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Urine Into Hydrogen: Maybe

- Adam Clare 5 Comments

I’m not too hopeful in the use hydrogen as a replacement for oil that burns and kills our planet, but there might be hope in the future. Apparently urine can be turned into hydrogen.

Now, as Ariel Schwartz of Fast Company reports, Ohio University researcher Geraldine Botte has come up with a nickel-based electrode to oxidize (NH2)2CO, otherwise known as urea, the major component of animal urine.

Because urea’s four hydrogen atoms are less tightly bound to nitrogen than the hydrogen bound to oxygen in water molecules, it takes less energy to break them apart: Just 0.37 Volts need to be applied across the cell, against the 1.23 Volts needed to break down water.

This means the energy balance of urea-derived hydrogen could be considerably better from start to finish than projections for other so-called pathways for obtaining the highly combustible gas.

Given the early stage of this research, we’re betting that the Honda and General Motors fuel-cell researchers aren’t exactly rushing down to do deals with their local sewage plants.

Six Britons can Change the World

- Adam Clare

They have already influenced the world and now they have a chance to change the law in the UK, thus making our planet a better place. In 2007 six Greenpeace activists climbed a coal tower to protest the use of finite fossil fuels and were subsequently arrested. Their court case has attraced scientists worldwide to voice their support and the charges were dropped against the six – making this a case that shocked the British legal system.

The Guardian has an article on the case and how a movie is being released that celebrates the six activists.

When a demonstration at the Kingsnorth power station in north-east Kent in late 2007 led to the arrest of six climate change activists, what had until then seemed a rather dry local planning issue exploded into a story of national and international concern. The verdict at their trial turned out to have far-reaching implications for activism, the future of coal, even the planet.

Now a 20-minute film, A Time Comes, by the much-admired documentary-maker Nick Broomfield, cuts police and Greenpeace footage of the occupation together with news clips and interviews with the activists. What emerges is how ordinary the Kingsnorth Six are – they could be the bloke next door or the woman across the office – but also how brave and tenacious. The film is released just as the government’s review of its coal policy is expected and campaigners hope and expect the review will define a seismic shift in official attitudes to carbon emissions.

Algae Airplane Fuel Packs Power

- Adam Clare 1 Comment

A recent test flight of a unmodified airliner that used an algae-based biofuel was a great success! This is good news for air travelers as it will mean that their carbon footprint will be greatly reduced when airliners switch to the more efficient biofuel.

The test by Houston-based Continental, the fourth-largest U.S. airline, is a step toward the International Air Transport Association’s goal of having member carriers use 10 percent alternative fuels by 2017 to reduce global warming. The European Union will cap airline carbon-dioxide emissions beginning in 2012.

“We’re watching as different countries set carbon-reduction targets,” Leah Raney, Continental’s managing director of global environmental affairs, said in an interview. “We have been working very diligently to reduce our carbon footprint over the last 10 years.”

Aviation accounts for about 2 percent of global CO2 emissions, IATA estimates. More-fuel-efficient planes have helped Continental trim its output of heat-trapping gases 35 percent, Raney said.

Fuel of Future

U.S. carriers are testing alternative fuels after prices for traditional jet kerosene, which is derived from crude oil, surged to a record $4.36 a gallon in July. Jet-fuel prices have since collapsed about 60 percent amid a deepening recession.

“This demonstration flight represents another step in Continental’s ongoing commitment to fuel efficiency and environmental responsibility,” Chief Executive Officer Larry Kellner said in a statement. “The technical knowledge we gain today will contribute to a wider understanding of the future for transportation fuels.”

Top Ten Green Transportation Trends for 08

- Adam Clare

Inhabitat has a breakdown of what they see being the most significant trends in transportation in 2008.

3) IT’S NOT JUST ABOUT FUEL EFFICIENCY
Everyone is looking at emissions as the greatest contributor to global warming, but there is so much more that we can do to improve our methods of transportation. This past year Mazda showcased the Kiyora, a car that cleans water, while BMW showed a car that not only ran on hydrogen but also cleaned the air as it moved through the city. But none was as exciting to us as the super-environmentally friendly Eco-Elise, which was revealed by Lotus in July of this year. The vehicle was not just an energy-efficient vehicle, but was created with the greenest materials that the company could find. It’s like they read our minds!

Fossil Fuels Useless, Two New Green Fuels

- Adam Clare 3 Comments

Fossil fuels are archaic and I like it when I read about new forms of capturing and storing energy. Here are two new green fuels that are getting attention.

Converting construction waste to hydrogen: Bill Davis of Ze-Gen described his company’s approach to the problem of municipal waste. Each year, the US produces about four billion metric tons of waste that, thanks to the various hydrocarbons in it, actually has about half the energy content as the same weight of coal. Most of that material gets put in landfills, where some of it winds up metabolized into methane, a potent greenhouse gas. Ze-Gen has found a way to liberate hydrogen gas from that waste.
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Forget green, solar goes Bloo: Right now, there are many competing approaches to photovoltaic technology, but only one of them made an appearance at the meeting: Bloo Solar, which is working on what it calls a third-generation solar brush. Larry Bowden, the company’s CEO, described it as a solution to two of the biggest inefficiencies in solar power: photons that don’t get absorbed and electrons that don’t get transferred to the conducting portions of the device, where they’re put to use.

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