#Cow Manure to Ethanol Plant Switches On in California's San joaquin valley The San joaquin valley has become America breadbasket over the past few decades.
Products including pistachios, almonds, citrus, stone fruit, cotton, and grapes are grown here and distributed all over the United states
Tulare is also the top dairy producing country in the U s. That means a lot of cows,
and in turn, all that agricultural activity has contributed to a region that has one of the worst air pollution records in the country.
Furthermore, effluent from cow waste is a huge threat to what already are stressed the San joaquin valley watersheds.
On the upside, all that agricultural waste creates a solid biofuels pipeline. Forget the food-versus-fuel debate:
many of the crops grown in the valley are high-value products that are lucrative,
and the region conservative bent leads farmers and ranchers to stick to the crops, trees, and animals they know.
especially cow manure, is becoming expensive and of course, problematic for the local environment. Biofuels, clean energy, renewable energy, biofuels, biogas, cow manure, waste diversion, Pixley, Calgren, Regensis, Tulare County, DVO, California Energy Commission, dairy industry, San joaquin valley
The recent launch of the Calgren Ethanol Plant in the Tulare County town of Pixley is a step in helping California meet its clean energy goals while addressing the San joaquin valley terrible air pollution.
Built with the help of a $4. 6 million grant from the California Energy Commission, the plant, according to the coalition of companies that built the facility,
will churn cow manure into bioethanol which can then be blended with conventional gasoline. The core of Calgren plant is an anaerobic digester built by DVO,
which is based in Wisconsin. Regensis, a Washington state building contractor, was in charge of the plant construction.
of which will be enough to fuel 145,000 cars annually. At a recent ceremony that hailed the plant opening,
nixing any need to be connected to the local grid. The process starts with a nearby dairy, Four J Farms.
Cow manure from the 1, 800 milk-producing cattle will flow down a pipeline to the Calgren plant.
The manure is deposited then into the DVO-designed digester that is 16 feet deep and insulated with concrete to prevent any leakage from entering local groundwater.
Bacteria that naturally occur within cowsdigestive tracts are added to the manure, when is stored then and churned there
while it is kept at a consistent warmth of 101.5°F (38°C). The three-plus weeks the manure is kept at that temperature is to guarantee any pathogens would be killed off,
The result is a system that works almost exactly like a cow digestive system. Later in the process,
and then recycled so local farmers can use it to water their crops. The by-product that remains at the end of the process,
where employees then scatter it to use as animal bedding. The companiesrepresentatives who were on hand for a public tour for the media noted that the system is in operation 24 hours a day
but local officials noticed it was more important step in pushing California closer to its 2020 clean energy goals. lectricity (to power cars)
said Jim Mckinney, a project manager for CEC Alternative and Renewable fuel and Vehicle technology Program. Mckinney added that the ethanol produced at this plant results in the lowest carbon-emitting ethanol currently refined at an industrial scale throughout California.
More biorefineries such as the Calgren plant could help California solve multiple challenges a boost in production of clean transport fuels, the reduction in agricultural waste and for local residents,
better air quality in the San joaquin valley. here is enough organic waste (in California) to power 2 to 3 million homes
California dairy industry is not going away anytime soon, so plants like that of Calgren can help diversify the economy
while mitigating the dairy farmsenvironmental effects. But before one visualizes a biodigester at every pasture,
keep in mind how long this project took: first conceptualized in 2009, it was painstaking process before the plant finally opened two weeks ago p
To achieve this target the government organised an investor summit called RE-INVEST. Modi has organised successfully such summits
The idea was floated first by Prime minister Modi himself at the first meeting of the council of ministers on climate change last month.
All countries are required to submit their plans to reduce greenhouse gas emissions as part of the run-up to the climate change summit at Paris at the end of the year.
the government plans to quantify the emission reduction achieved through renewable energy projects and present it as a just contribution towards fighting climate change.
The real motive of this association could be to lobby for a wider acceptance of such an exercise as part of the new climate change treaty.
Image Credit: via#@Reinvest201 v
#Evercharge Delivers EV Charging Solutions For Apartment Dwellers It no secret that in America and across the world,
people are flocking back to big cities in droves. In the US alone, it estimated that about 27%of people live in some sort of apartment situation with shared parking.
This can make owning an electric car difficult, especially as plug-in cars become more prevalent and draw more power from the apartment in question.
Evercharge*has a solution, though, as its unique technology learns driver behavior and can dole out the power as needed to drivers,
without having to add dozens of new charging station. Apartment buildings are wired only to draw so much power from the grid
and it no secret that Level 2 EV chargers use A LOT OF power. While one or two chargers might not make a noticiable difference,
having ten plug-in cars charging, all at the same time, could lead to an energy bottleneck that could require tens of thousands of dollars in service upgrades.
Enter Evercharge, which can support up to ten EV chargers without costly infrastructure upgrades to the building by doling out power in a smarter way.
Evercharge intelligently divvies up the available energy between all the electric cars plugged into an apartment building. It also keeps track
of which people are plugging in and bills them accordingly, so other apartment residents don have to foot the bill to keep plug-ins fully charged.
Sure, it not the sexiest advancement in electric car technology, but with the number of plug-in cars expected to multiply exponentially,
it could become an essential component in many new apartment buildings. With so many people choosing apartment life over home ownership,
helping these residents adopt to the plug-in lifestyle will be key in spreading electric cars to the masses.
Systems like this will ensure that one day, gas stations will become obsolete as people refill at home instead of at the Quik-E-Mart a
#GE Launches Digital Wind farm To Make Renewables More Efficient Multinational company GE announced the launch of its new Digital Wind farm on Tuesday,
dynamic, connected, and adaptable wind energy ecosystemintended to boost a wind farm energy production by 20%.%According to GE, the Digital Wind farm makes use of the industrial internet o address a longstanding need for greater flexbility in renewable power. very business including our own at GE
and every industry is being transformed by smarter digital technologies, and the greatest opportunity lies in energy, said Steve Bolze,
president and CEO of GE Power & Water. he question is not whether to start down this path it about knowing how to get the most out of your digital transformation.
That what will separate industry leaders from those left behind. he Digital Wind farm is based around GE new generation of Brilliant wind turbines
a 2 MW platform which utilises a digital twin modelling system to generate power at peak efficiency based on the location of the turbine.
The technology has the chance to increase energy production by up to 20, %and could help generate up to an estimated $50 billion of value for the wind industry (based on all wind farms in the world using the latest GE turbines and technology).
On top of that, each turbine is connected to an advanced network which allows for real-time contact and monitoring, allowing operators to make adjustments to boost efficiency.
Naturally, with more data and more turbines producing more data, the system can become more advanced and intelligent, leading to increased efficiency.
E focus on life-cycle operations is consistent with the way we operate our wind farms, said Michael Polsky,
president and CEO of leading energy company Invenergy. e look forward to working together with GE Digital Wind farm to unlock even more long-term value across our fleet.?
Big data is worthless without the insight to take action, and our vision for the industry is to use today data to predict tomorrow outcomes,
added Bolze. y harnessing the full power of the Industrial Internet, we can create a world where wind farms learn,
adapt and perform better tomorrow than they do today. b
#Concrete That Heals Itself Concrete and bacteria are seen not often as sharing the same construction armchair, that is,
unless you happen to be discussing concrete that heals itself. Henk Jonkers from Netherlands-based Delft University of Technology has created bioconcrete,
a product that can heal its own cracks and faults. Jonkers says he originally began work on the bioconcrete
when he was approached by a concrete technologist who wondered whether the safety of concrete could be improved using a biological solution.
This manufacturing query turned out to be the right question asked at the right time. Concrete hardens as it ages
but it can also develop cracks. According to Jonkers a microbiologist, the cracks that form in concrete are not just unpleasant to look at,
they can eventually lead to structural failures. he problem with cracks in concrete is said leakage
Jonkers. f you have cracks, water comes throughn your basements, in a parking garage. Secondly, if this water gets to the steel reinforcementsn concrete we have all these steel rebarsf they corrode, the structure collapses.
It has taken Jonkers and his team three years to produce this self-healing prototype, needing to overcome the most obvious obstacle:
finding bacteria that can survive the harsh environment of concrete. t a rocklike, stonelike material,
very dry, said Jonkers. To address this dry hardship, the team picked bacillus bacteria for its hardiness and longevity.
The bacteria and its food source, calcium lactate, are packed into tiny capsules that dissolve when water enters the concrete cracks.
Once released, the bacteria consume the calcium lactate, causing a chemical reaction that creates limestone, which then fills in the gaps.
A lakeside lifeguard station in The netherlands was used as the site for the first application of bioconcrete.
The test for the prototype turned out to be positive. t is combining nature with construction materials
said Jonkers. ature is supplying us a lot of functionality for freen this case, limestone-producing bacteria.
If we can implement it in materials, we can really benefit from it, so I think it a really nice example of tying nature and the built environments together in one new concept.
For over 2, 000 years, concrete has been used as a popular building material, dating back to when the Romans built the Pantheon.
It is now a standard material for everything from road surfaces to roadway infrastructure items, such as sidewalks, curbs, and gutters.
The bioconcrete is mixed just like regular concrete but with an extra ingredient the ealing agent.
It remains intact during mixing, only dissolving and becoming active if the concrete cracks and water gets in.
or oxygen. he next challenge was not only to have the bacteria active in concrete, but also to make them produce repair material for the concrete and that is limestone,
Jonkers explains. In order to produce limestone the bacilli need a food source. Sugar was one option, but adding sugar to the mix would create soft, weak, concrete.
In the end, Jonkers chose calcium lactate, setting the bacteria and calcium lactate into capsules made from biodegradable plastic and adding the capsules to the wet concrete mix.
When cracks eventually begin to form in the concrete, water enters and open the capsules.
The bacteria then germinate, multiply and feed on the lactate, and in doing so they combine the calcium with carbonate ions to form calcite, or limestone,
which closes up the cracks. Jonkers said he hopes his concrete could be the start of a new age of biological buildings.
If so, the impact on architectural and engineering methodologies might be profound. t is combining nature with construction materials,
limestone-producing bacteria. If we can implement it in materials, we can really benefit from it,
so I think it a really nice example of tying nature and the built environments together in one new concept. d
#Finally A Declared Road To North american Energy & Climate Action The US, Canada, and Mexico have mirrored just the European union in seeking a continent-wide approach to North american energy and related climate change.
According to Canadian Natural resources Minister Greg Rickford, he partnership does not include binding targets, but will enhance cooperation
and integrate more climate change-related policies into energy discussions between the countries. he North american energy working group met in Mérida, Yucatán, Mexico.
Top-level energy ministers from the three trade partnersickford, US Energy secretary Ernest Moniz, and Mexico Secretary of energy Pedro Joaquín-Coldwellill now help their governments coordinate mutually beneficial policies in areas like these:
Rickford also notes that the group work would include cooperation on carbon capture and storage technologies, which many consider an expensive, unproven,
All three countries have announced 2030 greenhouse gas emissions targets in anticipation of the Paris international climate negotiations (the UN COP21 meeting) this December.
Doubtless, some historical controversiesike the fights over the Keystone XL pipeline from Alberta oil sands to the US Gulf coast extensive petroleum infrastructureill remain,
#Big Oil & Gas Embraces Carbon Pricing Six of the world major oil and gas companies have called for national or regional carbon pricing.
and the United nations Framework Convention on Climate change work on creating lear, stable, ambitious policy frameworks that could eventually connect national systems.
and cost-effective ways to reduce carbon emissions. an Beat m? Join m The oil companiesjoint statement effectively reverses previous claims from industry that petroleum causes the environmentnd the crucial atmospheric greenhouseo harm.
Here how the top 10 oil companies in the world stack up by revenue, according to the Fortune Global 500:
we need to meet greater energy demand with less CO2. We are ready to meet that challenge
We firmly believe that carbon pricing will discourage high carbon options and reduce uncertainty that will help stimulate investments in the right low-carbon technologies and the right resources at the right pace.
We now need governments around the world to provide us with this framework and we believe our presence at the table will be helpful in designing an approach that will be both practical
academic, and popular work to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in anticipation of potentially increased climate change. Some of these disparate industrial alliances are We Mean Business, The Climate Group, the B Team, the Corporate Leadership Group,
and a low-carbon economy and have abandoned thus their previous emphasis on threats to their bottom line.
They have raised for the first time climate change to a level equal to the importance of energy in sustaining life On earth as we know it.
They have acknowledged also the current trend of greenhouse gas emissions is over the threshold the Intergovernmental panel on climate change says will keep global temperature rise below the current 2 degrees Centigrade figure.
The petroleum executives also sent an additional letter to the media, setting out their call for carbon pricing.
In it, they also expressed a strong role for natural gas in reducing carbon emissions. The subject of natural gas raises many eyebrows because although that fuel is currently available and inexpensive,
it too contributes to carbon pollution, emitting half the carbon dioxide of coal and producing additional methane, a more potent greenhouse gas over the short term (20 years).
However, the call is still a major step forward to decarbonization because, for the first time, major polluters at the source have shown eagerness to support potent climate change efforts.
Says Michael R. Bloomberg, the UN Secretary-general Special Envoy for Cities and Climate change and former mayor of New york:
t is not every day that industry leaders urge governments to raise their taxes, but today, six of the oil and gas industry biggest players did just that.
Their joint letter sends an unequivocal message to the international community As we look ahead to the U n. climate change conference in Paris at the end of the year,
it crucial that national governments embrace the private sector as full partners in this work. t
#ITC 5-Year Extension Is In ew Energy for America Actannouncing its support for legislation extending the Investment Tax credit (ITC) for both residential and commercial solar installations,
the Solar energy Industries Association (SEIA) said it will provide a big boost to the US economy,
while also helping to fight pollution and climate change. Introduced by Rep. Mike Thompson (CA-5),
the New Energy for America Act (H r. 2412) would extend Section 25d of the federal tax code for residential energy-efficient property,
as well as the Section 48 commercial ITC, for an additional 5 years. In introducing his legislation
Congressman Thompson, a senior member of the House Ways and means committee, said a 5-year extension of the ITC will give the solar industry time to reach rid parityin most US electricity markets.
Solar energy Industries Association (SEIA) CEO and President Rhone Resch pointed out in a recent statement, he solar Investment Tax credit (ITC) is paying huge dividends for America.
Resch continued, oday, the US solar industry is pumping $18 billion a year into our economy
and creating tens of thousands of new jobs. By 2016, we will be generating enough clean solar energy nationwide to power 8 million homes
offsetting 45 million metric tons of damaging carbon emissions the equivalent of removing 10 million cars off our roads
e applaud Congressman Thompson for his continued leadership on issues vital to our economy and environment and thank all of the original cosponsors for joining him in this important effort to build a clean energy future for America. y any measurement,
Resch said, the solar ITC has been successful: More than 97%of all installed solar capacity in the US has come online
Providing important market certainty, the ITC encourages companies to make long-term investments that drive competition and technological innovation,
while lowering costs to consumers and spurring the economy. Because of the certainty provided by the ITC and other stable public policies
%Helping to fight pollution and climate change, 32%of all new electric generating capacity came from solar energy in 2014.
ongressman Thompson legislation will help to level the playing field with established energy sources, promote competition in the marketplace
and encourage entrepreneurial solutions to meet our nation energy needs. It an important ridge to the future,
which will benefit our economy, environment and national security. riginal cosponsors of the legislation include: Reps.
Matt Cartwright (PA-17; Tony Cardenas (CA-29; Earl Blumenauer (OR-3; Richard Neal (MA-1;
Chris Van Hollen (MD-8; Paul Tonko (NY-20; Bill Keating (MA-9; Peter Welch (VT-At-large;
Norsepower Oy Ltd. shared the successful trial of its Rotor Sail Solution, a wind propulsion technology for maritime ships.
and operation software modeling firm NAPA and supported by VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland,
Norsepower trials confirm fuel savings of 2. 6 percent using a single small Rotor Sail on a route in the North sea.
The Norsepower Rotor Sail Solution is modernized a version of the Flettner rotor spinning vertical cylinder that harnesses wind power to propel a ship.
The rotor generates thrust for the same reason that a spinning baseball curves through the air after it thrownhe Magnus effect.
In favorable wind conditions, Norsepower Rotor Sails allow the vessel to throttle back the main engines,
Rotor Sails can be installed on new vessels or retrofitted on existing ships without requiring the vessel potentially multi-million-dollar asseto be out of service,
known as off-hire. The Norsepower Rotor Sail Solution was installed on the 9, 700 dead weight tonnage roll-on-roll off (Roro) carrier MS Estraden.
Owned by Bore, the leading Finnish Roro shipping company, MS Estraden operates in a continuous service between The netherlands and the UK, sailing through the North sea windy corridors at speeds of 16 knots.
The installation on the MS Estraden was completed in two parts: the required foundations were installed during a normal dry-dock stay,
followed by the 18-meter-high rotor during an ordinary seven-hour harbor stay. Norsepower target installation for vessels is four large rotors installed on one vessel.
With these larger installations, Norsepower forecasts substantial savings of 20 percent for vessels traveling on favorable wind routes.
A growing number of stakeholders are prioritizing efficiency, including charterers (those that rent ships), banks, port authorities,
and ship registries. With this growing prioritization, these parties are starting to shift money towards
and reward more-efficient vessels. For example, today charterers representing 20 percent of global shipped tonnage have policies in place to avoid using the most-inefficient ships based on the GHG Emissions Rating,
developed by maritime risk management specialist Rightship and Carbon War Room. That a 450-percent increase in the past 2. 5 years,
Alongside the shift from charterers, shipping banks are starting to acknowledge the development of a two-tier market,
As a result, banks are recognizing the impact that ship efficiency has on assets on their books
and are using efficiency data to assess risk and return, and inform credit approvals and resale and scrapping decisions.
As banks encourage efficiency retrofits where they make sense, and demonstrate to shipowners that efficient ships are more profitable,
such as those behind Norsepower and Bore, are demonstrating the viability of efficiency technologiess well as the financial gains they offernd creating greater credibility for emerging technologies.
In fact, with the results from the single-rotor trial Bore is already looking ahead to the opportunity of two rotors on one ship. e are proud to be the first shipowner to install the Norsepower Rotor Sail,
and demonstrate that wind propulsion technology has verifiable five-percent fuel savings on a yearly basis,
It our goal to find ways to establish sustainable shipping with minimal impact on our environment,
Building such confidence in emerging technologies is the integral focus of Carbon War Room and University college London Shipping Innovation Fast-Tracker (SHIFT), in
and investors to boost the profile of low-carbon opportunities and promote investment in the industry.
WHY CHARTERS SHOULD RIDE THIS WAVE Fuel buyers can buttress their balance sheet by adopting fuel-saving technologies,
automatically protecting them from the pressures of a tenuous oil market. What makes the proposition even more enticing is the fact that successful technologies
like the Rotor Sail Solution, exist today, and can be deployed and scaled quickly. odern wind systems are demonstrating measurable and meaningful fuel savings for ships.
the industry will reap the rewards of lower fuel costsore sustainable than those from short-term price decreases,
chair of the board of Rocky mountain Institute and Carbon War Room. In addition, by incorporating these successful technologies into new builds and existing vessels
#Weirdest Biofuel Ever Powers Strangest Car Ever The folks at Columbia University have come up with a loating enginethat runs on evaporating water
Weirdest Biofuel Ever, For anything Columbia press materials sum up the strange new car in one pithy sentence:
Eva, the first evaporation-powered car, rolls along, thanks to a moisture mill a turbine engine driven by water evaporating from wet paper strips lining its walls.
as shown in this nifty Youtube video (don miss the cartoon version, too): Hook up the floating engine to a generator,
and you can produce enough electricity to turn on an LED light. If this seems like small potatoes,
When evaporation energy is scaled up, the researchers predict, it could one day produce electricity from giant floating power generators that sit on bays or reservoirs,
or from huge rotating machines akin to wind turbines that sit above water The team is already predicting that a scaled-up version,
and far more spores, could produce more power per unit than a wind farm. If you want more details,
On Monday, BMW teased out word of its plans for a fuel cell electric vehicle launch in 2020.
to be precise source for hydrogen that the company has been messing around with (visit our sister site Gas2. org for more coverage).
The company Joule updated us on new patents for its cyanobacteria-to-biofuel process powered by sunlight and carbon dioxide, researchers at Tohoku University hit upon a new method for converting algae to biofuel precursors,
and a new pathway to converting biomass to jet fuel was announced by a team from Lawrence Berkeley National Lab in partnership with the petroleum giant BP of all people (corporations are people too,
#Biomimicry Wave Energy Device Ready To Leave The Nest A new bio-inspired method of harvesting energy from the ocean has completed its shakedown on land,
Called biowave, the wave energy device won be venturing too far Port Fairy in Australia is as far as it going
when we compared the new wave energy concept to kelp. That might seem a little imaginative considering
However, kelp is pretty much on the money in terms of biomimicry. The Biowave wave energy device was inspired by the way that kelp sways and pivots with the movement of ocean swell waves.
The biowave actually gives you a twofer of potential and kinetic wave energy harvesting. It consists of an array of floats that rise and fall with the up and down-down surface motion of swells,
which accounts for the potential energy. The kinetic energy comes in under the surface, as the floats (or lades sway back and forth.
The prototype pictured above is a 250 kilowatt model designed for operation at 30 meters
as a midway step to developing a one-megawatt commercial version for 405 meter depths.
The tricky part is converting all that motion into electricity. The company behind the wave energy device, Biopower Systems (what else?
developed an onboard power conversion system it calls O-Drive. As illustrated by the schematic at the top of this article,
which fluid is stored in a bank of accumulators. The accumulators literally accumulate the herky-jerky energy of the wave motion
and release it in a steady stream to a hydraulic motor. The motor goes to a generator,
and the generator cranks electricity into an undersea cable for transmission to the shore. To pare down maintenance costs,
Wave energy is a bit of a risky venture now that offshore wind energy is taking off, but the pursuit is worth it.
One key advantage of wave devices is their relatively low profile above the surface, and in the case of biowave, no profile at all.
That provides much more flexibility for site selection than offshore wind turbines which can easily run into aesthetic obstacles.
The biowave project is supported partly by the Australian Renewable energy Agency (ARENA) and the government of Victoria.
This is a big year for ARENA, which is also behind the unique Perth wave energy project that launched in March.
Here in the US, wave energy is also getting a huge lift from us taxpayers in the form of a public-private shared test bed at Marine corps Base Hawaii and funding from the Energy department so group hug D
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