Discovery May Lead to the Creation of Biofuel from CO2 in the Atmosphere Michael Adams is a member of UGA’s Bioenergy Systems Research Institute, Georgia Power professor of biotechnology and distinguished research professor of biochemistry and molecular biology in the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences. Scientists at the University of Georgia have discovered a way to transform carbon dioxide trapped in the atmosphere into useful industrial products, possibly allowing scientists to make biofuels from CO2 in the atmosphere. Athens, Georgia – Excess carbon dioxide in the Earth’s atmosphere created by the widespread burning of fossil fuels is the major driving force of global climate change, and researchers the world over are looking for new ways to generate power that leaves a smaller carbon footprint. Now, researchers at the University of Georgia have found a way to transform the carbon dioxide trapped in the atmosphere into useful industrial products. Publication: Matthew W. Source: James Hataway, UGA News Image: UGA News
Atomic Goal - 800 Years of Power From Waste Matthew Ryan Williams for The New York Times Ted Ellis of TerraPower working on a fuel system. Matthew Ryan Williams for The New York Times Ash Odedra, wearing glasses, the principal design engineer at TerraPower in Bellevue, Wash., a company that is being led by Bill Gates and Nathan Myhrvold, a fellow Microsoft billionaire. The quest is for a new kind of nuclear reactor that would be fueled by today’s nuclear waste, supply all the electricity in the United States for the next 800 years and, possibly, cut the risk of nuclear weapons proliferation around the world. The people developing the reactor work for a start-up, TerraPower, led by Mr. (Mr. “The hope is that we’ll find a country, with China being the most likely, that would be able to build the demo plant,” Mr. Perhaps one of the most intriguing arguments supporters make about Mr. In contrast, the TerraPower reactor makes more plutonium from the uranium 238 for use as fuel, and so would run almost entirely on uranium 238.
Stanford scientists use 'wired microbes' to generate electricity from sewage Engineers at Stanford have devised a new way to generate electricity from sewage, using naturally occurring "wired microbes" as mini power plants, producing electricity as they digest plant and animal waste. In a paper published today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, co-authors Yi Cui, a materials scientist, Craig Criddle, an environmental engineer, and Xing Xie, an interdisciplinary researcher, call their invention a microbial battery. They hope it will be used in places such as sewage treatment plants, or to break down organic pollutants in the "dead zones" of lakes and coastal waters where fertilizer runoff and other organic waste can deplete oxygen levels and suffocate marine life. At the moment, however, their laboratory prototype is about the size of a D-cell battery and looks like a chemistry experiment, with two electrodes, one positive, the other negative, plunged into a bottle of wastewater. Of course, there is far less energy potential in wastewater.
This Microbial Battery Makes Power And Water From Poop And Pollution | Co.Exist | World changing ideas and innovation The idea of sewage-powered devices is not new. In fact, it’s existed for more than a century. But finding a particularly efficient (and cost-effective) version of microbial fuel cell technology has been an ongoing challenge for engineers. A new “microbial battery,” however, looks like a breakthrough on the efficiency side of the equation. Researchers at Stanford University say they’ve developed a battery that can convert some 30% of the energy of dissolved organic matter in wastewater into electricity, the same proportion of energy that solar cells can harvest from sunlight. Here's the science: Researchers Yi Cui, Craig Criddle, Xing Xie, and their team realized that the oxygen in their microbial fuel cell design was causing problems. So the researchers got rid of the membrane setup. Still, there’s a couple of caveats. "It's a very simple device," Criddle says. [Image: Electricity via Shutterstock]
Waste-To-Energy plant ready to process holiday garbage - News Story - KXLY Spokane SPOKANE, Wash. - Christmas has come and gone, it's time to deal with all of those empty gift boxes and crumpled balls of wrapping paper, and Spokane's waste to energy plant workers are ready to take in your holiday garbage. All of your yuletide trash you take the waste-to-energy plant eventually ends up on the tipping floor of the waste incinerator. "It tends to plug up. From there the trash is loaded into the hopper in two-ton bites. "We destroy the volatile organics and other hazardous components in the garbage itself," Taam said. And at the same time the burning garbage super-heats the hot water pipes that surround the boiler and generate steam. "Steam into the turbine, turbine turns the shaft which turns the generator which makes electricity," Taam said. Enough electricity to power 13,000 homes and, waste-to-energy officials say, the plant creates no more air pollution than 10 wood stoves each day.
United Utilities turns human waste to energy at plant 22 August 2011Last updated at 09:24 Human waste is being turned into energy in a multimillion-pound project in Lancashire. United Utilities is converting a by-product of waste water at its Blackburn plant into gas. The company is using the method to generate about 15% of the power it uses in its operations - equal to the power consumed in Burnley each year. The power generated helps run the sewage treatment works next to the United Utilities plant. The plant also exports highly nutritious fertilizer to agricultural land across east Lancashire for farmers free of charge. 'Sustainable power' The method uses biogas, which is produced when waste water sludge is broken down by microbes in a process known as anaerobic digestion. Steve Mogford, CEO of United Utilities, said: "The plant can process up to 168 mega-litres of sewage each day, which arrives from other United Utilities sites in a 15-mile radius, and includes industrial waste from the Inbev Brewery and the local BAE Systems operations.
Plastic2Oil Converts Waste Plastic to Fuel – CleanTechnica: Cleantech innovation news and views Biofuels Published on July 5th, 2011 | by Glenn Meyers A Canadian waste plastic-to-fuel company, John Bordynuik, Inc. (JBI), has developed a process that uses those plastics as a feedstock, and turns them into fuel. Under the moniker, Plastic2Oil, this alternative fuel company is branding itself as the domestic alternative fuel company that first developed and scaled an original processor that converts difficult-to-recycle waste plastics into separated, refined fuels. JBI reports it has successfully overcome traditional barriers in this field, including: The acceptance of unwashed, mixed waste plasticsRemoval of residue without processor shut downRefining of fuel without a high-cost distillation towerEquipment that is not susceptible to pinhole leaksEmissions are less than a natural gas furnace, while the process releases over 14 percent oxygen into the air Source: JBI In 2009 JBI began developing its Plastic2Oil technology with a laboratory desktop unit. PHOTO: Lexsample & JBI
Human waste power plant goes online in the UK The new biogas plant, sited next to the Didcot sewage works in Oxfordshire, has been officially opened by Energy and Climate Change Secretary Chris Huhne Image Gallery (3 images) The biomethane project that turns human waste into green gas that we featured in May has now gone live. The project is now converting the treated sewage of 14 million Thames Water customers into clean, green gas and is pumping that gas into people's homes. The new biogas plant – sited next to the Didcot sewage works in Oxfordshire – has been officially opened by Energy and Climate Change Secretary Chris Huhne, who said: "It's not every day that a Secretary of State can announce that, for the first time ever in the UK, people can cook and heat their homes with gas generated from sewage. Hoped to be the first of many such installations, the process starts when one of Thames Water's 14 million customers flushes the loo. The average person is said to produce about 30kg/66lbs (dry weight) of sludge every year.
Cow Power potential is no bull July 24, 2008 Cows provide us with milk, meat, and leather jackets, but it’s possible that we’re turning our noses up at their most valuable offering to society. A study published in the Institute of Physics’ Environmental Research Letters section today claims that by converting livestock manure to biogas, the United States could reduce its greenhouse gas emissions and generate up to 108.8 billion kW h – 2.9% of the country’s total electricity requirement. The bovine contribution to climate change is no secret, and the concept of harnessing their, er, emissions to provide power is not new. However, the journal paper, titled “Cow Power: The Energy and Emissions Benefits of Converting Manure to Biogas”, is the first study to examine in detail what the energy and environmental consequences would be. The EPA and EIA estimate that between 57.1 and 117.9 million metric tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalents were emitted annually from undigested animal manure in 2005 and 2006.
Plasma Gasification Plant Benefits For Municipal Waste Management | Global Climate Issues Plasma Gasification Plant Benefits For Municipal Waste Management Plasma Gasification Plant (PGP) projects are being developed by at least five gas plasma technology companies, and there are real benefits to be obtained from this technology for the destruction of Municipal Solid Waste (MSW). There is some debate still whether the process has been demonstrated to be a vaible technology which can be reliably operated by our waste management companies at reasonable cost and in compliance with all emissions regulations. However, the consensus seems to be largely in acceptance now that the technology is largely proven and inherently cleaner than incineration. Although, gasification is used as a power generating technology, and gas plasma plants do provide a power feed-in to the local power grid, it should be realised by all that the purpose of selecting plasma gasification is currently that of achieving maximum waste mass destruction.
How Landfills Work" The basic parts of a landfill, as shown in Figure 3, are: Bottom liner system - separates trash and subsequent leachate from groundwaterCells (old and new) - where the trash is stored within the landfillStorm water drainage system - collects rain water that falls on the landfillLeachate collection system - collects water that has percolated through the landfill itself and contains contaminating substances (leachate)Methane collection system - collects methane gas that is formed during the breakdown of trashCovering or cap - seals off the top of the landfill Each of these parts is designed to address specific problems that are encountered in a landfill. Bottom Liner System A landfill's major purpose and one of its biggest challenges is to contain the trash so that the trash doesn't cause problems in the environment. Cells (Old and New) Perhaps, the most precious commodity and overriding problem in a landfill is air space. Storm Water Drainage Exclude liquids from the solid waste.