CO2RRECT is a project that is headed by Siemens, together with their partners: Bayer, RWE, and other institutes and universities. The project is also being supported by Germany’s Federal Research Ministry, for three years or more. They have alloted a budget of 11 million Euros. One important element of this program is the electrolyzer provided by Corporate Technology, Siemens central research department, which will be responsible for the industrial-scale hydrogen generation.

Most industries are now shifting their focus on renewable resources, which have become apparent on the enormous investments being made on solar and wind power. However, the output of these resources is quite inconsistent, since they are heavily dependent on weather conditions. One of the main objectives of the industry is to find an alternate use of the excesses from the renewable resources.

When a renewable resource, like a wind farm, does not have any consumers to provide energy for, it is only reasonable to detach the wind farms from the grid. The initial procedure is to apply this power to separate the basic chemical elements of water, which would break down into hydrogen and oxygen. The electrolyzer prototype which Siemens has assembled would be responsible for this process. The goal is to generate a 100-kilowatt unit per container. As part of the implementation, this electrolyzer will be attached to the power grid and will only generate power when there is an available surplus or extremely low-cost power in the system.

Hydrogen generated in this manner when added to the carbon dioxide will react. The process continues as it is converted into fundamental by-products like formic acid or carbon monoxide. These chemical products can then be utilized in the manufacturing of usable plastics or even fuels. RWE brown-coal fired power station, located in Niederaußem, provides the carbon dioxide used in this project, through the process of flue gas scrubbing. In addition, the team of Siemens is looking into the likelihood of maximizing the potency of hydrogen on an industrial magnitude. Their objective is to utilize the turbines to revert the hydrogen once again into its original form: power.

The Siemens team, with their Russian colleagues, is presently investigating combustion techniques that would create little to zero nitrogen oxide. Since hydrogen, when burned, generate significantly higher temperature compared to natural gas, the equipment should be able to handle particular conditions required for this process.

Source: Physorg

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-81% of the participants agree to a federal renewable plan that would encourage the utilization of canola/soybeans in biodiesel production.

As stated by Ed Mazurkewich, AgCall’s business development consultant, the findings that came from the study demonstrate solid support from growers for a federal renewable fuel plan that would make use of canola/soybeans. Production of biodiesel will take place in Canada, and these growers would prefer the 2% of the bio-content source to be locally grown crops. He also pointed out that the respondents were solely assisted when they asked for clarification on some questions during the survey. Mazurkewich further explained that they could take notes of any remarks the growers shared with them. However, there were only a few comments made. The most common was about the utilization of the canola/soy seeds for biodiesel would provide growers more options for marketing their products.

This research was performed for the Canadian Renewable Fuels Association and Canadian Canola Growers Association. Mazurkewich asserted that he feels that this effort is notably important since this survey is the only one he is aware of that speaks for the growers of plants that can be used for bio-diesel production in Canada.

Yet, its real value will depend largely on the perspective of biodiesel companies of Canada.

Source: Bio Diesel Magazine

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The group of bioengineers discovered that by modifying the strain, the time taken to ferment the sugar was brought down; from more than 110 hours to around 35 hours. This enhancement in the fermentation of the sugar permitted the strain to ferment more concentrations of xylose.

The research that was carried out concentrated on Zymomonas mobilis. The latter is a bacterium known for its potential of producing bio-ethanol. Nevertheless, the bioengineers were convinced that the production of the ethanol could be augmented by enhancing the fermentation of xylose.

In accordance to the main author, Rachel Chen, Zymomonas mobilis is an excellent producer of ethanol, with productivity surpassing yeast strains by a number of times. Chen stated that, in this research, they have tried to search for an improvement in the production of ethanol by improving the capability of Zymomonas mobilis to make use and ferment xylose. The fermentation of xylose at increased concentration can in turn augment the concentration of ethanol, thus resulting in a much better productivity.

Chen furthermore declared that this showed an increase in the xylose utilization and fermentation that allowed then to generate ethanol up to a concentration of 9% (w/v); the greatest ever demonstrated for this organism in merged sugar fermentation.

The research carried out also examined the fundamental mechanism for the progress. Fascinatingly, by changing a strain in an elevated concentration of xylose, considerable modifications of metabolism took place.

An evident alteration was the reduction in the levels of xylitol. Xylitol is a derivative of the fermentation of xylose; it can slow down the strain in the metabolism of the xylose. Additionally, the initial step of the xylose metabolism, which is considered to be the rate-limiting phase, was speeded up by four to eight times in the altered strain, with the net impact of directing xylose to ethanol in the place of xylitol.

Chen concluded that the research demonstrated the influence of alteration in strain improvement. It provides the confirmation that xylitol metabolism is the means to effective use of xylose in this bacterium, which can prove to be crucial for the production of ethanol. This illustrates that adaptation is not solely helpful in the improvement of strains but also for indicating main blockages in strains that are metabolically engineered.

Source: Renewable Energy World and Wiley Online Library

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The lake in question is known as the lake of Taihu. The lake is found next to the 4.5 million-powerful city of Wuxi. The lake has been contaminated by a number of pollutants since many years due to the industrial businesses in Wuxi. It will now make use of a system, known as heightened ozonation treatment. The treatment comprises of microbubbles of ozone that pass through the material in question in order to free the pollutants in it.

It was the University of Utah that developed this technology. The technology makes use of pressurized metal vessel that has been designed to produce ozone microbubbles by recurrent pressurization and depressurization with ozone gas. The microbubbles assist in breaking down hydrocarbons.

Thereafter, a chelating agent is passed through the material targeted in order to remove any metal contaminants. Lime is subsequently used. The lime is used to extract eh metal contaminants from the material in general.

This technology will clean up the soil at the Chinese site. The Chinese site will then be used to plant tree on public land. This project will take approximately three months for its completion. Even though the system is actually being used for the treatment of soil, it can be anticipated that it will expand to cover algae, water and sewage waste.

This work has been undertaken by Honde LLC, a Chinese environmental cleanup giant. If this project is successful, the work will be replicated at more sites around the lake, so as to test it on different types of pollutant.

Source: Business Green

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In a recent study issued in the Journal of Bioscience, it has been argued that there is a need for regulatory reforms to permit the cellulosic bio-energy to advance. It is a promising source of renewable energy, which can hold a strong solution to reduce CO2 emission and global warming.

Steve Strauss, a distinguished professor of forest biotechnology at Oregon State University, as well as a lead author of the paper says that it is amazing to see such severe regulations. Gene modification technology is almost totally banned through conventions. This is tarnishing the promising benefits of gene modification.

The authors of the report claimed that exotic plant species could equally cause tremendously bad effects on our ecosystem, as their risk of proliferation is immense. However, they aren’t really faced with any severe regulations. It is awkward, as genetically engineered crops are specifically developed to solve problems.

It is weird that genetically modified plants which have only some minor modification to its gene, are considered more perilous than invasive species that constantly develop new genes. These exotic plant species develop higher tolerance and resistance against pests, droughts and heat.

Laws are prohibiting companies with technical expertise to pursue research on gene modification on plants. This is tarnishing the progress of a promising sector, expected to supersede gasoline, petroleum and diesel with bio-fuel.

Simple gene alteration could enhance the growth of plants significantly and therefore, reduce the cost of generating liquid fuels enormously. The crops could be designed so that less water, fertilizers and industrial substances would be needed. This benefit to the environment would be inestimable as less greenhouse gases and lower footprints would be needed to generate large quantities of bio-fuel.

Nonetheless, practically none of these progresses are being achieved.

The current conditions for cellulosic bio-fuels are costly. There are legal, environmental and market risks involved.

Strauss says that the legal barriers have even set a halt to the federally-funded research involving “ecological containment of gene-modified and exotic bio-fuel crops”

Scientists agree that regulations should be established for gene modification projects. However, they argue that it should not be on the process of producing the crops but rather on the end results. So that it would be possible to determine whether the traits developed would be beneficial and safe. It should be viable to accept projects with a high level of benefits and low-level of risk. The worse is that the current regulations are not allowing any of them. There was also a list of other proposals brought forward by the scientists concerned. They discussed the overall system related to laws such as increasing the cost and the time for approval of new plants.

Strauss highlights that it is fundamental to come forward with an intelligent regulatory system offering scope for various fields of research. Currently, gene modification is being jeopardized and categories as inherently dangerous even though science panels have associated the risk of typical breeding as equally harmful.

The regulation in place makes it even impossible to evaluate whether gene modification is safe or not.

A new avenue of thinking needs to emerge into political and scientific leadership to change these regulations. It is necessary and will become a prerequisite in the future to find concrete solutions for gene modification in the growing need of breeding bio-fuel crops.

Source: E-science News and Oregon State University

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The company stated that it is anticipating all the essential government approvals to be done this week and that it has signed an official merger agreement with the biofuel company which is based in China.

The CEO of Biomagnetics, Mr Clayton Hardman said that the usage of energy in China is changing drastically with a rapid shift towards cleaner and renewable burning fuels. He added that they believe that Biomagnetics along with their partner, Zhuhai Energy and Science Technology, can prove to be significant participants in this vibrant shift in the world’s quickest-growing main economy.

Following the merge, this new company has been named Zhuhai Biomagnetics New Energy Science and Technology. The company is expected to be completely established by this week. Its novel Asian headquarters are found in Hengquin New Area in China. The headquarters are located in a high-tech industrial park which is not far from the new campus of the University of Macau.

According to Hardman, with very small taxes and no tariffs, they are certain that it is the perfect location from which to grow their businesses in Asia.

Source: New Energy World Network

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According to a recent study, cited by Robert Bryce, a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute, in The Wall Street Journal column shows how carbon emission has been dwindling in Colorado and Texas. Other studies are also projecting that carbon emission can be reduced by 25 percent if wind energy represented 20 percent of the total energy supply in the United States of America.

In the recent months there has also been an intense lobbying battle with coal, nuclear and natural gas against alternative sources of energy. Harry Reid, a Congress, Senate Majority Leader expects a bill to be passed to end of the fight, so that renewable energy can grow with full legal support.

AWEA is pushing wind energy forwards a standard for electricity generation, job creation and demise of emissions. However, in southeast states, lawmakers are not agreeing to conditions as wind isn’t that abundant. Besides, gas and oil companies are also not willing to support renewable energy standards and have opposed Obama’s proposals of changing tax rules in the industry.

Most lawmakers are encouraging a wider mandate on clean energy standards. It would support expansion of wind and solar energy. Interestingly, advocate groups of natural gas companies suggest that natural gas should be incorporated into these standards.

Solar Energy Going Forward

Areva, a French nuclear energy company, is spreading into the field of solar booster via Areva Solar. They already have proposed 23 MW project in Australia. The project is expected to take off this year.

Currently, Dr. Robert Fishman, CEO of Areva Solar says that they expect a sustainable growth in the ‘booster’ market. Areva has the technology to construct solar fields on current coal-fired power or natural gas-fired plants to boost up energy capacity. This wouldn’t even augment the emission level. So Areva Solar, can either increase output without causing pollution or maintain current output and reduce greenhouse emissions. Areva Solar’s booster facility is much more cost-effective than any other options available such as PV and CSP solar technology.

There is also another competitive source of industrial process steam. Considering industries, which requires a massive amount of steam for food processing, oil recovery or petrochemical refining can practically use sunlight to create steam (hot water). Currently, feed-in tariffs is an important support for CSP. Industrial steam applications can become a competitive way to reduce emissions and to circumvent the volatile and high price of fuel.

Fishman, considers that solar boosters are a very competitive source for the industry. Solar steam is both costs viable, and environmentally-friendly.  These solar boosters could actually bring down the levelized cost of electricity by more than 30 percent. Another significant determinant of its competitiveness is that this industrial process steam can be constructed on land already possessed by the customers. The technology provided by Areva Solar offers high land density.

In the last one and a half year, the solar steam technology has been significantly enhanced, from medium pressure to offering superheated steam. Areva is one of the few companies able to generate superheated steam. This is achieved at a low cost and equally on a small surface area. In Australia, the company is already short-listed for a $1.5 billion Solar Flagships Program. It will involve setting up standalone 250 MW solar thermal power plants. There is also a great prospect for the booster technology in India, Morocco, Middle East and South Africa.

Solar energy can’t really offer a cost effective solution for large-scale generation. The use of PV power or solar thermal plants with storage capacity through molten salts is cost-ineffective. The major solution is to establish hybrid power plants such as solar and natural gas. The hybrid power plants offer a comparatively affordable and reliable solution.

According to Fishman, Areva Solar is constantly delving into new technology. Currently, the major hurdles are lack of federal energy and carbon policy to encourage the use of the technology.

Source: New Energy News

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The NASA’s Mars rover robots have a self-cleaning system to avoid dust accumulation on solar panels. In other words, the device helps to remove dirt and dust, which could reduce the energy generation capacity of solar panels.

The NASA robot has special sensors, which can detect whenever dirt or dust comes on the solar panel. This simple manoeuvre of cleaning the solar panel assures that solar energy can be harnessed effectively.

One of the contributors to this technology is Dr Malay Mazumder, who says that this approach could help to sustain electricity generated by solar power plants located in dusty desert regions.

According to Dr. Mazumber from Boston University, a thin dust layer of only 4 g per square meter reduces the potential solar power conversion rate by up to 40 percent.

In regions such as Arizona, the level of dust deposition per month is roughly 16 g per square meter per month. The conditions are even worse in deserts the Middle East, Australia and India.

The technology used on the rovers on Mars has been operational since 2004, and it consists of coating the surface of the solar panels with electrodes of Indium tin oxide, which is a transparent and electrically sensitive component.

The level of dust on the surface of the solar panels is monitored through a sensor, once the dust reached a determinant quantity an electric impulsion is emitted to remove it.

Cascading waves of electrostatic pulses are constantly emitted to shake the dust of the solar panel surface. Once the surface is clean, its maximum energy efficiency rate is restored. According to Dr. Mazumber, in only two minutes as much as 90 percent of the dust is removed. The energy required to remove the dust is very small and doesn’t affect the operation of the robot itself.

This technology was recently presented at the American Chemical Society.

Source: Telegraph.co.uk and picture

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Recently, the World Bank has associated the increasing demand for farmland to bio-fuel. According to a ‘164-page report released by the World Bank’ developing and emerging economies are investing heavily in farmland. Last year a total of 45 million hectares was traded. This represents an increase in land demand by more than a 1000 percent. In the previous decade only four million hectares were traded on a yearly basis.

The report suggests that increasing land-demand for bio-fuel represents a threat to food price. In other words, the use of land to produce bio-fuel can result in detrimental effects on food prices as less land will be used for food production.

It was also mentioned that the purchase of farmland can lead to an improvement in the efficiency of the use of land. However, the price to be paid can result to be astronomically expensive for the poor people. According to Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala the World Bank Managing Director, land is being sold at cheap price but the result is higher cost of food. Therefore, developing countries must be caution and ready to take concrete action to assure that all parties benefit equally well.

The World Bank report suggests that large-scale land deals should be monitored to respect certain criteria. One of the conditions is that investors must offer a fair compensation to land owners. There were even some guiding principles set out in the report to assure food security and sustainability.

The World Bank is not the only international organisation pinpointing on the shortcomings of using farmland for bio-fuel production. Friends of the Earth did equally announce the need for government actions against the extensive growth of bio-fuel.

The report shows that the demand for bio-fuel in the West is causing a shortage of food supply in Africa. The cost of selling land for bio-fuel is famine. There is no excuse for the lack of inaction by European countries according to Kirtana Chandrasekaran from Friends of the Earth.

Source: Business Green

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In accordance to what the leading engineer of the State Forestry Administration, Wu Jian, stated at a news conference during the week, that the trees will combat climate change through the absorption of carbon and by producing material for ethanol and bio-diesel by the year 2020.

The objective of the plan that is being developed by China is to have 23 percent of the country to be covered with forests in ten years time, that is, a three percent rise from the actual level.

China remains one of the world’s quickest growing economies. The country depends principally on coal so as to meet the two-thirds of its energy requirements. China has been undergoing much pressure to adopt more aggressive measure to control the amount of releases of the greenhouse gases.

Source: Economic Times

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