Environmental News

You are wasting your time worrying about Toyota, they are doing quite well

The World's Top 3 Automakers By Sales In 2022 (Toyota No.1) (carlogos.org)

Toyota announces EV plant in the U.S. | Fortune

"The latest is Japan’s Toyota Motor, which said it will produce EVs in its Kentucky factory beginning in 2025, Nikkei Asia reported Tuesday."

Toyota Announces $2.5 Billion Expansion of North Carolina Plant with 350 Additional Jobs and BEV Battery Capacity - Toyota USA Newsroom

"Toyota announced an additional investment of $2.5 billion in its newest North American facility, Toyota Battery Manufacturing North Carolina (TBMNC). This investment adds capacity to support battery electric vehicle (BEV) battery production and adds 350 jobs, bringing the total employment to approximately 2,100. Scheduled to begin production in 2025, the facility will produce batteries for hybrid electric vehicles (HEV) and BEVs."

Toyota has lots of new innovations coming down the line

"Toyota is developing the solid-state batteries through Prime Planet Energy & Solutions Inc., a joint venture with Panasonic that started operations in April 2020 and has about 5,100 employees, including 2,400 at a Chinese subsidiary. We are on track for limited production by 2025 and looking forward to sharing more details when the time is right."

 

Hi Bob, I saw another of your posts and you mention installing somehow a diode
"Use Zener diodes to clamp the limits as failing modules reach these voltages very fast",
and I am curious if there is a link somewhere to instructions on how to accomplish this with
details. It would be greatly appreciated if you have any info on that. Thanks in advance.

 

Can you reference the posting so I can understand the context?

A Zener diode is a voltage triggered device. Below the threshold voltage, no current flows. But once the threshold voltage is reached, it conducts:

Source: https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/372611/zener-diode-i-v-confusion

Bob Wilson

 

Another way of explaining that diagram: the interesting stuff a zener diode does is what you see in quadrant III.

What it's doing in quadrant I is just the same as any run-of-the-mill diode.

But in quadrant III, where you're putting a voltage across it backwards, the run-of-the-mill diode's job is just not to conduct at all. There is always some voltage that would be enough to break that down, but it's usually just given as "at least x volts" and you'll be designing your circuits not to go there.

You could think of a zener diode as having a reverse breakdown voltage that is so precisely known and dependable that you can reverse-bias it on purpose and know what the voltage will be when it conducts.

 

Just make sure that the current through the Zener times the Zener voltage is less than the power handling spec of the Zener (typically 1 watt).

JeffD

 

Current limiting resistor applies. Then have the resister trigger a power transistor gate. But we’re approaching a linear regulator.

Bob Wilson

 

light pollution has increased almost 10% per year for the last 10 years. it creeps up on you, but i hardly ever see stars anymore:

night-skies-are-getting-9-6-brighter-every-year-as-light-pollution-erases-stars-for-everyone-199383

 

Read "Nightfall" by Isaac Asimov

It is about a society that never sees Stars, until it does.

JeffD

 

done, fun story!

 

It would take me more than three minutes to read it.

JeffD

 

i read the entire foundation series last winter out of boredom.

the interesting the about light pollution is its negative effects on plants and animals, but man is afraid of darkness

 

Charging EV cars might reduce light pollution. <GRINS>

Bob Wilson

 

I'm confused. It reads:
"Much of the helium present today is a result of radioactive decay of elements such as uranium.

Research suggests that helium also tends to accumulate in underground natural gas deposits. ..."

Um, hasn't natural gas always been the primary commercial source of helium? From wikipedia:

"Because helium is trapped in the subsurface under conditions that also trap natural gas, the greatest natural concentrations of helium on the planet are found in natural gas, from which most commercial helium is extracted. The concentration varies in a broad range from a few ppm to more than 7% in a small gas field in San Juan County, New Mexico."

... though the above SpaceDaily article does point to a previous article about new non-hydrocarbon production facilities:

"North American Helium brings newest helium facilities into production
NAH continues to grow helium production from non-hydrocarbon sources with addition of two new facilities in Saskatchewan ..."


I had understood that most natural gas producers just don't bother to separate it out, or have ceased previous helium production since the Helium Privatization Act of 1996 and the shutdown of the National Helium Reserve. Much former domestic production was replaced by foreign production, which suddenly became a much more serious problem a year ago.

"In August 2019, the NPR show Planet Money described the history of the reserve and government policies that helped create a shortage of the gas.[10]"

 

LOL!


So the Chinese have found a new way to ship helium. <GRINS>

Bob Wilson

 

It has. The news is that recent surveys of gas wells show that there is more helium than thought, and now they know where to find it.

"Oxford scientist had already found a "full suite" of gases, from helium to argon, in samples taken from 22 wells across North America in 2015. Researchers at the time said this meant that estimates of available geological sources of helium may be vastly underestimated.
...
"This new understanding of helium accumulation provides us with a critical start of a recipe to identify where significant amounts of geological hydrogen, as well as helium, might still be found," John Gluyas, a co-author of the report from Durham University, said."

We can start collecting again from gas wells, but we might also be able to drill wells specific for helium production.

 

The creeping threat of the Great Atlantic Sargassum Belt | Oceans | The Guardian

Sargassum is a floating seaweed in the Atlantic. There is a lot of it, and it is increasing with global warming and human agricultural practices. That has already made it an issue for some islands.