.: Postal Service Expands Hydrogen Fuel Cell Vehicle Testing To West Coast -
IRVINE, Calif.—With anticipation of cleaner air, improved energy efficiency, and no reliance on imported oil, the U.S. Postal Service has signed an agreement with General Motors to extend for another year hydrogen fuel cell vehicle testing in the Washington, D.C., area and to expand the program to the West Coast. The announcement was made today at the unveiling of a GM HydroGen3 minivan that will be added to the Postal Service’s Irvine, Calif., mail delivery fleet.For the past two years, the Postal Service has been collecting and analyzing data from GM’s hydrogen fuel cell minivan, which has been delivering mail three days a week. Though the technology is still being refined, Postal Service engineers say that the minivan has held up well to the rigors of stop-and-go driving and cold weather.
“The Postal Service has a long history of helping to develop nearly every major mode of transportation used in the last 230 years,” said Walter O’Tormey, Vice President, Engineering, U.S. Postal Service. “GM is helping to lead the way to a hydrogen-powered future—with advanced technologies that are more energy efficient, kinder to the environment, and help increase the energy security of our country.”A vehicle powered by hydrogen fuel cells emits just pure water and is twice as energy efficient as an internal combustion engine.The Postal Service has more than 37,000 alternative-fuel vehicles in its fleet—the largest in the nation. The agency is currently evaluating other kinds of alternative fuels, such as biodiesel; an electric vehicle and those that run on compressed natural gas and ethanol. As an organization that drives more than 1.2 billion miles a year, the Postal Service is in a unique position to lead the way to an alternative-fuel economy, according to O’Tormey.About the USPSSince 1775, the United States Postal Service and its predecessor, the Post Office Department, have connected friends, families, neighbors and businesses by mail. An independent federal agency that visits more than 144 million homes and businesses every day, the Postal Service is the only service provider delivering to every address in the nation. It receives no taxpayer dollars for routine operations, but derives its operating revenues solely from the sale of postage, products and services. With annual revenues of $70 billion, it is the world’s leading provider of mailing and delivery services, offering some of the most affordable postage rates in the world. The U.S. Postal Service delivers more than 46 percent of the world’s mail volume—some 212 billion letters, advertisements, periodicals and packages a year—and serves ten million customers each day at its 37,000 retail locations nationwide.About GMGeneral Motors Corp. (NYSE: GM), the world’s largest automaker, has been the global industry sales leader for 75 years. Founded in 1908, GM today employs about 327,000 people around the world. With global headquarters in Detroit, GM manufactures its cars and trucks in 33 countries. In 2005, 9.17 million GM cars and trucks were sold globally under the following brands: Buick, Cadillac, Chevrolet, GMC, GM Daewoo, Holden, HUMMER, Opel, Pontiac, Saab, Saturn and Vauxhall. More information on GM can be found at www.gm.com . Source: USPS
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Friday, September 29, 2006
Solid-Oxide Fuel Cells Undergo Successful Test
: "Franklin Fuel Cells reported on August 9 that it has successfully 'tested, demonstrated, and proven' its patented, proprietary Solid Oxide Fuel Cells (SOFC) technology on 16 different hydrocarbon fuels.
Among the fuels tested on the SOFCs were: propane, methane, ethanol, natural gas and diesel.
Since 1999, automakers like BMW and Delphi Automotive have been looking toward SOFC technology as a promising alternative to traditional combustion engines. BMW and Delphi plan to introduce SOFC technology into automobiles as auxiliary power units hopefully in the next decade. These units would run the vehicle's electrical systems, easing the load on the engine, and allowing for smaller more efficient engines.
The most attractive feature of SOFC systems are their fuel flexibility. Because they can run on a variety of fuels, or electrolytes, SOFCs eliminate the need to provide hydrogen as a source of fuel. But being able to run on multiple widely available petrochemical fuels also frees American automakers from dependency on any one fuel in case of a shortage. Franklin Fuel Cells believes its improved SOFC technology is key in enabling smooth transition off of fossil fuels, the company has said.
The SOFC systems operate at high temperatures up to 1000 degrees Celsius. This high temperature makes it more efficient than both Proton-Exchange Membrane (PEM) fuel cells, which run on hydrogen, and combustion engines. These systems run clean and quiet, and, because they don't get poisoned by carbon dioxide, they can run on many different fuels.
PEM cells require 4 steps to convert liquid to gas fuel. In contrast, SOFC systems only require one step to remove sulfur from the fuel before it can be used. However Franklin Fuel Cells reports that its fuel cells require no reformers or de-sulfurizers. This make"
: "Franklin Fuel Cells reported on August 9 that it has successfully 'tested, demonstrated, and proven' its patented, proprietary Solid Oxide Fuel Cells (SOFC) technology on 16 different hydrocarbon fuels.
Among the fuels tested on the SOFCs were: propane, methane, ethanol, natural gas and diesel.
Since 1999, automakers like BMW and Delphi Automotive have been looking toward SOFC technology as a promising alternative to traditional combustion engines. BMW and Delphi plan to introduce SOFC technology into automobiles as auxiliary power units hopefully in the next decade. These units would run the vehicle's electrical systems, easing the load on the engine, and allowing for smaller more efficient engines.
The most attractive feature of SOFC systems are their fuel flexibility. Because they can run on a variety of fuels, or electrolytes, SOFCs eliminate the need to provide hydrogen as a source of fuel. But being able to run on multiple widely available petrochemical fuels also frees American automakers from dependency on any one fuel in case of a shortage. Franklin Fuel Cells believes its improved SOFC technology is key in enabling smooth transition off of fossil fuels, the company has said.
The SOFC systems operate at high temperatures up to 1000 degrees Celsius. This high temperature makes it more efficient than both Proton-Exchange Membrane (PEM) fuel cells, which run on hydrogen, and combustion engines. These systems run clean and quiet, and, because they don't get poisoned by carbon dioxide, they can run on many different fuels.
PEM cells require 4 steps to convert liquid to gas fuel. In contrast, SOFC systems only require one step to remove sulfur from the fuel before it can be used. However Franklin Fuel Cells reports that its fuel cells require no reformers or de-sulfurizers. This make"
Rare Mineral Further Implicates CO2 in Last Global Warming
Those trying to get a glimpse of what the future holds for the global climate may want to dig into the past. The earth's last major warm period probably witnessed relatively high concentrations of carbon dioxide (CO2) in the atmosphere--similar to the upper limit of concentrations we might expect in the coming century--according to an analysis of ancient mineral deposits.
The clues come from the period of time between 49 and 56 million years ago, called the Eocene. Global temperatures jumped at the start of this era, judging from marine sediments as well as fossilized palm fronds and crocodiles found near the North Pole. The various indirect estimates of CO2 concentration for the Eocene vary widely, however, from 100 parts per million (ppm), which is about one fourth of today's concentration, to more than 3,000 ppm. Researchers would like to narrow down that value so they can test their models of how CO2 levels influence global temperature and thus better predict the planet's future warming.
The new estimate is based on the discovery of the rare sodium carbonate mineral nahcolite in two large deposits that date to the Eocene. Crucially, nahcolite is only expected to crystallize from salty water when the atmosphere contains 1,125 ppm or more of carbon dioxide. "That's the lowest it could have possibly been," says geologist Tim Lowenstein of Binghamton University, who reports the discovery with his colleague Robert Demicco in the September 29 Science. At lower CO2 levels a mineral called trona usually forms instead. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has estimated that global CO2 will reach roughly 500 to 1,000 ppm by 2100, depending on what humans do to control emissions.
"It's great that they found this," says Robert Berner of Yale University, who has calculated that CO2 concentrations during the Eocene should have been about 1,000 ppm. "This is a period of intense warming, and a lot of people believe it was due to greenhouse effects," he says. "This adds more credence to this idea." All proxies for past carbon dioxide have different strengths and limitations, which makes incorporating a new one tricky, says Dana Royer of Wesleyan University. "Even including this paper the data tends to fall out between 500 and 1,000 ppm," he argues. In his view, that could still leave CO2 levels somewhat too low during this era to fully explain its warming, leaving room for additional mechanisms on top of the greenhouse effect. --JR Minkel
Those trying to get a glimpse of what the future holds for the global climate may want to dig into the past. The earth's last major warm period probably witnessed relatively high concentrations of carbon dioxide (CO2) in the atmosphere--similar to the upper limit of concentrations we might expect in the coming century--according to an analysis of ancient mineral deposits.
The clues come from the period of time between 49 and 56 million years ago, called the Eocene. Global temperatures jumped at the start of this era, judging from marine sediments as well as fossilized palm fronds and crocodiles found near the North Pole. The various indirect estimates of CO2 concentration for the Eocene vary widely, however, from 100 parts per million (ppm), which is about one fourth of today's concentration, to more than 3,000 ppm. Researchers would like to narrow down that value so they can test their models of how CO2 levels influence global temperature and thus better predict the planet's future warming.
The new estimate is based on the discovery of the rare sodium carbonate mineral nahcolite in two large deposits that date to the Eocene. Crucially, nahcolite is only expected to crystallize from salty water when the atmosphere contains 1,125 ppm or more of carbon dioxide. "That's the lowest it could have possibly been," says geologist Tim Lowenstein of Binghamton University, who reports the discovery with his colleague Robert Demicco in the September 29 Science. At lower CO2 levels a mineral called trona usually forms instead. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has estimated that global CO2 will reach roughly 500 to 1,000 ppm by 2100, depending on what humans do to control emissions.
"It's great that they found this," says Robert Berner of Yale University, who has calculated that CO2 concentrations during the Eocene should have been about 1,000 ppm. "This is a period of intense warming, and a lot of people believe it was due to greenhouse effects," he says. "This adds more credence to this idea." All proxies for past carbon dioxide have different strengths and limitations, which makes incorporating a new one tricky, says Dana Royer of Wesleyan University. "Even including this paper the data tends to fall out between 500 and 1,000 ppm," he argues. In his view, that could still leave CO2 levels somewhat too low during this era to fully explain its warming, leaving room for additional mechanisms on top of the greenhouse effect. --JR Minkel
Campbell delays Burrup gas plant decision.
Federal Environment and Heritage Minister Senator Ian Campbell says he needs more time to consider plans for a proposed natural gas plant, which will sit on a culturally significant area.
The Burrup Peninsula in the north-west of Western Australia is home to some of the oldest and most important rock carvings, or petroglyphs, on Earth.
The area is also rich in resources and energy giant Woodside Petroleum wants to build an on-shore natural gas plant there.
Senator Campbell says natural gas cuts greenhouse emissions by up to 60 per cent and he does not want to hold up that export development.
But some of the rock art will be destroyed by the construction of the plant.
Senator Campbell says his interests lie in creating a balanced solution and he needs more time to find an appropriate course of action.
"I want to ensure we get future management of the province right," he said.
"I want to make sure that all of the major stakeholders, particularly the economic stakeholders are very happy with the process and we get, what I call a win-win-win.
"A win for the economy, a win for the environment in terms of greenhouse gas reductions, but also putting in a plan for the very very important and ancient rock art at the Burrup."
Archaeological survey
Senator Campbell says efforts to survey the area for national heritage have been implemented.
But he says only 30 per cent of the area has been looked at and more work needs to be done.
"We have spent a large amount of taxpayers money [to get] some of the best archaeologists available to [survey the are for cultural significance] but they have been impeded by lack of agreement from some of the local Indigenous interests," he said.
"So it is fair to say the thoroughness of the archaeological work is not up to the standard that I would expect for such an important area.
"It is an enormous area … we are talking about a massive part of that province, a couple hundred of kilometres long by 50 or 60 kilometres wide."
Decision deadline
Senator Campbell says a decision will have to be made before surveying is completed.
"I think the archaeological work in that province will probably be going on for some hundreds of years I suspect, so you're not going to hold up a decision until it is thorough," he said.
"The main reason I'm delaying the decision-making process is that I want to ensure the economic development of the Burrup is in no way impeded by the heritage process of the heritage listing."
But Senator Campbell says the majority of rock art will be preserved .
"I'm absolutely certain at the end of this process that the management structure and the protection regime of that rock art will be world standard and much much better than anything that has existed in the past," he said.
"I'm absolutely certain that people will be able to go to the Burrup in five years, 10 years, 20 years, 30 years or 100 years and they will have a tremendous experience I am absolutely confident about that."
Federal Environment and Heritage Minister Senator Ian Campbell says he needs more time to consider plans for a proposed natural gas plant, which will sit on a culturally significant area.
The Burrup Peninsula in the north-west of Western Australia is home to some of the oldest and most important rock carvings, or petroglyphs, on Earth.
The area is also rich in resources and energy giant Woodside Petroleum wants to build an on-shore natural gas plant there.
Senator Campbell says natural gas cuts greenhouse emissions by up to 60 per cent and he does not want to hold up that export development.
But some of the rock art will be destroyed by the construction of the plant.
Senator Campbell says his interests lie in creating a balanced solution and he needs more time to find an appropriate course of action.
"I want to ensure we get future management of the province right," he said.
"I want to make sure that all of the major stakeholders, particularly the economic stakeholders are very happy with the process and we get, what I call a win-win-win.
"A win for the economy, a win for the environment in terms of greenhouse gas reductions, but also putting in a plan for the very very important and ancient rock art at the Burrup."
Archaeological survey
Senator Campbell says efforts to survey the area for national heritage have been implemented.
But he says only 30 per cent of the area has been looked at and more work needs to be done.
"We have spent a large amount of taxpayers money [to get] some of the best archaeologists available to [survey the are for cultural significance] but they have been impeded by lack of agreement from some of the local Indigenous interests," he said.
"So it is fair to say the thoroughness of the archaeological work is not up to the standard that I would expect for such an important area.
"It is an enormous area … we are talking about a massive part of that province, a couple hundred of kilometres long by 50 or 60 kilometres wide."
Decision deadline
Senator Campbell says a decision will have to be made before surveying is completed.
"I think the archaeological work in that province will probably be going on for some hundreds of years I suspect, so you're not going to hold up a decision until it is thorough," he said.
"The main reason I'm delaying the decision-making process is that I want to ensure the economic development of the Burrup is in no way impeded by the heritage process of the heritage listing."
But Senator Campbell says the majority of rock art will be preserved .
"I'm absolutely certain at the end of this process that the management structure and the protection regime of that rock art will be world standard and much much better than anything that has existed in the past," he said.
"I'm absolutely certain that people will be able to go to the Burrup in five years, 10 years, 20 years, 30 years or 100 years and they will have a tremendous experience I am absolutely confident about that."
Thursday, September 28, 2006
NRMA calls for petrol price transparency.
The NRMA says there needs to be greater transparency on how petrol prices are set.
The association's president, Alan Evans, has told a Senate inquiry the cost of fuel is the main concern among members.
Mr Evans says over the past 18 months the increase in the price of petrol has outstripped the rise in the cost of crude oil.
He says petrol companies have a right to reasonable profits but not super profits at the expense of the Australian public.
"It is unclear to the NRMA how in the face of rapidly rising oil prices, the retail price of petrol has risen by more than the cost of crude oil to the extent that companies like Caltex and Exxon Mobile are announcing record profits," he said.
Mr Evans says petrol companies must be more open about the additional charges they include in the pump price.
"We say the margins have been increased around about 27.3 per cent over that period so they have taken opportunity to not only capture that price increase in crude but to add additional margins," he said.
The NRMA says there needs to be greater transparency on how petrol prices are set.
The association's president, Alan Evans, has told a Senate inquiry the cost of fuel is the main concern among members.
Mr Evans says over the past 18 months the increase in the price of petrol has outstripped the rise in the cost of crude oil.
He says petrol companies have a right to reasonable profits but not super profits at the expense of the Australian public.
"It is unclear to the NRMA how in the face of rapidly rising oil prices, the retail price of petrol has risen by more than the cost of crude oil to the extent that companies like Caltex and Exxon Mobile are announcing record profits," he said.
Mr Evans says petrol companies must be more open about the additional charges they include in the pump price.
"We say the margins have been increased around about 27.3 per cent over that period so they have taken opportunity to not only capture that price increase in crude but to add additional margins," he said.
edie news centre - Renewables ripe for investment
An impressive line-up of speakers outlined a compelling case for investing in the blossoming renewables sector at an international conference in London this week. The Renewable Energy Finance Forum (REFF) held its annual jamboree in the English capital this week providing a platform for everyone from government Ministers to industrial moguls to extol the virtues of clean energy and, equally importantly, to predict healthy profits for those willing to back the renewable revolution. Esteban Morras, executive director of Spanish-based Acciona described his renewables to riches story telling how he had started out 15 years ago with a single project and a tiny staff and how the company had risen to become a diverse multinational corporation worth a small fortune. He stressed the importance of not keeping all one's financial eggs in one basket and pointed out that Acciona was always keen to branch out into emerging sectors of the renewables industry. He also pointed out that it was important to temper visionary ideas in this young industry with sound business sense. However the sector's future is assured, he argued, as long as their were concerns about the rising price of oil, security of supply, population growth, climate change and a growing thirst for energy in the developing world. Mr Morras claimed renewables also had the potential to break the stranglehold on the energy markets of countries rich in gas and oil. "All countries in the world have renewable energy resources," he said. V Subramanian, secretary for India's Ministry of Non-Conventional Energy Dests painted a picture of the emerging economies take on renewables and the targets it had set itself to ensure clean electricity generation played a significant role in the country's rapid growth. Shri Subramanian also raised the issue of how when talking about renewables people often focused in on electricity generation and overlooked the huge potential of biofuels in providing heating and transport fuel. Germany's Martin Schope of the Federal Ministry for the Environment looked at the European picture, focusing on the decisions his country had made to promote renewables in while phasing out nuclear power and discussed the relative merits of the two schools of incentives schemes that had been used in the EU to encourage more renewables - feed in systems which required grid operators to buy renewable energy from its producers versus quota systems that offered subsidies for renewables. Underlying the whole proceedings was the message that, whichever way you choose to look at it, renewable energy is a huge growth market with a rosy future and, as Mr Morras told delegates, where banks would in the past have been reluctant to touch a project in the sector they are now well aware of its potential and the profits that it brings. "A change in the world energy markets is a must and renewables should play a role in that change, we're convinced that the economics of renewables are already competitive today," he said. "We can produce cheaper electricity with wind than with natural gas and other resoruces, and other technologies are getting cheaper all the time. The financial markets are ready for this, and that is very significant." Now was the time to act, he claimed, as the world enjoyed a relatively healthy global economy and could afford to make the switch. If we waited until crisis point, he argued, replacing a large share of fossil fuel power generation with renewables would be considerably harder. Sam Bond
Email to friend Link to story Print Comment Source: edie newsroom
An impressive line-up of speakers outlined a compelling case for investing in the blossoming renewables sector at an international conference in London this week. The Renewable Energy Finance Forum (REFF) held its annual jamboree in the English capital this week providing a platform for everyone from government Ministers to industrial moguls to extol the virtues of clean energy and, equally importantly, to predict healthy profits for those willing to back the renewable revolution. Esteban Morras, executive director of Spanish-based Acciona described his renewables to riches story telling how he had started out 15 years ago with a single project and a tiny staff and how the company had risen to become a diverse multinational corporation worth a small fortune. He stressed the importance of not keeping all one's financial eggs in one basket and pointed out that Acciona was always keen to branch out into emerging sectors of the renewables industry. He also pointed out that it was important to temper visionary ideas in this young industry with sound business sense. However the sector's future is assured, he argued, as long as their were concerns about the rising price of oil, security of supply, population growth, climate change and a growing thirst for energy in the developing world. Mr Morras claimed renewables also had the potential to break the stranglehold on the energy markets of countries rich in gas and oil. "All countries in the world have renewable energy resources," he said. V Subramanian, secretary for India's Ministry of Non-Conventional Energy Dests painted a picture of the emerging economies take on renewables and the targets it had set itself to ensure clean electricity generation played a significant role in the country's rapid growth. Shri Subramanian also raised the issue of how when talking about renewables people often focused in on electricity generation and overlooked the huge potential of biofuels in providing heating and transport fuel. Germany's Martin Schope of the Federal Ministry for the Environment looked at the European picture, focusing on the decisions his country had made to promote renewables in while phasing out nuclear power and discussed the relative merits of the two schools of incentives schemes that had been used in the EU to encourage more renewables - feed in systems which required grid operators to buy renewable energy from its producers versus quota systems that offered subsidies for renewables. Underlying the whole proceedings was the message that, whichever way you choose to look at it, renewable energy is a huge growth market with a rosy future and, as Mr Morras told delegates, where banks would in the past have been reluctant to touch a project in the sector they are now well aware of its potential and the profits that it brings. "A change in the world energy markets is a must and renewables should play a role in that change, we're convinced that the economics of renewables are already competitive today," he said. "We can produce cheaper electricity with wind than with natural gas and other resoruces, and other technologies are getting cheaper all the time. The financial markets are ready for this, and that is very significant." Now was the time to act, he claimed, as the world enjoyed a relatively healthy global economy and could afford to make the switch. If we waited until crisis point, he argued, replacing a large share of fossil fuel power generation with renewables would be considerably harder. Sam Bond
Email to friend Link to story Print Comment Source: edie newsroom
Pembina Institute Advises Oil Sands Panel: Government Must Hold Industry Accountable for Greenhouse Gas Pollution
Edmonton-At the fourth of seven oil sands consultation meetings today in Edmonton the Pembina Institute will urge the panel members to accept the principle of polluter pay for oil sands development in Alberta and calls for "carbon neutral" oil sands production by 2020.Emissions of climate-changing greenhouse gases from Alberta's oil sands are set to increase more than threefold between 2003 and 2012, and fivefold between 2003 and 2020. The projections show annual emissions from the oil sands increasing from 25.2 megatonnes (Mt) in 2003 to 61.9-67.9 Mt in 2010. This increase represents 41-47% of the 90 Mt growth in Canada's total annual emissions that the federal government estimates would occur over the same period under "business-as-usual" conditions."The Pembina Institute is calling on the federal and provincial government to set mandatory emissions targets that ensure all oil sands producers contribute to significant emissions reduction by purchasing credits," says Marlo Raynolds, Executive Director of the Pembina Institute. "In the longer term, the oil sands industry should be required to become "carbon neutral," through a combination of emission cuts on-site and the purchase of credits to offset 100% of the remaining emissions."At present, there is no clear prospect of federal or provincial regulations limiting the amount of greenhouse gas pollution that heavy industry can emit. A recent Pembina Institute poll found that 86 per cent of Albertans agree with the statement that oil sands producers "should be required to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions that are responsible for climate change."Calculations done by the Pembina Institute show that oil sands producers have the capacity to become "carbon neutral" (reduce their net emissions to zero) by 2020. The cost to oil sands companies would be in the range of three to nine dollars per barrel. The Pembina Institute urges Albertans to attend the consultation sessions and/or file their comments online (see http://www.oilsandswatch.org/take-action-pc.php). -30 - For more information contact:Marlo Raynolds, Executive Director Cell: 403-607-9427Download:
Edmonton-At the fourth of seven oil sands consultation meetings today in Edmonton the Pembina Institute will urge the panel members to accept the principle of polluter pay for oil sands development in Alberta and calls for "carbon neutral" oil sands production by 2020.Emissions of climate-changing greenhouse gases from Alberta's oil sands are set to increase more than threefold between 2003 and 2012, and fivefold between 2003 and 2020. The projections show annual emissions from the oil sands increasing from 25.2 megatonnes (Mt) in 2003 to 61.9-67.9 Mt in 2010. This increase represents 41-47% of the 90 Mt growth in Canada's total annual emissions that the federal government estimates would occur over the same period under "business-as-usual" conditions."The Pembina Institute is calling on the federal and provincial government to set mandatory emissions targets that ensure all oil sands producers contribute to significant emissions reduction by purchasing credits," says Marlo Raynolds, Executive Director of the Pembina Institute. "In the longer term, the oil sands industry should be required to become "carbon neutral," through a combination of emission cuts on-site and the purchase of credits to offset 100% of the remaining emissions."At present, there is no clear prospect of federal or provincial regulations limiting the amount of greenhouse gas pollution that heavy industry can emit. A recent Pembina Institute poll found that 86 per cent of Albertans agree with the statement that oil sands producers "should be required to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions that are responsible for climate change."Calculations done by the Pembina Institute show that oil sands producers have the capacity to become "carbon neutral" (reduce their net emissions to zero) by 2020. The cost to oil sands companies would be in the range of three to nine dollars per barrel. The Pembina Institute urges Albertans to attend the consultation sessions and/or file their comments online (see http://www.oilsandswatch.org/take-action-pc.php). -30 - For more information contact:Marlo Raynolds, Executive Director Cell: 403-607-9427Download:
Glue made from ethanolproduction leftovers may be worth more than the fuel
Mixing up a batch of ethanol from alfalfa or switchgrass isn't nearly as efficient as creating it from corn, but that doesn't mean growing grass crops for fuel won't pay, says Paul Weimer.
Rather than dwelling on finding ways to squeeze extra ethanol out of biomass from crops such as switchgrass, Weimer is concentrating his research on the leftovers. He thinks that the large heap of fermentation residue from the ethanol-making process — what many people consider a byproduct — could be far more valuable than the ethanol itself. "A lot of people want to do the same thing with biomass material that we've been doing with corn," says Weimer, a research microbiologist at the USDA-ARS Dairy Forage Research Center and associate professor of bacteriology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. "They want to hit it with enzymes to break it down into sugars, and ferment those sugars into ethanol. The problem with this, he explains, is that the enzymes needed to break down celluose biomass are very expensive, and they don't work nearly as effectively as the enzymes used to convert starch. In fact, Weimer adds, both corn and cellulosic biomass must be subjected to costly pretreatment to maximize the ethanol yield. "Our philosophy is a little bit different," Weimer says. "We think that the fermentation residue may actually be more valuable than the ethanol. And it may mean that we can do without pretreatment." He came to this conclusion as he took a closer look at the residue — the fermentation leftovers. He determined that the organisms that he uses to convert biomass do their job by sticking to the cellulose fibers with a glue-like substance called a glycocalyx. "Because glycocalyx works so effectively at holding organisms to cellulose material, we found that we couldn't get the glue off of the fibers without destroying the glue," Weimer says. "So, we took the entire fermentation mixture — the glue, plus the bacteria, plus the rest of the cellulosic biomass — and used it as an adhesive." Specifically, they used it as wood glue. To explore the glue's potential as value-added product for biomass crops, Weimer set out to test it by enlisting help from a research team at the USDA Forest Products Lab led by adhesive scientist Chuck Frihart. Their primary performance concerns were pressure and durability in wet conditions.
"One of the biggest drawbacks of any bio-based adhesive is that it will stick stuff together well but falls apart once it gets wet," Weimer says. While Weimer's bio-based adhesive does have this problem if used as a standalone product, it works well when mixed with another adhesive, a commonly used petroleum-based resin. In some applications the researchers have successfully used a mix in which up to 73 percent of the resin was replaced with the bio-based adhesive. Although the adhesive appears to have great potential, there are still a few hurdles. For one, it's quite viscous. For use in an industrial application, the glue would need to be made easier to apply. A second challenge is to bring the process to a larger scale. A third is to develop formulations that incorporate the bio-based glue into other types of adhesive mixtures. These challenges, says Weimer, will simply take time. Weimer hopes to get the wood products industry interested in replacing half of the phenol formaldehyde (PF), a petroleum-based adhesive now used to make plywood, with the biomass-based adhesive. "The PF that the fermentation process would partially replace sells for considerably more that ethanol, and the fermentation would still generate ethanol on the side," he says. But the economic incentive is only part of the picture, according to Weimer. "We'd like to keep alfalfa on the landscape because it has a lot of environmental benefits," Weimer says. "It's a good cover crop, it's drought-tolerant and fixes nitrogen. But because farmers are moving away from it as a dairy feed, we're trying to find another use, and we think this glue might be a solution." Source: University of Wisconsin-Madison
Mixing up a batch of ethanol from alfalfa or switchgrass isn't nearly as efficient as creating it from corn, but that doesn't mean growing grass crops for fuel won't pay, says Paul Weimer.
Rather than dwelling on finding ways to squeeze extra ethanol out of biomass from crops such as switchgrass, Weimer is concentrating his research on the leftovers. He thinks that the large heap of fermentation residue from the ethanol-making process — what many people consider a byproduct — could be far more valuable than the ethanol itself. "A lot of people want to do the same thing with biomass material that we've been doing with corn," says Weimer, a research microbiologist at the USDA-ARS Dairy Forage Research Center and associate professor of bacteriology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. "They want to hit it with enzymes to break it down into sugars, and ferment those sugars into ethanol. The problem with this, he explains, is that the enzymes needed to break down celluose biomass are very expensive, and they don't work nearly as effectively as the enzymes used to convert starch. In fact, Weimer adds, both corn and cellulosic biomass must be subjected to costly pretreatment to maximize the ethanol yield. "Our philosophy is a little bit different," Weimer says. "We think that the fermentation residue may actually be more valuable than the ethanol. And it may mean that we can do without pretreatment." He came to this conclusion as he took a closer look at the residue — the fermentation leftovers. He determined that the organisms that he uses to convert biomass do their job by sticking to the cellulose fibers with a glue-like substance called a glycocalyx. "Because glycocalyx works so effectively at holding organisms to cellulose material, we found that we couldn't get the glue off of the fibers without destroying the glue," Weimer says. "So, we took the entire fermentation mixture — the glue, plus the bacteria, plus the rest of the cellulosic biomass — and used it as an adhesive." Specifically, they used it as wood glue. To explore the glue's potential as value-added product for biomass crops, Weimer set out to test it by enlisting help from a research team at the USDA Forest Products Lab led by adhesive scientist Chuck Frihart. Their primary performance concerns were pressure and durability in wet conditions.
"One of the biggest drawbacks of any bio-based adhesive is that it will stick stuff together well but falls apart once it gets wet," Weimer says. While Weimer's bio-based adhesive does have this problem if used as a standalone product, it works well when mixed with another adhesive, a commonly used petroleum-based resin. In some applications the researchers have successfully used a mix in which up to 73 percent of the resin was replaced with the bio-based adhesive. Although the adhesive appears to have great potential, there are still a few hurdles. For one, it's quite viscous. For use in an industrial application, the glue would need to be made easier to apply. A second challenge is to bring the process to a larger scale. A third is to develop formulations that incorporate the bio-based glue into other types of adhesive mixtures. These challenges, says Weimer, will simply take time. Weimer hopes to get the wood products industry interested in replacing half of the phenol formaldehyde (PF), a petroleum-based adhesive now used to make plywood, with the biomass-based adhesive. "The PF that the fermentation process would partially replace sells for considerably more that ethanol, and the fermentation would still generate ethanol on the side," he says. But the economic incentive is only part of the picture, according to Weimer. "We'd like to keep alfalfa on the landscape because it has a lot of environmental benefits," Weimer says. "It's a good cover crop, it's drought-tolerant and fixes nitrogen. But because farmers are moving away from it as a dairy feed, we're trying to find another use, and we think this glue might be a solution." Source: University of Wisconsin-Madison
'One degree and we're done for' -
"Further global warming of 1 °C defines a critical threshold. Beyond that we will likely see changes that make Earth a different planet than the one we know."
So says Jim Hansen, director of NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies in New York. Hansen and colleagues have analysed global temperature records and found that surface temperatures have been increasing by an average of 0.2 °C every decade for the past 30 years. Warming is greatest in the high latitudes of the northern hemisphere, particularly in the sub-Arctic boreal forests of Siberia and North America. Here the melting of ice and snow is exposing darker surfaces that absorb more sunlight and increase warming, creating a positive feedback.
Earth is already as warm as at any time in the last 10,000 years, and is within 1 °C of being its hottest for a million years, says Hansen's team. Another decade of business-as-usual carbon emissions will probably make it too late to prevent the ecosystems of the north from triggering runaway climate change, the study concludes (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, vol 103, p 14288).
The analysis reinforces a series of recent findings on accelerating environmental disruption in Siberia, northern Canada and Alaska, underlining a growing scientific consensus that these regions are pivotal to climate change. Earlier this month, NASA scientists reported that climate change was speeding up the melting of Arctic sea ice. Permanent sea ice has contracted by 14 per cent in the past two years (Geophysical Research Letters, vol 33, L17501). However, warming and melting have been just as dramatic on land in the far north.
A meeting on Siberian climate change held in Leicester, UK, last week confirmed that Siberia has become a hotspot of global climate change. Geographer Heiko Balzter, of the University of Leicester, said central Siberia has warmed by almost 2 °C since 1970 - that's three times the global average.
Meanwhile, Stuart Chapin of the University of Alaska Fairbanks this week reported that air temperatures in the Alaskan interior have risen by 2 °C since 1950, and permafrost temperatures have risen by 2.5 °C (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, DOI: 10.1073/pnas.0606955103).
In Siberia the warming is especially pronounced in winter. "It has caused the onset of spring to advance by as much as one day a year since satellite observations began in 1982," says Balzter. Similarly, Alaskan springs now arrive two weeks earlier than in 1950, according to Chapin.
The Leicester meeting heard that the rising temperatures are causing ecological changes in the forests that ratchet up the warming still further. Vladimir Petko from the Russian Academy of Sciences Forest Research Institute in Krasnoyarsk says warm springs are triggering plagues of moths. "They can eat the needles of entire forest regions in one summer," he says. The trees die and then usually succumb to forest fires that in turn destroy soil vegetation and accelerate the melting of permafrost, Petko says.
In 2003 Siberia saw a record number of forest fires, losing 40,000 square kilometres according to Balzter, who has analysed remote sensing images of the region. Similar changes are occurring in Alaska. According to Chapin, warming there has shortened the life cycle of the bark beetle from two years to one, causing huge infestations and subsequent fires, which destroyed huge areas of forest in 2004. "The current boreal forest zone could be so dried out by 2090 that the trees will die off and be replaced by steppe," says Nadezhda Tchebakova, also at the institute in Krasnoyarsk.
Melting permafrost in the boreal forests and further north in the Arctic tundra is also triggering the release of methane, a powerful greenhouse gas, from thick layers of thawing peat. First reports published exclusively in New Scientist last year (13 August 2005, p 12) were recently confirmed by US scientists (Nature, vol 443, p 71).
"Large amounts of greenhouse gases are currently locked in the permafrost and if released could accelerate the greenhouse effect," says Balzter. Hansen's paper concludes that the effects of this positive feedback could be huge. "In past eras, the release of methane from melting permafrost and destabilised sediments on continental shelves has probably been responsible for some of the largest warmings in the Earth's history," he says.
“The release of methane from melting permafrost has been responsible for some of the largest warmings in history”
We could be close to unleashing similar events in the 21st century, Hansen argues. Although the feedbacks should remain modest as long as global temperatures remain within the range of recent interglacial periods of the past million years, outside that range - beyond a further warming of about 1 °C - the feedbacks could accelerate. Such changes may become inevitable if the world does not begin to curb greenhouse gas emissions within the next decade, Hansen says.
Meanwhile, another new study underlines that the boreal peat bogs, permafrost and pine forests are not just vital to the planet as a whole, they are major economic assets for the countries that host them. A detailed study of the northern boreal forests by environmental consultant Mark Anielski of Edmonton, Canada, puts the value of their "ecosystem services" at $250 billion a year, or $160 per hectare.
“The value of the services this ecosystem performs is more than twice that of the resources taken from the region each year”
These benefits include flood control, water purification and pest control provided by forest birds, plus income from wilderness tourism and meat from wildlife such as caribou. Anielski presented his findings to Canada's National Forest Congress in Gatineau-Ottawa earlier this week.
The value of these ecosystem services is more than twice that of conventional resources taken from the region each year, such as timber, minerals, oil and hydroelectricity, Anielski says. "If they were counted in Canadian inventories of assets, they would amount to roughly 9 per cent of our gross domestic product - similar in value to our health and social services."
You can add to that figure the value of having such a huge volume of carbon locked away. "The boreal region is like a giant carbon bank account," he says. "At current prices in the European carbon emissions trading system, Canada's stored carbon alone would be worth $3.7 trillion."
And if Hansen is right that the carbon and methane stored in the boreal regions has the potential to transform the world into "another planet", then the boreal region may be worth a great deal more than that.
From issue 2571 of New Scientist magazine, 27 September 2006, page 8-9
"Further global warming of 1 °C defines a critical threshold. Beyond that we will likely see changes that make Earth a different planet than the one we know."
So says Jim Hansen, director of NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies in New York. Hansen and colleagues have analysed global temperature records and found that surface temperatures have been increasing by an average of 0.2 °C every decade for the past 30 years. Warming is greatest in the high latitudes of the northern hemisphere, particularly in the sub-Arctic boreal forests of Siberia and North America. Here the melting of ice and snow is exposing darker surfaces that absorb more sunlight and increase warming, creating a positive feedback.
Earth is already as warm as at any time in the last 10,000 years, and is within 1 °C of being its hottest for a million years, says Hansen's team. Another decade of business-as-usual carbon emissions will probably make it too late to prevent the ecosystems of the north from triggering runaway climate change, the study concludes (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, vol 103, p 14288).
The analysis reinforces a series of recent findings on accelerating environmental disruption in Siberia, northern Canada and Alaska, underlining a growing scientific consensus that these regions are pivotal to climate change. Earlier this month, NASA scientists reported that climate change was speeding up the melting of Arctic sea ice. Permanent sea ice has contracted by 14 per cent in the past two years (Geophysical Research Letters, vol 33, L17501). However, warming and melting have been just as dramatic on land in the far north.
A meeting on Siberian climate change held in Leicester, UK, last week confirmed that Siberia has become a hotspot of global climate change. Geographer Heiko Balzter, of the University of Leicester, said central Siberia has warmed by almost 2 °C since 1970 - that's three times the global average.
Meanwhile, Stuart Chapin of the University of Alaska Fairbanks this week reported that air temperatures in the Alaskan interior have risen by 2 °C since 1950, and permafrost temperatures have risen by 2.5 °C (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, DOI: 10.1073/pnas.0606955103).
In Siberia the warming is especially pronounced in winter. "It has caused the onset of spring to advance by as much as one day a year since satellite observations began in 1982," says Balzter. Similarly, Alaskan springs now arrive two weeks earlier than in 1950, according to Chapin.
The Leicester meeting heard that the rising temperatures are causing ecological changes in the forests that ratchet up the warming still further. Vladimir Petko from the Russian Academy of Sciences Forest Research Institute in Krasnoyarsk says warm springs are triggering plagues of moths. "They can eat the needles of entire forest regions in one summer," he says. The trees die and then usually succumb to forest fires that in turn destroy soil vegetation and accelerate the melting of permafrost, Petko says.
In 2003 Siberia saw a record number of forest fires, losing 40,000 square kilometres according to Balzter, who has analysed remote sensing images of the region. Similar changes are occurring in Alaska. According to Chapin, warming there has shortened the life cycle of the bark beetle from two years to one, causing huge infestations and subsequent fires, which destroyed huge areas of forest in 2004. "The current boreal forest zone could be so dried out by 2090 that the trees will die off and be replaced by steppe," says Nadezhda Tchebakova, also at the institute in Krasnoyarsk.
Melting permafrost in the boreal forests and further north in the Arctic tundra is also triggering the release of methane, a powerful greenhouse gas, from thick layers of thawing peat. First reports published exclusively in New Scientist last year (13 August 2005, p 12) were recently confirmed by US scientists (Nature, vol 443, p 71).
"Large amounts of greenhouse gases are currently locked in the permafrost and if released could accelerate the greenhouse effect," says Balzter. Hansen's paper concludes that the effects of this positive feedback could be huge. "In past eras, the release of methane from melting permafrost and destabilised sediments on continental shelves has probably been responsible for some of the largest warmings in the Earth's history," he says.
“The release of methane from melting permafrost has been responsible for some of the largest warmings in history”
We could be close to unleashing similar events in the 21st century, Hansen argues. Although the feedbacks should remain modest as long as global temperatures remain within the range of recent interglacial periods of the past million years, outside that range - beyond a further warming of about 1 °C - the feedbacks could accelerate. Such changes may become inevitable if the world does not begin to curb greenhouse gas emissions within the next decade, Hansen says.
Meanwhile, another new study underlines that the boreal peat bogs, permafrost and pine forests are not just vital to the planet as a whole, they are major economic assets for the countries that host them. A detailed study of the northern boreal forests by environmental consultant Mark Anielski of Edmonton, Canada, puts the value of their "ecosystem services" at $250 billion a year, or $160 per hectare.
“The value of the services this ecosystem performs is more than twice that of the resources taken from the region each year”
These benefits include flood control, water purification and pest control provided by forest birds, plus income from wilderness tourism and meat from wildlife such as caribou. Anielski presented his findings to Canada's National Forest Congress in Gatineau-Ottawa earlier this week.
The value of these ecosystem services is more than twice that of conventional resources taken from the region each year, such as timber, minerals, oil and hydroelectricity, Anielski says. "If they were counted in Canadian inventories of assets, they would amount to roughly 9 per cent of our gross domestic product - similar in value to our health and social services."
You can add to that figure the value of having such a huge volume of carbon locked away. "The boreal region is like a giant carbon bank account," he says. "At current prices in the European carbon emissions trading system, Canada's stored carbon alone would be worth $3.7 trillion."
And if Hansen is right that the carbon and methane stored in the boreal regions has the potential to transform the world into "another planet", then the boreal region may be worth a great deal more than that.
From issue 2571 of New Scientist magazine, 27 September 2006, page 8-9
Wetland dry-up eases methane levels.
A new study has shown that methane levels have stabilised in the atmosphere but it is only because emissions produced by wetlands have fallen.
The study, which has been published in the journal Nature, has shown that while sources of methane from human activities like mining continues to rise, the overall levels in the atmosphere have levelled out.
Dr Paul Steele, from the CSIRO, says the reason is the prolonged drying of wetlands has caused a fall in the amount of methane released from swamps and bogs.
"Had it not been for this reduction in methane emissions from wetlands, atmospheric levels of methane would most likely have continued rising," Dr Steele said.
"They've just offset each other so the net, the total, didn't change."
Methane is said to have been responsible for one-fifth of the enhanced greenhouse effect over the past two centuries.
If the drying trend of wetlands is reversed, Dr Steele says methane levels in the atmosphere may again increase, worsening the problem of climate change.
Scientists say the Earth is getting hotter because of human activities, notably the release into the atmosphere of greenhouses gases which let in sunlight and trap its heat like the walls of a greenhouse.
"Methane is an important greenhouse gas and this work is a major step in better understanding why methane emissions are changing," Professor Neville Nicholls, an expert on climate change at Monash University in Melbourne, said.
"But the relentless increase in carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuels is, and will continue to be, the most important driver of the global warming we are witnessing."
The scientists used computer simulations to track back to the source of methane emissions and how the gas is transported in the atmosphere.
- ABC/Reuters
A new study has shown that methane levels have stabilised in the atmosphere but it is only because emissions produced by wetlands have fallen.
The study, which has been published in the journal Nature, has shown that while sources of methane from human activities like mining continues to rise, the overall levels in the atmosphere have levelled out.
Dr Paul Steele, from the CSIRO, says the reason is the prolonged drying of wetlands has caused a fall in the amount of methane released from swamps and bogs.
"Had it not been for this reduction in methane emissions from wetlands, atmospheric levels of methane would most likely have continued rising," Dr Steele said.
"They've just offset each other so the net, the total, didn't change."
Methane is said to have been responsible for one-fifth of the enhanced greenhouse effect over the past two centuries.
If the drying trend of wetlands is reversed, Dr Steele says methane levels in the atmosphere may again increase, worsening the problem of climate change.
Scientists say the Earth is getting hotter because of human activities, notably the release into the atmosphere of greenhouses gases which let in sunlight and trap its heat like the walls of a greenhouse.
"Methane is an important greenhouse gas and this work is a major step in better understanding why methane emissions are changing," Professor Neville Nicholls, an expert on climate change at Monash University in Melbourne, said.
"But the relentless increase in carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuels is, and will continue to be, the most important driver of the global warming we are witnessing."
The scientists used computer simulations to track back to the source of methane emissions and how the gas is transported in the atmosphere.
- ABC/Reuters
California to cut gas emissions
California's Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has signed a law which sets targets to reduce the state's greenhouse gas emissions.
Becoming the first US state to impose such limits, California is aiming to reduce its emissions by 25% by 2020.
Details on how the state will achieve the cut have not been worked out, but it seems inevitable that businesses will face tougher emissions limits.
While good news for the environment, critics argue that firms may relocate.
In addition to companies simply moving outside California, opponents of the Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006 say California's move will fail to make a meaningful reduction to US greenhouse gas emissions unless other states follow suit.
'Global echo'
The new Californian law has been backed by UK Prime Minister Tony Blair, who addressed the bill signing ceremony by video link.
The aviation industry must work together, Sir Richard says.
"This will echo right around the rest of the world," said Mr Blair.
Mr Schwarzenegger's move puts him into conflict with the White House, as President George W Bush has long agued that forced reductions in greenhouse gases would damage the US economy.
Yet Mr Schwarzenegger, who like Mr Bush is a Republican, thinks Washington will eventually follow California's lead.
"We begin a bold new era of environmental protection here in California that will change the course of history," he said.
"Also our federal government will follow us - trust me."
While Mr Schwarzenegger says his environmental credentials are real, his opponents say he is trying to steal the thunder of Californian Democrats.
Yet Mr Schwarzenegger also signed another law on Wednesday that prohibits California utilities from signing long-term contracts to buy electricity from out-of-state, coal-fired power plants.
Mr Schwarzenegger has already called on airline industry to do its bit for reducing emissions.
'Work together'
His comments came the same day as Virgin Airways boss Richard Branson asked for the same thing.
Sir Richard said the aviation industry had to start working together to tackle climate change.
Up to 25% of the world's aviation carbon dioxide emissions could be cut if airlines, airports and governments worked together, the Virgin boss said.
Sir Richard last week pledged Virgin profits worth $3bn (£1.6bn) towards renewable energy initiatives.
California's Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has signed a law which sets targets to reduce the state's greenhouse gas emissions.
Becoming the first US state to impose such limits, California is aiming to reduce its emissions by 25% by 2020.
Details on how the state will achieve the cut have not been worked out, but it seems inevitable that businesses will face tougher emissions limits.
While good news for the environment, critics argue that firms may relocate.
In addition to companies simply moving outside California, opponents of the Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006 say California's move will fail to make a meaningful reduction to US greenhouse gas emissions unless other states follow suit.
'Global echo'
The new Californian law has been backed by UK Prime Minister Tony Blair, who addressed the bill signing ceremony by video link.
The aviation industry must work together, Sir Richard says.
"This will echo right around the rest of the world," said Mr Blair.
Mr Schwarzenegger's move puts him into conflict with the White House, as President George W Bush has long agued that forced reductions in greenhouse gases would damage the US economy.
Yet Mr Schwarzenegger, who like Mr Bush is a Republican, thinks Washington will eventually follow California's lead.
"We begin a bold new era of environmental protection here in California that will change the course of history," he said.
"Also our federal government will follow us - trust me."
While Mr Schwarzenegger says his environmental credentials are real, his opponents say he is trying to steal the thunder of Californian Democrats.
Yet Mr Schwarzenegger also signed another law on Wednesday that prohibits California utilities from signing long-term contracts to buy electricity from out-of-state, coal-fired power plants.
Mr Schwarzenegger has already called on airline industry to do its bit for reducing emissions.
'Work together'
His comments came the same day as Virgin Airways boss Richard Branson asked for the same thing.
Sir Richard said the aviation industry had to start working together to tackle climate change.
Up to 25% of the world's aviation carbon dioxide emissions could be cut if airlines, airports and governments worked together, the Virgin boss said.
Sir Richard last week pledged Virgin profits worth $3bn (£1.6bn) towards renewable energy initiatives.
Wesfarmers drives harder for LNG -
A DAY after committing to a $138 million liquefied natural gas (LNG) development program aimed replacing diesel fuel in power generation and transport, Wesfarmers says it may expand the program Australia-wide.
Wesfarmers energy chief Tim Bult said the company had been working on the project for five years and "we're looking at the potential to grow the business in the eastern states as alternative to diesel".
A number of potential locations for plants and distribution locations were being looked at outside of Western Australia, he said. The Kwinana plant will provide fuel for use in power plants at AngloGold Ashanti's Sunrise Dam and Barrick Gold's Darlot gold mines as well as for trucks used at mines and by transport companies.
Mr Bult said most of the output of the 175 tonnes-per-day plant has been contracted.
Gas will be transported to the Kwinana plant through the Alinta-operated Dampier-to-Bunbury pipeline.
Gas will be supplied from the John Brookes field off the coast of Western Australia, which Santos owns with Apache Corp. The first delivery is due in early 2008.
Wesfarmer's move will be the first significant attempt to commercialise LNG as a transport fuel. Mr Bult said LNG was not significantly more efficient than diesel, but it gained its benefit for users from low prices.
LNG does not carry fuel excise. However, like other alternative fuels, excise will be introduced progressively over the rest of the decade and will reach 12.5¢ per litre. This is still well below the current diesel excise level of 38¢ per litre.
Mr Bult said the increase in excise levels would not adversely affect the economics of LNG as a transport fuel. "This is a long-term investment driven by cost advantage and price stability benefits LNG offers over diesel," he said. As a result users would not be faced with wild fluctuations such as those experienced in the oil market in recent times.
LNG is made by cooling natural gas and it remains in liquid form until it is used in diesel engines.
Vehicles require modification to fuel storage and fuel delivery systems to operate on it.
Wesfarmers shares closed up 67¢ at $34.67.
A DAY after committing to a $138 million liquefied natural gas (LNG) development program aimed replacing diesel fuel in power generation and transport, Wesfarmers says it may expand the program Australia-wide.
Wesfarmers energy chief Tim Bult said the company had been working on the project for five years and "we're looking at the potential to grow the business in the eastern states as alternative to diesel".
A number of potential locations for plants and distribution locations were being looked at outside of Western Australia, he said. The Kwinana plant will provide fuel for use in power plants at AngloGold Ashanti's Sunrise Dam and Barrick Gold's Darlot gold mines as well as for trucks used at mines and by transport companies.
Mr Bult said most of the output of the 175 tonnes-per-day plant has been contracted.
Gas will be transported to the Kwinana plant through the Alinta-operated Dampier-to-Bunbury pipeline.
Gas will be supplied from the John Brookes field off the coast of Western Australia, which Santos owns with Apache Corp. The first delivery is due in early 2008.
Wesfarmer's move will be the first significant attempt to commercialise LNG as a transport fuel. Mr Bult said LNG was not significantly more efficient than diesel, but it gained its benefit for users from low prices.
LNG does not carry fuel excise. However, like other alternative fuels, excise will be introduced progressively over the rest of the decade and will reach 12.5¢ per litre. This is still well below the current diesel excise level of 38¢ per litre.
Mr Bult said the increase in excise levels would not adversely affect the economics of LNG as a transport fuel. "This is a long-term investment driven by cost advantage and price stability benefits LNG offers over diesel," he said. As a result users would not be faced with wild fluctuations such as those experienced in the oil market in recent times.
LNG is made by cooling natural gas and it remains in liquid form until it is used in diesel engines.
Vehicles require modification to fuel storage and fuel delivery systems to operate on it.
Wesfarmers shares closed up 67¢ at $34.67.
Eden Energy
EDEN ENERGY LTD PROJECTS
Hydrogen technologies
Hydrogen technology & patents for the use and storage of hydrogen both as a liquid and a gas
Hythane® - transitional technology for converting gas engines to run on hydrogen; major pollution reducing benefits
Cryogenic storage systems
Fuel Tanks, Fuel Systems, pumps, conversion kits
SMESS - Superconducting Magnetic Electrical Storage System
South Wales Projects
Coal Bed Methane
Abandoned Mine Methane
Conventional petroleum
Natural Gas
Arthur Hill Anticline - Mulgaria Sub-basin; Adelaide Geosyncline, South Australia
Geothermal Energy - deep heat mining for clean continuous power
Witchelina Project, located between Leigh Creek and Roxby Downs, South Australia
Renmark Project, South Australia
Moomba North Project, South Australia
Bollards Lagoon Project, South Australia
Mungeranie Project, South Australia
Hydrogen from Natural Gas Pyrolysis
development of a cost-effective, low-temperature, CO2-free hydrogen production system using non thermal plasma assisted catalytic pyrolysis
EDEN ENERGY LTD PROJECTS
Hydrogen technologies
Hydrogen technology & patents for the use and storage of hydrogen both as a liquid and a gas
Hythane® - transitional technology for converting gas engines to run on hydrogen; major pollution reducing benefits
Cryogenic storage systems
Fuel Tanks, Fuel Systems, pumps, conversion kits
SMESS - Superconducting Magnetic Electrical Storage System
South Wales Projects
Coal Bed Methane
Abandoned Mine Methane
Conventional petroleum
Natural Gas
Arthur Hill Anticline - Mulgaria Sub-basin; Adelaide Geosyncline, South Australia
Geothermal Energy - deep heat mining for clean continuous power
Witchelina Project, located between Leigh Creek and Roxby Downs, South Australia
Renmark Project, South Australia
Moomba North Project, South Australia
Bollards Lagoon Project, South Australia
Mungeranie Project, South Australia
Hydrogen from Natural Gas Pyrolysis
development of a cost-effective, low-temperature, CO2-free hydrogen production system using non thermal plasma assisted catalytic pyrolysis
DOE Backs Australia's Eden Energy For Historic Hydrogen Fuel
An Australian company has won the backing of the United States Department of Energy ("DOE") for a long-term test of two hydrogen fuel types for automotive combustion engines.
Eden Energy Limited announced that:
The US’s first long-term test of engines fueled by hydrogen and a hydrogennatural gas mixture called Hythane®, had been awarded to wholly owned Eden Energy subsidiary, Colorado-based Hythane Co, subject to the Company completing an audit and contract negotiations with DOE.
The test program to deliver an ultra-clean hydrogen fuel would be supported by a US Energy Department grant of US$2.1 million.
“This is the first breakthrough into the massive American automotive market we have been working towards,” Eden Energy’s Executive Chairman, Greg Solomon, said.
“It is a two-year project that for the first time, will establish a ‘no compromises’ comparison of Hythane® and pure hydrogen based internal combustion engines (ICE) for the automotive sector,” Solomon said.
“With increasing acceptance that hydrogen will be the basis of automotive fuels of the future compared to other derivatives currently under study, the backing of the US DOE catapults Eden and Hythane Co. into a lead position in this emerging but potentially huge market opportunity.”
Eden Energy – which is 27% owned by Perth-based listed minerals explorer, Tasman Resources NL - has fostered the development of Hythane®, as the Company’s extensive field tests to date has shown it:
Cuts engine emissions of NOx and CO by 50% compared with natural gas
Has major carbon credit potential
Is immediately available because of existing low-cost natural gas infrastructure in the key markets of the US, China and India
Can use in its mix, low-purity hydrogen as well as CNG and LNGTest program termsSolomon said natural gas, Hythane®, and hydrogen ICEs represented the three most practical, and therefore the most likely transitional steps in the future between current diesel ICEs and fuel cell electric vehicles.
Under the terms of the grant and test program, two identical, heavy-duty, spark-ignited natural gas engines will be acquired and modified – one to run on Hythane® and the other to run on hydrogen. Hythane Co. will undertake most of the work on the 2,500 hour test program, which is expected to take two years.
“Many previous research, development, and demonstration studies have established the operational parameters and emissions performance for hydrogen and hydrogenblended ICEs but these programs have mostly provided only short-term data,” Solomon said.
“This new work will establish for the first time, formal laboratory data on the long-term performance, emissions, and durability of Hythane® and pure hydrogen ICEs.
“It is possible that the hydrogen content in the test fuels, particularly the pure hydrogen powered engine, could contribute to issues with engine lubricants, the engine, component or emissions system materials, the behavior of fuel supply components, or combustion product effects. These possible sources for accelerated deterioration may be subtle and require long-term interaction to become apparent.
“The new test work will aggressively simulate real-world, long-term operation of heavy-duty engines and provide sufficient opportunity to push durability and performance deterioration limits.”
SOURCE: Eden Energy -->
Forward This Article To An Associate
An Australian company has won the backing of the United States Department of Energy ("DOE") for a long-term test of two hydrogen fuel types for automotive combustion engines.
Eden Energy Limited announced that:
The US’s first long-term test of engines fueled by hydrogen and a hydrogennatural gas mixture called Hythane®, had been awarded to wholly owned Eden Energy subsidiary, Colorado-based Hythane Co, subject to the Company completing an audit and contract negotiations with DOE.
The test program to deliver an ultra-clean hydrogen fuel would be supported by a US Energy Department grant of US$2.1 million.
“This is the first breakthrough into the massive American automotive market we have been working towards,” Eden Energy’s Executive Chairman, Greg Solomon, said.
“It is a two-year project that for the first time, will establish a ‘no compromises’ comparison of Hythane® and pure hydrogen based internal combustion engines (ICE) for the automotive sector,” Solomon said.
“With increasing acceptance that hydrogen will be the basis of automotive fuels of the future compared to other derivatives currently under study, the backing of the US DOE catapults Eden and Hythane Co. into a lead position in this emerging but potentially huge market opportunity.”
Eden Energy – which is 27% owned by Perth-based listed minerals explorer, Tasman Resources NL - has fostered the development of Hythane®, as the Company’s extensive field tests to date has shown it:
Cuts engine emissions of NOx and CO by 50% compared with natural gas
Has major carbon credit potential
Is immediately available because of existing low-cost natural gas infrastructure in the key markets of the US, China and India
Can use in its mix, low-purity hydrogen as well as CNG and LNGTest program termsSolomon said natural gas, Hythane®, and hydrogen ICEs represented the three most practical, and therefore the most likely transitional steps in the future between current diesel ICEs and fuel cell electric vehicles.
Under the terms of the grant and test program, two identical, heavy-duty, spark-ignited natural gas engines will be acquired and modified – one to run on Hythane® and the other to run on hydrogen. Hythane Co. will undertake most of the work on the 2,500 hour test program, which is expected to take two years.
“Many previous research, development, and demonstration studies have established the operational parameters and emissions performance for hydrogen and hydrogenblended ICEs but these programs have mostly provided only short-term data,” Solomon said.
“This new work will establish for the first time, formal laboratory data on the long-term performance, emissions, and durability of Hythane® and pure hydrogen ICEs.
“It is possible that the hydrogen content in the test fuels, particularly the pure hydrogen powered engine, could contribute to issues with engine lubricants, the engine, component or emissions system materials, the behavior of fuel supply components, or combustion product effects. These possible sources for accelerated deterioration may be subtle and require long-term interaction to become apparent.
“The new test work will aggressively simulate real-world, long-term operation of heavy-duty engines and provide sufficient opportunity to push durability and performance deterioration limits.”
SOURCE: Eden Energy -->
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Doubt cast over solar power trial.
Conservationists say it will take more than a solar power trial to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in Australia.
Federal Industry Minister Ian Macfarlane has announced Townsville as the nation's next solar city.
A total of $30 million will be spent trialing solar power in homes and businesses in Townsville, Thuringowa and Magnetic Island over the next seven years.
North Queensland Conservation Council coordinator James McLellan says the scale of the proposal does not match the rate of population growth in Queensland.
"The main issue that we need to keep firmly in mind is the amount of energy savings or greenhouse reductions that we're going to get out of this project will be swallowed up over and over again by continued population growth," he said.
Conservationists say it will take more than a solar power trial to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in Australia.
Federal Industry Minister Ian Macfarlane has announced Townsville as the nation's next solar city.
A total of $30 million will be spent trialing solar power in homes and businesses in Townsville, Thuringowa and Magnetic Island over the next seven years.
North Queensland Conservation Council coordinator James McLellan says the scale of the proposal does not match the rate of population growth in Queensland.
"The main issue that we need to keep firmly in mind is the amount of energy savings or greenhouse reductions that we're going to get out of this project will be swallowed up over and over again by continued population growth," he said.
India’s first hydrogen-dispensing gas station will open in Delhi
NEW DELHI--Five years after New Delhi set the trend by introducing CNG in public transport, it will become the first city to install a hydrogen-dispensing station.
GM, Ford have discussed merger, alliance: ReportAs fuel prices zoom, bike makers have electric dreamsAuto Inc’s wishlist seeks tax deductionsMaruti gears up for exports overdriveTax gas guzzlers: Petro panel
By year-end, at least five vehicles already sitting in an Indian Oil Corporation R&D centre will start plying on CNG blended with 10% hydrogen (HCNG) on Delhi’s roads. This blend will facilitate the entry of a fuel source that has become the veritable Holy Grail in the quest of a green, zero-emission fuel.
Hydrogen is widely accepted as the fuel of the future — the US government’s annual spend on hydrogen research is $1.2 billion to help reduce its dependence on foreign oil as well as emission of greenhouse gases.
Last November, the Central government unveiled a roadmap prepared by the Hydrogen Energy Board, headed by Ratan Tata, to put 1 million hydrogen-fuelled vehicles on the country’s roads by 2020 through public-private initiatives.
IOC pledged Rs 100 crore to a hydrogen fuel initiative to develop the technology for commercially viable hydrogen-powered fuel cells to run cars, trucks, homes. A year later, they have come out with two three-wheelers by Mahindra and Mahindra and Bajaj, one Ambassador car and two mini buses by Eicher and Tata that can run on this blend.
These vehicles are already running in the IOC research campus in Faridabad and will start operating once the first hydrogen dispenser comes up at Delhi’s Lodhi Road costing Rs 5 crore.
It will dispense both the blend and pure hydrogen, preparing for a future when vehicles running on pure hydrogen make their shift from research labs to Delhi roads.
The 10% blend will allow the same internal combustion CNG engine to work without any changes, thus reducing the otherwise prohibitive technological cost. Research has shown that the blend not only improves the thermal efficiency of the fuel, it has another benefit: It reduces pollutant NOX (oxides of nitrogen) by 30-40%, a major concern with CNG vehicles.
“Delhi has an advantage over other cities. It has the largest fleet of CNG vehicles which are already working with an internal combustion engine. No major modifications are required for the 10% blend and the hydrogen too can be stored in the same CNG cylinder,’’ said R K Malhotra, general manager, (R&D) for IOC. “We have to decide whether we want hydrogen and whether the cost is worth the benefit,” said Kirit Parekh, member, Planning Commission, speaking at a CII meet on alternate fuels today. He has reason for concern. For, HCNG is a small step — the goal being fuel cells which allow hydrogen to be used in pure form. As of now, the cost of these cells makes a car four times more expensive than one running on petrol.
There are two major concerns — linked to cost — which scientists are grappling with. How will it be produced and which is the best way of storing it?
If it cannot be produced from a renewable source like water of biowaste, it does not solve the basic problem — that of dependence on hydrocarbons. In India, hydrogen is generated as a by-product in many industries like fertiliser and chlor-alkali plants.
The Pilot
• First station will dispense HCNG (10% hydrogen, 90% CNG) to five R&D vehicles
• HCNG cuts CNG’s nitrogen oxide pollutants by 30-40%
• For a 10% blend, only minor tweaks to engine required
How Expensive
• Cost being worked out
• 100% hydrogen as fuel (ideal, since the only byproduct is water) currently being used in some countries in Toyota, BMW, Ford vehicles. Cost prohibitive: at least four times that of a luxury car
• Reason: fuel cells which store hydrogen expensive technology
The Next Steps
• Find a renewable source for hydrogen (biomass or water)
• Work on storage to allow higher hydrogen levels
• Auto industry to suitably adapt
• Funding is the key issue
Elsewhere
• Sweden runs a bus fleet on a blend
• Iceland has three hydrogen buses running on an experimental and operational basis.
• China announced 10 hydrogen-filling stations for a fleet of 100 buses and 1000 fuel cell cars by 2010. .
NEW DELHI--Five years after New Delhi set the trend by introducing CNG in public transport, it will become the first city to install a hydrogen-dispensing station.
GM, Ford have discussed merger, alliance: ReportAs fuel prices zoom, bike makers have electric dreamsAuto Inc’s wishlist seeks tax deductionsMaruti gears up for exports overdriveTax gas guzzlers: Petro panel
By year-end, at least five vehicles already sitting in an Indian Oil Corporation R&D centre will start plying on CNG blended with 10% hydrogen (HCNG) on Delhi’s roads. This blend will facilitate the entry of a fuel source that has become the veritable Holy Grail in the quest of a green, zero-emission fuel.
Hydrogen is widely accepted as the fuel of the future — the US government’s annual spend on hydrogen research is $1.2 billion to help reduce its dependence on foreign oil as well as emission of greenhouse gases.
Last November, the Central government unveiled a roadmap prepared by the Hydrogen Energy Board, headed by Ratan Tata, to put 1 million hydrogen-fuelled vehicles on the country’s roads by 2020 through public-private initiatives.
IOC pledged Rs 100 crore to a hydrogen fuel initiative to develop the technology for commercially viable hydrogen-powered fuel cells to run cars, trucks, homes. A year later, they have come out with two three-wheelers by Mahindra and Mahindra and Bajaj, one Ambassador car and two mini buses by Eicher and Tata that can run on this blend.
These vehicles are already running in the IOC research campus in Faridabad and will start operating once the first hydrogen dispenser comes up at Delhi’s Lodhi Road costing Rs 5 crore.
It will dispense both the blend and pure hydrogen, preparing for a future when vehicles running on pure hydrogen make their shift from research labs to Delhi roads.
The 10% blend will allow the same internal combustion CNG engine to work without any changes, thus reducing the otherwise prohibitive technological cost. Research has shown that the blend not only improves the thermal efficiency of the fuel, it has another benefit: It reduces pollutant NOX (oxides of nitrogen) by 30-40%, a major concern with CNG vehicles.
“Delhi has an advantage over other cities. It has the largest fleet of CNG vehicles which are already working with an internal combustion engine. No major modifications are required for the 10% blend and the hydrogen too can be stored in the same CNG cylinder,’’ said R K Malhotra, general manager, (R&D) for IOC. “We have to decide whether we want hydrogen and whether the cost is worth the benefit,” said Kirit Parekh, member, Planning Commission, speaking at a CII meet on alternate fuels today. He has reason for concern. For, HCNG is a small step — the goal being fuel cells which allow hydrogen to be used in pure form. As of now, the cost of these cells makes a car four times more expensive than one running on petrol.
There are two major concerns — linked to cost — which scientists are grappling with. How will it be produced and which is the best way of storing it?
If it cannot be produced from a renewable source like water of biowaste, it does not solve the basic problem — that of dependence on hydrocarbons. In India, hydrogen is generated as a by-product in many industries like fertiliser and chlor-alkali plants.
The Pilot
• First station will dispense HCNG (10% hydrogen, 90% CNG) to five R&D vehicles
• HCNG cuts CNG’s nitrogen oxide pollutants by 30-40%
• For a 10% blend, only minor tweaks to engine required
How Expensive
• Cost being worked out
• 100% hydrogen as fuel (ideal, since the only byproduct is water) currently being used in some countries in Toyota, BMW, Ford vehicles. Cost prohibitive: at least four times that of a luxury car
• Reason: fuel cells which store hydrogen expensive technology
The Next Steps
• Find a renewable source for hydrogen (biomass or water)
• Work on storage to allow higher hydrogen levels
• Auto industry to suitably adapt
• Funding is the key issue
Elsewhere
• Sweden runs a bus fleet on a blend
• Iceland has three hydrogen buses running on an experimental and operational basis.
• China announced 10 hydrogen-filling stations for a fleet of 100 buses and 1000 fuel cell cars by 2010. .
Branson plans cuts to plane emissions.
British tycoon Sir Richard Branson has urged airlines and airport operators to join his Virgin Atlantic carrier in an ambitious plan to curb the aviation industry's contribution to global warming.
The billionaire founder of the Virgin Group of companies says that airlines around the world have to play their part in reducing carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions given out by commercial planes by up to 25 per cent.
"We need to accelerate the pace at which we reduce aviation's impact on the environment," Sir Richard said in a letter to industry leaders, including the bosses of British Airways, American Airlines and low-cost flyer Easyjet.
"We can not ignore that aviation does create environmental problems, around 2 per cent of global CO2 emissions, although equally it produces significant economic and social benefits."
The plan envisages the creation of "starting grids" for all aircraft departures - a holding area close to the runway that consists of several parking bays for aircraft.
Virgin Atlantic says planes could be towed closer to the runway before take-off, substantially reducing the time that their engines need to be running.
Arriving planes could also turn off their engines after five minutes and be towed to their stand, saving "considerable extra CO2".
The airline says the grids would reduce fuel consumption and on-the-ground CO2 emissions by over 50 per cent before take-off at London's Heathrow Airport for Virgin Atlantic planes.
It would reduce the emissions by nearly 90 per cent for Virgin flights at JFK Airport in New York.
"It would also mean that an aircraft flying from JFK to Heathrow could carry around two tonnes less weight in the air, which would mean that the amount of fuel burnt would be considerably less, reducing CO2 emissions even further."
Light-weight fittings
Sir Richard's letter has been addressed also to engine and aircraft manufacturers such as Rolls Royce and Boeing, and airport operators including BAA in Britain.
It comes after the flamboyant entrepreneur last week vowed to spend $US3 billion in the next decade on projects to combat global warming and reduce dependence on fossil fuels.
To cut fuel consumption, Virgin Atlantic even plans to reduce the weight of its aircraft through using lighter paint on the exterior and lighter fittings inside the cabin.
That includes changing oxygen bottles from metal to carbon-fibre, and removing empty champagne and beer bottles which have been drunk before the plane leaves the stand for recycling.
Sir Richard says that combined with an earlier and smoother descent by pilots coming into land, the changes would save over 150 million tonnes of CO2 emissions a year, or 25 per cent of the world's aviation emissions.
"With global warming, the world is heading for a catastrophe," he said.
"The aviation industry must play its part in averting that."
- AFP
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British tycoon Sir Richard Branson has urged airlines and airport operators to join his Virgin Atlantic carrier in an ambitious plan to curb the aviation industry's contribution to global warming.
The billionaire founder of the Virgin Group of companies says that airlines around the world have to play their part in reducing carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions given out by commercial planes by up to 25 per cent.
"We need to accelerate the pace at which we reduce aviation's impact on the environment," Sir Richard said in a letter to industry leaders, including the bosses of British Airways, American Airlines and low-cost flyer Easyjet.
"We can not ignore that aviation does create environmental problems, around 2 per cent of global CO2 emissions, although equally it produces significant economic and social benefits."
The plan envisages the creation of "starting grids" for all aircraft departures - a holding area close to the runway that consists of several parking bays for aircraft.
Virgin Atlantic says planes could be towed closer to the runway before take-off, substantially reducing the time that their engines need to be running.
Arriving planes could also turn off their engines after five minutes and be towed to their stand, saving "considerable extra CO2".
The airline says the grids would reduce fuel consumption and on-the-ground CO2 emissions by over 50 per cent before take-off at London's Heathrow Airport for Virgin Atlantic planes.
It would reduce the emissions by nearly 90 per cent for Virgin flights at JFK Airport in New York.
"It would also mean that an aircraft flying from JFK to Heathrow could carry around two tonnes less weight in the air, which would mean that the amount of fuel burnt would be considerably less, reducing CO2 emissions even further."
Light-weight fittings
Sir Richard's letter has been addressed also to engine and aircraft manufacturers such as Rolls Royce and Boeing, and airport operators including BAA in Britain.
It comes after the flamboyant entrepreneur last week vowed to spend $US3 billion in the next decade on projects to combat global warming and reduce dependence on fossil fuels.
To cut fuel consumption, Virgin Atlantic even plans to reduce the weight of its aircraft through using lighter paint on the exterior and lighter fittings inside the cabin.
That includes changing oxygen bottles from metal to carbon-fibre, and removing empty champagne and beer bottles which have been drunk before the plane leaves the stand for recycling.
Sir Richard says that combined with an earlier and smoother descent by pilots coming into land, the changes would save over 150 million tonnes of CO2 emissions a year, or 25 per cent of the world's aviation emissions.
"With global warming, the world is heading for a catastrophe," he said.
"The aviation industry must play its part in averting that."
- AFP
Print Email
Wednesday, September 27, 2006
Uranium producers set up new lobby group
THE Australian uranium industry has set up a new lobby group to represent its interests in the wake of the huge appeal in exploration and imminent sales to China.
Uranium Information Centre chairman Harry Kenyon-Slaney said the new body, the Australian Uranium Association, would both articulate the national interest associated with uranium mining and export, and advocate the industry's positions to government and the community.
"In recognition of the role of mining in the life cycle of uranium, the association will also support and actively participate in the recently established uranium stewardship working groups that have been established both in Australia and internationally," Mr Kenyon-Slaney said.
"The objective of the association is to enable the uranium mining and export industry to develop and operate in an environment of policy certainty and regulatory stability.
"Achieving that will ensure the industry delivers on its potential to become a major contributor to the national economy."
The association's first executive director will be Michael Angwin, who most recently served for two years as director of economic policy in the Victorian Department of Premier and Cabinet, and formerly held senior positions at the Business Council of Australia, at mining company Rio Tinto and in consulting.
Last year, uranium production at Australia's three active mines totalled more than 11,200 tonnes.
The Federal Government is currently negotiating an agreement to sell uranium to China for its domestic electricity production, and BHP Billiton's Olympic Dam plans to expand production four-fold to cope with new demand.
THE Australian uranium industry has set up a new lobby group to represent its interests in the wake of the huge appeal in exploration and imminent sales to China.
Uranium Information Centre chairman Harry Kenyon-Slaney said the new body, the Australian Uranium Association, would both articulate the national interest associated with uranium mining and export, and advocate the industry's positions to government and the community.
"In recognition of the role of mining in the life cycle of uranium, the association will also support and actively participate in the recently established uranium stewardship working groups that have been established both in Australia and internationally," Mr Kenyon-Slaney said.
"The objective of the association is to enable the uranium mining and export industry to develop and operate in an environment of policy certainty and regulatory stability.
"Achieving that will ensure the industry delivers on its potential to become a major contributor to the national economy."
The association's first executive director will be Michael Angwin, who most recently served for two years as director of economic policy in the Victorian Department of Premier and Cabinet, and formerly held senior positions at the Business Council of Australia, at mining company Rio Tinto and in consulting.
Last year, uranium production at Australia's three active mines totalled more than 11,200 tonnes.
The Federal Government is currently negotiating an agreement to sell uranium to China for its domestic electricity production, and BHP Billiton's Olympic Dam plans to expand production four-fold to cope with new demand.
Russia denies ulterior motives over Sakhalin
Permit withdrawn 'for ecological reasons' · Official says no political or economic issues involved Tom Parfitt in Moscow and Terry MacalisterWednesday September 27, 2006The Guardian
A senior Russian official has hit back at western accusations that Moscow is deliberately raising environmental obstacles against Shell and other foreign companies as part of a political mission to seize back control of energy reserves.
In an interview with the Guardian, Oleg Mitvol defended the government's decision last week to revoke a 2003 environmental assessment that approved the development of huge oil and gas reserves off Sakhalin Island in the Russian far east.
"There is nothing about business or political interests here. There are only ecological problems on Sakhalin," said Mr Mitvol, who is deputy head of the natural resources ministry's inspectorate.
The decision to annul the permit held by the Shell-led consortium developing the project provoked howls of protest in London, Brussels, Washington and Tokyo.
On Monday, the ministry went further, ordering a month-long inquiry that officials said could lead to demands for Shell and its partners to make hundreds of millions of dollars in "improvements".
Operating without an environmental permit is illegal and Mr Mitvol said a court ruling to halt the project could be sought if the consortium did not comply with new demands. But he rejected claims that Moscow was leaning on the foreign companies developing Sakhalin-2 to make them give the state-run gas monopoly Gazprom a slice of the project on favourable terms. "Recently BP had similar [ecological] problems in Alaska and no one shouted that the Americans simply wanted to replace BP with an American company," he said. "But when it happens in Russia, these fantasies are invented."
Mr Mitvol accused Sakhalin Energy, the consortium in which Shell holds a controlling stake, of willfully ignoring environmental regulations in building a pipeline and other developments on Sakhalin. He said streams important to spawning fish had been disrupted and "enormous damage" had been caused to forests.
"Instead of rectifying these ecological problems, they are organising political pressure on us," he added. "I think [Shell] are doing the wrong thing and damaging the interests of British business." Sakhalin Energy denies breaking any regulations.
Mr Mitvol's agency announced on Monday that he would lead a delegation of government officials, ecologists and foreign diplomats to Sakhalin today to view the alleged damage to the island.
Gazprom and Sakhalin Energy had been in talks over an asset swap that would see the former get 25% of Sakhalin-2 and the latter receive some cash plus 50% of Gazprom's Zapolyarnoye gas field in the Arctic. The talks were recently suspended.
BP is also under pressure in Russia. It has been warned that it could find its permit to exploit the huge Kovykta field in Siberia rescinded if it does not improve its operational record. Gazprom expressed an interest in getting involved in this too.
There is also growing tension over a third scheme, Shtokman in the Barents Sea, where Gazprom is deciding on a foreign partner. The hopes of the US oil firms Chevron and ConocoPhillips to win this were undermined at the weekend when the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, said much of the gas could go to Europe.Special reportsOil and petrolUseful linksOpecInternational Energy AgencyAmerican Petroleum InstituteEnergy Institute
Permit withdrawn 'for ecological reasons' · Official says no political or economic issues involved Tom Parfitt in Moscow and Terry MacalisterWednesday September 27, 2006The Guardian
A senior Russian official has hit back at western accusations that Moscow is deliberately raising environmental obstacles against Shell and other foreign companies as part of a political mission to seize back control of energy reserves.
In an interview with the Guardian, Oleg Mitvol defended the government's decision last week to revoke a 2003 environmental assessment that approved the development of huge oil and gas reserves off Sakhalin Island in the Russian far east.
"There is nothing about business or political interests here. There are only ecological problems on Sakhalin," said Mr Mitvol, who is deputy head of the natural resources ministry's inspectorate.
The decision to annul the permit held by the Shell-led consortium developing the project provoked howls of protest in London, Brussels, Washington and Tokyo.
On Monday, the ministry went further, ordering a month-long inquiry that officials said could lead to demands for Shell and its partners to make hundreds of millions of dollars in "improvements".
Operating without an environmental permit is illegal and Mr Mitvol said a court ruling to halt the project could be sought if the consortium did not comply with new demands. But he rejected claims that Moscow was leaning on the foreign companies developing Sakhalin-2 to make them give the state-run gas monopoly Gazprom a slice of the project on favourable terms. "Recently BP had similar [ecological] problems in Alaska and no one shouted that the Americans simply wanted to replace BP with an American company," he said. "But when it happens in Russia, these fantasies are invented."
Mr Mitvol accused Sakhalin Energy, the consortium in which Shell holds a controlling stake, of willfully ignoring environmental regulations in building a pipeline and other developments on Sakhalin. He said streams important to spawning fish had been disrupted and "enormous damage" had been caused to forests.
"Instead of rectifying these ecological problems, they are organising political pressure on us," he added. "I think [Shell] are doing the wrong thing and damaging the interests of British business." Sakhalin Energy denies breaking any regulations.
Mr Mitvol's agency announced on Monday that he would lead a delegation of government officials, ecologists and foreign diplomats to Sakhalin today to view the alleged damage to the island.
Gazprom and Sakhalin Energy had been in talks over an asset swap that would see the former get 25% of Sakhalin-2 and the latter receive some cash plus 50% of Gazprom's Zapolyarnoye gas field in the Arctic. The talks were recently suspended.
BP is also under pressure in Russia. It has been warned that it could find its permit to exploit the huge Kovykta field in Siberia rescinded if it does not improve its operational record. Gazprom expressed an interest in getting involved in this too.
There is also growing tension over a third scheme, Shtokman in the Barents Sea, where Gazprom is deciding on a foreign partner. The hopes of the US oil firms Chevron and ConocoPhillips to win this were undermined at the weekend when the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, said much of the gas could go to Europe.Special reportsOil and petrolUseful linksOpecInternational Energy AgencyAmerican Petroleum InstituteEnergy Institute
Prudhoe Bay to resume full oil output end of October: BP - Yahoo! News
LONDON (AFP) - British energy giant BP said that it expected to resume full production by the end of October of 400,000 barrels of oil a day from Prudhoe Bay, the biggest US oil field.
A spokesman told AFP that output had been raised over the weekend to 300,000 barrels per day after normal output was slashed by about half last month owing to a pipeline leak.
A separate technical problem had caused production to be cut to 110,000 bpd at one point in August.
The BP spokesman said that output at the Alaskan oil field would rise to 350,000 bpd over the next week.
"Overall crude oil production is running at about 300,000 barrels a day," spokesman Toby Odone said.
"Over the next week or so, we expect it to increase to around 350,000 barrels a day, and by the end of October, we expect to be back to 400,000 barrels a day."
Prudhoe Bay, which accounts for some eight percent of total US oil production, is operated by BP on behalf of a consortium that includes also US giants ExxonMobil Corp, Chevron Corp and ConocoPhillips.
Following news of the pipeline leak, the price of London Brent crude oil soared to a record high point of 78.64 dollars per barrel on August 7.
But Tuesday's news contributed to oil prices falling in New York and London trade, where they stood below 61 dollars per barrel.
BP said last week that it planned to embark on a review of its global operations following the Prudhoe Bay incident and other big setbacks for the British energy group in the United States.
These include a fourth delay to BP's new Thunder Horse platform in the Gulf of Mexico, which is not now likely to begin operating until mid-2008.
Proceedings began recently in a lawsuit against the oil giant for an explosion at the Texas City oil refinery in 2005, which left 15 people dead and 170 injured.
BP has already recognised that internal errors were behind the blast and boss John Browne has publicly apologised for the explosion.
In late morning trading on Tuesday, the share price of BP rose 0.06 percent to 563.81 pence on London's FTSE 100 index of leading shares. The FTSE 100 climbed 0.77 percent to 5,842.80 points.
LONDON (AFP) - British energy giant BP said that it expected to resume full production by the end of October of 400,000 barrels of oil a day from Prudhoe Bay, the biggest US oil field.
A spokesman told AFP that output had been raised over the weekend to 300,000 barrels per day after normal output was slashed by about half last month owing to a pipeline leak.
A separate technical problem had caused production to be cut to 110,000 bpd at one point in August.
The BP spokesman said that output at the Alaskan oil field would rise to 350,000 bpd over the next week.
"Overall crude oil production is running at about 300,000 barrels a day," spokesman Toby Odone said.
"Over the next week or so, we expect it to increase to around 350,000 barrels a day, and by the end of October, we expect to be back to 400,000 barrels a day."
Prudhoe Bay, which accounts for some eight percent of total US oil production, is operated by BP on behalf of a consortium that includes also US giants ExxonMobil Corp, Chevron Corp and ConocoPhillips.
Following news of the pipeline leak, the price of London Brent crude oil soared to a record high point of 78.64 dollars per barrel on August 7.
But Tuesday's news contributed to oil prices falling in New York and London trade, where they stood below 61 dollars per barrel.
BP said last week that it planned to embark on a review of its global operations following the Prudhoe Bay incident and other big setbacks for the British energy group in the United States.
These include a fourth delay to BP's new Thunder Horse platform in the Gulf of Mexico, which is not now likely to begin operating until mid-2008.
Proceedings began recently in a lawsuit against the oil giant for an explosion at the Texas City oil refinery in 2005, which left 15 people dead and 170 injured.
BP has already recognised that internal errors were behind the blast and boss John Browne has publicly apologised for the explosion.
In late morning trading on Tuesday, the share price of BP rose 0.06 percent to 563.81 pence on London's FTSE 100 index of leading shares. The FTSE 100 climbed 0.77 percent to 5,842.80 points.
Hawaiian outrigger canoes to evacuate penguins in Anatarctica?
U.S. needs 2 new icebreakers, study says - Yahoo! News
WASHINGTON - The United States should begin construction of two new heavy-duty icebreakers, the
National Research Council' name=c1> SEARCHNews News Photos Images Web' name=c3> National Research Council said Tuesday.
There are currently four icebreakers in service but two of them, the Polar Sea and Polar Star, are near the end of their service lives and have experienced mechanical problems requiring extensive repair, according to the report requested by Congress.
Of the four icebreakers, those are the only two designed for heavy ice, the study says, so work should begin on replacements in order to protect U.S. interests in the Arctic and Antarctica.
The Polar Sea and Polar Star are operated by the Coast Guard.
The Research Council, an arm of the
National Academy of Sciences' name=c1> SEARCHNews News Photos Images Web' name=c3> National Academy of Sciences, noted that routine maintenance of the vessels has been deferred due to a lack of funds, and no major program to extend the life of the icebreakers has been planned.
The study added that a Russian icebreaker had to be hired to clear a channel in Antarctica the last two years so that supply ships could reach U.S. research stations there.
The report concluded that new and upgraded icebreakers are needed for the United States to "project an active and influential presence" in the Arctic and the Antarctic.
The Coast Guard's third icebreaker, the Healy, was designed for lighter-duty icebreaking than the Polar Sea and Polar Star and is primarily assigned to support Arctic research.
In addition, the
National Science Foundation' name=c1> SEARCHNews News Photos Images Web' name=c3> National Science Foundation leases an "ice-strengthened" ship, the Palmer, for research in light ice near Antarctica.
___
National Research Council: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/ap/ap_on_sc/storytext/breaking_the_ice/20415626/SIG=116ldepeq/*http://www.nationalacademies.org/nrc
U.S. needs 2 new icebreakers, study says - Yahoo! News
WASHINGTON - The United States should begin construction of two new heavy-duty icebreakers, the
National Research Council' name=c1> SEARCHNews News Photos Images Web' name=c3> National Research Council said Tuesday.
There are currently four icebreakers in service but two of them, the Polar Sea and Polar Star, are near the end of their service lives and have experienced mechanical problems requiring extensive repair, according to the report requested by Congress.
Of the four icebreakers, those are the only two designed for heavy ice, the study says, so work should begin on replacements in order to protect U.S. interests in the Arctic and Antarctica.
The Polar Sea and Polar Star are operated by the Coast Guard.
The Research Council, an arm of the
National Academy of Sciences' name=c1> SEARCHNews News Photos Images Web' name=c3> National Academy of Sciences, noted that routine maintenance of the vessels has been deferred due to a lack of funds, and no major program to extend the life of the icebreakers has been planned.
The study added that a Russian icebreaker had to be hired to clear a channel in Antarctica the last two years so that supply ships could reach U.S. research stations there.
The report concluded that new and upgraded icebreakers are needed for the United States to "project an active and influential presence" in the Arctic and the Antarctic.
The Coast Guard's third icebreaker, the Healy, was designed for lighter-duty icebreaking than the Polar Sea and Polar Star and is primarily assigned to support Arctic research.
In addition, the
National Science Foundation' name=c1> SEARCHNews News Photos Images Web' name=c3> National Science Foundation leases an "ice-strengthened" ship, the Palmer, for research in light ice near Antarctica.
___
National Research Council: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/ap/ap_on_sc/storytext/breaking_the_ice/20415626/SIG=116ldepeq/*http://www.nationalacademies.org/nrc
Tuesday, September 26, 2006
Biofuels 'answer' to trade talks
US tycoon Ted Turner has said a focus on biofuels could break the current deadlock stalling world trade talks.
Speaking at a World Trade Organization forum, Mr Turner said huge demand for plant-based fuels could help farmers and reduce their need for state aid.
He said subsidies and tariffs should be replaced by support for biofuels.
The current five-year long Doha round of trade talks are suspended because of a failure to reach an agreement over agricultural subsidies and tariffs.
UN Foundation
"Farmers have always grown crops for food and fibre," Mr Turner said.
"Today, farmers can grow crops for food, fuel and fibre. The global demand for biofuels is huge and rising.
"That's why I'm confident that in the near future, farmers' incomes will be assured, not by subsidies and tariffs, but by market forces."
Mr Turner was speaking in his role as chairman of the United Nations Foundation, which was set up in 1998 after he gave $1bn to support UN causes and activities
Brazilian cars have been running on bioethanol for years
The UN Foundation is promoting the production and use of biofuels in developing countries and wants to attract more foreign and domestic investment in the area.
"By investing in biofuels, developing countries can produce their own domestic transportation fuels, cut their energy costs, improve public health, create new jobs in the rural economy and ultimately build export markets," Mr Turner said.
Environmental concerns
Biofuels are a renewable energy source made from agricultural produce or its by-products, including manure, rape seed, soya beans, cane sugar and palm oil.
They include ethanol, which is used in cars and for cooking, and biodiesel, which is used for trucks and generators.
The European Union recently issued a directive calling for biofuels to meet 5.75% of its transportation fuel needs by 2010.
But some experts have warned of the potential downsides from a huge growth in biofuels.
Much of the fuel would be made from plants grown in Brazil and Southeast Asia, where rainforests are being destroyed to plant crops.
US tycoon Ted Turner has said a focus on biofuels could break the current deadlock stalling world trade talks.
Speaking at a World Trade Organization forum, Mr Turner said huge demand for plant-based fuels could help farmers and reduce their need for state aid.
He said subsidies and tariffs should be replaced by support for biofuels.
The current five-year long Doha round of trade talks are suspended because of a failure to reach an agreement over agricultural subsidies and tariffs.
UN Foundation
"Farmers have always grown crops for food and fibre," Mr Turner said.
"Today, farmers can grow crops for food, fuel and fibre. The global demand for biofuels is huge and rising.
"That's why I'm confident that in the near future, farmers' incomes will be assured, not by subsidies and tariffs, but by market forces."
Mr Turner was speaking in his role as chairman of the United Nations Foundation, which was set up in 1998 after he gave $1bn to support UN causes and activities
Brazilian cars have been running on bioethanol for years
The UN Foundation is promoting the production and use of biofuels in developing countries and wants to attract more foreign and domestic investment in the area.
"By investing in biofuels, developing countries can produce their own domestic transportation fuels, cut their energy costs, improve public health, create new jobs in the rural economy and ultimately build export markets," Mr Turner said.
Environmental concerns
Biofuels are a renewable energy source made from agricultural produce or its by-products, including manure, rape seed, soya beans, cane sugar and palm oil.
They include ethanol, which is used in cars and for cooking, and biodiesel, which is used for trucks and generators.
The European Union recently issued a directive calling for biofuels to meet 5.75% of its transportation fuel needs by 2010.
But some experts have warned of the potential downsides from a huge growth in biofuels.
Much of the fuel would be made from plants grown in Brazil and Southeast Asia, where rainforests are being destroyed to plant crops.
Honda Unveils 'Super-Clean' Diesel Engine
Honda Motor Co. says it has developed the first diesel passenger car engine capable of meeting California's tough 2009 air-quality standards, one that produces almost none of the emissions that have sullied the fuel's image.The "super-clean" diesel's emissions will be no greater than those of a gasoline engine, Honda said.The automaker unveiled a four-cylinder engine capable of propelling an Accord sedan to speeds well in excess of 120 mph during a weekend technology demonstration at its research center in this rural town about 100 miles north of Tokyo.Honda, the world's largest engine maker and second behind Toyota Motor Corp. in production of gasoline-electric hybrid power systems, intends to add four- and six-cylinder diesel engines to its arsenal to help set it apart from rivals."This is just what you'd expect from Honda," said Ron Cogan, the San Luis Obispo-based publisher of Green Car Journal."They were the first to meet the 1970 federal gas engine emissions without a catalyst, they had a near-zero-emissions gas engine for the Accord in the early 1990s and now they're doing it with diesels."Honda also showed off a new version of its fuel-cell electric power system that is smaller, lighter and more powerful than the current model.The innovations made it possible for Honda Chief Executive Takeo Fukui to promise a sleek hydrogen-powered, fuel-cell electric sports sedan by 2008. Competitors are still limited to stuffing their bulkier systems into boxy vans and sport utility vehicles."We are driven to improve things for our own ambition and for the sake of the world and society," Fukui said in an interview. "It also is important to take the lead so we can acquire the intellectual property rights, the patents, to these technologies. That will be very advantageous should they become the standard."Honda said a production version of the long, low FCX concept fuel-cell sedan that it unveiled 11 months ago at the Tokyo Motor Show would be available for lease to selected government and private users in the U.S. and Japan in 2008.During their presentation last weekend, Fukui and his engineering staff displayed a mock-up of a device that would make hydrogen from natural gas and could be leased with the FCX. Such a device may prove crucial to hydrogen's acceptance as an automotive fuel, given the billions of dollars it would take to equip the nation's filling stations with hydrogen pumps.Honda engineers said the energy required to make hydrogen using natural gas wouldn't exceed the energy saved by the fuel -- a problem when electricity is used to power a hydrogen maker.Other developments shown last weekend included an advanced gasoline engine that can deliver 13% better mileage than Honda's already industry-leading VTEC engines, and a flex-fuel engine capable of running on pure ethanol or any combination of ethanol and gasoline.The company said its advanced gasoline engine could be available in high-volume vehicles such as the Odyssey minivan and the Accord and Civic sedans by 2009.The flex-fuel engine will be launched in Brazil late this year and could migrate to the U.S. and other countries as ethanol -- an alcohol fuel widely used in Brazil, where it is distilled from sugar cane -- becomes more readily available.The California-legal diesel is a huge step forward for Honda because the state's emission rules for diesel will remain tougher than the strict federal rules that phase in from now through 2008.Nine other states -- accounting, with California, for more than 20% of the U.S. car market -- have adopted California standards and will ban sales of engines that can't achieve them in 2009 and beyond.Fukui, speaking through an interpreter, said he believed that the new technologies, particularly the compact and powerful fuel-cell system and the low-emission diesel, would put Honda firmly ahead of all rivals in the race for environmental leadership.Such a role is crucial, he said, at a time when motorists are demanding greater fuel efficiency from their cars and trucks and governments around the world are imposing ever-stiffer emission and mileage standards on automakers to help stem global warming and reduce dependence on crude oil.Several analysts said Honda seemed well on the way to becoming the standard setter."Toyota has taken away the U.S. environmental crown from Honda with all the attention the Prius hybrid gets," said Anthony Pratt, powertrain analyst at J.D. Power & Associates in Westlake Village. "Now Honda wants it back."Diesel engines typically get 25% to 30% better fuel economy than gasoline engines and produce 30% less carbon dioxide, a major contributor to the global warming that most developed nations have pledged to fight.The engines largely have been shunned in the U.S., though, because their emissions are far dirtier than those of gasoline engines and because they have a bad image with many Americans."If Honda does a diesel that's as clean as they have shown, that could really help legitimize diesel in the U.S.," Pratt said.Fukui said Honda would be open to licensing its diesel and other new technologies to other automakers.Even environmentalists long opposed to diesels are impressed by the engine Honda is calling super-clean."We say 'go for it' once they can meet California's standards" and provide in-car monitoring systems to ensure that the vehicles continue to run clean as the engines age, said Patricia Monahan, a Berkeley-based senior analyst for diesel issues for the Union of Concerned Scientists.DaimlerChrysler and Volkswagen of Germany also sell diesels, but only in the states that haven't adopted California emission standards. They are among the manufacturers working on California-legal diesel engines to compete with Honda.Honda's is the first diesel technology that won't require motorists to regularly add a liquid ammonia called urea to the fuel system to meet California's standards for emissions of toxic nitrates of oxygen.Honda said its diesel differed by using a new catalytic converter that generates and stores ammonia on board."Simplicity is very important for passenger car technology," said Motoatsu Shiraishi, president of Honda Research & Development in Tochigi, because owners don't want to be bothered with new chores to keep their vehicles running.Diesels are just one piece of Honda's three-tier approach to fuel economy and emissions reductions.Gasoline engines will continue to be the main power source. But they will be augmented by hybrid powertrains in the company's smaller cars; by diesels in mid-size cars such as the Accord, as well as in Honda SUVs and pickup trucks; and by fuel-cell electric power plants in larger vehicles if fuel cells and hydrogen fuel sources become widely available.The automaker said its new fuel cell was 20% smaller, 30% lighter and 17% more powerful than the present model. It can start in temperatures as low as 22 degrees below zero, an industry best.In test drives on Honda's banked track in Tochigi, several visiting journalists hit speeds of 100 mph in the hand-built FCX concept sedan fitted with the new fuel-cell system.Knight said the home fuel maker under development would refine and compress 5 kilograms of hydrogen a day from natural gas. That's more than enough for a daily refill of the system's 3.8-kilogram storage tank, which gives the FCX as much as 270 miles of range.
Honda Motor Co. says it has developed the first diesel passenger car engine capable of meeting California's tough 2009 air-quality standards, one that produces almost none of the emissions that have sullied the fuel's image.The "super-clean" diesel's emissions will be no greater than those of a gasoline engine, Honda said.The automaker unveiled a four-cylinder engine capable of propelling an Accord sedan to speeds well in excess of 120 mph during a weekend technology demonstration at its research center in this rural town about 100 miles north of Tokyo.Honda, the world's largest engine maker and second behind Toyota Motor Corp. in production of gasoline-electric hybrid power systems, intends to add four- and six-cylinder diesel engines to its arsenal to help set it apart from rivals."This is just what you'd expect from Honda," said Ron Cogan, the San Luis Obispo-based publisher of Green Car Journal."They were the first to meet the 1970 federal gas engine emissions without a catalyst, they had a near-zero-emissions gas engine for the Accord in the early 1990s and now they're doing it with diesels."Honda also showed off a new version of its fuel-cell electric power system that is smaller, lighter and more powerful than the current model.The innovations made it possible for Honda Chief Executive Takeo Fukui to promise a sleek hydrogen-powered, fuel-cell electric sports sedan by 2008. Competitors are still limited to stuffing their bulkier systems into boxy vans and sport utility vehicles."We are driven to improve things for our own ambition and for the sake of the world and society," Fukui said in an interview. "It also is important to take the lead so we can acquire the intellectual property rights, the patents, to these technologies. That will be very advantageous should they become the standard."Honda said a production version of the long, low FCX concept fuel-cell sedan that it unveiled 11 months ago at the Tokyo Motor Show would be available for lease to selected government and private users in the U.S. and Japan in 2008.During their presentation last weekend, Fukui and his engineering staff displayed a mock-up of a device that would make hydrogen from natural gas and could be leased with the FCX. Such a device may prove crucial to hydrogen's acceptance as an automotive fuel, given the billions of dollars it would take to equip the nation's filling stations with hydrogen pumps.Honda engineers said the energy required to make hydrogen using natural gas wouldn't exceed the energy saved by the fuel -- a problem when electricity is used to power a hydrogen maker.Other developments shown last weekend included an advanced gasoline engine that can deliver 13% better mileage than Honda's already industry-leading VTEC engines, and a flex-fuel engine capable of running on pure ethanol or any combination of ethanol and gasoline.The company said its advanced gasoline engine could be available in high-volume vehicles such as the Odyssey minivan and the Accord and Civic sedans by 2009.The flex-fuel engine will be launched in Brazil late this year and could migrate to the U.S. and other countries as ethanol -- an alcohol fuel widely used in Brazil, where it is distilled from sugar cane -- becomes more readily available.The California-legal diesel is a huge step forward for Honda because the state's emission rules for diesel will remain tougher than the strict federal rules that phase in from now through 2008.Nine other states -- accounting, with California, for more than 20% of the U.S. car market -- have adopted California standards and will ban sales of engines that can't achieve them in 2009 and beyond.Fukui, speaking through an interpreter, said he believed that the new technologies, particularly the compact and powerful fuel-cell system and the low-emission diesel, would put Honda firmly ahead of all rivals in the race for environmental leadership.Such a role is crucial, he said, at a time when motorists are demanding greater fuel efficiency from their cars and trucks and governments around the world are imposing ever-stiffer emission and mileage standards on automakers to help stem global warming and reduce dependence on crude oil.Several analysts said Honda seemed well on the way to becoming the standard setter."Toyota has taken away the U.S. environmental crown from Honda with all the attention the Prius hybrid gets," said Anthony Pratt, powertrain analyst at J.D. Power & Associates in Westlake Village. "Now Honda wants it back."Diesel engines typically get 25% to 30% better fuel economy than gasoline engines and produce 30% less carbon dioxide, a major contributor to the global warming that most developed nations have pledged to fight.The engines largely have been shunned in the U.S., though, because their emissions are far dirtier than those of gasoline engines and because they have a bad image with many Americans."If Honda does a diesel that's as clean as they have shown, that could really help legitimize diesel in the U.S.," Pratt said.Fukui said Honda would be open to licensing its diesel and other new technologies to other automakers.Even environmentalists long opposed to diesels are impressed by the engine Honda is calling super-clean."We say 'go for it' once they can meet California's standards" and provide in-car monitoring systems to ensure that the vehicles continue to run clean as the engines age, said Patricia Monahan, a Berkeley-based senior analyst for diesel issues for the Union of Concerned Scientists.DaimlerChrysler and Volkswagen of Germany also sell diesels, but only in the states that haven't adopted California emission standards. They are among the manufacturers working on California-legal diesel engines to compete with Honda.Honda's is the first diesel technology that won't require motorists to regularly add a liquid ammonia called urea to the fuel system to meet California's standards for emissions of toxic nitrates of oxygen.Honda said its diesel differed by using a new catalytic converter that generates and stores ammonia on board."Simplicity is very important for passenger car technology," said Motoatsu Shiraishi, president of Honda Research & Development in Tochigi, because owners don't want to be bothered with new chores to keep their vehicles running.Diesels are just one piece of Honda's three-tier approach to fuel economy and emissions reductions.Gasoline engines will continue to be the main power source. But they will be augmented by hybrid powertrains in the company's smaller cars; by diesels in mid-size cars such as the Accord, as well as in Honda SUVs and pickup trucks; and by fuel-cell electric power plants in larger vehicles if fuel cells and hydrogen fuel sources become widely available.The automaker said its new fuel cell was 20% smaller, 30% lighter and 17% more powerful than the present model. It can start in temperatures as low as 22 degrees below zero, an industry best.In test drives on Honda's banked track in Tochigi, several visiting journalists hit speeds of 100 mph in the hand-built FCX concept sedan fitted with the new fuel-cell system.Knight said the home fuel maker under development would refine and compress 5 kilograms of hydrogen a day from natural gas. That's more than enough for a daily refill of the system's 3.8-kilogram storage tank, which gives the FCX as much as 270 miles of range.
Global temperature highest in millennia - Yahoo! News
WASHINGTON - The planet's temperature has climbed to levels not seen in thousands of years, warming that has begun to affect plants and animals, researchers report in Tuesday's issue of Proceedings of the
National Academy of Sciences' name=c1> SEARCHNews News Photos Images Web' name=c3> National Academy of Sciences.
The Earth has been warming at a rate of 0.36 degree Fahrenheit per decade for the last 30 years, according to the research team led by James Hansen of
NASA' name=c1> SEARCHNews News Photos Images Web' name=c3> NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies in New York.
That brings the overall temperature to the warmest in the current interglacial period, which began about 12,000 years ago.
The researchers noted that a report in the journal Nature found that 1,700 plant, animal and insect species moved poleward at an average rate of about 4 miles per decade in the last half of the 20th century.
The warming has been stronger in the far north, where melting ice and snow expose darker land and rocks beneath allowing more warmth from the sun to be absorbed, and more over land than water.
Water changes temperature more slowly than land because of its great capacity to hold heat, but the researchers noted that the warming has been marked in the Indian and western Pacific Oceans. Those oceans have a major effect on climate and warming that could lead to more El Nino episodes affecting the weather.
"This evidence implies that we are getting close to dangerous levels of human-made pollution," Hansen said in a statement.
Few scientists doubt that the planet has warmed, though some question the causes of the change.
Hansen, who first warned of the danger of climate change decades ago, said that human-made greenhouse gases have become the dominant climate change factor.
The study said the recent warming has brought global temperature to a level within about one degree Celsius — 1.8 degree Fahrenheit — of the maximum temperature of the past million years.
"If further global warming reaches 2 or 3 degrees Celsius, we will likely see changes that make Earth a different planet than the one we know. The last time it was that warm was in the middle Pliocene, about 3 million years ago, when sea level was estimated to have been about 25 meters (80 feet) higher than today," Hansen said.
___
On the Net:
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences: http://www.pnas.org
WASHINGTON - The planet's temperature has climbed to levels not seen in thousands of years, warming that has begun to affect plants and animals, researchers report in Tuesday's issue of Proceedings of the
National Academy of Sciences' name=c1> SEARCHNews News Photos Images Web' name=c3> National Academy of Sciences.
The Earth has been warming at a rate of 0.36 degree Fahrenheit per decade for the last 30 years, according to the research team led by James Hansen of
NASA' name=c1> SEARCHNews News Photos Images Web' name=c3> NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies in New York.
That brings the overall temperature to the warmest in the current interglacial period, which began about 12,000 years ago.
The researchers noted that a report in the journal Nature found that 1,700 plant, animal and insect species moved poleward at an average rate of about 4 miles per decade in the last half of the 20th century.
The warming has been stronger in the far north, where melting ice and snow expose darker land and rocks beneath allowing more warmth from the sun to be absorbed, and more over land than water.
Water changes temperature more slowly than land because of its great capacity to hold heat, but the researchers noted that the warming has been marked in the Indian and western Pacific Oceans. Those oceans have a major effect on climate and warming that could lead to more El Nino episodes affecting the weather.
"This evidence implies that we are getting close to dangerous levels of human-made pollution," Hansen said in a statement.
Few scientists doubt that the planet has warmed, though some question the causes of the change.
Hansen, who first warned of the danger of climate change decades ago, said that human-made greenhouse gases have become the dominant climate change factor.
The study said the recent warming has brought global temperature to a level within about one degree Celsius — 1.8 degree Fahrenheit — of the maximum temperature of the past million years.
"If further global warming reaches 2 or 3 degrees Celsius, we will likely see changes that make Earth a different planet than the one we know. The last time it was that warm was in the middle Pliocene, about 3 million years ago, when sea level was estimated to have been about 25 meters (80 feet) higher than today," Hansen said.
___
On the Net:
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences: http://www.pnas.org
Ze-gen Awarded Funds for Waste-to-Energy Plant
Boston, Massachusetts [RenewableEnergyAccess.com] Ze-gen, Inc., a Boston-based, privately-held company providing advanced gasification technology to convert industrial and municipal waste streams into synthetic natural gas and low-emissions electrical energy, accepted $500,000 in Sustainable Energy Economic Development (SEED) financing from Massachusetts Technology Collaborative's (MTC) Renewable Energy Trust.
"The fast growing cluster of clean energy companies in Massachusetts is creating new economic opportunity and developing new technologies that will help us tap clean, renewable sources of energy." -- Warren Leon, Renewable Energy Trust, director
In conjunction with recently announced financing led by Massachusetts Technology Development Corporation (MTDC), this funding will be used to help the company construct and operate a proof-of-concept facility in New Bedford, MA."The fast growing cluster of clean energy companies in Massachusetts is creating new economic opportunity and developing new technologies that will help us tap clean, renewable sources of energy," said Trust Director Warren Leon. Ze-gen was formed in mid-2004 in order to develop and deploy efficient gasification systems that convert municipal solid waste (MSW) and construction and demolition waste into clean energy. Ze-gen represents a non-incineration based opportunity to create clean power with a virtually limitless supply of free fuel.MTC administers the Renewable Energy Trust, which was established to generate the maximum economic and environmental benefits from clean energy resources for the Commonwealth. The Trust is an essential part of the state's strategy to build a cleaner, more secure energy future by encouraging the use of renewable resources such as wind, solar, hydroelectric, biomass, fuel cells and landfill gas.
For further Information
Massachusetts Technology Collaborative's (MTC) Renewable Energy Trust
Ze-gen, Inc
Boston, Massachusetts [RenewableEnergyAccess.com] Ze-gen, Inc., a Boston-based, privately-held company providing advanced gasification technology to convert industrial and municipal waste streams into synthetic natural gas and low-emissions electrical energy, accepted $500,000 in Sustainable Energy Economic Development (SEED) financing from Massachusetts Technology Collaborative's (MTC) Renewable Energy Trust.
"The fast growing cluster of clean energy companies in Massachusetts is creating new economic opportunity and developing new technologies that will help us tap clean, renewable sources of energy." -- Warren Leon, Renewable Energy Trust, director
In conjunction with recently announced financing led by Massachusetts Technology Development Corporation (MTDC), this funding will be used to help the company construct and operate a proof-of-concept facility in New Bedford, MA."The fast growing cluster of clean energy companies in Massachusetts is creating new economic opportunity and developing new technologies that will help us tap clean, renewable sources of energy," said Trust Director Warren Leon. Ze-gen was formed in mid-2004 in order to develop and deploy efficient gasification systems that convert municipal solid waste (MSW) and construction and demolition waste into clean energy. Ze-gen represents a non-incineration based opportunity to create clean power with a virtually limitless supply of free fuel.MTC administers the Renewable Energy Trust, which was established to generate the maximum economic and environmental benefits from clean energy resources for the Commonwealth. The Trust is an essential part of the state's strategy to build a cleaner, more secure energy future by encouraging the use of renewable resources such as wind, solar, hydroelectric, biomass, fuel cells and landfill gas.
For further Information
Massachusetts Technology Collaborative's (MTC) Renewable Energy Trust
Ze-gen, Inc
Monday, September 25, 2006
Aussie PM rejects India plea for uranium, but signals change ahead - Yahoo! News
SYDNEY (AFP) - Australia will not sell uranium to nuclear-armed India for the moment, Prime Minister John Howard said, as India reportedly pressed for a change in Canberra's policy.
Howard said nothing had happened to make it abandon its stand against selling uranium to countries that refuse to sign the nuclear non-proliferation treaty (NPT).
"Certainly our policy to date has been to prohibit sales to countries which are not signatories to the nuclear non-proliferation treaty," Howard told Australian Associated Press news agency.
"And that's why at the moment we couldn't, without changing policy, sell to India, but we can to China."
However, he said the government was open to change, the prime minister signalled.
"As time goes by, if India were to meet safeguard obligations, some Australians would see it as anomalous that we would sell uranium to China, but not India," Howard said.
The Fairfax newspaper group reported Monday that India is urging the Australian government to change its policy and supply uranium for the country's nuclear reactors.
But the government is divided on the issue, with Foreign Minister Alexander Downer and Deputy Prime Minister Mark Vaile opposed to abandoning the policy, according to Fairfax.
Australia, which has the world's largest known reserves of the nuclear fuel, prohibits the sale of uranium to countries that have not signed the NPT.
The national security adviser to Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, M K Narayanan, and Singh's spokesman Sanjay Baru told Fairfax they wanted Australia to reconsider, but insisted that a refusal would not hurt the relationship between the two countries.
India first requested the policy shift in March that it be permitted to import Australian uranium, and the request was still being considered by the government, Howard told AAP.
The moves came as the US Senate prepared to consider a controversial civilian nuclear energy deal, already passed by the House of Representatives, that would reverse three decades of US policy restricting India's access to nuclear technology.
SYDNEY (AFP) - Australia will not sell uranium to nuclear-armed India for the moment, Prime Minister John Howard said, as India reportedly pressed for a change in Canberra's policy.
Howard said nothing had happened to make it abandon its stand against selling uranium to countries that refuse to sign the nuclear non-proliferation treaty (NPT).
"Certainly our policy to date has been to prohibit sales to countries which are not signatories to the nuclear non-proliferation treaty," Howard told Australian Associated Press news agency.
"And that's why at the moment we couldn't, without changing policy, sell to India, but we can to China."
However, he said the government was open to change, the prime minister signalled.
"As time goes by, if India were to meet safeguard obligations, some Australians would see it as anomalous that we would sell uranium to China, but not India," Howard said.
The Fairfax newspaper group reported Monday that India is urging the Australian government to change its policy and supply uranium for the country's nuclear reactors.
But the government is divided on the issue, with Foreign Minister Alexander Downer and Deputy Prime Minister Mark Vaile opposed to abandoning the policy, according to Fairfax.
Australia, which has the world's largest known reserves of the nuclear fuel, prohibits the sale of uranium to countries that have not signed the NPT.
The national security adviser to Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, M K Narayanan, and Singh's spokesman Sanjay Baru told Fairfax they wanted Australia to reconsider, but insisted that a refusal would not hurt the relationship between the two countries.
India first requested the policy shift in March that it be permitted to import Australian uranium, and the request was still being considered by the government, Howard told AAP.
The moves came as the US Senate prepared to consider a controversial civilian nuclear energy deal, already passed by the House of Representatives, that would reverse three decades of US policy restricting India's access to nuclear technology.
Uranium sales to India possible: Howard.
The Prime Minister says the Federal Government is considering the possibility of selling uranium to India but India would have to adhere to certain safeguards.
The Indian Government has asked the Federal Government to allow it to import Australian uranium even though it has not signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.
The United States has done a nuclear co-operation deal with India.
John Howard says he supports the sale if India can guarantee the uranium will be used for peaceful purposes.
"As time goes by if India were to meet safeguard obligations some Australians would see it as anomalous if we would sell uranium to China but not to India," Mr Howard said.
"But at the moment it would be against policy and there would need to be good reason to change that policy, but the issue is obviously under consideration."
Earlier today, Nationals leader Mark Vaile said there was no change in Australia's policy.
"Our policy remains the same as it has been in the way we addressed this issue with China," he said.
"We maintained we could not do business with China until we had the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty signed and in place and that is the policy we would apply today to India."
Labor's foreign affairs spokesman Kevin Rudd says it is time the Government clarified its position.
"We have a national interest in taking the lead in rebuilding the non-proliferation regime," Mr Rudd said.
The Prime Minister says the Federal Government is considering the possibility of selling uranium to India but India would have to adhere to certain safeguards.
The Indian Government has asked the Federal Government to allow it to import Australian uranium even though it has not signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.
The United States has done a nuclear co-operation deal with India.
John Howard says he supports the sale if India can guarantee the uranium will be used for peaceful purposes.
"As time goes by if India were to meet safeguard obligations some Australians would see it as anomalous if we would sell uranium to China but not to India," Mr Howard said.
"But at the moment it would be against policy and there would need to be good reason to change that policy, but the issue is obviously under consideration."
Earlier today, Nationals leader Mark Vaile said there was no change in Australia's policy.
"Our policy remains the same as it has been in the way we addressed this issue with China," he said.
"We maintained we could not do business with China until we had the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty signed and in place and that is the policy we would apply today to India."
Labor's foreign affairs spokesman Kevin Rudd says it is time the Government clarified its position.
"We have a national interest in taking the lead in rebuilding the non-proliferation regime," Mr Rudd said.
Gas/Coal to Oil
Sydney, Sept 25, 2006 (ACN Newswire) - You are going to hear a lot about gas/coal to liquids technology in Australia in coming years and it could very well end up supplanting the likes of ethanol and biodiesel as a source of energy in competition with oil.South Africa has used it for years (Sasol), the Germans used similar technology during World War Two and intensive studies are being made to use it to process natural gas in the Middle East, the US and even Australia's north west shelf.The Victorian Government has just given the greenlight to a 50-year mining licence for a $5 billion joint project by from Shell Oil Group and Anglo American to convert Latrobe Valley brown coal into diesel fuel.This is more like the processes used by the South African company, Sasol (Anglo American is a South African mining giant now based in London). It will use Shell technology.Latrobe Valley brown coal is currently used to generate power from a complex of power stations.The Victorian Government's approval requires the project to capture and store underground - a process known as geosequestration - carbon dioxide produced during the process.Coinciding with the licence approval to the operator, Monash Energy, Shell Gas and Power and Anglo American also signed a joint development agreement to advance the project.The Monash Energy plant is forecast to produce 60,000 barrels of synthetic diesel daily when it comes on stream by the middle of the next decade.The statement from the two companies said:"Shell Energy Investments Australia Pty Ltd (Shell) and Anglo American plc today announced the signing of a joint development agreement (JDA) for the two companies to further advance the Monash Energy clean coal-to-liquids project in the state of Victoria, Australia. This agreement is the first under a clean coal energy alliance formed by Shell and Anglo American in May 2006."The JDA covers a number of project development phases. In the initial concept phase, which is expected to conclude during 2007, Monash Energy in conjunction with technical advisers from Anglo American and Shell will carry out a study of the commercial and technical aspects, including carbon capture and storage. If successfully concluded, the study would form the basis for the feasibility phase and demonstration activities."The Monash Energy project would involve the gasification – via Shell's proprietary coal gasification process – of Anglo American's brown coal from Victoria's Latrobe Valley for further conversion into clean transportation fuels, including virtually zero sulphur, synthetic diesel, using Shell's proprietary gas-to-liquids technology. A number of locations have been identified as potential sites for the storage of CO2 from the process."These potential storage sites for the carbon dioxide have been located already, including in the Bass Strait gas fields which lie at the end of the rock formations in which the Latrobe Valley brown coal is found.The synthetic diesel, said to be of a higher and cleaner quality because it contains fewer impurities including almost no sulphur, will not necessarily be sold in the state.Shell is investing $US 6 billion in gas to liquids technologies over 10 years with four plants. It announced in October 2000, agreement with the Egyptian government for a 75 000 barrels a day (3.8 million tones per annum) facility and a similar plant for Trinidad & Tobago.In April 2001, it announced interest for plants in Australia, Argentina and Malaysia at 75 000 barrels a day costing $US 1.6 billion.But the Shellprojectand a number of others slated for Western Australia have been withdrawn or deferred: Shell now says Australia ranks well behind the Qatar project in the Middle East which will use gas from, the world's biggest gas field.In background material on the various company websites it was explained thatAnglo Coal is a member of the FutureGen Industrial Alliance, a public-private partnership involving the US Department of Energy that aims to build a near zero emission coal-fired power plant employing carbon capture and storage technology. Anglo Coal Australia participates in the Coal21 Fund, established by the black coal mining industry to develop technologies for reducing greenhouse gas emissions from coal utilisation.The Monash Energy project is helping to meet the challenges of energy security and climate change by applying to brown coal advanced drying and gasification technologies to produce large volumes of ultra-clean synthetic diesel. Critically, the technologies chosen by the Monash Energy project enable separation of a concentrated stream of CO2 that can be transported to injection wells in deep underground geological formations for secure storage. The core of the project is a large-scale commercial plant in Victoria's Latrobe Valley, drawing coal from Anglo American's mine and then drying and gasifying the coal for conversion into transport fuels.Monash Energy is the short form name for Monash Energy Holdings Ltd, a member of the Anglo American group of companies. The company initiated the Monash Energy Project which was named after General Sir John Monash, the first Chairman (1921 – 1931) of the State Electricity Commission of Victoria, and supporter of the development of the Latrobe Valley's brown coal resources. Monash Energy Holdings Ltd is focused on the development of the Monash Energy Project and has no other significant activities. Anglo American has had an interest in the Monash Energy Project since 2003 and acquired 100% ownership at the end of 2004. Prior to this time the company was known as "Australian Power and Energy Ltd" (APEL), and had started to develop the project in 1999.Shell Gas & Power is one of the four main businesses of Royal Dutch Shell plc. and is engaged in natural gas activities in more than 30 countries. In addition to its clean coal energy activities, it holds leading positions in all three key natural gas markets (Asia Pacific, Europe and North America) and owns interests in six operating LNG joint ventures that together produced approximately one-third of the world's LNG in 2005. Through the Pearl gas to liquids (GTL) project in Qatar, Shell Gas & Power is also building on its leading position in the emerging GTL sector.
Sydney, Sept 25, 2006 (ACN Newswire) - You are going to hear a lot about gas/coal to liquids technology in Australia in coming years and it could very well end up supplanting the likes of ethanol and biodiesel as a source of energy in competition with oil.South Africa has used it for years (Sasol), the Germans used similar technology during World War Two and intensive studies are being made to use it to process natural gas in the Middle East, the US and even Australia's north west shelf.The Victorian Government has just given the greenlight to a 50-year mining licence for a $5 billion joint project by from Shell Oil Group and Anglo American to convert Latrobe Valley brown coal into diesel fuel.This is more like the processes used by the South African company, Sasol (Anglo American is a South African mining giant now based in London). It will use Shell technology.Latrobe Valley brown coal is currently used to generate power from a complex of power stations.The Victorian Government's approval requires the project to capture and store underground - a process known as geosequestration - carbon dioxide produced during the process.Coinciding with the licence approval to the operator, Monash Energy, Shell Gas and Power and Anglo American also signed a joint development agreement to advance the project.The Monash Energy plant is forecast to produce 60,000 barrels of synthetic diesel daily when it comes on stream by the middle of the next decade.The statement from the two companies said:"Shell Energy Investments Australia Pty Ltd (Shell) and Anglo American plc today announced the signing of a joint development agreement (JDA) for the two companies to further advance the Monash Energy clean coal-to-liquids project in the state of Victoria, Australia. This agreement is the first under a clean coal energy alliance formed by Shell and Anglo American in May 2006."The JDA covers a number of project development phases. In the initial concept phase, which is expected to conclude during 2007, Monash Energy in conjunction with technical advisers from Anglo American and Shell will carry out a study of the commercial and technical aspects, including carbon capture and storage. If successfully concluded, the study would form the basis for the feasibility phase and demonstration activities."The Monash Energy project would involve the gasification – via Shell's proprietary coal gasification process – of Anglo American's brown coal from Victoria's Latrobe Valley for further conversion into clean transportation fuels, including virtually zero sulphur, synthetic diesel, using Shell's proprietary gas-to-liquids technology. A number of locations have been identified as potential sites for the storage of CO2 from the process."These potential storage sites for the carbon dioxide have been located already, including in the Bass Strait gas fields which lie at the end of the rock formations in which the Latrobe Valley brown coal is found.The synthetic diesel, said to be of a higher and cleaner quality because it contains fewer impurities including almost no sulphur, will not necessarily be sold in the state.Shell is investing $US 6 billion in gas to liquids technologies over 10 years with four plants. It announced in October 2000, agreement with the Egyptian government for a 75 000 barrels a day (3.8 million tones per annum) facility and a similar plant for Trinidad & Tobago.In April 2001, it announced interest for plants in Australia, Argentina and Malaysia at 75 000 barrels a day costing $US 1.6 billion.But the Shellprojectand a number of others slated for Western Australia have been withdrawn or deferred: Shell now says Australia ranks well behind the Qatar project in the Middle East which will use gas from, the world's biggest gas field.In background material on the various company websites it was explained thatAnglo Coal is a member of the FutureGen Industrial Alliance, a public-private partnership involving the US Department of Energy that aims to build a near zero emission coal-fired power plant employing carbon capture and storage technology. Anglo Coal Australia participates in the Coal21 Fund, established by the black coal mining industry to develop technologies for reducing greenhouse gas emissions from coal utilisation.The Monash Energy project is helping to meet the challenges of energy security and climate change by applying to brown coal advanced drying and gasification technologies to produce large volumes of ultra-clean synthetic diesel. Critically, the technologies chosen by the Monash Energy project enable separation of a concentrated stream of CO2 that can be transported to injection wells in deep underground geological formations for secure storage. The core of the project is a large-scale commercial plant in Victoria's Latrobe Valley, drawing coal from Anglo American's mine and then drying and gasifying the coal for conversion into transport fuels.Monash Energy is the short form name for Monash Energy Holdings Ltd, a member of the Anglo American group of companies. The company initiated the Monash Energy Project which was named after General Sir John Monash, the first Chairman (1921 – 1931) of the State Electricity Commission of Victoria, and supporter of the development of the Latrobe Valley's brown coal resources. Monash Energy Holdings Ltd is focused on the development of the Monash Energy Project and has no other significant activities. Anglo American has had an interest in the Monash Energy Project since 2003 and acquired 100% ownership at the end of 2004. Prior to this time the company was known as "Australian Power and Energy Ltd" (APEL), and had started to develop the project in 1999.Shell Gas & Power is one of the four main businesses of Royal Dutch Shell plc. and is engaged in natural gas activities in more than 30 countries. In addition to its clean coal energy activities, it holds leading positions in all three key natural gas markets (Asia Pacific, Europe and North America) and owns interests in six operating LNG joint ventures that together produced approximately one-third of the world's LNG in 2005. Through the Pearl gas to liquids (GTL) project in Qatar, Shell Gas & Power is also building on its leading position in the emerging GTL sector.
Renewable energy forum
ADELAIDE — A forum on renewable energy production drew 140 people to the University of Adelaide on September 21. The forum, organised by the Conservation Council of SA and Greenpeace, sought to outline the state of SA’s renewable energy sector and the threats to the industry, and to detail developing technologies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
Mark Wakeham from Greenpeace Australia said the forum was focused on electricity production because that is the largest single contributor to greenhouse emissions in Australia. He pointed out that the largest electricity user in SA is the Roxby Downs uranium mine and that the planned expansion of Roxby could undermine the state government’s target of 20% electricity generation from renewable sources by 2014.
Greenpeace International renewable energy campaigner Sven Teske said that some 70,000 people are employed in Germany’s renewable energy sector — more than in the coal and nuclear industries combined. With renewables, Taske said, the capital investment is repaid fairly quickly, whereas nuclear, coal and gas plants require continual high-level maintenance and upgrading, and in effect never repay the capital cost. Greenpeace International will next year release a global energy plan incorporating strategies for reducing greenhouse emissions based on regional demands, resources and capabilities.
Leslie Richmond
ADELAIDE — A forum on renewable energy production drew 140 people to the University of Adelaide on September 21. The forum, organised by the Conservation Council of SA and Greenpeace, sought to outline the state of SA’s renewable energy sector and the threats to the industry, and to detail developing technologies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
Mark Wakeham from Greenpeace Australia said the forum was focused on electricity production because that is the largest single contributor to greenhouse emissions in Australia. He pointed out that the largest electricity user in SA is the Roxby Downs uranium mine and that the planned expansion of Roxby could undermine the state government’s target of 20% electricity generation from renewable sources by 2014.
Greenpeace International renewable energy campaigner Sven Teske said that some 70,000 people are employed in Germany’s renewable energy sector — more than in the coal and nuclear industries combined. With renewables, Taske said, the capital investment is repaid fairly quickly, whereas nuclear, coal and gas plants require continual high-level maintenance and upgrading, and in effect never repay the capital cost. Greenpeace International will next year release a global energy plan incorporating strategies for reducing greenhouse emissions based on regional demands, resources and capabilities.
Leslie Richmond
India's passage to power -
Its plunge into the market economy was much later, yet it may catch China and even surpass it, writes Peter Hartcher.
Scattered around India's thriving capital, Delhi, lie the impressive stone remains of seven earlier capitals, the ruins of once-great empires.
The first of these cities was built 800 years ago, and the last was the seat of the mighty Mogul emperors until the British overthrew them in 1857.
The British built their own monumental new seat of power in Delhi, but got to enjoy their expensive capital for only 16 years before being forced out, and modern, independent India took shape in 1947.
For Indians, the inevitable rise and fall of great powers is no remote textbook notion but part of the landscape. And today its rulers are convinced the rise of modern India is well under way.
"The US is clearly the pre-eminent power in the world today, but other countries are not far behind," says M.K.Narayanan, the National Security Adviser to India's Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh.
"There is China, the European Union, Russia is emerging, Japan is back and, I dare say, India is not far behind. Economically, militarily, philosophically, India carries weight.
"Quite clearly, the locus of growth is moving to Asia, and what's happening in China and India is extraordinary."
The rest of the world is coming to agree. The same projection by the Wall Street investment bank Goldman Sachs that foresees China as the world's biggest economy by 2050 sees India becoming the third biggest behind the US.
In a forthcoming book on the outlook for India and China, Dancing with Giants, the World Bank comes to a similar view. It begins its survey by pointing out two of the shared characteristics of China and India: "Their populations are huge and their economies have been growing very fast for at least 10 years."
Together, the two account for nearly one in four of the human race.
But even after a decade of strong growth they make up only 6.5 per cent of the global economy - China 4.7 per cent and India 1.8 per cent. This hints at the tremendous scope for catch-up that remains.
Dr Suman Bery, the director-general of the National Council of Applied Economic Research in Delhi, says: "If it's about the distance between yourself and the frontiers of economic development - being propelled forward like a rubber band - it's a reason for bullishness."
The Australian economist Professor Ross Garnaut has pointed out that the evidence from fast-growing East Asian economies is that they tend to grow at high speed until they reach average income levels of about half those of the richest countries.
Its plunge into the market economy was much later, yet it may catch China and even surpass it, writes Peter Hartcher.
Scattered around India's thriving capital, Delhi, lie the impressive stone remains of seven earlier capitals, the ruins of once-great empires.
The first of these cities was built 800 years ago, and the last was the seat of the mighty Mogul emperors until the British overthrew them in 1857.
The British built their own monumental new seat of power in Delhi, but got to enjoy their expensive capital for only 16 years before being forced out, and modern, independent India took shape in 1947.
For Indians, the inevitable rise and fall of great powers is no remote textbook notion but part of the landscape. And today its rulers are convinced the rise of modern India is well under way.
"The US is clearly the pre-eminent power in the world today, but other countries are not far behind," says M.K.Narayanan, the National Security Adviser to India's Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh.
"There is China, the European Union, Russia is emerging, Japan is back and, I dare say, India is not far behind. Economically, militarily, philosophically, India carries weight.
"Quite clearly, the locus of growth is moving to Asia, and what's happening in China and India is extraordinary."
The rest of the world is coming to agree. The same projection by the Wall Street investment bank Goldman Sachs that foresees China as the world's biggest economy by 2050 sees India becoming the third biggest behind the US.
In a forthcoming book on the outlook for India and China, Dancing with Giants, the World Bank comes to a similar view. It begins its survey by pointing out two of the shared characteristics of China and India: "Their populations are huge and their economies have been growing very fast for at least 10 years."
Together, the two account for nearly one in four of the human race.
But even after a decade of strong growth they make up only 6.5 per cent of the global economy - China 4.7 per cent and India 1.8 per cent. This hints at the tremendous scope for catch-up that remains.
Dr Suman Bery, the director-general of the National Council of Applied Economic Research in Delhi, says: "If it's about the distance between yourself and the frontiers of economic development - being propelled forward like a rubber band - it's a reason for bullishness."
The Australian economist Professor Ross Garnaut has pointed out that the evidence from fast-growing East Asian economies is that they tend to grow at high speed until they reach average income levels of about half those of the richest countries.
BMW's Hydrogen Hopes
Hydrogen may never be feasible as a fuel for vehicles, but BMW is pushing ahead anyway with an advanced hydrogen-gas combustion hybrid.
By David Talbot
The internal combustion engine in BMW’s new hydrogen-gasoline hybrid engine can switch seamlessly between the two fuels. And control systems optimize the concentrations of hydrogen being burned, which can minimize or eliminate one of the downsides of hydrogen combustion: the formation of nitrogen oxides. While BMW hopes its new model will help drive the adoption of hydrogen in vehicles, experts are skeptical. (Credit: BMW)
For several years, BMW has been building custom prototypes of luxury cars that can switch between hydrogen and gasoline in an internal-combustion engine. Now, the automaker is touting a version that has gone through rigorous product-development steps, so that it could theoretically be mass-manufactured--although BMW will make only 100 of them and give them away to a privileged group of as-yet-unnamed celebrities and politicians.
Many observers feel hydrogen as a transportation energy source is a far-out proposition. With this move, BMW has at least made a strong case that it will be more practical to burn hydrogen in a traditional internal combustion engine than to pass it through fuel cells to produce electricity to drive electric motors.
The question now is whether BMW's project really pushes hydrogen cars any closer to adoption, or just represents a refinement of the necessary engineering details.
"They have come down on the side of "OK, if we are going to use hydrogen, using it in an internal combustion engine specially designed for that purpose is the better technology path," rather than trying to bring brand-new technology to market, says John Heywood, director of the Sloan Automotive Laboratory at MIT. "I think it's a technical judgment they are making, and maybe it's got a mid-term, as opposed to a long-term, timescale. They are a high-performance-engine, fun-to-drive-car company. That is their culture, so this fits in with that culture."
The hydrogen/gasoline prototype is based on BMW's 7 series sedans, many of which retail for more than $100,000. (No price has been set on the new hybrid, since the car will not be sold.) The vehicle has a super-insulated tank that stores liquid hydrogen at minus-480 degrees F, and a special fuel-injection system that can switch between gasoline and hydrogen. The engine can pack a 260-horsepower wallop while burning hydrogen--something that an electric car powered by a hydrogen fuel cell cannot now do in such a large car, BMW says.
Thomas Korn, senior project engineer for BMW's hydrogen program in Oxnard, CA, says the new car boasts not only high performance, but also low emissions. Hydrogen combustion leads to the formation of nitrogen oxides, but BMW's new car has sophisticated control systems that optimize the concentrations of hydrogen being burned and the engine timing, to minimize or eliminate the formation of nitrogen oxides.
Should a demand ever emerge for such cars, BMW could theoretically mass-produce them, Korn says. Unlike an earlier batch of 12 hydrogen-powered prototypes made by BMW, the new car has gone through brutal longevity tests, and uses parts that can be mass-manufactured by suppliers, rather than one-off, custom-crafted components.
"It went through production process, so we have the technology to industrialize it," says Korn. "On the other hand, the situation out there is not such that we can sell the car, because the potential customer hardly will find a place to fill up the car."
Hydrogen may never be feasible as a fuel for vehicles, but BMW is pushing ahead anyway with an advanced hydrogen-gas combustion hybrid.
By David Talbot
The internal combustion engine in BMW’s new hydrogen-gasoline hybrid engine can switch seamlessly between the two fuels. And control systems optimize the concentrations of hydrogen being burned, which can minimize or eliminate one of the downsides of hydrogen combustion: the formation of nitrogen oxides. While BMW hopes its new model will help drive the adoption of hydrogen in vehicles, experts are skeptical. (Credit: BMW)
For several years, BMW has been building custom prototypes of luxury cars that can switch between hydrogen and gasoline in an internal-combustion engine. Now, the automaker is touting a version that has gone through rigorous product-development steps, so that it could theoretically be mass-manufactured--although BMW will make only 100 of them and give them away to a privileged group of as-yet-unnamed celebrities and politicians.
Many observers feel hydrogen as a transportation energy source is a far-out proposition. With this move, BMW has at least made a strong case that it will be more practical to burn hydrogen in a traditional internal combustion engine than to pass it through fuel cells to produce electricity to drive electric motors.
The question now is whether BMW's project really pushes hydrogen cars any closer to adoption, or just represents a refinement of the necessary engineering details.
"They have come down on the side of "OK, if we are going to use hydrogen, using it in an internal combustion engine specially designed for that purpose is the better technology path," rather than trying to bring brand-new technology to market, says John Heywood, director of the Sloan Automotive Laboratory at MIT. "I think it's a technical judgment they are making, and maybe it's got a mid-term, as opposed to a long-term, timescale. They are a high-performance-engine, fun-to-drive-car company. That is their culture, so this fits in with that culture."
The hydrogen/gasoline prototype is based on BMW's 7 series sedans, many of which retail for more than $100,000. (No price has been set on the new hybrid, since the car will not be sold.) The vehicle has a super-insulated tank that stores liquid hydrogen at minus-480 degrees F, and a special fuel-injection system that can switch between gasoline and hydrogen. The engine can pack a 260-horsepower wallop while burning hydrogen--something that an electric car powered by a hydrogen fuel cell cannot now do in such a large car, BMW says.
Thomas Korn, senior project engineer for BMW's hydrogen program in Oxnard, CA, says the new car boasts not only high performance, but also low emissions. Hydrogen combustion leads to the formation of nitrogen oxides, but BMW's new car has sophisticated control systems that optimize the concentrations of hydrogen being burned and the engine timing, to minimize or eliminate the formation of nitrogen oxides.
Should a demand ever emerge for such cars, BMW could theoretically mass-produce them, Korn says. Unlike an earlier batch of 12 hydrogen-powered prototypes made by BMW, the new car has gone through brutal longevity tests, and uses parts that can be mass-manufactured by suppliers, rather than one-off, custom-crafted components.
"It went through production process, so we have the technology to industrialize it," says Korn. "On the other hand, the situation out there is not such that we can sell the car, because the potential customer hardly will find a place to fill up the car."
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