(UPI) German scientists Juergen Pfitzer and Helmut Naegele invented “liquid wood,” which has the potential to save significant fossil fuel and natural resources.
Lignin, combined with resins, flax and other natural fibers forms a mass that can be processed like any other thermoplastic material. The bio-plastic can be molded via injection machines, is durable and forms super-precise when it’s cast.
Arboform degrades like wood (into water, humus and carbon dioxide), so no more fume-emitting burning of plastics, and its inventors say no tree needs to be cut down to produce Arboform.
Lignin is a byproduct of the paper-making process. The paper and pulp industry produces some 130 million pounds of lignin each year.
“By just using lignin, we could technically replace a quarter of the world’s plastic production,” Pfitzer said.
New 'PlantBottle' from Coca-Cola will use up to 30% plant-based materials and will be 100% recyclable.
By Timothy B. Hurst
(earthandindustry.com) PlantBottle made with 30% plant-waste to be in North American markets by January. Coca-Cola execs says they are working towards plastic bottles that will be made entirely out of plant material.
It is only a matter of time before Coca-Cola products in North America will be packaged entirely in plant-based containers. Mono-ethylene glycol (MEG) derived from sugarcane and molasses has already started popping up in Coca-Cola bottles in Europe and company officials say the new PlantBottle will be ready for a North American debut by the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver.
And if Coca-Cola is able to carry out its strategic vision of finding other sources of waste-plant material to make MEG from, it may not be long before most Coke products are packaged entirely in 100% plant-based, 100% recyclable bottles.
PORTLAND, Ore. — Urban gardening used to seem subversive. People planted tomatoes in public parks, strung their hops to rooftops to make homebrew and reclaimed empty lots as community farms, never mind the property owner.
Yet here in one of the more thoroughly tilled cities in America, subversive has come full circle: the federal government plans to plant its own bold garden directly above a downtown plaza. As part of a $133 million renovation, the General Services Administration is planning to cultivate “vegetated fins” that will grow more than 200 feet high on the western facade of the main federal building here, a vertical garden that changes with the seasons and nurtures plants that yield energy savings.
“They will bloom in the spring and summer when you want the shade, and then they will go away in the winter when you want to let the light in,” said Bob Peck, commissioner of public buildings for the G.S.A. “Don’t ask me how you get them irrigated.”
To read complete article by William Yardley go to NYTimes.com
GUSTINE, Tex. — Day and night, a huge contraption prowls the grounds at Frank Volleman’s dairy in Central Texas. It has a 3,000-gallon tank, a heavy-duty vacuum pump and hoses and, underneath, adjustable blades that scrape the surface as it passes along.
In function it is something like a Zamboni, but one that has crossed over to the dark side. This is no hockey rink, and it’s not loose ice being scraped up. It’s cow manure.
Lots of cow manure. A typical lactating Holstein produces about 150 pounds of waste — by weight, about two-thirds wet feces, one-third urine — each day. Mr. Volleman has 3,000 lactating Holsteins and another 1,000 that are temporarily “dry.” Do the math: his Wildcat Dairy produces about 200 million pounds of manure every year.
Proper handling of this material is one of the most important tasks faced by a dairy operator, or by a cattle feedlot owner, hog producer or other farmer with large numbers of livestock. Manure has to be handled in an environmentally acceptable way and at an acceptable cost. In most cases, that means using it, fresh or composted, as fertilizer. “It’s a great resource, if used properly,” said Saqib Mukhtar, an associate professor of biological and agricultural engineering at Texas A & M University and an expert on what is politely called manure management.
To read complete article article by Henry Fountain go to NYTimes.com
(SwissInfo) The ‘Tropenhaus’ or Tropical House in Frutigen is expected to prove a major attraction for visitors to the Bernese Alps this Christmas, offering a tropical experience for people seeking refuge from the winter chill. The project uses sustainable energy for growing exotic fruit and breeding sturgeon, which will soon produce caviar.
Fifteen years have passed since CMD blew the whistle on the Toxic Sludge Is Good for You! scam, but the spin campaign continues unabated. San Francisco’s Public Utilities Commission hosts “Compost Giveaway Events” where citizens can pick up free “high-quality, nutrient-rich, organic” compost to spread on their lawns and vegetable gardens, but the popular program may actually be giving consumers more than they bargained for.
The Washington, D.C.-based Center for Food Safety warns that the free compost, made from sewage sludge mixed with wood chips and paper by-products, can contain anything that people in a large metropolitan area might intentionally or inadvertently flush, pour or dump into the city’s sewage system — including pharmaceutical drug residues, heavy metals, PCBs, bacteria, endocrine disruptors and radioactive material. San Francisco is just one of many cities across the country using such programs to get rid of sewage sludge, but free compost giveaways are drawing health concerns due to unknowns about the compost’s contents and questions about its safety for use on food crops.
The Great Green Hope for lifting America’s economy is not looking so robust.
President Obama, both during his campaign and in his first year in office, has promoted the promise of new jobs in cutting-edge, nonpolluting industries, and such green jobs will be a major issue at his jobs “summit” meeting Thursday.
But, increasingly, skeptics who point to the need for more jobs are wondering why he is not doing more to create green jobs faster.
Growth in clean energy industries and in green jobs has been considerably slower and bumpier than anticipated, industry experts say.
But rather than giving up on its green jobs mantra, the White House will rededicate itself to promoting green industries at the jobs meeting, which will bring together business and labor leaders, politicians and economists.
The initial promise of green jobs was based on governments around the world declaring the fight against global warming to be a priority. The theory was that jobs in environmentally minded companies would grow rapidly as a result. But instead, some green-industry companies have been shedding jobs in the United States, and in some cases moving them to China.
Last week, the Gamesa wind turbine plant in western Pennsylvania announced it was laying off nearly half its 280 workers. Last month, General Electric said it would close a solar panel factory in Delaware, while Evergreen Solar, which received $58 million in state aid to build a 900-employee plant northwest of Boston, said it would move some assembly to China, costing 250 jobs.
To read complete article by Steven Greenhouse go to NYTimes.com
Lots of cities have farmers markets, but most — if not all — of the produce comes from rural farmers that use oil-intensive methods of transportation to cart around their food. With 80% of all people on the planet projected to live in cities by 2050, food production will have to move into cities if it is to remain cost-efficient. A Swedish-American company called Plantagon has conceived of an incredible solution: a massive urban greenhouse contained within a geodesic dome. The vertical farm, which consists of a spiral ramp inside a spherical dome, is currently in the development stages.
To read complete article by Ariel Schwartz go to inhabitat.com
Thanks to 15 year old Texan Javier Fernández-Han, we feel a little more hopeful about the next generation’s ability to adapt to a world of limited resources. The high school student developed a fully featured algae-powered energy system that combines a dozen new and existing technologies to treat waste, produce methane and bio-oil for fuel, produce food for humans and livestock, sequester greenhouse gases, and produce oxygen. Dubbed the VERSATILE system, the project is this year’s winner of the annual Invent Your World Challenge $20,000 scholarship.
To read complete article by Ariel Schwartz go to inhabitat.com
Metropolis’s 2009 Next Generation competition received scores of entries, from which this year’s jury chose one winner and eight runners-up to be recognized in the May issue of the magazine. But there were far more than just nine good ideas in the bunch. The judges also selected 12 “notables”—entries that, for various reasons, fell short of the final selection, but that the jurors felt still deserved recognition. To that end, we will be posting one notable Next Generation proposal every Thursday for the next three months. In doing so, we hope to foster discussion that will help the teams refine their ideas, connect with like-minded readers, and perhaps even implement their projects in the real world.
This week: Emilio Ramirez’s proposal, Feeding the Addiction: The Emergence of the Single Family Power Plant, which envisions a low-cost, renewable energy production and delivery system that could turn homes and businesses into self-sustaining energy producers. How would it work?
According to Ramirez, a private energy company would design, fabricate, and install the mini power plants, which would concentrate solar heat on a collector plate to boil a fluid and create steam. That steam then turns a turbine engine that rotates an alternator for an estimated daily output of 84 kilowatt hours.
To read article by Mason Curry go to metropolismag.com
