dispatches / rethink-dispatches.com: the companion to the print quarterly dispatches.

dispatches / rethink-dispatches.com: the companion to the print quarterly dispatches.

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Radio Show Update….

As a follow-up to last night’s post I will be doing the radio show on Saturday September 5th. at 2:00 p.m.  Additional information to follow……..

Good News…

I wanted to report on some recent good news about the direction of this blog and my business in general.  In any case I have recently been invited to appear on Green Fuels Solutions which is a radio show deal with alternatives to bio-energy and is broadcasted from Tennessee.  As I learn more about the show I will update you as to how you can listen to the episode I will be appearing from…

Brazil’s Garbage Dumps

Today I listened to a lecture about the garbage dumps of Brazil, specifically the lecture focused on what is happening at dumps in San-Palo.  In San-Palo people are employed to sort through piles of garbage and separate things like: plastic, cardboard, glass, aluminum foil, and styrofoam. Once sorted these items are sold to scrap shops and later recycled by various industrial manufactures.   If your a long time National Geographic reader like I am you should remember reading about these dumps before, in fact I found an article concerning the same dating back to the 1980′s.

Whatever the case I am puzzled why this same idea has not been attempted in the United States, especially in light of the current economic situation.  Moreover, irrespective of the potential jobs the same would generate the benefits to the environment would be incredible.  I assume that one reason this idea has not been attempted or for that matter successful is because of the lack of interest from society.

A suggestion might be to assign prisoners or community service programs to various landfills around the country and let them sort through piles of waste.

The Pit-falls of Bio-Energy

I spent the better part of yesterday discussing  the production of bio-energy. During the course of said conversations, mind you with two experts in the field of bio-energy, two rather interesting points were brought up. Specifically, while we are nonetheless developing unique ways to produce alternatives to fossil fuels these efforts are not always beneficial to the environment.  For instance bio-fuels are not always captured or stored properly and as the result many of these gases are unintentionally released into the environment.  Often times these gases are more concentrated than that which is naturally released into the atmosphere thereby causing more damage to the environment.

Consequently, I would like to get some feed-back from people involved in these operations to see if anything can be done to mitigate unintentional damage to the environment.  Furthermore, I would also be interested in seeing if there would be person(s) interested in forming a group to work towards a solution.

Bio-Gas How It Works

Latest Plan To Cut CO2 Emissions

Putting lime into the oceans could stop or even reverse the accumulation of CO2 in the atmosphere, according to proposals unveiled at a conference on climate change solutions in Manchester today.

According to its advocates, the same technique could help fix one of the most dangerous side effects of man-made CO2 emissions: rising ocean acidity.

The project, known as Cquestrate, is the brainchild of Tim Kruger, a former management consultant. “This is an idea that can not only stop the clock on carbon dioxide, it can turn it back,” he said, although he conceded that tipping large quantities of lime into the sea would currently be illegal.

The oceans are a key part of the natural carbon cycle, in which carbon dioxide is circulated between the land, seas and atmosphere. About half of the CO2 released into the air by humans each year is soaked up by the oceans. This helps slow the rate of global warming but increases ocean acidity, posing a potentially disastrous threat to marine ecosystems.

Kruger’s scheme aims to boost the ability of the oceans to absorb CO2 but to do so in a way that helps reduce rather than increase ocean acidity. This is achieved by converting limestone into lime, in a process similar to those used in the cement industry, and adding the lime to seawater.

The lime reacts with CO2 dissolved in the water, converting it into bicarbonate ions, thereby decreasing the acidity of the water and enabling the oceans to absorb more CO2 from the air, so reducing global warming.

Kruger said: “It’s essential that we reduce our emissions, but that may not be enough. We need a plan B to actually reduce the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere. We need to research such concepts now – not just the science but also the legal, ethical and governance considerations.”

Kruger’s plan was one of 20 innovative schemes proposed at the Manchester Report, a two-day search for the best ideas to tackle climate change staged by the Guardian as part of the Manchester International Festival.

A panel of experts chaired by Lord Bingham, formerly Britain’s most senior judge, will select the 10 most promising ideas. These will be featured in a report that will be published in the Guardian next week and circulated to policymakers around the world.

Climate change secretary Ed Miliband told the conference the biggest danger faced by campaigners was creating a sense of defeatism. “We need to show people how they can aggregate their individual actions and be part of a bigger whole,” he said.

Cquestrate is one of a number of so-called “geo-engineering schemes” that have been proposed to intervene in the Earth’s systems in order to tackle climate change.

Kruger admits there are challenges to overcome: the world would need to mine and process about 10 cubic kilometres of limestone each year to soak up all the emissions the world produces, and the plan would only make sense if the CO2 resulting from lime production could be captured and buried at source.

Chris Goodall, one of the experts assessing the schemes, said of Cquestrate: “The basic concept looks good, though further research is needed into the feasibility.”

Another marine geo-engineering scheme was presented by Professor Stephen Salter, of Edinburgh University.

His proposal is to build a fleet of remote-controlled, energy-self-sufficient ships that would spray minuscule droplets of seawater into the air. The droplets would whiten and expand clouds, reflecting sunlight away from the Earth and into space.

Salter said 300 ships would increase cloud reflectivity enough to cancel out the temperature rise caused by man-made climate change so far, but 1,800 would be needed to offset a doubling of CO2, something expected within a few decades.

President Obama Takes Action to Advance Bio-fuel Production

President Barack Obama announced on May 5 that his administration is taking several steps to advance biofuels research and commercialization. The president signed a Presidential Directive to help preserve biofuel industry jobs and to establish the Biofuels Interagency Working Group, which will develop the nation’s first comprehensive program for growing the biofuels market. The President also announced that DOE will release $786.5 million in Recovery Act funds to accelerate advanced biofuels research, development, and deployment (see separate article) and that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has released a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking for the federal Renewable Fuels Standard (see separate article). The EPA proposal outlines the agency’s strategy for increasing the supply of renewable fuels.

The new Biofuels Interagency Working Group will be co-chaired by the Secretaries of Energy and Agriculture and the EPA Administrator, and it will work with the National Science and Technology Council’s Biomass Research and Development Board. It will use existing authorities and identify new policies to support the development of next-generation biofuels, increase the use of flexible-fuel vehicles, and assist in retail marketing efforts. The group will also coordinate policies for the infrastructure needed to produce and deliver biofuels and will work toward the sustainable production of biofuel feedstocks, taking into consideration land use, habitat conservation, crop management practices, water efficiency, water quality impacts, and lifecycle assessments of greenhouse gas emissions.

The USDA will direct farm bill funds toward advanced biorefineries, such as this Poet pilot plant that can produce 20,000 gallons per year of cellulosic ethanol from corn cobs. Enlarge this photo.
Credit: POET

The president also directed Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack to preserve employment in the renewable fuels industry by immediately refinancing existing federal investments. The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) will also make financing from the 2008 farm bill (the Food, Conservation, and Energy Act of 2008) available within the next 30 days, including loan guarantees for commercial-scale biorefineries, grants for demonstration-scale biorefineries, expedited funding for installing biomass energy systems at biorefineries, and expedited funding to encourage the production of next-generation biofuels. The Renewable Energy Systems and Energy Efficiency Improvements Program, which will be renamed as the Rural Energy for America Program, will be expanded to offer guarantees for larger loans and to include energy audits and hydropower projects. President Obama also tasked Secretary Vilsack with developing a comprehensive approach to accelerating the investment in and production of biofuels in the United States. See the press releases from the White House and the USDA.

Why Your World is About to Get a Whole Lot Smaller!!!! Jeff Rubin