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The Goderich Signal-Star, 1986-09-10, Page 23*Entertainment • Features • Relig on • Family • More SECTION Propane fuels 12,000 vehicles across Canada Many Canadians are turning to wopane as an alternative vehicle fuel. It has an im- pressive track record as a fuel for hundreds of thousands of vehicles worldwide. In Canada more than 120,000 vehicles use this safe, economical and clean -burning fuel. Canada produces nearly twice as much propane as required by domestic markets but, despite high annual exports to the United'- States, production and demand figures for the next 20 years show an ample supply of propane for both domestic and foreign markets. Propane is a viable alternative to gasoline for many private automobile owners, and is especially suitable for delivery vans, taxis and other high -use urban fleet vehicles. Methanol holds clean air promise Under the right conditions, conversion to propane can save substantial amounts of money. Those conditions include a vehicle that is driven frequently and has a good engine, and a wide difference between the price of gasoline and propane. Conversions have proven to be especially viable in Ontario, where approximately 50 per cent of Canada's propane -powered vehicles operate. The province boasts an ex- tensive network of refueling outlets and government incentives for conversion. Propane is also a popular vehicle fuel in Alberta and British Columbia, where it is competitively priced with gasoline. Prices vary widely across Canada, and propane is available in each province territory. and Installation of a -propane fuel system and new gasoline -powered vehicles. modification of the ignition and carburetion Vehicles can be converted to use either systems of an automobile or light truck propane only (called dedicated systems) or typically cost $1500. The law requires that propane and gasoline (dual -fuel systems. this work be dons: by provincially certified Although dual -fuel systems avoid the risk of mechanics. propane not being available when a refill is The major components of the system in- needed, they cost slightly more and are elude a propane tank, a fuel lock and filter, a generally less efficient. As a result, converter -pressure regulator, an air- dedicated systems are preferable, especial - propane gas mixer or carburetor adaptor .ly for fleet operations within' urban areas. and the necessary connecting valves, pip- How quickly you regain your investment ing and tubing., in a propane conversion will depend on the As new -model cars change from car- distance you drive and how much fuel your buretors to fuel injection systems, the gas vehicle consumes. mixer and carburetor adaptor on propane- Frequently used vehicles with high fuel fueled vehicles will be replaced with an elec- consumption will recover conversion costs tronic fuel control system similar to those in Turn to page 3A Every year the news stories are the same: Californians are advised to stay indoors for several days to escape the smoggy air pollu- tion. One primary source of this dirty air is hydrocarbon emissions from automobiles. The problem is not restricted to Califor- nia, or even to the United States. In varying degrees,air pollution affects us all. In the vast majority of cases, much of the pollution has the same source: automobiles that burn '-ga oline, a fossil fuel. The future is not so bleak, however, as some might think. Scientists and engineers Around the world have been searching diligently for alternative fuels for years. One of the most promising is methanol. When used in place of gasoline, methanol can reduce hydrocarbon and other pollutant exhaust emissions. It can also reduce the need for lead additives. Used instead of diesel, methanol can- eliminate the sooty emissions associated with that fuel. Methanol can be manufactured from wood, coal, oil, natural gas, or even municipal waste. Today, most of Canada's methanol is pro- duced by decomposing natural gas and steam in the presence 'of a catalyst to form carbon monoxide and hydrogen. These gases are then recombined under pressure in the presence of a different catalyst to form methanol., In the future, however, methanol may be produced from Canada's enormous reserves of coal and vast renewable forests. Low percentages of methanol (approx- imately five per cent) can be mixed with gasoline and used in conventional vehicles without modifications to the engine or fuel .. system. The `blended' fuel requires stabilizing agents, called cosolvents, and additional an- ticorrosion additives, but methanol boosts the octane level and replaces a portion of the gasoline. Methanol may also be used in, automobiles in the 'neat', or almost pure form. This re- quires extensive modifications to the engine and fuel system, but enables methanol's superior properties to be fully utilized. Both methods can reduce exhaust emis- sions. It is estimated that using blended fuel reduces unburned hydrocarbon emissions .by up to 15 per cent and also reduces levels of carbon monoxide. Turn to page 3A • r Transportation Energy Moving Forward omme POSTSCRIPT By Susan Hundertmark ' Blaming society can lead to ive s stem �,e eneratpower�g . City streets abound with lost energy. buses, which are heavier, have space fbr the pushes it into a high-pressure accumulator. Every time a vehicle stops,'' energy, in the added, machinery, stop frequently, and ac- This vessel stores the pumped fluid at 38 form of heat, is dissipated , into the at- celerate quickly. Because the energy for MPa (megapascals) until the driver again mosphere thi°ough the brakes. storage is obtained from stopping, city accelerates. For years scientists and engineers have buses meet all the necessary criteria. During acceleration, a single piston in the searched for ways to harness some of •this Their regenerative power train works high-pressure accumulator drives the " lost energy. Researchers in the mechanical with conventional brakes. As the driver ap- hydraulic fluid back into the pump, which in engineering division of the National plies the brakes, a pump pulls hydraulic turn passes the energy to the drive train and Research Council (NRC) have produced a fluid out of a low-pressure storage tank and the wheels. The fluid then returns to the low - prototype system for city buses that will do just that. Ontario Design Industries has equipped a full-scale transit bus with a regenerative power system from specifications prepared in NRC's fuels and lubricants laboratory. The system is now undergoing test trials at" NItC in Ottawa. "A conventional bus stops by using fric- tion brakes, which convert' kinetic energy into heat energy," explains NR project manager Tony Davies. "Normally, the energy is then lost. With our bus, however, the kinetic energy is con- verted'into pressure energy, which is stored and then reused by the bus." The project began in 1976 when Bill Heg- gie, an NRC engineer who has since retired, invented the system. Initially, Heggie work- ed with a small Toyota but soon found that cars were impractical. The equipment needs space and is too heavy and cumber- some for a light car. It is also tremendously expensive to modify existing vehicles. Researchers determined that it was much more practical to install the system in city stores energy Hydrogen: The fuel of the nett century The blazing sun and the sparkling stars are demonstrations of hydrogen's ability to release energy.. Onearth, however, scien- tists must obtain pure hydrogen from two main sources: water and natural gas. Most hydrogen today is produced from natural gas. It is used in petroleum refining and in the petrochemical industry for many purposes such as the production of ammonia and methanol.. For nearly two centuries, however, engineers have been experimenting with ways to use hydrogen in transportation. In • the late 1700s people were going aloft in rat- tan baskets suspended from brightly col- oured balloons containing Hydrogen, which is lighter than air. Electric vehicles hum their The Electric Vehicle Association of Canada planned a rally of Canadian- ancf U.S.- owned electric vehicles this summer. The owners met for the annual air show in Abbotsford, B.C. Then, on Aug. 11, the elec- tric cars hummed their quiet way north to Vancouver where they were on display at Expo 86 for several days. The queen of the display was a converted Canadian Chrysler minivan powered by a lead acid battery. Powerplex of Toronto sent the van to Germany to be converted to an electric drive suitable for the newly developed BBC High Energy Battery. The BBC is Brown Boveri & Cie of Europe, a company in Mannheim developing new high-energy, 'rechargeable traction bat- teries that will be manufactured in Canada b Powerplex. The prototype Powerplex battery ,.will weigh about 275 kg and replaces the need'fnr a vehicle gas tank A 'small electric motor replaces the gasoline engine. The - battery generates energy through a chemical reac- tion between• sodium and sulphur. One charge will take an electric vehicle about 200 km m about four times the distance attainable from a lead acid battery of the. same weight. Generallypthis is more than sufficient for local daily use. At night, when demand for electric power is low, the battery is simply plugged into a ,nearby outlet. The battery requires no maintenance other than recharging. This new, high-energy battery will last for about 1000 recharging cycles, or 200,000 lull, which is certainly comparable to the life ex- pectancy of an internal combustion engine. Zeppelins (airships held aloft with the buoyance of hydrogen) were popular until 1937 :when the Hindenburg exploded, killing many people, and turning public opinion against hydrogen. Today NASA's rockets are sent aloft with liquid hydrogen as fuel. Hydrogen has several attractive characteristics. It can be stored in vehicles either as a liquid or as a gas. It can be used to power a fuel cell to make electricity, or burned directly as a -fuel. In most aplications, hydrogen burns with negligible pollution, : producing largely water as exhaust. Most importantly, it can store more energy for a given weight than any other chemical element. Turn to page 3,1 • positive changes Elsa Haydon and I are good friends. That's why I know she'll welcome my observations on her recent column which she uses to respond to an editorial blam- ing society for the death of Alison Parrott. I did not write the editorial. But, I must admit I thought it was right on the mark by blaming a violent and sexist society for the rape and murder of an 11 -year-old girl. Blaming society does not take away the blame from the man who lured Alison from her Toronto home and raped and strangled her. It only acknowledges the role of culture and society in shaping our actions and attitudes and reinforces our responsibility as members of society to make positive changes. Society may not be listed in the phone book. But, it is alive and identifiable nonetheless. It bears the faces of all of us. And, though it may seem easy to blame society for our problems, it is even easier to insist we are only responsible for ourselves and wash our hands of the murder (or any other problems we ex- perience for that matter). I believe it is in fact irresponsible to merely say, "I didn't do it " and shrug it off. At least by blaming society, we are ad- mitting that each us of may have in some way accepted and perpetuated an en- vironment. that nvironment.that could cause the murder to happen. Far from being a guilt trip, blaming society is hopeful since it assumes that we have the power to make positive changes. That's one of the reasons that blaming society is a "feminist style" explanation. Feminists recognize that society is struc- tured in such a way to encourage and sometimes legalize inequities between women and men. This realization came when groups of women learned that they shared common problems. But, feminists do not use society as a scapegoat for their own problems. In my experience, women who identify themselves as feminists are often the same women who recognize their own deficiencies and take responsibility to _y Solve their problems and enrich • their lives. They are far from "not. so very bright weaklings who are always wrong- ed by everybody, pushed and pulled, forever in need of special attention, help and sensitivity." By blaming society, feminists are not seeking to escape blame. Rather, they are recognizing that they, along with everyone else, allow inequities to happen everytime they follow the rules of patriarchy. Feminists, like any other group, share a vision of -how the world could be a bet- ter place for both women and men and merely exercise their democratic right of free speech when they express this vi- sion. It is ridiculous to suggest that feminists wish to select what is good and wholesome for us all. For one thing, the views of feminists are balanced by the views of other groups. Feminists are not naive or ar- rogant enough to believe they have the power to choose for everyone. As well, since feminists have yet to build a military or begin terrorist ac- tivities, it is very unlikely that any of these visions will be forced on an unwill- ing populace in the way that both democratic and communist countries force their views on many third world countries. • It's instructive to view feminists as we would any other group which wishes to make positive change. A group of citizens concerned about the number of alcohol-related teen fatalities could easily blame only the drunken drivers or their parents. But, they would be forced to recognize that a society which promotes the use (and abuse), of alcohol as a lifestyle and the answer to problems is equally to blame. ;r It's also instructive to explore a study by an American anthropologist of rape within 95 cultures. In societies with little or no rape, women are respected and influential in both public and private areas of life, religions emphasize the importance of women and include female dieties, both women and men are involved in decision- making, little distinction is made bet- ween men's and women's work and fer- tility, nurturance and children are highly regarded. But, when there is a high incidence of rape, women take little or no part in decision-making or religion, men have private political and religious gather- ings, men stay aloof from child-rearing and demean women's work, there is a belief in a male supreme being, boys and girls are segregrated early into different forms of play with boys being encourag- ed to be tough and competitive and sex- ual conquest is a ritualized partaf court- ship and marriage. The anthropologist concludes that, "everyone in rape -prone societies con- spires to perpetuate the violence by liv- ing out prescribed masculine and feminine roles and modeling that behavior for children." Whether we choose to accept the responsibility or not, we, as members of society, are all to blame for Alison's death. And by changing our society; we are also the only people who can prevent a similar death from happening again. pressure accumulator until the next braking -accelerating cycle. No driver education is necessary to operate the system as the energy transfers are automatic. An on -board computer is ac- tivated by messages from the brake and gas pedals to open or close a series of valves that control braking, acceleration, the hydraulic pump and the engine. Potential financial savings are con- siderable. Computer simulations suggest that the regenerative system will reduce fuel consumption Ay 25 to 30 percent. As a' result, the considerable cost of the system could be recouped in four years and, with an 18 -year life expectancy for the bus, long- term savings would be significant. In addition, maintenance costs would be reduced. Because brakes would no longer have to burn off so much energy, it is ex- pected that brake wear would be cut by 80 per cent. A, parallel saving is expected through reduced engine andgear box maintenance. In the prototype bus, engineers have already noted improved acceleration and less engine noise outside the bus. Finally, the computer predicts that ex- haust emissions will be reduced by 35 per cent. Emissions occur mainly when fuel is incompletely burned or when the engine is working a full load — primarily during ac- celeration. Since this regenerated energy. Turn to page 3A • way to Expo 86 display Harsh Canadian weather has often been the stumbling block in development of elec- tric vehicles. Lead acid batteries operate satisfactorily as long as the temperature re- mains relatively mild. But in winter, dead car batteries tan be a problem in Canada. . The BBC battery operates at 360 degrees C and outside temperature poses little pro- blem. A dealer heats the insulated battery before delivery, after which it keeps warm through use. It can maintain its heat for five days without recharging. In addition to low-cost operation and maintenance, electric vehicles offer ,other attractive features. First, the <u`i re remarkably energy efficient. Research has shown that an electric vehicle uses between 75 and 90 per cent of the energy it consumes for propulsion, compared' with an efficiency of 25 to 37 per cent in the internal combus- tion engine automobile. One reason is that an electric vehicle uses energy only when moving. In fact, at traffic lights no engrgy is used. When the car is braked, energy is not dissipated in heat: it is used to charge,the battery! Second, electric vehicles are completely emission -free. They produce no noxious fumes to contaminate the atmosphere. Finally, they are amazingly quiet. Patrons of a dairy in England were so pleas- ed with the electric truck that brought the Milk every morning without waking them up that the company converted all its trucks to electricity. The savings in gasoline and maintenance ultimately . paid for the conversion.