WASHINGTON – Finding an economical way to capture carbon dioxide from existing coal burning power plants is key to getting China to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions as well as for U.S. efforts to combat global warming, says a study being released Friday.
The report by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology concludes that the United States cannot meet its targets for stabilizing greenhouse gases unless it finds a way to economically capture carbon dioxide emissions coming from existing coal-burning power plants.
Coal plants generate about half of the country's electricity and 80 percent of the nearly 2 billion tons of carbon dioxide released annually into the atmosphere from power production. China also relies heavily on coal for electricity production and in the last five years has been on a rush to build new coal plants — none of them designed to capture carbon dioxide.
"There is no credible pathway towards stringent greenhouse gas stabilization targets without CO2 emission reductions from existing coal power plants," says the report. Members of Congress, where a bill to limit U.S. greenhouse gas emissions could come up for a House vote as early as next week, were being briefed on the MIT report.
Carbon dioxide has been captured and put into the ground in relatively small scale projects — mostly in connection with enhanced oil recovery, for years, but never in the huge volumes that would be needed to capture emissions from a large coal plant.
The MIT report says there are multiple technologies being explored for carbon capture, but the government still has not adequately supported carbon capture research and is moving too slowly to develop large demonstration projects to show that capturing carbon dioxide and injecting it into the ground will work at the scale needed.
The report, a copy of which was provided to The Associated Press in advance of a press conference Friday, says the federal government and industry need to "dramatically expand" its support for carbon capture research and development to the tune of $12 billion to $15 billion over the next decade.
Such technology, if shown to work in U.S. plants, could get China to reduce greenhouse gases from its rapidly growing network of coal burning power plants, the report says.
"We've got to address the carbon emissions from our current fleet (of coal plants) and also have to think how the technology we develop can be applied in China," Ernest Moniz, director of the MIT Energy Initiative and co-author of the report, said in an interview.
Together, the U.S. and China account for 20 percent of the world's carbon dioxide from coal burning power plants, said Moniz. If China doesn't address emissions from its coal plants "we really can't address the climate issue in a serious way."
The MIT report summarizes a consensus view of participants in a symposium sponsored by MIT's Energy Initiative on the feasibility of retrofitting existing coal plants with carbon capture technology. Participants included 54 representatives utilities, academia, government, public interest groups and industry.
The report said about half of the U.S. coal plants — most of those producing 300 megawatts or more of power — may be suitable for carbon capture technology. Many of the smaller plants, accounting for about 30 percent of electricity production, can achieve emission reductions through increased efficiency, use of a mix of coal and biomass as fuel and other measures. Other plants, especially the oldest, may have to be replaced, said Moniz.
Wayne Leonard, chief executive of Entergy Corp., who was a co-chairman of the symposium, said the symposium's conclusions should be viewed "in an international context" especially as carbon capture technology development relates to China.
"In the U.S. coal is the reality. But in China and India it is the future" and they won't abandon it because of climate change, said Leonard. "But offering them a technological solution, a solution that we are actively developing and deploying ourselves on our own coal plants, would be something that has a far better chance of success in getting them to act."
While Entergy, the New Orleans-based utility, relies on coal for less than 10 percent of its electricity production, it was a co-sponsor with MIT of the carbon capture symposium on which Friday's report is based.
RBS Enterprises is Robert B. Stretton Enterprises at http://RBSe.us | . A conservationist at heart, merchandiser, consultant, webmaster, automation specialist, and all-around engineer, serving the Earth online since 1997... | "To invent, you need a good imagination and a pile of junk" -- Thomas Alva Edison (1847-1931) | "True knowledge exists in knowing that you know nothing." -- Socrates (469-399 B.C.E.)
Saturday, June 20, 2009
Thursday, June 18, 2009
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
New video about global climate movement...
Straight from my Tweet...
rbse RT @350 BREAKING: beautiful new video about global climate movement. FREE 350 camelbak to three random ReTweeters! http://is.gd/14C23 #350ppm
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rbse RT @350 BREAKING: beautiful new video about global climate movement. FREE 350 camelbak to three random ReTweeters! http://is.gd/14C23 #350ppm
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Recycling Revolution -- Turning Old Plastic Bottles Into Valuable Recycled Materials
Chemical Engineers developed a way to break down plastic bottles made from polyethylene terephthalate -- or PET, and recycle it back into high value uses like more soda bottles, water bottles, beer bottles. Inside the recycling plant's extruder, water is removed from ground up plastic. Then, the plastic is melted and chemically broken down -- in a process called depolymerization. The breakthrough in this process is to be able to go from chips of this plastic to the recycled material in about five minutes.
http://tr.im/oK3i
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http://tr.im/oK3i
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Saturday, June 13, 2009
Electricity From Waste Cooking Oil
WORCESTER, Mass. – Columbia Tech, a US-based contract manufacturer, today announced its partnership with Massachusetts-based Owl Power to manufacture the company’s Vegawatt cogeneration system.
The Vegawatt system utilizes waste vegetable oil from restaurant deep fryers as its non-toxic fuel. On average, this fuel produces 10 to 25 percent of a restaurant’s electricity and hot water, reducing energy costs by up to 1,000 dollars per month. Vegawatt is a fully automated system that requires no restaurant staff intervention or maintenance, requires no additional chemicals, and produces no liquid byproducts.
“As Owl Power expands, we need a flexible manufacturing partner that will evolve with us,” said James Peret, President and CEO, Owl Power. “Columbia Tech’s ability to accommodate Owl Power’s rapid development makes the company an ideal partner to build the Vegawatt system, and a valuable long-term partner for our overall business.”
“We are proud to deliver leading-edge domestic manufacturing services so customers can concentrate on growing their business with confidence,” said Chris Coghlin, President and CEO, Columbia Tech. “Helping Owl Power keep manufacturing costs down enables restaurant owners nationwide to benefit from an affordable solution to utilize waste and conserve energy.”
About Owl Power and Vegawatt
Owl Power Company is a Massachusetts-based company that manufactures, installs, and operates clean energy cogeneration systems. The company's flagship product, Vegawatt, is an automated, combined heat and power (CHP) system that utilizes waste vegetable oil as its feedstock. For more information, please visit www.vegawatt.com.
About Columbia Tech
Columbia Tech provides the highest degree of manufacturing excellence for customers seeking turnkey manufacturing and global fulfillment services. Its business model contains a unique blend of front-end DFM and NPI services combined with worldwide purchasing leverage and customized manufacturing programs renowned for extreme flexibility and attentiveness to detail. For more information, please visit www.columbiatech.com.
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This is a must have to save the planet. The all-around savings is immense. How many restaurants are there in the U.S.A. that use cooking oil? How many use hot water? I would venture to say, many of them. If you own a restaurant, or know someone who does, this is definitely worth checking out.
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Wednesday, June 10, 2009
Monday, June 8, 2009
New specification: ENERGY STAR 5.0, July 1, 2009
July 1, 2009, the new specification takes effect Come July, 1 2009, all business desktops will have to meet ENERGY STAR 5.0 specifications in order to receive the ENERGY STAR logo. What is important to keep in mind is that there is no grandfathering. This means that as of the July 1st date, there is no ENERGY STAR 4.0 and any new systems with the ENERGY STAR logo need to meet the 5.0 requirements.
You can always refer to these government specifications to find the latest information.
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You can always refer to these government specifications to find the latest information.
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Wednesday, June 3, 2009
Scientists Create Metal that Pumps Liquid Uphill
When I read this article, it opened ideas for new solar power and energy applications...
..."metal with nanostructures that reflected almost no light at all"...
The possibilities for this technology are very interesting and I look forward to the future results.
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Scientists Create Metal that Pumps Liquid Uphill
Ultra-Fast Laser Makes Metal that Attracts, Repels, and Guides Liquids
capillary metal in nature, trees pull vast amounts of water from their roots up to their leaves hundreds of feet above the ground through capillary action, but now scientists at the University of Rochester have created a simple slab of metal that lifts liquid using the same principle—but does so at a speed that would make nature envious.
The metal, revealed in an upcoming issue of Applied Physics Letters, may prove invaluable in pumping microscopic amounts of liquid around a medical diagnostic chip, cooling a computer's processor, or turning almost any simple metal into an anti-bacterial surface.
"We're able to change the surface structure of almost any piece of metal so that we can control how liquid responds to it," says Chunlei Guo, associate professor of optics at the University of Rochester. "We can even control the direction in which the liquid flows, or whether liquid flows at all."
Guo and his assistant, Anatoliy Vorobyev, use an ultra-fast burst of laser light to change the surface of a metal, forming nanoscale and microscale pits, globules, and strands across the metal's surface. The laser, called a femtosecond laser, produces pulses lasting only a few quadrillionths of a second—a femtosecond is to a second what a second is to about 32 million years. During its brief burst, Guo's laser unleashes as much power as the entire electric grid of North America does, all focused onto a spot the size of a needlepoint, he says.
The wicking process, which on Guo's metal moves at a quick one centimeter per second speed against gravity, is very similar to the phenomenon that pulls spilled milk into a paper towel or creates "tears of wine" in a wineglass—molecular attractions and evaporation combine to move a liquid against gravity, says Guo. Likewise, Guo's nanostructures change the way molecules of a liquid interact with the molecules of the metal, allowing them to become more or less attracted to each other, depending on Guo's settings. At a certain size, the metal nanostructures adhere more readily to the liquid's molecules than the liquid's molecules adhere to each other, causing the liquid to quickly spread out across the metal. Combined with the effects of evaporation as the liquid spreads, this molecular interaction creates the fast wicking effect in Guo's metals.
Adding laser-etched channels into the metal further enhances Guo's control of the liquid.
"Imagine a huge waterway system shrunk down onto a tiny chip, like the electronic circuit printed on a microprocessor, so we can perform chemical or biological work with a tiny bit of liquid," says Guo. "Blood could precisely travel along a certain path to a sensor for disease diagnostics. With such a tiny system, a nurse wouldn't need to draw a whole tube of blood for a test. A scratch on the skin might contain more than enough cells for a micro-analysis."
Guo's team has also created metal that reduces the attraction between water molecules and metal molecules, a phenomenon called hydrophobia. Since germs mostly consist of water, it's all but impossible for them to grow on a hydrophobic surface, says Guo.
Currently, to alter an area of metal the size of a quarter takes 30 minutes or more, but Guo and Vorobyev are working on refining the technique to make it faster. Fortunately, despite the incredible intensity involved, the femtosecond laser can be powered by a simple wall outlet, meaning that when the process is refined, implementing it should be relatively simple.
Guo is also announcing this month in Physical Review Letters a femtosecond laser processing technique that can create incandescent light bulbs that use half as much energy, yet produce the same amount of light. In 2006, Guo's team used the femtosecond laser to create metal with nanostructures that reflected almost no light at all, and in 2008 the team was able to tune the creation of nanostructures to reflect certain wavelengths of light—in effect turning almost any metal into almost any color.
This research funded by the U.S. Air Force Office of Scientific Research and the National Science Foundation.
From the University of Rochester (www.rochester.edu)
..."metal with nanostructures that reflected almost no light at all"...
The possibilities for this technology are very interesting and I look forward to the future results.
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Scientists Create Metal that Pumps Liquid Uphill
Ultra-Fast Laser Makes Metal that Attracts, Repels, and Guides Liquids
capillary metal in nature, trees pull vast amounts of water from their roots up to their leaves hundreds of feet above the ground through capillary action, but now scientists at the University of Rochester have created a simple slab of metal that lifts liquid using the same principle—but does so at a speed that would make nature envious.
The metal, revealed in an upcoming issue of Applied Physics Letters, may prove invaluable in pumping microscopic amounts of liquid around a medical diagnostic chip, cooling a computer's processor, or turning almost any simple metal into an anti-bacterial surface.
"We're able to change the surface structure of almost any piece of metal so that we can control how liquid responds to it," says Chunlei Guo, associate professor of optics at the University of Rochester. "We can even control the direction in which the liquid flows, or whether liquid flows at all."
Guo and his assistant, Anatoliy Vorobyev, use an ultra-fast burst of laser light to change the surface of a metal, forming nanoscale and microscale pits, globules, and strands across the metal's surface. The laser, called a femtosecond laser, produces pulses lasting only a few quadrillionths of a second—a femtosecond is to a second what a second is to about 32 million years. During its brief burst, Guo's laser unleashes as much power as the entire electric grid of North America does, all focused onto a spot the size of a needlepoint, he says.
The wicking process, which on Guo's metal moves at a quick one centimeter per second speed against gravity, is very similar to the phenomenon that pulls spilled milk into a paper towel or creates "tears of wine" in a wineglass—molecular attractions and evaporation combine to move a liquid against gravity, says Guo. Likewise, Guo's nanostructures change the way molecules of a liquid interact with the molecules of the metal, allowing them to become more or less attracted to each other, depending on Guo's settings. At a certain size, the metal nanostructures adhere more readily to the liquid's molecules than the liquid's molecules adhere to each other, causing the liquid to quickly spread out across the metal. Combined with the effects of evaporation as the liquid spreads, this molecular interaction creates the fast wicking effect in Guo's metals.
Adding laser-etched channels into the metal further enhances Guo's control of the liquid.
"Imagine a huge waterway system shrunk down onto a tiny chip, like the electronic circuit printed on a microprocessor, so we can perform chemical or biological work with a tiny bit of liquid," says Guo. "Blood could precisely travel along a certain path to a sensor for disease diagnostics. With such a tiny system, a nurse wouldn't need to draw a whole tube of blood for a test. A scratch on the skin might contain more than enough cells for a micro-analysis."
Guo's team has also created metal that reduces the attraction between water molecules and metal molecules, a phenomenon called hydrophobia. Since germs mostly consist of water, it's all but impossible for them to grow on a hydrophobic surface, says Guo.
Currently, to alter an area of metal the size of a quarter takes 30 minutes or more, but Guo and Vorobyev are working on refining the technique to make it faster. Fortunately, despite the incredible intensity involved, the femtosecond laser can be powered by a simple wall outlet, meaning that when the process is refined, implementing it should be relatively simple.
Guo is also announcing this month in Physical Review Letters a femtosecond laser processing technique that can create incandescent light bulbs that use half as much energy, yet produce the same amount of light. In 2006, Guo's team used the femtosecond laser to create metal with nanostructures that reflected almost no light at all, and in 2008 the team was able to tune the creation of nanostructures to reflect certain wavelengths of light—in effect turning almost any metal into almost any color.
This research funded by the U.S. Air Force Office of Scientific Research and the National Science Foundation.
From the University of Rochester (www.rochester.edu)
Tuesday, June 2, 2009
Sweden Helps South Korea Convert Food Waste Into Biogas
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) – The South Korean city of Ulsan lets water generated from processing food waste run off into the ocean, which can generate methane gas harmful to the environment. Now, with the help of a Swedish company, it is going to start converting that waste water into biogas, a type of clean fuel that can be used as power to heat buildings and even power vehicles.
South Korea is looking for ways to increase the use of biogas and other clean energy alternatives amid a push by the government of President Lee Myung-bak to embark on a new development model that emphasizes so-called green growth. Ulsan, a brawny industrial center of about 1 million people on the country's southeastern coast, saw biogas as an attractive way to deal with a burgeoning waste problem as well as coming tighter government regulations.
"Ulsan is running out of waste disposal sites to cover all the garbage that comes out from the city," municipal official Park In-muk said Thursday. "When garbage is processed into compost, it creates waste water," he said, which the city has been letting it flow into the ocean.
The dumping of waste water generated by the processing of leftover food into the sea, however, will be banned from 2013, according to the Ministry of Land, Transport, and Maritime affairs. The Ministry of Environment, meanwhile, has increased its budget this year for waste energy, including biogas plants, by five times to 178 billion won ($143 million), according to ministry official Choi Byung-chul.
The government's impending ban on the practice spurred Ulsan, home to big corporations Hyundai Motor Corp. and Hyundai Heavy Industries Co., helped push Ulsan to look for alternatives. It found a partner in Scandinavian Biogas Fuels AB. The company is based in Sweden, which has been a pioneer in biogas development.
Scandinavian Biogas is investing about 10 million euros to upgrade a wastewater treatment plant in Ulsan and will soon start accepting food and other waste for processing into biogas, said Scandinavian Biogas President and CEO Thomas Davidsson.
"Producing biogas is a very effective way of taking care of the waste" as it can be used for heat, electricity and vehicle fuel, Davidsson said in an interview Wednesday. He was in Seoul to participate in the Seoul Climate Change Expo held in conjunction with the third C40 Large Cities Climate Summit.
Turning food waste into biogas can also contribute to efforts to stop global warming. "If you dump it into the sea, methane will be produced," he said. "And methane released into the air is 21 times more aggressive than carbon dioxide. So it has a great impact on the greenhouse effect."
Ulsan is not alone in looking to Sweden for help. Seoul, South Korea's largest city with a population of over 10 million people, also sees potential in biogas and has teamed up with Swedish Biogas International AB on a pilot project. "There is a lot of potential," Kjell Enstrom, who heads the company's operations in South Korea, said Thursday in an interview.
South Korea has the ability to produce biogas, Enstrom said, though not of a clean enough level to be used as fuel. That gives companies from Sweden, which has championed the technology, an advantage. "Within 10 years I think it will be the main fuel in Sweden," he said.
Davidsson, of Scandinavian Biogas, said his company plans to initially sell the biogas to an industrial user in Ulsan for internal heating. The company has an agreement to run the facility for at least 15 years, he said. Ulsan's Park said that as a long-term goal, the city wants to adopt the biogas system to all its public buses.
Davidsson said that among the advantages of biogas is that is a technology that, unlike ethanol, does not draw resources away from food production. "Here you get energy out of something that you need to do something with: waste," he said. "So it's very effective."
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Associated Press Writer Ji Youn Oh contributed to this report.
South Korea is looking for ways to increase the use of biogas and other clean energy alternatives amid a push by the government of President Lee Myung-bak to embark on a new development model that emphasizes so-called green growth. Ulsan, a brawny industrial center of about 1 million people on the country's southeastern coast, saw biogas as an attractive way to deal with a burgeoning waste problem as well as coming tighter government regulations.
"Ulsan is running out of waste disposal sites to cover all the garbage that comes out from the city," municipal official Park In-muk said Thursday. "When garbage is processed into compost, it creates waste water," he said, which the city has been letting it flow into the ocean.
The dumping of waste water generated by the processing of leftover food into the sea, however, will be banned from 2013, according to the Ministry of Land, Transport, and Maritime affairs. The Ministry of Environment, meanwhile, has increased its budget this year for waste energy, including biogas plants, by five times to 178 billion won ($143 million), according to ministry official Choi Byung-chul.
The government's impending ban on the practice spurred Ulsan, home to big corporations Hyundai Motor Corp. and Hyundai Heavy Industries Co., helped push Ulsan to look for alternatives. It found a partner in Scandinavian Biogas Fuels AB. The company is based in Sweden, which has been a pioneer in biogas development.
Scandinavian Biogas is investing about 10 million euros to upgrade a wastewater treatment plant in Ulsan and will soon start accepting food and other waste for processing into biogas, said Scandinavian Biogas President and CEO Thomas Davidsson.
"Producing biogas is a very effective way of taking care of the waste" as it can be used for heat, electricity and vehicle fuel, Davidsson said in an interview Wednesday. He was in Seoul to participate in the Seoul Climate Change Expo held in conjunction with the third C40 Large Cities Climate Summit.
Turning food waste into biogas can also contribute to efforts to stop global warming. "If you dump it into the sea, methane will be produced," he said. "And methane released into the air is 21 times more aggressive than carbon dioxide. So it has a great impact on the greenhouse effect."
Ulsan is not alone in looking to Sweden for help. Seoul, South Korea's largest city with a population of over 10 million people, also sees potential in biogas and has teamed up with Swedish Biogas International AB on a pilot project. "There is a lot of potential," Kjell Enstrom, who heads the company's operations in South Korea, said Thursday in an interview.
South Korea has the ability to produce biogas, Enstrom said, though not of a clean enough level to be used as fuel. That gives companies from Sweden, which has championed the technology, an advantage. "Within 10 years I think it will be the main fuel in Sweden," he said.
Davidsson, of Scandinavian Biogas, said his company plans to initially sell the biogas to an industrial user in Ulsan for internal heating. The company has an agreement to run the facility for at least 15 years, he said. Ulsan's Park said that as a long-term goal, the city wants to adopt the biogas system to all its public buses.
Davidsson said that among the advantages of biogas is that is a technology that, unlike ethanol, does not draw resources away from food production. "Here you get energy out of something that you need to do something with: waste," he said. "So it's very effective."
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Associated Press Writer Ji Youn Oh contributed to this report.
Bioelectricity May Outperform Ethanol
STANFORD, CA (Carnegie Institution for Science) - Biofuels such as ethanol offer an alternative to petroleum for powering our cars, but growing energy crops to produce them can compete with food crops for farmland, and clearing forests to expand farmland will aggravate the climate change problem. How can we maximize our "miles per acre" from biomass? Researchers writing in the online edition of the May 7 Science magazine say the best bet is to convert the biomass to electricity, rather than ethanol. They calculate that, compared to ethanol used for internal combustion engines, bioelectricity used for battery-powered vehicles would deliver an average of 80% more miles of transportation per acre of crops, while also providing double the greenhouse gas offsets to mitigate climate change.
"It's a relatively obvious question once you ask it, but nobody had really asked it before," says study co-author Chris Field, director of the Department of Global Ecology at the Carnegie Institution. "The kinds of motivations that have driven people to think about developing ethanol as a vehicle fuel have been somewhat different from those that have been motivating people to think about battery electric vehicles, but the overlap is in the area of maximizing efficiency and minimizing adverse impacts on climate."
Field, who is also a professor of biology at Stanford University and a senior fellow at Stanford's Woods Institute for the Environment, is part of a research team that includes lead author Elliott Campbell of the University of California, Merced, and David Lobell of Stanford's Program on Food Security and the Environment. The researchers performed a life-cycle analysis of both bioelectricity and ethanol technologies, taking into account not only the energy produced by each technology, but also the energy consumed in producing the vehicles and fuels. For the analysis, they used publicly available data on vehicle efficiencies from the US Environmental Protection Agency and other organizations.
Bioelectricity was the clear winner in the transportation-miles-per-acre comparison, regardless of whether the energy was produced from corn or from switchgrass, a cellulose-based energy crop. For example, a small SUV powered by bioelectricity could travel nearly 14,000 highway miles on the net energy produced from an acre of switchgrass, while a comparable internal combustion vehicle could only travel about 9,000 miles on the highway. (Average mileage for both city and highway driving would be 15,000 miles for a biolelectric SUV and 8,000 miles for an internal combustion vehicle.)
"The internal combustion engine just isn't very efficient, especially when compared to electric vehicles," says Campbell. "Even the best ethanol-producing technologies with hybrid vehicles aren't enough to overcome this."
The researchers found that bioelectricity and ethanol also differed in their potential impact on climate change. "Some approaches to bioenergy can make climate change worse, but other limited approaches can help fight climate change," says Campbell. "For these beneficial approaches, we could do more to fight climate change by making electricity than making ethanol."
The energy from an acre of switchgrass used to power an electric vehicle would prevent or offset the release of up to 10 tons of CO2 per acre, relative to a similar-sized gasoline-powered car. Across vehicle types and different crops, this offset averages more than 100% larger for the bioelectricity than for the ethanol pathway. Bioelectricity also offers more possibilities for reducing greenhouse gas emissions through measures such as carbon capture and sequestration, which could be implemented at biomass power stations but not individual internal combustion vehicles.
While the results of the study clearly favor bioelectricity over ethanol, the researchers caution that the issues facing society in choosing an energy strategy are complex. "We found that converting biomass to electricity rather than ethanol makes the most sense for two policy-relevant issues: transportation and climate," says Lobell. "But we also need to compare these options for other issues like water consumption, air pollution, and economic costs."
"There is a big strategic decision our country and others are making: whether to encourage development of vehicles that run on ethanol or electricity," says Campbell. "Studies like ours could be used to ensure that the alternative energy pathways we chose will provide the most transportation energy and the least climate change impacts."
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This research was funded through a grant from the Stanford University Global Climate and Energy Project, with additional support from the Stanford University Food Security and Environment Project, The University of California at Merced, the Carnegie Institution for Science, and a NASA New Investigator Grant.
"It's a relatively obvious question once you ask it, but nobody had really asked it before," says study co-author Chris Field, director of the Department of Global Ecology at the Carnegie Institution. "The kinds of motivations that have driven people to think about developing ethanol as a vehicle fuel have been somewhat different from those that have been motivating people to think about battery electric vehicles, but the overlap is in the area of maximizing efficiency and minimizing adverse impacts on climate."
Field, who is also a professor of biology at Stanford University and a senior fellow at Stanford's Woods Institute for the Environment, is part of a research team that includes lead author Elliott Campbell of the University of California, Merced, and David Lobell of Stanford's Program on Food Security and the Environment. The researchers performed a life-cycle analysis of both bioelectricity and ethanol technologies, taking into account not only the energy produced by each technology, but also the energy consumed in producing the vehicles and fuels. For the analysis, they used publicly available data on vehicle efficiencies from the US Environmental Protection Agency and other organizations.
Bioelectricity was the clear winner in the transportation-miles-per-acre comparison, regardless of whether the energy was produced from corn or from switchgrass, a cellulose-based energy crop. For example, a small SUV powered by bioelectricity could travel nearly 14,000 highway miles on the net energy produced from an acre of switchgrass, while a comparable internal combustion vehicle could only travel about 9,000 miles on the highway. (Average mileage for both city and highway driving would be 15,000 miles for a biolelectric SUV and 8,000 miles for an internal combustion vehicle.)
"The internal combustion engine just isn't very efficient, especially when compared to electric vehicles," says Campbell. "Even the best ethanol-producing technologies with hybrid vehicles aren't enough to overcome this."
The researchers found that bioelectricity and ethanol also differed in their potential impact on climate change. "Some approaches to bioenergy can make climate change worse, but other limited approaches can help fight climate change," says Campbell. "For these beneficial approaches, we could do more to fight climate change by making electricity than making ethanol."
The energy from an acre of switchgrass used to power an electric vehicle would prevent or offset the release of up to 10 tons of CO2 per acre, relative to a similar-sized gasoline-powered car. Across vehicle types and different crops, this offset averages more than 100% larger for the bioelectricity than for the ethanol pathway. Bioelectricity also offers more possibilities for reducing greenhouse gas emissions through measures such as carbon capture and sequestration, which could be implemented at biomass power stations but not individual internal combustion vehicles.
While the results of the study clearly favor bioelectricity over ethanol, the researchers caution that the issues facing society in choosing an energy strategy are complex. "We found that converting biomass to electricity rather than ethanol makes the most sense for two policy-relevant issues: transportation and climate," says Lobell. "But we also need to compare these options for other issues like water consumption, air pollution, and economic costs."
"There is a big strategic decision our country and others are making: whether to encourage development of vehicles that run on ethanol or electricity," says Campbell. "Studies like ours could be used to ensure that the alternative energy pathways we chose will provide the most transportation energy and the least climate change impacts."
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This research was funded through a grant from the Stanford University Global Climate and Energy Project, with additional support from the Stanford University Food Security and Environment Project, The University of California at Merced, the Carnegie Institution for Science, and a NASA New Investigator Grant.
$1 billion plant to make polycrystalline silicon for solar panels...
CLEVELAND, Tenn. (AP) — Wacker Chemie announced Thursday that it will build a $1 billion plant with 500 jobs in southeastern Tennessee to produce hyperpure polycrystalline silicon, a product used to make solar panels and semiconductors.
Company executives, Gov. Phil Bredesen and economic development officials said the company has purchased a 550-acre site about 30 miles northeast of Chattanooga.
Wacker Chemie President and CEO Rudolph Staudigl declined to give a timetable for the start of production, saying that will be driven partly by demand for the product. He said construction will take at least two or three years. Staudigl declined to discuss wages but said workers will be "well paid" and will need special training.
Tennessee Economic and Community Development Commissioner Matt Kisber said his office has been talking to Wacker Chemie executives and competing for the project since 2005.
Staudigl declined to identify any other states that competed for the plant.
Kisber said the state's incentives package for the company will be worth between $75 million and $100 million and will include tax credits and help with infrastructure and job training.
The Tennessee site was picked because of its size; proximity to a chlorine supplier, OLIN Corp.; power from the Tennessee Valley Authority and the transportation infrastructure, a company statement said.
Staudigl described the product as a "gray, shiny looking material like nuggets" — extracted from sand — with a property of collecting light that can be transferred into electricity.
He said it is also the "starting material for semiconductors." The company projects increased demand for polysilicon by the solar and semiconductor industries.
Wacker Chemie is based in Munich, Germany, and is the second-largest producer of hyperpure polycrystalline silicon. It reported last month that its sales reached $5.5 billion in 2008.
In early December, Bradley County commissioners approved a $50 million incentives package for what they described as an unnamed international manufacturer that would create at least 500 jobs.
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Company executives, Gov. Phil Bredesen and economic development officials said the company has purchased a 550-acre site about 30 miles northeast of Chattanooga.
Wacker Chemie President and CEO Rudolph Staudigl declined to give a timetable for the start of production, saying that will be driven partly by demand for the product. He said construction will take at least two or three years. Staudigl declined to discuss wages but said workers will be "well paid" and will need special training.
Tennessee Economic and Community Development Commissioner Matt Kisber said his office has been talking to Wacker Chemie executives and competing for the project since 2005.
Staudigl declined to identify any other states that competed for the plant.
Kisber said the state's incentives package for the company will be worth between $75 million and $100 million and will include tax credits and help with infrastructure and job training.
The Tennessee site was picked because of its size; proximity to a chlorine supplier, OLIN Corp.; power from the Tennessee Valley Authority and the transportation infrastructure, a company statement said.
Staudigl described the product as a "gray, shiny looking material like nuggets" — extracted from sand — with a property of collecting light that can be transferred into electricity.
He said it is also the "starting material for semiconductors." The company projects increased demand for polysilicon by the solar and semiconductor industries.
Wacker Chemie is based in Munich, Germany, and is the second-largest producer of hyperpure polycrystalline silicon. It reported last month that its sales reached $5.5 billion in 2008.
In early December, Bradley County commissioners approved a $50 million incentives package for what they described as an unnamed international manufacturer that would create at least 500 jobs.
/rbs:.:.:
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Saturday, May 30, 2009
Tampa Electric Plans to Build Solar Plant
TAMPA, Fla. (AP) — Tampa Electric plans to build what it calls one of the largest solar power plants in the nation.
The company said Monday it has entered a partnership to build the plant near Mulberry in Plant City. It will generate 25 megawatts of solar power — enough to power more than 3,400 homes.
The utility's president, Chuck Black, says the decision is based on new clean-air standards adopted by the state and plans to require the use of more renewable power in Florida.
The project will create 200 construction jobs.
The downfall to the project? Black says customers will be paying higher electric bills since solar power is more expensive than power made from coal or natural gas.
===end of file===
There is no downfall to this project. It is a renewable resource. No more burning!...
/rbs:.:.:
.
The company said Monday it has entered a partnership to build the plant near Mulberry in Plant City. It will generate 25 megawatts of solar power — enough to power more than 3,400 homes.
The utility's president, Chuck Black, says the decision is based on new clean-air standards adopted by the state and plans to require the use of more renewable power in Florida.
The project will create 200 construction jobs.
The downfall to the project? Black says customers will be paying higher electric bills since solar power is more expensive than power made from coal or natural gas.
===end of file===
There is no downfall to this project. It is a renewable resource. No more burning!...
/rbs:.:.:
.
Tuesday, May 26, 2009
The Story of Stuff...
Let us start with a great video that puts it all in perspective...
The Story of Stuff
Go to their website and view this video...
/rbs:.:.:
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The Story of Stuff
Go to their website and view this video...
/rbs:.:.:
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Sometime Soon...
Sometime soon, I will be posting things of my interest here.
( within the next decade! )
Deep down in my heart I am a conservationist.
I think I might post articles I find that have to do with energy, technology, and the like.
Anything having to do with conservation of our planets resources...
/rbs:.:.:
Monday, December 22, 2008
Happy Holidays!
I was thinking of posting many things here,
but I have not found the time to do it.
I will get to it shortly... In the meantime:
Merry Christmas
and a Happy New Year!
/rbs:.:.:
.
but I have not found the time to do it.
I will get to it shortly... In the meantime:
Merry Christmas
and a Happy New Year!
/rbs:.:.:
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