Month: March 2007

Denatured Ethanol Takes Fun From Alcohol

A few generations ago, people hid in the woods with their stills hiding from the feds while they made grain alcohol from corn mash. Today, they have shareholders and huge manufacturing plants turning out ethanol to use as fuel. The big differences is the product today is denatured ethanol which is purposely rendered unfit for human consumption.

Ethanol, usually referred to as ethyl alcohol or grain alcohol, is high flammable, slightly toxic clear liquid with a light perfume odor. Typically found in alcoholic beverages it is regulated and highly taxed in its original form. However, with other uses for the alcohol such as industrial and medical applications, it has been denatured to make it unfit for consumption with the addition of benzoate or methanol. Many forms of denatured ethanol can be bought without the high taxation and without regulations.

There are currently over 100 refineries in the United States producing about 5.1 billion gallons of ethanol with close to 60 more denatured ethanol plants under construction. Currently it costs about $1.50 per gallon to refine denatured ethanol with price fluctuations caused by the changing price of corn.

Other Countries Lead Ethanol Production

Used as a fuel or fuel additive, other countries, such as Brazil, has been running on a blend of denatured ethanol and gasoline, commonly called gasohol, and manufactures its ethanol from sugar. As an additive, it is not uncommon to find gasoline in Brazil to contain as much as 20 percent ethanol.

Some have blamed the refinement of sugar in Brazil into ethanol for higher sugar prices and are predicting higher costs of products made from corn in the United States to follow. However, as more denatured ethanol manufacturers are seeing the financial benefits, many are buying their own farms on which to cultivate corn.

In addition to the federal government not taxing denatured ethanol used in fuel production, ethanol also is not charged the 52 cents per gallon tax as is gasoline, keeping the refining costs lower to help spur the increase in use of this renewable fuel.

The governments renewable fuel standard will require the use of 7.5 billion gallons of denatured ethanol be used as a fuel by 2012, up from the four billion gallon requirement that existed in 2006. Additional manufacturing facilities and refineries, along with an increase in corn production will be required to enable manufacturers to meet the deadline.

Lamp Lighting: Helps To Give Marvelous Splash Of Lights

There are different types of lamps that include fun and festive lamps that can wiggle from side to side when any of their sides are touched. In addition, one may direct their light anywhere in different shades of pink, purple and white. Different means of lamp lighting helps to give a marvelous splash of light to any room. Using different lamp lighting, one can choose lamps that have different shapes as well as shades that help to give an ambient look and, helps in illuminating the surroundings to best effect.

Compact Fluorescent Lamp

The compact fluorescent lamp or CFL is the latest in lamp lighting and, fits into a standard light bulb socket or, it may be plugged into a small lighting fixture. They compare well to incandescent light bulbs and, have a longer rated life. CFL lamp lighting would help save enough money to the user and thus help to offset their higher cost.

The CFL has two parts, which are the gas filled tube and the magnetic or electronic ballast. When one uses CFL in lamp lighting, electrical energy flows from the ballast through the medium of gas and gives off ultraviolet light, which in turn, excites a white phosphor coating within the tube and, thus emits visible light. Using the CFL in lamp lighting provides the room with efficient means of lighting at cheaper rates as well as maximum durability.

Another type of fluorescent lamp lighting that one can use is the electrodeless fluorescent light that is also called radiofluorescent lamp and, these are different to other conventional lamps in that they accomplish giving off of light through electromagnetic induction. One may also opt for a variation of existing CFL technologies, which is bulbs that have external nano-particle coating of titanium dioxide and, such lamps can convert oxygen to ozone and, also neutralize odors and kill off bacteria and viruses.

Newer forms of lamp lighting can also include cold cathode fluorescent light that is the latest in CFL. These new types of lamps will not use filaments and, have five times the amount of voltage than that of a CFL and, can last for about 50.000 hours. Man is constantly striving to improve the efficiency of house lighting and the same is the case with lamp lighting. However, the public has not been so quick in adapting to these new technologies mainly due to expecting higher rates of returns on the higher cost of these new lamp lighting means. This has led the government to encourage the use of CFLs through offering the public such lamps for free and, also appealing to the morals of individuals.