Category Archives: Sustainable Solutions

Sustainable Solutions which Includes Food Supply, Renewable Energy, Sustainable Shelter, Community Building, Education, Preparation and etc.

Mackay Sugar closer to providing renewable energy to Mackay region

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According to North Queensland Register

Mackay Sugar’s $120 million Cogeneration Project is fast taking shape, with preliminary site works already completed and civil works set to commence at Racecourse Mill next week.

Mackay Sugar CEO Quinton Hildebrand said the plant would produce enough clean renewable energy to provide one-third of the Mackay region’s electricity requirements and reduce greenhouse gas emissions by about 200,000 tonnes (t) equivalent carbon dioxide (CO2e) each year.

Had desperation to find alternative energy source pushed people into converting sugar into energy? Let’s examine the pros & cons of using sugar as alternative energy to fossil fuel.

Pros (as stated in the article)

  1. Reduce greenhouse gas emissions by about 200,000 tonnes (t) equivalent carbon dioxide (CO2e) each year.
  2. Provide one-third of the Mackay region’s electricity requirements
  3. The plant will also generate significantly more income from the same sugarcane crop, delivering exceptional value to shareholders
  4. provide more than 250 jobs during construction, with construction contracts being awarded to local Mackay companies.
  5. take advantage of the untapped potential from Mackay Sugar’s cane supply

Cons

  1. Sudden surge in sugar prices for human consumption in the region
  2. Hyper-inflation in food prices that uses sugar
  3. High fluctuation of energy supply during a “bad” harvesting season due to natural disasters.
  4. Technically not 100% fossil fuel free as pesticides are oil based, fertilizers are natural gas, harvesters uses oil too.

Overall, sugar will eventually be just like oil and we will no longer have a normal fizzy drinks with sugar anymore or prepare to pay more for it…and there goes my sugar donut or my 3 in 1 coffee.

Sugar like oil can push inflation too causing more hardship in the global economy too, all that sounds like a bad idea but alternative energy need a balance of every possible energy sources. Hopefully, we can research more into a more abundant source of renewable energy.

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Media should promote renewable energy: IREDA

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According to Yahoo!News

New Delhi, June 1 (PTI) A government organisation dedicated to development of renewable energy today appealed the media to play a more meaningful role in promoting alternative source of energy.

“Today, our power sector is struggling and there is an urgent need to find an alternative source of energy. Renewable Energy can bridge this gap but it is unfortunate that it finds a very negligible coverage in the media. We need your (media) support,” IREDA chairman and managing director Debashish Majumdar said at ”Media Roundtable On Renewable Energy” conference here.

The only way I can think of to help the media understanding on renewable energy cost are to cut them off from electricity produced by fossil fuel for a day, that way they will finally understand the importance of renewable energy and the consequences of not focusing on it.

Fossil fuel is not forever available even thou there are many who promises that by saying there are many “alternative” to oil like Oil shale which are abundant in some countries however it’s more costly to extract oil from it than oil & natural gas because it’s from sediments (ROCKS).

Once oil sprayed out in high pressure from new oil wells like a geyser without any assistance or “cost” but once it’s being extracted, the pressure lowered & the oil industry need to pump huge amount of fresh water into the oil wells to “make the oil float” out of the oil wells.

Then the oil to water ratio decreases over time  until we have to abandon the wells that in the 1950′s are claimed to be “FOREVER LASTING”.

After that the heavy oil in soil call bitumen or Tar Sands are quoted to be the NEXT big thing in Canada because the cost of oil is so high and digging into tar sands seems to be cost effective.

Now, we are talking about oil shale…basically rocks instead of tar sands.

Nuclear had been proven again & again to be just a “time bomb” waiting to explode and many countries are unable to build it due to this reason.

So, the media industry need to understand that in the future…fossil fuel will no longer be the dominant energy that they can consume freely & cheaply.

Renewable energy is the only way out and people will need to know all this quickly or there will be a day when human will fight each other to the death just for the last barrel of fossil fuel.

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Demand for biofuels expected to rise 20%-30% annually

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According to ChannelNewsAsia:

SINGAPORE : This week, the European parliament voted for new rules that require lower emissions from commercial vehicles.

With governments globally continuing to set stiff targets for the use of “clean” energy, Biofuels Asia – a Singapore-based clean-energy company – is betting on Jatropha, a hardy plant that is a source of biodiesel.

Biofuels may be alternative fuel but by no means very “clean”, however it’s much “renewable” then fossil fuel.

What I mean it’s not clean because of the following.

  1. Fertilizers (Natural gas)
  2. Pesticides (Oil)
  3. Huge Mechanized Harvesters/seeders/plough (Oil)
  4. Water pumps for irrigation (electricity – probably by oil powered generator)

After all the fossil fuel being consumed to get the biofuels, the high cost may means if one day the oil price collapsed again after some kind of major economic crisis (maybe due to high oil prices -> hyper inflation -> banking & subprime or other kinds of crisis) MAY also means that the biofuel may be NET Loss in “cost” & “energy”.

EROEI – Energy Return over Energy Invested must be higher then fossil fuel to get a net gain, if the world blindly goes “green” just because of the carbon tax reduction it will not be a long term solution but a rather short term one.

Personally I still believe in true “renewable” energy from the Sun, Wind, Hydro, geothermal, wave, and other harvest-able natural energy from the environment.

However, due to unstable environmental circumstances in different countries may means some renewable energy cannot be “cost” effective to be utilized.

Nuclear is one way to go for some countries but it may pose risk of major disaster issues but it’s a medium term solution until a new & better way to harvest the natural energy “efficiently” & less cost intensive to maintain the system.

Biofuels is at best a temporary solution but it’s better then no solution so the best system may be a balance of all solutions to make up a way to counter the PEAK OIL crisis that may had already started.

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Drive for green HDB homes (Singapore)

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THE next generation of homes is set to get greener for Singapore residents. The Housing Board (HDB) is looking into rolling out further initiatives to green new and existing homes, said HDB Building Research Institute managing director Lau Joo Ming on Tuesday.

Click to continue reading “Drive for green HDB homes (Singapore)”

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Gentleman lives on floating plastic bottle island home

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Mr. “Rishi” Sowa lives on an floating island. That he made. From empty plastic bottles and a few mangrove plants. In Mexico.

This guy is obviously been doing this for a very long time but he probably still need think of a way to build his island to withstand hurricane & other natural disasters.

Click to continue reading “Gentleman lives on floating plastic bottle island home”

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Communicating after EMP attack, Solar Flare/Storm, Magnetic Pole Shift

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There are a serious news about the coming Solar Storm that may cause world wide black out, check out the news articles.

  1. Nasa solar flare space storm warning: a British scientist writes
  2. Nasa’s 2013 solar flare warning: how much do we need to worry?

I like to discuss about the preparation methods to communicate after a major solar flare event, the preparation method must be simple to follow & easily understood by the masses.

I found a great forum at God Like Production and they discuss at length ways to communicate after all the electronics get overloaded by induced electricity shock from the Solar Storm.

Various methods from the simplest to the complicated are discussed and I have a few of myself too so Let’s list them all below.

  1. Pencil & Pen method – Since before the arrival of internet we had been sending snail mails everywhere in the globe but this time round there will be no mail vans but horseback mail instead. Leave a written note at home before going out may serve as a communication as well.
  2. CB Radio or UHF Radio – These radio can be preemptively protected using a simple Faraday cage so that they can be used AFTER the solar storm passed.
  3. Internet –  Many may also argue that you won’t get internet once the Internet service provider goes down after the solar storm, I will debate that the service provider can and possibly will restore their services very quickly if they know what to protect against the solar storm now. Keep your favorite internet laptops, tablets, smart phones protected with a faraday cages in case you can use it to send email or video calls to seek help.
  4. Renewable Energy - do not wait for the government to provide electricity to the individual, get a renewable energy source for your self as soon as possible. It may be solar panels, wind mill, bicycle generator, hand crank or even DIY methods of energy production from reflected sun lights to a steam engine power generator. Anything is possible if you have the will power & time to invest.

I may not be 100% prepared myself as there are so many things to prepare! Let’s list down the items that require some kind of preparation.

  • Food –  in times where everywhere are closed due to lacking of electronically powered gadgets like vehicles, computers & refrigerators we must prepare food storage in event there are no electronics around to help us.
  • Water – water pump from city water supply may get disabled during the solar storm as most of them are computer controlled, get a big water tank or fish tank that can give you some water to filter to drink during crisis. Filtration is important & remember to boil before drinking.
  • Protect gadgets of priority – protect your electronics with faradays cages if possible so that no EMP can get through, that may means spare electronics to be kept in faraday cages. For me it may be a spare landline telephone, iPad, CB radio (not yet buy), portable hard disk, video camera and more. Check this link for instructions!

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Possible Reasons Behind Air France jet Atlantic Tragedy

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According to ChannelNewsAsia:

None of the airliner’s emergency beacons, which are trackable by satellite unless they sink deep into the ocean, have been detected, suggesting it crashed violently, said Philippe Hazanne of the French space studies agency.

Flight AF 447 hit fierce turbulence at about 0200 GMT Monday about four hours after it left Rio, and 14 minutes later sent an automatic error message reporting a fault in an electrical circuit, Gourgeon said in Paris.

AF A330-200
This is a terrible tragedy and I sincerely send my condolences to the family members of the victims that comes from all over the world, however I like to find out more about the cause of this “accident” or was it caused by human error or other weird explanations.

Currently, the official explanation is a possible lightning strike which may be too early to assume this conclusion based on a automatic error message reporting a fault in an electrical circuit.

Let’s point all explanation imaginable behind the cause of this tragedy

  1. The plane went into a worm hole into alternate reality similar to the hit television series “LOST” where they crashed in another world (Highly unlikely without any possible scientific evidence to prove that alternate worlds exist for now)
  2. Bermuda Triangle claimed another vessel? The “Bermuda or Devil’s Triangle” is an imaginary area located off the southeastern Atlantic coast of the United States, which is noted for a high incidence of unexplained losses of ships, small boats, and aircraft.
  3. Exploded in mid air into million pieces for whatever possible reasons from missile attack to explosive on board (Highly unlikely due to the fact that the bomb or missile shouldn’t be affecting the airliner’s emergency beacons which is built to endure large impacts)
  4. Lightning Storms strikes the plane and cause a major electrical power outage within the plane or cause extensive damage to the flight control system to bring down the plane immediately which may explains the airliner’s emergency beacons to malfunction simultaneously. (However, this cannot be 100% accurate until the black box is located & examined)
  5. Sudden outburst of Solar Storm that similar to the movie “Knowing” that multiple planes crashes down due to suspected electrical faults caused by the solar storms that NASA had warned time and time again.
  6. It’s just human error or some suicidal pilot(s) but unless comes with further evidence to suggest this possibility, it’s highly unlikely.

Regardless what is the real reasons behind the cause of the crash/disappearance of the plane & passengers, I pray to God to give strengths to the victims’ family members & love ones that was left behind to face this terrible tragedy.

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Homemade Indoor Hydroponic Aquaponic (Update 8)

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Using my sparkling new JVC DV Camcorder, I managed to record this fantastic update on my little experiment!

Latest:
- A small little lady finger seems to be coming out
- I had moved the lights above the metal rack roof to make more space for the lady finger
- Tea strainer is not a problem after bi-weekly “scraping” heh

I am pretty happy with the growth progress with the lady fingers and the tea strainers does not caused much problems, anyone got their own little indoor aquaponic project such as mine? Do contact me if you have any questions :)

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Singapore ups swine flu alert level to Yellow

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According to Channelnewsasia:

SINGAPORE: The Ministry of Health (MOH) has elevated Singapore’s alert level from “green” to “yellow” to guard against swine flu.

While there have been no known cases of human swine flu in Singapore, 17 cases have been referred for further medical assessment.

16 have been referred to the Communicable Disease Centre (CDC) and one case was seen at Singapore General Hospital (SGH).

Read the full article at Channelnewsasia:

YELLOW ALERT! This is almost like telling everyone to brace for impact and it seems so much quicker then SARS where there are still majority of the people ignoring any warnings even thou many people died.

This evening as my mum went for a massage at the (TCM) Traditional Chinese Medicine shop at Jurong East St 24 Blk 253 in Singapore, I saw like at least 5 coughing sick patients inside a clinic and one of them having serious flu like symptoms all of which did not don any N95 mask and coughing indiscriminately with their family members around them.

I tried my best to avoid them but I did happen to walk behind a elderly guy whom cough out and before I know it I was walking right into his path where he coughed.

Yes, I can’t prevent the above situation while I was not wearing ANY mask at all…and my fears is neither are the rest of the whole world whom DID NOT take any precaution due to fear of being laughed at wearing a stupid mask that cover all the important entry points of any flu virus.

I realized I need the mask and the news said the old mask that we had stored away since the last attack was “EXPIRED” as it’s usefulness only last 3 years…that means me and my family member have ZERO protection?

mask2mask

Last few months I had bough a few mask for other purpose such as haze caused by future burning of land in the region to clear land illegally and the following is both of them…but I think it’s kind of excessive…

 

Unfortunately the strap for the spray paint mask kinda broke off slighly but it’s still wearable and the ebay seller for the full face mask did not include the filter cannister and makes it unusable unless I buy the filter canister…which is quite rare in Singapore.

 

Obviously I am not going to wear like above in public hence I will choose to get a common N95 mask if given a chance but I heard they were sold out in Singapore phamacies as the people here buy in bulk and it was completely emptied within a day (Not verified but my friend told me so)

Seriously are we reaching the point where everyone is either too complacent or too panicky to cause a total meltdown in the society in a sense that those who panicked reduced the chance for the rest of the population to buy masks may cause even worst disaster by surrounding themselves with MORE chance of infected people walking without mask on.

It just take a single 8.30 am MRT train load of infected ones to spread to the whole country in a day and many more within buses load with nobody wearing mask and many coughing indiscriminately.

While I am writing this, I felt light headed and feverish…probably due to the fact that I spend 30 minutes in a extremely cold bus 185 with a extremely wet shirt due to “excessive” sweat due to the warm weather of Singapore just now…but I am not sure.

Time will tell…I guess.

I will be going reservist tomorrow to CMPB and they don’t seems to have any fever detection equipment there at the guard house….do they? I am not sure…I guess I have to don a mask tomorrow and I hope the guard won’t mind.

I have a couple of none N95 standard mask which supposedly expired…What should I do now? Feel free to comment if you are still there.

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Homemade Indoor Hydroponic Aquaponic (Update 7)

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18 April 2009

The video above is my latest update on my on going experiment on Indoor Aquaponic Growth System that supposedly able to grow vegetables indoor for personal consumption.

Observation is the “tea strainer” have have some problems letting the water through causing some flooding within the buckets, luckily my pump entrance is pointing upwards within the fish tank hence eliminated any kind of overflow in the above buckets.

The disappointing thing was the collapsed of multiple plants in the middle bucket that died in the “floods” and which I suspected to had melted away in the “tsunami” of water.

I had once witnessed a small dead molly fish being consumed by my “clean up crew” which are my healthy cherry shrimps within the fish tank, I think the molly fishes kept the population of the cherry shrimps in check but many of them now seems to be living happily with the fishes…weird.

I guess the molly fishes’ mouth are not wide enough to swallow an adult cherry shrimp hence leaving the shrimps alone…haha.

Next month after my reservist, I will probably move my experiments into the next level by making a MUCH more wider and Larger buckets hopefully to plant MORE vegetables enough to at least rotate the crops…and all indoors.

Pray hard, Iran won’t be attacked before I buy everything…or we can kiss our money goodbye….hyperinflation to come like “blink”…and WTF!

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