20 Nov 2009:
Using Enzymes from Termites
To Make Biofuel from Plants and Wood Waste
A U.S. company has come up with a new way of producing biofuels from cellulosic feedstocks, such as agricultural waste:
Using enzymes from the guts of termites to more efficiently produce ethanol. The startup company, ZeaChem, says using the enzymes from the wood-eating insects has achieved ethanol yields in the laboratory 35 percent higher than other producers of cellulosic ethanol, according to
MIT Technology Review. ZeaChem uses acid to break the cellulose into sugars, but instead of fermenting the sugars into ethanol using yeast — as is customarily done — the company feeds the sugars to an acetogen bacteria found in termites. The bacteria turns the sugars into acetic acid, which produces ethanol when combined with hydrogen. “It’s not the obvious, direct route, but there is a high yield potential,” said an official from the U.S. National Renewable Energy Lab in Colorado. ZeaChem’s CEO said the company has produced 135 gallons of ethanol per ton of cellulosic feedstock.
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17 Nov 2009:
U.S. and China Establish
Extensive Cooperation on Clean Energy
U.S. President Barack Obama and Chinese President Hu Jintao
have announced the creation of a joint program to develop clean energy, including the creation of a $150 million clean energy research center. Meeting in Beijing, the two presidents agreed to a seven-point plan designed to speed the development of renewable energy and improve energy efficiency. The agreement includes initiatives to establish a U.S.-China Clean Energy Research Center; launch a joint program to develop electric vehicles that will include pilot projects in more than a dozen cities; collaborate on improving the energy efficiency of buildings, factories, and consumer appliances; establish a renewable energy partnership to promote alternative energy technologies, including programs to promote cooperation between states and regions in the two countries; conduct joint research into developing methods of capturing CO2 emissions from coal-fired power plants and storing the carbon dioxide underground; and share U.S. expertise in extracting natural gas from underground shale deposits.
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02 Nov 2009:
New European Satellite
Will Monitor Fresh Water Globally
The European Space Agency (ESA)
has launched a 315 million Euro ($465 Million) satellite that will monitor soil moisture, plant growth, and the salt content of sea water, all of which will be useful in tracking environmental changes as the planet warms. The satellite, called SMOS — Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity — has the capacity to measure the water content of soil across the planet every three days to a depth of seven feet, enabling it not only to gauge surface water sources but also to monitor photosynthesis and plant growth. The data also will be valuable to scientists interested in forecasting drought and flood risk. The SMOS satellite also will measure the salt content of ocean waters, crucial information in not only tracking an increase in freshwater in oceans from melting glaciers and ice sheets, but also valuable in understanding global ocean circulation patterns, which are partially driven by water temperature and salinity. The satellite will collect the data using a variety of technologies, including microwave radiation.
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29 Oct 2009:
Electronic Fisheries Monitoring
Proves A Success in Danish Experiment
By outfitting six Danish fishing boats with
GPS systems, closed circuit television cameras, and sensors that can gauge the weight of catches, scientists in Denmark have discovered that they can accurately track which fish were caught, the size and location of the catch, and what species were thrown back in the sea as by-catch. In a year-long experiment that ended last month, Danish fisheries scientists said the new system gives “100 percent documentation of fishing activities.” The Danish system would be of little help in halting illegal fishing carried out by unregistered boats on the high seas. But Danish scientists said their electronic monitoring system could be extremely useful in tracking and regulating legal fisheries for such species as cod, sand eel, sprat, blue whiting, and Norway pout in territorial waters. A Danish fisheries manager said that “determination of where an when a fishing event takes place can be made with a high degree of accuracy.”
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29 Oct 2009:
Solar Power Potential
Is Huge in Developing Countries
The developing world, where 44 percent of people lack access to electricity, could soon be
one of the biggest markets for solar power, according to participants at the Solar Power International conference in California. To date, just 1 percent of solar panel production has been installed in poor nations in Africa, Asia, and Latin America, a situation that Michael Eckhart, president of the American Council on Renewable Energy, called “a scandal for our industry.” Eckhart and other experts said that in addition to finding financing to help low-income residents install solar panels, a major challenge is purchasing and replacing the batteries to store electricity at night and on cloudy days. Another significant hurdle is replacing the energy-wasting incandescent bulbs and old, inefficient appliances and computers often used by village households. One expert who has installed off-the-grid solar arrays in Africa and China said in regions where villagers use compact fluorescent bulbs and efficient appliances the cost of installing an adequate solar array and battery can be 75 percent cheaper.
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28 Oct 2009:
Swiss Zinc-Air Batteries Store
Three Times the Energy of Lithium Ions
A Swiss company
has introduced a rechargeable zinc-air battery that has three times the storage of lithium ion batteries and costs only half as much. ReVolt plans to commercialize a small version of the battery for use in hearing aids by next year, and then continue introducing larger versions, including batteries for cellphones and electric bicycles — and, perhaps eventually, electric cars. The technology is based on a battery designed by the Norwegian research institute SINTEF. While the typical battery contains the reactants needed to generate electricity, zinc-air batteries utilize oxygen from the atmosphere, which makes them less volatile and allows for a larger storage capacity. Company officials say the new battery overcomes one of the critical drawbacks of typical zinc-air batteries — they tend to stop working after a few charges. ReVolt has developed techniques to reduce the damage to the electrodes that convert oxygen into the hydroxyl ions that oxidize the zinc. The prototype lasts for more than 100 recharge cycles, according to James McDougal, ReVolt’s CEO. He hopes to increase that to 300 to 500 cycles before the technology is ready to be used in cellphones and electric bicycles.
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26 Oct 2009:
U.S. Agency Commits $151 Million
to Innovative Energy Research Projects
The U.S. Department of Energy
will pump $151 million into 37 innovative energy-related research projects through a new federal agency modeled after the Defense Department program that helped commercialize microchips and the Internet. The Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy, or Arpa-e, created in 2007 to support innovative and often-experimental projects, selected the first round of grant recipients from 3,600 proposals. While many of the ideas may never lead to practical breakthroughs, Energy Secretary Steven Chu said some could have a “transformative impact.” Among the first grant recipients are University of Minnesota researchers attempting to develop an organism that uses sunlight to convert carbon dioxide to sugars and diesel fuel; a Massachusetts Institute of Technology team developing an all-liquid metal battery that could better manage the output from intermittent energy sources such as wind and solar; and a United Technologies effort to capture carbon emissions from power plant stacks using enzymes. The agency — which will target research projects by small business, universities, and corporations — will be led by Arun Majumdar, a scientist at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in California.
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21 Oct 2009:
Genetically Modified Crops
Needed to Avert Food Crisis, Panel Says
Further development of genetically modified (GM) crops will be needed to
feed the estimated 9 billion people who will live on the planet by mid-century, according to a report from the U.K.’s Royal Society. The report said that rising populations, the impacts of climate change, and projected water shortages mean that new, drought-resistant and highly productive food plants must be developed to feed the world. The report said other economic and technological changes — such as improved irrigation and crop management — also will be necessary. The Royal Society scientists concluded that the development of new crops is an urgent priority if
global agriculture and land-use problems are to be solved. The scientists’ conclusions drew fire from opponents of GM crops, who contend that the technique is
unsustainable and could cause major environmental harm.
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21 Oct 2009:
Space Agencies and Google
To Monitor Deforestation From Satellites
Space agencies from Europe, the U.S., and several other nations are joining forces with Google Earth and a conservation organization to
annually monitor deforestation rates around the globe using satellite imagery. The
Group on Earth Observations (GEO), a global partnership of 80 governments and more than 50 organizations, is launching pilot projects in Australia, Brazil, Cameroon, Guyana, Indonesia, Mexico, and Tanzania to inventory forests and track rates of deforestation. Such annual monitoring — which until recently has been carried out every five years — will be instrumental in helping support programs in which governments, conservation groups, and investors pay to preserve tropical forests, GEO officials said. An international mechanism for preserving forests using carbon credits is expected to be approved at the Copenhagen climate conference in December. “The only way to measure forests efficiently is from space,” said Jose Achache, director of GEO. “Investors will want some sort of guarantee that... forests will remain there and remain in good condition.” Google Earth, which already is involved in
using satellite technology to monitor deforestation, will participate in the GEO effort, Achache said.
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20 Oct 2009:
Fossil Fuel Burning in U.S.
Estimated to Cause 20,000 Early Deaths
A National Academy of Sciences report on the hidden costs of burning fossil fuels estimates that
20,000 people die prematurely each year in the U.S. because of pollution associated with burning coal and oil. The report, commissioned by Congress and entitled “Hidden Costs of Energy,” also said that electric cars that run on energy produced by coal-fired power plants are no cleaner than gasoline-burning cars and may cause even more environmental damage when factoring in the cost of producing the batteries in electric vehicles. The report also estimated that the environmental cost of biofuels made from corn is
slightly higher than burning gasoline alone. The study,
which put a $120 billion annual price tag on the health damage caused by fossil fuel burning, did not factor in potential damages from global warming brought about by burning coal, oil, and natural gas. The report bolsters arguments that the costs to society from renewable sources of energy, such as solar and wind power, are considerably lower than combusting fossil fuels. But the report cautioned that until large amounts of electricity are generated from renewable sources, or utilities develop a way to capture and store CO2,
electric cars offer little advantage over gasoline-powered vehicles.
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19 Oct 2009:
Buses Using Ultracapacitors
Will Be Put To The Test in Washington
A U.S. company and its Chinese partner
will test electric buses using ultracapacitors that would be chargeable at stops every few miles. The latest ultracapacitors store only 5 percent of the energy that
Sinautec Automobile Technologies
Recharging station
lithium-ion batteries can hold, making them impractical for passenger vehicles. But proponents say the fact that buses have to stop frequently — and at predictable locations — make them a more logical use of the technology. Virginia-based Sinautec Automobile Technologies and Shanghai Aowei Technology Development Company, a partnership that has run 17 similar runs outside Shanghai for the last three years, will test the technology this week at American University in Washington, D.C. Unlike traditional trolleys that stay connected to electric lines throughout their route, there is a collector on top of the Sinautec vehicle that would connect to a re-charging line at bus stops every two or three miles. Within three minutes, banks of ultracapacitors located beneath the seats of the bus would re-charge. Sinautec officials say that each bus requires one-tenth the energy cost of a typical diesel-fueled bus, which would save about $200,000 during the life of the vehicle.
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16 Oct 2009:
MIT Team Develops Roof Tile
That Changes Color as Temperatures Shift
A group of recent Massachusetts Institute of Technology graduates
has developed a roof tile that remains white in summer to reflect the sun’s energy then turns black in winter to absorb the sun’s rays and heat buildings. The so-called “thermeleon” (rhymes with chameleon) technology uses a common
MIT News
Color-changing tile
commercial polymer trapped between layers of plastic, including a black layer at the back. When the temperature drops, the white layer disappears, exposing the black layer. The MIT graduates say the tiles reflect about 80 percent of the sun’s heat when they are white, translating into a 20 percent savings in cooling costs. When the tiles turn dark, they absorb about 70 percent of solar energy. The MIT team, which last week won a $5,000 prize in the school’s “Making and Designing Materials Engineering Contest,” is now trying to commercialize a version of the tile that can withstand harsh winter conditions. They also are trying to develop a cheaper version of the technology that integrates the polymer solution into paint that could be brushed onto existing black tiles.
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16 Oct 2009:
Kew Gardens Seed Bank
Has Collected 10 Percent of Plant Species
A repository created by the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, has
collected nearly 10 percent of the seeds from the world’s estimated 300,000 seed-bearing plants, completing the first phase of an ambitious plan to preserve the seeds of all the species threatened by human development and climate change. The
The Guardian
Musa itinerans
final seeds added in the project’s opening phase came from an endangered pink banana — Musa itinerans — favored by Asian elephants. To date, the Kew seed bank has collected 1.6 billion seeds from a total of 24,200 plant species. The next phase of the project aims to preserve seeds from 75,000 species by 2020. The seed bank has already been used to revive threatened species, including replanting a shrub, the shiny nematolepis, whose only known remaining plants were destroyed in massive Australian wildfires earlier this year. Scientists estimate that as many as 200,000 of
the world’s seed-bearing species could eventually be at risk from rising temperatures and human encroachment on the natural world. The seed bank, which opened in 2000, stores the seeds in super-cooled, underground vaults in Sussex.
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13 Oct 2009:
First Passenger Flight Flown
Using Kerosene Made from Natural Gas
A Qatar Airways flight from London to Qatar has
become the first passenger plane to be powered by cleaner-burning natural gas that was converted to kerosene. “Today’s flight opens the door to an alternative to oil-based aviation fuel,” said Malcom Brinded, international executive director of Royal Dutch Shell, which is partnering with Qatar Petroleum to produce so-called gas-to-liquid (GTL) kerosene from Qatar’s abundant natural gas reserves. During the five-hour flight, the Qatar Airways Airbus A340-800 jet was powered by a 50-50 blend of GTL kerosene and conventional oil-based kerosene jet fuel. An Airbus spokesman called the flight “a major breakthrough which brings us closer to a world where fuels made from feedstocks such as wood-chip waste and other biomass is available for commercial aviation.” The spokesman predicted that by 2030, 30 percent of jet fuel would be derived from GTL or biofuels. Shell and Qatar Petroleum are building a plant in Qatar capable of producing one million tons of GTL kerosene annually.
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08 Oct 2009:
Solar Shingles Unveiled
Dow Chemical has developed
a roof shingle that contains thin-film solar power cells and can be integrated into asphalt roofs, which are used in 90 percent of American homes. Dow executives said the solar shingles can be handled like a regular asphalt shingle and can be nailed right onto a roof and walked on by roofers. The company will begin test-marketing the shingles in mid-2010 and the company will initially target new home construction. By 2015, Dow estimates that the market for the solar shingles could be $5 billion a year as builders increasingly make the solar roofs standard on new construction. The thin-film solar cells, made by Global Solar of Tucson, are less efficient than traditional photovoltaic arrays, but a Dow researcher that with the solar shingles covering large portions of a roof they could meet 40 to 80 percent of a homeowner’s electricity demand. Electricians are not needed to install the solar shingles but do have to connect the completed array to the home’s electrical system.
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07 Oct 2009:
From ‘Albatross Cam’
New Insights into Foraging Behavior
By attaching small digital cameras to the backs of several albatrosses in the sub-Antarctic, Japanese and British scientists have discovered that the great seabirds
sometimes feed in conjunction with pods of killer whales, apparently picking up scraps left by the predatory mammals. The researchers affixed the
cameras to four black-browed albatrosses captured on Bird Island in South Georgia in January, then retrieved three of the four cameras when the seabirds returned to their breeding colonies. The scientists collected nearly 29,000 digital images, some of which showed albatrosses flying behind killer whales and landing in the sea near the orcas. Reporting in the journal
PLoS ONE, the scientists said that the albatrosses appeared to be feeding on scraps of Patagonian toothfish or other prey devoured by the killer whales. Such interactions between albatrosses and killer whales have rarely been observed, and the researchers said that one way albatrosses may locate prey in a vast, featureless sea is by spotting orcas and feeding in their vicinity. The cameras, each weighing 82 grams, captured other images of fellow albatrosses in flight, as well as icebergs adrift in the Southern Ocean.
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05 Oct 2009:
European Union Recommends
$73 Billion in Non-Carbon Energy Research
The European Union will unveil a proposal this week calling for
$73 billion (50 billion euros) in research over the next decade into improving wind, solar, and nuclear power technologies, as well as the development of carbon capture and sequestration projects and energy-efficient “Smart Cities.” The report, prepared by the EU’s executive body, the European Commission, says the surge in investment is necessary if Europe hopes to meet its goal of slashing greenhouse gas emissions by 80 percent by 2050. The plan, which calls for coordinated research on a continental level, proposes $23.4 billion in solar power research, $8.8 billion in wind power research, $10.2 billion in nuclear power research, $13 billion for developing energy from biomass and waste, and $19 billion in carbon sequestration technology. EU officials said the proposed research program will enable Europe to remain competitive with the U.S., China, and Japan in the race to develop alternative sources of energy.
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02 Oct 2009:
Loss of World’s Large Predators
Causing Alarming Rise in ‘Mesopredators’
The decline of the world’s large, or “apex,” predators
is leading to an increase in smaller, so-called “mesopredators,” causing significant ecological and economic damage, according to a new study. The populations of primary predators such as wolves, lions, and sharks have sharply declined because of hunting, fishing, and habitat disruption, researchers from Oregon State University say in a report published in the journal
Bioscience. And in numerous cases worldwide, the next species in line — including birds, sea turtles, lizards, rodents, and insects — have flourished, often with unintended
stock.xchng
consequences. In Sub-Saharan Africa, for instance, the decimation of lion and leopard populations has caused a surge in populations of baboons, which increasingly destroy crops and menace villagers. Steep declines in sharks have led to increases in ray populations, which have decimated some bay scallop fisheries. In North America, the largest terrestrial species have declined for two centuries, enabling 60 percent of smaller predators to expand their ranges. Among other findings, researchers say the surge in smaller predators has triggered collapses of entire ecosystems and led to significant plant and crop damage. The researchers said it may be more cost-effective to reintroduce apex predators into ecosystems than spending large sums controlling mesopredators.
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29 Sep 2009:
Stockholm’s Congestion Pricing
Reduces Traffic and Boosts Alternative Cars
Stockholm’s congestion pricing plan — which charges motorists for driving in the city center during rush hour — has cut CO2 emissions in the congestion zone by 14 percent, reduced traffic in the inner city by 18 percent, increased ridership on public transport, and
spurred the use of alternative fuel vehicles, according to a new study. Instituted on a permanent basis in 2007 in a 24-square-kilometer (9 square-mile) area, the congestion pricing program exempted alternative fuel vehicles from the $1.50 to $3 per-trip surcharge. As a result, the number of registered alternative fuel vehicles in the city jumped from five percent of the vehicle fleet in 2006 to 14 percent in 2008, according to a study by the Stockholm Traffic Association. The association said that the reduction in traffic and emissions is not related to the recession, as sales in Stockholm’s retail core have actually increased. Stockholm’s congestion pricing plan is managed by I.B.M., which has set up a series of 18 gateways into the city center that read transponders on cars and levy the congestion toll.
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16 Sep 2009:
Heat-Resistant Forests Could Reverse Warming in the Sahara, Study Says
Planting forests of quick-growing trees in the world’s most arid deserts and sustaining them with desalinated water from nearby oceans
would cool the regions significantly and draw down billions of tons of carbon dioxide, according to climate simulations being published in the journal
Climatic Change. The concept, proposed by cell biologist Leonard Ornstein of the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York, includes transporting desalinated water to parched deserts with aqueducts and pumps to support growth of such heat-resistant trees as eucalyptus. By watering the plants with drip irrigation, in which water is sent directly to the trees’ roots via plastic tubing, engineers could reduce water loss, says Ornstein, who calculated the climatic effects with NASA modelers. According to the models, planting heat-resistant trees in the Sahara Desert or the Australian outback could draw down about 8 billion tons of carbon annually. In the Sahara, temperatures in the forests could drop by as much as 8°C. The costs of building and running reverse-osmosis plants for desalination and transporting the water would be about $2 trillion per year. “Any solution to climate change has to be a multitrillion-dollar project,” Ornstein says. “The issue is what the payback is.”
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