attention.

These are only a few types of alternative fuels and more are being developed all the time. With a growing concern over global warming, the use of alternative fuels will grow in popularity over time and you will likely begin to see many other types of alternative fuels make their appearance.

When it comes to balanced green living, seeking an alternative fuel is one of the best ways to appeal to the public and both sides of the environmental aisle. I am a big fan of alternative fuels, especially E85 ethanol because it is convenient, cheaper and readily available. It’s the perfect product for the regular folks out there who want to be green without stepping out of their normal comfort zone.

Balanced Green Living in a World of Extremes

by Fritz on October 21, 2008 · 0 comments

The squeaking wheel gets the grease they say, and so it goes in the court of public opinion. When it comes to Eco-News and green living, he who has the most sensational opinion seems to get the most airplay, thus shaping the future of things to come. Buzz words are thrown around from both sides of the environmental issue; words like: ‘tree hugger’ and ‘whacko environmentalist’ are pitched from one side, while remarks such as ‘pollutocrat‘ and ‘brown living’ are thrown down the other. But why does everyone have to take a side and gather at an extreme? Is there not a middle ground where most of us normal folks can meet and exist at? In my life, I have found that balance is the key to a healthy life and good conscience:

Wikipedia defines green living or sustainable living this way:

Sustainable living refers to a specific lifestyle that attempts to reduce an individual’s or society’s use of the Earth’s natural resources. Practitioners of sustainable living often attempt to reduce their carbon footprints by altering methods of transportation, energy consumption and diet. Proponents of sustainable and ecological living aim to conduct their lives in manners that are consistent with sustainability, in natural balance and respectful of humanity’s symbiotic relationship with the earth’s natural ecology and cycles. The practice and general philosophy of ecological living is highly interrelated with the overall principles of sustainable development. By minimizing their “ecological footprints” – the extent to which they create an environmental impact – proponents of ecological living hope to preserve the earth for future generations of human beings and other life.

Did you catch the key term in there? “Natural Balance”

I see no room for extremes in this definition. In fact, I see anything but.

Living Green means constantly seeking a balance between relative personal comfort and keeping an ear and eye on the impact one has on the world around him… …respect the world around you in such a manner as to actively preserve your surroundings for future generations.

If you want to live green, you don’t have to give up eating steak and ride a bike to the office everyday. On the other hand, that doesn’t give you license to dump used oil in the street or torch your lawn with improperly mixed pesticides.

Maybe I’m naive, but I just happen to think that most regular folks want to fall in the middle. They’d feel good about being green if someone would just step up and define it for them leaving aside the politicaly charged emotion and squeaky wheel philosophy.

And that is what this site, Balanced Green Living is all about. I will help you find that middle ground that seems more normal than what you have been shoveled thus far. I know you want to do what is right and good for our planet, you just don’t know who to trust. That’s why we’re here:

Balanced Green Living is Eco Friendly for Regular Folks.

Lawn Weed N Feed And Its Negative Impact

by Fritz on October 19, 2008 · 0 comments

Within the lawn and landscaping industry there are lots of opinions about what is good or not so good for the environment. The same would hold true for homeowners.

But there is one issue that most pros agree on, and that is that bagged “Weed and Feed” products are NOT conducive to healthy lawns or our environment.

I have previously written about pesticides, lawns and our environment, but want to reiterate some of the key points for you here as we venture into Spring..

Problems with Weed-n-Feed

1. Bags of Weed-n-Feed sold to homeowners contain an over-abundance of nitrogen which detroys the soil and pushes too much top growth. They most normally contain “quick release” fertilizers that create fast greening, but no sustainable long term benefit to the turf.
2. Many experts will tell you that phosphorous leaching into groundwater is the big problem with these bagged products. And while I am not a fan of dumping mass amounts of anything on the lawn, I believe if homeowners and pros alike would follow labeling instructions, they are not endangering our groundwater or lakes. The key is FOLLOWING the DIRECTIONS on the bag! (I included this one in the interest of covering all bases!)
3. A granular weed-n-feed product like the Scott’s Plus 2 product contains herbicide and fertilizer in one convenient bag: just dump in your spreader, set the release rate, and lay it down…easy! The problem is that you are hurling massive amounts of granular weed killers everywhere weather there are weeds there or not.

Scotts plus 2 is bad for our environment! It doesn’t make sense to throw weed killer in areas of the lawn where there are no weeds! Whats more, while the weed control does not selectively kill the grass plants, it still puts heavy stress and pressure on them and can weaken them over time.
The best alternative to Weed-n-Feed products

I recommend a balanced approach that utilizes target weed control as needed with the eventual goal of eliminating it completely.

This is accomplished by spot-spraying weeds using a garden pump sprayer with liquid weed control mixed with water (according to label instructions). In some cases, a blanket application of liquid weed killer may be needed, but over time, this will be reduced until the weed problem is manageable by good old fashioned “pulling” by hand. (my own lawn is now managed by just hand pulling of weeds)

In addition to spot-spraying of weeds, I recommend slow-release organic or semi-organic (called ‘bridge’ products or ‘hybrid’) lawn fertilizers. These products will add nutrients to the soil without destroying it in the process. They also support healthy soil biotics which are the foundation of healthy turf.

On a final note: it’s not a good idea to completely “refuse to use pesticides” in your lawn if you indeed do have a major weed problem. Think about this: if your weeds go to seed every year and spread out to all the neighbors on your block, and they do not share the same environmental devotion as you, won’t you be indirectly causing them to put down greater amounts of pesticides every year? Your weeds will continue breeding in their lawns, and they will soak them with more weed killer; year after year! Think about that.

As I always say, “Balance is the key.” When Mother Nature operates in extremes (hurricanes, earthquakes, tornadoes), people and the environment are damaged, but when She sees fit to offer us balanced conditions (warm breezes, light rains, sunny days), everyone is happy. Which attitude should we take? Thanks for reading Balanced Green Living Blog.

What Is A Hydrogen Cell?

by Fritz on September 8, 2008 · 0 comments

Thinking about running your vehicle on a hydrogen fuel cell? Read this:

There has been a push in this country toward using alternative fuels – specifically hydrogen fuels that are required to run on hydrogen fuel cells. So what is a hydrogen fuel cell? The explanation can be easy or it can be complicated. We’ll try to make it easy!

A fuel cell is an electrochemical energy conversion device. A fuel cell converts the chemicals hydrogen and oxygen into water, and in the process it produces electricity. The other electrochemical device that we are all familiar with is the battery. A battery has all of its chemicals stored inside, and it converts those chemicals into electricity too. This means that a battery eventually “goes dead” and you either throw it away or recharge it.

With a fuel cell, chemicals constantly flow into the cell so it never goes dead — as long as there is a flow of chemicals into the cell, the electricity flows out of the cell. Most fuel cells in use today use hydrogen and oxygen as the chemicals. The biggest advantage to a hydrogen fuel cell is that the only thing it emits when used as a fuel is water vapor.

You cannot ask the question “What is a hydrogen fuel cell?” without considering the types of fuel cells that have been produced. The main type of hydrogen fuel cell is the polymer exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC). This is the fuel cell that the Department of Energy is focusing on as the next big thing because it is the most likely candidate for transportation applications.

The PEMFC has a high power density and a relatively low operating temperature (ranging from 60 to 80 degrees Celsius, or 140 to 176 degrees Fahrenheit). The low operating temperature means that it doesn’t take very long for the fuel cell to warm up and begin generating electricity.

There is another type of hydrogen fuel cell that shows promise when trying to operate a vehicle. This one is the direct methanol fuel cell (DMFC). Methanol fuel cells are comparable to a PEMFC in regards to operating temperature, but are not as efficient. Also, the DMFC requires a relatively large amount of platinum to act as a catalyst, which makes these fuel cells expensive.

What is a hydrogen fuel cell? It is the next new wave of emerging technology in the field of alternative fuels that will help our country as well as our environment. A hydrogen fuel cell vehicle burns clean and runs efficiently. It is what alternative fuel supporters have hoped for since the advent of alternative fuels for energy – a clean vehicle that runs great and has safe emissions.

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