By Cassandra Sweet
Published August 31, 2010
A group of coal and power companies said Tuesday that it has decided to stick with a government-backed project to cut greenhouse-gas emissions from a coal-fired power plant despite a significant change in plan.
The FutureGen Alliance said that it would like to build and operate a pipeline and underground storage facility where carbon dioxide emissions from an Illinois coal-fired power plant would be shipped and stored. The group said it will need to find a location for the storage facility, and will need to reach agreement with the U.S. Department of Energy on terms before proceeding.
Earlier this month, the DOE awarded $1 billion to the project, as part of a broad initiative to combat climate change. The department, however, completely revised the project from an earlier plan.
The new project, known as "FutureGen 2.0," would retrofit a now-shuttered Ameren Corp. (AEE: 28.65 ,0.00 ,0.00%) coal-fired power plant in Meredosia, Ill., and help establish a pipeline network to ship and store more than one million tons of carbon-dioxide a year.
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Ten Worst Places to LiveHeavy in dollars, China warns of depreciationIs Now the Best Time to a Buy a Car?Work From Home? Get These Tax Write-offsWith Recession Comes Rise of DIY Health Care"The Alliance is pleased that DOE and Senator Durbin have been able to preserve the $1 billion in funding for advancing clean coal technologies and the associated jobs, and we look forward to working with them and our new partners in making FutureGen 2.0 a success," Steve Winberg, a general manager at Consol Energy Inc. (CNX: 34.20 ,0.00 ,0.00%) who is also chairman of FutureGen's board, said in a statement.
An earlier plan envisioned building a first-of-a kind "clean coal" power plant in Mattoon, Ill., using a different technology.
The Energy Department proposed locating the new project's storage facility in Mattoon, but town officials said they no longer wanted the project in their town.
U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin, a Democrat from Illinois, said Tuesday the project is expected to generate 1,000 construction jobs and about 200 permanent jobs, and that more than two dozen Illinois communities have expressed interest in hosting the CO2 storage facility.
The new project, to be developed by the FutureGen Alliance, which backed the original "clean coal" project, along with Ameren, Babcock & Wilcox (BWC: 22.48 ,0.00 ,0.00%) and Air Liquide Process & Construction Inc., would be the first to use advanced oxy-combustion technology on a commercial scale.
Oxy-combustion burns coal with a mixture of oxygen and carbon dioxide instead of air to produce a concentrated carbon-dioxide stream for "safe, permanent storage," the department said.
The original FutureGen project was intended to be the first commercial-scale project that combined technology to capture and store carbon-dioxide emissions with coal gasification, a process where heat and pressure are applied to coal, creating a synthetic gas that fuels turbines to generate electricity. FutureGen leaders struggled to line up backers and some members of the alliance pulled out in order to start their own projects.
(Siobhan Hughes and Stephen Power contributed to this article)
Sunday, 5 September 2010
Killer Bacteria Could Breathe New Life into Biofuel Production
Written by Tina Casey
Published on September 4th, 2010
Put this one in the category of every cloud has a silver lining: E. coli, the bacteria notorious for contaminating food products from lettuce to ground beef, could also play a key role in developing the next generation of biofuels. A team of scientists from Rutgers University is working with computer modeling to tweak the pesky little bug into overproduce fatty acids, which can then be processed into biodiesel.
If the research is successful, chalk up another win for producing biofuels from sustainable, non-food sources that can be grown without competing for land with food crops. The growing list includes weedy plants, woody plants, algae and various microorganisms.
E. coli is short for Escherichia coli, which is a rod-shaped bacteria. Some strains are harmful but others are responsible for serious food poisoning. The Rutgers team focused on E. coli because a considerable platform of knowledge has grown up around the bacteria over the past 60 years of lab study, rather than having to start from scratch. E. coli produce fatty acids, which share many characteristics with fuel molecules. Thanks to computer modeling, the team has been able to examine the effect of modifications on entire sections of genome, rather than changing individual genes. The next step, of course, is to develop new strains of E. coli based on the models.
Biofuels and Transportation
In just the past two years, attention has shifted rapidly out of food-sourced biofuels and into a wide variety of feedstocks. Unlike food crops and fossil fuels, which typically must be hauled over long distances to refineries and then to their point of use, the many new options in biofuels mean that more communities, businesses and utilities can source their energy closer to home – in some cases, new biofuels could be as close as the neighborhood sewage treatment plant.
Published on September 4th, 2010
Put this one in the category of every cloud has a silver lining: E. coli, the bacteria notorious for contaminating food products from lettuce to ground beef, could also play a key role in developing the next generation of biofuels. A team of scientists from Rutgers University is working with computer modeling to tweak the pesky little bug into overproduce fatty acids, which can then be processed into biodiesel.
If the research is successful, chalk up another win for producing biofuels from sustainable, non-food sources that can be grown without competing for land with food crops. The growing list includes weedy plants, woody plants, algae and various microorganisms.
E. coli is short for Escherichia coli, which is a rod-shaped bacteria. Some strains are harmful but others are responsible for serious food poisoning. The Rutgers team focused on E. coli because a considerable platform of knowledge has grown up around the bacteria over the past 60 years of lab study, rather than having to start from scratch. E. coli produce fatty acids, which share many characteristics with fuel molecules. Thanks to computer modeling, the team has been able to examine the effect of modifications on entire sections of genome, rather than changing individual genes. The next step, of course, is to develop new strains of E. coli based on the models.
Biofuels and Transportation
In just the past two years, attention has shifted rapidly out of food-sourced biofuels and into a wide variety of feedstocks. Unlike food crops and fossil fuels, which typically must be hauled over long distances to refineries and then to their point of use, the many new options in biofuels mean that more communities, businesses and utilities can source their energy closer to home – in some cases, new biofuels could be as close as the neighborhood sewage treatment plant.
Big Savings By Building A Wind Turbine Yourself
Saving cash is essential to everybody which is the reason why more and more people are deciding to to build a wind turbine rather than paying for one.
To make a turbine for yourself is relatively simple and comes with many advantages.
For starters, retail manufactured wind generators, while effective are not as effective as they could be simply because they are mass-produced. So that you can mass create anything, it needs to be designed in a way that production costs are drastically lowered; even if that means giving up some performance of the product.
It is not that hard to build a wind turbine at home. The most essential components needed for the construction of a wind turbine are rare earth magnets like neodymium, epoxy resin, magnet wire and some plywood. The toughest aspect about building your own wind turbine is creating the propeller blades and getting the wire windings right so that the power being produced is usable in the home.
While you do this you’ll get lots of experience. Even if you are an avid do it yourselfer who loves to get his or her hands dirty, there is practically nothing like taking on a undertaking like building a wind turbine. Right from the start, you will have to use your hands and your head to make everything line up and function properly. With the help of do-it-yourself instructions, the process is made much simpler.
Your neighbors will come to you and ask you to help them to build a wind turbine that they can use to power their homes. Simply because of the experience of the construction process, you will instantly become the neighborhood expert on renewable energy. Be ready to answer people’s questions with regards to the construction of your wind turbine as well as other potential questions concerning home power and energy savings techniques.
Preserving the planet is also important. While not every person who chooses to build a wind turbine is doing so out of appreciation for the world, the act of saving nature does have its rewards. The less power you are using from the grid, the less carbon is released into the environment. This means the less harm that will be done to the earth and allow future generations to marvel at its existence.
Of course one could go on and on for days discussing the many benefits of using wind power in the home; but it is really obvious that they outweigh the costs.
Learn all about wind turbine design see this site now. You’ll learn all about creating your own wind turbine for under $200. You’ll also see about homemade wind turbine build advice here.
To make a turbine for yourself is relatively simple and comes with many advantages.
For starters, retail manufactured wind generators, while effective are not as effective as they could be simply because they are mass-produced. So that you can mass create anything, it needs to be designed in a way that production costs are drastically lowered; even if that means giving up some performance of the product.
It is not that hard to build a wind turbine at home. The most essential components needed for the construction of a wind turbine are rare earth magnets like neodymium, epoxy resin, magnet wire and some plywood. The toughest aspect about building your own wind turbine is creating the propeller blades and getting the wire windings right so that the power being produced is usable in the home.
While you do this you’ll get lots of experience. Even if you are an avid do it yourselfer who loves to get his or her hands dirty, there is practically nothing like taking on a undertaking like building a wind turbine. Right from the start, you will have to use your hands and your head to make everything line up and function properly. With the help of do-it-yourself instructions, the process is made much simpler.
Your neighbors will come to you and ask you to help them to build a wind turbine that they can use to power their homes. Simply because of the experience of the construction process, you will instantly become the neighborhood expert on renewable energy. Be ready to answer people’s questions with regards to the construction of your wind turbine as well as other potential questions concerning home power and energy savings techniques.
Preserving the planet is also important. While not every person who chooses to build a wind turbine is doing so out of appreciation for the world, the act of saving nature does have its rewards. The less power you are using from the grid, the less carbon is released into the environment. This means the less harm that will be done to the earth and allow future generations to marvel at its existence.
Of course one could go on and on for days discussing the many benefits of using wind power in the home; but it is really obvious that they outweigh the costs.
Learn all about wind turbine design see this site now. You’ll learn all about creating your own wind turbine for under $200. You’ll also see about homemade wind turbine build advice here.
Miliband accuses coalition of 'greenwash' over North Sea oil
Leadership hopeful attacks Government over deep-sea drilling off Shetlands
By Matt Chorley, Political Correspondent
David Cameron's claim to lead the "greenest government ever" was thrown into the heart of the Labour leadership contest last night, amid concern about plans for a deep-sea drilling operation in the North Sea.
David Miliband, one of the candidates to succeed Gordon Brown as Labour leader, said the coalition's refusal to impose a moratorium on deep-sea drilling in the wake of the Gulf of Mexico disaster exposed its commitment to the environment as "nothing but spin".
He said: "Since the election the Government has gone out of its way to ditch, delay and stall key environmental policies. Cameron's claim that he would create the greenest government ever has turned out to be 'greenwash' of the highest order. Worse still, the Lib Dems have stood by and watched this happen – betraying those supporters who hoped they would bring a stronger shade of green to the Tory government."
BP is expected to begin exploratory drilling at depths of 4,265ft west of the Shetland Isles in October. The Deepwater Horizon rig – which exploded in April causing the US's worst offshore oil spill in history – was drilling at a depth of around 5,000ft. Paul King, the UK North Sea division managing director at Transocean, the drilling contractor for Deepwater Horizon, will be grilled by MPs on Tuesday as part of a parliamentary inquiry into the risks posed to the UK's waters.
Greenpeace lawyers have threatened legal action if the Government fails to halt deep-sea drilling, though the Department for Energy and Climate Change insists that the UK's regulatory regime is among the tightest in the world. Joss Garman, of Greenpeace, said: "After the Gulf disaster, reducing our dependence on oil is the new frontline for the environmental movement, and David Miliband's call for the UK to follow Obama and introduce a moratorium on deep-sea drilling is a major development in the political debate around oil."
Keith Allott, the head of climate change for WWF-UK, said: "The Government needs to get its priorities straight. It is only sensible to be having at least a temporary moratorium on oil and gas exploration while the Government learns from the Gulf of Mexico. Instead it seems the priority is to facilitate further expansion of oil and gas in the North Sea, rather than lay the foundations of a green energy revolution."
But Mr Miliband's decision to highlight his year-long experience as Environment Secretary in a final drive for the leadership risks backfiring, with the Liberal Democrat Energy Secretary, Chris Huhne, countering that Labour's record amounted to a catalogue of "lost opportunities".
In a sharp rebuke of the claims, Mr Huhne said: "David Miliband was Environment Secretary under a Labour government when carbon emissions went up, green taxes went down, flood defences were cut, research into climate change was cut and British householders continued to pay hundreds of pounds a year extra heating their homes because of failed government building standards and programmes."
By Matt Chorley, Political Correspondent
David Cameron's claim to lead the "greenest government ever" was thrown into the heart of the Labour leadership contest last night, amid concern about plans for a deep-sea drilling operation in the North Sea.
David Miliband, one of the candidates to succeed Gordon Brown as Labour leader, said the coalition's refusal to impose a moratorium on deep-sea drilling in the wake of the Gulf of Mexico disaster exposed its commitment to the environment as "nothing but spin".
He said: "Since the election the Government has gone out of its way to ditch, delay and stall key environmental policies. Cameron's claim that he would create the greenest government ever has turned out to be 'greenwash' of the highest order. Worse still, the Lib Dems have stood by and watched this happen – betraying those supporters who hoped they would bring a stronger shade of green to the Tory government."
BP is expected to begin exploratory drilling at depths of 4,265ft west of the Shetland Isles in October. The Deepwater Horizon rig – which exploded in April causing the US's worst offshore oil spill in history – was drilling at a depth of around 5,000ft. Paul King, the UK North Sea division managing director at Transocean, the drilling contractor for Deepwater Horizon, will be grilled by MPs on Tuesday as part of a parliamentary inquiry into the risks posed to the UK's waters.
Greenpeace lawyers have threatened legal action if the Government fails to halt deep-sea drilling, though the Department for Energy and Climate Change insists that the UK's regulatory regime is among the tightest in the world. Joss Garman, of Greenpeace, said: "After the Gulf disaster, reducing our dependence on oil is the new frontline for the environmental movement, and David Miliband's call for the UK to follow Obama and introduce a moratorium on deep-sea drilling is a major development in the political debate around oil."
Keith Allott, the head of climate change for WWF-UK, said: "The Government needs to get its priorities straight. It is only sensible to be having at least a temporary moratorium on oil and gas exploration while the Government learns from the Gulf of Mexico. Instead it seems the priority is to facilitate further expansion of oil and gas in the North Sea, rather than lay the foundations of a green energy revolution."
But Mr Miliband's decision to highlight his year-long experience as Environment Secretary in a final drive for the leadership risks backfiring, with the Liberal Democrat Energy Secretary, Chris Huhne, countering that Labour's record amounted to a catalogue of "lost opportunities".
In a sharp rebuke of the claims, Mr Huhne said: "David Miliband was Environment Secretary under a Labour government when carbon emissions went up, green taxes went down, flood defences were cut, research into climate change was cut and British householders continued to pay hundreds of pounds a year extra heating their homes because of failed government building standards and programmes."
Rising wheat prices raise fears over UK commitment to biofuels
Converting up to a fifth of UK wheat into biofuel will force prices even higher at a time of food shortages, warn critics
Jamie Doward The Observer, Sunday 5 September 2010
The soaring price of wheat has raised questions about the UK's commitment to biofuels as it attempts to wean itself from its dependence on oil.
A network of biorefineries that convert wheat and other crops into bioethanol that can then be blended with petrol are being developed as the UK looks to meet its EU renewable transport fuels obligations.
But the huge amounts of wheat that will be used in the process – up to a fifth of the UK's current annual production within four years – have prompted questions about where the crop will come from.
At the end of a week in which the wheat price hit a two-year high as Russia, the world's fourth largest producer, imposed an export ban for the second year running, there were fears that the domestic move to biofuels would lead to further rises in the cost of wheat. The result would be a significant rise in shopping bills.
Currently there is only one wheat biorefinery operating in the UK. Owned by a company called Ensus, the Tees-side plant, which cost almost £300m to build and was temporarily closed due to teething problems, will use some 1.2 tonnes of wheat a year when at full capacity.
But four more plants that could use wheat, at Immingham, Corby, Grimsby and Hull, are also in development. According to the cereals and oilseeds division of the Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board, the three UK biofuel refineries that are expected to be fully operating by 2014 will require 3m tonnes, one-fifth of the wheat produced in the UK.
The demand is expected to rise further as the UK tries to meet recently agreed EU biofuel targets. The UK has recently signed up to a compulsory EU target that will see 10% of its transport fuels come from renewable sources by the year 2020.
The "dash for wheat" could see large amounts of land converted to arable use both in the UK and abroad. Green groups are concerned about what this will mean for developing countries.
The World Bank, the OECD and the UK government's Gallagher report all identified biofuels as a significant factor in recent food price rises. But some reports suggest biofuels could actually help to "smooth out" the peaks and troughs associated with the wheat market by providing producers with more stable demand.
Concerns about the UK's wheat supply come at the end of a week in which the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation warned that world food prices have risen to their highest level in two years. It said that the increase was due partly to a drought in Russia, where government export restrictions have led the price to surge. Speculators have also been blamed for helping to drive prices higher at a time of general uncertainty.
A spike in food prices triggered deadly riots in Mozambique last week and experts worry that other countries that saw such unrest during the last global food crisis in 2008 could be hit again. In Egypt, where half of the population depends on subsidised bread, recent protests over rising prices left at least one person dead. There are also reports of price increases in flood-hit Pakistan.
Kenneth Richter, head of biofuels at Friends of the Earth, said last week's riots showed that food should not be used for fuel. "In a time of rising food prices and global shortages, it is cynical to burn wheat in our cars," he said.
Jamie Doward The Observer, Sunday 5 September 2010
The soaring price of wheat has raised questions about the UK's commitment to biofuels as it attempts to wean itself from its dependence on oil.
A network of biorefineries that convert wheat and other crops into bioethanol that can then be blended with petrol are being developed as the UK looks to meet its EU renewable transport fuels obligations.
But the huge amounts of wheat that will be used in the process – up to a fifth of the UK's current annual production within four years – have prompted questions about where the crop will come from.
At the end of a week in which the wheat price hit a two-year high as Russia, the world's fourth largest producer, imposed an export ban for the second year running, there were fears that the domestic move to biofuels would lead to further rises in the cost of wheat. The result would be a significant rise in shopping bills.
Currently there is only one wheat biorefinery operating in the UK. Owned by a company called Ensus, the Tees-side plant, which cost almost £300m to build and was temporarily closed due to teething problems, will use some 1.2 tonnes of wheat a year when at full capacity.
But four more plants that could use wheat, at Immingham, Corby, Grimsby and Hull, are also in development. According to the cereals and oilseeds division of the Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board, the three UK biofuel refineries that are expected to be fully operating by 2014 will require 3m tonnes, one-fifth of the wheat produced in the UK.
The demand is expected to rise further as the UK tries to meet recently agreed EU biofuel targets. The UK has recently signed up to a compulsory EU target that will see 10% of its transport fuels come from renewable sources by the year 2020.
The "dash for wheat" could see large amounts of land converted to arable use both in the UK and abroad. Green groups are concerned about what this will mean for developing countries.
The World Bank, the OECD and the UK government's Gallagher report all identified biofuels as a significant factor in recent food price rises. But some reports suggest biofuels could actually help to "smooth out" the peaks and troughs associated with the wheat market by providing producers with more stable demand.
Concerns about the UK's wheat supply come at the end of a week in which the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation warned that world food prices have risen to their highest level in two years. It said that the increase was due partly to a drought in Russia, where government export restrictions have led the price to surge. Speculators have also been blamed for helping to drive prices higher at a time of general uncertainty.
A spike in food prices triggered deadly riots in Mozambique last week and experts worry that other countries that saw such unrest during the last global food crisis in 2008 could be hit again. In Egypt, where half of the population depends on subsidised bread, recent protests over rising prices left at least one person dead. There are also reports of price increases in flood-hit Pakistan.
Kenneth Richter, head of biofuels at Friends of the Earth, said last week's riots showed that food should not be used for fuel. "In a time of rising food prices and global shortages, it is cynical to burn wheat in our cars," he said.