Biofuel
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The country's stock exchanges have a had a turbulent time. Nasdaq Dubai's chief executive Jeff Singer explains why he thinks the country's capital markets need an overhaul, the challenges that await and what should be done. UAE markets could use a Big Bang
Saudi warning on alternatives - The National Newspaper
Clean Energy 2030: Google's plan to save the planet
The twin pressures of climate change and the reliance on imported oil from politically unstable regions of the globe both point to a need to transform the way that the US sources, generates, and uses power. To that end, the search engine giant Google (which is developing itself some impressive green credentials ) has issued a plan, Clean Energy 2030 , that lays out a possible future for the energy and transportation sectors that promises to cut CO 2 emissions, reduce dependence on foreign fuel imports, and save the economy billions over the next 22 years. The Google plan is nothing if not ambitious. To begin with, Google proposes a massive push toward energy efficiency, which will reduce electricity demand to 2008 levels (accounting for around 1,000 terawatt hours/year. It also calls for a complete cessation of oil and coal for power generation (currently, coal provides around half of the electricity used in the US).
Some anticipate a major expansion of nuclear power The case for nuclear power as a low carbon energy source to replace fossil fuels has been challenged in a new report by Australian academics. It suggests greenhouse emissions from the mining of uranium - on which nuclear power relies - are on the rise. Availability of high-grade uranium ore is set to decline with time, it says, making the fuel less environmentally friendly and more costly to extract.
BBC NEWS | Science/Nature | Nuclear's CO2 cost 'will c
Future of Green Gasoline - Hydrocarbons Replace Ethanol? - Fuel
Hydrogen, ethanol and even compressed air all have the shrink-wrapped sheen of the bright, green future. But gasoline? At $1 per gallon? Researchers at UMass Amherst recently published a new method of refining hydrocarbons from cellulose, paving the way to turn wood scraps into gasoline, diesel fuel, Tupperware--anything, essentially, that's normally refined from petroleum. Many scientists have been working on ways to turn everything from corn stalks to tires into ethanol , sidestepping some of the problems inherent to making fuel from corn and other food products .
A Virgin Atlantic jumbo jet has flown between London's Heathrow and Amsterdam using fuel derived from a mixture of Brazilian babassu nuts and coconuts. "This pioneering flight will enable those of us who are serious about reducing our carbon emissions to go on developing the fuels of the future," he said. But he said fully commercial biofuel flights were likely to use feedstocks such as algae rather than the mix used on the passenger-less flight. Virgin's Boeing 747 had one of its four engines connected to an independent biofuel tank that it said could provide 20% of the engine's power. Instead of looking for a magic green bullet, Virgin should focus on the real solution to this problem and call for a halt to relentless airport expansion The three other engines were capable of powering the plane on conventional fuel had there been a problem.
BBC NEWS | UK | First biofuel flight touches down
A biofuel startup in Illinois can make ethanol from just about anything organic for less than $1 per gallon, and it wouldn't interfere with food supplies, company officials said. Coskata , which is backed by General Motors and other investors, uses bacteria to convert almost any organic material, from corn husks (but not the corn itself) to municipal trash, into ethanol. "It's not five years away, it's not 10 years away.
Startup Says It Can Make Ethanol for $1 a Gallon, and Without Co
Invention: Green power special - tech - 10 December 2007 - New S
Kidney cell battery One of the potentially useful things that a living cell can do is pump ions across its membrane. Simon Levinson , a biophysicist at the University of Colorado Medical School in Denver, US, says this generates a potential difference and so could be exploited to make a biobattery. Levinson believes that kidney cells, which are particularly good at transporting ions, could be well suited to making a miniature battery. This would be formed by stacking up large numbers of cell layers to boost the voltage and current they can produce.
Rapeseed biofuel ‘produces more greenhouse gas than oil or petro
One of Britain’s leading high street banks has been downgraded by the ratings agency Moody’s. Santander UK, which has more than 25 million customers and more than 1,400 branches had its credit rating downgraded together with 16 Spanish banks. The agency said that the Spanish government’s ability to provide support to the institutions had been reduced. In cutting the long-term debt and deposit ratings by “one to three notches”, Moody’s cited Spain’s soaring unemployment, which stands at 24 per cent, the possibility that property loans will not be repaid in full and concerns that the banks may find it more difficult to raise money in the market due to the debt crisis.The researchers question whether biofuel can cut carbon emissions The EU target of ensuring 10% of petrol and diesel comes from renewable sources by 2020 is not an effective way to curb carbon emissions, researchers say. A team of UK-based scientists suggested that reforestation and habitat protection was a better option. Writing in Science, they said forests could absorb up to nine times more CO2 than the production of biofuels could achieve on the same area of land. The growth of biofuels was also leading to more deforestation, they added.
BBC NEWS | Science/Nature | EU biofuel policy is a 'mistake
A year ago it seemed Sony couldn't even get a laptop battery right. A massive recall of lithium-ion cells tainted its image and had the company scrambling, but on Thursday it reported a sweet breakthrough in bio battery technology. Sony, one of the world's largest battery makers, said it had succeeded in creating a battery that produces electricity by breaking down sugar.
PC World - Sony runs Walkman off sugar-based bio battery
Scientists at the Indian Institute of Chemical Technology have found a much better way to make biodiesel. Their new method could lower the cost and increase the energy efficiency of fuel production. Instead of mixing the ingredients and heating them for hours, the chemical engineers pass sunflower oil and methanol through a bed of pellets made from fungal spores. An enzyme produced by the fungus does the work — making biodiesel with impressive efficiency. Last Monday, Ravichandra Potumarthi showed off his work during a poster session at the International Conference on Bioengineering and Nanotechnology . After returning to his lab in Hyderabad, he was able to send out some pictures of his experimental reactor (shown on right) and the fungal pellets.