Jan

7

International Year of Planet Earth

January 7, 2008 | Leave a Comment

International Year of Planet Earth. ‘The International Year of Planet Earth aims to ensure greater and more effective use by society of the knowledge accumulated by the world’s 400,000 Earth scientists. The Year’s ultimate goal of helping to build safer, healthier and wealthier societies around the globe is expressed in the Year’s subtitle ‘Earth science [...]

Nov

16

Carbon Monitoring for Action (CARMA): A Global Carbon Emissions Database

November 16, 2007 | 1 Comment

Carbon Monitoring for Action (CARMA). ‘At its core, Carbon Monitoring for Action (CARMA) is a massive database containing information on the carbon emissions of over 50,000 power plants and 4,000 power companies worldwide. Power generation accounts for 40% of all carbon emissions in the United States and about one-quarter of global emissions. CARMA is the [...]

Oct

29

Bad News for Biofuels: Five-Year Moratorium Proposed

October 29, 2007 | 2 Comments

BBC News: Biofuels ‘crime against humanity’. ‘A United Nations expert has condemned the growing use of crops to produce biofuels as a replacement for petrol as a crime against humanity. The UN special rapporteur on the right to food, Jean Ziegler, said he feared biofuels would bring more hunger. The growth in the production of [...]

Oct

1

Cellulosic Ethanol on Wired Magazine

October 1, 2007 | Leave a Comment

Cellulosic Ethanol: One Molecule Could Cure Our Addiction to Oil. ‘On a blackboard, it looks so simple: Take a plant and extract the cellulose. Add some enzymes and convert the cellulose molecules into sugars. Ferment the sugar into alcohol. Then distill the alcohol into fuel. One, two, three, four — and we’re powering our cars [...]

Sep

28

Economist Article on Biofuels

September 28, 2007 | 1 Comment

Economist: Ethanol, schmethanol. ‘Everyone seems to think that ethanol is a good way to make cars greener. Everyone is wrong.
SOMETIMES you do things simply because you know how to. People have known how to make ethanol since the dawn of civilisation, if not before. Take some sugary liquid. Add yeast. Wait. They have also known [...]

Aug

19

Call for Public Comments: Prioritization of Environmental, Health, and Safety Research Needs for Engineered Nanoscale Materials

August 19, 2007 | Leave a Comment

Prioritization of Environmental, Health, and Safety Research Needs for Engineered Nanoscale Materials (PDF). The National Nanotechnology Coordination Office (NNCO), on behalf of the Nanoscale Science, Engineering, and Technology (NSET) Subcommittee of the Committee on Technology, National Science and Technology Council (NSTC), is requesting public comments on the newly released document Prioritization of Environmental, Health, and [...]

Aug

14

Biofpr (Biofuels, Bioproducts & Biorefining)

August 14, 2007 | 2 Comments

Biofpr (Biofuels, Bioproducts & Biorefining). ‘Biofuels, Bioproducts & Biorefining (Biofpr) is the definitive source of information on sustainable products, fuels and energy. There is an exciting blend of news, patent intelligence and feature articles on this web portal, as well as the publication of a peer-reviewed journal.
Both the web portal, biofpr.com, and the peer-reviewed scientific [...]

Aug

4

Lanthanum-Strontium-Cobalt-Ferric Oxide (LSCF) Tubes Shown to Reduce Greenhouse Gas Emissions

August 4, 2007 | Leave a Comment

Ceramic membrane could cut greenhouse gas emissions from power stations. ‘Greenhouse gas emissions from power stations could be cut to almost zero by controlling the combustion process with tiny tubes made from an advanced ceramic material, claims a research team led by Newcastle University today.
The material, known as LSCF, has the remarkable property of being [...]

Jul

9

How to Make Biofuels From Anything Organic

July 9, 2007 | Leave a Comment

Boon For Biofuels - New projects seek to create energy from a range of renewable feedstocks. ‘Chemical and biotechnology companies have announced a flurry of initiatives aimed at creating fuels and other forms of energy from a wide variety of biomass sources.
The projects seek to turn everything from algae to manure to oil seeds into [...]

Jul

5

Exploring the Bottom of the Arctic Ocean: Arctic Gakkel Vents Expedition

July 5, 2007 | Leave a Comment

Arctic Gakkel Vents Expedition: July 1-Aug. 10, 2007. ‘No one has ever laid eyes on the bottom of the Arctic Ocean. For the first time in the history of humankind, a scientific team — using unique underwater and under-ice vehicles — will try. At the top of the world, the Arctic Ocean is cold, remote, [...]

Jul

3

Polyurethane Plastics From Canola Oil

July 3, 2007 | Leave a Comment

Polyurethane plastics from canola oil. ‘An intensive world-wide effort to develop technology for manufacturing plastics from vegetable oil, rather then petroleum, has led researchers in Canada to a process for making polyurethane (PUR) plastic sheets from canola oil. In a study scheduled for publication in the July 9 issue of ACS’s Biomacromolecules, a monthly journal, [...]

May

9

Calculate Your Carbon Footprint

May 9, 2007 | 1 Comment

Carbon Footprint - It doesn’t cost the Earth to save the planet. ‘Carbon Footprint is a measure of the impact human activities have on the environment in terms of the amount of green house gases produced, measured in units of carbon dioxide.
Carbon Footprint’s mission is to educate and inform how we can all make the [...]

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