Veggie Oil Theft on CBC

Here's an interesting podcast from CBC on 2008-05-08.

Description from CBC.ca:

Grease Bandits: Contractor

Grease is the word, as they say. For greasers in the movie and musical Grease that word meant slick hair goo and a whole way of life, but grease has become a coveted fuel source. So much so, there's a black market for grease.

This raw grease can be refined into yellow grease, which can be used to make biofuel, and as the world's appetite for biofuel increases, so goes the demand for grease.

Restaurants, with their bubbling deep fryers, have always had lots of grease to dispose of, and sometimes companies pick it up for them. But increasingly, grease collectors complain that thieves are pilfering restaurant grease.

Our producer Michael O'Halloran visited a restaurant in Calgary to see what they do with their grease.

You might say that yellow grease is a new black gold, a hot commodity whose price has tripled. And with that rapid rise in value, grease banditry is rampant in some U.S. states. That bothers people like Christopher Griffin, director of legal affairs for Griffin Industries, a company that's been collecting restaurant grease since 1943. He joined us from Cold Spring, Kentucky.

Grease Bandits - Lawyer

Some might say that catching one of these thieves is like catching greased lightning, but others argue that these cases aren't really theft at all.

Jon Jaworski is an attorney in Texas who has represented dozens of clients accused of stealing the often stinky stuff. His work has earned him a reputation as the "grease lawyer," and we reached him at his office in Houston.

Grease Bandits - Canada

Grease theft may be a growing problem in the U.S., but for some perspective on the situation in Canada, we were joined in Toronto by Stu Porter, the biodiesel technical advisor to the Canadian Renewable Fuels Association.

Essay: Pick Your Poison

Pardon for the diversion from my usual subject matter.

Someone I know by the name of John Ogilvie asked me to put into a letter what I've come to learn about nuclear power so he could have something to share with other Green Party members. Apparently the Green Party is flatly against nuclear power generation inspite of its benefits (not that it's without drawbacks).

I kept my policy of "back it up with facts". Here's what I shared with him.

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Pick Your Poison

Facts to be used when discussing nuclear power

Our society is in the midst of a search for sources of power that are both safe and bountiful but none exist that can displace our current technologies - so we are left with a choice between the available evils. Is nuclear power one of these evils? Strong emotions are evoked when the words "nuclear power" (pronounced 'noo-clee-ar pow-er') are spoken. Prime among them is fear. Most people's nuclear knowledge extends only as far as WW2 mushroom clouds, Chernobyl, and waste disposal problems. It is only possible to have an educated discussion on the potential for nuclear power to fill our energy needs when the facts are examined as objectively and quantitatively as possible. After all, nuclear power is not as common as the combustion energy sources we're used to.

Let's consider the implications of shutting down all of the coal-, oil- and natural gas-fired generating stations in Ontario. This would remove 3.3 Gigawatts (17.7%) from Ontario's electrical generation capacity. How would this be replaced, assuming no change to consumption? There are no viable large hydroelectric sites, photovoltaic (PV) solar panels consume immense power for production, and wind turbines are almost as costly as PV cells. And as we know in government - management of hundreds of small projects would be cumbersome compared to management of several large projects, so it's "go big or go home" when we're taking about the electrical grid.

Let's look at the fuel used for nuclear power: uranium. Several forms of uranium exist. Uranium-238, unsuitable for use as fuel, accounts for over 99% of all natural uranium and has a half-life of 4,470 million years (higher the half-life, the less radioactive the material). Uranium-235, suitable for fuel and weapons, accounts for less than 1% and has a half-life of 704 million years. In other words, natural uranium is weakly radioactive. By comparison carbon-14 - a natural source of radioactivity found in all living things - has a half-life of 5,730 years (0.005 million years). C-14 is radiologically toxic in comparison to U-238 and U-235. The dreaded plutonium-239 has a half-life of 24,100 years and is chemically unstable in an oxygen atmosphere.

Let's also examine the nuclear reactor used in Canada - the legendary CANDU. I will not use the term "legendary" without qualification. The CANadian Deuterium Uranium rectors were conceived, designed, developed, and constructed in Canada by the predecessor of Atomic Energy Canada Limited (AECL) in the 1950s. But since Canada was (is?) a peaceful nation, the lack of Canadian uranium enrichment facilities led to a reactor design that used unenriched Uranium. Enrichment is the process which increases the concentration of U-235 from <1% to about 9% to reach criticality easier. In a nutshell, the geometry of the reactor core allows CANDU reactors to run on unenriched fuel, and is the reason that it takes days to start-up a CANDU. Remember how after the blackout of 2003 it took days to get electricity back in the province? A safety side-effect of the CANDU design is if the reactor starts to overheat, the core will soften and deform, breaking the geometry of the reactor core and thereby breaking criticality - the nuclear chain reaction will slow down and not run-away to a meltdown. Put simply, Three Mile Island and Chernobyl wouldn't have happened if they used CANDU reactors.

How much do we rely on nuclear power? There are 3 nuclear generating stations in Ontario: Darlington, Pickering and the privately operated Bruce. These 3 sites produce over 50% of the peak electrical demand for the most populated province in the country. That is without doubt an awesome amount of power generation for such a small number of stations of relatively small size.

Ok then, so how much material is used in generating electricity using CANDU reactors? One litre of diesel fuel - like that used in oil fired generating stations - has an energy density of 45.47 Megajoules per kilogram (or about 0.0126 Megawatt-hours per kilogram). According to the IAEA and the World Nuclear Fuel Market, more than 55.5 Megawatt-hours of electricity is generated in a CANDU for every kilogram of uranium. The energy density of nuclear fuel is therefore 4,400 times higher than oil and one kilogram of uranium would be enough to power a home for over 4.5 years. The main downside of nuclear power is the waste is just about the nastiest stuff imaginable. But the waste from a CANDU reactor can be refined and reacted a second and even a third time in a CANDU reactor. Once it's totally spent, the waste is stowed away and unusable as weapons matirial. By contrast, the waste products of combustion generation (i.e., coal, oil or natural gas) are emissions into the atmosphere and you know the CO2 story there. The key is safe long-term storage of nuclear waste.

Now what about the safety of combustion energy? Let's look at the tar sands as an example of safety. Here is a link to a satellite view of a settling pond where processing waste is left to separate. Notice how only 400 meters separates the pond from the Athabasca River (a 1,200 km river, 9th longest in Canada). If we talk about nuclear waste accidents and meltdowns, let's talk about the cost of a spill from one of these ponds into the Athabasca River. The cost would be incalculable. The Exxon Valdez spilled 41.6 million liters of oil across 760 kilometers of shoreline. A break in the levee of a single major settling pond in Fort McMurray would be on the same scale to downstream wildlife and human uses.

Uranium mining is nothing like working on a reactor in a power plant. Because of the relatively low concentrations of uranium in ore, most mines are open-pit and resemble a quarry. The workers don't wear protective equipment against the radiation because of the low radioactivity (high half-life). In fact, it's adequate that they're inside the cabin of a dump truck. The principal risk from uranium mining isn't the uranium itself (since it has such a low half-life); it is from one by-product of uranium decay - the noble gas radon. Though it is found in extremely low concentrations, radon is airborne and highly radioactive, with a half life measured in hours. Uranium is not airborne (being 70% denser than lead) and not a risk to any surrounding population - at least no more dangerous than mining for any other mineral.

So there you have it - a few details. Now that it's served on a silver platter you can call shenanigans on someone who spews nonsense. Our societal necessity - or at least dependence - on reliable electricity requires that we discuss the facts of generation and not the hyperbole and hearsay. We owe it to ourselves and the future of our society to make the most informed choices to prevent environmental consequences. Nuclear power isn't chocolate boxes and roses, but neither is any other source of energy. But with the proper facts in hand, we can discuss the options rationally. I hope this letter has served that purpose with respect to nuclear power.

References

1. Uranium:
   • http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uranium
   
   
2. Uranium mining:
   • http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uranium_mining
   
   
3. Carbon-14:
   • http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carbon-14
   
   
4. Plutonium:
   • http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plutonium
   
   
5. The CANDU Nuclear Reactor:
   • http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CANDU
   
   
6. World uranium consumption and electrical generation:
   • http://www.world-nuclear.org/info/reactors.htm
   
   
7. Electrical generation in Ontario:
   • http://www.ieso.ca/
   
   
8. The 2003 Ontario and North Eastern US blackout:
   • http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2003_North_America_blackout
   
   
9. Diesel oil energy:
   • http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diesel#Petroleum_diesel
   
   
10. Map of the Exxon Valdez disaster:
    • http://www.evostc.state.ak.us/History/PWSmap.cfm
    
    
11. Darlington Nuclear Generating Station:
    • http://maps.google.com/?ie=UTF8&t=h&ll=43.871044,-78.721762&spn=0.014417,0.029697&z=15
      
    
    
12. Single settling pond in Fort McMurray tar sands
    • http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=fort+mcmurray&ie=UTF8&t=h&ll=56.98788,-111.459475&spn=0.021791,0.059395&z=14&iwloc=addr
    
    
13. Rabbit Lake Saskachewan Uranium Mine
    • http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&q=&ie=UTF8&t=k&om=1&ll=58.25394,-103.637338&spn=0.010522,0.029697&z=15

Natural Gas Speculation

I peeked around for discussion on natural gas proces and came across a site that sounded objective and reasonably researched (or at least read). They gave this chart of past natural gas prices and some projections on its future cost.



Their reasons for their prediction of 30% increase in natural gas in the next 6-8 months?

Lower production from new gas wells, less new drilling and depletion of older wells.

New electricity generation is usually gas fired. The gas to be used in planned natural gas generators in Ontario equal a quarter of TOTAL provincial annual demand.

Supply is flat and is expected to remain so, and demand is up.

Historical oil-to-gas ratio is 7.5, putting gas at $13 per Gigajoule

It's crystal ball gazing, but worth mentioning.

Drilling Completed

The drilling is done. It was loud. It was dusty. It was awesome!

The drill holes were done at 11 degrees in one direction, and 22 degrees in the other. This is approximate based on my measurements.

Top view, looking down on the roof of the house:


Front view, looking at a cross section towards the front of the house.


Some videos:
Drill through overburden (aka. top soil).


Drilling through sandstone.


Feeding the copper heat exchanger down the 100ft hole.


The target.


The equipment arrives at 09:00.


45min later it's ready to go.


What I see from my living room.


Drilling gets underway.




It makes a mess.


What the drill bit looks like. It sounded LOUD. I measured it at 105dB at 5 meters away. When the drill shaft is pulled up and each link is separated - it would spike at 120dB.


Examine the hole.


Prepare the heat exchanger to go down. Notice the block of metal for grounding in case of lightning strikes.


Send the copper heat exchanger down the hole.


Fill it with silica sand (crushed quartz) up to the rock-overburden interface.


Then fill the top with "hole plug" bentonite. This is a form of clay that seals the top of the drill hole to prevent surface water from getting down deep in the rock.


Repeat 2 more times, and you're done for the day.


Next - we wait for the furnace unit to arrive and final stages of installation take place.

Drilling today

Well, the contractor from Earth Energy called me last week to arrange a time to start drilling for my furnace. "The phoenix has landed" he announced in his usual colourful exclamation.

And about the same time I got an email from a reader of this blog advising me to stay away from them. I'm not surprised since my experience with the owner was been less than reassuring. When the unit is installed, I'll be asking questions and taking notes. Such a niche furnace - it'll be hard to find good maintenance should this contractor go under.

Your thoughts on what info to ask for is most welcome fellow readers. Here's me list so far.

1. What's the refrigerant used in the heat exchanger?
2. How much refrigerant?
3. At what pressure is the heat exchanger filled to?
4. Make a list of parts inside the unit (small moving parts will likely be the first to break down)

And yes, there will be photos and videos of the mess they'll be bringing down on our house.

Cost of electricity less than zero?!

Fun story on the CBC today:
http://www.cbc.ca/cp/Oddities/080507/K050704AU.html

In short - it was cheaper to pay people to take power than it was to shut down generators.

This is what happens when daytime power consumption is 20-30% higher than in the middle of the night.

If only we could consume power more evenly...?

Most people immediately think - "why don't we store the power in batteries!". I suggest - do the math. The energy to be store is gargantuan!!! Basically there are only two way to store that much energy:

1. Thermal potential
2. Gravitational potential

Thermal potential is easy enough to visualize - heat something up to several times the boiling point of water and insulate it until it is need 8 hours from now in the day. Thermal solar power is one example of this. This is why thermal solar power is more attractive for base electrical demand - it can still generate power when the clouds come in.

Gravitational potential does not involve a black hole or a TARDIS - but water. Using power from base load generators at night to run pumps to lift water a few 100ft up a hill or precipice into a large (kilometers wide) reservoir. The gravitational potential of 1 million tonnes of water is far greater than $100 million in batteries. And at a fraction the cost.

Hydrogenated or non-H Veggie Oil?

I only use non-hydrogenated veggie oil when I filter or in my car. In short, hydrogenated oil is not commonly called veggie oil, but veggie shortening or veggie lard (ie. Crisco).

My pumping hot hydrogen gas under pressure and in the presence of a catalyst - veggie oil will cease being liquid at room temperature. This is what McDonald's and KFC use for cooking. This is also how margarine is made. Still think it's healthy?

So when you collect veggie oil for your car - be sure to ask that it's in fact veggie oil and not veggie shortening. Then ask again - "is it liquid at room temperature?" - some people need that last bit of clarification.

Washing waste veggie oil and why I don't do it.

I've read around that it's a good idea to wash waste veggie oil (WVO) - I wasn't convinced.

I know one must wash biodiesel to get methanol, glycerin and Sodium-hydroxide by products out. But to wash straight-up WVO?

There are two common ways to wash BioDiesel (which some people recommend for WVO as well):

1. Mist washing
2. Bubble washing

Both methods can cause emulsification of the water and oil (aka. salad dressing) so heating the water and oil is important to inhibit this behaviour. 50C will do fine if you're gentle - higher temperatures will be needed if you really agitate the two fluids.

I tried to wash 10L of my 10 micron filtered oil (my car fuel) with 10L of tap water in a small 30L glass aquarium. I bought an aquarium air pump, a 30cm wand bubbler (to make a bubble curtain), and a 150W aquarium heater. I hooked it all up, poured it all in and let it all go for 48 hours.



Result? No much changed in the colour or clarity of the oil. There isn't an other way to know if the quality improved without getting scientific testing equipment. The water got smokey - but that might just be oil suspended in the water. Plus I'd have to spend more time and mess dewatering now.

As it stands, I will not add any washing stage to my filtering operation until I can see more evidence.

How to hookup a generator to a home

I got lots of traffic on my YouTube videos on Earth Day - lots of comments and emails too.

The most popular question was "How do you hook that up to a home?" Well, here's a diagram showing how.



Notice that I didn't mention anything about feeding back to the grid. Doing that is can make you some small money, but it's expensive to setup. In place of the DPDT (double pole double throw) switch you have a synchronizer to maintain freqency and phase alignment between your generator and the grid. Usually involves converting from AC to DC then back to AC at a loss of power and money from your pocket.

Message to Mark Rodriguez

Tried to email you Mark, but Yahoo said you didn't exist.

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Hello,
my question is probably the same as everyone else's. What are you getting on your miles per gallon? The way i understand it is that you start your car on regular desiel gas and then you swith to veg. after it heats up. And then before you turn off your car you switch back to desiel gas right. So i guess i was wondering how much you have been saving now compared to before? Also I was wondering if you can give me ball park figures for before and after. As before you used veg and how much the cost is before and after using the vegetable oil to.

I only ask because im very interested in jumping on the band wagon. I believe right now i spend 190 dollars a month on gas. So thats not that bad, but it would be better if I only had to pay a 3rd of that.

well thank you for your time, and hopefully you can write me back...

Mark

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Mark,

The miles-per-gallon (or litres-per-100km as we do in Canada) is identical as far as I can tell. I don't measure out fuel to the same precision as the diesel pumps of course. But I get roughly the same distance from the same volume of fuel.

How much you save depends on how much you use the veggie oil. And indirectly - how careful you are to only switch over to Veggie once the engine is up to temp - saving on repairs.

I've gone through about 700L (roughly 14,000 km) of veggie fuel so far. But I only fill up 2-4 times per month. If you're spending $190/mo on diesel (which is 20-30% cheaper in the US vs Canada by the way) then you're going to pay off the conversion very quickly.

The most expensive part is installing the kit. Filtering and collecting and dewatering is dirt cheap. My setup cost $100 plus filter bags ($3 each). My GreaseCar kit cost $1500 at the time and I paid another $1500 to have it installed. You may find better prices these days.

Cheers,

BioDiesel for non-hobbiests

My dad sent me think link today. Groovy. Expensive, but groovy. Don't know how good it is, but the description seems to suggest they know what they're doing. Acid/base pH balancing, 3 stage water wash, 110V @ 15A power suggests a drying stage.

If you're a boating marina selling fuel or farmer that wants to go with green fuel without modifying your vehicle - this looks like the fastest route. At $9,000 USD you better be prepared to make about 10000L of BioDiesel before this thing breaks even.

Note: you can use BioDiesel in an oil furnace too, so 10,000L may not take too long for some of you.

Tracking Power Generation in Ontario

An excellent site showing the electrical generation in Ontario is www.ieso.ca

They provide a metric dung load of information on:

1. %-age generation by type (hydro, nuclear, gas, coal, etc)


2. Maps showing where all the generating plants are (pdf, page 14)


3. %-age consuption by consumer group (home, business, industrial)


4. Seasonal peak consuptions and average demand by city


5. Historical top-20 peak daysGenerator availability plant-by-plant, day-by-day (2008-04-01)

And the awesomest demonstration of why the internet was invented: Live graphs of today's projected and actual electrical consuption!!!

Interesting things one can gleam from the website:

1. Ontario burns a lot of coal - 20.6% of total installed capacity - but plans exist to decommishon all coal by 2009
2. Ontario has been exporting more power than it brings in over the past two years - but there is still tight dependance on US for even distribution
3. There is a lot of nuclear that never turns off
4. Winter peak electrical demand is 90% of summer peak demand

All in all, very educational

Vids of my GreaseCar

Video 1: Under the hood


Video 2: In the cabin, on the dashboard


Video 3: In the trunk, the tank itself


Bonus Video: Changing veggie fuel filter

My daddy's car is greener than yours!

Ahh. Children are so competitive. But so are green-o nut jobs. And I guess I'm one of them.

Someone on one of my YouTube videos commented a better use of my the 1,000 Watts over 12 hours to dewater my veggie oil would have been to charge an electric car. A very cutting and popular view. But utterly wrong.

In my attempt to fill the blogosphere with cluons, I will tear his statement down with objective analysis and not rude language.

To his defense - he's kinda right. Electric cars would be the best way to go. Centralized energy generation (generating plants) and unified energy distribution (the electrical grid). But to say that 12 kilowatt-hours to charge a car is better use than 200 litres of veggie oil shows how the poster was talking out of their butt. But that assumes a lot about the efficient generation, distribution and storage of said energy. Hint: lead acid is very heavy and isn't the answer.

Some things to know about the SI (Systeme Internationale) units:

• 1 Watt is the instantaneous energy required to push 1 Ampare of current through 1 Ohm of impedance (resistance x inductance).
  
• 1 Joule is the quantity of energy required to run 1 Watt for 1 second
  
• 1 kilowatt-hour is the energy to push 1,000 Watts for 1 hour.
• For 1000 Watts for 12 hours (or 43,200 seconds) that would total 43.2 megajoules
  

Now. Look at these sources:

• http://www.green-trust.org/2005/09/uk-based-veggie-fueled-co-gen-chp.html
  
• http://www.southwestbiodiesel.co.uk/oil.html
  
• http://vegburner.co.uk/oils.htm
  
• and many others on google

You can see that 1 litre of veggie oil has about 35 kilojoules per litre. So my 205L barrel (rounded down to 200L to account for the fact I don't fill it to the top) has about 7.0 gigajoules of energy (7,000 megajoules).



That means I'm spending one 160^th the energy in the fuel to refine it. I find that perfectly acceptable.

Yeah yeah, I didn't account for the energy it took to make the heating element, or the barrel, or the containers, or the filter bags. But he didn't account for the energy it took to manufacture the transmission lines, lead acid batteries, electric motors, etc.

More photos of Mark's Generator

Here are some pictures of the recent videos of Mark's Generator.


Picture 1:
- 12HP 2cyl engine, 8KW 220V AC alternator ESA approved
- currently unused water tower for cooling


Picture 2:
- Flexible Aluminum exhaust pipe
- 2 piston exhaust joined in a Y-joint
- Copper fuel line is wrapped around exhaust for pre-heating (better burn, better flow)


Picture 3:
- 3 fuel tanks (Veg-1, Diesel, Veg-2)
- Flexible Aluminum exhaust pipe
- Copper fuel line is wrapped around exhaust for pre-heating (better burn, better flow)
- Exhaust going out the fron door for now.

Mark's Lister in operation

Here are two videos of Mark's generator in operation.

Added since last post:
1. exhaust pipes vent to outside (flex pipe on left)
2. glow plugs added for easier starting (battery powered - right)
3. 3 40L fuel jugs hung from cieling
4. 3-to-1 fuel valve to select fuel (diesel or veggie)

Still to-do:
1. cooling system
2. muffler
3. sound-proof the shed
4. install electrical cables to his house

With any luck, he'll have a generator working for this spring's thaw-and-melt-and-flood-your-basement season.


Video 1: Single cylinder firing.


Video 2: Both cylinders firing.

Dumb people and the environment

My biggest beef with the environmental craze that's going on right now is how mis-information and dis-information is everywhere. There are so many people out there who haven't thought things through and spout out a load of crap as fact.

The "green revolution" is a perfect example of Quantum Bogodynamics where Bogons and Cluons are interacting - and in my opinion the Bogons out number the Cluons 10:1 right now.

Example 1 - "Tap Water is unsafe, dontchaknow?"
I have a co-worker who started a conversation taking the position that city run tap water is unsafe because the recently published report on pharmaceutical chemicals discovered in tap water of several US cities. Being married to a hydro-geologist (aka. water geologist, aka. ground water scientist) I am privy to her complete confidence in city run water treatment.

Aforementioned co-worker was of the opinion - nay - the conviction that his well water is "pure" because he "got one of those expensive lab tests done" and everything passed.

Thing is - the city of Ottawa performs over 125,000 tests per year on over 350 different parameters while his well is tested, what, once per year? Check the report yourself.

And don't even get me started on bottled water vs. tap water (hint - they're the same thing).

Example 2 - "Compact fluorescent lamps are not better for the environment"
Same co-worker. His argument was:

1. CFL's don't produce as much heat, increases the heating bill
2. CFL's have mercury in them and are hazardous - "think of the children"
3. Hazardous material waste disposal requires going to a landfill - burning fossil fuel
4. Hazardous material waste days at the landfill are busy - everyone's cars are idling - burning fossil fuel
5. When he went to the HazMat day, the line up took "so long" that he just left is HazMat at the side of the road and left
6. The city should collect hazardous waste are the road side so he doesn't have to make the trip.

My responses:

1. Every dollar spend heating our house using electrical resistance would cost you $0.40 (approx) in natural gas.
2. The CFLs last for 5 years. Incandescents last for 1. Mercury and other heavy metals are recycled because they are valuable.
3. Hazardous material water disposal is a once every 5 year occurrence for most households (sometimes never, thanks to hardware store drop-offs). Don't complain about something you do once every 5 years with proper storage - "go when you have enough to make it worth the trip"
4. See response #3. If you only go once every 5 years, suck it up.
5. His fifth point revokes is right to talk to me
6. The city should also pay someone to wipe the poo from my bum so I don't have to do it. But that would not be cost effective. The same argument applies to his point.

Round 2.

Him:

1. I like soft incandescent light.
2. I have a chandelier that don't take standard type-2 bulb sizes - do I have to buy a new chandelier?

Me:

1. CFLs exist with softer, diffused light so solve this problem. We don't live in an autocratic society - shelve your bleeding hart.
2. CFLs exist on all the same socket sizes as conventional incandescents.

End result:

He still thinks "the man" is out to get him. I still think he others like him will eventually out-breed people like me.

Jets and BioFuel

So, Virgin Atlantic flew a short flight on biofuel. What remarkable about this is Sir Branson pointed out that Algae based biofuels are targeted to produce their Jet Fuel.

Stroke of common sense, brilliant.

Plant-oil is People! Er, petro-oil...

CBC is carrying something today few people know about: that plastic doesn't need to come from crude (aka. petroleum oil) oil. Orignally plastics were made from Soy bean.

Infact, just about any plant oil can be be used as raw matirial for creating plastics. If only there was a plant that could be grown in sufficant quantity to make a significant dent in the plastics industry...

Delay to our furnace

Installation of our geoexchange furnace has been delayed untill the spring.

We had hoped to get it in for Christmas, but the 150cm of snow we got really but a wrench in the plans. Add to that the Ontario ground water Regulation 903 (aka. the Walkerton regulation) you get more delays as the company investigates better ways to grout the bore hole. And to top it off, the company is going though a change of ownership (for the better in my opinion).

But all is not lost. We'll get our furnace in the spring when the ground is soft, and the snow is gone. Less of a point getting it now when the coldest parts of winter are done.

A MP3 podcast audio feature from CBC's Quirks and Quarks on the technology of our new furnace.