Honda Chp Plants For A House

Local briefs: Clovis North drama teacher arrested

Chowchilla teen killed in crash identified

The Chowchilla High School student killed Friday in a head-on crash was identified Tuesday by the Madera County Sheriff's Office as Jose Trinidad, 16, of Chowchilla.

He was killed when the car he was riding in was hit by a suspected drunken driver between Chowchilla and Madera, the California Highway Patrol said.

He was in the front passenger seat of a 2001 Hyundai that was northbound on Golden State Boulevard, a frontage road on the west side of Highway 99, north of Avenue 20, shortly before 9 p.m. Friday.

Local briefs: Girl, 6, killed in crash near Earlimart

A 6-year-old girl was killed Thursday afternoon when a big rig and a pickup pulling a travel trailer collided on Highway 99 near Earlimart, the California Highway Patrol said.

The pickup was passing the big rig in the northbound left lane near Avenue 24 when the pickup's trailer began swerving, the CHP said. The pickup and trailer jackknifed and rolled into the path of the big rig, which was in the right lane.

The big rig crashed into the pickup and trailer, pinning them against two trees alongside the highway.

Woman killed Friday near Madera is ID'd

A woman killed in a Friday afternoon crash between a compact car and a big rig on Highway 99 north of Madera has been identified by the Madera County Sheriff's Office as Jerri Fuller, 21, of Rancho Cordova.

The California Highway Patrol said Fuller was driving a 1997 Honda Accord north on Highway 99 south of Avenue 21 1/2 about 3:30 p.m. when she veered left, slid across the dirt median and into oncoming southbound traffic. Fuller's car was struck by a big rig. She died at the scene.

Local briefs: Driver killed after pickup hits big rig

A pickup driver was killed in a fiery collision with a big rig Monday morning on Highway 145 near Kerman, the California Highway Patrol said.

Corn as Biomass Electricity 22x More Efficient Than Ethanol

By Thomas R. Blakeslee, Clearlight Foundation

Cheap fossil fuel has allowed us to waste the majority of our energy, filling the planet with pollution and waste heat. Our car engines are only 25% efficient and coal power plants are not much better. Corn ethanol is one of the worst wastes of biomass: An acre of corn produces about 330 gallons/year if you cook it using fossil fuel.

Use the ethanol as a heat source and the net yield drops to 214 gallons/year. Car gas mileage is 30% lower with ethanol. At 25 miles/gallon we can only drive 25 X 214 = 5350 miles per year on an acre of corn.

If we take that same acre of corn and burn it to make electricity to charge an electric car, we will be able to drive the car 22 times as far! About 117,096 miles per year!

The energy content of dry corn biomass is about 7000 Btu/lb or 4100 kWh/ton

With an 85% efficient CHP plant the net power out is .85 X 4100 = 3485 kWh/ton

An acre of corn yields about 8.4 dry tons/yr or 8.4 X 3485 = 29,274 kWh per year

The Tesla electric car goes 4 mi/kWh (EPA) 4 X 29,274 = 117,096 miles!

We don’t have very many 85% efficient Combined Heat and Power (CHP) biomass power plants in the U.S. In fact, only 8% of our power plants are CHP plants. But Denmark has 53%, Holland 39% and Finland 38%. CHP plants are extremely efficient with many exceeding 90% efficiency! The secret of CHP is to locate the plant near where heat is needed. The waste heat from electricity generation is then sold along with the electricity so the only real waste is the heat that escapes into the air or past the heat exchangers in the stack.

CHP requires a different way of thinking. You must look first for places you can sell heat. Electricity is easy to distribute but heat is harder so location and sizing of plants must follow the heat demand. Mammoth gigawatt-scale power plants cannot do CHP unless they are built adjacent to a mammoth cement plant, kiln or steel plant.

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