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A blog posting
recently made the rounds regarding a fatal design flaw in the Tesla
Roadster. The blogger claims that some Roadsters have become “bricks”,
with non-functioning batteries requiring a $40,000 fix. The blog is dead
wrong about most of the technical facts it claims to be reporting.
Don’t blame the blogger, however: he’s only participating in a trend of
misinformation about electric vehicles that is starting to impact the
reputation of the fledgling industry.
Here’s the primary fact that the blogger in question doesn’t
understand: the Tesla battery pack is not a battery. It’s a collection
of more than 6,800 individual batteries. Each of those cells is
independently managed. So there’s only two ways for the entire battery
pack to fail. The first is if all 6,800 cells individually fail (highly
unlikely except in the case of something catastrophic like a fire). The
second failure mechanism is if the battery management system tells the
pack to shut down because it has detected a dangerous situation, such as
an extremely low depth of discharge. If that’s the case, all that needs
to be done is to tow the vehicle to a charger, recharge the batteries
and then reboot the battery management system. This is the most likely
explanation for the five “bricks” that the blogger claims to have heard
about. They probably aren’t actually bricks, but cars in need of
servicing.
Another error on the part of the blogger is the claim that if the
cars discharge fully, the battery packs will be damaged. This is
blatantly false. The battery management system of the Tesla Roadster
keeps the battery from being discharged to a damagingly low state of
charge under normal driving conditions. It’s true that a full discharge
to zero percent state of charge can potentially be damaging to a
battery. However the battery management system of the Roadster won’t
allow the car to reach that low level of charge.
There is a fundamental problem when any rechargeable battery is
discharged and then left to sit for months. Any boat owner understands
that that’s why you plug in a trickle charger when the craft is put into
storage. The same should be done for any electric vehicle. However, to
imply that the Tesla Roadster has a fundamental design flaw because of
the nature of electrochemistry is like saying that Chrysler has a
fundamental design flaw because its engines will be damaged if you drain
all the oil out and then drive cross-country.
The blogger in question is, unfortunately, not a single voice in the
wilderness. He’s part of a widespread trend throughout some parts of the
blogosphere and some parts of traditional media to politicize and
demonize the electric vehicle. This trend has in turn damaged the
general reputation of the automakers taking risks in building and
selling these vehicles. This isn’t the only problem that electric
vehicles have today (overpricing and bad choreography have done their damage too). But there’s an antidote for this type of misinformation: confronting it with facts.
This is a DC-to-AC inverter circuit diagram
which produces an AC output at line frequency and voltage. The 555 is
configured as a low-frequency oscillator, tunable over the frequency
range of 50 to 60 Hz by Frequency potentiometer R4.
Parts List: R1_________ 10K R2_________ 100K R3_________ 100 ohm R4_________ 50K potmeter, Linear C1,C2______ 0.1uF C3_________ 0.01uF C4_________ 2700uF Q1_________ TIP41A, NPN, or equivalent Q2_________ TIP42A, PNP, or equivalent L1_________ 1uH T1_________ Filament transformer, your choice
The
555 feeds its output (amplified by Q1 and Q2) to the input of
transformer T1, a reverse-connected filament transformer with the
necessary step-up turns ratio. Capacitor C4 and coil L1 filter the input to T1, assuring that it is effectively a sine wave. Adjust the value of T1 to your voltage.
The output (in watts) is up to you by selecting different components.
Input voltage is anywhere from +5V to +15Volt DC, adjust the 2700uF cap’s working voltage accordingly.
Replacement
types for Q1 are: TIP41B, TIP41C, NTE196, ECG196, etc. Replacement
types for Q2 are: TIP42B, TIP42C, NTE197, ECG197, etc. Don’t be afraid
to use another type of similar specs, it’s only a transistor… đ
Use proper transformer. If you load electronic device which require 120V AC, then use transformer with 120V in output.
| Cryogenic air separation processes are routinely used in medium to large scale plants to produce nitrogen, oxygen, and argon as gases and/ or liquid products.
Cryogenic air separation is the preferred technology for producing very high purity oxygen and nitrogen. It is the most cost effective technology for high production rate plants. All plants producing liquefied industrial gas products utilize cryogenic technology. The complexity of the cryogenic air separation process, the physical sizes of equipment, and the energy required to operate the process all vary with the number of gaseous and liquid products, required product purities, and required delivery pressures. Nitrogen-only production plants are less complex and require less power to operate than an oxygen-only plant making the same amount of product. Co-production of both products, when both are needed, increases capital and energy efficiency. Making these products in liquid form requires additional equipment and more than doubles the amount of power required per unit of delivered product. Argon production is economical only as a co-product with oxygen. Making it at high purity adds to the physical size and complexity of the plant. |
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Air – The Raw Material for Making Nitrogen, Oxygen and Argon: |
Dry air is relatively uniform in composition, with primary constituents as shown below. Ambient air, may have up to about 5% (by volume) water content and may contain a number of other gases (usually in trace amounts) that are removed at one or more points in the air separation and product purification system.
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General Process Description – Cryogenic Air Separation: |
| There are numerous variations in air separation cycles used to make industrial gas products. Design variations arise from differences in user requirements. Process cycles are somewhat different depending upon how many products are desired (either nitrogen or oxygen; both oxygen and nitrogen; or nitrogen, oxygen and argon); the required product purities; the gaseous product delivery pressures desired; and whether one or more products will be produced and stored in liquid form.
All cryogenic air separation processes consist of a similar series of steps. Variations in selected process configuration and pressure levels reflect the desired product mix (or mixes) and the priorities/ evaluation criteria of the user. Some process cycles minimize capital cost, some minimize energy usage, some maximize product recovery, and some allow maximum operating flexibility. The cryogenic air separation flow diagram shown below illustrates (in a generic fashion) many of the important steps in producing nitrogen, oxygen and argon as both gas and liquid products. It does not represent any particular plant. |
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Steps in Cryogenic Air Separation: |
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The first process step in any air separation plant is filtering, compressing, and cooling the incoming air. In most cases the air is compressed to somewhere between 5 and 8 bar, depending upon the intended product mix and desired product pressures. The compressed air is cooled, and much of the water vapor in the inc Because the final temperature of the compressed air is limited by the temperature of the available cooling medium, which in almost all cases is limited by the wet or dry bulb temperature of the air, the temperature of the compressed air is sometimes well above optimum for maximizing the efficiency of downstream unit operations. Consequently, the compressed air is often cooled to a somewhat lower temperature in a mechanical refrigeration system. In addition to lowering and stabilizing the inlet temperature to downstream compression and heat exchange systems, which enhances the efficiency and stability of the overall air separation process, reducing the compressed air temperature allows removal of additional water vapor by condensation, reducing the water-removal load in molecular sieve pre-purification equipment. with a mechanical refrigeration system or, In some cases, cooling may be accomplished with a direct contact aftercooler system (DCAC) instead of mechanical refrigeration. DCAC systems utilize cool, dry waste gas to chill a a circulating cooling water stream in a “chill tower”, and then use the chilled water stream to cool the compressed air in a second tower. The next major step is removal of impurities, in particular, but not limited to, residual water vapor plus carbon dioxide. These components of air must be removed to meet product quality specifications. In addition, they must be removed prior the air entering the distillation portion of the plant; because very low temperatures would cause the water and carbon dioxide to freeze and deposit on the surfaces within the process equipment. There are two basic approaches to removing the water vapor and carbon dioxide – “molecular sieve units” and “reversing exchangers”.
In the “warm end” heat exchangers, the incoming air is cooled to a low enough temperature that the water vapor and carbon dioxide freeze out onto the walls of the heat exchanger air passages. At frequent intervals, a set of valves reverse the duty of the the air and waste gas passages. After a passage in the heat exchanger is switched from incoming air cooling to waste gas warming service, the very dry, partially-warmed waste gas evaporates the water and sublimes the carbon dioxide ices that were deposited during the last air cooling period. These gases return to the atmosphere, and after they have been fully removed, the passage is return to incoming air cooling service. When reversing heat exchangers are used, cold absorption units are installed to remove any hydrocarbons which make their way into the distillation system. (When a molecular sieve “front end” is used, hydrocarbons are removed along with water vapor and carbon dioxide in the PPU.) The next step is additional heat transfer against product and waste gas streams to bring the air feed to cryogenic temperature (approximately -300 degrees Fahrenheit or -185 degrees Celsius). This cooling is done in brazed aluminum heat exchangers which allow the exchange of heat between the incoming air feed and cold product and waste gas streams exiting the separation process. The exiting gas streams are warmed to close-to-ambient air temperature. Recovering refrigeration from the gaseous product streams and waste stream minimizes the amount of refrigeration that must be produced by the plant. The very cold temperatures needed for cryogenic distillation are created by a refrigeration process that includes expansion of one or more elevated pressure process streams. The next step in the air separation / product purification process is distillation, which separates the air into desired products. To make oxygen as a product, the distillation system uses two distillation columns in series, which are commonly called the âhighâ and âlowâ pressure columns. Nitrogen plants may have only one column, although many have two. Nitrogen leaves the top of each distillation column; oxygen leaves from the bottom. Impure oxygen produced in the initial (higher pressure) column is further purified in the second, lower pressure column. Argon has a boiling point similar to that of oxygen and will preferentially stay with the oxygen product. If high purity oxygen is required, argon must be removed from the distillation system. Argon removal takes place at a point in the low pressure column where the concentration of argon is its highest level. The argon which is removed is usually processed in an additional “side-draw” crude argon distillation column that is integrated with the low pressure column. Crude argon may be vented, further processed on site, or collected as liquid and shipped to a remote “argon refinery”. The choice depends upon the quantity of argon available and economic analysis of the various alternatives. Pure argon is typically produced from crude argon by a multi-step process. The traditional approach is removal of the two to three percent oxygen present in the crude argon in a âde-oxoâ unit. These small units chemically combine the oxyg Advances in packed-column distillation technology have created a second argon production option, totally cryogenic argon recovery that uses a very tall (but small diameter) distillation column to make the difficult argon/ oxygen separation. The amount of argon that can be produced by a plant is limited by the amount of oxygen processed in the distillation system; plus a number of other variables that affect the recovery percentage. These include the amount of oxygen produced as liquid and the steadiness of plant operating conditions. Due to the naturally-occurring ratio of gases in air, argon production cannot exceed 4.4% of the oxygen feed rate (by volume) or 5.5% by weight. The cold gaseous products and waste streams that emerge from the air separation columns are routed back through the front end heat exchangers. As they are warmed to near-ambient temperature, they chill the incoming air. As noted previously, the heat exchange between feed and product streams minimizes the net refrigeration load on the plant and, therefore, energy consumption. Refrigeration is produced at cryogenic temperature levels to compensate for heat leak into the cold equipment and for imperfect heat exchange between incoming and outgoing gaseous streams. Air separation plants use a refrigeration cycle that is similar, in principle, to that used in home and automobile air conditioning systems. One or more elevated pressure streams (which may be nitrogen, waste gas, feed gas, or product gas, depending upon the type of plant) are reduced in pressure, which chills the stream. To maximize chilling and plant energy efficiency, the pressure reduction (or expansion) takes place inside an expander (a form of turbine). Removing energy from the gas stream reduces its temperature more than would be the case with simple expansion across a valve. The energy produced by the expander is put to use to drive a process compressor, an electrical generator, or other energy-consuming device such as an oil pump or air blower. Gaseous products typically exit the cold box (the insulated vessel containing the distillation columns and other equipment operating at very low temperatures) at relatively low pressures, often just over one atmosphere (absolute). In general, the lower the delivery pressure, the higher the efficiency of the separation and purification process. When products will be used at relatively low gauge pressure (up to several atmospheres) plants can be designed and operated to produce product at the required pressure. In many cases, however, it is more cost effective to produce the product at low pressure and compress the product gas to the required delivery pressure(s). If gaseous oxygen is required at moderate pressure, a process option is to use a “LOX boil” or “pumped LOX” cycle. These process cycles vaporize liquid oxygen at just above delivery pressure, against incoming air which has been boosted in pressure to allow it to partially condense against the vaporizing liquid oxygen. These cycles have appeal because they effectively substitute additional stages of air compression and a cryogenic pump for an oxygen compressor; which can result in a more compact and less expensive plant. âPumped LOXâ systems are most applicable when there is fairly constant product demand. The heat for vaporizing and warming the vaporized LOX is drawn from the air feed, which is partially condensed and sent to the distillation system, Rapid changes in oxygen demand will negatively affect plant performance, as each sudden change will tend to âbounceâ the distillation columns. The portions of the cryogenic air separation process that operate at very low temperatures, i.e., the distillation columns, heat exchangers and cold interconnecting piping, must be well insulated. These items are located inside sealed (and nitrogen purged) âcold boxesâ, which are relatively tall structures that may be either rectangular or round in cross section. Cold boxes are “packed” with rock wool or perlite to provide insulation and minimize convection currents. Depending on plant type and capacity, cold boxes may measure 2 to 4 meters on a side and have a height of 15 to 60 meters. They may be totally shop fabricated for rapid field erection, or the distillation columns, heat exchangers, and their interconnecting manifolds may shop fabricated for field assembly and erection. This is done when a shop fabricated box would be too large or heavy to ship to the site. LIN assist plants are a special kind of cryogenic plant that can cost-effectively produce gaseous nitrogen at relatively low production rates. They differ from “normal” cryogenic plants in that they do not have their own mechanical refrigeration system. They effectively “import” the refrigeration required for on-site nitrogen production from a remote high-volume, high efficiency merchant liquid plant. They accomplish this by continuously injecting a small amount of liquid nitrogen into the distillation process, where the “imported” LIN provides reflux for distillation, then vaporizes and mixes with the locally-produced gaseous nitrogen, becoming part of the final product stream. Use of LIN-assist instead of a mechanical refrigeration system simplifies the plant design, makes the system somewhat more compact, reduces capital cost and can, under the right conditions, provide better overall economics than either an all-bulk-liquid supply or a new cryogenic nitrogen plant with a standard internal refrigeration cycle. |
| When a large percentage of plant production must be produced as liquid product(s), a supplemental refrigeration unit must be added to (or integrated into) a basic air separation plant.
These units are called liquefiers and most use nitrogen as the primary working fluid. The required liquefier capacity is determined by considering t The basic process cycle used in liquefiers has been unchanged for decades. The basic difference between newer and older liquefiers is that the maximum operating pressure rating of cryogenic heat exchangers has increased as cryogenic heat exchanger manufacturing technology has improved. A typical new liquefier can be more energy efficient than one built thirty years ago if it employs higher peak cycle pressures and higher efficiency expanders. A classic “stand alone” liquefier takes in near-ambient-temperature-and-pressure nitrogen, compresses it, cools it, then expands the high pressure stream to produce refrigeration. In some liquefier systems a second refrigeration system using an environmentally-friendly form of refrigerant provides some of the higher temperature duty. A stand-alone liquefier cycle produces only liquid nitrogen. If it is desired to produce liquid oxygen, and both the ASU and liquefier will be new units, a portion of the liquid nitrogen production will typically be sent to the ASU to provide the refrigeration which is needed to allow withdraw the desired amount of liquid oxygen from the cold box. If the liquefier is being added to an existing ASU, the ASU may not have been designed to allow high rates of liquid oxygen withdrawal. In that case, one solution is to add extra heat exchanger circuit to liquefy gaseous oxygen while vaporizing liquid nitrogen. In highly integrated air separation and liquefaction plants, most if not all of the refrigeration for both air separation and product liquefaction is produced in the liquefier section. Refrigeration is transferred to the air separation section of the plant through heat exchangers and injection of liquid nitrogen as distillation column reflux. Highly integrated merchant liquid production plants are less expensive to build and more thermodynamically efficient. They can be very flexible in the sense of allowing production of varying mixes of liquid nitrogen and liquid oxygen. On the other hand, they have a potential disadvantage – the liquefier cannot be shut down independently of the air separation unit When a totally new air separation plant is designed, an important question to address is whether the ASU and NLU (Nitrogen Liquefier Unit) will typically operate in tandem, or whether independent operation may be desirable. Bulk liquid only plants are good candidates for close integration with the air separation process cycle. “Piggyback” plants with substantial pipelined gas demand may want the ability to operate independently of the liquefier. Being able to operate the ASU without also operating the liquefier can be advantageous:
Campaign operations take advantage of the facts that liquefiers are most energy efficient when operating near full capacity and that shutdown and startup of an independent liquefier system can be done relatively easily and with little adverse impact on air separation plant operation. When the efficiency savings available with campaign operation are coupled with production run timing that takes advantage of lower-cost power periods (nights, weekends, etc.), significant operating cost savings can be achieved versus constant operation at reduced liquid production rates. |
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First Fast-Charging Station for E-Cars Goes Live as Part of âElectric Highwayâ
December 29, 2011
2011
has turned out to be a groundbreaking year for electric
vehiclesâliterally. The Washington State Department of Transportation
(WSDOT) earlier this week chose a shopping center in Bellingham as the first location to break ground on the stateâs segment of the West Coast Electric Highway, part of a 444-kilometer stretch of road along Interstate 5 between Washingtonâs borders with Oregon and Canada.
Bellingham will host the Electric Highwayâs first direct-current (DC) electric vehicle fast-charging station,
designed by AeroVironment Inc. to provide a 30-minute recharge for
all-electric vehicles. (AeroVironment has deployed fast-charging
stations in other locations nationwide, including Hawaii, as have competitors such as ECOtality Inc.)
The Bellingham charging station will also include a pedestal with a
220-volt alternate-current (AC) outlet that can recharge one plug-in
vehicle at a time at an intermediate rate of about two to eight hours,
depending on the size of the battery. (Currently, some U.S. homes have
220-volt AC outlets installed to power air conditioners and clothes
dryers. Most outlets supply 120-volt AC, which can charge e-cars at the
slowest âtrickleâ rate.)
AeroVironmentâs Electric Highway work with the WSDOT is part of the
larger West Coast Green Highway, a three-state initiative to promote the
use of cleaner fuels along nearly 2,173 kilometers of I-5 from British
Columbia to Baja, California in Mexico. The U.S. Department of Energy is
also adding fast-charging stations along I-5 through its EV Project, a nationwide initiative managed by ECOtality.
In terms of the Electric Highway, the WSDOT awarded AeroVironment a $1 million contract in July to outfit I-5 and U.S. Highway 2 with a network of at least nine fast-charging stations by November 30. The completion date slipped to next year as AeroVironment works out lease agreements for the charging locations.
AeroVironment plans to install six stations every 64 to 97 kilometers
along I-5 in shopping malls, fueling stations and restaurants with easy
access to the highway. Three more stations will be built along U.S. Highway 2 to the north and potentially two more along Interstate 90, near Seattle.
2012 will be a pivotal year for electric vehicles such as the Nissan
Leaf and plug-in electric hybrids such as the Chevy Volt. General Motors
had high hopes for the Volt in its first full year on the market, but
the company expects to miss its sales target of 10,000 cars in 2011,
coming up short by more than 3,800, according to Bloomberg.
Sales were stronger toward the end of the year. The company is
expanding its annual production to 60,000 vehicles starting next month,
even as the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) investigates lithium-ion battery-pack fires
following tests designed to measure the vehicleâs ability to protect
occupants from injury in a side collision. Neither Nissan nor Tesla
Motorsâboth of which sell all-electric vehicles powered entirely by
lithium-ion batteriesâhave reported any fires in either the LEAF or
Roadster, respectively.
Another important issue that remains unresolved heading into the new yearâstandards for electric-vehicle fast charging.
In the U.S. the Society for Automotive Engineers (SAE) has approved the
J1772 standard that governs slow- to moderate-speed electric car
charging, and most electric car manufacturers have committed to using
J1772 moving forward. Fast-charging standards, however, remain
fragmented. Japanese carmakers Nissan and Mitsubishi have chosen a
fast-charging standard known as CHAdeMO and developed by a consortium of
Japanese companies even as the SAE sets to work on its own standard,
which wonât be ready for the road for at least another year.
CHAdeMO may have some shortcomings
(it uses an older communication standard not expected to work well with
coming smart grid technologies), but itâs the only game in town right
now and is catching on worldwide. As a result AeroVironmentâs stations
along West Coast Electric Highway are CHAdeMO compliant.
First Fast-Charging Station for E-Cars Goes Live as Part of âElectric Highwayâ
December 29, 2011
2011
has turned out to be a groundbreaking year for electric
vehiclesâliterally. The Washington State Department of Transportation
(WSDOT) earlier this week chose a shopping center in Bellingham as the first location to break ground on the stateâs segment of the West Coast Electric Highway, part of a 444-kilometer stretch of road along Interstate 5 between Washingtonâs borders with Oregon and Canada.
Bellingham will host the Electric Highwayâs first direct-current (DC) electric vehicle fast-charging station,
designed by AeroVironment Inc. to provide a 30-minute recharge for
all-electric vehicles. (AeroVironment has deployed fast-charging
stations in other locations nationwide, including Hawaii, as have competitors such as ECOtality Inc.)
The Bellingham charging station will also include a pedestal with a
220-volt alternate-current (AC) outlet that can recharge one plug-in
vehicle at a time at an intermediate rate of about two to eight hours,
depending on the size of the battery. (Currently, some U.S. homes have
220-volt AC outlets installed to power air conditioners and clothes
dryers. Most outlets supply 120-volt AC, which can charge e-cars at the
slowest âtrickleâ rate.)
AeroVironmentâs Electric Highway work with the WSDOT is part of the
larger West Coast Green Highway, a three-state initiative to promote the
use of cleaner fuels along nearly 2,173 kilometers of I-5 from British
Columbia to Baja, California in Mexico. The U.S. Department of Energy is
also adding fast-charging stations along I-5 through its EV Project, a nationwide initiative managed by ECOtality.
In terms of the Electric Highway, the WSDOT awarded AeroVironment a $1 million contract in July to outfit I-5 and U.S. Highway 2 with a network of at least nine fast-charging stations by November 30. The completion date slipped to next year as AeroVironment works out lease agreements for the charging locations.
AeroVironment plans to install six stations every 64 to 97 kilometers
along I-5 in shopping malls, fueling stations and restaurants with easy
access to the highway. Three more stations will be built along U.S. Highway 2 to the north and potentially two more along Interstate 90, near Seattle.
2012 will be a pivotal year for electric vehicles such as the Nissan
Leaf and plug-in electric hybrids such as the Chevy Volt. General Motors
had high hopes for the Volt in its first full year on the market, but
the company expects to miss its sales target of 10,000 cars in 2011,
coming up short by more than 3,800, according to Bloomberg.
Sales were stronger toward the end of the year. The company is
expanding its annual production to 60,000 vehicles starting next month,
even as the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) investigates lithium-ion battery-pack fires
following tests designed to measure the vehicleâs ability to protect
occupants from injury in a side collision. Neither Nissan nor Tesla
Motorsâboth of which sell all-electric vehicles powered entirely by
lithium-ion batteriesâhave reported any fires in either the LEAF or
Roadster, respectively.
Another important issue that remains unresolved heading into the new yearâstandards for electric-vehicle fast charging.
In the U.S. the Society for Automotive Engineers (SAE) has approved the
J1772 standard that governs slow- to moderate-speed electric car
charging, and most electric car manufacturers have committed to using
J1772 moving forward. Fast-charging standards, however, remain
fragmented. Japanese carmakers Nissan and Mitsubishi have chosen a
fast-charging standard known as CHAdeMO and developed by a consortium of
Japanese companies even as the SAE sets to work on its own standard,
which wonât be ready for the road for at least another year.
CHAdeMO may have some shortcomings
(it uses an older communication standard not expected to work well with
coming smart grid technologies), but itâs the only game in town right
now and is catching on worldwide. As a result AeroVironmentâs stations
along West Coast Electric Highway are CHAdeMO compliant.
Action aboard airplane creates a reluctant hero
Jabir Hazziez Jr. subdued an unruly passenger on a Nov. 30 AirTran flight to Kansas City. A Kansas City firefighter, reserve Jackson County deputy and member of the U.S. Naval Reserve, Hazziez has been praised for his quick action and level head.A man foaming at the mouth lunged for the airliner’s cabin door, attempting to open it as flight attendants struggled to hold him at bay.
Most of the post-Thanksgiving travelers cruising at some 30,000 feet toward Kansas City that day were unaware of the potential disaster looming at the front of the plane.
But when a crew member came on the intercom asking if anyone had medical training, passenger Jabir Hazziez Jr. heard the sense of concern in her voice.
What happened next came as no surprise to those who know and work with Hazziez, a Kansas City firefighter, reserve Jackson County deputy and member of the U.S. Naval Reserve.
As Hazziez walked toward the front of the plane, he saw a man pacing and holding his head in his hands. The man appeared to be in an “altered mental state” and clearly appeared agitated.
“He was trying to get to the door of the plane,” Hazziez recalled recently. “I grabbed ahold of him and tried to calm him down.”
But the man only became more combative and knocked Hazziez into the cockpit door.
Using his law enforcement training, Hazziez put the man in a neck restraint and took him to the floor. The man continued kicking and trying to reach the door with his feet. Another passenger grabbed the man’s legs.
Together they held him for about 15 or 20 minutes until the plane, which had taken off in Atlanta, made an emergency landing in Memphis and authorities came on board to deal with the man. Later, Hazziez learned the man had been suffering from an adverse reaction to a vaccine.
“I’m glad it was a medical situation and not a criminal incident,” Hazziez said. “It could have been a lot worse.”
When the flight resumed, Hazziez was showered with thanks from his fellow passengers and received a standing ovation before leaving the plane after that Nov. 30 flight.
Although Hazziez’s religious faith didn’t matter to those grateful passengers, it has become an important aspect of his story.
He is a Muslim.
And like others of his faith, he is sensitive to the negative perceptions and prejudices of some in the post-Sept. 11 world. But he says what he did that day was in keeping with the teachings of Islam.
“We are supposed to help those in need and protect and help those who can’t help themselves,” he said.
The Midland Islamic Council issued a statement praising Hazziez for enhancing the image of American Muslims and helping to “affirm the many valuable and useful contributions they make to our nation.”
The accolades have continued, including a resolution from the Kansas City Council and Mayor Sly James honoring Hazziez for his “heroic actions.”
Hazziez said he has been humbled by the attention and praise.
“I have a hard time calling myself a hero,” he said. “I just reacted to the situation.”
Aasim Baheyadeen, who has known Hazziez for 35 years, smiled when he heard what he had done.
“Yeah, that sounded like him,” Baheyadeen said. “He’s a person who is held in great esteem.”
Kansas City Fire Chief Smokey Dyer, too, said he was not surprised.
A 10-year department veteran, Hazziez is a hazardous-materials specialist trained to handle some of the most dangerous and technically challenging incidents. It is the kind of job that requires quick thinking and keeping a level head, Dyer said.
“He is an outstanding firefighter,” Dyer said. “It was very characteristic of the performance we see on a weekly and monthly basis.”
Jackson County Sheriff Mike Sharp described Hazziez as a good deputy and a good guy.
“He stepped up to the plate and took control of the situation,” Sharp said.
A spokesman for AirTran Airways said Hazziez’s actions were much appreciated.
“His background unquestionably translated into resolving the situation safely,” said spokesman Brad Hawkins.
Of course, no one is more proud of Hazziez than members of his family.
“We have joked for years calling Jabir ‘Mr. Safety,’ ” said his youngest sister, Rabiyyah Hazziez. “I suppose now he needs a new name: Captain America.”
To reach Tony Rizzo, call 816-234-4435 or send email to trizzo@kcstar.com.
Posted on Sun, Dec. 25, 2011 10:32 PM
Locked
within ice-like cages that are buried in the sediments below thick
Arctic permafrost and beneath the ocean floor, is an immense source of
energy that scientists have studied for more than two decades.
Methane hydrates â gas molecules trapped within a lattice of ice
â could contain more energy than all other known fossil fuels
combined. That is, if folks figure out how to produce volumes of
methane from hydrate beyond a few small-scale field experiments.
Until then, the testing will continue. ConocoPhillips, the Energy Department and Japan Oil, Gas and Metals National Corp. are conducting the latest round of field experiments, which will focus on a production method that could create an innovative way of storing carbon dioxide.
During the initial field trial set to begin in January 2012, carbon
dioxide will be injected into the methane hydrate-bearing sandstone
formations, which can be located more than 1,500 feet beneath the ocean
floor. Carbon dioxide molecules will be swapped for methane molecules,
and aims to achieve two goals: release the methane gas and permanently
store the carbon dioxide in the formation. This field experiment will be
an extension of earlier successful tests of the technology conducted by
ConocoPhillips and its partners in a laboratory setting, the DOE said.
The tests will use the âIÄĄnik Sikumiâ (Iñupiaq for
âfire in the iceâ) gas hydrate field trial well that was installed in
Alaskaâs Prudhoe Bay region by ConocoPhillips and the Office of Fossil
Energyâs National Energy Technology Laboratory earlier this year.
The team will spend another month evaluating an alternative method of
methane production called depressurization, which was successfully
demonstrated during a one-week test in a different location by Japan and
Canada back in 2008.
Photo: Wikicommons; DOE
By Dr. Joseph Mercola on 05/15/2009
Nearly everyone knows that white flour is not healthy for
you, but most people donât know that when white flour is bleached, it
can actually be FAR worse for you.
Itâs generally understood that refining food destroys nutrients. With
the most nutritious part of the grain removed, white flour essentially
becomes a form of sugar. Consider what gets lost in the refining
process:
*Half of the beneficial unsaturated fatty acids
And many more nutrients are destroyed — simply too many to list.
The Journey of the Wheat Berry
Have you ever wondered how white flour is made?
The website Healthy Eating Politics has an interesting article about the process.
Most commercial wheat production is, unfortunately, a âstudy in
pesticide application,â beginning with the seeds being treated with
fungicide. Once they become wheat, they are sprayed with hormones and
pesticides. Even the bins in which the harvested wheat is stored have
been coated with insecticides. If bugs appear on the wheat in storage,
they fumigate the grain.
A whole grain of wheat, sometimes called a wheat berry, is composed of three layers:
The bran is the layer where youâll find most of the fiber, and itâs
the hard outer shell of the kernel. The germ is the nutrient-rich embryo
that will sprout into a new wheat plant. The endosperm is the largest
part of the grain (83 percent), making up most of the kernel, and itâs
mostly starch.
White flour is made from the endosperm only, whereas whole-wheat flour combines all three parts of the wheat berry.
Old time mills ground flour slowly, but todayâs mills are designed
for mass-production, using high-temperature, high-speed steel rollers.
The resulting white flour is nearly all starch, and even much of todayâs
commercially processed whole wheat flour has lost a fair amount of
nutritional value due to these aggressive processing methods.
White flour contains a small fraction of the nutrients of the
original grain, with the heat of the steel rollers having destroyed what
little nutrients remain. But then it is hit with another chemical
insult–a chlorine gas bath (chlorine oxide). This serves as a whitener, as well as an âagingâ agent.
Flour used to be aged with time, improving the gluten and thus
improving the baking quality. Now, it is treated with chlorine to
instantly produce similar qualities in the flour (with a disturbing lack
of concern about adding another dose of chemicals to your food).
According to Jim Bair, Vice President of the North American Millers Association:
âToday, the US milling industry produces about 140 million pounds of
flour each day, so there is no way to store the flour to allow it to age
naturally. Plus, there is a shelf life issue.â
It has not been determined how many mills are bleaching flour with
chorine oxide, but we do know the use of chlorides for bleaching flour
is considered an industry standard.
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) defines chlorine gas as
a flour-bleaching, aging and oxidizing agent that is a powerful
irritant, dangerous to inhale, and lethal. Other agents also used
include oxides of nitrogen, nitrosyl, and benzoyl peroxide mixed with
various chemical salts.
The chlorine gas undergoes an oxidizing chemical reaction with some
of the proteins in the flour, producing alloxan as an unintended
byproduct. Bair and other milling industry leaders claim that bleaching
and oxidizing agents donât leave behind harmful residues in flour,
although they can cite no studies or published data to confirm this.
Why Bleaching Makes White Flour Even Worse
It has been shown that alloxan is a byproduct of the flour bleaching process, the process they use to make flour look so âcleanâ and — well, white. No, they are technically not adding alloxan
to the flour — although you will read this bit of misinformation on
the Internet. But, they are doing chemical treatments to the grain that
result in the formation of alloxan in the flour.
With so little food value already in a piece of white bread, now
there is potentially a chemical poison lurking in there as well.
So what is so bad about alloxan?
Alloxan, or C4 H2O4N2, is a product of the decomposition of uric
acid. It is a poison that is used to produce diabetes in healthy
experimental animals (primarily rats and mice), so that researchers can
then study diabetes âtreatmentsâ in the lab. Alloxan causes diabetes
because it spins up enormous amounts of free radicals in pancreatic beta
cells, thus destroying them.
Beta cells are the primary cell type in areas of your pancreas called
islets of Langerhans, and they produce insulin; so if those are
destroyed, you get diabetes.
There is no other commercial application for alloxan — it is used
exclusively in the medical research industry because it is so highly
toxic.
Given the raging epidemic of diabetes and other chronic diseases in
this country, can you afford to be complacent about a toxin such as this
in your bread, even if it is present in small amounts?
Just How Much is Too Much?
Similar to disinfection byproducts (DBPs) in water, alloxan is formed
when the chlorine reacts with certain proteins remaining in the white
flour after the bran and germ have been removed. Protein makes up
between 5 percent and 15 percent of white flour, depending on whether
itâs cake flour, or high-gluten flour, such as whatâs used for pizza
crust or bagels.
So, this would suggest that perhaps 5 to 15 grams of protein per 100 grams of flour could be contaminated.
However, according to Professor Joe Schwarcz, Director of the McGill
University Office of Science and Society, alloxan is the byproduct of
xantophyll oxidation only. Xantophylls are yellow compounds in wheat that react with oxygen, causing flour to turn white.
According to Mr. Schwarcz:
âOne of the possible minor side products of xantophyll oxidation is
alloxan. It may therefore be found in small amounts in flour. There is
no available research that shows trace amounts are a problem or that
alloxan builds up in the body. The amounts, if present at all, must be
small because xantophylls themselves only occur to the extent of 1 microgram per gram of flour.â
Alloxan has not been studied in terms of human exposure, particularly
long-term. There is just so much we donât know, and you know what
assumptions will get you.
Alloxan in Rats
vs Alloxan in Humans
Scientists have long known that alloxan produces selective
destruction of the beta cells of the pancreas, causing hyperglycemia and
ketoacidosis in laboratory animals. Alloxan is structurally similar to
glucose, which might explain why the pancreatic beta cells selectively
take it up.
According to Dr. Hari Sharmaâs Freedom from Disease, alloxan causes
free radical damage to DNA in the beta cells of the pancreas, causing
them to malfunction and die. When they fail to function normally, they
no longer produce enough insulin.
Even though the toxic effect of alloxan is common scientific
knowledge in the research community, the Food and Drug Administration
(FDA) still allows companies to use chemical processes in which the end
result is toxic food. Until they unequivocally prove something is toxic
by way of human deaths, severe side effects, or when the public screams
loudly enough, the FDA is not likely to protect you.
Until then, it is you who must protect yourself.
If you have diabetes, or cancer, have a compromised immune system, or
if you are in some other high-risk category as tens of millions of
North Americans are, you need to know what foods contain hazardous
ingredients so you can avoid them. But in the case of alloxan, there is no way to know, either by reading the ingredient list or by any other means, that it might be in your food!
History of Bleaching Flour — Pillsbury and the FDA
An interesting sideline to this whole flour story lies in the origins of the FDA.
Bleaching and oxidizing agents werenât developed to produce quick
aging of wheat flour (within 48 hours) until the early 1900s. Prior to
that, it required several months for oxygen to condition flour
naturally.
When bleaching was introduced, it was vehemently opposed.
The first major consumer advocate was Harvey W. Wiley, MD, who
eventually became known as the âFather of the Pure Food and Drugs Actâ
of 1906. Mr. Wiley was head of the Bureau of Chemistry, which was the
precursor to the FDA. Wiley crusaded against benzoic acid, sulfites,
saccharin, and bleached flour, among other food additives and adulterants.
Dr. Wiley felt so strongly about preventing the bleaching of flour
that he took it all the way to the Supreme Court. They ruled that flour
could not be bleached or âadulteratedâ in any way. However, it was never
enforced.
Wiley believed that foods posed a greater risk to the public than
adulterated or misbranded drugs. He constantly butted heads with
Secretary of Agriculture James Wilson and President Roosevelt over food
regulation.
Soon, Wileyâs personal administrative authority was undercut when
Wilson created the Board of Food and Drug Inspection in 1907 and the
Referee Board of Consulting Scientific Experts in 1908, one of which was
reportedly headed by someone who had been working at Pillsbury,
although I have not been able to verify this addendum.
Finally, in 1912, Dr. Wiley quit as director out of frustration,
although he continued as a vocal consumer advocate for many years.
The government replaced Dr. Wiley with Dr. Elmer Nelson. Dr. Nelson was the polar opposite to Wiley , and was quoted as saying:
“It is wholly unscientific to state that a well-fed body is more able
to resist disease than a poorly fed body. My overall opinion is that
there hasnât been enough experimentation to prove that dietary
deficiencies make one susceptible to disease.â
Therein lies the foundation of the FDA. Since Dr. Wiley resigned, the
FDA has continued to shift its focus on drugs, since Wiley was never
able to convince the government of the dangers from chemicals in our
foods. He was truly a pioneer and a century ahead of his time!
Food For Thought
The important point to take away is, beware of any processed food
because chemicals are always used. And we simply donât know what the
long-term effects will be of ingesting chemicals, on top of chemicals,
on top of more chemicals.
Strive to stick to whole unprocessed foods that are as close to their
natural state as possible. If youâre going to eat grains, make sure
they are at the least unbleached, whole, and organic, and eat them in
the proportion that is best for your nutritional type.
