December 12th, 2008
Do you think the U.S. is alone in the auto crisis? Since I lived and worked in the UK a few years ago, I regularly track their news and here is what they are doing with their auro industry…this from the Times UK:
“A financial rescue package for Britain’s motor industry was being put together last night, mirroring efforts in Washington to save America’s three big carmakers from collapse.”
Follow the rest of the story here..
http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/engineering/article5333444.ece
December 12th, 2008
Growth Dimensions has awarded a Biomass Commercialization Award to Packer Engineering of Naperville, IL, a diversified, multi-discipline, full service engineering firm.
Growth Dimensions encourages economic development through investment in research and commercialization projects. The organization has the authority from the US Department of Energy to award funds for projects that lead to marketable biomass products or processes. The Commercialization Awards program focuses both on strategic technology development and on commercialization.
“Our goal is to create the dual benefit of energy driven biomass product platforms through generating a critical mass of projects that flow through our region that can be commercialized and manufactured here,” says Mark Williams, Growth Dimensions Executive Director. Growth Dimensions was recently recognized by the International Economic Development Council for the organization’s sustainable and green initiatives.
Packer Engineering is developing a gasifier which uses biomass waste to generate electricity and produce heat. Packer will use the $80,000 Biomass Commercialization Award to build a prototype of the gasifier and test out the design.
The project has two components: efficiently converting crop waste into gaseous fuel and then producing electricity and using that electricity to produce fertilizer. Packer is working with N-Ovations of Savannah, IL and Northern Illinois University on the project. The three are the co-recipients of a $1 million US Department of Agriculture grant for research efforts that relate to this project.
“The origin of this project came from research we were doing on space-based manufacturing,” says Packer Engineering Senior Director Peter Schubert, Ph.D. “Our founder challenged us to see what we could do to advance that research to help farmers. We started applying our methods of vaporizing materials on the moon to vaporizing materials on the farm to extract gases to make electricity and heat.”
There are about 2 million farms across the US. Packer is designing a system that will be safe, reliable, and that a farm hand can run. The input is crop waste; the output is electricity plus heat which can be used on the farm, sold back into the power grid through net metering, or used to produce fertilizer.
“We’ve been very aggressive in pursuing the total solution with the farmer,” Schubert says. “We are visiting equipment manufacturers and farmers to find out how can the farmer do the best job of gathering the biomass from field, storing it, and chopping it up properly. Our design intent is to make a device that the farmer can start up in about an hour and a half in the morning and it will run for 22 hours unattended.”
Packer expects to have the gasifier prototype up and running in March and anticipates that by summer they will have enough information from the prototype to construct a business plan and model to take the next steps toward commercialization. “Our goal is to increase jobs and revenue in the Belvidere-Rockford area by eventually doing manufacturing there,” Schubert says.
“At Packer Engineering we are passionate about alternative energy research,” Schubert says. “The gasifier is one of several initiatives we are working on. We have five patents and are working with Argonne National Labs on storing hydrogen on a vehicle. We are researching electrical generation using space solar power-putting solar panels in orbit and beaming energy with low density radio waves back to the earth.”
Growth Dimensions provides the Biomass Commercialization Awards through a competitive, merit based open solicitation process on a first-come, first-served basis. The award value is based on proposal detailed costs, scope, tasks, and deliverables of each project. To be eligible, projects will have non-federal government matching funds equal to $1.60 for every $1 of award granted.
December 12th, 2008
Belvidere Mayor Fred Brereton spent last Tuesday in Washington, DC with sixteen other mayors and local officials explaining the importance of the automobile industry to communities across the nation. Joining the mayor from Belvidere were Mark Williams, Executive Director of Growth Dimensions, and Dave Taylor and Steve Nailor, both Executive Board members of Growth Dimensions. A recently formed Mayors Automotive Coalition (MAC) was formed to pull together communities having automobile assembly plants or close ties to the automobile industry.
“This was my first exposure to MAC, and found the time spent to be very educational. We heard some pretty sobering stories from some of the mayors”, said Mayor Brereton. Many of the communities represented had closed assembly plants to deal with, while others were looking for assistance for workers left behind in a struggling economy. “Our local goal is to retain jobs and look for ways local, state, and federal governments can help sustain the Belvidere Assembly Plant. The first major step would be for congress to pass the bridge loan currently being discussed”, Brereton added. While much of the media attention has been focused on the Big Three and the corporate “bail out”, Brereton’s attention has been on the Belvidere economy and the local assembly plant.
Elimination of water and sewer usage from the Belvidere assembly plant would result in a 35% increase in water and sewer rates to maintain the current level of operations for the city’s system. That would equate to an increase of approximately $120 per year for the average household. The City’s goal for the upcoming budget year is no rate increase. “We always strive to keep rates as low as possible and still fund the operations”, said Craig Lawler, Director of Public Works.
Total sales tax receipts ($3,600,000) for the City of Belvidere make up about 27% of the City’s budget ($13,300,000), of which new car sales tax revenue ($700,000) makes up about 20% of the City’s total sales tax revenue. The City will continue its efforts to attract additional commercial development to help diversify and reduce dependency on automobile sales, but also realizes the importance and value of having five new car dealerships in the City.
As congress continues to react to talks of a stimulus package by the new administration, the City also provided its transportation priority, which provides a secondary means of ingress and egress to the assembly plant. “Anytime the City can help improve the efficiency of the plant, it should be a high priority”, said Mayor Brereton. The Irene Road interchange on the I-90 northwest tollway would also improve access to an industrial area occupied by auto suppliers.
December 12th, 2008
 Roger Simmermaker is the author of How Americans Can Buy American: The Power of Consumer Patriotism and writes “Buy American Mention of the Week” articles for WorldNetDaily.com. Roger is a member of the Machinists Union and National Writers Union, has been a frequent guest on Fox News, CNN, and MSNBC, and has been quoted in the USA Today, Wall Street Journal and US News & World Report among many other publications.
See his web site here….
http://www.howtobuyamerican.com/index.php
