Cutting the ribbon at the new landfill gas to liquefied natural gas plant at the Waste Management Altamont Landfill and Resource Recovery Facility in Livermore took a lot of hands. Holding the big scissors were representatives from Waste Management, The Linde Group, the Gas Technology Institute (GTI), the California Air Resources Board (CARB), the California Energy Commission, and the California Integrated Waste Management Board (CIWMB), all of whom played a role in making the plant a reality. “This is something I’ve dreamed about for eight years, the concept of taking gas from waste in the ground and turning it into clean fuel that we use in our trucks,” said Waste Management senior vice president Duane Woods. He noted that during the two-hour opening event, the landfill gas (LFG)-to-liquefied natural gas (LNG) plant would produce about 700 gallons of ultra-low-carbon LNG for Waste Management’s truck fleet. When the plant reaches its full capacity, it will produce 13,000 gallons a day. The Altamont LFG-to-LNG plant, the largest such facility in the world, is a partnership between Waste Management and Linde, a world-leading gases and engineering company. Four California agencies contributed to the $15.5 million project: CIWMB, CARB, the California Energy Commission, and the South Coast Air Quality Management District. GTI managed several of the state grants and licensed elements of the LNG production technology used at the facility. “We love this project and there is really nothing not to love about it,” said CARB chair Mary Nichols, who represented Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger at the event. “It’s taking material that would otherwise go into the atmosphere and be a contributor to global warming and turning it into a useful product that is cutting emissions.” As organic matter within the Altamont Landfill decomposes, it produces “landfill gas,” a mixture of mostly methane and carbon dioxide, both greenhouse gases. An elaborate network of wells and a vacuum extraction system capture the landfill gases, which are then run through an extensive filtration system and converted into LNG. The energy to power the plant also comes from LFG pumped through solar gas turbines connected to generators, a system that has been in place for 10 years.  When LNG vehicles from Waste Management’s fleet arrive at the Altamont Landfill to drop off trash, they can refuel right at the LFG-to-LNG plant. The LNG will also be used in Waste Management vehicles in 20 California communities. “With this new plant, we can reduce our reliance on fossil fuels and drastically reduce the carbon emissions from our natural gas fleet by creating a clean fuel from thousands of tons of garbage that have been disposed of in this facility,” said Woods. He added that the LNG produced at the Altamont Landfill has 85% less carbon intensity than gasoline or diesel and even has lower carbon emissions than electric vehicles, when considering everything it takes to charge such vehicles. “This is exactly the kind of win-win situation we are looking for in trying to transform our whole energy economy away from having to extract, process, and import fuels from other parts of the world,” said Nichols. The Altamont LFG-to-LNG facility meets two of Gov. Schwarzenegger’s environmental directives: the Bioenergy Action Plan, which seeks to advance the use and market development of biomass as a transportation fuel, and Executive Order S-3-05, which aims to reduce the state’s greenhouse gas emissions by 25% by 2020. “To meet our State’s goals of reducing greenhouse gas emissions, we need to take advantage of biofuels such as these being created here. They are in very short supply right now. Although there are inventions out there on the horizon, this is really the only full-size producing plant in existence today,” Nichols added. With the commissioning of the Altamont Landfill LFG-to-LNG facility, Waste Management and Linde are already turning their sights to new projects. “There is a lot of landfill gas still being flared, so there is a lot of potential out there,” said Kent Stoddard, a Waste Management vice president. “Biogas is an important domestic source of renewable energy.” The two companies are scouting locations for another LFG-to-LNG plant, which could be another of Waste Management’s 227 landfills nationwide. Once a site is chosen, construction of a plant would take about 12 to 15 months. Steve Eckhardt, who heads alternative energy business development for Linde, said he’s been fielding constant requests from around the world for information about the LFG-to-LNG plant. “It took a lot of time and energy to get here, but we’ve shown it can be done cost-effectively and efficiently,” he said.

Sources: The Independent & WIH Resource Group

Should you have any questions about this news or general questions about our diversified services, please contact Bob Wallace, Principal & VP of Client Solutions at WIH Resource Group and Waste Savings, Inc. at admin@wihrg.com

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Not water waves but sand waves – shipwrecks in the once coastal town of Myunak
Image via artificialowl

Deserts are not the places one would associate with shipwrecks. But ghostly remains of once proud schooners, cruise ships or freighters smack in the middle of a desert are not as rare as one might think. Deserts and accompanying dust storms steering unsuspecting ships off course are often the culprits but also advancing deserts and sadly, increasing desertification worldwide. Here’s a look at five places that can boast of some quite bizarre shipwrecks.

Ships seem to turn into whale bones on the Skeleton Coast:

Image: Patrick Giraud

1. Skeleton Coast, Namibia

Namibia’s Skeleton Coast, named for the huge whale skeletons and ghostly shipwrecks found on its shores, is one of the earth’s most inhospitable and least visited places. Travelling sand dunes rule the area and make travelling on land hardly advisable. Even vehicles with four-wheel drive will not go far for fear of getting stuck in the soft sand, their passengers at risk of running out of drinking water before help arrives. Namibian tribes shun the region that they call “the Land God Made in Anger” and Portuguese sailors once referred to as the “Gates of Hell”. Charming!

Even big ships can’t help fall under the Skeleton Coast’s spell:

Image: Patrick Giraud

The Skeleton Coast’s isolation has given rise to the untouched beauty of the area, which has produced a unique flora and fauna. Cold sea breezes are often accompanied by dense fog that has led many a ship astray, left in desert silence and a barren landscape once the fog has cleared. Among the roughly 1,000 ships that didn’t manage to navigate past this inhospitable area and now litter the coastline, slowly succumbing to the sand, are famous ones like the Eduard Bohlen, the Otavi, the Dunedin Star, and the Tong Taw.

Sand as far as the eye can see and what’s left of the Eduard Bohlen, shipwrecked in 1909:

Image: mistress_f

The Skeleton Coast as seen from space:

Image: NASA

2. The Aral Sea

The Aral Sea, located between Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, was once the fourth-largest inland salt lake. It has been steadily shrinking since the 1960s when its two crucial water sources, the rivers Amu Darya and Syr Darya were diverted for Soviet irrigation projects.

An abandoned ship in a now dried up part of the Aral Sea near Aral, Kazakhstan:

Image: Staecker

Since then, the Aral Sea has shrunk to 10% of its original size, leaving behind three separate lakes instead of one, of which two are too salty to support fish. Many former coastal towns find themselves now literally stranded in a desert, deprived of their livelihood and affected by ecological changes. Testimony to this are huge shipwrecks that lie around abandoned like stranded metal whales.

Even the camels seem to be wondering what happened to all the water:

Image via artificialowl

Muynak in western Uzbekistan is one of those once bustling fishing towns that today has problems keeping its few thousand remaining inhabitants. The receding Aral Sea has placed Muynak dozens of miles away from the coast, subjecting it to dust storms and more severe weather conditions than before.

Before and after – the Aral Sea in 1989 (left) and in 2009:

Image: NASA

3. The Sahara

In a list of bizarre shipwrecks, we can’t give the Sahara a miss – just the term Saharan shipwrecks sounds rather strange. The world’s largest hot desert covers almost all of northern Africa or about the size of the United States or Europe. It is one of the harshest climates in the world, with north-easterly winds causing severe sandstorms and dust devils that can even be seen from space. No wonder that many a ship, especially in Western Sahara, had to succumb to the elements.

A shipwreck in Western Sahara that looks in quite good shape:

Image: Urban Bryngeld

A picturesque shipwreck near Tarfaya, Morocco:

Image: gezonkenbootje

A massive dust storm transporting sand westward across the Atlantic Ocean:

Image: NASA

4. The Red Sea

The Red Sea is the Indian Ocean’s seawater inlet wedged between Africa and Asia. As the world’s northernmost tropical sea, the Red Sea climate is governed by two distinct monsoon seasons.

Despite being the world’s hottest and saltiest body of seawater, the Red Sea’s efficient water circulation with the Arabian Sea and the Indian Ocean via the Gulf of Aden reduces the sea’s high salinity and surface temperature. The region’s corals have adapted to these conditions and have in fact – coupled with dust storms – been the end of many a ship’s journey in shallow parts of the sea.

Abu Soma is a Red Sea resort known for its amazing wind- and kite-surfing opportunities. However, as some of the shipwrecks found on its beaches prove, it is not without dangers for ships navigating along these shores.

Abu Soma, Egypt:

Image: Henning Leweke

The Loullia was a Panama freighter, built in Sweden and launched in 1952. On a voyage from Aqaba to Suez, it ran aground at Gordon Reef in the Straits of Tiran in September 1981. The crew got evacuated after four days but the ship’s remains have become a part of the reef ever since.

Stuck on a reef since 1981 – the Loullia:

Image: Alex Polezhaev

A dust storm over the Red Sea as seen from space:

Image: NASA

5. Greece

Greece is not a place that comes to mind when thinking of advancing deserts but fact is that more than 80% of Greece’s landmass is at risk from desertification and almost 10% already is arid. Most in danger are hilly areas where soil erosion adversely affects the fertility, depth and productivity of the earth. Agricultural machines, a growing population, salination and exploitation of already stressed resources are to blame. Currently, most of the Peloponnese, parts of the Ionian Islands, eastern and central Crete, parts of Thessaly, Macedonia, Thrace and mainland Greece are affected.

A shipwreck at Navagio a.k.a. Shipwreck Beach in Zakynthos:

Image: Anna Oates

… and the shipwreck’s scenic location seen from a bird’s eye view:

Image: Anna Oates

Though there is a certain charm – and not to forget the surprise effect – to seeing ships in a desert, this is not a sight that we hope to see more of any time soon.

Source:   Environmental Graffitti & WIH Resource Group

If you have any questions about this news or general questions about our diversified services, please contact Bob Wallace, Principal & VP of Client Solutions at WIH Resource Group and Waste Savings, Inc. at admin@wihrg.com

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The news is all a-buzz these days with talk about the news about the new Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act of 2008, which outlines specific guidelines for the lead content in children’s toys.

According to information from the Center for Environmental Health, the strict regulations have been postponed for another year, which means landfills won’t be overwhelmed with discarded Barbie Dolls and toy trains anytime soon.

(This controversial issue has been discussed by several major news organizations, including the International Herald Tribune andAustin News KXAN-TV  in Austin, Texas.)

However, this brings up an important issue for landfills to consider: What should you do when dangerous/hazardous wastes come to your landfill?

1. Unless your landfill is a hazardous waste facility, you should not accept hazardous waste. Some states allow landfills to accept small amounts of certain hazardous wastes. To find a list of wastes defined as hazardous or to find a hazardous waste program in your state, visit this page on the EPA’s website. 

2. Require prior notice. Because dangerous/hazardous wastes often require special handling, it may slow down the operation. Requiring prior notice allows you to schedule the dangerous wastes into the day’s plans.

3. Make sure the gatehouse attendant is actively watching out for dangerous/hazardous loads. If one comes in, the attendant may need to direct the customer to a hazardous waste facility.

3. Operators should always be on the lookout for hazardous materials in the waste stream, in case the gate attendant didn’t notice the materials. 

4. Consider creating a flyer for your customers that lists hazardous wastes, what’s accepted at your landfill, and information on where to find a hazardous waste facility. You could hand flyers out at the gatehouse or post it on your website.

5. Hold a hazardous waste collection day. Customers can pay a fee to your landfill, drop off hazardous waste, and you can transport them to the appropriate facility. This might minimize people “sneaking” hazardous wastes into a load. Here is a video from the The Bergen County Utilities Authority hazardous waste collection day.

// Tags: center for environmental health, consumer product safety improvement act of 2008, customers, EPA, hazardous, hazardous waste programs, landfills, lead, safety, waste management, wastes

Source:  Blue Ridge Services & WIH Resource Group

If you have any questions about this news or general questions about our diversified services, please contact Bob Wallace, Principal & VP of Client Solutions at WIH Resource Group and Waste Savings, Inc. at admin@wihrg.com

Feel free to visit our websites for additional information on our services at: http://www.wihrg.com & http://www.wastesavings.net and our daily blog at http://wihresourcegroup.wordpress.com

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October 14, 2009, the 30^th annual awards ceremony of the W. Eugene Smith Memorial Fund took place at the Asia Society in New York City. Lu Guang from People’s Republic of China won the $30,000 W. Eugene Smith Grant in Humanistic Photography for his documentary project “Pollution in China.”

Lu Guang (卢广), freelancer photographer, started as an amateur photographer in 1980. He was a factory worker, later started his own photo studio and advertising agency. August of 1993 he returned to post-graduate studies at the Central Arts and Design Academy in Beijing (now is the Academy of Arts and Design, Tsinghua University). During graduate school, he studied, traveled all over the country and carved out a career, became the “dark horse” of the photographer circle in Beijing. Skilled at social documentary photography, his insightful, creative and artistic work often focused on “social phenomena and people living at the bottom of society”, attracted the attentions of the national photography circle and the media. Many of his award winning works focused on social issues like, “gold rush in the west”, “drug girl”, “small coal pit”, “HIV village”, “the Grand Canal”, “development of the Qinghai-Tibet Railway” and so on.

 1. “At the junction of Ningxia province and Inner Mongolia province, I saw a tall chimney puffing out golden smoke covering the blue sky, large tracts of the grassland have become industrial waste dumps; unbearable foul smell made people want to cough; Surging industrial sewage flowed into the Yellow River…”

 - Lu Guang

 

 2. Chemical waste from Jiangsu Taixing Chemical Industrial District (江苏泰兴化工园区) dumped on top of the Yangtze River bank. May 15, 2009

 

 3. Fan Jai Zhuang in Anyang City, Henan province, (河南安阳市范家庄) there is only one wall separating this village from the steelmaking furnaces. The villagers live in this heavily polluted environment where the village is under the iron rain every day. March 24, 2008

 

 4. Industrial sewage of Zhejiang Xiaoshan Industrial District (浙江萧山化工园区) eventually flowed into Qiantang River. April 24, 2009

 

 5. Henan Anyang iron and steel plant’s (河南安阳钢铁厂) sewage flowed into Anyang River. March 25, 2008

 

 6. Guiyu, Guangdong province, (广东省贵屿镇) rivers and reservoirs have been contaminated, the villager is washing in a seriously polluted pond. November 25, 2005

 

 7. Shizuishan Industrial district in Ningxia province (宁夏石嘴山湖滨工业园区), the tall chimneys spitted out smoke and dust. Residents took preventive measure for the falling dust from the sky when going outside. April 22, 2006

 

  8. In the Yellow Sea coastline, countless sewage pipes buried in the beach and even extending into the deep sea. April 28, 2008

 

 9. In Ma’anshan, Anhui province (安徽马鞍山), along the Yangtze River there are many small-scaled Iron selection factories and plastic processing plants. Large amounts of sewage discharged into the Yangtze River June 18, 2009

 

 10. In Inner Mongolia there were 2 “black dragons” from the Lasengmiao Power Plant (内蒙古拉僧庙发电厂) covering the nearby villages. July 26, 2005

 

 11. Jiangsu province Changshu City Fluorine Chemical industry land sewage treatment plant (江苏省常熟市氟化学工业园污水处理厂) was responsible for collection and processing of the industrial sewage. However they did not, the sewage pipe was extended 1500 meters under the Yangtze River and releasing the sewage there. 2009 June 11

 

 12. Soil by Yangtze River, was polluted by Anhui Province Ma’anshan Chemical Industrial District (安徽省马鞍山化工园区). June 26, 2009

 

 13. Large amount of the industrial wastewater flowed to Yellow River from Inner Mongolia Lasengmiao Industrial District (内蒙古拉僧庙工业园区) every day. July 26, 2005

 

 14. A Large amount of the chemical wastewater discharged into Yangtze River from Zhenjiang Titanium mill (镇江市钛粉厂) every day. Less than 1,000 meters away downstream is where the water department of Danyang City gets its water from. June 10, 2009

 

 15. In Haimen city, Jiangsu province Chemical Industrial District sewage treatment Plant (江苏省海门市化工园区污水处理厂) discharged wastewater into Yangtze River. June 5, 2009

 

 16. Hebei Province Shexian Tianjin Iron and steel plant (河北省涉县天津钢铁厂) is a heavily polluting company. Company scale is still growing, seriously affecting the lives of local residents. March 18, 2008

 

 17. Longmen town in Hanchen city, Shaanxi Province (陕西省韩城市龙门镇) has large-scaled industrial development. Environment is very seriously polluted there. April 8, 2008

 

  18. There are over 100 chemical plants in Jiangsu province coastal industry district. (江苏滨海头罾沿海化工园区) Some of them discharge wastewater into the ocean; some heavily contaminated sewage is stored in 5 “Sewage Temporary Pools”. During the 2 high tides in every month, the sewage then gets discharged into the ocean with the tides. June 20, 2008

 

 19. Jiangxi Province Hu Ko County Chemical Industry district (江西省胡口县化工园区) is by the Yangtze River. Chemical factory landfill the Yangtze River bank to expand the scale of the factory without authorization.

 

 20. Anhui Province Cihu Chemical Industry District (安徽省慈湖化工园区) built a underground pipe to discharge wastewater into the Yangtze River. The wastewater sometimes is black, gray, dark red, or yellow, wastewater from different chemical factories has different colors. June 18, 2009

 

 21. Shanxi Province is the most polluted areas of China. It is also the province with the highest rate of birth defects. This loving farmer couple adopted 17 disabled children. April 15, 2009

 “In Some areas of China people’s lives were threatened because of the environmental pollution. Residents suffering from all kinds of obscured diseases, the cancer villages, increase of deformed babies, these were the results of sacrificing environment and blindly seeking economical gain.”

 - Lu Guang

 

 22. Elder shepherd by the Yellow River cannot stand the smell. April 23, 2006

 

 23. 15-year-old boy from Tianshui, Gansu Province (甘肃天水), dropped out of the school after 2^nd grade, followed his parents to Heilonggui (黑龙贵) Industrial District. He earns 16 yuan a day. April 8, 2005

 

 24. Inner Mongolia province Heilonggui (黑龙贵) Industrial District, the couple who worked at the Plaster Kiln and just got home. March 22, 2007

 

 25. Villagers from Kang village in Linfen City, Shanxi Province (山西省临汾市下康村) due to long-term consumption of the polluted water contaminated by industrial waste, there were 50 people who have cancer and cerebral thrombosis. 64-year-old Wang Baosheng got ill since 2003, he has fester all over his body so he cannot go to bed and lying face down on the edge of the bed each day. July 10, 2005

  

 26. Breathing in large amount of dust into the lungs, people gets sick after working there for 1-2 years. Most of these migrant workers come from area of poverty. April 10, 2005

 

 27. Zhangqiao village by the Hong River in Wugang City, Henan Province (河南省舞钢市洪河边的张桥村), a 45-year-old woman Sun Xiaojun (孙晓军) could not move her feet and hands since 4 years ago. The numerous hospital treatments were not effective. April 7, 2009

 

 28. Zhaozhuang village by the Hong River in Wugang City, Henan province (河南省舞钢市洪河边的赵庄村), 66-year-old Zhao Bingkun suffering from esophageal cancer since 2004, after the second surgery, treatment cost already have reached over 200,000 yuan. His condition is in late stage, he is having fever everyday, waiting for death. April 7, 2009

 

 29. Zhaozhuang village by the Hong River in Wugang City, Henan province (洪河边的河南省西平县张于庄村), Gao Wanshun’s (高万顺) wife died of cancer. Now he lives in poverty. April 3, 2009

 

 30. Linfen City in Shanxi province (山西临汾市) is seriously polluted area. Farmers after working in the cotton fields for 2 hours are filled with coal ashes. September 24 2007

 

 31. Salt factory worker in Lianyungang, Jiangsu province (江苏连云港) said angrily, “when the wind blowing towards our side, the foul smell from the chemical factories is unbearable. There is even more poison gas at night.” July 19, 2008

 

 32. People form Fanjiazhuang (范家庄) are ready to submit a complain filled with their fingerprints, to seek compensation for pollution damages. March 19, 2008

 

 33. In Shanxi Province there are a lot of charitable nursing homes, to help disabled infants abandoned by their parents. April 14, 2009

 

 34. Liujiawan village by the Hong River in Wugang City, Henan province (河南省舞钢市洪河边的刘家湾村), 13 year old Yang Xiao in November 2008 was ill with obscure disease.  She was saved by the donation of the villagers. When the grandmother saw the old village chief came to visit his granddaughter, she kneeled on the ground holding granddaughter’s hand. April 19, 2009

 

 35. The oldest is 9, not going to school. The youngest is less than 2 years old. They lived in severely polluted area. They hands and faces were always dirty. April 10, 2005

 

 36. Mazhuang village by the Hong River in Wugang City, Henan province, (河南省舞钢市洪河边的马庄村) 58-year-old Ma Haipeng (马海朋) was suffering from stomach cancer since 2006 and could not work in the field. He must take medicine every day, otherwise it is too painful. April 6, 2009

 

 37. Every year, a lot of deficiency babies in Shanxi Province were abandoned. Kong Zhenlan (孔贞兰) in Qi town (祁县) who was making a living by recycling trash adopted 25 abandoned children. April 14, 2009

 

 38. Xuanwei (宣威) in Yunnan province is a cancer village. Every year there are more than 20 people die of cancer. 11-year-old student Xu Li (徐丽) is suffering from bone cancer. May 8, 2007

 

 39. In Shexian Village, Hebei Province, (河北省涉县固新村) the existing cancer patients are more than 50 people and more than 20 cancer patients die each year. March 18, 2008

 

 40.  Zhangyuzhuan village by the Hong River in Xiping county, Henan province, (河南省西平县洪河边的张于庄村) 22-year-old Zhu Xiaoyan (朱小燕) had a tumor in her stomach in 2007. She died after number of hospital treatments on July 2008. 4-year-old girl with her grandfather came to mother’s tomb. April 2009 2

  

Source:  Fengniao, China Hush & WIH Resource Group

If you have any questions about this news or general questions about our diversified services, please contact Bob Wallace, Principal & VP of Client Solutions at WIH Resource Group and Waste Savings, Inc. at admin@wihrg.com

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Want to increase recycling and decrease the amount of trash reaching our landfills?  Innovative companies are incentivizing recycling through the use of RFID (radio frequency identification) technology to track and reward – individual recycling efforts.

 

If you have any questions about this news or general questions about our diversified services, please contact Bob Wallace, Principal & VP of Client Solutions at WIH Resource Group and Waste Savings, Inc. at admin@wihrg.com

Feel free to visit our websites for additional information on our services at: http://www.wihrg.com & http://www.wastesavings.net and our daily blog at http://wihresourcegroup.wordpress.com

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“Since we’ve completed the project, virtually the only thing going to the landfill is ash.”  “The thing about WTE is that it is primarily a method of waste disposal,” said Don Castro, P.E., HDR Engineering, and project manager on the Lee County project. Its main purpose in life is to make provisions for safe and sustainable waste disposal practices. “The energy that comes along with it is secondary,” he said.

Source:  Renewable Energy & WIH Resource Group, Power Engineering

If you have any questions about this news or general questions about our diversified services, please contact Bob Wallace, Principal & VP of Client Solutions at WIH Resource Group and Waste Savings, Inc. at admin@wihrg.com

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It’s a tall order:  Over the next few decades, the world will need to wean itself from dependence on fossil fuels and drastically reduce greenhouse gases. Current technology will take us only so far; major breakthroughs are required.  What might those breakthroughs be?  Here’s a look at five technologies that, if successful, could radically change the world energy picture.

They present enormous opportunities. The ability to tap power from space, for instance, could jump-start whole new industries. Technology that can trap and store carbon dioxide from coal-fired plants would rejuvenate older ones.  Success isn’t assured, of course. The technologies present difficult engineering challenges, and some require big scientific leaps in lab-created materials or genetically modified plants. And innovations have to be delivered at a cost that doesn’t make energy much more expensive. If all of that can be done, any one of these technologies could be a game-changer.

SPACE-BASED SOLAR POWER

For more than three decades, visionaries have imagined tapping solar power where the sun always shines—in space. If we could place giant solar panels in orbit around the Earth, and beam even a fraction of the available energy back to Earth, they could deliver nonstop electricity to any place on the planet.

Source: New ScientistSunlight is reflected off giant orbiting mirrors to an array of photovoltaic cells; the light is converted to electricity and then changed into microwaves, which are beamed to earth. Ground-based antennas capture the microwave energy and convert it back to electricity, which is sent to the grid.

The technology may sound like science fiction, but it’s simple: Solar panels in orbit about 22,000 miles up beam energy in the form of microwaves to earth, where it’s turned into electricity and plugged into the grid. (The low-powered beams are considered safe.) A ground receiving station a mile in diameter could deliver about 1,000 megawatts—enough to power on average about 1,000 U.S. homes.

The cost of sending solar collectors into space is the biggest obstacle, so it’s necessary to design a system lightweight enough to require only a few launches. A handful of countries and companies aim to deliver space-based power as early as a decade from now.

ADVANCED CAR BATTERIES

Electrifying vehicles could slash petroleum use and help clean the air (if electric power shifts to low-carbon fuels like wind or nuclear). But it’s going to take better batteries.

Source: EDSRCIn a lithium-air battery, oxygen flows through a porous carbon cathode and combines with lithium ions from a lithium-metal anode in the presence of an electrolyte, producing an electric charge. The reaction is aided by a catalyst, such as manganese oxide, to improve capacity.

Lithium-ion batteries, common in laptops, are favored for next-generation plug-in hybrids and electric vehicles. They’re more powerful than other auto batteries, but they’re expensive and still don’t go far on a charge; the Chevy Volt, a plug-in hybrid coming next year, can run about 40 miles on batteries alone. Ideally, electric cars will get closer to 400 miles on a charge. While improvements are possible, lithium-ion’s potential is limited.

One alternative, lithium-air, promises 10 times the performance of lithium-ion batteries and could deliver about the same amount of energy, pound for pound, as gasoline. A lithium-air battery pulls oxygen from the air for its charge, so the device can be smaller and more lightweight. A handful of labs are working on the technology, but scientists think that without a breakthrough they could be a decade away from commercialization.

UTILITY STORAGE

Everybody’s rooting for wind and solar power. How could you not? But wind and solar are use-it-or-lose-it resources. To make any kind of difference, they need better storage.

Source: AEPBattery packs located close to customers can store electricity from renewable wind or solar sources and supply power when the sun isn’t shining or the wind isn’t blowing. Energy is collected in the storage units and can be sent as needed directly to homes or businesses or out to the grid.

Scientists are attacking the problem from a host of angles—all of which are still problematic. One, for instance, uses power produced when the wind is blowing to compress air in underground chambers; the air is fed into gas-fired turbines to make them run more efficiently. One of the obstacles: finding big, usable, underground caverns.

Similarly, giant batteries can absorb wind energy for later use, but some existing technologies are expensive, and others aren’t very efficient. While researchers are looking at new materials to improve performance, giant technical leaps aren’t likely.

Lithium-ion technology may hold the greatest promise for grid storage, where it doesn’t have as many limitations as for autos. As performance improves and prices come down, utilities could distribute small, powerful lithium-ion batteries around the edge of the grid, closer to customers. There, they could store excess power from renewables and help smooth small fluctuations in power, making the grid more efficient and reducing the need for backup fossil-fuel plants. And utilities can piggy-back on research efforts for vehicle batteries.

CARBON CAPTURE AND STORAGE

Keeping coal as an abundant source of power means slashing the amount of carbon dioxide it produces. That could mean new, more efficient power plants. But trapping C02 from existing plants—about two billion tons a year—would be the real game-changer.

Source: VattenfallCarbon dioxide is removed from smokestack gases and compressed. It’s then pumped deep underground and stored in porous rock formations.

Techniques for modest-scale CO2 capture exist, but applying them to big power plants would reduce the plants’ output by a third and double the cost of producing power. So scientists are looking into experimental technologies that could cut emissions by 90% while limiting cost increases.

Nearly all are in the early stages, and it’s too early to tell which method will win out. One promising technique burns coal and purified oxygen in the form of a metal oxide, rather than air; this produces an easier-to-capture concentrated stream of CO2 with little loss of plant efficiency. The technology has been demonstrated in small-scale pilots, and will be tried in a one-megawatt test plant next year. But it might not be ready for commercial use until 2020.

NEXT-GENERATION BIOFUELS

One way to wean ourselves from oil is to come up with renewable sources of transportation fuel. That means a new generation of biofuels made from nonfood crops.   Researchers are devising ways to turn lumber and crop wastes, garbage and inedible perennials like switchgrass into competitively priced fuels. But the most promising next-generation biofuel comes from algae.

Source: SaferenviromentAlgae grow by taking in CO2, solar energy and other nutrients. They produce an oil that can be extracted and added into existing refining plants to make diesel, gasoline substitutes and other products.

Algae grow fast, consume carbon dioxide and can generate more than 5,000 gallons a year per acre of biofuel, compared with 350 gallons a year for corn-based ethanol. Algae-based fuel can be added directly into existing refining and distribution systems; in theory, the U.S. could produce enough of it to meet all of the nation’s transportation needs.

But it’s early. Dozens of companies have begun pilot projects and small-scale production. But producing algae biofuels in quantity means finding reliable sources of inexpensive nutrients and water, managing pathogens that could reduce yield, and developing and cultivating the most productive algae strains.

Corrections & Amplifications

One thousand megawatts are enough to power on average about one million U.S. homes.  This article on space-based solar power incorrectly said 1,000 megawatts could power about 1,000 homes.

Source:  Wall Street Journal & WIH Resource Group

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At Yellowstone National Park, the clear soda cups and white utensils are not your typical cafe-counter garbage. Made of plant-based plastics, they dissolve magically when heated for more than a few minutes.

 

Zero Waste

Brimming Landfills

At Ecco, a popular restaurant in Atlanta, waiters no longer scrape food scraps into the trash bin. Uneaten morsels are dumped into five-gallon pails and taken to a compost heap out back.

And at eight of its North American plants, Honda is recycling so diligently that the factories have gotten rid of their trash Dumpsters altogether.

Across the nation, an antigarbage strategy known as “zero waste” is moving from the fringes to the mainstream, taking hold in school cafeterias, national parks, restaurants, stadiums and corporations.

The movement is simple in concept if not always in execution: Produce less waste. Shun polystyrene foam containers or any other packaging that is not biodegradable. Recycle or compost whatever you can.

Though born of idealism, the zero-waste philosophy is now propelled by sobering realities, like the growing difficulty of securing permits for new landfills and an awareness that organic decay in landfills releases methane that helps warm the earth’s atmosphere.

“Nobody wants a landfill sited anywhere near them, including in rural areas,” said Jon D. Johnston, a materials management branch chief for the Environmental Protection Agency who is helping to lead the zero-waste movement in the Southeast. “We’ve come to this realization that landfill is valuable and we can’t bury things that don’t need to be buried.”

Americans are still the undisputed champions of trash, dumping 4.6 pounds per person per day, according to the E.P.A.’s most recent figures. More than half of that ends up in landfills or is incinerated.

But places like the island resort community of Nantucket offer a glimpse of the future. Running out of landfill space and worried about the cost of shipping trash 30 miles to the mainland, it moved to a strict trash policy more than a decade ago, said Jeffrey Willett, director of public works on the island.

The town, with the blessing of residents concerned about tax increases, mandates the recycling not only of commonly reprocessed items like aluminum, glass and paper but also of tires, batteries and household appliances.

Jim Lentowski, executive director of the nonprofit Nantucket Conservation Foundation and a year-round resident since 1971, said that sorting trash and delivering it to the local recycling and disposal complex had become a matter of course for most residents.

The complex also has a garagelike structure where residents can drop off books and clothing and other reusable items for others to take home.

The 100-car parking lot at the landfill is a lively meeting place for locals, Mr. Lentowski added. “Saturday morning during election season, politicians hang out there and hand out campaign buttons,” he said. “If you want to get a pulse on the community, that is a great spot to go.”

Mr. Willett said that while the amount of trash that island residents carted to the dump had remained steady, the proportion going into the landfill had plummeted to 8 percent.

By contrast, Massachusetts residents as a whole send an average of 66 percent of their trash to a landfill or incinerator. Although Mr. Willett has lectured about the Nantucket model around the country, most communities still lack the infrastructure to set a zero-waste target.

Aside from the difficulty of persuading residents and businesses to divide their trash, many towns and municipalities have been unwilling to make the significant capital investments in machines like composters that can process food and yard waste. Yet attitudes are shifting, and cities like San Francisco and Seattle are at the forefront of the changeover. Both of those cities have adopted plans for a shift to zero-waste practices and are collecting organic waste curbside in residential areas for composting.

Food waste, which the E.P.A. says accounts for about 13 percent of total trash nationally — and much more when recyclables are factored out of the total — is viewed as the next big frontier.

When apple cores, stale bread and last week’s leftovers go to landfills, they do not return the nutrients they pulled from the soil while growing. What is more, when sealed in landfills without oxygen, organic materials release methane, a potent heat-trapping gas, as they decompose. If composted, however, the food can be broken down and returned to the earth as a nonchemical fertilizer with no methane by-product.

Green Foodservice Alliance, a division of the Georgia Restaurant Association, has been adding restaurants throughout Atlanta and its suburbs to its so-called zero-waste zones. And companies are springing up to meet the growth in demand from restaurants for recycling and compost haulers.

Steve Simon, a partner in Fifth Group, a company that owns Ecco and four other restaurants in the Atlanta area, said that the hardest part of participating in the alliance’s zero-waste-zone program was not training his staff but finding reliable haulers.

“There are now two in town, and neither is a year old, so it is a very tentative situation,” Mr. Simon said.

Still, he said he had little doubt that the hauling sector would grow and that all five of the restaurants would eventually be waste-free.

Packaging is also quickly evolving as part of the zero-waste movement. Bioplastics like the forks at Yellowstone, made from plant materials like cornstarch that mimic plastic, are used to manufacture a growing number of items that are compostable.

Steve Mojo, executive director of the Biodegradable Products Institute, a nonprofit organization that certifies such products, said that the number of companies making compostable products for food service providers had doubled since 2006 and that many had moved on to items like shopping bags and food packaging.

The transition to zero waste, however, has its pitfalls.

Josephine Miller, an environmental official for the city of Santa Monica, Calif., which bans the use of polystyrene foam containers, said that some citizens had unwittingly put the plant-based alternatives into cans for recycling, where they had melted and had gummed up the works. Yellowstone and some institutions have asked manufacturers to mark some biodegradable items with a brown or green stripe.

Yet even with these clearer design cues, customers will have to be taught to think about the destination of every throwaway if the zero-waste philosophy is to prevail, environmental officials say.

“Technology exists, but a lot of education still needs to be done,” said Mr. Johnston of the E.P.A.

He expects private companies and businesses to move faster than private citizens because momentum can be driven by one person at the top.

“It will take a lot longer to get average Americans to compost,” Mr. Johnston said. “Reaching down to my household and yours is the greatest challenge.”

Source:  The New York Times & WIH Resource Group

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Waste Management of Seattle has begun construction on a new compressed natural gas (CNG) fueling station and unveiled a fleet of CNG-fueled solid waste collection trucks. The Seattle project is part of a larger national effort to cut the company’s CO2 emissions by 15% by 2020.

Waste Management is investing $29 million in 106 new vehicles and an additional $7.5 million to build a compressed natural gas fueling station in Seattle. When complete, the station will open to the public and within five years all 180 collection trucks in the Seattle fleet will be fueled by CNG.

Nationally, Waste Management already has 265 CNG and has 418 LNG (liquified natural gas) vehicles; and by the end of 2009, the company expects to have 500 LNG vehicles and 299 CNG vehicles in service.

As part of a broader national effort to convert trucks to CNG, the plan would seem to dovetail nicely with what has been proposed by T. Boone Pickens. In addition to advocating for more wind energy to power our light cars and trucks, Pickens supports converting the nation’s truck-fueling infrastructure to natural gas.

“The replacement of diesel to CNG trucks greatly reduces exposure to fine particulate emissions from diesel engines in both residential and commercial area trucks,” said Jennifer Andrews, Waste Management’s communications director in the West, in an email.

An independent review conducted by an environmental consulting firm, determined Waste Management’s equipment upgrade in Seattle will reduce smog-causing NOx by 97 percent, toxic diesel particulate matter by 94% and greenhouse gas by 20%.

And considering natural gas prices are less than half of what gasoline prices are in some parts of the country, the conversion to the cleaner-burning domestic fuel also makes good business sense.

As a member of the Chicago Climate Exchange, the country’s first voluntary carbon market, Waste Management has committed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by six percent from its 1998-2001 baseline emissions by 2010. As part of that commitment, the company has begun an extensive greenhouse gas accounting program and will begin reporting that data after the end of this calendar year.

Not to blow too much smoke here, but any move towards practices that lessen the environmental impact of a company that serves 25 million residential customers and handles 128 million tons of waste annually, is a step forward in the confines of an unavoidably dirty industry.

Source:  Waste Management, City of Seattle & WIH Resource Group

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GreenPeace is serious about climate change. And they know that one of the best—or maybe easiest—ways to bring attention to a cause is to put naked people on it. Naked people + social cause = media attention. Seriously, would I even be blogging about this if GreenPeace had put out some pastoral pictures of wineries in the south of France with the headline “Save Our Vintners”? (The answer is no.)

713 hardy French men and women stripped down to send a message about climate change. They posed nude in French vineyards to warn the world about the impact of global warming on the French wine industry.

In Burgundy, the heart of the French vineyards, on a sunny day ( luckily), Spencer Tunick posed the happy participants in 4 different poses; one with women alone, one with men alone and two more in different vineyards. Organised with Greenpeace, it’s all part of the campaign to urge political leaders to take action in the lead up to the U.N.’s Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen in December.

Tunick has been organising these mass nude art pieces for more than 15 years and all over the world. In 2007 he worked with Greenpeace to do one in -10 degree weather, with six hundred dedicated Swiss posing nude on a melting glacier (the Aletsch) in Switzerland. This was done to draw attention to global warming and the shrinking glaciers, which are predicted to disappear by 2080.

Source:  Chelsea Green & WIH Resource Group

If you have any questions about this news or general questions about our diversified services, please contact Bob Wallace, Principal & VP of Client Solutions at WIH Resource Group and Waste Savings, Inc. at admin@wihrg.com

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