Eliminating the amount of people needed to run a recycling plant will help to lower the cost and make it competitive to new materials. This is great for people that already buy recyclables, and only encourages those that don't to make the change.

via Treehugger and the Economist

The project would allow people to see from a distance if the water is good or bad at a cost of less than $1000 per unit.

When things look fine on the surface, it is easy to ignore, but if pollution like this can be visualized, people will certainly pay more attention. I can't help but think of the statue of Vulcan, the Roman god, who presides over my hometown of Birmingham Alabama. For some forty years, his torch turned shone red on days when there were traffic fatalities. Visualization is a powerful tool, and when it can be mixed with public art, all the better.

Inhabitat Via Engadget

British low cost carrier easyJet has unveiled a new aircraft design dubbed the "ecoJet" as part of a comprehensive plan to cut air-travel related carbon emissions in half by 2015. CEO of easyJet Andy Harrison reports that Boeing and Airbus are both interested in producing it. 

"This is not Star Trek. This is the future," Harrison said. "If it were to be made available today, we would order hundreds of them for fleett replacement. We are currently spending 4 billion pounds (USD $7.88 billion) on aircraft -- they are listening to us."

Similar in design to the ultra-efficient Piaggio Avanti and the Boeing "Fozzie", the rear-mount "push style" placement of the engines improves the efficiency of the wings by removing them from the engine's wake. A combination of lightweight materials, smaller and more aerodynamic designs, and fuel sipping external rotor engines - capable of today's outputs but consuming 25% less fuel - all add up to savings of about 40%.  Additional efficiencies are expected to come from "air traffic control improvements". This comes on the same day Airbus announced green targets for a 50% reduction in CO2 emissions for their aircraft and a 30% decrease in company-wide energy consumption by 2020.

Ever sit by the ocean, and watch a buoy or a seagull bob up and down without end? The energy it takes to move all that water up and down is massive. Prevailing winds, temperature differentials, strong weather and even the rotation of the Earth all contribute to the never-ending crash of waves against the shore, and viewed from a certain perspective, that's a lot of energy going to waste:

The World Energy Council has estimated that approximately 2 terawatts (2 million megawatts), about double current world electricity production, could be produced from the oceans via wave power. It is estimated that 1 million gigawatt hours of wave energy hits Australian shores annually and that 25% of the UK’s current power usage could be supplied by harvesting its wave resource.

The image above shows average yearly wave-power energy in various parts of the world in kilowatts per METER!

The same ocean currents that fueled the economic growth of the 18th and 19th centuries may now help power the countries that prospered as a result - with the best sites in the world lying off the shores of developed countries, look for this alternative energy to (I can't help myself) make some waves in the coming years. Scotland, Portugal, Australia and Hawaii already have installations underway or in place, and feasibility studies are being undertaken by Spain, Norway, USA and New Zealand.

via Ceto.com

Mazda's new Miller-cycle engine will power the new Mazda2, (named the Demio for the US).

Mazda Motor Corporation has developed a new, naturally aspirated 1.3-liter Miller-cycle gasoline engine, which will power the all-new Mazda2 when it goes on sale in Japan in July 2007. The Miller-cycle engine usually depends on having a really big super charger but Mazda has figured out a way to use the Miller-cycle on a normally aspirated engine.

The Miller-cycle is a fancy name for a simple change in the valve timing for an engine.  It allows the compression stroke of a 4-cycle engine to begin later than typical. Less power wasted on compression means more efficiency. 

In combination with Mazda’s first continuously variable transmission (CVT), the engine enables the new Mazda2 to offer 54 mpg US, an improvement of approximately 20% compared with Mazda’s current 1.3-liter engine model.

In addition to the new powertrain, the all-new Mazda2 has been made approximately 220 lb lighter than its predecessor through a strict weight reduction program, which results in quick handling to go along with the significantly improved fuel economy.

I can see no reason that the Miller-cycle engine can't be used to improve the efficiency of larger engines and/or engines in hybrids.  I wonder what the carbon footprint of a Miller-cycle hybrid car running on cellulosic ethanol would be?

Once while traveling through the southern US I saw a DIY solar hot water heater made from an old Chevy, that was up on blocks, painted black and the proud owner had run 200 feet of garden hose through the interior.  It provided enough heat for his family to shower he said.

From the "Weird Asia News" blog we get the story of a man who made his family a solar hot water heater from 66 recycled beer bottles.  He should have called, I could have helped him empty the bottles.

Weird Asia News:

A Chinese farmer has made his own solar-powered water heater out of beer bottles and hose pipes.

 

“I invented this for my mother. I wanted her to shower comfortably,” says Ma Yanjun, of Qiqiao village, Shaanxi province.

Ma’s invention features 66 beer bottles attached to a board. The bottles are connected to each other so that water flows through them.

Sunlight heats the water as is passes slowly through the bottles before flowing into the bathroom as hot water, reports China Economy Network.

Ma says it provides enough hot water for all three members of his family to have a shower every day.

And more than 10 families in the village have already followed suit and installed their own versions of Ma’s invention.

Via: BoingBoing, Wierd Asia News

Henry Liu, a retired civil engineer, has won the Popular Science 2007 Invention Award for producing a replacement for the more than 9 billion clay bricks manufactured in the US each year. Manufactured from fly ash, a byproduct of coal combustion with a worldwide surplus production running in the hundreds of millions of tons each year, these new bricks are as strong and safe as the bricks we're all used to seeing, cost 20% less to make, and are far more environmentally friendly.

Old 'n' Busted: clay bricks are fired in a kiln at over 2000°F (1100°C). New Hotness: Liu's new building material is cured in a 150°F (66°C) steam bath after exiting a 4000 psi (28,000 kPa) press, saving massive amounts of energy and reducing the carbon footprint for builders considerably. In addition, the new bricks are easier to use which will save bricklayers time, and homebuilders money. To top it all off, the bricks may also improve air quality.

Having recently passed federal safety standards in the US, Liu will begin licensing his technology to manufacturers in 2008.

via PopSci.com

The start-up biofuels company LS9, of San Carlos, CA, is using “synthetic biology” to engineer bacteria that can make hydrocarbons for gasoline, diesel, and jet fuel.  Their goal is to create designer bugs that produce and excrete hydrocarbons. LS9 Renewable Petroleum biofuel will be clean burning, carbon neutral, and has the potential to provide for a large portion of our long term energy needs.

Derived from diverse agricultural feedstocks, these new fuels will be compatible with current distribution and consumer infrastructure - unlike ethanol. The production process is also much simpler than producing conventional ethanol, and requires 65% less energy: while ethanol needs to be distilled at high temperatures, Renewable Petroleum gently floats to the surface of the reaction vats in which it's produced.

The company has $5 million in funding from Khosla Ventures, the venture capital firm of Vinod Khosla, founder of Sun Microsystems and passionate biofuel evangelizist.  LS9 CEO Noubar Afeyan cautions that no one can tell the extent to which any biofuel will displace fossil fuels. "That is a subject of great debate and great prognostication," he says. "The opportunity is so large that I don't have to believe in much more than a few percentage points of market penetration for it to be worth our investment."

If all goes to plan, LS9 fuels may be available as early as 2011. 

Via: Technology Review

"The roof of the Paul VI auditorium will be redone next year, with its cement panels replaced with photovoltaic cells to convert sunlight into electricity," engineer Pier Carlo Cuscianna said.

via Discovery.com

So far 12 desktops have achieved Bronze, 70 have Silver and now HP has the only Gold. The Gold standard requires products to meet the minimum requirements and 75% of optional criteria. HP took the biggest initiatives in the areas of "reduction/elimination of environmentally sensitive materials" and "Design for end of life", which includes eliminating use of PVC and other toxic materials and a minimum of 90% recyclability or reusability.

With the government backing the EPEAT, requiring 95% of government electronic purchase to be recognized under this system, hopefully consumers will follow suit and look for computers that are greener. More optimistically, I hope other manufacturers get jealous enough to start making some Gold standard computers themselves.

Via Inhabitat