Jul 4
Microalgae Biofuel an Alternative to Crop Biofuel
Using crops as a source of energy generated in the past years a great controversy. Once because we could use those crops as food for people and second because we use good agriculture lands to generate energy. But what if we could use an alternative to the crops and use smaller areas of lands to generate the same amount of energy?
Jul 4
DARPA Joins Blue Energy and World Energy in Race to Harness Ocean Power
Is the world ready for another ambitious ocean power program? Blue Energy Canada Inc. and World Energy Research are moving quickly in that direction. After signing a memorandum of understanding last month, the two companies just announced a formal agreement to build a 200 megawatt, half-billion dollar commercial tidal power project based on Blue Energy’s Davis Tidal Turbine. Meanwhile, DARPA (the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) has been quietly working the other end of the scale to develop buoy-sized ocean power generating equipment.
Jul 4
U.S. Military Targets Toxic Enemy #1: Hexavalent Chromium
If hexavalent chromium doesn’t ring a bell, think chrome, the stuff that puts the shine on everything from bathroom faucets to motorcycles. If that still doesn’t help, maybe Erin Brockovich does. In the 1990’s, the former legal clerk fought to expose hexavalent chromium contamination in drinking water, in the small California town of Hinkley. The result was a record-breaking settlement and a major motion picture. Fast forward to April 2009, and the U.S. military is adding a new chapter to the Brockovich book. The Department of Defense has issued a formal memo requiring an aggressive across-the-board reduction in the military’s use of hexavalent chromium, otherwise known as chromium 6.
Jul 4
“Your Passion is Energy”
Saying Goodbye Again
Most of my career has revolved around energy. But about a year and a half ago, I was convinced to try something slightly different. I left my job with ConocoPhillips in Aberdeen, Scotland (and I explained the details behind the decision here), said goodbye to friends and colleagues there, and boarded a plane to the Netherlands. This is where I have spent about half my life since then.
But that chapter is coming to a close. On Monday I will leave Amsterdam for the flight back to Texas. I have made this trip around 20 times in the past 18 months, but I am making the trip for the last time in my current role as Engineering Director for Accsys Technologies. This trip was my farewell tour, and I said my goodbyes to a fine engineering team.
The past year and a half has been both interesting and challenging. We are a small company, so I found myself doing more cross-functional work than at any other time in my career (e.g., writing HR policies). We were staffing up, so I found myself interviewing numerous people for all sorts of positions. Because our company was the first (and still only) to commercialize our technology, we encountered some unique engineering challenges.
As I look back, I am proud of what my engineering team has accomplished. They have vastly improved our process in the past two years, and we climbed a steep learning curve. We managed to increase the throughput of our plant in Arnhem by a third, while at the same time cutting our energy inputs. With all sincerity, our successes came about because I have a clever and dedicated team of engineers.
And while I believe strongly in the product that we have developed, my job involves about 50% travel. I have engineering teams based in Dallas and in the Netherlands, and I have to try to keep a presence in both locations. I knew that I could keep that up for a while, but not forever. I gave myself about two years max at that pace, and two years is approaching. Today is the 4th of July, and I sit here, alone in the Netherlands. This is an all-too-familiar situation. I have spent far too many birthdays, anniversaries, and holidays in remote locations away from my family, and the time has come to rectify that situation.
I have been fortunate over the years to have had a number of different job opportunities present themselves. In the past six months I began to seriously listen to inquiries. I decided if the right one came along - and it enabled me to spend more time with my family - then I would make a change. The right opportunity has come along.
Future Plans
If I had to describe my ideal job, it would be to bring sustainable energy technologies to the world. I would do a lot of technology evaluation, visiting with universities, small companies, inventors, and entrepreneurs. The goal would be to identify the renewable technologies that I feel can compete in the long-term, and then work to facilitate that future.
One of the most brilliant engineers I have ever met (who will also be a future colleague), recently introduced me to a very successful businessman who has been in the energy business for decades. Because he greatly values his privacy, I will not divulge his name nor the companies he has been involved with. Suffice to say that his vision is long-term, he is realistic, and he has a long track record of successfully building companies. When I met with him, I discussed my current job, and then we started talking about our views on the future of energy. He made a comment that I often hear when I am discussing energy: “Your passion is energy. You should follow your passion.”
After much discussion, which included meetings in Houston, Hawaii, and Hamburg - it was clear that my goals and views were very much aligned with his. We saw a similar future, but were both quite realistic about the challenges of realizing that future. The primary objective for both of us wasn’t to create wealth, but instead to see our current unsustainable way of life nudged toward something more sustainable. We are both concerned that we are leaving a mess for our children to clean up, and we believe we can build something better for them.
I have therefore decided to join forces with him, and will leave my current job on August 1st. I will continue to assist Accsys/Titan Wood with their technology on an as-needed basis, but my primary energies will be focused around the conversion of biomass into value-added products. The specific end product will depend upon the particulars of a situation. I firmly believe that biomass can work, sustainably, in specific niches. As fossil fuel prices rise, the niches will grow as long as the biomass technologies are not heavily dependent upon fossil fuel inputs. We plan to establish ourselves in some of those niches.
I have written in this blog about some of the technologies and companies that we will be involved with. (In fact, it is a long story, but one of my articles was what led to the initial contact, which occurred almost 3 years ago). Other technologies, which I have felt had great potential, I haven’t written about. I am still not yet going to write about them, as we are busy establishing ourselves in various areas and establishing dialogue with different companies. But as one of my new colleagues likes to say “We are technology agnostic.” That simply means that we are open to different technologies and won’t base our business around a single technology.
I will relocate to Hawaii with my family. I estimate that my travel will drop from the current 50% to around 10%, meaning I will get to spend much more time with my family. Based on our plans, when I do travel, I expect my travels will take me to Germany, which is familiar territory, but also to some areas I have not seen, like Southeast Asia.
Why Hawaii? Hawaii offers a unique laboratory for renewable energy. Hawaii has very good renewable resources (sun, wind, geothermal, ocean thermal, biomass, etc.), and no fossil fuel resources. Hawaii should have a small bias toward renewable energy relative to the rest of the U.S., since all fossil fuels must be shipped in for power and transport. And because of the year-round growing season, I can do a lot more experimentation there both with gardening (which I love to do) and with energy crops.
I won’t go into specific details right now about our efforts. We aren’t ready for that yet. Some parts of the business are already far along, and others are just starting. But we won’t be messing around with pie-in-the-sky technologies. That will be one of my key roles: To make sure we are focused where we need to be focused and not wasting our time working toward dead ends.
Jul 4
Yesterday’s Old T-Shirt, Today’s Cool Reusable Bag
Participants in the Istanbul bag-making workshop. Photos courtesy of Bu?day.
Paper bags aren’t too commonly used in Turkey, but shopkeepers just love giving out plastic ones — for a tiny item that you could easily tuck into your purse or a pocket, for a single soda you’ll probably just drink on the way home anyway, for a few nectarines that are already in another plastic bag. I’ve gotten used to saying “Po?et lazim de?il, çantama koyabilirim” (”a bag is not necessary, I can put it in my purse”) — and to the funny looks people usually give me in return. So the old “<a href=”http://www.treehugger…
Visit the original post at: TreeHugger
Jul 4
Intertropical Convergence Zone of Heavy Preciptiation Moving North
The rain band near the equator that determines the supply of freshwater to nearly a billion people throughout the tropics and subtropics has been creeping north for more than 300 years, probably because of a warmer world, according to research published in the July issue of Nature Geoscience.
If the band continues to migrate at just less than a mile (1.4 kilometers) a year, which is the average for all the years it has been moving north, then some Pacific islands near the equator — even those that currently enjoy abundant rainfall — may be drier within decades and starved of freshwater by midcentury or sooner. The prospect of additional warming because of greenhouse gases means that situation could happen even sooner.
Visit the original post at: ENN: Lifestyle
Jul 4
Making ice at night to cool buildings
Calmac IceBank tanks at One Bryant Park, one of the nation’s greenest high-rise buildings.
Photo: © Gunther Intelmann for Cook+Fox Architects
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What surprised me most in researching thermal energy storage for the EBN feature article this month is that it’s not incorporated into virtually all commercial buildings. In a nutshell, the idea is to use electricity at night to make ice and then use that ice during the daytime as the cooling source for the building. Thermal energy storage (TES) can also involve chilled water (instead of ice) or electric heat stored in bricks or other thermal mass, but I focused on ice with this article.
A number of very well-known green buildings rely on ice-based TES cooling. One of the newest such buildings is the 2.1-million square-foot (195,000 m2) Bank of America building in New York City at One Bryant Park. I visited the sub-basement (three floors down) to see the 44 eight-foot-diameter, insulated CALMAC tanks in the building that collectively provide about a quarter of the building’s cooling. Each of these tanks holds about 1,600 gallons of water that is alternately frozen and thawed by circulating a glycol solution through about three miles of plastic tubing. It’s high-tech, but the result is surprisingly simple.
Benefits of ice-based TES include the following:
[More]
Visit the original post at: BuildingGreen.com LIVE
Jul 4
Making ice at night to cool buildings
|
Calmac IceBank tanks at One Bryant Park, one of the nation’s greenest high-rise buildings.
Photo: © Gunther Intelmann for Cook+Fox Architects
|
What surprised me most in researching thermal energy storage for the EBN feature article this month is that it’s not incorporated into virtually all commercial buildings. In a nutshell, the idea is to use electricity at night to make ice and then use that ice during the daytime as the cooling source for the building. Thermal energy storage (TES) can also involve chilled water (instead of ice) or electric heat stored in bricks or other thermal mass, but I focused on ice with this article.
A number of very well-known green buildings rely on ice-based TES cooling. One of the newest such buildings is the 2.1-million square-foot (195,000 m2) Bank of America building in New York City at One Bryant Park. I visited the sub-basement (three floors down) to see the 44 eight-foot-diameter, insulated CALMAC tanks in the building that collectively provide about a quarter of the building’s cooling. Each of these tanks holds about 1,600 gallons of water that is alternately frozen and thawed by circulating a glycol solution through about three miles of plastic tubing. It’s high-tech, but the result is surprisingly simple.
Benefits of ice-based TES include the following:
[More]
Visit the original post at: BuildingGreen.com LIVE
Jul 4
DIY Chair Concept Uses Wood, Cardboard and…Zipties
Images via viktor matic
IKEA with their single Allen wrench and image-based instructions would have nothing on a concept kit chair called “zipit” by viktor matic….
Visit the original post at: TreeHugger
Jul 4
Strange But True: Researchers extracing hydrogen from urine
Filed under: Emerging Technologies, Etc., Hydrogen, Green Daily
Currently, most commercially available hydrogen is collected by reforming natural gas with steam. That means fossil fuels are still in the mix, which is a serious black mark against hydrogen use for fuel. While it’s possible to extract hydrogen from water, the process is rather energy intensive and isn’t yet commercially viable.
Gerardine Botte of Ohio University believes she may have one possible solution. Instead of cracking hydrogen away from its tight bond in water, the University has demonstrated that it takes much less energy to extract hydrogen from urine, whether that’s synthetic urea or real, honest-to-goodness human urine.
As the single most abundant waste on the planet, there’s certainly no shortage of urine in the world and, according to the Botte, this technology can be quickly and easily scaled up as a way to both generate hydrogen and help clean up sewage plants. Sounds like a win-win scenario to us.
[Source: Chemistry World | Photo: estherase]
Strange But True: Researchers extracing hydrogen from urine originally appeared on AutoblogGreen on Sat, 04 Jul 2009 16:08:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
Jul 4
Toyota Plans for Plug-in Production in 2012
Toyota plans to begin commercial production of plug-in hybrids in 2012, producing between 20,000 and 30,000 units in the first year, according to Nikkei, the Japanese business daily. Toyota hopes to sell its plug-in hybrid for about $48,000.
Toyota has been slowly evaluating plug-in hybrid concepts, but until now has not committed to a production date.
According to Nikkei, Toyota’s plug-ins will run 12 to 18 miles on battery power alone at full charge. Plug-in hybrids can be cleaner than regular hybrids because they can run for longer periods purely on electricity—but the need for more batteries makes them expensive. The plug-in cars will use lithium ion batteries produced by Toyota’s joint venture with Panasonic Corp., Panasonic EV Energy, which provides the nickel metal hydride batteries for current Toyota hybrids.
The swifter move toward plug-in hybrids contradicts recent statements from Toyota executives. Masatami Takimoto, an executive vice president in research and development, last month told the Washington Post that the batteries required for plug-in cars are not ready. Takimoto said, “Fundamental issues are unsolved.” Bill Reinert, US national manager for advanced technology, appearing at a National Academy of Sciences panel in May said the plug-in market will be limited, and questioned the real-world mileage benefits of plug-in hybrids. And Irv Miller, Toyota group vice president of corporate communications, also speaking in May, said that the heavier battery pack required for plug-in hybrids becomes a “boat anchor” when they are depleted.
Later this year, Toyota will expand its evaluation of plug-in hybrids by leasing approximately 500 plug-in versions of its third-generation Prius. The leases will go to government agencies and corporations in Japan, the United States, and throughout Europe.
Jul 4
Cautioning that the development and commercialization of the electric car is “not a sprint, but a marathon”, Volkswagen AG Chairman of the Board of Management Prof. Dr. Martin Winterkorn said that Volkswagen would introduce its first electric vehicles based on the up! New Small Family (earlier post) in 2013. Within a decade, he added, Volkswagen wants to offer significant numbers of pure electric cars at affordable prices and with the range expected by customers.
Winterkorn made the remarks during a presentation at the 17th Handelsblatt-Jahrestagung in Munich on 3 July, during which he outlined VW’s approach to future mobility in the current context of the economic crisis, pessimism about the industry and technology potential.
Background. Winterkorn noted that the industry is experiencing its worst crisis in decades, with a collapse in the global market of 18% in the first half of this year. Although Volkswagen sales were down 5.1% for the first half, in June unit sales rose 6%. Volkswagen is Europe’s largest automaker, and saw its global new vehicle market share increase to 11% during the first quarter of 2009.
This performance, Winterkorn said, “is no reason for euphoria” but shows that the Volkswagen group—which comprises nine automotive brands—is staying on course, and shows that its strategy to 2018 is on the right track.
We have nine strong brands that work well together. We have rock-solid finances. We have a huge technological potential, despite the crisis. And above all, we have attractive and environmentally friendly vehicles. From this solid foundation, we proceed to the second mammoth task these days: the development of alterative, emissions-free drives.
With electromobility, the automobile industry faces a fundamental technological upheaval…Our path leads away from oil, to emission-free mobility, and the electric car plays a key role…CO2-neutral fuels play another key role.
—Martin Winterkorn
Electromobility is a response to four major megatrends, Winterkorn said:
Mexico City or Bangkok. By 2050, 70 to 80% of people will live in cities.
about 7% of global CO2 emissions.
While in the past consumers tended to count horsepower and cylinders in the engine, they now are focusing more on fuel consumption and CO2 values, he said. “This trend is no fad, but a fundamental paradigm shift.”
Volkswagen had begun exploring hybrid and electric drive technology in the 1990s. VW, Daimler subsidiary Daug and Varta developed a NimH battery in the early 90s, and the VW group put the Audi duo hybrid on the road in 1997. However, Winterkorn said, VW, and the German auto industry in general, abandoned the early advantage and work in electromobility.
Volkswagen is now committed to electromobility, he said, but noted that “electro” is not enough. “A company such as Volkswagen must include all relevant technologies.”
VW and the electric car. Noting that “there are at least as many predictions as experts” about the size of the potential market for electric vehicles, Winterkorn said that Volkswagen is estimating a global market share of 1 to 1.5% in pure electric vehicles in 2020. That penetration could be significantly higher in big cities and certain regions, such as China.
We are witnessing an electro-hype. Experts, consultants and politicians tumble over one another with forecasts. And the auto industry doesn’t hold back on announcements. The result is massively false expectations by the customer…More than eight percent of drivers in Germany are rock solid convinced that the electric car is already here.
I think this development is dangerous, because we lose not only potential customers, but we are also at risk of disappointing the.,. The everyday, affordable and safe electric car for everyone is feasible. But it is also true that the way forward is long and tedious. As I said before, this is not a sprint but a marathon.
—Martin Winterkorn
Electric cars face three major challenges he said. First is the energy capacity and the recharge time of current batteries, which now are “simply inappropriate” for pure electric propulsion. While lithium technology has the potential to meet most of the needs, he said, much research and development work is still required.
(Volkswagen is partnering with a number of companies, including Sanyo and Toshiba, on batteries, power electronics and electric machines. In May, VW and Chinese carmaker BYD signed a memorandum of understanding to explore the options for partnership in the area of hybrids and electric vehicles powered by lithium batteries. Earlier post.)
Second, the electric car has to move from the “eco-niche” consumers to the mass market. Customers want adequate range (the example he gave was from Munich to Hamburg—about 775 km (480 miles), a one-to-two hour recharging time along with a quick charge option; and a price increase of a maximum €2,000 (US$2,800) more than today. The current price of a battery pack for just a short-range electric vehicle is between €8,000 to €12,000 he noted.
Third is a corresponding infrastructure including nationwide recharging stations, intelligent network, and uniform standards.
Above all, it is the origin of the electricity. Every electric car is ultimately only as climate-friendly as the generation of electricity it uses. Does it ever make sense ecologically to operate a car with power from a coal-fired plant? What is the potential of renewable energy sources? Should we not perhaps even reconsider nuclear energy?…These questions are important for electric cars playing a large role in the future.
—Martin Winterkorn
Volkswagen fuel and propulsion strategy. Saying that “electric alone is not enough” Winterkorn said that for the next 15-20 years in Europe, diesel and gasoline engines will dominate. Other markets will have a different emphasis he suggested; flex-fuel engines in Brazil, for example, and CNG and LPG is countries with high gas resources, such as Russia.
For the medium term, Volkswagen sees a mix of drive concepts:
Winterkorn said that VW was continuing to focus on improving the efficiency of the combustion engine, while at the same time driving the electrification of the powertrain in a step-by-step approach, first with increasing hybridization, then the addition of plug-in capability as in the Golf TwinDrive (earlier post), then full electrification.
Jul 4
Report: Toyota To Start Commercial Production of Plug-In Hybrids In 2012
The Nikkei reports that Toyota Motor Corp. plans to begin commercial production in 2012 of plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs). Output for the first year is estimated at 20,000 to 30,000 units.
The plug-ins will use Li-ion batteries produced by Toyota’s joint venture with Panasonic Corp., Panasonic EV Energy Co. (PEVE). PEVE provides the NiMH packs for current Toyota hybrids. The report suggests that the 2012 plug-in hybrids will have an all-electric range of 20-30km (12-18 miles).
Through economies of scale, Toyota hopes to sell its new plug-in hybrids at a price comparable to Mitsubishi Motors Corp.’s i-MiEV electric car, which is slated to debut later this month with a price tag of 4.59 million yen [about US$47,700].
Toyota foresees demand for its plug-in hybrids from not only businesses, but also consumers. And it plans to sell them in overseas markets as well, such as the US, Europe and Asia.
In June, Toyota announced that it will begin leasing approximately 200 plug-in versions of its third-generation Prius equipped with lithium-ion battery packs in Japan starting at the end of this year. This will be the first time a lithium-ion battery is to be employed in a Toyota vehicle for propulsion. (Earlier post.)
Jul 4
Exxaro Partners With Sasol Mining in JV to Supply Potential Mafutha CTL Plant in South Africa
Exxaro Resources Limited, a South African-based mining group, has entered into a prospecting joint venture agreement with Sasol Mining Proprietary Limited (Sasol Mining) for the development of a new coal mine to supply Sasol’s potential new inland coal-to-liquids (CTL) project.
Project Mafutha is an investigation into the development of another CTL project in South Africa and is envisaged to be located in the north-western part of the Limpopo province due to the substantial coal reserves in the Waterberg region.
Should the project proceed, it will require a new coal mine to produce feedstock for the 80,000 barrels-a-day CTL complex. The development would contribute to meeting the growing shortfall in South Africa’s domestic fuel production, most notably in the installed capacity for producing diesel and gasoline. In recent years, South Africa has been a regular importer of refined fuels to supplement local production.
Exxaro expects that such a mine would require an opencast truck-and-shovel extraction method, an area in which Exxaro has beneficial expertise.
The development of the new mine is in the pre-feasibility stage with the mining of a bulk sample planned for before the end of 2009. It is expected that some 170,000 tonnes of coal will be mined for large-scale testing at the Sasol Synfuels Secunda plant.
Exxaro’s participation in the joint venture for the new mine is subject to the applicable regulatory approvals, the company’s continued interest in the project and development of the CTL and associated Mafutha coal mine.
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