July 12, 2009
Blogroll Review: P-Power, B-Buy, C-Can
P-Power
Pee power. Scientists may have found a way to extract hydrogen from urea, one of the main major components in ordinary pee. That compounds is way for the body to get rid of toxic ammonia that comes out at the end of various metabolic processes.
In many rural areas, urea would be the ideal source of nitrogen for fertilizing plants but it may also be a source of power one day.
Hank Greek at EcoGeek says:
Gerardine Botte at Ohio University has figured out an easy and efficient way to break the bonds in urea to produce hydrogen. The process consumes roughly one quarter of the energy needed to electrolyze water. And, yes, the world has a fairly plentiful (and renewable) supply of urea. Maybe not enough to power all our cars, but it's a start.
And all this time, I was only interested in the nitrogen. :)
B-Buy
Best Buy! This next story is about the role of national retailers in transforming the economy to greenness. Joel Makower gives us Best Buy as an example. He sums it up really nice as to the role of these big companies:
While cutting-edge innovation will likely come from countless start-ups, it will be up to the mass merchandisers to accelerate market uptake beyond the green devotees and early adopters.
C-Can
Canadians can! The country up north is one of my favorite countries. I've also wondering what the government was doing to encourage corporate sustainability. Our friend Tyler Hamilton at Cleanbreak has a summary.
In other news, Robert Rapier reminds us that thermodynamics wins.
Celcias reports that the 100th coal plant has been defeated. I'm sure Lester Brown would be proud!
Finally, is the big battle between Google and Microsoft? Earth2Tech suggests otherwise.
投稿者 econetworks : 08:00 PM | コメント (0) | トラックバック
May 13, 2009
Blog Review: Corny Carpet, Cocoa Car, and Carbon Consolidation
Pretty much everything you eat these days contains corn, whether in the form of corn syrup, sauces, starch, or other food additives. Pretty soon, we will also get upholstery made from this plant. Already being used for biofuels, corn is also a chemical feedstock.
Joel Makower shared this story from his attendance of a gathering of investors and entrepreneurs in cleantech:
For example, there's a carpeting fiber made from corn instead of petro-based nylon that requires nearly a third less energy and emits nearly two-thirds fewer greenhouse gases. It is being manufactured at a repurposed polyester factory.
This is just one example of many, where businesses see as an opportunity to further sustainability goals into their plans.
Imagine eating your furniture once it's ready to be disposed! :)
And speaking of food, Megan Treacy at EcoGeek reports of a racecar that runs on the waste products of chocolate manufacturing. Even more remarkable is that the steering wheel, seat and car body are made from plant fibers including carrots, flax, soy, and other vegetables.
In other news...
* Greentech Media says a shopping spree has begun for carbon accounting software.
* Karla says that Waxman Bill is flawed.
* At VentureBeat, Matt says funding is falling except for energy storage.
* Maria has some cool pictures from the American Wind Energy Association meeting. Check out the small wind turbines!
投稿者 econetworks : 03:50 PM | コメント (0) | トラックバック
April 16, 2009
Blog Review: Space Beams, Leaded Batteries, and Sins
This seems like something out of a James Bond movie. There is a startup, Solaren, which is trying to build panels in space that converts sunlight into a radio frequency beam aimed at a receiving station near Fresno. The station then converts the radio waves into electricity.
Megan Treacy at EcoGeek says:
"If everything goes according to plan, this will be the first real-world application of space solar power, with power delivery starting in 2016. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that this works out. The technology has been experimented with for a while and has a lot of potential and, let's face it, running your home on "space power" would be really cool."
If anyone is worried that the beam is gonna fry birds or planes that fly into its path, apparently the company has done analysis to show that radiation is not intense enough to cause harm.
Still, the thought of fried chicken falling out of the sky is kind of cool. :)
In other news...
While not the most attractive of technologies, lead acid batteries are certainly robust...and they may still have a promising future. On CleanBreak, Tyler discussed Axion's lead battery technology that lasts three times longer than conventional ones.
* It looks like the folks at Google think lead is the way to go, too. AltEnergy Stocks agrees.
* I don't remember how many ways you can sin, but Joel Makower talked about the Seven Sins of Greenwashing.
* Maria talked about Cap-and-Trade on TV.
* Simon says efficiency is still promising.
* Is natural gas a better standard than oil? Rob Day ponders.
投稿者 econetworks : 03:47 PM | コメント (0) | トラックバック
June 22, 2008
Kudzu to the Rescue?
I continue to be inspired by how plants could be used to address humanity's growing demands for almost everything. It's been said that crops are grown to satisfy the three F's: food, fiber, and fuel! The discussion for bio-ethanol has already moved on second generation biofuels, which use rapidly growing crops in which the entire plant (consisting mainly of cellulose) is efficiently converted to ethanol.
Recently, I read about a crop that is gaining attention for it's potential to provide cellulosic material: kudzu.
But what exactly is kudzu? I've heard of it but I've ignorant as to try it as a regular part of my diet. Doing a little research, I find that kudzu comes from the bean family and is originally from Japan. As a legume, kudzu can control soil erosion and has been used for making soaps, lotions, and compost.
In addition to its many uses as food and for grazing, there is growing interest in the US for using Kudzu to make bio-ethanol. Kudzu requires little water or fertilizer to grow. It grows very rapidly and in fact has gotten out of control in the Southern states, where it is referred to as the plant that "ate the South."
Jaymi Heimbuch at Ecogeek writes:
"Researchers at the University of Toronto and the US Department of Agriculture are taking a close look at kudzu, a native plant of Asia that can grow more than 6.5 feet a week and is nearly impossible to get rid of. The team examined the amount of carbohydrate in the plant – the part that gets turned into ethanol – at different times of year in different parts of the plant. They found the root carries over 2/3 of the carbs by weight, and they estimate kudzu could produce 2.2 to 5.3 tons of carbs per acre. This translates to 270 gallons of ethanol per acre, comparable to the ethanol yield of corn."
Given that energy yields similar to corn can be achieved with far fewer resources, it will be interesting to see what researcher will say about how kudzu could be used for making fuel.
More interestingly, I also found out from Wikipedia that Kudzu is used in Chinese Medicine and that it's one of the known plants used for medicine I've been taking for allergies. In traditional medicine, it is known as 葛根 or kakkon.
投稿者 econetworks : 06:01 PM | コメント (0) | トラックバック
May 13, 2008
News Review
Highlighting some recent news, the entry of the 230 mpg (100 km per liter) car into the marketplace could be coming soon. Just how much emissions does waste food account for? Let's ask the English! Finally, the UN says $100 billion has already been spent for renewables.
The People's Car
With the price of gas exceeding $4 per gallon in the US, there is surging interest in vehicles with higher mileage. It may not be until we see $5 or $6 that there will be mainstream in converting to hybrids and plug-in electric vehicles.
Several efforts at high mileage have already made the news. Here is another one. This coming from our friends in Germany.
Volkswagen plans to introduce a 230 mpg car by 2010. It is described as a cross between a VW Bug and a bobsled.
Hank Green at EcoGeek writes:
The car's technology comes from it's unique shape and it's ultra-light body. The frame is actually made of magnesium, an extremely light metal, and the outer skin is reinforced with carbon fiber. The one cylinder engine is made of aluminum and sits on top of the rear axle. The car is only a bit more than three feet high and weighs less than 700 lbs.
Volkswagen says the design has been around since 2002 but because of it's design and perceptions over its safety, they have not marketed it. With such a low weight, it is thought that the car would lose out in a crash with a heavier vehicle.
Finish Your Dinner
In the UK, a new report says that by reducing food wastage, the country could prevent 18 million ton equivalents of CO2 emissions each year or nearly the amount emitted by one in the five cars.
David Erhlich at the Cleantech Group Ha href="http://media.cleantech.com/2823/food-waste-costs-billions-in-the-u-k">says:
According to the study, $2 billion worth of wasted food is still "in date." The group said it costs local authorities $2 billion to collect and dispose of all of the wasted food.
But there are answers, and WRAP said of the 6.7 million tonnes of food per year that's wasted, 4.1 million tonnes is avoidable.
UN: Renewable Investment Hits $100 Billion
In what is a financial milestone, the UN reports that global investment in renewable energy has exceeded $100 billion.
From Greentech Media:
"The finance community has been investing at levels that imply disruptive change is now inevitable in the energy sector," says Eric Usher, Head of the Energy Finance Unit at the UN. Usher said the UN's "report puts full stop to the idea of renewable energy being a fringe interest of environmentalists. It is now a mainstream commercial interest to investors and bankers alike."
投稿者 econetworks : 02:21 PM | コメント (0) | トラックバック
April 04, 2008
Sustainability Review: Grid Cars
Danish Dong Transforming Transportation
Transportation powered by renewable energy would be the ultimate way to eliminate emissions from the transportation sector. While biofuels, like ethanol produced from sugar canes in Brazil, have some benefits in reducing CO2 emissions, popular fuels like corn-based ethanol are inefficient and are arguably harmful to the overall environment. By going completely electric, many of these problems can be avoided. In Europe, vehicles powered by solar and wind energy are becoming reality.
Denmark gets a significant share of its power from wind energy. As wind is an intermittent power source, there is often more energy being produced than is needed. Some of this excess power is sold to neighboring countries but this power could in principle be used to charge vehicles.
Now, Dong Energy A/S and Silicon-Valley based Project Better Place are getting together to build an electric car network throughout Denmark. They plan to have 20,000 recharging stations at parking lots and homes by 2011.
Andrew Williams at EcoGeek writes:
Vehicles are to be provided by Renault, using Nissan produced Li-ion batteries, and will have a 90-mile range between recharging. Batteries will use excess power from Dong's wind turbines, but revert back to coal-powered sources on calmer days. Even then, project organisers claim that CO2 emissions will still be around half of that associated with gasoline engines.
Because the grid is also powered by coal fired plants, there will be greenhouse gas emissions associated with the electricity produced.
For full details of the program, see original press release.
It will interesting to see if this Danish model can be replicated elsewhere around the world. While there are different types of renewable energy sources, factors such as urban density and structure are important factors in determining the viability of these projects.
投稿者 econetworks : 10:10 PM | コメント (0) | トラックバック
March 12, 2008
Sustainability Roundup: Sodium Battery and Whale Turbines
Sulfur Batteries
Energy storage will be a critical component of a low carbon energy economy. Storage devices will be needed at all scales: from laptop batteries to electric vehicles to electric utility systems.
Most consumers are aware of the batteries they need in electronics and computing hardware. We also know that future electric vehicles will require higher capacities at lower cost. Less known are the energy storage systems used by utilities...
These large scale devices are able to to discharge megawatts very quickly and help to reduce electricity costs significantly by storing energy when there is less demand and discharging when it is needed. This process enables the load of the grid to be more level, reducing the need for expensive generators that are used for short times.
Some of these large-scale storage systems were originally pioneered in Japan and are now gaining acceptance overseas. One of the these technologies is based on sodium sulfur technology, which was pioneered NGK Insulators. Today there are over 30 installations in Japan but gaining attention around the world.
For the first time, sodium sulfur batteries are being deployed in the US and they are being linked to wind generators.
Jim Fraser writes about this development in the Energy Blog:
"The 50-kilowatt battery modules, 20 in total, will be roughly the size of two semi trailers and weigh approximately 60 tons. They will be able to store about 6.5 megawatt-hours of electricity, with a charge/discharge capacity of one megawatt. When the wind blows, the batteries are charged. When the wind calms down, the batteries can be used to supply energy to the grid as needed."
Such systems will can power up to 500 homes for over six hours.
Whale Inspired Wind Turbines
The shape of sea creatures have inspired the design of ships. Now, they are also inspiring the design of blades used in wind turbines.
Like the wings of an airplane, the blades can also suffer from drag, reducing it's overall efficiency. Now, a company in Canada has developed a new design that greatly improves the efficiency.
Hank Green writes in EcoGeek:
Using these little "tubercles," a new firm in Toronto has created fan blades that have 32% less drag and are, overall, 20% more efficient at moving air. The new design could lead to similar gains in wind turbines, though the testing and certification process for turbine efficiency takes some time.
For an in-depth analysis of the science behind these modified blades, take a look at the paper recently published in Physical Review Letters.
投稿者 econetworks : 04:13 PM | コメント (0) | トラックバック
March 02, 2008
Matthew Feller Interview: LuSyl Carbon Capture
While renewable energy will avoid CO2 emissions, there is still a strong interest to develop carbon sequestration for coal-fired plants in the US. To date, I don't know of a successful utility scale implementation of carbon capture, but there have been interesting developments recently in this field.
In late 2007, Skyonic's introduced a method to convert CO2 into solid baking soda or NaHCO3. Using sodium hydroxide or NaOH, CO2 coming out of a plant is converted into soda, which can be stored indefinitely.
Besides NaOH, other compounds are being explored. Dr. Matthew Feller explains how his company is pursuing carbon capture using an Aluminum derivative.
投稿者 econetworks : 02:04 PM | コメント (0) | トラックバック
February 19, 2008
Sustainability Roundup: Honda Hybrid & Biofuel Emissions
Honda Introduces Breakthrough Hybrid Engine
The Toyota Prius is widely regarded as the standard hybrid vehicle in the US. Nevertheless, the efficiency gains are limited to driving at speeds less than 65 miles per hour (100 km per hour).
Hybrids vehicles typically have higher mileage (fuel efficiency) on local streets than they do on fast highways. That's because they capture energy using regenerative braking, which converts the motion of the car into electricity that is stored in the batteries.
Honda has announced a new type of hybrid engine that converts heat coming out of the exhaust into work. In doing so, the system is able to capture three times as much energy as regenerative braking. The system will work for both local and highway driving, improving overall energy efficiency of the vehicle.
For more on this advanced design, see this detailed article at Green Car Congress.
Research: Biofuels Lead to Increased Greenhouse Gas Emissions
In the US, certain agricultural and transportation interests have claimed environmental benefits of producing biofuels from corn but in a recent paper in Science Magazine, Tim Searchinger claims that not only does corn-based fuel offer no environmental benefits, carbon dioxide emissions are greatly increased over petroleum.
Unliked earlier studies, Searchinger's paper attempts to quantify the impact of land use changes associated with growing crops. By creating land for corn that were originally carbon sinks or forests growing in carbon capture, large amounts of greenhouse gases are released in the process.
Searchinger estimates that the overall emissions from corn biofuel is up to twice that of conventional gasoline.