Out of the envelope on energy

Conference pushes limits of technology

Friday, July 4, 2008

Click here to enlarge this photo Staff photo by KAYLEIGH KULP St. Mary’s County Commissioner Larry Jarboe demonstrates how his Pantone GEET fuel processor works by mixing various fuels with water at the Alternative Energy and Healing Conference at Jarboe’s Mill last weekend. E-Mail This Article | Print This Story

On tables in large kilns, in the back of cars and under tents around the property, grassroots inventors and researchers showcased alternative energy prototypes to encourage sustainability in communities as part of the Alternative Energy and Healing Conference, the first-ever held in Southern Maryland and sponsored by St. Mary’s County Commissioner Larry Jarboe (R).

There were items such as hydrogen boosters, a homemade car engine add-on that supplements fuel intake with water to make fuel burn cleaner, boost mileage by as much as 30 percent and reduce emissions. There also was a compressor that runs on hydrogen and vinegar, a Bedini SSG concept motor that runs on energy around it and a Pantone GEET fuel processor, a small engine that runs on many different fuels but is not very practical yet.

‘‘One Annapolis man brought his Mercedes electric car down that gets 60 miles per charge. He paid $200 for the Mercedes, and put in an electric motor and battery pack. That was very impressive. Someone brought their Smart Car,” Jarboe said.

There was even a bluegrass band whose equipment was solar-powered and a California-based film company, Glass Sidewalk Productions, who shot the event for an upcoming DVD on green energy.

The event was part of the Potomac Sustainable Communities Initiative — a decentralized effort throughout the independent research community to develop and distribute alternative energy and healing technologies currently available today for review, many of which are open-sourced, meaning the ideas are usable free of charge.

Hundreds of people from as far away as South Dakota, Florida, Wyoming and Toronto attended the event in Charlotte Hall.

Locals enjoyed the opportunity to showcase and learn as well.

Budd Gray, who owns Callaway-based CCIPHS Bio-Mass Stoves, showed a video presentation of his Europa model, which runs by burning many different kinds of fuels at 86 to 93 percent efficiency, including wood pellets, corn oil, switchgrass pellets, cherry pits or sunflower seeds. They are EPA-certified and have among the lowest emissions of any heating device, Gray said.

‘‘This is my eighth year, and I got into it because I wanted to save money. I want to be independent. I want to take control of my life, my energy bills, instead of the oil cartel,” Gray said.

One Europa heats about 2,000 square feet and comes with a battery backup system. There is a 10 percent Maryland tax rebate on biomass stoves and a 33 percent federal rebate.

‘‘My average heating bill was $400 the entire year. I know I saved 30 percent on my electric bill because of this device,” Gray said.

‘‘I’m trying to make people aware that the technology exists,” said Vermont-based Smacks hydrogen booster inventor, Dustin, who would not give his last name for fear of his teenage daughter’s privacy. ‘‘We are slaves to the petroleum industry and the government. This can change the way we live. We’re not a self-sufficient society. Because of money and financing, the technology has been pushed to the wayside because gas was cheap. Oil in the ground was never meant to be burnt. Oil is not life-sustaining. It’s all about money. Water is life.”

Dustin’s Smacks Booster costs about $270, or $170 for just parts, but many of the conference’s enthusiasts said the average person could find directions on the Internet and make a similar contraption themselves. He learned how to construct it online and brought his Cutlass Ciera from 18.5 miles per gallon to 24. His next big project is finding out how to run a car entirely on hydrogen.

‘‘The Smacks booster is just a learning tool. Anyone can go on the Internet and build the device I invented,” he said. ‘‘I’m humbled to be here. My technology is almost inferior to the stuff I’ve seen here.”

Nearly a dozen people showed their boosters out of the back of their cars on Saturday.

Robert Svetlik was one of them.

He drove from Jacksonville, Fla., to display his hydrogen booster, which bumped his Saturn from 30 miles per gallon to about 40, and examine others’ technology.

‘‘We’re not like typical businesspeople, where we keep everything secretive. This is a technology we want to share with the world. I want to organize one for the Florida area,” he said. ‘‘I’m really interested in the healing devices,” including an electromagnetic device that he claims pulsates on the body to kill pathogens in systems. A meditation site was set up overnight on Saturday where visitors could go to relax and heal.

Michael and Veronica Young came just for the day on Sunday from Union, N.J., to check out the conference. Michael is constantly looking for ways to construct energy-saving and environmentally friendly devices, and recently found $20 solar panels to supply his outdoor lighting.

‘‘He goes to work, comes home and spends 50 percent of his time doing this, or he’s on You Tube,” learning how to make new energy-efficient items, Veronica said of her husband. ‘‘We take a look at the economy, and we have to try to save. Now with the price of gas, what’s going to happen for the winter? This is like toys, this is fun for him. He’s going to have many sleepless nights now.”

Chevy Chase architect Tom Thayer demonstrated a hydrogen cell prototype that produces hydrogen to run a Mazda RX-7 — the sixth version he’s designed since 2002 — and a rotoverter that if perfected, could run at 97 percent efficiency and use one-eighth of the amount of electricity normally required to run a machine shop, for example. A few of them could run a house in an emergency situation and if mass-produced, would cost about $2,500 each.

Of the hydrogen cell, Thayer said jokingly, ‘‘This is not a replacement for gasoline because if reported as such, the oil guys would come after me. If I could make a decent living doing this, I would. This is where my passion lies.”

Flemington, N.J., union pipefitter Jeff Vanduyne came down for the event hoping to learn about ways to wean off of oil, particularly using substances like vegetable oil.

‘‘I have a few hydrogen cells of my own,” and became interested in the topic through a friend, he said.

‘‘When you see the need, it’s your job to do it,” Jarboe said of why he and a partner decided to hold the conference. ‘‘We don’t need to get into oil altercations all over the world. And come this winter, people won’t be able to afford $5-a-gallon oil. There are some solutions we can use right now like solar panels and hydrogen boosters. Those are things we can do right now to wean ourselves from fuel consumption. Most things that aren’t practical today become very practical tomorrow. This was a place where people could share their knowledge. It’s like one piece of the puzzle. We all learn from each other. It’s a revolution. We’ve been through the industrial revolution and now it’s time to go through the energy evolution,” Jarboe said.