Unusual Fuel

What exactly is fuel? Webster's online dictionary says that fuel is a material used to produce heat, or power, by burning, or a material from which atomic energy can be liberated, especially in a reactor. Does fuel always have to be hot? Absolutely not, A very good example of this is water power, another is wind power. People were using these two kinds of energy for hundreds of years before anyone thought of gasoline powered engines and such. Power can even come from you, or me. We can be the fuel that turns the machine. In Roman times great building cranes were run by soldiers or workers walking inside a wheel. If they walked in one direction it would coil a rope that lifted something. If they walked in the other direction it would uncoil a rope that lowered something.

One very strange source of fuel is a lake that resides between the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Rwanda. The name of the lake is Lake Kivu. It is not the water that is used for fuel, but the huge amounts of methane gas at the bottom of the great lake. The lake is only one of three known exploding lakes in the world. At the bottom of the lake is not only methane, but carbon dioxide. In Cameroon, a much smaller exploding lake killed 1,800 people, when it released its deadly load of carbon dioxide and if this happens with Lake Kivu, which has a history of this type of thing, it could kill up to 2,000,000 people, who live in the area. There is so much methane at the lake bottom that a factory has been built near the lake and it is entirely powered by methane from the lake. To get the methane a pipe was run from the lake bottom into the factory. By the way, the lake covers an area of 1,040 square miles and is 1,575 feet deep at its deepest point.

Cooking Oil
Photo Source: Stock.xching

Who would have ever thought that some people would be running their cars on a substance that people were throwing out. Used vegetable oil has become a hot commodity. Restaurants usually have to pay to have people take away their used oil, but now many places face the problem of who to give it to, since so many of their customers want it. People are straining the impurities out of it and using it as fuel in their diesel engines and it makes a perfectly good fuel. Soon some restaurants might start charging for this stuff.

A new type of fuel is being developed to power rockets. Currently there is a choice of two different types of rocket fuel, liquid or solid. Engineers and scientists are now working on a third type that is a gelled fuel. It is said to have the consistency of marmalade. The scientists and engineers are saying that this fuel will be much safer than current fuels in use. Supposedly gels are safer than liquids, gels don't leak and they are more controllable than solid fuel rockets. There are problems taming the gel and here is what the head engineer had to say, "These jets are wiggling, and there are pulsations. Those pulsations, we believe, lead to the formation of specific spray patterns and droplet formation, The fluid mechanics of gels are quite challenging. The viscous properties of the gel changes depending on how fast it's flowing, which is not true of liquids."

General Motors has partnered with a company in Lebanon, New Hampshire to try and develop a bio-fuel that will be much cheaper than the fuels of today. Super bugs are being developed that will eat cellulose and ferment sugar. After the batch of liquid is aged for a few days, they believe that fuel will be created that will be powerful enough to run an engine on and thus power a car. Since this stuff is not made from crops that people use for food, there is no chance that it can run up food prices. The bio-fuel production is said to be sustainable without problems. The problem here is that it is thought that the bio-fuel is about 6 years away from being perfected.

Sewage Tank
Photo Source: Morguefile

There are some places that use human waste as a fuel. A good example of this is a sewage plant. The waste water from a Minneapolis sewage plant is being used in just such a fashion. A university professor is taping into this resource to show that even the lowest of waste can be counted on to provide energy. It is being used to grow algae that produce a bio-fuel that is not unlike diesel fuel. As we know there is always plenty of human waste around, so this resource seems to be endless. The algae have a secondary job function. They are also cleaners and can clean sewage waste water. This is another task that is sorely needed. It is a win win situation. One acre of algae can produce 5,000 gallons of bio-fuel per year.

An exotic fuel for nuclear reactors is said to be able to power a nuclear powered spaceship. It is said that instead of taking eight to ten months to reach Mars with a conventional rocket, this ship could get there in about two weeks. This estimate of time was backed up by calculations published in Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research. The mineral used as fuel is rare and is named americium-242m, also known as Am-242m. It can maintain sustained nuclear fission as an extremely thin metallic film. While this is theoretical, it is looking very promising. One scientist stated, I am sure that americium-242m will eventually be implemented for space travel, as it is the only proven material whose fission products can be made available for high speed propulsion.”

Blood
Photo Source: Morguefile

Finally I would like to finish this article on unusual, fuels by talking about the discovery of a new type of fuel cell by the Japanese. It is a fuel cell that runs on blood. “The biological fuel cell uses glucose, a sugar in blood, with a non-toxic substance used to draw electrons from glucose”. A statement was issued by the team that discovered it. It stated, "Since the electron mediator is based on Vitamin K3, which exists in human bodies, it excels in safety and could in the future, generate power from blood as an implant-type fuel cell," I would like to know where this blood is going to come from?