Eating Locally, Food Security

Michelle Galimba On Food Security

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I talk about Food Security as depending on farmers farming. And how many times I have written here: “If the farmer makes money, the farmer going farm.”

In her blog Ehulepo, Michelle Galimba of Kuahiwi Ranch in Ka‘u discusses Food Security in a stark, and different, way:

We are frustrated that we are preyed upon by our own society. That none of our businesses quite “pencil out.” That we bear the burden of a system that has evolved into nonsense, ignorance, and frivolity. These are bitter words and it pains me to say them. But they are true, I think….

Read more of her interesting and thought-provoking blog post Where To Begin? here.

So what happens if the farmers no make money? Or if the next generation does not want to farm?

My son-in-law Kimo, who is the farm manager at Hamakua Springs, called me from Waimea this morning. He said, “Did you know that the large vegetable farm on the way to Waimea is no longer in production? A subdivision is going in.”

I thought, “It’s sad to see. But I am very happy for them and I do not fault the farmer in any way!”

Read Michelle’s post and then let us know what you think.

Geothermal, Government

Testifying for Geothermal Resolution

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I went to O‘ahu on Thursday to testify for the geothermal
resolution.

SENATE CONCURRENT RESOLUTION 99–REQUESTING THE ESTABLISHMENT OF A WORKING GROUP TO ANALYZE THE POTENTIAL DEVELOPMENT OF GEOTHERMAL ENERGY AS THE PRIMARY ENERGY SOURCE TO MEET THE BASELOAD DEMAND FOR ELECTRICITY ON THE BIG ISLAND.

I strongly support Senate Concurrent Resolution 99.

Together with our workers and family, we farm 600 acres of diversified ag crops at Pepe‘ekeo. We have more than 25 years of farming experience.

I was the only person from Hawai‘i to attend the Peak Oil
conference in October of 2007 and again this past October (2009). For several years, I have been following energy issues very closely.

The world is not running out of oil; we are running out of cheap oil. According to the International Energy Association, the official
world barrel counters, world oil supply is declining at the rate of about 4 million barrels per day every year. Saudi Arabia puts out nearly 10 million barrels per day, so every 2 and a years or so, we need to find the equivalent of a Saudi Arabia.

We have maybe 6 million barrels per day of spare capacity now. But it will be used up in a year and a half or sooner, as the world
economy improves, so we do not have too much time to get off oil. And many reputable folks and institutions feel like it is 30 years maximum before the oil-exporting countries will no longer export oil.

On the Big Island we have a proven technology resource that makes cheap electricity—geothermal. One of the things I learned at the Peak Oil conference is the concept of Energy Return on Investment (EROI): the energy it takes to get energy. In the 1930s, the energy in one barrel of oil would help you get 100 barrels of oil. In the 1970s, that one barrel of oil could get you 30 barrels of oil, and now it will only get you about 10 barrels.

Clearly this trend is not good. It’s estimated that it takes a minimum of 3 to 1 (3 barrels of energy gotten by using one barrel) to maintain our present society. After that, we will have to leave it in the ground.

Geothermal on the other hand is 10 to 1 and will stay steady for centuries. EROI must be taken into consideration when evaluating energy projects.

The EROI for biofuels is less than 2 to 1. That is less than the minimum amount of 3 to 1 that we need to maintain our present society.

What about biofuels? Here is how a farmer views growing biofuels. There are 286 pounds in a barrel of oil. At $80 per barrel, that is equal to 28 cents per pound. Say the farmer needs to squeeze four pounds of stuff to make 1 pound of liquid. That farmer can expect no more than 7 cents per pound to grow the stuff, no matter what the stuff is. Lose money. More better plant cucumbers.

Say the farmer needs to make four times that, 28 cents, to break even. Then the price of oil needs to be 4 x $80, or $320 per pound.

By contrast, a Scientific American article points out that geothermal breaks even at $57 per barrel.

SCR 99 is about looking at the feasibility of geothermal for base power.  Of the three main base power sources, oil price is now $80
but everyone knows it will keep on rising. Locally grown biofuels will be expensive and their EROI is not good.

But geothermal is cheap and its EROI is favorable and stable.  Its EROI will stay steady and it will be cheap for centuries.

And of the base power sources, only geothermal is a resource for the Hawaiian community – right now, $600,000 goes to the Office of Hawaiian Affairs every year.

The main reason we need to put geothermal on line is because it is the folks on the lowest rung of the economic ladder whose lights will be turned off first. And when they benefit,  everyone will. People will have discretionary income and businesses will
flourish. Folks will have jobs and be able to raise their families.

If the most defenseless among us are safe, we are all safe.

Click here to read other supporters’ testimony for this
bill.

Aquaponics, Mauna Kea

Busy Day of Many Issues

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It was a busy day for me. At 8 a.m., I met researchers from the College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources at our Hamakua Springs County Farms at Pepe‘ekeo. They were visiting to understand how they might help us develop fish food by recycling our farm waste. We talked for a while. I showed them our tilapia, and they were happy they visited so they could understand the scope of our project.

By 9:30 a.m., I was at ‘Imiloa to observe the Board of Land and Natural Resources meeting, which was to discuss and make decisions about the 4 sub plans they were requesting be added to the Comprehensive Management Plan.

I noticed that there was more people attending this hearing than the last. And there were less folks in the audience who were against the CMP than last time. My immediate assessment was that some of those folks must have been satisfied with the extra requirement  the Land Board required last time.

I signed up to give a short statement. This was the speech I had planned to give.

From the time we started down this path of developing a Comprehensive Management Plan for Maunakea, the world has changed. We are suddenly realizing that although the world is not running out of oil, it is running out of cheap oil we can afford to burn. The International Energy Association, the official world oil barrel counter, tells us that the natural decline rate of world oil fields is 4 million barrels of oil per day each year. Since Saudi Arabia produces only little more than 8 million barrels per day, we need to find a new Saudi Arabia every two years. And it is estimated that within 30 years, the oil exporting countries will no longer be exporting oil. This is very scary!

Patrick Kahawaiola‘a, president of the Keaukaha Community Association, once told me: “It is the process that is most important.” If that is so, I thought, then everyone who contributes to the process helps to make a better end product. That means we have to aloha everyone who contributes to the process, no matter what side of the issue.

Especially now, in this changing world, we need to strengthen our communities; we must make more friends and stay closer to the ones we have. We can agree to disagree. But when this is all over, let’s all respect each others’ contribution.

By 10:15 I’d run out of time to testify, and I caught a plane to O‘ahu. Later in the afternoon, I got a text message that the four sub plans had been approved by the Board of Land and Natural Resources.

I thought of how hard Kealoha Pisciotta, Nelson Ho, Debbie Ward, Clarence Ching, Paul Neves, the Kanaka Council, Hank Fergerstrom, Palikapu Dedman, Jimmie Medeiros and many others have fought to get their voices heard. I know that the reason we have this good Comprehensive Management Plan is because we all had to stretch and work even harder on the CMP than if they had said nothing.

So we must aloha them. For they helped immeasurably to make this Comprehensive Management Plan a better document.

And, then a couple of hours later I was testifying before the Senate on Senate Concurrent resolution 99— REQUESTING THE ESTABLISHMENT OF A WORKING GROUP TO ANALYZE THE POTENTIAL DEVELOPMENT OF GEOTHERMAL ENERGY AS THE PRIMARY ENERGY SOURCE TO MEET THE BASELOAD DEMAND FOR ELECTRICITY ON THE BIG ISLAND.

More about that here on Monday.

Mauna Kea

Correcting Misstatements about Maunakea and Astronomy

On Thursday, there will be a Board of Land and Natural Resources hearing at ‘Imiloa Astronomy Center from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Leading up to this hearing, there have been many claims and counterclaims about different aspects of the care of Maunakea. Here is a statement that corrects some recent misstatements:

No Danger to Maunakea Aquifer

Comprehensive research confirms that the observatories on Maunakea pose no danger to the aquifer and drinking water on the Big Island.

The statement suggesting otherwise is misleading because it incorrectly assumes that the summit is a significant contributor to the water supply.

Because the conservation district on Maunakea encompasses both the high elevations (8,000 to 14,000 feet) and lower elevations (5,000 to 2,000 feet) it is true that the conservation lands encompass critical watershed and forestry lands.  However, the critical watershed and forestry lands are those lands in the lower elevation band.  Above 8,000 feet there is little rainfall (less than 30 inches/year), little forest, and little groundwater recharge.  The bulk of groundwater is generated by the higher rainfall (60 to 200 inches/year) in the lower elevation band of conservation land.

Maps that depict the limits of groundwater aquifers show all the aquifers extending to the summit of Maunakea. This gives the false impression that the summit of Maunakea is the headwaters for these aquifers when in fact the land above 8,000 feet contributes little to the aquifer compared to the land at lower elevations.  Furthermore, none of the developments above 8,000 feet eliminate or inhibit groundwater recharge in anyway.

Another concern based on misinformation is the potential for pollution of the aquifer. Studies carried out to evaluate potential pollutants related to septic tanks in the summit region have demonstrated that wastewater discharged via septic tanks in the summit region have not and will not impact water quality at drinking water wells down gradient.  In addition, a proposed new observatory, the Thirty Meter Telescope, is being designed as a zero waste discharge facility, with all waste securely transported off the summit. Ensuring it will not impact the quality of the island’s drinking water.

UH Does Not Have Resources to Build Telescopes and Needs Scientific Partnerships

The underlying implication of the sublease statements is that the State is “giving away” a valuable public trust resource without getting anything in return. To appreciate why this is not the case, one first needs to understand the basic philosophy behind the development; the essential role played by the IfA; and the educational, scientific and economic benefits that accrue to the State of Hawaii from astronomy.

It is logical to think that UH should build powerful observatories on its own, as the universities in California, Texas, Arizona, and on the East Coast have done.  Unfortunately, UH is a medium-sized state university with a very limited budget, and Hawaii is a small state with limited resources.  Thus, a different concept was developed— the concept of scientific partnerships.

Within this concept the national and international partners contribute the capital funding for the facility, carry most or all of the operational costs, and contribute to the infrastructure development.  The University, through the IfA, provides the leadership and know-how to operate an observatory at extreme altitude, the management of the physical and operational infrastructure (roads, power, fiber-optics communications, food, and lodging) and ongoing protection from adverse intrusions such as light pollution and radio frequency interference.  The University also provides the land for the observatory site from its lease from the State, along with assistance in planning and permitting.  The University and its partners collaborate in the scientific use of the telescopes, including development of technologically advanced instrumentation.  Most importantly, they share the scientific observing time on the facilities with no cost to the University.

In this way, the University and the State are saved the enormous capital costs of designing and building world-class telescopes, but are still able to provide researchers with access to these unique facilities and give them the opportunity to develop one of the best astronomical research and education programs in the world.

The benefits, both economic and otherwise, are substantial as indicated below.

1.   Astronomy facilities on Maunakea and Haleakala represent a capital investment of close to $1 billion.  The economic benefit of astronomy to the State amounts to $140 million per year.  New projects for Haleakala and Maunakea have the potential to double these numbers.

2.   The observatories and other astronomy-related activities on Maunakea and Haleakala provide 600 quality jobs in a clean high-tech industry on the neighbor islands.  It is important to note that only a small fraction of these jobs are for astronomers.  Most of them are for technical, administrative, and logistic services.  Beyond the simple numbers, there is the fact that astronomy as a high-tech science diversifies the Hawaii economy and gives local young people with scientific and technical talents a wealth of opportunities to realize their potential without having to leave Hawaii to pursue employment elsewhere.  Unlike many high-tech industries, astronomy is fundamentally rooted in Hawaii.  Observatories cannot be relocated to the mainland or overseas.

3.   Astronomy is one of UH’s most successful programs and the IfA has developed into one of the world’s preeminent centers for astronomical research.  Its graduate program is among the best in the world and about 1,000 undergraduate students per year participate in astronomy courses in Manoa.  UH Hilo has also developed a very successful astronomy undergraduate program.

4.   The telescopes on Maunakea comprise the world’s most important observatory complex. It is likely that Hawaii will retain this enviable distinction for the foreseeable future.  Hawaii and its State University are recognized around the world for this outstanding achievement—a source of tremendous prestige for the State.  Approximately 1,500 scientists come to work at the observatories each year, which also helps support Hawaii’s key tourism and vacation industry. Hundreds of others come to Hawaii each year to participate in astronomy-related conferences.  Several small companies make a business of providing quality tours to Maunakea.  The observatories’ base facilities in Hilo, Waimea, and on Maui are major additions to those communities and contribute in many ways.

5.   Over the years, the observatories have made significant monetary contributions to the infrastructure, much of which benefits the general community.  This includes $2 million for road improvements on Maunakea and another $2 million to assist GTE Hawaiian Tel to install a fiber optics cable across the Saddle from Waimea to Hilo.  This cable provides state-of-the-art service for both the Big Island telephone system and the observatories.

6.   The observatories operate the Visitor Information Station at Hale Pohaku, which provides free public star gazing seven nights a week and welcomes about 100,000 visitors each year.

7.   The observatories pay the entire cost of maintenance and snow removal for the road and they pay for emergency services.  The public has year-round use of these roads.  The costs for this service and the Visitor Station amount to $700,000 a year.

Although the economic benefits are substantial, it is important to keep in mind that astronomy research does not generate any revenue for the observatories.  Astronomy is basic science and concentrates on the scientific exploration of the Universe.  Astronomy is probably the first science, is interwoven with Hawaii’s traditional culture, and has changed our understanding of the world and our thinking as humans like no other science.  The telescopes on Maunakea and Haleakala have contributed fundamentally to the advancement of human knowledge.  They have not been built and have never been used to generate any kind of income for the partner institutes or UH.  None of the observatories earn revenue by charging fees for observing time.  In fact most of them are prohibited from doing so either by their terms of incorporation or by their funding.  The telescopes are not private commercial instruments.  They are world-class research facilities, and the best window our planet provides on the strange and wonderful universe we live in.

Payment for “Viewing Nights”

Currently the operating costs for the W. M. Keck Observatory are borne by the University of California (83 percent) and NASA (17 percent). Caltech was responsible for the original costs of building the telescopes and does not pay for operations cost because it secured large grants from the Keck Foundation and NASA to fund the construction of the observatory.

This arrangement comes to an end in 2018. At that point Caltech will need to share in funding to operate the facility (42 percent to retain its current share). For this reason, Caltech sought new partners to raise funds for Keck operations beginning in 2018.  The funds from this agreement will be used solely to operate the W.M. Keck Observatory. These funds will pay salaries for staff on the island of Hawai’i to maintain and operate the telescopes on the summit and the base facility in Waimea.

The only funds received for “observation viewing nights” are those necessary to reimburse the cost of providing agreed services, such as the operation of W.M. Keck Observatory, pay salaries for staff on the island of Hawai’i to maintain and operate the telescopes on the summit and the base facility in Waimea.  In short, the money is used to pay the high fixed operational costs of the observatories.  As such, there are no revenues or profits in the sense of funding that could be used for other purposes.

Biofuel, Government, Renewable Energy Sources

USDA & Navy To Meet About Hawai‘i Energy Initiative

On April 6, 2010, there will be an all-day forum about the Memorandum of Understanding between the U.S. Navy and the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

WASHINGTON, March 18, 2010 – The U. S. Department of Agriculture and the Department of Navy are co-hosting an all day forum in Hawaii on April 6, 2010, to share information about a recently announced collaborative energy opportunity. Among those providing remarks are
Agriculture Deputy Secretary Kathleen A. Merrigan and Jackalyne Pfannenstiel, assistant secretary of the Navy for installations and environment. The program is taking place on the Marine Corps Base-Hawaii in the Kaneohe Bay Officers Club.

Earlier this year, Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus and Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to support President Obama’s initiative to reduce energy consumption derived from fossil fuels and increase energy production from renewable energy sources. This energy initiative in Hawaii is a direct result of that MOU.

Hawaii has been selected as the location for the initial collaboration between USDA and the Navy because Hawaii’s energy costs are among the highest in the nation and imported oil supplies 90 percent of the State’s energy. A viable agricultural sector in Hawaii can enhance Hawaii’s energy security, and energy projects like those anticipated by the Navy’s needs can help rural economies.

There may be some job opportunities associated with growing biofuels to supply the U.S. Navy.

We need to go into this with our eyes wide open, though. It will probably be expensive, or else it will be highly subsidized. Right now, biofuel does not make money on its own.

Two years ago there was a discussion about biofuels, and farmers decided then, “No sense lose money.” Here is how the economics look from a farmer’s point of view:

A barrel of oil consists of 42 gallons, and each gallon weighs approximately 6.8 pounds. Therefore, each barrel of oil weighs 286 pounds. At $80 per barrel, each pound of that oil is worth 28 cents.

Say it takes four pounds of stuff in order to squeeze out one pound of liquid. Then the farmer can expect to get no more than 7 cents per pound for the stuff. No sense, lose money.

If the farmer wanted to get 28 cents per pound to grow the stuff, then the price of oil would have to be 4 times $80 —or $320 per barrel.

There was an article in the Honolulu Star-Bulletin about the plant jatropha. In the article, the farmer said it takes 100 pounds of jatropha to make 1 gallon of biodiesel. At $80 oil, this translates to 2 cents per pound. To make just 5 cents per pound, oil would need to be $400 per barrel. If the farmer wanted 10 cents per pound, oil would need to be at $800 per barrel to give the proper price signal.

So the oil resulting from farmer-grown biofuels would either be very expensive or highly subsidized. I don’t have a problem with that, if the Navy will use all the biofuel for fuel. It would result in jobs, and that’s fine.

But we just cannot allow biofuels to find their way into HELCO’s oil-fired plants. None of us want higher electricity rates, especially when we have a stable source of geothermal power here. It’s as if we had Niagara Falls and cheap, abundant hydropower, but were asked to instead use expensive or highly subsidized biofuels to make our electricity.

I know there is lots of research going on around advanced biofuels. And that’s good. We can integrate new developments when they become proven technology. Wishing and hoping is not an energy policy.

The world has changed and we must be street-smart about what we do. We need to ask:

•    How much going cost?
•    Who going make money?
•    What is effect on future generations?

Company News, Hamakua Coast, Sustainability

One More Step Forward: Putting Some Of Our Land into Conservation

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We have decided to place the 264-acre portion of Makahanaloa Ahupua‘a we own into agriculture forever. We are working with the Hawaii Land Trust to make this happen by putting a conservation ag easement on it.

Bananas Bananas

The world has changed and we must protect our uniquely productive agricultural lands.

This land is particularly productive. A flume runs right through the property, and we are developing a hydro-electic project that will generate 74 KW of electricity continuously.

Flume
Flume water, originating from the highest elevation Hilo corner of the property

The soil is more than 10 feet deep in places.

In addition, we have use of a former county spring that used to supply Pepe‘ekeo town. All we need to do is put a valve in to activate the 8-inch cast iron pipe and get fresh clean water under gravity flow.

Tai Wan Gu grows more than 100 acres of sweet potatoes on the land.

Sweet potatoes
More than 100 acres of sweet potato

Danny Loeffler is the largest sweet corn grower on the Big Island, and he rotates crops with Tai Wan. Tom Menezes grows apple bananas, taro, cacao and other crops. These are the best, most productive farmers on the Hilo/Hamakua Coast.

It is very rare to find this combination of resources – the tremendous amount of fresh water that flows downhill by gravity, the soil more than 10 feet deep, and the fact that soon we will be generating electricity for our farming operation there – and it must be preserved for future generations.

Even with it becoming conservation ag land, we can continue farming there.

This whole project is an important part of our Family of Farms project:

I wrote in a recent post about how much I admired Uncle Sonny’s ability to grow great watermelons in a very effective and efficient way.

Over the years, I have noticed that this is a characteristic I see all the time in small farmers’ operations. So how are we going to supply food for Hawaii’s people, in the variety that the community will need, so they won’t need to travel so often? And on the community scale, how will we have enough variety to feed the community around us?

This is how the concept of “Families of Farms” came to me. I asked myself, What happens if we lease lands and hydroponic houses to area farmers?

Our idea is that we would each bring certain resources to make the whole more than the sum of the parts. We believe that this will help each of us make more money together than if we operated independently. So it’s in all of our interests to stay together.

•    We would get effective and efficient farmers working with us. Small farmers do not waste anything. And we would get more production than what we could do ourselves
•    We would get more variety than we could do ourselves
•    We would get more young farmers into farming
•    We would bring the water and electricity resource that we have
•    We would bring our technical expertise
•    We would bring our marketing and distribution system
•    We would bring our cooling facilities

We will need to adapt to a new normal. Necessity is the mother of invention.

Geothermal

Off-Peak Geothermal Energy Can Ultimately Power Vehicles & Make Fertilizer

Ammonia can be made from “off-peak” geothermal energy.

My friend Steve Gruhn explains ammonia better than anyone I know. Having come from the midwest, Steve is very concerned about fertilizer security.

Not only can “off-peak” power from geothermal make ammonia, but ammonia can power vehicles and make fertilizer.

Looks like a slam dunk to me.

He sent me the following:

Richard,

I have put together a little information for you. I hope you can use it to help others understand the importance of NH3, Nitrogen fertilizers and the need to develop sustainable ways of producing it. This is why we are so glad to hear about what is happening in Hawaii and support your efforts 200%.

First to give some background on SAFE/Freedom Fertilizer and how it relates to all types of agriculture, here in Iowa, out in Hawaii and around the world. SAFE stands for Sustainable Ammonia Fertilizer Enterprise. We are about finding ways of producing nitrogen fertilizer from renewable sources of energy.

To do this we must produce NH3. NH3 is ammonia and ammonia is the first step in all nitrogen fertilizers. Nitrogen by itself is something most people do not have a clue about let alone the NH3 part. First and foremost, without Nitrogen we can not produce food.

It is the Nitrogen cycle that allows for life on the planet to exist. In all reality our ability to produce Nitrogen via ammonia synthesis is much more important than oil. In today’s world without the Haber ammonia synthesis process that is the starting point for almost all Nitrogen based fertilizers used today we could only produce enough food to feed about 1/2 to 2/3rds of the people that are on this planet.

The other problem with using the current Haber process is it all starts as fossil fuel, mostly natural gas but some coal is used. For every ton of ammonia produced using the Haber process it takes the energy equivalent of 300 gallons of gasoline and produces 1.8 tons of CO2, 4 tons of CO2 with coal.

Here in Iowa it means for every one acre of corn production twice as much fossil fuel is used to produce the Nitrogen fertilizer than all other field operations combined, planting to harvest.

The next problem is it makes Nitrogen issues identical to that of oil. We import way too much, 60% + of this countries usage, it is coming from the same troubled areas as oil, its production creates global warming gas and as the cost of fossil fuel feedstock rises it will drive the cost of Nitrogen fertilizer higher as well. Eventually pricing it beyond the pocket books of those farmers around the world whom can least afford not having it.

Then at the same time it will be doing the same for the price of food on our grocery shelves. In a nutshell the picture is not very pretty if alternatives are not developed.

How many people do you know have any idea about these critical issues? That our food supply is just as vulnerable to disruption as our oil supply. In all reality our food supply is twice as vulnerable. Today’s industrial agriculture is too dependent on imported fossil fuel for machines and fertilizer.

The good news is we think that Freedom Fertilizer has the answers to these issues. As of today we are getting a good foothold on the development of new technology that can answer these problems. With luck in the next several months we will be making  major steps forward in the development of this technology. A technology that can produce NH3 at atmospheric pressure with only water, free nitrogen and electricity. In time and with proper funding we are hopeful that this process can be used for local distributed production of NH3.

Now for the flip side of NH3 that even fewer people have a clue about. Using NH3 as fuel and to store energy. In reality NH3 is stored energy in a form that has been greatly over looked. Some have referred to it as the other Hydrogen or NHydrogen3.

NH3 doesn’t have to be produced from fossil fuel. It can be produced today via hydrogen from electrolysis and in the not to distant future with new solid state processes like what we are working on.

When the electricity for the processes is produced from stranded, off peak or excess generation capacity this NH3 may be a cost effective way to store electricity.

We already know that NH3 is much easier and cost effective to store and transport than the sum of which it is made. That being Hydrogen. If it is electricity from renewable sources the NH3 is sustainable.

Best of all this could be demonstrated all with current technology. Not only for the production and storage but for the regeneration of power as well. Currently available ICE engine technology allows for using NH3 as fuel. Iowa State University and and the Iowa Energy Center have done several very successful demonstrations using NH3.

These are just a few of the reasons why we support your efforts so much.

Steve Gruhn
712-330-3114
S.A.F.E. / Freedom Fertilizer
Sustainable Ammonia Fertilizer Enterprises LLC
3006 Hwy 71 – Spirit Lake, IA 51360
www.freedomfertilizer.com

Green Ground Zero – GreeNH3 – NH3 Future Fuel – Freedom Fertilizer -Nitronol sm

S.A.F.E. LLC is located at Green Ground Zero – The NW corner of The State of Iowa. This is the epicenter of the new green revolution. The area is home to more installed wind, ethanol, bio-diesel and biomass capacity than anywhere else in the world….  With much more being planned. The future here is bright with projects like SAFE’s GreeNH3, sustainable carbon free Freedom Fertilizer, NH3Future Fuel and Nitronol fuels. Our local vocational schools lead the nation with premier green job training programs in all phases of green energy production. The area has many new ideas, plenty of room and the green resources for much, much more. So just maybe your next renewable project should consider being a part of this green revolution at Green Ground Zero.

Please contact us for more details.

Biofuel

What’s Up With Biofuels?

What’s up with biofuels?

All biofuels are not the same.

Biofuel like the kind Pacific Biodiesel makes is made from used kitchen grease. It is actually recycling; they don’t need to grow the stuff they use to make the fuel. Recycling is good.

But there just isn’t that much waste kitchen grease. In an emergency that biodiesel would be valuable, and reserved for public safety vehicles and for food production.

What about farmer-grown biofuel? Two years ago, farmers sat in discussions that HECO sponsored on the Big Island and Maui. Farmers quickly figured out their return and stopped going to the meetings.

Farmers knew that a barrel of oil weighed 286 pounds. When oil was $80 per barrel, 1 pound of that oil was worth 28 cents. They figured they would have to squeeze at least 4 pounds of stuff to get 1 pound of liquid.

That meant that the most they could get for growing any kind of biofuel stock would be 7 cents per pound. No sense lose money. Better plant cucumber.  Small farmers wouldn’t do it.

If they did do it, it would have to be very expensive—more than $320 per barrel expensive. And as oil prices rise, the cost of growing the biofuel would rise too.

What about cellulosic ethanol? It is still just an idea. Lots and lots of federal money went down the drain trying to force this to work. And as fossil fuel prices go up, the cost of this process goes up too.

And how about algae-to-biofuel? We all hope this will work. But it is still very far off and may never be scalable. “Wishing” and “hoping” is not an energy policy.

Biofuels, except for the kind made from kitchen grease, have an Energy Return on Investment of less than 2 to 1. Dr. Chas Hall says that a modern society needs an EROI of more than 3 to 1 to sustain itself.

Education, Hawaiian Role Models, Mauna Kea, Science

Kalepa Baybayan – Navigator-In-Residence at ‘Imiloa

Kalepa Kalepa Baybayan is known as a “Master Navigator,” but when I talked to him the other day, it was clear the title makes him uncomfortable. He returned to it twice.

“I would disclaim being a master of anything,” he said. “I’m pretty much a student of the art. Though I have greater responsibilities, I still learn every time I go out.”

He was talking about going out on the Hokule‘a, which he’s sailed on since 1975, when he was 19. If there is anything more interesting than the story of the Hokule‘a, I don’t know what it is.

From Wikipedia:

Hōkūleʻa is a performance-accurate full-scale replica of a waʻa kaulua, a Polynesian double-hulled voyaging canoe. Launched on 8 March 1975 by the Polynesian Voyaging Society, she is best known for her 1976 Hawaiʻi to Tahiti voyage performed with Polynesian navigation techniques, without modern navigational instruments. The primary goal of the voyage was to further support the anthropological theory of the Asiatic origin of native Oceanic people, of Polynesians and Hawaiians in particular, as the result of purposeful trips through the Pacific, as opposed to passive drifting on currents, or sailing from the Americas. (Scientific results of 2008, from DNA analysis, illuminate this theory of Polynesian settlement.) A secondary goal of the project was to have the canoe and voyage “serve as vehicles for the cultural revitalization of Hawaiians and other Polynesians.”

Since the 1976 voyage to Tahiti and back, Hōkūle‘a has completed nine more voyages to destinations in Micronesia, Polynesia, Japan, Canada, and the United States, all using ancient wayfinding techniques of celestial navigation.

The next Hokule‘a voyage, now in the planning stages, is going to be a doozy: They’re planning to take the voyaging canoe around the world. The Hokule‘a is going to circumnavigate the globe, and it will probably be a two- to three-year voyage, he said.

“As ambitious as that sounds, explorers have been sailing around the world for a couple hundred years now,” he said, “so it’s not something so far out there it’s not achievable.”

“In my very early years, looking at that traditionally shaped sail cutting across the night sky,” he said, “that’s a pretty compelling vision for a young man to see. I look up there and realize that silhouette I’m seeing is probably the same one my ancestors saw.

“The excitement, amazement, the loneliness and happiness of finding land – it’s timeless. That’s universal. So you get really close to experiencing the world and the environment in the same sense your ancestors did.”

Richard wanted to know if Kalepa navigates the canoe by the ocean, looking up at the stars, or whether he sees himself as traveling in space – in the stars?

Kalepa thought about that before answering. He said he just sees the canoe pointing in a certain direction, and things moving by it. “I don’t really experience it as the canoe being moved by nature,” he said. “Rather I see nature moving by us.”

When not at sea, Kalepa is Navigator-in-Residence at ‘Imiloa Astronomy Center in Hilo. Isn’t that a great title? “They had an Astronomer-In-Residence and they wanted a Navigator-In-Residence too,” he explained.

‘Imiloa, of course, is where we “celebrate Hawaiian culture and Maunakea astronomy, sharing with the world an inspiring example of science and culture united [my italics] to advance knowledge, understanding and opportunity.”

Kalepa and the interim executive director, Ka‘iu Kimura, are both graduates of the Hawaiian language college, and Kalepa said there’s an indigenous model of leadership emerging at ‘Imiloa.

“One of the great things about ‘Imiloa is that it’s exposing us to the national and international communities,” he said.

About a year and a half ago, he and ‘Imiloa Planetarium Director Shawn Laatsch were invited to speak at Athens and Hamburg planetariums. “There is a curiosity about indigenous astronomy,” he said, “and the story of voyaging is a really compelling story. And the context is to have Shawn speak to the [astronomical] exploration being done on Mauna Kea.”

He said while he’s really happy with where Hawai‘i’s voyaging knowledge is at, there’s still a lot of work to do. “We experimented with what we were doing,” he said. ‘We learned and we gathered the info. Now it’s a matter of, How do we teach it in an effective way? Who are the teachers?

“It’s one thing to have a conversation with canoe people who travel together all the time, but trying to talk to a new generation, that’s a different kind of process.”

This seems to be another place ‘Imiloa comes in.

“We need to make a connection to the STEM program,” he said, “to science; that encourages young learners to follow the tradition of navigation; not to be navigators, but to follow the tradition of exploring.”

“My largest responsibility,” he said, about his role at ‘Imiloa, “is that the internal compass of the organization be aligned to the horizon we want to move toward.”

Geothermal

Fresh Water Below Sea Level

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Don Thomas is a geologist and volcanologist at the UH Manoa and UH Hilo. Talking to him is so interesting; it’s kind of like an Indiana Jones novel. He is quiet and unassuming but the stuff he talks about just blows me away.

One day, he mentioned to me that he was looking for fresh water for the military at Pohakuloa. He told me about this neat instrument that can look down and see the electroconductivity of rock.

He told me that dry rocks have a certain signature and wet rocks a different one. He said that salty wet rocks and hot rocks have signatures that are hard to distinguish from one another. So one could locate heat zones?

Hmmm, I thought—maybe we can find hot geothermal zones?

Don just drops these kinds of info. I had no idea that geology could be so fascinating.

From Don’s email to me:

We’ve always assumed that the understanding of groundwater in Hawaii was pretty well established.  The old timers, the guys I learned from when I was a student at UH, did a really fantastic job at interpreting the geology and groundwater hydrology. But, they didn’t have any data to tell them what was going on deep below sea level.

With our deep borehole, we found that some assumptions that were made about the flow of water below sea level was much different from the assumptions made by the earlier hydrologists.  The most significant finding was that freshwater was found much farther below sea level than anyone had expected.

For water to be that deep, it meant that seawater had to have been forced out by much higher pressure freshwater than was expected.  In order for those pressures to occur, it meant that freshwater was piled up much higher inside Mauna Kea than we had assumed.  To prove that, we’ll need to drill a hole from a much higher elevation – in the Saddle.

But, because drilling is pretty expensive, I teamed up with some folks from the mainland who are experts in a type of measurement that can “look” downward into the ground and determine the electrical resistance of the rocks at various depths below the surface.  Dry rocks are pretty poor electrical conductors; when they get wet with fresh water, they are better conductors; and when they are wet with sea water, they are even more conductive.

That exploration method is pretty expensive itself – but we were able to make measurements at about thirty stations across the Saddle – with the data we were able to collect, we were able to identify a couple of locations where the conductivity of the ground was similar to that of fresh water saturated rock at about 3000′ above sea level.

That doesn’t guarantee that we will find water there – it’s like in the detective stories – the conductivity of the rocks is only “circumstantial evidence” – it’s possible that other geologic conditions are responsible for the conductivity.  The only way we can prove the presence of water at that elevation will be to drill into one of those zones.  But, if there is water there, it will mean that we have a pretty large resource stored inside the island.

It’s also important to realize that another of the findings of the deep hole was that the local conditions – where ever you are on the island – will exert a strong control over where groundwater flows.  So the conditions in Kona, whatever they are, will likewise have an impact on the water.

It’s just a guess, but my guess is that there is a lot more water stored on the Kona side of Mauna Loa than we have generally expected based on the relatively thin groundwater lens found near the coast.  I’d bet that there are buried formations that are controlling groundwater flow – similar to the ones we found in Hilo – that may be forcing fresh water to discharge from that are deep below sea level.  But, again, we don’t the necessary geological data to be able to prove that.

Richard again:

This really captures my imagination. It points out the value of education and science in a very practical way. Combine that with getting HELCO to use geothermal as base power—we can get that water at a reasonable cost.

This article predicts that the wet side of the island will get wetter and the dry side drier. If this is the case, then Don’s efforts could be the basis for solving our long-term problems.

I want the people to know the role Don has played and is still playing for the Big Island people’s benefit!