FYI Links

Florida Exotic Pest Plant Council's invasive plant list

http://www.fleppc.org/list/07list.htm


2008 Florida Farm to Fuel Presentations
(Scroll down for bioenergy crop presentations)

http://www.floridafarmtofuel.com/summit_2008.htm

Monday - 06/29

Spent the day starting research for individual summer projects and worked on Adopt A Crop presentations

Adopt-a-Crop: Presenting On A Crop Assigned To Marcello

Hello Again Interns,
Since Marcello has left and is not going to be working with us, I plan on doing a presentation on one of his crops, Miscanthus. So that means that my two Adopt-a-Crop presentations are on SUGARCANE and MISCANTHUS.
-Divik-

Adopt-a-Crop: Will Do Presentation on Sugarcane

Hey Again Everybody,
I'll just do my presentation on sugarcane, since Lanie has already done her presentation on peanuts. I'll start working on the sugarcane presentation now.
Divik Schueller
(352) 281-9037

Accidentally Mistook Research Topic: Adopt-a-Crop

Hey everybody,
I accidentally mistook the topic today and started working on a presentation about peanuts instead of sugarcane. Since sugarcane was my original Adopt-a-Crop presentation topic and Lanie is doing peanuts and sesame, can I switch topics with her? If you could respond to me about this at your earliest possible convenience, it would be greatly appreciated.
From,
Divik Schueller
(352) 281-9037
divik@ufl.edu

Sears Tower going green

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/25/us/25sears.html

NY Times article on the Sears Tower turning green - trying to reduce energy costs, etc. They'll be putting wind turbines on the roof!

Time article, Wind Power

http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1906507,00.html

Time highlights some of the issues with wind power in America.

Thursday

• Eric and Marcello worked on their solar desalinator
• We all did some weeding in the garden, while Christa weedwacked the jatropha area
• We did some research on the Haiti project for Christa

Activities Performed Wednesday 6/17/09

• The following people did presentations on the first books assigned for them to read in this summer school:
  

1. Danielle
2. Taylor

• A UF speaker came and had a discussion with the interns and Dr. Wilkie about sustainable development in Haiti, with a focus on American based attempts to further implement energy technologies in the region, that produce less harm on the local ecology, while improving domestic socioeconomic conditions there.

• Written by Divik Schueller
  

Green roofs

This morning, in the New York Times, I found an article on green roofs. I found it fitting to post this, especially after our talk about green roofs yesterday. It's titled, "Urban Farming, a Bit Closer to the Sun."

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/17/dining/17roof.html?_r=1&8dpc

-Danielle

For all you ambitious futurists out there, here is a sustainable design collaborative with some interesting concepts. A lot of the implementation details do not seem to be fleshed out, though I find the ideas pretty inspiring. 

http://www.terreform.org/

6/16/09

• Learned about Florida Alliance for Renewable Energy (FARE), FAREnergy.org
• Christa's presentation on "Cradle to Cradle"
• Carolina's presentation on soils

-Danielle

Article on Haiti

Hey guys,

Here is an article I found on Haiti that will give you an idea what's going on there.

We should have a speaker coming in today to talk to us about Haiti and I thought it would be good if we all had some backround information on it.

Hope everyone is having a great morning!

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/article6281614.ece

-Christa

Friday, June 12th

Divik did some great weeding in the garden before we all got there.

Today we all met up at the lab and discussed our Adopt-a-Crop projects.

We decided that....

Danielle will do Napier Grass and Corn
Lanie will do Peanuts and Sesame
Taylor will do Sunflower and Mustard
Divik will do Sugarcane and Miscanthus
Christa will do Jatropha and Sorghum
Eric will do Canola and Soybean

We also decided on 15 topics that every presentaion should cover (but isn't limited to)

1. regional distribution
2. soil type the plant prefers
3. what the plant is used for
4. how that plant is harvested
5. what kind of fertilization does the plant need
6. how much water does the plant need
7. energy output
8. what species and genus
9. if there are any related crops
10. alternative names
11. history
12. alternative uses
13. invasive or not
14. PICTURES
15. any genetic modification

We are shooting to show eachother these presentations on the 29th and 30th


Also we decided that next week (the hottest days) we will watch "Home" and "Give Me Green".

We all went to work on our presentations and research.

Hope everyone has a great weekend!

-Christa

Home, the documentary

Someone mentioned this in the lab meeting. Here's a youtube video of Home. Enjoy.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jqxENMKaeCU

Lanie

ADOPT A CROP

We all have been working so hard with the energy crops but I feel like I know little about the actual plant sooooo I was thinking it would be cool if we all "adopt" one of the crops and do a mini presentation for the rest so we can get more info on them. It doesn't have to be fancy. On monday we will have a "round-table" and we can figure out what we want to get out of this.

Just post which plant you want do it on.

Energy Crops

sugarcane
energycane
sorgum (sorry about the spelling if it's wrong)
napier grass (Elephant Grass)
Sunflowers
Peanuts
Jatropha


YAY!!!!!!

Awesome use of Google Maps!

http://rpm.nrel.gov/transatlas/launch/

I found this site... I'm going to post it on the BEST list serve tonight. Its shows all the places to get biofuels on a Google Map.

-Lanie

Wednesday 6/10/09 Activities

• Started with Dr. Wilkie talking to some interns individually about various topics while everybody arrived

• Left shortly at around 1:25 to Scott's farm called Comet Farm in Union County (approximately 30 miles away) and did many activities including:

• Discussed various possible farm chores for interns to undertake at the Comet Farm
  

• Pulled weeds around various crop areas

• Planted some tomatoes and peppers by transferring small plants from flower pots and putting them in the ground

• Dug holes around perimeter of tomato growing crop rows
  

• Partially submerged tree limbs in holes we dug into the ground to use as posts as a temporary fence around crops so they don't expand into adjacent rows
  

• Connected the logs with ropes to complete this fence
  

• Sawed and transported tree limbs parts from fallen trees adjacent to farming area to be used as mini fence posts around crop rows

• Deweeded parts of greenhouse

• Applied hay to various rows of crops in garden

• Left to Gainesville around 5:20

• Written by Divik Schueller
  

Haile Village Farmers Market

Hello everyone

I know just about everyone already knows I work at the Farmer's Markets on Saturday... but for those of you who have yet to experience a Farmer's Market (Gainesville style) should do so if you can this Saturday. I've posted a link for how to get there, and this link even shows what you what's in season that can be found at the market. It's a very laid back atmosphere, there are restaurants within walking distance, and as a random side note: if you have a friendly dog you should bring yours because tons of other people do... or just come grab some yummy local food : )

Hope to see you there,
Danielle

http://www.localharvest.org/farmers-markets/M1148

Activities 6/9/09

Scott's Farm Day 1!
* Planted peppers
* Harvested beets
* Cleared old plants out to make way for the new
* Some lucky interns got to have a wonderful dinner :)
* Learned how Scott's farm operates sustainably (for example, composting to get fly larvae to feed to the chickens)

This is the article I sent on the BEST list, just reposting it here so we can discuss it...

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=bioelectricity-versus-biofuel

should we abandon ethanol pursuits? should we focus on electric cars from here? Or, is this analysis premature in the sense that as research progresses the chemical processes might become more efficient? Then again, burning seems pretty efficient because it is so simple...

Sorry for the late post, first time I've been able to get to a computer.
Monday:

• Met up in Jacksonville for the conference
• Listened to discussions on present and future challenges for cellulosic biofuels, biomass, various potential bioenergy grasses, invasives, and optimal growing conditions for biomass production.
  

Due date for paychecks...

Hello everyone,

Just wanted to ask if you all had heard any follow up regarding submitting information so that we may get our paychecks on the 19th... it looks like the due date for info is the 9th, so we'd better get everything wrapped up. Please let me know if anyone else received the email about this, or if you know exactly what we are supposed to do!

Thanks,
Danielle

Friday Activities

Today we covered

1. Our plans for our trip to Jacksonville for the conference
2. Jason came and gave us a review on his speech
3. Dr. Wilkie gave us our new books to read
4. We covered our plans for next week

• Monday: Conference
• Tuesday: Scott's Farm
• Wednesday: Scott's Farm
• Thursday: Lecture and Christa, Danielle and Eric will present book review PowerPoint's
• Friday:Still up in the air

Let me know if there is anything I may have forgotten

Thanks,

Christa

One more thing about the conference

Hey Guys,

On the site click on PROGRAM to see the schedule and ABSTRACT to read what each session will be covering

Thanks,

Christa

Hey everyone,

Here is the link Dr. Wilkie gave me for the conference on Monday in Jacksonville

http://fshs.org/meetings.htm

Let me know if you need directions

Thanks,
Christa

Please bring laptops from now on

Hey everyone,

Dr. Wilkie requested that we all bring our laptops every day.

Thanks,
Christa

Motorpool

I scanned the documents from Mr. Priest into google docs, with this account, if you would like to read them! They'll probably answer some questions about specific fuel costs that some people had.

• Today during our informal meeting, we discussed different types of solar energy collection.
• Napier grass!
• We talked about Omnivore's Dilemma
  

At the motorpool - jpriest@ufl.edu

• They get their B100/E85 from Lewis Oil
• They use B20 in everything that runs on Diesel
• UPD runs all their cars on E85
• Out of their approx $2.1M budget, $0.5M goes to fuel
• Vehicles must travel >6k miles/year or they will be eligible to be removed from the fleet
• Vehicles are inspected once/year
• They use color coded electronic keys to prevent people from stealing fuel, to see how much is used, and to bill the correct department
• OPIS - Oil Price Info Service
• Biogas with CO2 and H2S removed is called biomethane
• Compressed Natural Gas
• Liquid Natural Gas
  
• Police force running on natural gas
• Public transportation, books, groceries - Europe, India
• All new vehicles bought by UF have to run on renewable energy
• Cost per Btu for gas, ethanol, biodiesel, diesel?
• "Campus cab" SNAP, group cars on campus
• Doug Rank - graduate student regarding fuel efficiency

Let me know if I missed something important!

Lanie

Wednesday June 3 Activities Performed By Interns

• Deweeded energy garden area around peanut and sunflower crops

• Shoveled dirt from remote part of energy park and placed in large, circular flower pot containers under bamboo structure adjacent to bushes

• Planted jatropha in these corresponding circular flower pot containers

• Me and Eric checked the photovoltaic (PV) solar panels and made sure Scot's algae system was completely powered by the four panels hooked up in parallel.

• Me, Ryan and Marchello went to DeDee DeLongpre's fairwell gathering to say bye to her while the rest of the interns attended the garden.

• Post written by Divik Schueller
  

Peanut and Sunflower oil project

We took 1 lb of shelled peanuts and 1 lb of sunflower seeds (with shell) and grinded it through the oil press. We then took the unfiltered oil of both the peanuts and sunflower and used a beaker with a funnel and filter paper to produce a yeild of 146 mL of filtered peanut oil and 140 mL of filtered sunflower oil. The pressed cake from the oil press yielded .65 lb of peanut cake and .7 of sunflower cake.

Kingsley Plantation and Sea Cotton

Below is the link for the Kingsley Plantation Website

http://www.nps.gov/timu/historyculture/kp_history.htm

Below is the link for Sea Cotton

http://www.nps.gov/timu/historyculture/kp_seaislandcotton.htm

I haven't been able to find any information on the water that it uses to grow or if it can even withstand salt water. Please let me know if you find anything.

See you tomorrow

Christa

Jatropha

Here are some websites that give some solid insite to Jatropha

http://www.jatrophaseeds.com/jatropha_curcas.htm

http://www.jatrophaplantsource.com/jatropha_curcas.html

I found this website to be the most informational
http://www.jatrophacurcasplantations.com/?gclid=CL-vx9717poCFRSfnAod5n9kBg

See you tommorrow

Christa, Lani, Danielle, and Taylor

Upcoming events

Hi interns,
Just a reminder of the upcoming events we talked about today.

• Wednesday (6/3): plant jatropha, farewell reception for Dedee
• Thursday (6/4): trip to motor pool
• Monday (6/8): Conference in Jacksonville
• Tuesday and Wednesday (6/9 & 6/10): Work at Scott and Hailey's farms (bring swimsuits)
• Thursday (6/11): Visit Flour Pot bakery
• Friday (6/12): Possible algae conference in Orlando

Any free time we have, we need to get the plants we have sprouted in the ground.

Ryan

6/02 Activities

* Sanded, checked for leaks and spray painted the solar panels in an effort to refurbish them
* Set up other solar panels in digester mulched area
* Organized the shop
* Planted sesame seeds after weeding the area

Monday - 06/01

Here's what we did today:

• Turned in book reports
• Filled 16 pots with dirt from the south end of the park
• Cleaned the solar thermal panels
• Organized the tool shed
• Raked the mulch in the energy plot
• Set up PV panels by the algae stations inthe energy plot

-Taylor