Energy sources are all around us

There is a farmer in Somerset, England who is converting his costly Jaguar car into an “eco-friendly” vehicle fuelled by natural waste products from his farm.

Henry Hobhouse says he plans to make his own methane fuel with rotting apple fumes because alternatives not available to purchase in garages.

Now Hobhouse intends -- and this is the interesting part for Valley residents -- to mix apple pulp and grass waste with water and bacteria, which helps decompose it and produce methane. After conversion the car can be switched to run on gasoline or gas.

Hobhouse hopes that his gas production system will eventually make him energy self-sufficient. He told the BBC, “we've got to be taking responsibility for our own actions on a local level. We are miles behind the rest of Europe as you can buy this sort of fuel around France, Germany and Italy.”

He is going to install two small methane-making plants below ground on his acreage.

According to this farmer, his Jag now runs on methane, which is much cheaper per litre than gasoline. He adds that the car gains 10 per cent in power by running on compressed methane. So the question is why aren't we all jumping on this kind of initiative? Heavens knows there are rotting apples to be had in this vicinity. This kind of renewable bio-fuel ought to be the way of the future really soon.

By definition bio-fuel is created from biomass, which comes from recently living organisms. It could be manure or wood.

Dalhousie University professor Larry Hughes says biomass can include hard and soft woods, agricultural and industrial wastes and waste as humble as sawdust. Mill residue, including sawdust, could supply about 15 per cent of Nova Scotia’s electricity – a significant contribution, he believes.



Too heavily reliant



Like most industrialized regions of the world, Atlantic Canada relies too heavily on two energy sources: refined petroleum products and electricity, generated from petroleum products, coal, hydroelectricity, nuclear, and natural gas.

In 2004, Atlantic Canada used more than the energy found in 30 million litres of gasoline; of this, about 72 per cent came from refined petroleum products, 16 per cent from coal, eight per cent from hydroelectricity and nuclear, with the remainder from fuels such as natural gas.

Together, petroleum and coal supply almost 90 per cent of Atlantic Canada's energy demand. The petroleum comes from Hibernia, Venezuela, the North Sea, and the Middle East, while the coal is shipped from Venezuela and Columbia. This fact should give anyone living in this region pause for thought, as none can be considered reliable over the long term.

To make matters worse, if energy shortages occur because of supply failures or price spikes, western Canadian energy sources, such as oil or natural gas, will be unable to reach Atlantic Canada because there are no major energy corridors connecting this region to the rest of Canada.

As Janet Eaton has succinctly pointed out our deals with the U.S. have ensured all the transport is north/south.

Of all the alternative energy sources today I'm told that biomass is by far the most flexible since it can be produced from the agricultural or forestry sectors and any energy products can come from dedicated crops or waste material.

Biomass has another advantage over other renewables in that it can offer a wider range of energy products. It can be liquefied to make transportation fuels such as ethanol and bio-diesel. Furthermore, biomass does not add carbon dioxide to the atmosphere as it absorbs the same amount of carbon in growing as it releases when consumed as a fuel.

Atlantic Forestry Magazine recommends cogeneration, such as hybrid wind-biomass facilities, which can efficiently generate electricity from biomass, while reducing greenhouse gas emissions.



Biomass users



According to Nova Scotia Power, biomass users in Nova Scotia include round wood use in over 100,000 homes, a 22 MW biomass electrical co-generation facility in Brooklyn, pulp and paper plants, two sawmills producing electricity, two pellet manufacturing plants, numerous greenhouse operations, sawmill lumber drying kilns and wood related industries that power their facilities with production waste. Institutional users include the Nova Scotia Agricultural College, the South Shore Regional Hospital and the Annapolis Valley Regional Hospital.

The question is how can we, as ordinary consumers, pressure our leaders for more research and use of inventive bio-fuel technologies like Henry Hobhouse. I'm hoping that a New Minas biotechnology firm, Bio Vision, is making progress toward a bio-fuel plant that will create ethanol. Sustainable Development Technology Canada was prepared to fund the firm and 21 others last year.

The fact that our winter's woodpile is just about depleted certainly fuels my interest in this topic because March has just come in like a frigid lion. That and a statement that Halifax meteorologist Richard Zurawski made recently. He said that unless drastic action is taken soon, global warming will melt the Greenland ice shelf, disrupt the Gulf Stream and bring a Whitehorse-like climate to Halifax within 50 years.

The new documentary, Who Killed the Electric Car, looks at why electric vehicles (EVs) were unplugged by American car manufacturers, but not the Japanese. It has a timely message to send to oil companies, automakers and government. Director Chris Paine says he has a fantasy that the authorities will bring in a mandate for EVs. “Democracy is based on information and education. It's difficult for a new product to compete against an existing product.”

Well, we are starting to see that new answers are necessary and all of us must press for new solutions to the challenges that face us as a civilization.