Palm Biodiesel - Fuel of the future

It is largely accepted that conventional sources of fuel and energy are being rapidly depleted and there is a global search for sustainable sources of alternative renewable fuel. Renewable fuel is a commodity just like any other form of energy. It has a major role in meeting energy demand needs and combating global warming. One of the most exciting development is fatty acid methyl esters, popularly known as Biodiesel.



Biodiesel is an alternative renewable fuel that has been hailed as one of the biggest technology breakthroughs in the Oils and Fats industry. It is one of the most viable substitutes for petroleum diesel fuel and is manufactured from vegetable oils, animal fats or recycled greases combined with alcohol (ethanol or methanol) in the transesterification process. Biodiesel has a major advantage over petroleum diesel in that it is derived from renewable sources and is environmentally friendly. Therefore, fewer green house gases such as carbon dioxide are released into the atmosphere. In several countries, a combination of legislation and tax breaks favor the rising production and consumption of Biodiesel. In the US, Biodiesel is considered to be the lowest cost-strategy in complying with state and federal regulations on emission as it does not require major engine modifications. As the world’s largest Palm Oil producer and exporter, Malaysia is now looked upon as the pioneer of a new and exciting Palm Biodiesel Industry. The benefits of Biodiesel encompassing economical and environmental components are well in line with the Malaysian government’s Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Policy (Ninth Malaysia Plan 2006-2010) for the country.



What is Palm Biodiesel?
Palm Biodiesel is an alternative fuel derived from Palm Oil and can be used in compression ignition engines i.e. diesel engines without any modifications. It refers to methyl esters derived from Palm Oil through a process known as “transesterification”. Biodiesel has been recognised and accepted as an alternative and renewable source of energy which is environmentally friendly. Biodiesel is degradable, non toxic and can be used as transportation fuel in most public transportation system. It can be used in pure form but is often blended with regular diesel. Palm Biodiesel has been systematically and exhaustively evaluated as diesel fuel substitute since 1983. These include laboratory evaluation, stationary engine testing and field trials on a large number of vehicles, including taxis, trucks, trains, passenger cars and buses.

Why Palm Biodiesel?
Palm Oil is the most productive oil bearing plant species. The yield of Palm Oil per unit area is 5 and 10 times higher than rapeseed and soy bean respectively. Considering the comparative yields of various oil-bearing crops, Palm Oil is clearly the most efficiently-produced in the world today.  When the global market increases its focus on vegetable oil as renewable fuel, Palm Oil will inevitably stand out. The yield factor alone is adequate for the world to decide on certain vegetable oils that will be produced extensively to meet the expanding requirements for greener and cleaner energy. The added advantage of using Palm Oil is that it is less susceptible to the vagaries of the weather compared to other vegetable oils. Being a perennial tree crop, it produces oil the whole year round and is not harmful to the environment like annual crops. This would ensure a constant supply of raw material for the Biodiesel industry. In international markets where petroleum diesel is not subsidised, Palm Biodiesel will be a very viable investment.  

The Environment Factor : Projecting A Green Image
As a perennial crop, Palm Oil maintains green canopy throughout its 30 years of economic life compared to annual crops like Soya Bean which is only able to maintain its green affect for a few months in a year. Studies have also confirmed that Palm Oil-based products are much easily degraded than those based on petrochemical-derived feedstock. Thus, it is clear that Palm Oil promotes optimal impact on the environment and is able to meet a sizeable proportion of the world’s needs for energy and Oils and Fats.

The Carbon Cycle

All Biofuels are derived from the conversion of sunlight to energy that takes place in the green leaves of plants. Plants take up carbon dioxide (CO2) from the atmosphere; burning plant (or animal) products in an engine releases the CO2 uptake back into the atmosphere. The CO2 released into the atmosphere when Biodiesel is being burned is recycled by growing plants, which are later processed into fuels. The recycled CO2 causes the atmospheric CO2 levels to remain constant. Due to its closed carbon cycle, Biodiesel do not increase the Greenhouse Effect compared to fossil fuels, which release large amounts of new (or rather very old) CO2 which has been locked away from the atmosphere. In fact, Biodiesel can actually reduce CO2 level in the atmosphere: growing soybeans consumes nearly four times as much CO2 as the amount of CO2 produced in the exhaust from soybean oil Biodiesel. 
In the US, a blend of 20% Biodiesel with 80% petroleum diesel is widely used. Many US states have passed legislation favouring Biodiesel and a new tax incentive signed in 2004 for Biodiesel productions demonstrates an increasing support for edible oil prices.
In Australia, a Biodiesel package released in 2003 provides producers and importers of domestic Biodiesel with subsidies and a net effective excise rate of zero for Biodiesel.
Japan, Korea, China and Thailand have also expressed strong interests in Biodiesel and are among many countries that are now seriously evaluating their own indigenous vegetable oils as renewable energy sources.
All of these developments underscore environmental benefits in terms of lesser green house gas emission and economical benefits in terms of reduced dependence on the fossil fuel imports and positive impact on agriculture.



Route to success - Know Who You Are

To be a successful person we have to know who we are. If life can be likened to a journey, we have to know our strengths and weaknesses because this will be the luggage we would be carrying on our journey. No traveller would embark on a trip, especially a long one, without deciding what to bring along. The longer the journey, the more stringent the checklist will be as the luggage can only accommodate what is of necessity, use and benefit to the traveller. The same applies to us if we want to embark on the road to success.

Take the first step to know yourself. Find out what are our assets and liabilities in our character. Dump the dead weight that has been hindering our effort to achieve success.

How do you describe your self?

Below is a list of 15 qualities. 
Award yourself the following points. I am - 3 points, to a certain extent - 2 points and am not - 1 point.
1. Tactful
2. Ambitious
3. Sociable
4. Loyal
5. Courteous
6. Enthusiastic
7. Honest
8. Persistent
9. Receptive
10. Cheerful
11. Creative
12. Religious
13. Punctual
14. Generous
15. Patient

Below is a list of 15 faults.
Award yourself the following points. I am - 1 point, to a certain extent - 2 points and am not - 3 points.
1. Disorganised
2. Boastful
3. Short-tempered
4. In considerate
5. Lazy
6. Offensive
7. Stubborn
8. Quarrelsome
9. Resentful
10. Indisciplined
11. Egoistic
12. Hostile
13. Selfish
14. Unforgiving
15. Sensitive

Scoring:
Total up the number of points collected from your qualities and your faults.

Now see what you are made of:
75-90 points - You are a goal-getter
60-75 points - You are trying to be one but still have to overcome some faults.
45-60 points - You are lagging a bit behind and could do with some improvement, buck up.
45 points and below - You are a hard person to live besides being slob, you need an overhaul.


Integrated Waste to Energy (IWtE) System

Human and environment are exposing to the danger of pollution. In some developing countries, unmonitored disposal of municipal solid wastes (MSW) includes predominantly household waste (domestic waste) are among the sources contributed to this problem.

Increasing amount of waste, decreasing availability of dumping sites and increasing cost of electricity have led to evolution towards efficient waste management and the Integrated Waste-to-Energy (IWtE) System.

To ensure sustainable development, the traditional definition of “waste” as something that is no longer useful has to be replaced by a concept of treating waste as a reusable “resource”.

IWtE System has been found effectively converted the municipal waste into valuable electricity and heating from the incineration processes.

Denmark was the first country in Europe to introduce a ban on land filling of waste suitable for incineration as per 1 January 1997. This has proven to be a major benefit to the Danish economy and the environment.




The IWtE facilities are usually operated by non-profit companies, based on a cost coverage principle. This is why households, commerce and industry can have their waste treated in a safe and environmentally friendly manner at low cost. Today, in many developed countries, both waste management and energy production are subject to extensive regulations. Waste must first and foremost be reused or recycled. The fraction of the waste that is suitable for incineration and that cannot be reused or recycled must be incinerated in incineration facilities with energy recovery. Only waste that cannot be reused, recycled or incinerated may be land filled.


Owing to the fact that all the facilities now have dioxin cleaning, dioxin from waste incineration is no longer a problem.

Worldwide, about 130 million tonnes of municipal solid wastes are combusted annually in IWtE facilities that produce electricity and steam for district heating and also recover metals for recycling.

IWtE facilities are ideally suited for the thermal treatment of most kinds of municipal and industrial solid waste as well as for the combustion of certain types of bio fuel. It is a modular concept for various waste compositions and calorific values. Treatment capacities of an IWtE facilities range from 1.5 to 30 tonnes per hour per incineration line.

Malaysia has made her first step in construction, maintaining and operating of such IWtE facilities which estimated to cost about USD4 –USD6 billion which could treat 1200 tonnes of municipal solid wastes per day and could generate 240 megawatt of electricity.

Other countries like Saudi Arabia, UAE, Bahrain, Vietnam and Thailand also had shown a positive reaction towards implementing the system.

We have to look forward in protecting the environment and public health and enriching the lives of our communities in a cleaner world now and in the future.

The Search Engine Directory

You could have the best website in the world but without visitors, your site is nothing or you can’t sell anything or won't earn any commission if that is the purpose. How are we going to get traffic to our sites? We can get our visitors from all around the world in several ways but first of all you must have a good web page to start with.

It is found by surveys that when surfers want to find a website for information or customers want to buy a product or service, they will find their site in one of the following ways:

  • The first option is they find their site through a search engine.
  • Secondly they find their site by clicking on a link from another website or page that relates to the topic in which they are interested in.
  • Occasionally, they find a site by hearing about it from a friend or reading in an article.
So now, let surfers know your sites' existence by submitting them to established search engine. It is the search engines that could bring your website to the notice of the prospective customers. When a keyword is typed for search, almost instantly, the search engine will sift through the millions of pages it has indexed about and present you with ones that match your keyword. The searched matches are also ranked, so that the most relevant ones come first.


Google is a search engine that maintains its own spider based index. Google also has a directory that is powered by the Open Directory (DMOZ - Open Directory Project ). Dmoz means Directory Mozilla. It is run by a volunteer group across the globe and is one of the most important directories that you should consider when you want your web site to be listed in. Dmoz is the only major directory that is free. There will never be a cost if you will get listed. This is because it was made to be free for anyone who will be agreeable to its license and conditions. However, the sites within the directory are ranked according to Google's link popularity technology. Google spiders the web to maintain its index, with emphasis on content and link popularity. One factor that determines your rank on Google is the number of links that point to your site, the quality (popularity) of the sites that link to your site, the text in and around the links that point to your site, and who you link to. Google's web crawler only views the visible text on your page. The Meta description and keywords have little influence on Google's rankings. Google has become aggressive when it comes to elimination of spam. To be listed in Google's directory, you should submit your site to the Open Directory.Well known search engines as Google, AOL Search, AltaVista, HotBot, Lycos, Netscape Search etc. use data from the Open Directory. Once your site has been accepted into the Open Directory, it may take anywhere from 2 weeks to several months for your site to be listed on partner sites which use the Open Directory data. Open Directory make updates of the data available weekly, but each partner has their own update schedule.
For free submission to Google search engine add your URL here.


Submit you sites to Yahoo! Directory. However you have to register to Yahoo! account first. First you have to find an appropriate category for you site. For most non-commercial sites suggested, Yahoo! cannot guarantee a timely consideration for approval of the site. You may also submit your site and your site feed to Yahoo! Search Site Explorer at the same time. Yahoo! crawler will extract links and find pages and remove dead links on an ongoing basis. After submitting, it needs to be authenticated by uploading the given verification file or by adding the given Meta tag with the authentication key to our site for validation within 24hours.

Generally MSN web crawler, MSNBot, can find most pages on the Internet. However if your site does not appear on Live Search, you may submit the address (URL) here.

Live Search website ranking is completely automated. The Live Search ranking algorithm analyzes factors such as webpage content, the number and quality of websites that link to your webpages, and the relevance of your website’s content to keywords. The algorithm is complex and is never human-mediated. You can't pay to boost your website’s relevance ranking. However, Live Search does offer advertising options for website owners.
Sometimes it will take a few months before your web site will show up in the directory. Just be patient and there is no need to resubmit your website as this may just pose a delay in the overall process.
Good Luck.

Blogger Blog Review

Today I've published a new site called Blogger Blog Review. This blog is intentionally created to give a brief review of the sites that I've visited. Since there are so many websites on the net, I have to made a rule that only the blog which has been created using google account (i.e, blogger.com) and with the extension of 'blogspot' will be considered.

How shall I select that particular blog? 

The rules are, the blog that have a certain category or keyword and was listed on the google search engine which lay on the 10th page and on the 7th place on the search list will be open. For example, I will type on the search panel the words 'technology' and 'blogspot' and hit enter key. If the blog which has been selected was not good enough or doesn't have certain quality, the next blog on the list will be selected.

The purpose is to make the blog that I've reviewed become more popular (at least to me) since I will link that site to this blog site.

Once again, the rules are as followed.

1. It must be created using Google Account.
2. The blog must have the 'blogspot' extension or domain name. Example: http://yourblogname.blogspot.com
3. Search out using Google search engine. (http://www.google.com)
4. Listed on the 7th place on the 10th page of the search result.
5. With an appropriate or having certain quality to be reviewed.

If anybody found that their blog had followed the rules listed above and would like thier blog to be reviewed and listed here, please drop in a comment with the specific category or key word that has been used for the google search.

Thank you.


Tyre (Tire) Inflation with Nitrogen (N2)

Tyres(tire) usually inflated with compressed air and most of us doing it while fueling our vehicle at the fuel station. Recently, I went to a workshop for wheel alignment and to change new tyres for my vehicle. The workshop owner claimed that by inflating the tyres with nitrogen gas, we will have a more comfy ride and less need for tyers inflation. He also claimed it I can save a bit more on the fuel consumption.

See here what I've found on the net:

Theory 1: nitrogen molecules are larger than oxygen molecules so they won't permeate through the rubber of the tyre like oxygen will, and thus you'll never lose pressure over time due to leakage. The fact is any gas will leak out of a tyre if its at a higher pressure than the ambient pressure outside. The only way to stop it is a non-gas-permeable membrane lining the inside of the tyre.

The science bit: Water is about half the size of either nitrogen or oxygen, so it might diffuse out of the tyre faster, but it would have to be much, much faster to make a difference. Tyres can leak 1-2 psi a month at the extreme end of the scale although it's not clear how much of that is by permeation through the rubber, and how much is through microscopic leaks of various sorts. For a racing tyre to lose significant water during its racing lifetime (maybe an hour or so for Formula 1), the permeation rate would have to be hundreds of times faster than oxygen or nitrogen, so that pretty much cancels out the idea that it's the molecule size that makes the difference. 

Theory 2: Nitrogen means less water vapour. This is more to do with the thermal properties than anything else. Nitrogen is an inert gas; it doesn't combust or oxidise. The process used to compress nitrogen eliminates water vapor and that's the key to this particular theory. When a tyre heats up under normal use, any water vapour inside it also heats up which causes an increase in tyre pressure. By removing water vapor with a pure nitrogen fill, you're basically going to allow the tyre to stay at a more constant pressure irrespective of temperature over the life of the tyre. In other words, your tyre pressures won't change as you drive.

The science bit: The van der Waals gas equation provides a good estimate for comparing the expansions of oxygen and nitrogen to water. If you compare moist air (20°C, 80% RH) to nitrogen, you'll find that going up as far as 80°C results in the moist air increasing in pressure by about 0.01 psi less per litre volume than nitrogen. Moist air will increase in pressure by 7.253psi whereas nitrogen will increase in pressure by 7.263psi. Even humid air has only a small amount of water in it (about 2 mole % which means about 2% by volume), so that all puts a bit of a blunt tip on the theory that it's the differences in thermal expansion rates that give nitrogen an advantage. In fact it would seem to suggest that damp air is marginally better than nitrogen.

Nitrogen inflation is nothing new - the aerospace world has been doing it for years in aircraft tyres. Racing teams will also often use nitrogen inflation, but largely out of convenience rather than due to any specific performance benefit, which would tend to fit with the armchair science outlined above. Nitrogen is supplied in pressurised tanks, so no other equipment is needed to inflate the tyres - no compressors or generators or anything.

Filling your tyres with nitrogen mainly does two things: it eliminates moisture, and it replaces skinny oxygen molecules with fat nitrogen molecules, reducing the rate at which compressed gas diffuses through porous tyre walls. That means, theoretically at least, that a tire filled with nitrogen retains optimal pressure longer, leading to more uniform tyre wear and save the fuel consumption. The commonly quoted figure is that tyres inflated to 32 psi get 3.3 percent better mileage than at 24 psi.

Some benefit on using Nitrogen gas for a conclusion: 
-N2 is an inlet gas and dry, hence no moisture and minimize tyres & rim oxidation. 
-N2 insensitive to temperature and remain stable pressure/not expanding when hot. 
-N2 has bigger molecular size than O2, therefore air 'leaking' through tyre wall is much slower, good for those who not checking air pressure regularly.
-Tire runs cooler because N2 retains less heat

Overall, filling up with nitrogen won't hurt and may provide some minimal benefit

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