books on bio energy

Do you want to escape rising gasoline prices? You can make your own fuel and here is how. The Alcohol Fuel handbook, first published in 1980, presents knowledge gained through the extensive practical experience of the author and her then partner, Robert Brautigam, in the production of ethanol for fuel. Now updated and revised, the book is increasingly relevant as gasoline prices rise. Learn to produce fuel alcohol, use the byproducts, modify engines to run on ethanol and deal with government regulations. The appendix even includes plans for building your own Remote Post Column.

Biodiesel is both hopeful and alarming. Pahl does a great job providing a background to the Biodiesel story and its chances of addressing the looming energy crunch. He offers a ray of hope, while tempering his optimism with a real assessment of how much help a biodiesel component to the economy can actually provide. The book is divided into four sections - "Biodiesel Basics", "Biodiesel around the World", "Biodiesel in the United States", and "Biodiesel in the Future". "Biodiesel Basics" covers the invention of the diesel engine and the different fuels used historically throughout the world. Initial fuels used in the diesel engine were often biodiesels - until the cheapness of petrodiesel (petroleum derived fuel) locked up the market. The section also covers some of the various types of crops that can be used to create viable biodiesel - such as rapeseed, sunflowers and soy beans - and the methods of processing these crops into fuel. "Biodiesel around the Word" and "Biodiesel in the United States" cover the history of bio-fuel development in each of those regions. -- by David White for Academia.

Within the past decade, millions of Americans have discovered the economic benefits and personal pleasures of heating with wood. At the same time, many have discovered that there are serious problems associated with wood heat and iron stoves: chimney fires from creosote, air pollution from poor combustion, and structural fires caused by faulty stove installation. The masonry stove, widely used in Europe and Asia for centuries, surmounts these problems. Masonry stoves offer good solutions to many of the problems associated with wood burning. They provide clean combustion at a high temperature, good efficiency, a high degree of safety, and little or no pollution. Masonry stoves require little care, needing to be fed only once or twice a day. They come in a wide variety of shapes and sizes from simple to elegant and from austere to gothic. And they are easily adapted to a variety of structures including solar designs. The Book of Masonry Stoves represents the first comprehensive survey ever published of all the major types of masonry heating systems, ancient and modern. Detailed plans and building information are included in the book. As a complete introduction to masonry stoves, it will help many people rediscover an old way of warming, using masonry stoves.

This brand new book on alternative energy contains a chapter dedicated to water power. It contains a great section on recent developments in the field of hydropower and describes several recent hydropower projects around the nation. This is one of the first books we have seen which also provides a description of the use of wave and tidal turbines.

Long past the days of strictly utilitarian purpose, fireplaces and stoves are a design feature in their own right. They are available in an array of styles, sizes, and colors; offer a variety of fuel choices; and feature benefits beyond mere aesthetics, including heat and cooking. Fireplaces and heat sources are also widely found in many rooms throughout the house, including the family or living room, bedroom, kitchen, and bathroom, as well as outdoors. And the latest innovations in fireplace and stove technologies make having one no longer an expensive proposition.

Fundamentals of Renewable Energy Processes contains the technical detail necessary to understand the engineering principles that govern renewable energy application at many different levels. Focused on the fundamental mechanisms and processes that underpin energy management, it provides students with the foundation for all energy process courses. This text is organized according to the main forms of energy - heat engines, hydrogen energy, energy from the sun, and wind and water energy - with an introductory chapter of basic energy terms. From fuel cells, electrolyzers and processes for hydrogen production to biomass and windmills the author provides the most thorough examination of all aspects of renewable energy processes.

The Homeowners Guide to Renewable Energy

This comprehensive guide to renewable energy contains an excellent chapter on Microhydro systems for generating energy. It shows examples of modern microhydro turbines and provides a practical explanation of key topics such as; how to asses the potential of a site, how to measure head and flow and how to buy and install a system.

Powering Our Future is an educational tool that opens the door to a future fueled by sustainable, renewable energy. Consumers will learn how our world has become dependent on four nonrenewable resources and how each resource impacts us politically, economically, and environmentally. It includes a discussion of renewable resources such as hydrogen, fuel cells, wind power, solar energy, hydropower, and more are waiting in the wings. Powering Our Future is a solution-oriented guide that can help you to make more informed choices as a voter, a contributor to a global economy, and a citizen of the earth.

Here is a superefficient wood fired heater you can build for yourself in a weekend for less than a hundred dollars. This book explains in detail exactly how to build one, then how to use it in a range of applications. We discuss materials: where to find them, what to pay and how to make use of found and recycled parts. The section on fire and fuels is thorough but simple; we tried to keep away from numbers wherever possible. There are success stories, case studies, references and where to find further information, all heavily illustrated. Home heating can be expensive both in capital equipment and in running costs. If we heat by gas, oil or electricity we are supporting a big corporation and impoverishing ourselves. By building an extra efficient heating system you will be one more big step off the treadmill and your move to self-sufficiency and true wealth. Good luck with your stove! --From the Introduction by Ianto Evans

Shuck the Sheiks contains the facts about ethanol that the oil companies don’t want you to know. Corn ethanol is currently blended in thirty percent of the gasoline sold in the United States, but it continues to be attacked in the press and in media coverage. Typical arguments include: “it costs more to produce than it is worth” or “it is only affordable because of tax subsidies.” Both of these messages are wrong! The oil companies marketing departments want you to believe such statements. Unfortunately, most of us do. In Shuck the Sheiks, author Andrew Zacharias shows the positive net energy balance of ethanol and the subsidies that oil receives from our tax dollars, making ethanol subsidies look like a pittance. Learn more about the positive environmental effects of ethanol, the economic benefit of producing domestic ethanol as opposed to foreign oil, and the amount of money the United States spends defending our oil supply with our military in the Middle East. The cost of importing foreign oil is too great for America, and every barrel that can be replaced will loosen the oil-noose from around our necks.

"""Authored by veteran New England woodburner and chimney sweep Dirk Thomas, who's also done his time as a commercial woodcutter and logger. The Woodburner's Companion is an excellent overview of residential woodburning strategies."" --Back Home Magazine"