Energy is the crucial need of society for survival and development. Today, it is mainly attained from dead plants, and animals. These are fossil fuels that are not renewable and are not clean for the planet. Furthermore, it brings about conflicts between nations. Strictly speaking, this type of fuels should not be well-kept-up too much and too long. The same decree is aimed to the nuclear fission power. The invention of biofuels as new energy source seems to be the first right stride to sustain our need of energy longer, cleaner and safer.

Biobutanol is a four-carbon alcohol derived from the fermentation of biomass. Plants and plant-derived materials (e.g. cereal crops, sugar cane and sugar beet) are biomasses that are harnessing energy captured by photosynthesis. When biomass is burnt it gives off energy with net zero greenhouse gas.

Industrial production of biobutanol began in 1916. A method of ABE (Acetone, Butanol, and Ethanol) fermentation was used with bacteria Clostridia acetobutylicum. Butanol is a by-product of this anaerobic fermentation process. Yield of each pound of acetone is accompanied with the formation of two pounds of butanol.

However, there is a problem with this type of microbe; that is, the microbe is killed off by the butanol it produces once the alcohol concentration rises above 2 percent. Therefore, biobutanol productions from ABE fermentation could not compete on a commercial scale with butanol produced synthetically by the petrochemical industry.

Moreover, due to the steadily increase in petroleum prices, new production processes need to be developed. The recent discovery of genetically modified organisms or microorganisms by scientists has set the stage of biobutanol to be produced more efficiently on an industrial scale. Great strides have been made by researches in creating microbes that can tolerate higher concentrations of butanol without being poisoned or killed. One is found by James Liao at the University of California, who developed E.Coli strains with genes coding for 2 enzymes that convert keto acides into aldehydes, and then aldehydes into 1-butanol. When further controlled, the microbes were able to produce butanol at much higher efficiencies which are suitable for industrial productions. Another investigation by scientists is by the modified of the strains of Synechococcus elongatus that can produce biobutanol directly from carbon dioxide.

An increase in energy content in butanol over ethanol has triggered a number of companies to invest in butanol for a new transportation technology. Many companies are trying to produce millions of gallons of biobutanol per year by retrofitting an existing ethanol plant. The process can utilize much of the existing ethanol production system, but uses cellulosic yeast strains engineered to produce butanol instead of ethanol.  In June 2006, DuPont and BP formed a partnership to develop new biobutanol production technology using lignocellulosic feedstocks. In 2009, BP and DuPont formed Butamax^TM advanced biofuels.  The first commercial-scale biobutanol facility is expected to begin operating in 2013 as previously BP and DuPont announced its establishment of a $32 million advance biofuels research center for demonstration of biobutanol technology in last November 2009.

Biobutanol is such an attractive source of energy and currently attracts more attention of specialists than ethanol. Some advantages of biobutanol over ethanol are biobutanol contents 25% more energy than ethanol; moreover, in safety point of view  butanol is safer as it evaporates 6 times less than ethanol and butanol is less volatile by factor of 13.5 than gasoline. Butanol can be mixed with gasoline and can be used as fuel while ethanol is used as additive only. At combustion, butanol does not produce sulfur and nitrogen oxides or dioxides which are advantageous from the ecology viewpoint. However, it is not usual for one type of fuel to have so many advantages without at least one shimmering disadvantage. The only real disadvantage of biobutanol is that there are more ethanol refining facilities than biobutanol. However, the possibility to retrofit ethanol plants to biobutanol is feasible as refinements continue with genetically modified microorganisms – the feasibility of converting plants become greater and greater.

In conclusion, it is clear that biobutanol is the right choice over ethanol or other type of fuels as gasoline additives or perhaps gasoline replacement in the near future. Biobutanol plants should have the most technological and political support to reduce the dependence of a country on foreign supply of petroleum and increase in development of agriculture.

Happy Holidays to everyone and hope many magical things happen to you all.

Speaking about magic, magnets actually are not much different to this word . In fact, magnets are very mysterious and many of its properties are still not known. I will be back to that statement soon.

At this moment, I would like to share something about magnets, and tell you why magnets are so mysterious and magical. Furthermore, I also want to inform the applications of magnets that eventually could help us to achieve many great inventions in today’s world and tomorrow’s.

Before I start, however, I would like to share  a little bit of credibility. I have been learning physics since high school and this material (magnets) have been mesmerizing me and I wish to study them a lot more. I have done a lot of readings of text books, scientific journals, articles and even I have ever conducted experiment to make a small levitating device from neodymium magnets. Which is something look like this:

Last but not least is that I am currently taking quantum chemistry (mechanics) class which helps me to understand the subatomic events of a matter.

There are 2 main points that I would like to share. Let’s start with the first one:

600 BC (long time ago) people discovered stones that seemed to have magical powers. These stones were called lodestones and were made of mineral called magnetite. It is an iron-rich ore material that has chemical formula Fe3O4. Its power is called magnetic force and is emitted by magnetic field.

Lodestones were used as compasses in 12th to 13th century. 

Today, there are many kinds of magnets and they have different strengths. Some are weak and some are strong. The strongest magnets on earth are neodymium magnets (Nd2Fe14B) and it is widely used everywhere.

How do magnets work? What is magnetic field made of?  and how to observe them? These are good questions and deserve a good answer, and the best way to observe magnet is by simple observation – that is by “hands-on” experience with magnets.

We know magnets have 2 poles and so are called dipoles. North hates north, south hates south, and south loves north. There is no such thing as one pole magnets (monopole) even if u try so hard to split them into 2, you will still get 2 poles. Weird ah?

Now the fun begins,

Why magnets behave like this? why can’t we get 1 pole magnet? Honestly, we don’t know yet why would magnets behave like this.  And that makes magnets so magical and mysterious, people. Believe me.

Nevertheless, let’s begin the second main point.

There are countless applications of magnets in today’s world. I’m just going to inform you some:

1. Magnets are used in electrical devices to move engines, transmit sound waves, and so on.

2. Magnets are lately used in Maglev trains technology.

Superconductor + magnetic field = great levitation. Superconductor hates magnetic field so much. They repel each other. This property has been applied to the new era of train that can run up to 361mph.

Tomorrow applications are very tempting and promising.

1. Transportation

Imagine if cars or belts are made of superconductors at room temperature . You can almost be like superman hovering on earth above magnetic field track. Lately, scientists have discovered a very promising application of magnets which they call it as quantum locking ( it looks like the Meissner effect, but they call it quantum locking for credit).

2. Energy

We know energy is the society needs for survival and development. Today, we have energy from dead plants, oils and coals. These are fossil fuels which are not good because it is not renewable and not clean for our planet. Furthermore, it brings about conflicts between nations. So we can’t rely on this type of fuels too much and too long.

So does nuclear power (fission). It is not safe because it contains dangerous radioactive wave and if a reactor leaks it will endanger human life and our planet. We have seen many examples of this, one in this year was when Japan got shaken by earthquake. Fukushima nuclear reactor emits radiation.

Now, imagine an energy source which is safe, clean and abundant. It could have a profound effect to our society. It could change everything. That energy source in fact has been being developed by scientists since 60 years ago. And that energy source would be nuclear fusion.

Our sun is a massive fusion reactor, its core is so hot that atoms of hydrogen are forced together and eventually giving off massive amount of energy. Hydrogen is the fuel of the fission reactor. It is so clean and abundant in our planet. Currently, we just need a bigger reactor to conduct a self-sustaining nuclear fusion reaction and that will be built in France in 2020. A powerful magnetic field is needed in order to make this  reaction happen. And that’s you see how important magnets are. You may google them to gain more information.

Cheers,

Sulfur dioxide is released by volcanoes and by various industrial processes such as from the combustions of fuels (oils and coal) in power plant or from fractional distillation process of crude oils. Generally, any fuels that contain sulfur compounds (e.g. Petroleum and coal) generate SO₂ in their combustions unless the sulfur compounds are removed before it contacts with oxygen. However, the process of removal of sulfur compounds (e.g. hydrodesulphurization) from fuels is difficult and expensive and is not going to be discussed.

When sulfur dioxide dissolves in water droplets in clouds, it will form H₂SO₄, and thus it makes the rain more acidic than normal. This generates a phenomenon called acid rain. The impacts of acid rain are crucial to the environment; hence, the emission of SO₂ from these fuels is regulated by federal laws in many countries.
There have been many methods developed to remove SO₂ from the waste gas (flue gas). The most effective way is by microwave and beam processing which gives efficiency almost 100%. However, it’s never been easy and cheap to install the system. Therefore, it is not commercially applied in industries. In turn, a continuous Flue Gas Desulfurization (FGD) system is the most commercially-used method in many industries by using absorbance technology. Moreover, the installation and maintenance fees of FGD system are reasonably affordable.
The main contributor of SO₂ is from power plants of coal or oils. However, for simplicity of making this report SO₂ is injected from fractional distillation tower of crude oil. FGD system today has several process types:
a) Wet scrubbing
b) Dry scrubbing
c) Wet sulfuric acid method
d) Spray-dry
e) SNOX FGD
Regardless of the process type, the degree of SO₂ removal attempted is a major consideration and wet scrubbing was found to give the highest efficiency of more than 95% removal of SO₂. Wet scrubbing system itself uses various sorbents such as limestone (CaCO₃), calcium oxide (CaO), lime slurry [Ca(OH)₂)], magnesium hydroxide [Mg(OH)₂], etc. To partially offset the cost of FGD-wet scrubbing installation, application of CaCO3 sorbent eventually produces a marketable by product (gypsum) when it is contacted with water. Commercially, this technique is known as forced oxidation and the overall reaction of the FGD system is:

CaCO₃ (solid) + 1/2 O2 (gas) + 2H2O (liquid) + SO₂ (gas) → CaSO4.2H2O (solid) + CO₂ (gas)

A process diagram of FGD – wet scrubbing system is shown below:

According to US Energy Information Administration data, 27,973,918 barrels of sulfur was contained in a production of crude oils in 2010. This value is equal to 4,441,139,222 Liters of sulfur per year 2010.

By assuming an ideal system, if 1,174,904,556 gallons of sulfur comes into a distillation tower of crude oil, the same amount of SO₂ will come out. Or by stoichiometry:

S +O2 → SO2

The amount of SO₂ formed then will be going to the FGD-system as the inlet amount.

By having the stoichiometry of the overall reaction in the FGD system and knowing the fractional conversion of the process, we are able to determine how much gypsum is produced and how much SO₂ is released every year from the system. Some calculations we have made:

4,441,139,222 Liters = 4,441,139.3 m³

m= 4,441,139.3 m³ x (2.6288 kg/mol)  = 11,674,867 kg

11,674,867 kg (1000g/kg) (1mol/64g) = 182,419,797 mol of SO2 comes into the FGD system.

From stoichiometry, we can find directly that:

182,419,797 mols of CaCO₃; 91,209,899 mols of O₂; and 364,839,594 mols of H₂O come into the batch.

However, we have constrained to take 96% efficiency of FGD wet scrubbing system (96% fractional conversion is taken), and by using atomic balances we are able to find how many moles of SO₂, CO₂, and gypsum yielded, and how many mols of CaCO₃, O₂, and H₂O needed.

Since SO₂ is an acid gas, the typical water used to help to absorb SO₂ is sea water (alkaline).

The amount of gypsum produced as the byproduct of the reaction in turns can be sold in markets to produce valuable products such as plaster or plaster wallboard. The quality of gypsum produced is however affecting the selling price. Therefore, subsequent reduction-oxidation reactions for gypsum are sometimes applied in many industries to attain a high quality of gypsum.

Work Cited

Slack, A. V. (1971). Sulfur dioxide removal from waste gas. Noyes Data corporation.

(1991). Desulphurisation 2 technologies and strategies for reducing sulphur emissions. (symposium ed., Series no 123). Rugby, UK: Institution of Chemical Engineers (Great Britain).

Finally, on 17 of August 2011 I arrived in Los Angeles, California after a tiring 18 hours flight from Jakarta. It was one the best journey of my life so far. This is the furthest place I have ever been. A big journey in a big dream land. Surely, America is one of my biggest journeys ever.

So, what did I do in LA at that time?

Nothing much really, I was just waiting for the next plane to go to Salt lake city and then transit again to the destinated town Bozeman in Montana. I am going to school there. Beautiful town and very nice people. They are very friendly towards me and other internationals. Love Bozeman and the school.

Anyway, I will  update this soon, I can’t promise you when though. Because my school is already started. Busy days as everyday ! I will try my best =)

From the time when computer was invented and became the most successful discovery in human history, more and more powerful and helpful inventions came about entirely for the sake of our life convenience and handiness. That is saying one of these great inventions is video game. Since these few decades, software and game engineers have been developing and introducing their up to date and entertaining devices to our society, that are to say video games have been being developed gradually along with time went by.

Despite the growing popularity of video games and computers; there are still hundreds and thousands of negative thoughts heard everywhere from our society. Undoubtedly, many people claim video games as no more than only as entertaining devices, time wasters, and worse, they claim these games are rotting the brain. A study claimed the stereotypes of gamers are mostly fat and depressed is revealing absolutely nothing. (Choney, S. (2008)).This study exposed nothing due to the inappropriateness of claiming gamers as mostly overweight, lazy, and unsociable cave dwellers. In fact, there are so many successful, healthy and happy gamers around the world according to a recent survey that investigated gamers’ thoughts and their living conditions that wholly against the overrated study above. (Choney, S. (2009)).

Regardless of these prejudices, many psychologists and scientists believed that video games in reality contribute numerous benefits. Primarily, video games can be used to enhance academic performances- making people smart. And also, video games recently are used to renovate and to repair mental and physical disabilities in many therapists.

Foremost, the benefit of video games to improve academic performances is true and can’t be underestimated. Video game has become another alternative tool to conduct teaching and learning activities like in the classroom, but, studying from video games is far greater more fun than studying in the class room. Topics that are taught in the classroom can be learnt from video games more easily. For example, many games allow players to accumulate points or money to manage their virtual businesses; e.g. developing city. They can purchase things according to their interests and affect market circumstances. If the players are facing bankruptcy, they can borrow money from the virtual banks. However, it’s not as easy as they thought; video game is a replica of the real world. The consequences that come about in the video games are caused by the actions taken before. Thus, when they are facing bankruptcy, for example, they have to be aware of their surroundings; e.g. current point of interest rate in the country. If the interest rate is too high, players should not borrow money from the bank, because the money that has to be returned afterward is greater than the money that they have borrowed. If they still borrow money from the bank, they could destroy their businesses and slow the economy down. This game is based on the fundamentals of business and economy studies which are lectured in colleges and happen in actual life. And there are so many more subjects beside economy and business that are presented in the other kind of games. Students will be more willing to study their related subjects on this way; because it’s more interesting to them. They also could directly understand the consequences that would happen from different actions. If they lose to run their businesses, most likely they would play the game over and over again; because it’s fun. In consequence, they would master the skills, apply them in real life, and score well in their test papers.

The illustration above is an example of video games that formerly based on educational purpose; however, we may wonder about video games that are not related to the topics taught in the colleges. Games like racing cars, shooting games, sports games are not discussed in the classroom at all; but still, these games give numerous benefits in our academic performances. They give our brain a good work out. In the game context, we are given a set of rules to follow and we must solve the best strategy to achieve the goals of the game. It teaches us to digest and process visual information more quickly; and also it strengthens our memory which is a part of academic performance and development.

In RPG game, for instance, we must remember a lot of places in order to complete the quests and win the game. The game trains our memory to retain the information faster and recall it when needed on response. In shooting games, the character may be running and shooting at the same time. We must then coordinate our brain’s interpretation and reaction with the movement in our hands and fingertips. This process requires a great deal of eye-hand coordination to collect information, process that information, and make decisions, all in a shorter time span. These games have become a reason given by experts as to why fighter pilots of today are more skillful. This is because the generation’s pilots in the USA have been being weaned on video games. (Learning From the Past: A Fighter Pilot’s Obligation. (1984)). Furthermore, according to a study done by the University of Rochester, people who played action video games are able to process visual information faster than non-video game players. (Game on: Professors say video games have academic advantages. (2007)).

During my last Ied’l fitr break, I’ve noticed how video games can increase our academic performances. This is a case within my family; my 10 years old sister, who doesn’t play any video games, has a little difficulty to communicate with her friends and elder people. She is a shy and a quiet person; but in spite of this, she performs quite well in her study. In the other side, my 9 years old cousin who plays video games 5-7 hours in a week has no difficulty at all to communicate with his friends or elder people. He is a talk-active, funny and smart kid. Everyone knows him because he won a science competition in his hometown. I believe that video games have important role in his abilities. Video games make him to think more critically and allow him to socialize more with anyone in this world. Unlike my sister who spares her time to only watch her favorite TV channels every day which makes her less sociable with the outside world. The academic performance difference between my sister and my cousin is believed because of the ability of video games to increase their reading and math skills (The Good and Bad Effects of Video Games. (2005)).

Not only able to increase academic performances, video games also able to fix many mental and physical disabilities. This is the most difficult and the most rewarding part of game development processes. Creating something that accessible to a large of group of people who had varying disabilities is dignified yet it is very hard to do.

A new study conducted by scholars at the Universite de Quebec in Quebec, revealing computer games (which are also video games) indeed can be used to treat people with phobias. The belief behind this treatment method is that exposing people to the source of their fear within a controlled environment may actually lead to a cure. (Extra Rx for phobias: Video games. (2003). When compared to other forms of treatment, the benefits of using computer games to cure phobias are:

1. Affordable. Other forms of treatment can easily cost thousands of dollars while a computer game can be purchased for usually under a hundred bucks,

2. Easy to adapt games to suit an individual’s specific fears in order to create a customized treatment plan by the therapists.

Two of the most common phobias that have been treated with computer games are a fear of confined spaces and heights.

Furthermore, when Nintendo Wii was released in 2006; psychoanalysts and therapists are really helped so much by this new invention to fix mental and physical disabilities that endured by their patients. Nintendo Wii is a new marvelous game console released from Nintendo that has been being used in several different medical specialties including therapeutic exercises, stroke recovery, spinal cord / brain injury rehab, Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s and Autism. (Learn about using your Wii to improve strength, balance, and coordination. (2009)). It’s a new development of video games that is used in medical application to augment therapies of physical, cognitive, behavioral by using Nintendo’s new motion-sensitive gaming platform under the guidance of trained and licensed healthcare professional. Many patients are satisfied with this new rehabilitation method, which they called Wii-Hab instead of rehab. However, not only Wii, another different game console from Sony, PlayStation 2 also can be used in different medical specialties. Moreover, Playstation 2 which is embedded with a S.M.A.R.T brain games system that consist of a special controller, a helmet with built-in sensors for monitoring brain activity and a Smartbox that receives the brain signals could give another tremendous alternative to conduct more specific therapies.

In addition, video games can be used as a tool in therapy to cure wounded troops after the wars. It has been used and d recommended by the U.S and Germany military departments to treat their soldiers after the recent wars with Afghanistan and Iraq ( Schnauzer , S. (2007).). According to a survey, wounded troops tend to recover faster when they used video games during the rehabilitation process (Snider, M. (2005).). Many soldiers are satisfied with this new method, and most of them couldn’t believe what video games have done to help them during their rehabilitation treatments.

In the conclusion, due to the abilities of video games that can improve our reading and math skills, our ability to collect visual information, and can give our brain a real good work out, video games are said to be beneficial to improve our academic performances. Furthermore, due to the fact of the increasing numbers of interactive educational video games made based on the topics lectured in the universities in the public, video games no longer can be blamed as the root of laziness that occur in the children, instead of that, video games have convert a ‘classic’ boring teaching learning method to more fun, acceptable and understandable teaching and learning style. In consequences, many more children will be willing to study and thus increase their academic performances. Besides that, video games also have been proven to be able to renovate many mental, physical and behavioral disabilities that endured by many people these days in our society. Thus, generally speaking, playing video games is really beneficial in our lives.

References:

Sitzmann, T., PhD. (2010). Video Games Can Be Highly Effective Training Tools, Study Shows: Employees Learn More, Forget Less, Master More Skills. Retrieved October 21, 2010 from Science News: http://www.sciencedaily.com/ ​ releases/ ​ 2010/ ​ 10/ ​ 101019171854.htm .

Jackson, L. (2010). Video games, cell phones and academic performance: Some good news. Retrieved October 19, 2010 from news: http://news.msu.edu/story/6096/.

Choney, S. (2008). Study: Average gamer is 35, fat and bummed. Retrieved October 13, 2010 from msnbc, games on msnbc: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/​id/​32463904/​ns/​ technology_and_science-games/.

Choney, S. (2009). Gamer study reinforces stereotypes; players say they’re happy and healthy, not fat like the study suggests. Retrieved October 13, 2010 from msnbc, Technology and science on msnbc: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/32555719.

Learning From the Past: A Fighter Pilot’s Obligation. (1984). Retrieved October 13, 2010 from Global Security: http://www.globalsecurity.org/​military/​library/​report/​1984/​hew.htm.

The Good and Bad Effects of Video Games. (2005). Retrieved October 12, 2010 from raise smart kids: http://www.raisesmartkid.com/​raise-smart-preschool-kid-articles/​the-good-and-bad-effects-of-video.html.

Mankiw, G. N. (2007). Principles of Economics. 5191 Natorp Boulevard Mason, OH 45040 USA: Steve Momper.

Game on: Professors say video games have academic advantages. (2007). Retrieved October 09, 2010 from dailynorthwestern: http://www.dailynorthwestern.com/ ​ 2.13894/ ​ game-on-professors-say-video-games-have-academic-advantages-1.1923075.

Extra Rx for phobias: Video games. (2003). Retrieved October 12, 2010 from msn: http://moneycentral.msn.com/ ​ c ontent/ ​ invest/ ​ extra/ ​ p63794.asp .

Snider, M. (2005). Video games actually can be good for you . Retrieved October 12, 2010 from USA Today: http://www.usatoday.com/ ​ tech/ ​ products/ ​ games/ ​ 2005-09-26-video-game-therapy_x.htm.

Schonauer , S. (2007). Wii being used as therapy tool for wounded troops. Retrieved October 11, 2010 from Stars and Stripes: http://www.stripes.com/ ​ news/ ​ wii-being-used-as-therapy-tool-for-wounded-troops-1.65316.

In lifestyle, single people will have much more privacy in their lives. They will not be bothered by anybody at home. Nobody will command them not to sleep late, not to watch movie too much and so on and so on. Therefore, single people live life freely. They can spend their time with their friends anywhere at anytime they want. In contrast, married people will be bothered with their partners. They have to take care of each other and if they have children things would become a lot more complicated. They can’t live a free lifestyle. They need to get permission from their partners if they want to go out with friends, best friends or whatever you name it. In general, married people are more busy because simply the strong bond between their children and their partners are tangible.

Secondly, companionship is another distinct difference between single and married people lives. A husband will depend on his wife, and a wife will depend on her husband. Livelihood will be achieved easily by married people from their partners, parents and from their children. In contrast, single people don’t depend on anybody except their friends and parents. They can’t trust anyone else to share their secrets or to rely on shoulders. However, livelihood can be achieved from their parents and their friends.

Lastly, married people are more responsible and busy than single people. They have to manage their money or expenses gently and economically every day. They are also responsible for raising their children and guiding their families in the right manner. Otherwise, they can ruin their lives easily. Married people are also responsible to manage their time for their families. They have to spend their time with their children, husband or wife every day. In contrast, people who still remain single don’t have schedule to look after their children or partners and they are not obligated to guide and/or manage their livings. Therefore, they are much less responsible than married people.

There they are; lifestyle, companionship, and responsibility are the 3 main differences between single and married people lives. In my opinion, being a married person is better than being a single person, because we are created by God with partner like Adam and Eve  story.

I was busied by assignments and tests so I forgot of the last due date for booking room..

So I went to AO office and asked to the officer over there whether my room is still available or not..

and the answer was not availabe!!

I was so sad and felt so bad those day..

and I asked them again whether i could move to another room in the same block or not..

they said ” nope, It’s full and some of the room have been booked for the long semester students’ !

when I heard that I was so peevish  and I immediately talked to the AO head officer over there and begged for at least moving to another floor..

But he also said “CANT”

I tried to calm down and left the room for going to the class..

after the class I came back to AO office and I asked them whether i can move to A,B or C block or not..

and again they answer with a big NO !!

They offered me to move to L block or M block or N block..

I was shocked to hear that..

and then because there is no more choice i choose L block Ground floor without air conditioner =(

all these blocks don’t have air conditioner except in  the 4th floor.

I don’t want to stay in the 4th floor again..

it’s so tiring..

So Next semester I will move to L block Ground floor..

I will miss my F block so much!! =(

( yes 272 words for this topic LOL)