Bloomberg’s got some pretty good news for the power generation industry in America, at least. Total power-plant energy output was 89.8 million megawatt-hours last week, up 3.8% from the previous year. The numbers come from Genscape, an energy information company. They create their power generation numbers by measuring output at 280 monitored power plants, and have a margin of error less than 2%.
Azerbaijan is increasing its power generation capacities in a big way with a recent move. The former Soviet country is adding three industrial power generation units to its arsenal this week, all operated by BP.
The units are made by Rolls Royce, and will be installed in the Chirag Oil Project to supply the area near the Caspian Sea with power.
Each unit measures 60” long by 15”7’ wide by 14”3’ tall, and each weighs 185 tons. Their total cost and installation will total about $6 billion, and they should help Azerbaijan’s power generation situation, which has seen a steady oil production over the last two years of about 40 million tons of oil per year.
It started with an innocuous question: “If music can be art, why can’t food?” Well, former Microsoft whiz kid Nathan Myrhvold—a physicist and engineer by trade—is used to asking (and solving) such thorny questions. That’s why, after retiring at 40, Mryhvold holed himself up in a lab with an autoclave, centrifuge, tanks of liquid hydrogen, ultrasonic bath, and regular cooking equipment, as well, to create the formidable tome Modernist Cuisine.
And it is quite a formidable tome. At six volumes, 2,438 pages, costing more than $600, Modernist Cuisine is quite the doorstopper. Mryhvold spent years crafting the techniques used in the book, and gaining knowledge about food.
The book is not a normal cookbook. In fact, as the question above suggests, it’s more about art than eating. But still, it’s quite the culinary accomplishment.One of the keys to enabling this kind of allusiveness is increasing our knowledge of culinary history. “Even those who are very into food are — and I don’t want to sound arrogant — ignorant about the history of food,” says Myhrvold. He points out that the molten-centred chocolate cake, star of those near-pornographic Marks & Spencer adverts, was invented within our lifetime. More surprisingly, it isn’t just the rich who eat foreign food: “Africa survives on maize and cassava — those are the number one and two staple crops — and they are both from South America.”
Myhrvold is a font of odd facts such as this. Mark McClusky of Wired likened talking to him to taking several graduate seminars all at once. My favourite anecdote is the history of Egypt’s national dessert, Om Ali. “It is clearly not an Egyptian dessert,” he says, “because it is puff pastry with nuts and heavy cream poured over the top. It’s bizarre — puff pastry cannot possibly be Egyptian. The story is that it was [thought up by] an Irish chef at the British embassy named O’Malley.” He laughs, loudly.
Green power generation in the New England area is getting a big, green boost. A six state area covered by Cape Wind, a $2.5 billion project to build 130 wind turbines, will see an increase in its green energy very soon.
Recently, National Grid signed a 15 year agreement locking in 50% of Cape Wind’s power at 18.7¢/kWh. Once the Cape Wind project is completed, it is expected to supply about 75% of the energy needs of residents in Cape Code, Nantucket, and Martha’s Vineyard.
Even though the Cape Wind project seems like a great boost to the green power generation industry, it has seen some opposition from local residents and politicians. One prominent group, the Alliance to Protect Nantucket Sound, includes John Kerry and Mitt Romney. Despite that, Cape Wind is optimistic. Its CEO, Jim Gordon noted they’d been at it for more than ten years, and they’ve been victorious against opposition groups every time. They have a perfect 15-0 record, and it seems like Cape Wind will be right at the forefront of supplying the US northeast with wind generated power for years to come.
According to this story in the Beaumont Enterprise, a group of four students worked on the autoclave over the course of their senior year as part of a special design course.
They landed the project because Dougherty and Scott Hoffman, a Honeywell engineer, crossed paths at the right time. Dougherty was looking for class projects and Hoffman was needing assistance to help his friend, Dr. Mark Byler, a medical missionary in Zimbabwe, who was in need of a reliable autoclave.
Hoffman did some research at first, but quickly realized that it would be too time-consuming for him. So, he’s glad the KU students were willing to take on the challenge.
The fact that the students worked with a medical missionary from Zimbabwe is really great. They got to get some essential experience while helping out an ailing nation, even if just a bit. By next May, the students will be done with the autoclave and a community in Zimbabwe will have another autoclave.
Ever since Pope John Paul II was the target of as assassination attempt in 1981, the so-called Popemobile has been fitted with extra defenses to keep the leader of the Catholic church safe in transit. The Telegraph has an extremely interesting breakdown of the Popemobile, going over its clever uses of Kevlar, hydraulic seats, and three” “plastic glass.”
According to the story, the Popemobile is based on a Mercedes-Benz M-class, but that’s where its similarities to a consumer car ends. The vehicle was specially designed with two kind of contradictory needs, “safety and visibility.”
The Popemobile’s body is Kevlar-plated half-inch thick plate steel, and its windows are three-inch thick plastic glass. The vehicle can withstand explosives, and it also has an air filter to protect occupants against biological attacks. In all, the vehicle can reach speeds of 70 mph even though it weighs five tons.
The Popemobile is one of the iconic vehicles of the world, and it shows well how Kevlar and steel can combine to create something special.
We use kevalr as an insulating material in industrial power generation. Since it’s stronger than steel and incredibly resistant to heat, it’s an extremely versatile material for a ton of power gen applications. Of course, kevlar’s strength and heat resistance means its great for many other, as well.
Another kevlar application, outlined here, is fire juggling. Pretty cool hot, huh?
The article talks a bit about the what and how of fire juggling, including its main tool, the “poi”:
Originally from New Zealand, the poi typically is a rope or chain with a ball attached at one end. It’s now used worldwide as a hobby, for exercise or for performing arts. Modern fire poi usually is a ball chain with a Kevlar blend material for a wick, soaked in lamp oil, lighter fluid or kerosene.
For the Fire Family, the fire jugglers in question here, they also need to pony up $800 a year for insurance, which actually seems pretty reasonable when you consider they’re juggling fire.
The group also offers workshops, so if you happen to live near Evansville, Indiana, be sure to check it out. And be thankful for kevlar. Not only does it keep police and soldiers safe from harm and insulate giant power generation machines, it also allows people to chase their dreams and juggle fire.
When we talk about fiberglass, we’re usually thinking of custom components for power generation. Of course, fiberglass has a bunch of other applications, as well. But here’s one use that we haven’t ever come across: a “CowParade”.
Down in Austin, Texas, there will be a literal “cow parade”, with about 100 colorful critters lining the sidewalks. To make it all happen, a group of local artists all worked together to decorate fiberglass cows.
The CowParade in Austin is expected to be the largest public art even in the world. There are CowParades all over the world. The events actually function as charity events, which have raised more than $25 million for children with cancer and blood disorders.
This is one of the coolest uses of fiberglass we’ve come across. The material is sturdy and light, and apparently makes for great cow canvases. If you’re in the area this summer, be sure to check out Austin’s CowParade!
Boat building seems like it would be the provenance of your fairly well-kitted shop, right? Not so. At least, not for a man in Homer, Alaska. Using dory-style plywood, fiberglass, and epoxy, Renn Tolman has made more than 100 boats in his home shop.
Just recently, Tolman crafted his 104th boat. And we’re not talking a small, rowboat style craft. No, this latest is 20 feet long, a Standard Tolman skiff. The vessel is extremely seaworthy, ready to brave chop and storm.
The entire boat is extremely well-fashioned, with fiberglass reinforcing wood on every surface. Overall, the boat took about five weeks in shop to make, along with a few extra days to install its 60 horsepower four-stroke outboard engine.
Tolman is a great, lifelong success story that shows that fiberglass and composites aren’t just in the realm of the industrial power generation industry.
Vette, the magazine focusing on, what else, Corvettes, has a comprehensive history of the body materials used throughout the beloved sports car’s history. From fiberglass to carbon fiber, Vette has a great historical record. The best part is, it’s all available online.
Here’s an excerpt, but make sure to click through to read the rest. Even if you don’t have a Corvette or aren’t particularly a car nut, it’s a great history of material engineering.
Fiberglass was first considered for use on a GM vehicle by legendary designer Harley Earl. Besides a certain “exoticness” for the early ’50s and the undeniable weight advantage, fiberglass offered an economical way to create the low-volume Corvette without investing in expensive sheetmetal-stamping dies.
GM’s Parts Fabrication Operation was tasked with figuring out the intricate requirements for the ‘53 Corvette’s body, while supplier Molded Fiber Glass Company (with some support from Owens Corning Fiberglass) got the contract to build them. Amazingly, the company was awarded the business in April 1953 and was asked to deliver the bodies by the June 1953 start-of-production deadline—and they had never built a car body previously.Not surprisingly, there were plenty of unknowns when it came to designing and building those first Corvettes. Tests had to be done to determine how many layers of fiberglass were needed for the various areas of body, as well as the interior “tub.” And for products so large, the correct ratio of resin and plastic hardener had to be determined, not to mention figuring out how long it would take for each hand-laid body to cure. Also, it wasn’t clear at first how many separate parts would be required to construct each body, and a surface finish suitable for production-quality paint was far from assured.
What do yachting and big-wave surfing have in common? I mean, other than both involving water recreation? The answer, perhaps surprisingly, is carbon fiber.
The New York Times reports that upscale yacht designer Juan Kouyoumdjian has just completed a monstrous yacht, dubbed the Mar Mostro. The big pleasure boat measures a full seventy feet long (70!) and is made of carbon fiber. Not sure if switching up to a new material is a good idea? Mr Kouyoumdjian is hoping to win his third consecutive Volvo Ocean Race with the Mar Mostro. It seems like he knows what’s going on with yachting.
Kouyoumdjian isn’t just sticking with the high class world of yachting, though. He’s also working with the big-wave surfer Laird Hamilton to design some other carbon fiber creations.
The two recently finished creating a thirteen foot stand-up paddle board, inspired by Kouyoumdjian’s yachting background. His entry into the world of stand-up paddle boarding brings some more validity toe the nascent sport, which features races from distances between three and forty-five miles.
Whether you’re yachting around the globe or designing a surfboard to travel over forty miles, it seems that carbon fiber is the one miraculous material that keeps you safely afloat.
The future is now (finally), and it’s all because if carbon fiber. If you’re a certain age, then you probably thought flying cars would be part of the future (the present, now). And until now, you would have been very disappointed with the present (what you thought would be the future, then). Why now? Because it looks like we finally have flying cars.
According to Auto Guide, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has just approved for the very first time a flying car, which you can buy today.
The Terrafugia Transition, costing a cool $250,000, has a 500 miles range, 26 foot wings (which fold up in less than a minute), and maxes out at 115 MPH in the air and 65 MPH on the ground.
And if you think the price tag is prohibitively expensive, the initial run of 100 is already sold out. Get ready for a lot of Where we’re going we don’t need roads jokes.
Apple uses innovative materials for its products. From its iconic (and still unmatched) machined aluminum laptops to its front and back glass iPhone, the little-big company from Cupertino. Now, rumor has it that Apple is getting into carbon fiber machining, maybe.
The International Business Times reported that Apple may radically redesign its next iPhone (tentatively dubbed, of course, the iPhone 5). Among the changes to the phone—including a higher resolution camera, better display, and 1080p HD video playback, is a rethinking of its body. Gone will be the all-glass design (criticized by many as being too fragile). The iPhone 5 may be made of something like carbon fiber, specifically a fiber-in-matrix material like carbon fiber reinforced plastic.
Carbon fiber machining is an fast-evolving discipline, but here’s a story that’s particularly awesome. A little company called Parlee Cycles has created a new bicycle (a concept bicycle, actually) that’s made out of carbon fiber. Now carbon fiber bikes aren’t anything new, but Parlee Cycle’s take on the carbon fiber bike is.
You see, Parlee has created a bike that you can shift with your brainwaves. That’s pretty cool, huh?
The bike is one the Toyota Prius Projects, which reward innovation in transportation and technology. The Parlee Bike, by John Prolly, uses two parts for this telepathic shifting: A special helmet that’s fitted with neurotransmitters, and a special seat post that “talks” to the helmet. When you think of shifting, the thought is transmitted to the seat post, which then tells the bike to change gears.
We know about carbon fiber technology, and this is by far one of the coolest projects yet. Check it out at its Toyota Prius Projects webpage.