U.N. Study Urges Caution on Biofuels
>> Thursday, October 22, 2009
By PETE BROWNE
West vs China in Solar war
>> Saturday, September 19, 2009
Europe's solar energy industry is facing a wave of bankruptcies because Asian companies offer their products much cheaper. Several German producers of solar cells, panels and modules, including large market-leading companies, have reported massive first-half losses. (Read the article:http://www.upi.com/Science_News/Resource-Wars/2009/09/09/West-vs-China-in-solar-war/UPI-25781252515090/ )"West vs China in Solar war." Can the West decrease its production costs in in the solar industry by optimizing its processes?
Instead of setting tariff barriers for Made-In China solar cells, why not just reduce 30% of the costs by optimizing the processes? Through Value Stream Analysis and other proven methods, costs can relatively be reduced by up to 20%.
Also, it would be interesting to know if anybody in this group might know about the costs of installing solar panels to feed a whole town as big as Zurich with electricity? How are the costs distributed: how much goes into the actual solar panel costs, and how much actually goes into the installation?
If a town in the size of Zurich uses solar power as its energy source, it is said that its costs are 2.5 times higher than generic energies. Why is that and what can we do to lower those costs? Is process optimization a way to decrease costs for renewable energy solutions?
White House Steps Up Support for Biofuels
>> Tuesday, May 5, 2009
The White House made its first major statement on ethanol on Tuesday, mustering three Cabinet members to outline a plan to shield corn ethanol producers from the credit crisis, work with them to cut their use of natural gas and coal in ethanol production, and nudge the auto industry toward production of vehicles that can use ethanol at concentrations of up to 85 percent.
In pursuing these goals, the Secretaries of Agriculture and Energy, Tom Vilsack and Steven Chu, along with the administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, Lisa Jackson, announced during a press conference the formation of a "Biofuels Interagency Working Group,'' comprised of the three agencies.
Through the working group, the federal government announced several goals, including helping to refinance existing ethanol and biodiesel factories whose owners were having trouble obtaining credit, guaranteeing loans for the construction of new biorefineries, and expediting funding to help producers of cellulosic crops.
(Cellulosic crops refer to non-food crops, or the non-food portion of plants grown for food, like corn stalks, that in theory can be converted to fuel on a commercial scale. Many companies are trying to do just that, but none has yet succeeded on a marketable scale.)
Scientists differ on the degree to which use of ethanol from corn cuts carbon emissions, if at all. Ms. Jackson, the E.P.A. administrator, said the reduction amounted to about 16 percent, but she said that for both ethanol and biodiesel, the "carbon footprint" could be reduced further if the energy needed to create the fuels were derived from burning plants instead of fossil fuels.
President Obama put the Agriculture Department in charge of the multi-agency effort — a strong signal that the ethanol program remains a program for rural economic development.
The industry was looking for a signal of support, especially after the collapse of gasoline prices and the widespread backlash against corn ethanol because of a belief that it was helping to push food prices higher.
Mr. Vilsack, the Agriculture Secretary, referring to stimulus money and other funding, said, "There is over $1.1 billion of opportunity here, created by the Congress, to assist in building biorefineries, in helping existing refineries convert from fossil-fuel power to renewable power."
The money can also be used to "create opportunities for producers, to receive assistance to produce new cellulosic crops and products," Mr. Vilsack said
Source : http://greeninc.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/05/05/white-house-steps-up-support-for-biofuels/
Enzyme cocktail converts cellulosic materials, water into hydrogen fuel
>> Monday, February 16, 2009
BLACKSBURG, Va., February 16, 2009 -- Tomorrow's fuel-cell vehicles may be powered by enzymes that consume cellulose from woodchips or grass and exhale hydrogen. Researchers at Virginia Tech, Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), and the University of Georgia have produced hydrogen gas pure enough to power a fuel cell by mixing 14 enzymes, one coenzyme, cellulosic materials from nonfood sources, and water heated to about 90 degrees (32 C). The group announced three advances from their "one pot" process: 1) a novel combination of enzymes, 2) an increased hydrogen generation rate -- to as fast as natural hydrogen fermentation, and 3) a chemical energy output greater than the chemical energy stored in sugars – the highest hydrogen yield reported from cellulosic materials. "In addition to converting the chemical energy from the sugar, the process also converts the low-temperature thermal energy into high-quality hydrogen energy – like Prometheus stealing fire," said Percival Zhang, assistant professor of biological systems engineering in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences at Virginia Tech. "It is exciting because using cellulose instead of starch expands the renewable resource for producing hydrogen to include biomass," said Jonathan Mielenz, leader of the Bioconversion Science and Technology Group at ORNL. The researchers used cellulosic materials isolated from wood chips, but crop waste or switchgrass could also be used. "If a small fraction – 2 or 3 percent – of yearly biomass production were used for sugar-to-hydrogen fuel cells for transportation, we could reach transportation fuel independence," Zhang said. (He added that the 3 percent figure is for global transportation needs. The United States would actually need to convert about 10 percent of biomass – which would be 1.3 billion tons of usable biomass). The most recent research is published in the Wiley journal ChemSusChem (Chemistry and Sustainability), in the article "Spontaneous High-Yield Production of Hydrogen from Cellulosic Materials and Water Catalyzed by Enzyme Cocktails," by Virginia Tech student Xinhao Ye and post doctoral associate Yiran Wang, both in biological systems engineering; Robert C. Hopkins and Michael W. W. Adams of the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at the University of Georgia; Barbara R. Evans and Mielenz of the ORNL Chemical Sciences and Biosciences Divisions, respectively; and Zhang. The research is supported by the Air Force Office of Scientific Research; Zhang's DuPont Young Professor Award, and the U.S. Department of Energy. IMAGE INFORMATION: Percival Zhang (left) discusses conversion of biomass to energy with Geoff Moxley, who recently received his master of science degree in biological systems engineering from Virginia Tech. Contact Susan Trulove at strulove@vt.edu or (540) 231-5646.
CES 2009: It's a Wrap! A Review of TreeHugger's Trip to CES
>> Monday, January 12, 2009
In wrapping up TreeHugger's trip to the Consumer Electronics Show, we wanted to review the ups and downs of the green presence at the trade show.
Read on for a recap of everything we saw at CES this year.
The Green Presence at CES Booths
Everyone Has an Eco-Corner
There were eco-corners galore, and most major gadget makers wanted to show to at least a small extent how they too are greening up. While quite a bit of it was green lip service, we're hoping that at least a few of the manufacturers we spoke with are earnest about the commitment to sustainability they had on display.
Hiding the Green Gadgets
Having a green side was definitely a theme here at CES, but it doesn't mean greener gadgets had any sort of priority. In fact, it was hard to even find them. It took a lot of searching and asking a lot of confused CES staffers before I finally found the new location of the Sustainable Planet zone, which was disappointingly small. The LG booth next door was bigger than this entire zone. And it was mostly full of solar devices, rather than really cutting edge green gadgets. It was certainly didn't live up to the hype in the literature.
There was green elsewhere in the tradeshow, though, you just had to hunt. In other sections we found booths for things like new HYmini chargers, iGO green technology, some neat ZigBee enabled devices for home energy management. It just took keeping your eyes sharp so that you could be sure to spot the green.
Spotting the Greenwash
And of course, sort out the greenwashing. There was plenty of that as well. Fuji's EnviroMAX batteries to Motorola's Renew phone were on the more blatant side, while other booths like Eco-Mount and Thermapak were slightly less guilty, though we can still say it's greenwashing. There is definitely a green bandwagon trolleying around and companies are hopping on right and left. The abundance of little green leaves on literature and "eco" this, "eco" that illustrates it. It'll take a lot to sort out what's real and not, but thankfully we have organizations like Greenpeace here helping us wade through it all.
How Green was CES?
Getting Around Las Vegas
And as for CES itself. Boy, they sure did want to say they're greener this year. With a tradeshow of this magnitude, it's understandable for some aspects of green to be left out for the sake of cheap convenience, but there was a lot of room for improvement. The shuttle system was incredibly efficient, but they could have hired on green transportation like bio-diesel or electric hybrid shuttles, rather than pollution spewing buses.
Recycling Versus Waste
While I did manage to find a few recycling bins lining one corridor, these were few and far between.
And lunches, while it utilized bioplastic as a supposedly greener option, were still ridiculously over packaged, and a whole lot of waste was generated because of them.
Coffee was offered...but it was Starbucks, with stacks of paper cups and plastic lids that were scattered every which way by day's end. You couldn't turn around without being faced with a pile of water bottles, and while they did have drinking stations, they were adorned with plastic cups, rather than paper or - even better - a note on where to find a reusable water container.
Only one booth - Nokia - was handing out reusable water bottles that I could find, but on the other hand, nearly every booth was giving out reusable bags. There was hardly a plastic bag to be seen, and the only paper ones spotted were from HP and they were on racks throughout the conference for attendees' convenience.
Up and Down the Tradeshow Floor
The escalators were well used, while the stairs were left neglected, which was a bit disappointing to see.
Even in the morning and mid-day when energy levels should be relatively high, nearly no one used the stairs - not even for heading to lower floors. It's understandable but disappointing that more people weren't taking the ever so slightly greener option of hoofing it. It would have been really cool if CES got the renewable energy bug that LG was demonstrating on a small scale, and powered at least a portion of the hall such as the escalators with solar.
Finding People Who Care About Green
And finally, while there were a whole heck of a lot of people here who couldn't care less about being environmentally friendly, cutting down on energy use, and recycling, there were plenty of people here who did indeed care - from Greenpeace to theElectronics TakeBack Coalition to booths like eco TakeBack and Recellular. At lease there was some exposure for conference goers to the notion that green is good.
There was even just a bit of wild green at the show.
It nearly got kicked out, but with enough hubbub from the owner, it got to stay.
The Pros and Cons of Biofuels
>> Thursday, December 25, 2008
There have been studies that prove the many benefits of substituting fossil fuels (petroleum, etc) with biofuels such as biodiesel and ethanol. In its simplest sense, such biofuels are biodegradable which means they are derived from organic materials. They are naturally renewable. It can create numerous jobs since our own farmers can practically make them domestically. Consequently, our reliance on foreign sources of fossil fuels will be significantly reduced. Moreover, these biofuels emit nontoxic and cleaner emissions in comparison to traditional fuels. These alternative fuels also do not promote global warming, since the carbon they emit is taken back to the environment. Biofuels are easily utilize but not readily accessible. The use of biofuel is not complicated. Compared to other forms of renewable energy (solar, wind, etc), biofuel is far more simple and easy to use. It does not require special equipment or a modification in all engines. Any automobile will not need complex changes. The biodiesel can be readily combined with conventional petroleum diesel in your fuel tank at any point in time. In some instances, particularly true for ethanol, you may have to look for flexible fuel car models. If not, biodiesel can run most diesel operated engines. Despite these benefits, it would take time for biofuels to be readily accessible due to lack of ethanol or biodiesel pumps at existing filling station. Biofuels are renewable but crops are still not enough. It is a fact that biofuels are derived from biomass that is renewable and biodegradable. For this reason, it will accordingly cause lasting effects on generations to come. However, one major concern of wide scale biofuel production is the increased need of growing crops to meet the demand. This leads to some arguments, since it might require extensive land that may involve forests, wild habitats and agricultural lands. Biofuels uses more energy than they can produce. This had been an issue in so many years whether producing biofuels would actually need more energy than they can give. Over the years, technology has significantly improved. A lot of researches and tests had been done to prove that biofuels like ethanol and biodiesel generate energy that is comparable to conventional diesel fuel. Ethanol puts out about 1.5 units of energy for every unit of energy used in processing it. In addition, biodiesel even has an output of 3.2 units of energy to every unit of energy used on its production. The "traditional" fuel like gasoline needs 20% energy based on what it can provide, or leaving you with only 80%. Conclusion To reduce the reliance on fossil fuel, conservation is still the primary strategy. There is no instant weaning on conventional petroleum diesel. It is quite impossible to totally replace it but instead the consumption must be decreased. Other sources of energy such as solar, wind, etc. are still needed. But this does not mean that biofuel have no future. As a matter of fact, it has a very promising potential. As an alternative to this "traditional" diesel or gasoline fuel, it is expected to yield significant energy security and environmental advantage to its consumers.The Pros and Cons of Biofuels
Boeing to test biofuel on Air New Zealand flight
>> Thursday, November 13, 2008
Workers at a jatropha nursery in Dimbokro, Ivory Coast. Photographer: Kambou Sia/AFP/Getty Boeing and Air New Zealand will fly a jumbo jet powered partly by biofuel next month, the two companies announced today. An Air New Zealand jet will leave Auckland on December 3 with a 50-50 mix of jet fuel and oil from jatropha trees, in one of its four engines on a flight designed to show that jatropha biofuel is suitable for use in aviation as well as economical to produce . "This flight strongly supports our efforts to be the world's most environmentally responsible airline," said Rob Fyfe, chief executive of Air New Zealand. "Introducing a new generation of sustainable fuels is the next logical step in our efforts to further save fuel and reduce aircraft emissions." The jatropha nuts, which contain 40% oil, were harvested from trees in Mozambique, Malawi and Tanzania. Friends of the Earth's biofuels campaigner, Kenneth Richter, welcomed the move to get the aviation industry to reduce the environmental footprint of its planes, but he raised concerns about the impact of biofuels. "Even jatropha is being linked to food price rises and habitat destruction. Current rates of growth in air travel mean it is not enough to switch to biofuels." Robin Oakley, head of Greenpeace UK's climate change campaign, said: "We need a dose of realism here, because this test flight does not mean an end to the use of kerosene in jet engines. The amount of jatropha that would be needed to power the world's entire aviation sector cannot be produced in anything like a sustainable way, and even if large volumes could be grown, planes are an incredibly wasteful way of using it." Boeing said their trees were grown on marginal land not required for food in India and south-east Africa. Billy Glover, Boeing's managing director of environmental strategy, said that to prepare for the test flight, his team had tried to source biofuel reliably and economically for commercial aviation. "The processing technology exists today, and based on results we've seen, it's highly encouraging that this fuel not only met but exceeded three key criteria for the next generation of jet fuel: higher than expected jet fuel yields, very low freeze point and good energy density. That tells us we're on the right path to certification and commercial availability." Air travel contributes up to 5.5% of UK carbon dioxide emissions and the search for a greener alternative to kerosene jet fuel has been fraught with difficulty. Airlines cannot use standard biofuels such as ethanol because this would freeze at high altitude. Testing for the Air New Zealand flight showed that the jatropha-based biofuel was more suitable for flying since it froze at -47C and burned at 38C. Chris Lewis, a fuels specialist at Rolls-Royce, which tested the jatropha biofuel, said: "The blended fuel meets the essential requirement of being a drop-in fuel, meaning its properties will be virtually indistinguishable from conventional fuel which is used in commercial aviation today." Last month, Darrin Morgan, an environmental expert at Boeing, said biofuel-powered aircraft could be carrying millions of passengers around the world within three years, much sooner than most experts thought. The Air New Zeland plane is not the first to use biofuels. In February, Virgin Atlantic successfuly tried a mixture of 80% jet fuel and 20% biofuel (made from coconut oil and babassu palm oil) in one engine of a Boeing 747 on a flight between London and Amsterdam. Oakley said that technological advances in jet engines could only make a difference if there was a limit to the "massive expansion of the airline industry around the world." "If Boeing were really serious about reducing their impact on the environment they would end their vocal support for a third runway at Heathrow and put some of their billions into high-speed rail technology instead," he said.
