NewNergy

NewNergy discusses the latest inventions, innovations and breakthroughs in the energy & environmental sciences.

POSCO Aims to Halt CO2 via Hydrogen Steelmaking

South Korea's POSCO (005490.KS) plans to eventually halt carbon emissions by switching to a hydrogen-based steelmaking process from 2021, company officials said.

Currently, iron ore is melted in a furnace using super-heated air from burning coal. In addition to this fuel role, coal is also used as a critical component in steel production because the carbon from burning coal captures oxygen from the molten iron ore, emitting carbon dioxide in the process.

POSCO hopes to switch from carbon to hydrogen gas to capture oxygen, a step that results in water produced as a byproduct instead of planet-warming carbon dioxide.

POSCO officials said the steelmaker is considering supplying hydrogen gas from its "SMART" nuclear reactors. It is looking at participating in a consortium for developing small or medium-sized nuclear reactors.

The steelmaker, however, has not yet decided which energy resources they will use instead of coal as fuel to heat the furnace.

Under the mid-term plan through 2020, the steelmaker will introduce breakthrough new process technology for carbon dioxide reduction.

In addition to steelmaking process changes, POSCO is looking for new business opportunities in low-carbon green growth areas, for instance, stationary fuel cells and synthetic natural gas.

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ORegen : New Device for Capturing Waste Energy

At GE’s Global Research Center near Munich, Germany, scientists have developed a new waste heat recovery technology called ORegen — which is a device that converts waste heat from exhaust streams generated by equipment such as small gas turbines and industrial processes into usable electricity.This technology can help customers address the challenges of rising fuel costs and the increased demand for more efficient, environmentally friendly power systems and industrial plants.

They have modified Organic Rankine Cycles (ORC) - an old technology which can use lower heat input temperatures.Therefore, heat recovery now offers a great opportunity to conserve fuel by productively using waste energy to reduce overall plant energy consumption and simultaneously decrease CO2 emissions. For example, when an ORegen (Organic Regenerator) unit is joined to GE Oil & Gas’ PGT25 gas turbine, it can provide up to an additional 25 percent more power on top of the output of the turbine itself.

full article here


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Yale Study: Most Polluted Ecosystems Recoverable

Scientists from Yale University say most polluted ecosystems worldwide can recover in as little as 5 or 10 years. The study means it’s not too late to turn things around if societies commit to cleanup, restoration and sustainability, according to Yale’s analysis of 240 independent studies.

Researchers from the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies found that forests took 42 years on average to recover, ocean bottoms recovered in less than 10 years and ecosystems affected by stresses like invasive species bounced back in as little as five years. Human-induced disturbances took longer to shake off than natural events. The message of this paper is that recovery is possible and can be rapid for many ecosystems, giving much hope for a transition to sustainable management of global ecosystems.

full article here

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Zero Emissions Hydrogen Power Plant - The Next Step In Renewable Energy?

Jetstream Wind, Inc.,NM, USA, a developer of breakthrough energy technology hits another milestone in the renewable energy industry. The highly anticipated fully sustainable 10 MW (megawatt) hydrogen power plant safely provides emissions-free electricity and creates 99.999% ultra-high purity hydrogen and oxygen in both liquid and gaseous forms for distribution and sales.

To date, both liquid hydrogen and firm power for the electrical grid are predominantly derived from natural gas and coal, adding a tremendous amount of toxic emissions to the environment. The importance of this dual-purpose plant is in its distinct ability to reliably create and distribute enough clean energy to provide as many as 6000 homes with electricity, while capturing, storing and producing pure oxygen and hydrogen in both liquid and gaseous forms for secondary markets. Significant potential industrial benefactors of the pure hydrogen and oxygen technology include the auto, medical, aerospace and fueling sectors, among countless others.

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Old Tyres Are Put To Energy-Saving Features

Buildings are the world’s biggest energy guzzler, using more than two thirds of the power produced and contributing to 40% of global carbon footprint, from the construction and maintainance of the building itself. With those facts in mind, local developer Mainstay Development Sdn Bhd decided to make its new Shop Unit Mall Office development complex in Shah Alam as environmentally friendly as possible. One of the measures taken towards that goal is an unusual one – incorporating almost 220,000 used rubber tyres into the foundation of the building.

Called Space U8 to denote the spaciousness of the building, the complex will be the first ever commercial building to utilise the revolutionary Smart and Cool Homes technology invented and patented by Lincoln Lee. The system uses tyres to create a heat sink that drains the heat from walls built with autoclaved aerated concrete bricks, thus making the building interior cooler and minimising air-conditioning needs.

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Sun-reflecting Crops Could Reduce Global Warming

Jan 2009

Farmers could help produce cooler temperatures and limit global warming if they grow crop varieties that reflect more sunlight into space, British researchers said recently.

Using a global climate model, they found this strategy could cool much of Europe, North America and parts of North Asia by up to one degree Celsius during the summer growing season, enough to make a difference in easing heat waves and drought.

It would also translate into a 20 percent reduction in a predicted five degree Celsius temperature rise for the region by the end of the century, Andy Ridgwell and colleagues said in the journal Current Biology.

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Petroleum Mixed with Wastewater Reduces Emissions by 84%

Taiwanese scientists discovered that a new fuel can be made by combining industrial wastewater and petroleum oil. The new fuel’s efficiency is increased by 14% and is a friendly way to treat industrial wastewater as well.

Scientists from National Cheng Kung University mixed HFO (heavy fuel oil) with wastewater and burnt them together. By mixing 80% of HFO with 19.9% wastewater and 0.1% surfactant, the CO emissions are reduced by 84% compared to the emissions generated by burning standard HFO in the same boiler. The new fuel also drastically reduces other emissions such as particulate matter, nitrogen oxides, sulfur dioxide, and volatile organics.

How does this improvement come about? By adding wastewater to the oil, micro explosions take place prior to the ignition of oil, causing it to atomize into a fine vapor. This leads to a complete and also to a lower temperature combustion reducing pollution from nitrogen oxides.

Source

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Paper from Elephant Poop - Mr. Ellie Pooh from Sri Lanka

Now, you might be excused for thinking what I'm gonna say is a pile of, er, poop, but not, this is true.

A company in Sri Lanka is making paper from elephant poop:

"Since an elephant’s diet is all vegetarian, the waste produced is basically
raw cellulose. Thoroughly cleaned and processed, the cellulose is
converted into a uniquely beautiful textured product, marketed as “Ellie
Pooh Paper”.

So, thus we have the company Mr. Ellie Pooh making what else, ellie-pooh paper.

Source: TreeHugger

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Clean Boost Low Emission (CB-LE) Diesel Fuel Treatment Reduces Emissions Of NOx, Particulate Matter

EMTA Holdings, Inc., an energy, fuel and environmental conservation company, announced recently that the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality ("TCEQ") has re-evaluated the emissions data and determined that Clean Boost LE Diesel Fuel Treatment does meet the state's stringent low-emission diesel fuel regulations. Clean Boost LE Diesel Fuel Treatment is produced by White Sands, LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of EMTA Holdings.

Tests conducted in the past by the independent nonprofit research institute in San Antonio, Texas, demonstrated that the Clean Boost LE Diesel Fuel Treatment additive reduces nitrous-oxide (NOx) emissions and particulate matter (black smoke) to levels that bring diesel-powered vehicles into compliance with the regulations of the TCEQ -- without impacting fuel economy. The testing was observed and approved by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), which is considering extending the strict clean air regulations in Texas to the rest of the nation.

Full report from here

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BlueCool Truck Bunk Cooler - Zero-Emission, Idle-Reducing Cooling Product From Webasto

Webasto Product North America, a global leader in heating and cooling solutions for the light and heavy-duty transportation industries, has received California's Air Resources Board (CARB) approval for its BlueCool Truck Bunk Cooler. Out of all CARB approved devices, BlueCool Truck (BCT) is the only engine-off technology that has no emissions when in use.

BlueCool Truck's source of cooling is a high-tech cold storage unit that is charged (frozen) while the truck is running. During times of driver rest, the system utilizes only small amounts of electricity from the existing vehicle batteries (no additional batteries are needed) to circulate super-chilled coolant between the cold storage unit and a heat exchanger installed in the truck sleeper cabin. Once charged, the system uses no diesel fuel and therefore produces no emissions during the cooling operation because it runs independently of the OEM air conditioning system.

The principle behind how BlueCool Truck works is not a new discovery, it is a natural phenomenon called latent heat. It has been known for centuries that ice has poor thermal conductivity and extracting cold storage efficiently and effectively is extremely difficult. This problem has been overcome now by embedding the water/ice in a high-tech graphite matrix, with a resulting thermal conductivity that is 100 times better than a pure water/ice exchange. The design provides a highly efficient, compact and dynamic thermal energy storage system that produces an assured cooling output at a constant temperature.

Full article here - Zero-Emission, Idle-Reducing Cooling Product From Webasto Earns CARB Approval

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Titanium Oxide Crystals with Reactive Surfaces for Pollution Control

Using computational methods to guide their experimental work, Australian and Chinese researchers have developed a method of producing titanium oxide crystals with more reactive surfaces, providing a path to commercially available nanotech methods within five years for removing pollution from water and air, within within ten years for solar energy conversion.

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HTC Purenergy Announces CO2 Capture Cost Reduction Breakthrough

HTC Purenergy announced a new CO2 Capture cost reduction breakthrough - the Thermal Kinetics Optimization process. TKO will be added to the existing base Purenergy CCS CO2 Capture System and will substantially reduce the energy requirements of capturing CO2 from post-combustion coal and natural gas power plants.

The TKO process improves the CO2 Capture System through heat recovery, thermal balancing and optimized process flow. The primary advantage of this newly patented system is that it directly reduces the largest single cost of CO2 capture - the use of power plant steam - to a ratio of below 1 unit steam required to 1 unit CO2 captured.

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Bisolar To Make Solar Panels More Green

Biosolar’s a toddler chronologically just turned two years old in April. But they’re already publicly traded and they could stand tall in the expanding field of photovolataics, making electricity from the sun. The firm is based in Santa Clarita in Southern California, so they know about sunlight. And their CEO/President, Dr. David Lee, knows a bit about the current components of standard photovoltaic panels. And he expects his company to soon begin contributing to better, greener panels.

Biosolar’s goal: to replace all the petroleum-based materials and glass coatings now used in current photovoltaic cells. Dr. Lee explained that up to 25% of the cost of any current solar panel is actually taken up with the coatings, front and back, portions not used to generate electricity. Portions that currently are made from petroleum, or glass, not renewable resources.

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Technology Breakthrough Can Cut Greenhouse Gases

Scientists at Newcastle University, UK have pioneered breakthrough technology in the fight to cut greenhouse gases.

The Newcastle University team, led by Professor Michael North, has developed a highly energy-efficient method of converting waste carbon dioxide (CO2) into chemical compounds known as cyclic carbonates. Cyclic carbonates are widely used in the manufacture of products including solvents, paint-strippers, biodegradable packaging, and in the manufacture of a new class of efficient petrol anti-knocking agents that increase fuel efficiency while reducing further CO2 emissions!

The Newcastle University team estimates that the technology has the potential to use up to 48 million tonnes of waste CO2 per year, reducing the UK's emissions by about four per cent.

The conversion technique relies upon the use of a catalyst to force a chemical reaction between CO2 and an epoxide, converting waste CO2 into this cyclic carbonate. While the reaction between CO2 and epoxides is not exactly new. But this reaction until now required a lot of energy. The process used until now also requires the use of ultra-pure CO2, a costly substance.

The Newcastle team has succeeded in developing an exceptionally active catalyst, derived from aluminium, which can drive the reaction necessary to turn waste carbon dioxide into cyclic carbonates at room temperature and atmospheric pressure, vastly reducing the energy input required.

To date, alternative solutions for converting CO2 emissions into a useful product has required a process so energy intensive that they generate more CO2 than they consume.

If the catayst developed by the Newcastle team is used at the source of high-concentration CO2 production (in the exhaust stream of a fossil-fuel power station or the exhaust of a car), it could take out the carbon dioxide, turn it into a commercially-valuable product and at the same time eliminate the need to store waste CO2!

If applied optimally, this technology could be able to cut down CO2 emissions significantly while satisfy the demand of about 50 million tonnes for cyclic carbonates and its derivatives. This will amount to about 4% of the total CO2 emissions in the UK.

Not a bad result at all for an invention that cuts down a pollutant while producing a useful product (anti-knocking agent) that conserves more energy while decreasing pollution even further.

Sources:
Wikipedia

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Sustainability Calculator - Xerox Calculator Measures Environmental Efficiency

Xerox Corporation today unveiled the industry’s first Sustainability Calculator designed to help customers pinpoint opportunities to reduce their environmental impact while reducing costs. The new proprietary software tool measures the overall impact a company’s document technologies have on the environment.

The Sustainability Calculator is the newest assessment tool available through Xerox Office Services. It evaluates the current office environment of printers, copiers and multifunction devices and then measures environmental benefits that could be achieved in terms of energy and paper use, solid waste, water, air and greenhouse gas emissions. This tool provides customers the first fact-based measurement of their environmental footprint.

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Environment Friendly Solar Water Fountains

Environment Friendly Solar Water Fountains

Do you have a spot in your yard, patio, or porch where you could place a beautiful fountain that adds to your relaxation and the landscape of your property? Environmentally friendly solar water fountains run free of charge, courtesy of the sun of course! There is no tricky electrical system, or wiring that you need to run, just a solar panel, pump, and the fountain.

Read more from this post and see a nice illustration @ Energy Refuge

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Brief Analysis of Climate Change Report

Brief Analysis of Climate Change Report

May 07, 2007

Here’s a brief analysis of and comments on the recent IPCC working group report on Mitigation of Climate Change released from Bangkok, Thailand as it relates to alternative energy. The summary is provided on the following sections:

1. Energy Efficient & Net Zero Energy Buildings
2. Alternative Energy = Energy Security
3. Transport Policy & Fossil Fuels Subsidies
4. Research and Development + Technology Transfer

Read the full summary from here @ Alternative Energy Blog

Original working group report here (PDF)

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Turning Black Coal Green - Zero Emissions Coal Plants

Turning Black Coal Green - Zero Emissions Coal Plants

February 02, 2007

Sooty coal hardly seem like the future of energy, but that’s exactly what the U.S. Department of Energy predicts. Coal’s growing dominance need not spell doom for the environment, according to an executive at American Electric Power (AEP), a large American utility company which is building the first near-zero-emission coal plant by 2012. The 275-megawatt facility will serve as the model for a new generation of high-tech coal facilities, it is hoped

Source of article: AltEng post

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Want an eco-friendly holiday? Get on your bike!

Want an eco-friendly holiday? Get on your bike!

Guilt free, environment-friendly holidays are becoming all the rage. There's nothing that would make the blog author (Gareth Kane) than cruising along a country lane in the sunshine scaring the wits out of the local wildlife. Since however, he would not be able to make a biking expedition this year, he feels he should at least introduce some others to it, and here are some of his suggestions:

1. Follow a formal route.
2. Get cycle fit.
3. Eat a good breakfast.
4. Buy waterproof panniers.
5. Get up early in the morning.
6. Have fun

Read more on each of his above suggestions at this post @ Eco Living

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Greener Computing - Environment Friendly IT, Computers

Greener Computing

Not only is a staggering amount of energy required to power everything, but with each passing day more and more e-waste is produced. As important as the issue is, the IT industry (and related technological sectors) doesn’t seem to get nearly the same amount of coverage as many of the other environmental offenders such as the oil industry, feels the author of this post.

Thankfully, more focus is now being placed on the environmental impact of the computing industry, and more and more companies are making an effort to lessen their impact.

The author also informs us about a note he received announcing the the launch of a new website: GreenerComputing.

Read more on this post here @ EcoSherpa

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SeaWater Greenhouse - Water for Agriculture in Arid Areas

SeaWater Greenhouse - Water for Agriculture in Arid Areas

The Seawater Greenhouse is a new development that offers sustainable solution to the problem of providing water for agriculture in arid, coastal regions. The process uses seawater to cool and humidify the air that ventilates the greenhouse and sunlight to distil fresh water from seawater.

Read more from this Ecosutra posting

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Does A Green Tax for ‘Binge’ Flyers Make Sense?

A Green Tax for ‘Binge’ Flyers

May 9th, 2007 post @ Eco Chick

Recently, the publisher of a guidebook series - of all books - said people fly too much! Reason? Mark Ellingham, the founder of the Rough Guides, railed in an interview recently against the travel development he refers to as “binge flying” – hopping a flight for a quick weekend in a distant locale. To counter this trend, he calls for a £100 (~ $ 210) green tax on all flights from Britain to Europe and Africa and a £250 (~ $520) green tax to flights elsewhere.

Does this make sense - rational and emotional? The author feels while emotionally this might not be acceptable ("oops, the price just doubled between Germany & USA!"), from an economic and rational standpoint, it could make the environment a lot cleaner.

Read more from this interesting post @ Eco Chick

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Plasma Process Converts Garbage into Clean Energy

Plasma process converts garbage into clean energy

February 23rd, 2007

With an eco-friendly technology called Plasma Gasification, one can produce clean energy which in turn powers the process, along with commercially useful byproducts.

Recently a company has developed this interesting device that can handle pretty much any type of waste put into it and turn it into a clean source of energy.

This process creates two byproducts; one is a synthetic gas composed mostly of hydrogen and carbon monoxide which can be converted into a clean fuel. The second byproduct is a form of vitrified glass that can be used as inert fill for construction in roads, building blocks or other uses.

The process produces enough synthetic gas to power the unit, as well as a surplus which could be sold directly or used to generate excess electricity, providing an additional source of revenue for the facility.

Read more from this post @ Green Geek

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A Future for Carbon Finance

A Future for Carbon Finance

via TheCleanSlateReport, Tue 20 Mar 2007

The recent announcement of the World Bank’s 10th carbon fund – the Carbon Fund for Europe (CFE) – provided much needed long-term stability to the carbon project finance market. Specifically, up to 40 percent of the CFE’s investment in a project may be allocated to carbon credits generated by a project after 2012, when the present Kyoto regulatory regime will expire.

The support for the post-2012 carbon trading regime is particularly reassuring. For the thousands of carbon projects now under development around the globe, this announcement has opened up new financing opportunities. While they still face a more difficult financing environment as 2012 approaches, with market uncertainty lessened, it is expected that more private equity will flow to carbon finance, says this post @ EcoFinance

Read more from the report about what the future for carbon finance could look like.

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New System to Transform Restaurant Grease into Renewable Energy

New System to Transform Restaurant Grease into Renewable Energy

May 2007

Wastewater sludge and grease from restaurant kitchens are a nuisance for the environment, as they release methane during decomposition. An energy firm in California has come up with an innovative system that will be transforming wastewater sludge from its local restaurants into clean energy. Chevron Energy Solutions, a Chevron subsidiary is providing the assistance for engineering and constructing the environment-friendly system at the City of Rialto’s wastewater treatment facility.

The new system is also claimed to considerably increase municipal revenues and decrease the city’s energy costs - apart from decreasing greenhouse gas emissions.

Via Eco Friend post

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James Lovelock, the Gaia Hypothesis Theorist Foresees Crises

James Lovelock, the Gaia Hypothesis Theorist Foresees Crises

We are on the edge of the greatest die-off, and will lucky if 20% of us survive what is coming. We should be scared stiff, feels James Lovelock.

Lovelock, famous for the Gaia Hypotheses which maintains that life on Earth regulates its environment keeping it in a remarkable state of balance, not unlike the way a body regulates its own metabolism, now believes that human activities have set off reactions that will knock the biosphere out of it's present balance into one with substantially higher temperatures. The melting of permafrost above the arctic circle will release huge quantities of methane and carbon dioxide, while melting ice reduces the surface albedo and causes less sunlight to be reflected back into space, he feels.

Read more about this and the author's analysis of Lovelock's hypothesis from this post @ Green Future

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New York's Green Agenda - Mayor Plans Energy Conservation Regulations

New York's Green Agenda - Mayor Plans Energy Conservation Regulations

April 24, 2007

New NY gov Eliot Spitzer is calling for conservation. He's proposing a combination of legislation and regulations to get the state to consume less energy by 2015. Although the details haven't been revealed, the NY Times reported that these will include stricter energy standards for appliances, and upping the ante for energy efficiency on (so-called) green buildings. There's also talk about building & installing renewable energy generation facilities.

The reasoning for this is simple - by using less energy the state will save money.

Read more about the plans of NY governor @ this post @ It's the Environment, Stupid

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Agrichar for better CO2 Sequestration & to reduce global warming?

Agrichar for Better CO2 Sequestration & to Reduce Global Warming?

May 07, 2007

The first meeting of the International Agrichar Initiative convened about 100 scientists, policymakers, farmers and investors with the goal of birthing an entire new industry to produce a biofuel that goes beyond carbon neutral and is actually carbon negative.

Agrichar is the term not for the biomass fuel, but for what is left over after the energy is removed: a charcoal-based soil amendment. In simple terms, the agrichar process takes dry biomass of any kind and bakes it in a kiln to produce charcoal. The process is called pyrolysis. Various gases and bio-oils are driven off the material and collected to use in heat or power generation. The charcoal is buried in the ground, sequestering the carbon that the growing plants had pulled out of the atmosphere. The end result is increased soil fertility and an energy source with negative carbon emissions.

Interesting, read the full story from here @ Truthout

Via: Madison Peak Oil Group post

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Research Shows Segway(R) PT Tops the List of Most Energy-Efficient Transportation

Research Shows Segway(R) PT Tops the List of Most Energy-Efficient Transportation

Press release

BEDFORD, N.H., April 18 /PRNewswire/ -- The findings of an in-house analysis conducted by Segway Inc., show the environmental benefits of the Segway(R) Personal Transporter (PT) compared to traditional transportation options like cars and sports utility vehicles (SUVs). The research evaluates a variety of vehicles relative to their impact on the environment, both in emissions created and energy consumed, proving that the Segway PT can substantially decrease greenhouse gas emissions and is the most energy-efficient alternative to short-distance, single-occupancy car journeys.

Read the full press release from PR Newswire

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EcoSmart Fire eco-friendly heating systems available

EcoSmart Fire eco-friendly heating systems available

EcoSmart Fire The EcoSmart Fire is a re-invention of the old spirit stove. Using renewable energy and utilising new design and technology, the EcoSmart Fire is environmentally friendly, aesthetically pleasing, highly efficient and cost effective. EcoSmart Fire also fits into a vast array of architectural environments.

Read the full report from here @ Info Link, Australia

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Ethanol vehicles pose a significant risk to human health

Ethanol vehicles pose a significant risk to human health

Medical Research News, 20-Apr-2007

Ethanol is widely touted as an eco-friendly, clean-burning fuel. But if every vehicle in the United States ran on fuel made primarily from ethanol instead of pure gasoline, the number of respiratory-related deaths and hospitalizations would likely increase, according to a new study by Stanford University atmospheric scientist Mark Z. Jacobson. His findings are published in the April 18 online edition of the journal Environmental Science & Technology (ES&T).

Read the full article from here @ Medical Research News

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Getting Gold Out of Green - Corporates and Environment

Getting Gold Out of Green - Corporates and Environment

April 19, 2007

Mainstream corporate giants in markets spanning consumer products, banking, airlines and chemicals have sweeping programs to shrink their companies' impact on the environment -- and cash in on consumers' desire to go green.

Many see doing so as a virtual necessity as regulators consider limits on greenhouse gas emissions and consumers demand environmentally friendly products, says this article.

Read the full report from here @ Hispanic Business

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Burdening Brazil With Ethanol, Biofuels

Burdening Brazil With Biofuels

Lúcia Ortiz and David Waskow, March 19, 2007

The prospects of a massive boom in ethanol production to meet demand in the United States is not entirely pleasant. If the U.S. moves to meet a substantial proportion of its fuel needs from biofuels the pressure to import ethanol and other biofuels will mount rapidly, reaching quantities far beyond what Brazil currently produces. Providing biofuels to meet just 10 percent of current U.S. gasoline consumption would require multiplying Brazil’s already sizeable ethanol production many times over. Expanding Brazil’s biofuel industry on such a large scale will create serious environmental and social problems, says this interesting news article.

Read the full article from here @ Tom Paine

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UK push for biofuels may harm environment, campaigners say

UK push for biofuels may harm environment, campaigners say

19 Mar 2007 bbj.hu

A UK plan to help tackle global warming by increasing the use of biofuels such as palm oil and rapeseed may do more harm to the environment than good,
environmental campaign groups said.

Fuel suppliers will have to ensure that from April 2008 a certain percentage of their sales come from biofuels, under a UK Department for Transport program. The proposal could see businesses producing biofuels by destroying rainforests and wetlands, threatening endangered habitats and species and releasing more carbon into the atmosphere, according to Greenpeace, Friends of the Earth, WWF and the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds. The groups said the government should tighten rules to ensure biofuel producers meet minimum standards on greenhouse gas emissions, and establish "environmental audits” of the entire life-cycle of the fuel, from cultivation through transportation to combustion.

Read the full report from here @ BBJ, Hungary

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Europe Tightens CO2 Standards with Two Directives

Europe Tightens CO2 Standards with Two Directives

The European Commission has proposed two directives to combat CO2 emissions from cars.

The first proposal will force carmakers to cut CO2 emissions from new cars by 18% by 2012. Carmakers would be responsible for getting emissions down to 130 grams of CO2 per kilometer (g/km) through technology improvements.

The second proposal, which updates a fuel-quality directive from 1998, outlines new fuel-quality standards that aim to achieve, by 2020, a 10% reduction in CO2 emissions throughout the whole product life cycle.

Read the full report from here @ The American Chemical Society web page

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Ethanol agreement could have unintended consequences

Ethanol agreement could have unintended consequences

By Lillian Rose

Recently in the Brazilian city of Sao Paolo, a new partnership was agreed upon by President George W. Bush of the United States and President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva of Brazil. The partnership has special focus on cooperations in biofuels.

But like most trade agreements, there are certain dangers ahead. This alliance will have an environmental as well as a social impact. A Brazilian engineer, Expedito Parente, was quoted as saying in a Brazilian newspaper, “We have 80 million hectares in the Amazon that are going to be converted into the Saudi Arabia of biodiesel.”

Read the full news & analysis report from here @ The News & Tribune

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Lawmakers To Renew Animal Waste Effort

Lawmakers To Renew Animal Waste Effort

By Aaron Sadler, Stephens Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON — A group of farm-state lawmakers Thursday said they would try again to prevent animal waste from being classified as a pollutant, an exemption opposed by environmental groups and plaintiffs in a case against Arkansas poultry companies.

A new bill specifies that manure would not be designated as a hazardous substance or contaminant under the federal “Superfund” law.

Read the full news report here @ Times Record, Fort Smith, Arkansas

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Ethanol, energy and profits

Ethanol, energy and profits

March 24, 2007, Author: David Kennell

Brazil leads the world with “hundreds of miles” of sugarcane plantations, much of it derived by decimation of vast areas of the large Amazon rainforest basin, critical for life on the planet. Eight of 10 new Brazilian cars are fueled by ethanol. Brazilian media billed Bush’s meeting with President Lula da Silva as a bid to create a new “OPEC of ethanol.”

However, analysts point to a major problem for the Brazil-U.S. relationship: a 54 cent U.S. tariff per gallon on Brazilian ethanol. Since corn is the major U.S. plant source for ethanol, the tariff is to protect the U.S. agrichemical industry (free trade indeed).

Read more on this interesting viewpoint from this report @ People's Weekly World

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Diesels Come Clean - Business Week

Diesels Come Clean

by Matt Vella

In Europe gas costs more than $5 a gallon. In the U.S., it's under $3. In Europe, diesel-powered cars and trucks account for 50% of all auto sales. In the U.S., they are less than 4%. What do the Europeans know that Americans don't?

They know that diesels provide superior fuel-economy without sacrificing performance. The main concern for most Americans is that the hangover from the smoky, smelly diesels of the 1970s remains fresh in many minds. But changes in the supply of diesel fuel, emerging cleaner-burning technologies, and growing consumer concern over the environment and fuel economy in particular are creating new opportunities for automakers willing to dabble in diesel, says this article

Read the full article here @ Business Week, 26 Mar 2007 issue

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How Green is Nuclear Power?

How Green is Nuclear Power?

By Mark Clayton, The Christian Science Monitor

Nuclear Power is an idea that may be catching on. At least 11 new nuclear plants are in the design stage in nine states, including Virginia, Texas, and Florida, according to the Nuclear Energy Institute website.

But that carbon-free pitch has researchers asking anew: How carbon-free is nuclear power? And how cost-effective is it in the fight to slow global warming? asks this article from CSM, read the full article here @ KVOA, Tucson

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Consumers attracted to energy savings of compact fluorescent lamps (CFL)

Bright idea: Consumers attracted to energy savings of compact fluorescent lamps

ERIC SHACKLETON
March 10, 2007

Excerpts:

1. Compact fluorescents provide high energy efficiency
2. Nova Scotia's energy minister says the province plans to give retailers four or five years to prepare for a ban on incandescent light bulbs
3. Project Porchlight, a campaign organized by a not-for-profit energy conservation group, is working to deliver one CFL bulb to every household in Canada.
4. the PL bulbs, also called CFLs, have a longer life and will save the buyer money.
5. CFLs are also environmentally friendly because less energy is used.

More from this news report @ Brooks Alberta Business News

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Breakthrough Carbon Capture Technology Turns Wastewater to Resource

Breakthrough Carbon Capture Technology That Turns Wastewater to Resource

Press release

Sydney based greentech company Geo-Processors Pty Limited announced the completion of development of a breakthrough Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) technology following successful initial process trials.

The technology - identified as Carbon Capture and Products Recovery (CCPR) system - enables efficient capture of CO2 from ambient air or point-sources and then conversion to mineral byproducts for industrial use or recycling.

Central to this technology is the use of massive volumes of bicarbonate-rich water produced as waste water by oil/gas production, coal mining and coal power stations and desalination processes - currently a source of environmental concerns and operational costs.

Read more from this press release @ IPD Group

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Atraverda Gets Funding for Environment-friendly Battery

Atraverda Gets Funding for Environment-friendly Battery Technology

Mar 9 2007

David Williamson, Western Mail

PIONEERING battery technology company Atraverda has secured $12m from investors to push forward environmentally-friendly energy storage.

The Abertillery-based business's Ebonex technology - based around conductive ceramics - will use the new funding to develop the commercial opportunities.

More from this news report @ IC Wales

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