Bio Fuel and Corn Cravings of US

A Mix View Of My Own.

 Lately I have been researching over the Internet reading different books and magazine issues. I smelled a sudden change, more precisely a U turn of an opinion or I would rather say “The Verdict”. Forgive me for being Melodramatic. It all started with the development of Biomass to Biofeul and it added to my knowledge  that What is

 “The Holy Grail”

“The Future of Energy”

“No need to fight a war over it”

“Fueling the future”

“The Green Fuel”

“The Eco-Friendly Fuel”

Recent Findings of Dr. Paul Kortzen the Nobel winner and colleagues have calculated that some of the commonly used biofuels releases twice the amount of No2 green house gas emission as previously estimated. Even a critical reception of the Paul Kortzen’s working considered “probably wrong” by Donner.

 "What we are saying is that growing biofuels is probably of no benefit and in fact is actually making the climate issue worse"

- Keith Smith

 Biofuel on its commercial triumph telling success stories, still won’t be able to fulfill the need of not more than 20% of the vehicles of United States even if they consume full corn and soybean yields of their country to produce biofuel. Keeping in mind the direct emissions adding more to green house gas emission. Two other major blows what our world receives while biofooling ourselves.

 1.              Inflation in the FOOD prices

 2.              Destruction of Forest and Peat lands.

Soaring prices of Corn resulting in riots in Mexico City to record high price of flour in Pakistan, Punjab which was once known as Grain Pocket of the world. Conversion of Rain Forest in to fields to plant soybean and corn to produce Alternative Fuels is resulting in the sudden climate change disturbing the ECO system.

According to staff scientist William Laurence at Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute,  "American taxpayers are spending $11 billion a year to subsidize corn producers—and this is having some surprising global consequences"

The  Fuel  Ethanol Distilleries in production in United States are consuming 53.29 million tons of Corn which capacitate these distilleries to produce 5,455 million Gallons of Ethanol fuel the Data is of Dec 2006, a report compiled by Earth Policy institute.

The under construction Distilleries to produce Ethanol in the same report shows anticipated production of 5,628 Million Gallons consuming 51.05 million tons of corn. In addition some of the distilleries are under Expansion mode. Under the  data compiled as of Dec 2006 The Projection in this report shows that by 2008, in which we are right now the share of Corn harvest for Ethanol fuel would be around 48.5 percent which in 2000 was 6 percent and in 2006 was 20 percent. It seems to me that by 2010 it Corn consumption for Ethanol would reach 160 million tons or may be more.The Subsidies provided  by the US Govt is attracting the US Farmer to grow more and more Corn just to produce Ethanol. This Policy has largely effected the production of Soy which has fallen by more than 15 percent and it’s adding more to the global price hike. Now the situation gets more worsen when the Second largest producer of soy Brazil is pushing towards more and more production resulting in conversion of Amazon in to soy fields and even converting cattle ranches in to soy farm which facilitate soaring beef prices.

Some head banging, nail biting and toe crushing figures.

·       365 days a person could be fed on the corn needed to ethanol fueled  SUV.  TIME  Magazine  April 08

·       $ 100 billion Estimated size of 2010 biofuel Market. TIME Magazine  April 08

·       300000 Hectors of Brazilian rain forest in the last six months of 2007. TIME Magazine April 08  

  Let’s put this thing to an end.(My Way or the High Way) 

The Sugar Cravings has in the US are setting new records every year. According to National Diabetes Statistics Prevalence of Diagnosed and Undiagnosed Diabetes among People Aged 20 Years or Older, United States, 2007 is gone 23.5 million adults. What Better one can expect when an Average American Consumes an astounding 2-3 pounds of sugar per week. This does not account in a healthy Diet at all in fact it ruins the immune system of the body “An open invitation to almost every Disease”   

Well this calls for a National health Emergency. National Policies should be made to cut down the sugar consumption at every level. If this happens what is going to happen to the sugar suppliers and sugar cane producers wait a second why we need to stand in a loose and loose situation when we have such a clear winner.

 “Sugar Based Ethanol” with a Healthier American Nation.

 

 

Ethanol A Disastrous Green Revolution That Should Not Be Trailed After

Ethanol is no wonder a controversial product, actually all biofuels expect biogas are controversial. Ask a 100 people and 50 of them would find themselves confused while answering if ethanol is an environment friendly, sustainable product or not?

If you are a corporate giant or a farmer who cultivates corn or sugarcane then ethanol is the king for you, but if you’re an environmentalist or an economist with an eye on food insecurity then ethanol is nothing but instant type of fossil fuel to you. I’ve been suffering with this agonizing dilemma of choosing the side I’m with when it comes to ethanol and other biofuels.

Thanks to the recant food [wheat] insecurity in Pakistan and recant enlightenment about the fact that we produce 7000 new babies every day in Pakistan with no technology to void the need to be feed my dilemma is over. In fact I’ve already chosen the side I’m on and my belief on this Brazilian green gold is over.

Many argue that hybrid vehicles are a step towards Eco sustainability, I disagree only on the grounds that if some batter technology & solution is already available in the form air and electricity powered engines then why not invest in there development, instead of cashing the transactional period from fossil fuel to zero emission electric, hydrogen or air powered ones.

Similar is the case with ethanol and bio fuels, if clean renewable energy can be attained through solar, wind or hydro resources then why bring a silly shift like brazil from one type of carbon emitter to another; with the mare difference of fossil fuel being drilled out of earth while ethanol requires chopping Amazon for raw material production. Depriving our children from a simple satisfying meal of backed corn.

Yup! They are expensive and efficiency is low when it comes to adopting renewable energy but its one time investment. For nations like Pakistan there are other efficient and safe solutions such as atomic power plants; after all what are they going to do with all that uranium? One year of food insecurity brought inflation to about 28 % in Pakistan and maybe another great depression is about to hit USA. Switching to renewable resources of energy slowly and steadily will ensure sustainability and progress for nations in the future. As sustainability is not measure by the number of sky scrapers in a city but by the well feed population living in them.

CONTAINER HOMES

Mega recycling! Melt down an 8000 lbs steel cargo container, by using 8000 KWH of energy to create new steel beams. Think again! How about converting an 8000 lbs of steel box into a comfortable studio apartment by using only 400 KWH of electricity, which is only 5% of the energy needed to melt these shipping containers.

A cargo container measures about 8 feet in width, 40 feet in length and 9 feet in height.

Container homes is not some thing new, the hippie era and the caravan homes movement are the impressions of the modern history of container homes. Huge mobile carts served as homes to many immigrants pouring into America of late 17^th to early 18^th century.

Shores and harbors allover United States and other trading nations, are becoming dump sites for old retired shipping containers, as mentioned earlier, recycling these shipping containers is not only costly but also hazardous for the environment. Two or maybe more container can joined together to create a small house after hacking down similar wall and utilizing the hacked steel to create partitions and internal walls.

Container homes also need internal and at times external thermal padding and insulations to reduce external weather effects, 95% of external radiation can be prevented from entering container homes, if insulated effectively can prove to be extremely energy efficient. Large aluminum and glass panels as windows and sky lights reduce the need of artificial lighting during the day in these container homes. Solar reflecting paints on the outer surface of these container homes should reduce the need of air-conditioning by preventing sudden heating up, while heat absorbing paints and sky lighting should be able to harness energy passively and reduce the need of heating significantly. Container homes need internal insulation and padding to cover the curved steel walls this padding not only make them appealing but also contain the internal temperature. Many companies offer ready to fit kitchen and bathroom units ready for installation in these container homes.

One of the most significant qualities of container homes is that fact that steel is welded to steel to create structural shapes such as roofs, which makes it a strong load bearing structure to support any type of masses such as water containers, solar water geezers, photovoltaic panels and mini wind turbines. Container homes also offer flexibility when it comes to fixtures and duct installation.

With term container homes most of us think of Mobil homes, but this is not the case anymore as cargo containers are extremely solid structures thus container homes can be more then single story with bedrooms made out of containers placed on top of the containers serving as living rooms and kitchen on the ground.

Container homes can be a great solution for third world countries with housing problems. As creating cheap and low impact energy efficient housing societies can be created with sustainable homes created out of old shipping and cargo containers, provided with proper water and electric supplies. These cargo and shipping containers can also be converted into container workshops, warehouses and small scale factories which will result into cleaner coast lines and low-cost successful recycling. I found Wind Man two old containers dumped beside the train track at CANTT railway station, wind man wants to make a coffee shop out of them, while my eyes are stuck on the old train guard stall rusting out there I waana strike it as a balcony some where.

Extreme Hybrid SUV

With its dual energy storage system, using Lithium-Ion batteries along with ultra capacitors the new XH150 Extreme Hybrid SUV is the next big thing in hybrid car industry. . This 370 horsepower plug-in hybrid was built out of 2007 Saturn VUE with off-the shelf components over the period of 6 months. This Extreme Hybrid SUV touches 60 mps from 0 mph in just 11.6 seconds, thus beating its gas smoldering predecessor with a margin of 0.9 seconds. During hybrid mode, this Extreme Hybrid SUV, XH150 clocked a smoking 0-60 speed that rivals many sports cars @ 6.9 seconds.
The AFS Trinity Power Corporation researcher and manufacturer, calls XH150 Extreme Hybrid SUV world’s first zero-cost” hybrid car, and support there argument on the bases of the patent-pending technology which allows the vehicle to go electric during the first 40 miles. Calculation made on energy cost and saving for the XH150 Extreme Hybrid SUV show that the large sum of $40,000 for this zero-cost” hybrid car should recoup in 3-5years. Such cost saving capacity should make it an ideal vehicle to get financed.
AFS Trinity completed it 340 miles earth day tour to Washington with XH150 Extreme Hybrid SUV, and announced the plans for an extreme fleet of trucks, in order to cut the cost of fuel by 75%. We should be expecting the XH150 Extreme Hybrid SUV, in the market in another 2 years.

SOLAR POWERED MOTOR BIKE

This proto type solar bike with its elegant folding solar panels, looks straight out of science fiction movie. Sun red a Spanish automotive engineering company has developed this solar powered bike, with a top speed of 30 mph, sun red is claming a journey of 13 to 15 miles before another charge. It’s not a direct solar-power machine; the panels top up batteries when parked. This is because the panels fold up to give a large surface area (over 3 square meters), but fold down out of the way when the bike is on the go. Leave it in the sun, and when you get back to it you can fold up the panels and be on your way. The bike will be coming with a 6.4" LCD screen, for controls and functions. The 30 mph speed and the need of recharge after every 13 to 15 miles is quite disappointing and surely that got to improve, if Sun red wishes to launch this motor bike on commercial level. Yet this is one environment friendly machine that should be brought under consideration seriously

A success story: USA AIR POLLUTION FACTS

According to the Foundation for Clean Air Progress air pollution in USA has decreased dramatically within the past 29 years as a result of the efforts taken by both public and private sector.
A considerable reduction in CO2 emissions has been achieved and the situation is getting batter day by day yet there is a long way go.

Air Pollution Fact #1: Since 1970, Americans have cut releases of air pollutants by more than 50 million tons. If you put that many tons into dump trucks lined up bumper to bumper, they would stretch from Baltimore to Dallas the long way -- around the world!

Air Pollution Fact #2: It would take 20 of today's new cars to generate the same amount of air pollution as one mid-1960s model car. In another 10 years, thanks to new automotive and fuel technologies, it will take 33 cars to produce the air pollution emissions of one mid-1960s model.

Air Pollution Fact #3: Compared with just 10 years ago, America's largest cities are recording dramatically fewer days on which air pollution exceeds federal standards.

Air Pollution Fact #4: One major air pollutant, lead, is nearly gone from our air. Since the mid-1970s, levels of airborne lead are down 96 percent. Despite these facts, there's still room for improvement. Everyone can help make a difference in this effort.

Air Pollution Fact #5: Reducing the use of the air conditioner in your car will you'll continue to reduce the air pollution you create.

Air Pollution Fact #6: It would take 20 of today’s new cars to generate the same amount of pollution as one mid-1960s model car. In another 10 years, thanks to new automotive and fuel technologies, it will take 33 cars to produce the emissions of one mid-1960s model. As the American Automobile Association (AAA) has reported, in many of our major cities, cars and light trucks are no longer the primary or even secondary cause of summertime ozone ‘smog.’

Air Pollution Fact #7: Added weight makes your car's engine run less efficiently, increasing air pollution.

Air Pollution Fact #8: On average, the number of exceedance days of air pollution monitored in the Los Angeles-Long Beach metro area declined by 7.3 days per year between 1980 and 1999.

Air Pollution Fact #9: US EPA ozone exceedance data indicates that, on average, the number of exceedance days monitored in the US declined by 5.5 days per year between 1980 and 1999.

Air Pollution Fact #10: Between 1980 and 1999, a 43 percent reduction in the three-year average number of air pollution exceedance days was observed.

Air Pollution Fact #11: A reduction of 93.7 exceedance days (over a quarter of a year), from an average of 218.0 days in 1980-1982 to an average of 124.3 days in 1997-1999 ·

Air Pollution Fact #12: In the 1950s, smog levels in Southern California were worse than they are today in Mexico City, where current US standards for smog are violated every day of the year.

HYNOR: Norway’s green jump to lead the rest of world.

A country with a ratio of 4 trees to one person, building a hydrogen based highway shows a nations serious commitment towards the environment and sustainability.
What, where, when, why and how are the questions that come into our mind when we hear about HyNor. One of the worlds most environment friendly country Norway is working at a very fast pace to develop a hydrogen fuel based highway since 2005 some 350 miles in length between the cities of Oslo and Stavanger. This should be a mile stone in alternate fuel studies and practical implementations. Both government and private sector in Norway is involved in developing this hydrogen corridor. HyNor feathers hydrogen fuel stations, which means large-scale hydrogen fuel based vehicles such as cars, taxis, trucks and buses, completing there green journey effectively. Along with the extensive support from global environmental groups, the picture completes with energy and transportation companies with public authorities and research and development institutions taking keen interest, as HyNor is good news for energy business world over which is depressed with the ever souring oil prices. Norway has a long history of hydrogen generation by electrolysis through the use of hydro-power. Using renewable energy resources for creating hydrogen should dish up a model for other nations considering hydrogen-based economy. Norway is also providing tax incentives on hydrogen fuel based vehicles.
Quantum Fuel Systems provided HyNor project with 15 Toyota Prius Hybrids converted to run on hydrogen gas, as a part of test run.
With the expected success of HyNor, Norway plans on executing a national hydrogen fuel base transportation system. All this hard work and expected success might trigger a much needed rapid fuel shift, which will show its environmental, economical and commercial benefits.
At the moment two problems should be temperature and availability as the wide variations in climate and topology including very cold seasonal temperatures, not conducive to many fuel cell vehicles may cause some delays, cos most current car manufacturers have concept vehicles that are fueled by hydrogen though they have had very positive test results from these vehicles but assembly lines have not been modified for them. Still this alternative makes sense because the emissions from hydrogen vehicles is zero compared to fossil fuel based vehicles which chug 1.5 billion tons of gas emissions into the environment.
The ultimate achievement would be for the world to recognize that a model for hydrogen transportation is feasible, practical and happening right now.

Fueling the future: Biodiesel

Biodiesel is renewable alternative fuel (non petroleum) produced form a wide rand of vegetable oil and animal fats. It is safe and biodegradable and the emissions are non toxic to humans.Biodiesel can be used in the pure form B100 or may be blended with petroleum diesel.Research conducted by petroleum producers have found out that petroleum diesel is better than biodiesel and bioiesel reduces the engine ware (at cost of creating less environmental hazards).The production of biodiesel on large scale is still under immense research and on the other hand, hundred and thousand of people who have switch their old and new vehicles on pure biodiesel that is produced at home yet there has not been no serious complaints about such ware and tear of the engine. It is facts that engine become a little less efficient. Another strong reason that people use biodiesel is that there is no need of war to fight over it.

According to the RTFO Renewable Transport Fuel Obligation 2007 introduced by Govt. of the United Kingdom, by 2010 their intention is that the renewable transport fuel should make 5% ,by volume of the total road transport fuel sales in the UK, by the time RTFO reaches 2010 it would be able to create a market of 2.5 billion liters of biofuels a year. This would reduce GHG emissions million tones of carbon a year. This would certainly produce an extra demand for vehicles that run on completely on biofulels. If you are planning to buy a new vehicle considering less green house gas emissions in to the atmosphere, these vehicles can come in handy for you and the environment.

Mercedes E320 CDI

VW New Beetle

VW Jetta and VW Jetta Wagon

VW Golf TDI

Liberty Jeep 2.8 Turbo diesel.

So, Don’t blow it,good planets are hard to find.

Rainbow flux

Researches at PrizmaTech Labs have recently revealed an incredible breakthrough in solar technology that’s sure to brighten your day. The development utilizes specially calibrated ROYGBIV panels to collect solar energy over a broad spectrum of wavelengths, yielding an unheard-of energy efficiency rating that is 7 times greater than conventional panels. The fortuitous find employs rainbows as naturally occurring instances of refracted light, paving the pathway towards an exciting new source of renewable energy.

The development has spawned a new breed of crack solar-savvy meteorologists dubbed ‘Rainbow Chasers’, who are ready to mobilize at a moments notice to deploy the new arrays. For optimal efficiency, these polychromatic powerhouses can be set up at each end of a rainbow, although expandable photo-voltaic archways are in development that would take advantage of the entire length of a rainbow.

Such structures will figure prominently in the world’s first Rainbow Farm, currently in development and slated for a 2012 grand opening.

Happy water day 2008

World Water Day 2008 will be celebrated by the UN on Thursday, 20 March. In 2008 the day will highlight issues on sanitation in accordance with the International Year of Sanitation 2008. People around the world are encouraged to celebrate the day to draw attention to the world’s sanitation challenge.

Solar-Powered MP3/Video Player

eMotion Media player

A complete off Grid and self powered Media player that runs on sunlight needing 12 to 15 hours of sun for 9 hours of music playback. Seems quite a long charging time in an average busy daily life but its ideal for backpacking and hiking trips to wilderness and if you are in the sun, sun light alone is sufficient to drive the music player with depending on the batteries a value added feature of this player is that you can charge other portable devices a set of six connectors for charging laptops, cell phones, and other portable devices.................read more

Imagine: A 40 milie or less daily commute with out a drop of gas

The Concept Chevy is the revolutionary car which features The E Flex drive System that would help decreasing the dependence on the petroleum and reduce green house gas emissions. The futuristic and aerodynamic shape of the car can really target large number of customers across the globe........... read more

Story of a green Day

Imagine waking up to the sound of a wind-up alarm clock or the bird table outside the window. Take a micro-droplet shower, have some organic food for breakfast out of the back yard or the organic market, and a cup of tea from a nice little copper kettle. Riding a bike to work... what will it be like there? How is the improved workplace going to kick the energy habit? Shop on the way home afterwards a little sum thing to go with the dinner, cooked in the earth and mud stove made by you over the weekend. It was cloudy today thanks to aero turbine on the roof, you got enough power for your TV, while the forest throw provides enough fire to warm up environment between the 2 feet thick mud and stone walls.

Much thinner!

The way that solar technology is moving ahead it’s truly exciting. NOW a team of British researchers from Durham University have developed light absorbing materials for use in the production of super-thin layer photovoltaic, thin enough of be called photovoltaic sheets instead of panels. These thin cells could be installed on homes or even moving cars, and should be significantly less expensive than their thicker counterparts.
The research team is being led by Ken Durose, from the Durham Center for Renewable Energy. Why do we need thin layer photovoltaic? The more common thicker photovoltaic contain iridium and other rare and expensive materials. Thus, by creating thinner PV's, the cost of these panels will be reduced. Ideally, if the project disparages out, these panels will be installed on homes to fulfill their power requirements and give back any excess power to the grid. Furthermore, if they are thin and light enough, they could be installed on moving vehicles.

Living green!

Switch on your TV browse through the times magazine or readers digest, or pick your daily news paper it is no surprise that on an average day one would watch hear and read about the global warming and environmental problems our planet faces because of ever increasing human consumption. More over one gets to know about all those great and large measures being taken worldwide by G8 and developing nations to protect the delicate balance of nature. Every day we get to know about the large number or wind farms being installed or about the solar energy being used instead of fossil fuel, but most of the time all this information comes under a cooperate banner who wishes to publish its efforts of going green while devising new means of profits as well.
Most of us do feel a lot contended after our daily dose of these going green news but unfortunately all those green life and business efforts go wasted because man kind is not ready to adopt the green monk hood as an individual. Yes we might be environment friendly people, nationally or socially, but most of on individual level are destroying our environment at an express pace. Most of us are concerned about the air we breath in but never even think about cutting down on fossil fuel we use at our homes and for our vehicles. We are a species who stands tall among others when it comes to esthetics but most of us don’t bother caring a cloth bag or a basket to the market. A large number of us spend 1/18 of our income over drinking bottle water, but never mind contaminating our water resources with lavish use of cleaning Chemicals at home. Time to time a lot of us do try to adopt to a green life style but find it hard to maintain and there is no denying to that adopting a greener life and leaving behind our comfortable lives of lavish power use and convenient soft toilet paper is had but still there are some real small things that can bring a very positive difference if we adopt them in our private and family life.
So the top ten hot shots one can play to go green with simple efforts.

· ECO bags!
Carry a bag made out of fabric or a basket for grocery, most of want to but forget it until things are packed in plastic bags or paper bags for us. Tip, keep two or three in your car all the time or hanging to your bike. This done on community level can virtually clean out an area from plastic bags in about 6 months.

· Cut down on subscription!
Instead of ordering 12 catalogs and 5 magazines a month surf over internet and save your hard earn cash, along with miles of Rain forest.

· Engines off!
Yes turn off your cars engine while waiting in the parking lots of schools and shopping malls because by doing so 10 minutes per day can keep 550 pounds of carbon dioxide out of the air every year.

· Eat healthy!
While we are putting our efforts in living green, its time we start thinking healthy as well. Simplest possible favor we can do to our body is stop drinking bottle drinks, and start eating fresh fruits, this simple effort can help produce a hole generation of healthy and physically fit humans in 20 years.


· Recycle!
Recycle is a term most of us know about since even before we were familiar with types of pollution, and global warming theory, cloth towels, cloth napkins, personal mugs instead of paper napkins, tissue papers and paper cups. Washing instead of toilet paper is not only green but hygienic as well. Such small deeds can save hectors of rain forest. We need to make sure that we are disposing off our garbage in a proper manner by simply separating recyclable one from the non recyclable one.

· Stop buying!
Next time when you need furniture make sure you paid your visit to the auction for old and vintage furniture. If new is what u need then prefer artificial wood over real wood.

· Chemicals at home!
We use a large number of cleaning Chemicals and detergents at home which are equally harm full for human beings pets and contaminate our sewerage and water resource to an irreversible level. Solution, use natural cleaning product like lemon juice, and if you find that difficult at least go for products are made with natural essential oils, are biodegradable and phosphate-free, they might be slightly expensive but the money you would save on your catalog subscription, fuel, bottle drinks, and expensive furniture can be well spent for keeping our waters clean.

· Look before you leap!
Next time when you go shopping investigate where your product came from, purchasing animal fur and ivory products means you live to see the extinction of a large number wild life, shark fin soup and whale fish might taste heavenly but its still not worth to have oceans with out them.

· Buy green!
A lot of us look for the green spiral sing over the packets of our food and other daily use items. Next time when you shop for electronics look for products which come with energy saving built in technology. Energy saving bulbs and fans are common now.

· Plant smart!
Yes one can make a difference by planting smart yes that means planting green, you sure can plant flowers in your garden but ever thought about planting vegetables instead, of course there is nothing wrong in planting an expensive palm from tropics but a fig or a pomegranate tree is even batter, this way you are not only living green but also healthy and thrifty, as you will be saving on the weekly grocery cost.

Small things like setting our home temperature thermostat to a more economical level reducing the screen brightness of our mobile, and computer screens, lowering down the volumes of our TVs and music systems can make a considerable difference.

3rd Generation Biofuel Algae

As known as Oilgae as well, is being considered to be the third generation biofuel. Its production is low cost and high yield, almost 30 times more energy production per acre as compared to the land required by other conventional feedstock to produce biofuels. At present researches are being conducted by Alga culture (farming Algae) to produce different fuels to harvest for making vegetable oil, biodiesel, bioethanol, biomethanol, biobutanol and other biofuels and it seems if the methodology is sustainable than other available biofuels then using algae to produce bio diesel would be the only viable method to replace the need of gasoline used for automotive today. Biofuels are considered to be the best way to reduce green house gas emissions and alternate to the pollutant fossil fuels. But recently, according to Nobel Laureate Paul Cortzen findings, some of the most commonly used biofuels Bioethanol from corn and bio diesel from rapeseed releases Nitrous Oxide (N2O) is contributing much more to the global warming than the fossil fuels are contributing right now. Processing of biofuel form algae has been tested that it captures large amounts of CO2 and N2O available in the atmosphere( 40% in a course of full day and 80% in sunny days) and an acre of algae can produce enough oil to make 5,000 gallons of biodiesel in a year. According to my point of view biodiesel and bio ethanol from rapeseed and corn is not only adding to global warming but economically it cannot be sustainable because its one of the main sources of edible oil. Ethanol demand can threaten the food prices. A recent study conducted by Center for Agricultural and Rural Development at Iowa State University reveled that considering the high-price crude oil scenario, U.S. ethanol production could reach 30 billion gallons by 2016, consuming more than half of U.S. corn, wheat and other coarse grain production and triggering higher meat prices for consumers, reduced production across-the-board for all segments of the meat sector, and even greater reductions in grain and meat exports. Taking in review the sustainability and economic factor biofuel from Alga culture seems to be most promising fuel for future.

Maglev Magnetic Levitation in Wind Turbines

During the last decade, countries like Germany, China and Japan, installed a high speed train system based on magnetic levitation. These trains are known for there energy efficiency, on time performance and low maintenance.

The advantage of using magnetic levitation in wind turbines is that of reduced maintenance costs, and increases life span of the generator. The magnetic levitation that they use is between the rotating shaft and the fixed base of the machine, basically taking the place of ball bearings. Such magnetic bearings have been used for decades in smaller turbines and pumps by Ebara, Leybold, Seiko-Seiki, and others. However these magnetic bearings can't handle being bumped around much (the magnetic force isn't that strong), and they need actively controlled electromagnets (to keep the levitating magnets from crashing--play with some magnets for a minute or two and you'll see why). Making magnetic bearings strong enough to handle the loads a wind turbine would put on them is hard, and would use exorbitant amounts of power just keeping the electromagnets running strongly enough. However, the World watch article says the new Chinese device (invented by Guangzhou Energy Research Institute and Guangzhou Zhongke Hengyuan Energy Science & Technology Co.) uses "full-permanent" magnets, meaning there are no electromagnets, only cleverly placed permanent ones, so it should use no power. It sounds like they will be used on small turbines (perfect for home use), which would be similar in scale to the pumps and industrial turbines currently using magnetic bearings. But who knows, in a few years it might be possible to scale them up.
Hopes are that maglev wind turbines, will be 20 time proficient then usual wind turbines, and the maintenance would drop to as low as 50 %. Maglev wind turbines should also have the advantage of 1000 amplified production hours compared to the traditional ones, and they might prove to be the solution for carbon free clean world.

Plastic Bags

Israel is the newest among the line of countries who are taking measures to eradicate or at least reduce the use of plastic bags. Word is that a bill has been introduced in Israel under which customers will now pay a charge for every plastic bag they will consume at the supper marker, this bill is similar to the one introduced in china late last year. This environment friendly chain reaction started from San Francisco, followed by Hong Kong, Melbourne, and then adopted by china and Israel.

The Bay’s board of supervisors of San Francisco approved the legislation under which use of 180 million plastic bags being used per annum were banned in all supper markets, by late 2007 and at pharmacies by early 2008. The problem was even more complicate in Hong Kong where 8 million plastic bags are dumped every year which is 3 bags per person a day. The total eradication program in Hong Kong will work in phases, first hyper marts, chains and retailers are suppose to charge USA6 cents a bag which is alone expected to cut the use to half by the end of 2008. Money earned through this charge will be utilized in the second phase through funds allocation to environment recovery projects and for educating people and indulging them into environmental friendly activities.

Melbourne has been active for reducing the use of plastic bags. In fact the Australian environment Minster Peter Garrett in an interview to a local newspaper stated that there are some four billion of these plastic bags floating around the place, getting into landfill, ending up affecting our wildlife, and showing up on our beaches while we are on holidays. A levy of 10 cents each bag consumed at the super markets has already has been imposed.

If the current pace of efforts for reducing plastic bag use continues on national levels allover the world, we might be able to find lesser number of these never wearing down bag on our roads, and chocking our drains. This will bring a significant reduction of petroleum thinning for manufacturing plastic bags.

Bioethanol production and cost efficiency

Pessimistic ecological consequences of fossil fuels and concerns about petroleum supplies have spurred the search for renewable transportation biofuels. To be a feasible alternative, a biofuel should provide a net energy gain, have environmental reimbursement, be economically competitive, and be producible in large quantities without reducing food supplies. Using these criteria’s to evaluate , ethanol from corn grain and biodiesel from soybeans. Ethanol yields 25% more energy than the energy invested in its production, whereas biodiesel yields 93% more. Compared with ethanol, biodiesel releases just 1.0%, 8.3%, and 13% of the agricultural nitrogen, phosphorus, and pesticide pollutants, respectively, per net energy gain. Relative to the fossil fuels they displace, greenhouse gas emissions are reduced 12% by the production and combustion of ethanol and 41% by biodiesel. Biodiesel also releases less air pollutants per net energy gain than ethanol. These advantages of biodiesel over ethanol come from lower agricultural inputs and more efficient conversion of feedstocks to fuel. biofuel can’t replace much petroleum without impacting food supplies. Even dedicating all U.S. corn and soybean production to biofuels would meet only 12% of gasoline demand and 6% of diesel demand. Recent raise in petroleum prices, high production costs made biofuels unprofitable without subsidy. Biodiesel provides sufficient environmental advantages to merit subsidy. Transportation of biofuels such as synfuel hydrocarbons or cellulosic ethanol, if produced from low-input biomass grown on agriculturally subsidiary land or from waste biomass, could provide much greater supplies and environmental benefits than food-based biofuels.