Guinness Storehouse St Patrick's Day sign

Happy Saint Patrick’s Day everyone. Hopefully your celebration was a safe and happy one!

I am not sure if you have heard about combustible ice before, if you haven’t, I am sure you’re burning to see some photos. Essentially what it is is ice that has been frozen with natural gas (methane), creating a natural gas hydrate.

Here is an example of ice containing methane which has been lit on fire.

Combustible Ice

I have known about ice containing methane for quite a while because as it melts, it poses a severe threat to the environment. The more that is released, the warmer it gets, the warmer it gets, the more combustible ice melts… And, well, you can see how things can quickly begin to spiral out of control.

Well steps are currently being taken to study the use of this energy source and at the same time reduce the threat it has on the environment. And this is a step in the right direction. Recent studies have shown that more than 8 million tons of previously unknown methane has been leaking into the atmosphere each year.

In September of last year China discovered a previously unknown reserve of combustible ice on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. The find is equal to 35 billion tonnes of oil. To get an idea of how much this is, it is enough to power China for the next 90 years.

Before the source of fuel can be effectively utilized though, researchers believe that it will have to undergo a phase change.

That means that the ice will have to be melted, separating the methane from the water. The methane that would be won from one single cubic meter of ice is equal to 164 cubic meters of natural gas. With fewer impurities it will burn cleaner, and this is a good thing, since it will produce fewer pollutants than gas won from other sources.

Of course, it should be made clear that natural gas is not a clean source of energy, and when it is burned, it does create pollution. However, it is is cleaner than oil.

This is a dilemma, since the methane will be released into the atmosphere as the ice melts, regardless if it is used or not. Is this a viable solution for the search for cleaner energy? Probably not, since there are multiple methods to produce workable renewable energy.

Further research will have to be invested into this “new” source of energy before it can be clear if it is usable or not.

I was on Shapeways a while ago, actually I was on their blog. If you haven’t heard about this company before, they are a really cool Dutch outfit that gives you the opportunity to have your models printed.

While I have been meaning to post about bioplastic for a while, it seems like I haven’t had a moment of free time to do it.

Here is the video from their first post about homemade bioplastic.

While there is a lot of different aspects to think about when bioplastics are used, that isn’t the main focus of this article. If you want to learn more about the current state of this technology, you can read an extensive article on Wikipedia.

The part that really interested me about the post was that you can make it at home without much effort. And the recipe isn’t complicated:

“Combine 7 parts water, 1 part vinegar, 1/2 part glycerine, 1 1/2 parts starch for the basic recipe. You heat this in a pan for several minutes and presto you have bioplastic. More glycerine makes for a harder plastic. More starch makes for a denser and less viscous plastic. An 8 parts water, 1 vinegar, 1 gycerine, 1.5 starch variant worked best for filling molds and was much easier to work with. A recipe with 4 tablespoons water, 1 starch and 1 teaspoon of both gylcerine and vinegar made for a bit tougher but also less uniform result.”

I haven’t had time to try it yet, but the original poster, Joris Peels, experimented with the recipe over a weekend and posted extensively about the results.

Here is a teddy bear that he produced using the method.

Home Made Bioplastic

You can read his entire post entitled: Cooking & molding bioplastics at home: recipes, results & tips

If you take the time to try making your own plastic from this recipe, don’t forget to share some pictures!