Alternative Fuels Now

We all recycle…when it’s convenient. But there are a ton of inefficiencies in the recycling process. These inefficiencies ad up to increased costs of recycling and decreased recycling rates. The whole thing gets too confusing for some people, especially the many-numbered plastics. Does my local recycling plant take 6’s or just 2’s and 4’s.

It sure would be easier if there were a way for a robot to do all of this for us. Unfortunately, Honda’s Asimo (pictured) isn’t ready for primetime. But the Barcode Trashcan by designer Woo Seok Park is a step in the right direction.

Wave the item in front of the barcode and the correct lid opens. Sorting Simplified!

Most products have a barcode attached that has a numeric value and the trashcan can read the barcode and open the correct lid. No more tossing in bottles where plastic goes and bubblewrap in with cardboard.

It’s a great idea for items like soft and hard plastic and bottles. For recyclables like newspapers or paper which don’t have barcodes, the Barcode Trashcan assumes you can figure it out yourself.  It’s still in the concept phase now, and I’d like to see a bunch more automation in the process. But until we all get little robot helpers…something’s gotta simplify life.

Via shinyshiny

The May 2008 edition of Oilwatch Monthly can be downloaded at this weblink (PDF, 1.15 MB, 21 pp).

Figure 1 - World Liquids Fuel Production January 2002 - April 2008

A summary and latest graphics below the fold.
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Latest Developments:

1) Total liquids - In April world production of total liquids decreased by 400,000 barrels per day from March according to the latest figures of the International Energy Agency (IEA). Resulting in total world liquids production of 86.76 million b/d. Average global production in 2007 was 85.41 million b/d according to the IEA. In the first four months of 2008 an average of 87.12 million b/d was produced. The EIA in their International Petroleum Monthly puts the average global 2007 production at 84.60 million b/d and for the first two months of 2008 at 85.80 million b/d.

2) Conventional crude - Latest available figures from the Energy Information Administration (EIA) show that crude oil production including lease condensates increased by 226,000 b/d from January to February. Total production in February broke a new all time high production record at 74.66 million b/d from the previous month.

A selection of charts from this edition:

Figure 2 - World Crude Oil Production January 2002 - February 2008

Figure 3 - Non-OPEC Liquids Production January 2002 - April 2008

Figure 4 - OPEC Liquids & Crude Oil Production January 2002 - April 2008

Figure 5 - Saudi Arabia Crude Oil & Liquids Production January 2005 - April 2008

We hear all the time about the climate models scientists are putting together, and about the average rise in temperature throughout the globe. But it all seems a little bit abstract. Until you click on this link (assuming you have the most recent version of Google Earth.)

The link is to a KMZ file created by the U.K. government’s Met Office, and it’ll show you exactly what climate scientists are seeing. They’ve loaded a Google Earth skin with medium-range, accepted climate data. It shows some pretty significant increases right now. But the real scare happens after you click “play.”

The KMZ file takes you through the next hundred years of climate change, which has particularly startling consequences for the north pole. While average increase in global temperatures might only be a few degrees, areas of the Arctic Ocean will increase by as much as 18 degrees C.

The file is also filled with data on expected regional impacts, which include water shortages throughout the US and an ice-free arctic by 2050.

Thanks to Google and Met for putting this together, it’s pretty fascinating to see this data in such a simple and dramatic way.

Via Google Earth Blog

I know you hate getting stuck in traffc. The average American spends about $80 a year for gasoline wasted idling in traffic jams. All together, that’s about 2.9 billion gallons of fuel wasted. Unfortunately, widening roads doesn’t seem to help. Paving more of the planet, it turns out, isn’t the solution.

But using the already-paved portions a bit more intelligently could have humongous impacts. Which is where INRIX comes in.

They have just announced that they are creating a device that will allow for:

1. Real-time traffic data display
2. GPS route-finding based on traffic data for over 800,000 miles of road
3. Real-time traffic data gathering

Now, so far, only one of those things is being done. Based on traffic databases throughout the country, some GPS units (generally using INRIX’s technology) can already tell you if you’re going to hit bad traffic soon.

But there are two new components to this equation that may make traffic jams all-but obsolete. First, INRIX is using a new kind of algorithm that takes all of their traffic-data and provides the fastest route to your destination based on current traffic conditions and traffic conditions for similar days.

And second, INRIX will be installing it’s system in hundreds of thousands of new cars made by one of the top three car manufacturers (either GM, Toyota or Ford) and those units will tellin INRIX’s computers where they are and how fast they are going. So, basically, as soon as one INRIX enabled car slows down, every other INRIX enabled car will know that there is a traffic jam.

Cross-posted from Envirowonk

In keeping with the amount of virtual ink this item deserves, we’re going to try and keep this short. The Oregon Institute of Science and Medicine held a press conference this morning to announce that 31,000 “scientists” have signed a petition rejecting claims of human-caused global warming.

According to OISM officials, the purpose of the Petition Project is to demonstrate that “the claim of ’settled science’ and an overwhelming ‘consensus’ in favor of the hypothesis of human-caused global warming and consequent climate damage is wrong.”

So what does it take to be included among the 31,000 “experts” on the petition? Well, according to the OISM criteria, any undergraduate science degree will do just fine. Bet you never thought that BS you earned 20 years ago made you a qualified climatologist. Congratulations!

OISM also wants to let you know that 9,021 of the signers hold PhDs. They don’t specify what the doctorates are in, but they repeat that figure quite a bit, as if it means something. Since the group was nice enough to list all 31,000 signers, including the dead people, let’s take a look at the qualifications of three randomly-selected “climate experts.”

• W. Kline Bolton, M.D. is a professor of medicine and Nephrology Division Chief at the University of Virginia. Nephrology deals with the study of the function and diseases of the kidney.
• Zhonggang Zeng is one of the 9,000 with a PhD. He is a professor of mathematics at Northeastern Illinois University. His most recent publication is entitled “Computing multiple roots of inexact polynomials.”
  

Off the coast of Ireland, history was just made. While windpower is taking off, and could soon produce as much as 20% of America’s power, harnessing energy from the ocean is still in it’s infancy.

But recently Marine Current Turbines successfully completed the installation of the world’s first megawatt-scale tidal turbine. And now we’ve got the first images of the turbine installed to prove it. The 1000 ton SeaGen tidal turbine was secured to the seabed and linked with Northern Ireland’s electric grid. MCT will now spend about 12 weeks testing the capabilities of the turbine before regularly feeding power into the grid.

Tidal power has several advantages over wind. The power generation is more predictable (since you always know when the tide will turn) and it is believed that they will have less ecological impacts…since roads do not need to be built to them. There hasn’t been enough data yet to determine what affects they will have on marine life.

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This is the sixth in our series of projects from ISEF that we will be covering. Many more to come. Thanks to Intel for flying me out and putting me up so I could cover the conference.

Access to clean drinking water has been, and will be, a global concern. Even when water is available, sometimes in abundance, it can be unsuitable for drinking due to microbial contamination. This is often the case with river water in Belo Horizonte, Brazil, ioand Veronica Santos and Julia Parreiras have developed a low cost / no cost disinfectn solution for those who use rivers, or other unpotable sources, to obtain their drinking water.

The system can be created and assembled using 100% recycled materials, in fact, the entire system is made out of waste. The basic principle is to heat water using a solar concentrator, thereby killing bacteria and making the water safe to drink. Of course you don’t just find solar concentrators every day, so they built, and will teach those in need to build, their own using scrap cardboard and a reflective surface.

When I asked if aluminum foil was readily available in rural Brazil, thinking they used that for reflection, they smiled and pointed out that if you turn an empty bag of potato chips inside out, you get a very good reflective device. Their concentrators, made from such crude materials, are very efficient. They have achieved temperatures upwards of 70C, but only need to sustain at least 50C for 4 hours to ensure disinfection.

This week Andris Piebalgs talks Nuclear in his blog. Without taboos, Andris lays down the advantages of Nuclear energy that have put it at the core of the Commission’s New Energy Policy for Europe.

Nuclear energy has been discussed many times at TOD, mostly from a technical perspective, on its practicality and long-term sustainability. This time we look at Nuclear Energy policy, from the perspective of an Executive that has made a clear option towards this energy source.

Source: NewScientistTech (click to enlarge)

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Crossposted at the European Tribune

Concerns with CO2 emissions are still the main driver behind the EU’s Energy Policy, but from the several texts reproduced henceforth, it is becoming clearer a certain sense of urgency towards energy security from the stakeholders.

In his blog, Andris starts by asserting that Nuclear has special a role to fulfill, that other energy sources and/or policies are not able to meet at the moment:

In this context, energy efficiency, renewables and sustainable biofuels have all a very important and growing contribution to make for a sustainable energy policy, as we have seen in previous entries of this blog. However, for the production of base-load energy at competitive prices, nuclear energy is currently the main low-carbon source in many EU Member States.

But there is more to Nuclear energy that makes it so attractive to policy makers at the moment:

This is the first in our series of projects from ISEF that we will be covering. Many more to come. Thanks to Intel for flying me out and putting me up so I could cover the conference.

This video explains the whole process…but I sugest you turn off your speakers…unless you want to have the most awkward dance party ever.

Driving aimlessly is bad enough, so the only thing that could be worse is driving in circles looking for a parking spot. Then there are those drivers who deserve a special reserve space in hell for idling their cars waiting for a spot closer to the mall entrance because they can’t be bothered walking a few extra feet.

A South Korean company may have a partial solution to that parking problem. There are more than enough cars on the road, but even so, there are even fewer parking spaces, especially in cities. Automatic parking systems, which have been used for years in Europe and Asia because of space constraints, are beginning to be considered in theUnited States.

MP Systems designed the software and technology that makes parking simpler and easier by letting computers do the work. The system can fit twice as many cars in the same amount of space and eliminate hours of combined engine use every day so drivers don’t have to drive around searching for that elusive space. Drivers pull into a platform and technology does the rest. When drivers want to retrieve their car, they enter a code and the car is delivered back via the platform.