[Gasification] An "Energy Rosetta Stone"

Fri Sep 21 11:00:29 EDT 2007

Tom,

That was a good try to help us all but the chart became distorted when it 
was converted to HTML.

Could you save it in another format and resend it please?

Art Krenzel

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Thomas Reed" <tombreed at comcast.net>
To: "GASIFICATION" <GASIFICATION at listserv.repp.org>; 
<STOVES at LISTSERV.REPP.ORG>; "Tom Miles" <tmiles at trmiles.com>
Sent: Friday, September 21, 2007 5:32 AM
Subject: [Gasification] An "Energy Rosetta Stone"

Dear Energy Friends:
Starting with James Watt in the 18^th Century, our use and understanding
of energy has grown up in a very useful but confusing manner.  The US
and England used British Thermal Units, BTUs, while the rest of the
world used Calories for heat - a Babel of energy.  Fortunately, nowadays
we can all use the kilowatt both for heat and electric energy.

The Rosetta Stone enabled scholars to decipher the Hieroglyphics of
Ancient Egypt into modern Greek and English.   Our "Rosetta Stone Energy
Table" below enables anyone to translate the obscure energy units we now
use into the commonly understood kilowatts.

*ENERGY COSTS IN THE DENVER MARKET*

*FUEL***

*OLD UNITS*

*NEW UNITS*

*OLD UNIT **COST***

*ENERGY **COST** $/kWhr*

*Fuel (dry basis)*

*ConventionalUnit*

*kWhr*

*Cost/Unit*

* *

*Heat- ¢/kWhr*

* *

* Conversion Efficiency*

*Power- ¢/kWh*

* *

*Electricity*

kWhr

1

8

¢

8

¢

100%

8

¢

/  (1 AA Dry Cell)/

/mAhr/

/0.0025/

/50/

/¢/

20,000

¢

/100%/

20,000

¢

*Natural Gas*

Therm

29

80

¢

3

¢

30%

9

¢

*Propane*

gal

26

4

$

15

¢

30%

51

¢

*Gasoline*

gal

35

3

$

9

¢

20%

43

¢

*Diesel*

gal

41

3

$

7

¢

30%

24

¢

*Coal*

ton

7033

20

$

0.3

¢

40%

0.7

¢

*Biomass *

ton

4396

50

$

1.1

¢

25%

4.5

¢

/  Sawdust Pellets/

/ton/

/4396/

250

$

5.7

¢

/20%/

28.4

¢

/  Cordwood/

/ton/

/4396/

200

$

4.5

¢

/15%/

30.3

¢

/  Slash/

/ton/

/4396/

20

$

0.5

¢

/20%/

2.3

¢

/  Tipping/

/ton/

/4396/

-20

$

-0.5

¢

/20%/

-2.3

¢

You can calculate your energy cost from the ratio of Denver costs to
your cost or better yet, make your own table from ourextended
spreadsheet, available at

http://www.woodgas.com/energyrosetta.htm

The spreadsheet permits you to put in your own assumptions and costs for
your area and calculate environmental costs with other assumptions.
------------------------------------------------------------------------

After I had made the table I found a few surprises.

    * How about $200/kWhr for AA drycells.  (I can buy them by the dozen
      here at about $0.50and for many small applications this is still a
      bargain)
    * Our grid power is amazingly cheap, based on the low direct cost of
      coal and hydroelectric power and in spite of the cost of wind and
      other energy sources
    * Heat from propane, gasoline and diesel costs about the same as
      electric heat, but by the time you convert that heat to power
      locally, the cost is 5 times that of our grid power
    * The widest spread is in the cost of various forms of biomass
      energy.  It's all around us as clean (cleanup) renewable energy
      but we haven't developed much infrastructure to use it
    * Coal has always been incredibly cheap both as heat and as power
      (if you discount the environmental costs)

Let's be thankful for our relatively cheap heat and power costs while we
have them and work toward clean replacements as we consume our fossil
fuels.  I'd appreciate any comments that you feel improve the table.

Yours truly,

TOM REED     THE BIOMASS ENERGY FOUNDATION

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