Engines and Energy Conservation Lab
GUESTS
Guests last week included Tammy Applegate, guest of Susan Gust; Sherrie Franks, club guest, and Brian McAvoy, guest of Bob Penny.
ANNOUNCEMENTS
Jody Niswender discussed the upcoming 9 Health Fair, and Scott Bailey talked about the volunteers who will be working the fund raiser at the school dances. He is still looking for help on March 9, so if you can call him (don't use his e-mail, it is not working at the moment). I believe we set a record for attendance last week with 32.
PROGRAM
Our program last week was Dr, Bryan Willson from the CSU Department of Mechanical Engineering. He is the director of the Engines and Energy Conservation Laboratory. The lab was started in 1992. It employs 50 students from freshmen to post doctoral. Over half of the employees are undergraduates. Part of their mission is defined by working to create energy solutions and entrepreneurial models that benefit the human condition.
He displayed charts that show increased oil demands and diminishing oil production. Areas like China and India are expected to have a huge impact on oil demands in the future. He also showed the Keeling curve that establishes a dramatic rise in CO2 in the last fifty years.
He focused on three issues during his talk--two cycle engines, cook stoves, and fuel supplies. He showed areas of Manila with severe air pollution caused by the millions of two-cycle engine motorcycles and cabs that are used in the area. He told us of a direct injection system that has been perfected in the lab which is relatively inexpensive to retrofit to 2-cycle engines. These modifications can pay for themselves in less than a year in fuel savings alone because there is so much less loss of fuel through the open ports.
Cook stoves are a problem in many areas because they use solid fuels and few of them are vented to the outside, but are open to the rooms in which the cooking is done. The Lab has developed more efficient cook stoves that also serve to generate enough power to light a 16-watt fluorescent light be use of a thermoelectric generator. The worldwide need for efficient cook stoves is 500 million units. Through the efforts of the Lab and others, they have managed to lower the costs for the stoves from $67 each to $50 each and quadrupled production.
Willson talked briefly about the work on converting algae to biodiesel and methane.
QUIZ ANSWER
What was originally called caisson disease, a malady that afflicted men working under compressed air in deep excavations like the foundations for the Brooklyn Bridge, is now know simply as the bends. This name was shortened from the description of the doubled over stance known as the Grecian Bend.
NEXT QUESTION
What Oscar winning movie ends with the words "Madness! Madness!"?
Guests last week included Tammy Applegate, guest of Susan Gust; Sherrie Franks, club guest, and Brian McAvoy, guest of Bob Penny.
ANNOUNCEMENTS
Jody Niswender discussed the upcoming 9 Health Fair, and Scott Bailey talked about the volunteers who will be working the fund raiser at the school dances. He is still looking for help on March 9, so if you can call him (don't use his e-mail, it is not working at the moment). I believe we set a record for attendance last week with 32.
PROGRAM
Our program last week was Dr, Bryan Willson from the CSU Department of Mechanical Engineering. He is the director of the Engines and Energy Conservation Laboratory. The lab was started in 1992. It employs 50 students from freshmen to post doctoral. Over half of the employees are undergraduates. Part of their mission is defined by working to create energy solutions and entrepreneurial models that benefit the human condition.
He displayed charts that show increased oil demands and diminishing oil production. Areas like China and India are expected to have a huge impact on oil demands in the future. He also showed the Keeling curve that establishes a dramatic rise in CO2 in the last fifty years.
He focused on three issues during his talk--two cycle engines, cook stoves, and fuel supplies. He showed areas of Manila with severe air pollution caused by the millions of two-cycle engine motorcycles and cabs that are used in the area. He told us of a direct injection system that has been perfected in the lab which is relatively inexpensive to retrofit to 2-cycle engines. These modifications can pay for themselves in less than a year in fuel savings alone because there is so much less loss of fuel through the open ports.
Cook stoves are a problem in many areas because they use solid fuels and few of them are vented to the outside, but are open to the rooms in which the cooking is done. The Lab has developed more efficient cook stoves that also serve to generate enough power to light a 16-watt fluorescent light be use of a thermoelectric generator. The worldwide need for efficient cook stoves is 500 million units. Through the efforts of the Lab and others, they have managed to lower the costs for the stoves from $67 each to $50 each and quadrupled production.
Willson talked briefly about the work on converting algae to biodiesel and methane.
QUIZ ANSWER
What was originally called caisson disease, a malady that afflicted men working under compressed air in deep excavations like the foundations for the Brooklyn Bridge, is now know simply as the bends. This name was shortened from the description of the doubled over stance known as the Grecian Bend.
NEXT QUESTION
What Oscar winning movie ends with the words "Madness! Madness!"?
posted by Windsor Rotary Club (link to this post)
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