Chattanooga Engineers Club
www.ChattanoogaEngineersClub.org July 14, 2008, Noon - Kelly Tiller, Director of External Operations for the UT bioenergy program, will speak on "Switchgrass to Ethanol", which is an intitative that the Governor of Tennessee, the University of Tennessee and the Department of Energy (DOE) are starting in Monroe County. Farmers are being encouraged to grow switchgrass for use in the planned East Tennessee cellulosic ethanol plant. The UT Biofuels Initiative represents a $70 million investment by the state to decrease dependency on foreign oil while simultaneously increasing rural economic development and domestic energy production. The focal point of the Initiative is the construction of a 5 million gallon-per-year biorefinery that will produce ethanol from biomass sources such as switchgrass and other forest and agricultural plant materials. See
http://www.utbioenergy.org/TNBiofuelsInitiative/SGmeetings.htm Lunch is available on meeting dates for $11 beginning at 11:30 am from the outstanding Cellar Buffet. Location: Tallan Cellar Restaurant, 200 West ML King Blvd, Chattanooga, TN 3740
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FUTURE MEETINGS
July 21, 2008, Noon - Walt Lacey of Alstom will speak on "Power Regeneration: The Alstom Chattanooga Legacy". Walt's presentation will range from the legacy of Combustion Engineering to the $200 m Alstom expansion that is planned for Chattanooga. This will involve 350 new employees, maybe 80 to 100 of whom will be engineers.
August 18 - the Hydrogen Road Tour for Fuel Cell Cars will be in Chattanooga during our noon meeting time. There will be a "Ride and Drive" at the Pavilion.
LAST MEETING
July 7, 2008 - "Is there a HEV, PHEV or FCEV in Your Future?" - Mark Hairr and Ron Bailey from UTC's Center for Energy, Transportation and the Environment provided an update on Hybrid Electric Vehicles (HEVs), Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicles (PHEVs) and Fuel Cell Electric Vehicles (FCEVs). The focus was on the underlying technologies with emphasis on the advantages and challenges of the various configurations of electric vehicles that are being rushed into production in response to increased fuel costs and concerns about the environmental impact of tailpipe emissions. It was shown that projected energy use is greatest for transportation, followed by industry and buildings. A new coal-fired plant is being completed in China every year. The primary challenge for electric vehicles is battery development. The main challenge for fuel cell vehicles is to bring the cost down from $600/KW to about $30/KW.
This year (as of July 1), the Chattanooga Engineers Club is working with 2008 First Lego League teams from a St. Elmo after-school, neighborhood team and a Lookout Valley home-school team , This year's theme will focus on weather and climate change. For information about the 2008 challenge and the First Lego League, visit the FLL web site. For information on starting a local team in the Chattanooga area, contact Cathy Burnett or Ed Chapin. We are looking for more sponsors than ever this year, due to the increased size expected in this year's program, and this year's expenses.
Please send items of interest to the Chattanooga Engineers Club to the e-mail address in the Questions/Suggestions section.
Professional Development Hours (PDH) are available for most meetings.