Apr 2009
L'Oreal brews up slurry-powered hair dye. Cow power to provide energy for beauty giant's Belgium factory
29/04/09 19:44 Filed in: Energy
As one of the world's leading manufacturers of sweet-smelling cosmetics, L'Oreal is hardly the first company you would associate with manure, but that could be about to change for one of the company's factories in Belgium.
Later this summer, the Libramont plant, which mainly produces haircare products, will complete work on an anaerobic digestion system that aims to capture methane from waste biomass and burn it to generate electricity and heat for the site.
Speaking to BusinessGreen.com, Pierre Simoncelli, director for sustainable development at the company, said that the factory was situated in a cattle-farming area that would provide the slurry to power the new technology.
"We plan to start by using a mixture of organic waste and corn, but we should then be able to switch fairly quickly to just using organic waste," he explained, adding that the biomass power system should provide enough energy for 85 per cent of the factories' current requirements.
Full Article: http://www.businessgreen.com
Would You Live in a House Made of Sh*t?
29/04/09 17:36 Filed in: Architecture
Cow dung isn't usually thought of as house-building material, but a team of students from Prasetiya Mulya Business School in Indonesia have managed to build high-quality, low-cost bricks from the stuff. The team's invention, dubbed "EcoFaeBrick", won the $25,000 top prize at the University of California, Berkeley's Global Social Venture Competition.
EcoFaeBrick is meant for developing regions in Indonesia, where cow dung is plentiful but traditional brick-making materials like firewood and clay are not. According to the Prasetiya team, the EcoFaeBrick is 20% lighter than a clay brick and 20% stronger in compressive strength. Unlike firewood, cow dung is completely renewable--as long as there are cows roaming around. By using cow dung instead of firewood 1,692 tons of CO2 are saved. And replacing clay with the poop prevents the massive damage to the land that comes with clay excavation.
Full Article: http://www.fastcompany.com/
Future Now: Solar Plug-in Stations
28/04/09 18:53 Filed in: Transportation
This is ChargePoint, an electrical plug-in station that’s powered and monitored through a smart network. It was developed by Coulomb Technologies, who recently teamed up with Carbon Day Automotive to add a new little twist. Coulomb and CDA coupled the ChargePoint with a solar photovoltaic array to create one of the nation’s first Solar Plug-in Stations. These pictures show a Solar Plug-in Station provided for the City of Chicago. You may be interested in knowing that this Solar Plug-in Station was designed by Chicago’s own Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill Architecture (you know, the Eco-Bridge and Clean Technology Tower).
Full Article: http://www.jetsongreen.com
UK scientists get £8m for research into bee decline
23/04/09 11:44 Filed in: Enviroment
Leading scientists are to receive a substantial cash injection to help them investigate the decline of the British honeybee.
Up to £8m will be made available for research into bees by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC), the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC), the Wellcome Trust and the Scottish government. The new funding is in addition to the £2m announced earlier this year by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) to help bee research. The funding increase marks a significant rise in government spending on bee health, which previously amounted to £1.2m annually in the UK, with the vast majority spent on bee inspectors.
Bee numbers in the UK have fallen 15-30% in the last two years, mirroring steep declines and empty hives witnessed in the US, mainland Europe and elsewhere. Honeybees are vital insect pollinators, responsible for the healthy development of many of the world's major food crops.
Full Article : http://www.guardian.co.uk
Yamaha Motor Test-Drives Golf Cart Fuelled by Cow Dung
21/04/09 15:23 Filed in: Transportation
Japan's Yamaha Motor Co. has developed a golf cart that runs on methane made from cow dung. In preparation for commercial production, in October 2008, the company began testing the cart on a golf course in Katori, Chiba Prefecture. Osaka Gas Co. provided the methane at a low cost for the vehicle tests, as part of its efforts to promote the use of cow-dung biomass as a low-cost fuel.
To make methane usable as a vehicle fuel, both a methane refining system and a high-pressure gas-filling system are required, among other things, which come at high cost. As a fix, Osaka Gas developed activated carbon capable of absorbing methane at low pressure. When methane is put into the gas tank filled with this type of carbon -- under a pressure of around one megapascal (equivalent to the pressure at a depth of 100 meters under water) -- the tank can hold around 30 times the tank's volume of methane, thereby eliminating the need for high-pressure filling.
In Katori, there is a place called "Biomass Town," where citizens promote the use of cow dung for local biofuel, and it was here that the city looked for users of dung-derived methane. After consulting with the city, Yamaha Motor found a golf course in the vicinity willing to participate and began studying the possibility of using methane in golf carts, which travel relatively regular distances and are not driven at high speeds. This testing has led to the development of a golf cart powered by the locally produced biomass.
http://www.japanfs.org
Solar Powered Mobile Phone
20/04/09 19:56 Filed in: Tecnology
AU (KDDI) and Sharp will soon propose in Japan a new mobile phone featuring a solar panel embedded in its lid that recharges your phone on the go. Leaving your phone in direct sunlight for up to 10 minutes will give up to 1 minute of communication or 2hrs on standby. It's also waterproof.
Via http://www.akihabaranews.com
HEMP
09/04/09 16:58 Filed in: Enviroment
Concrete block made with hemp in France
Hemp (from Old English hænep, see cannabis (etymology)) is the common name for plants of the entire genus Cannabis, although the term is often used to refer only to Cannabis strains cultivated for industrial (non-drug) use.
Industrial hemp has many uses, including paper, textiles, biodegradable plastics, construction, health food, and fuel. It is one of the fastest growing biomasses known, and one of the earliest domesticated plants known. It also runs parallel with the "Green Future" objectives that are becoming increasingly popular. Hemp requires little to no pesticides, no herbicides, controls erosion of the topsoil, and produces oxygen. Furthermore, hemp can be used to replace many potentially harmful products, such as tree paper (the processing of which uses chlorine bleach, which results in the waste product polychlorinated dibensodioxins, popularly known as dioxins, which are carcinogenic, and contribute to deforestation), cosmetics, and plastics, most of which are petroleum-based and do not decompose easily. The strongest chemical needed to whiten the already light hemp paper is non-toxic hydrogen peroxide.
Read More from WIKIPEDIA
PS. I CAN NOT BELIEVE THAT THIS PLANT is STILL ILLEGAL.
WHO MAKE MONEY OUT OF THIS?
KEEP HEMP ILLEGAL DOES NOT MAKE SENSE ANYMORE.
