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H2O - John Todd and The Eco-Restorer vs. Chlorine Chem. Dump 'waste'-water treatme...
The common chlorine chem. dump waste-treatment facilities are becoming a thing of the past..
Industry 'standards' are stubborn to budge, however, natural solutions make common cents. My the best woah-man win..
For the sustainable solutions of the future we've got to call in someone with experience... A few billion years experience that is.. Momma Nature knows best.
This Interview with John Todd Sr., walks us through various eco-restoration projects. They demonstrate the power of restoring "waste" sites, into a resource of clean water and beauty.
Enjoy..
The common chlorine chem. dump waste-treatment facilities are becoming a thing of the past.. ... more -
'Gulf dead zone bigger than ever' & ~A Pollution Solution~
Problem:
"A "dead zone" in the Gulf of Mexico off the Texas-Louisiana coast this year is likely to be the biggest ever and last longer than ever before, with marine life affected for hundreds of miles, a scientist warned."
"The phenomenon is caused when salt water loses large amounts of oxygen, a condition known as hypoxia that is typically associated with an area off the Louisiana coast at the mouth of the Mississippi River. The fresh water and salt water don't mix well, keeping oxygen from filtering through to the sea bottom, which causes problems for fish, shrimp, crabs and clams."
source: AP via - http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080723/ap_on_sc/dead_zone
Solution:
"Restorers" / Ocean Island Oasis / Hip Fishy Oxygen Bar
-Use solar or wind energy to pump oxygen down to the poor little fishies!
-Install John Todd's "Restorers"! to serve as a fishy oxygen bar oasis.
(images via - http://www.toddecological.com/services/lake.html)
*Build the floating forest 'raft', tow it out to sea, drop anchor, erect the windmill and water proof/corrosion proof solar panels, attach the water pump, descend the oxygen life support tube to the depths, (add fish eggs too?), and you're ready to rock and roll!
(Hurricane Preparedness: Install a remote activated wench that submerges the oasis below surface waves until the storm passes ;)
~My solution to run-away pollution..
Any other bright ideas out there?
Problem: ... more -
John Todd Wins Buckminster Fuller Challenge!
Permaculture, Paul Stamets, and John Todd have the tools to thrust us in a more sustainable direction. They enable 'natural' solutions, commonly by employing the 4 billion yrs experience of mother earth. Their outputs are beyond sustainable.. they are regenerative.
Congratulations JT! Permaculture, Paul Stamets, and John Todd have the tools to thrust us in a more sustainable direction. They enable 'natural' solutions... more -
Algae Attacks China!
The Beijing Olympics face yet another hurdle on their way to hosting the worlds premiere sporting event. In the recent months leading up to the games the Chinese have endured a woeful series fatal earthquakes and landslides. The traditional torch relay sparked a global barrage international protests and ridicule all of which was televised and uploaded to every corner of the world, physical or otherwise. The Chinese sustained these sorrowful and humiliating events whilst mustering up the will and already strained resources to build an intricate infrastructure to accommodate the Games. Comparatively, a little algae would be a piece of cake. Fate, it seems, wasn't interested in taking it easy, and so the Chinese are now dealing with a massive amount of green algae that is burgeoning at cruel increments. The oversize bloom of the sea-faring organism is a source of fear to Olympic sailing teams who may face unfamiliar conditions that are considered unfavorable. The algae effect on boats is simple, the more algae the slower the boat. So for sailors who have spent their lifetimes training for this one competition the green blob is not a welcome challenge.
To combat the algae Chinese citizens have dutifully answered the call to duty that would surely be lost without them. In this selfless act it is impossible to dismiss their steadfast determination that truly embodies the spirit of the Olympic Games. Civilian algae-fighters armed solely with their pride and plastic sacs have started extracting the green mass. Some working one handful at a time. Some athletes and coaches are still concerned that these efforts, however admirable, will fail to clear the 19 square miles of water needed for the competition. Chinese officials on the other hand have promised an algae-free race. Perhaps the most compelling competition then is not between countries or people. Indeed this battle is just The Olympic Spirit against all odds. The Beijing Olympics face yet another hurdle on their way to hosting the worlds premiere sporting event. In the recent months leading ... more -
Fuel from algae - check out the device
Vertigro. tailoring lipids one algae strand at a time?
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Algae is Latest Olympic Nightmare (with photos)
China's latest Olympics nightmare is a vast algae bloom that covers one-third of the sea where the world's best sailors are supposed to be competing in just over a month. Athletes call it the blob, the carpet, the fairway. China's latest Olympics nightmare is a vast algae bloom that covers one-third of the sea where the world's best sailors are supposed t... more
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Algae invades China's Olympic venue
More than 10,000 people have been mobilised in the Chinese city of Qingdao to clean up green algae, which have invaded the Olympic sailing venue.
The algae had arrived in late May and now covered 13,000 sq km (5,000 sq miles) of sea, Xinhua news agency said.
They occupy almost a third of the area that will be used for the sailing competition during the 9-21 August Olympic Games.
Officials estimate that the clean-up will take two more weeks.
'Smelly'
Richard Zheng from Qingdao told the BBC News website that a number of his fellow students had been involved in the clean-up effort.
"There is really too much algae. When I go to the beach, I can smell it and it is really quite smelly - a bit like a soup we drink in restaurants," he said.
"Some people are getting quite worried in case this will have an impact on the Olympic Games. But there are many fishing ships out collecting the algae as well as students. We believe the algae will disappear when the weather changes.
"This has happened before in Qingdao but not so frequently in the last few years," Mr Zheng added.
Nitrogen
At a news conference on Sunday, Qingdao Olympic Sailing Committee member Yuan Zhiping said workers were focusing on the competition area.
"We have stressed to all the people devoted to this campaign that the priority should [be] given to the Olympic venue and we expect to eliminate all these sea weeds before 15 July," he said.
Aerial view of the algae on 26 June 2008
Beaches around the city have been smothered by the algae
Olympic sailors were already training in the area and their preparation was being affected, Xinhua said.
More than 1,000 boats were involved in the clean-up operation and 100,000 tonnes of the weeds had already been removed, it added.
Coastal areas and lakes in China see frequent algae blooms, often caused by the discharge of nitrogen-rich chemical pollutants, sewage and fertilisers in the water.
But Wang Shulian, of Qingdao's Oceanic and Fishery Department, put the presence of the algae down to the temperature of the water and its salinity. ... more -
Chinese race to clear algae from Olympic sailing venue
More than 10,000 workers are battling against time to remove a thick algal bloom that has carpeted the Olympic sailing venue in Qingdao in east China, officials said.
Qingdao Olympic Sailing Committee officials warned that it would take two weeks to clear the growth, which competitors - including members of the British sailing team - say is hampering training in the run-up to the games. It has blocked practice routes and covered almost one-third of the competition area.
A total 5,000 square miles (13,000 square kilometres) is affected, the state news agency Xinhua reported.
A thousand fishing boats have been dredging the area and already 100,000 tonnes of lurid, blue-green algae have been removed. Organisers are also trying to prevent more from spreading into clear waters.
Algal blooms have become an increasingly frequent problem on China's inland lakes because of pollution from industry and farm chemicals.
While the growth in Qingdao is not thought to present a health risk, some blooms produce dangerous toxins which can cause illness and occasionally death if it contaminates seafood.
More than 10,000 workers are battling against time to remove a thick algal bloom that has carpeted the Olympic sailing venue in Qingda... more -
Ocean seeding plans to capture carbon in oceans draws fire
In some of the most ambitious efforts by green tech start-ups, a handful of businesses have emerged with plans to capture large amounts of carbon dioxide by stimulating the growth of ocean plankton.
On Monday, a group of watchdog environmental bodies, including Greenpeace and the ETC Group voiced their opposition to a project proposal from Australia-based Ocean Nourishment.
The company is said to be planning on "seeding" the Sulu Sea between the Philippines and Borneo with a nitrogen nutrient called urea, which would be pumped into the ocean from a special plant.
A plankton bloom. Good to capture carbon dioxide?
(Credit: Planktos)The idea behind these geo-engineering projects is to drop large amounts of food into the ocean, which acts as a fertilizer to grow plankton. During metabolism, the plankton should be able to consume large amounts of carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas linked to global warming.
Other clean tech companies pursuing similar approaches include Planktos which is using iron as a fertilizer. It intends to fund the business by selling carbon credits, represented by the carbon dioxide sequestered by plankton growth.
Another company, called Climos, last month issued a call to create a code of ethics for ocean carbon experiments, which includes a permitting process and oversight over the environmental impact of these practices.
"Clearly, a market has emerged that can fund carbon mitigation activity. However, important questions of effectiveness, environmental impact and corporate conduct in all ocean fertilization projects need to be addressed as these projects move forward," Margaret Leinen, Climos' chief science officer, said in a statement.
In some of the most ambitious efforts by green tech start-ups, a handful of businesses have emerged with plans to capture large amount... more -
Endless energy from algae biofuel: closed-loop photo bioreactor
I think that we HAVE to come up with alternatives like this in order to change our thinking. This is a great start! We need to investigate this more and as Americans DEMAND that things like this come to pass....
We depend on oil WAY to much and this would be a way to beat the BIG oil!
::X:: I think that we HAVE to come up with alternatives like this in order to change our thinking. This is a great start! We need to investi... more -
EcoSutra Movie Trailer!
The answer to our energy crisis! Yea! Permaculture + Renewable Energy Technologies = Good clean sustainable communities :)
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Amazing vertical algae-to-biofuel technology produces cost-effective, non-pollutin...
Glen Kertz, CEO of Valcent Products, explains HDVB algae-to-biofuel technology.
From Valcent Products, Inc.:
The Holy Grail in the renewable energy sector has been to create a clean, green process which uses only light, water and air to create fuel. Valcent's HDVB algae-to-biofuel technology mass produces algae, vegetable oil which is suitable for refining into a cost-effective, non-polluting biodiesel. The algae derived fuel will be an energy efficient replacement for fossil fuels and can be used in any diesel powered vehicle or machinery. In addition, 90% by weight of the algae is captured carbon dioxide, which is "sequestered" by this process and so contributes significantly to the reduction of greenhouse gases. Valcent has commissioned the world's first commercial-scale bioreactor pilot project at its test facility in El Paso, Texas.
Current data projects high yields of algae biomass, which will be harvested and processed into algal oil for biofuel feedstock and ingredients in food, pharmaceutical, and health and beauty products at a significantly lower cost than comparable oil-producing crops such as palm and soyabean (soybean).
The HDVB technology was developed by Valcent in recognition and response to a huge unsatisfied demand for vegetable oil feedstock by Biodiesel refiners and marketers. Biodiesel, in 2000, was the only alternative fuel in the United States to have successfully completed the Environmental Protection Agency required Tier I and Tier II health effects testing under the Clean Air Act. These tests conclusively demonstrated Biodiesel's significant reduction of virtually all regulated emissions. A U.S. Department of Energy study has shown that the production and use of Biodiesel, compared to petroleum diesel, resulted in a 78.5% reduction in carbon dioxide emissions.
Algae, like all plants, require carbon dioxide, water with nutrients and sunlight for growth. The HDVB bioreactor technology is ideal for location adjacent to heavy producers of carbon dioxide such as coal fired power plants, refineries or manufacturing facilities, as the absorption of CO2 by the algae significantly reduces greenhouse gases. These reductions represent value in the form of Certified Emission Reduction credits, so-called carbon credits, in jurisdictions that are signatories to the Kyoto Protocol. Although the carbon credit market is still small, it is growing fast, valued in 2005 at $6.6 Billion in the European Union and projected to increase to $77 Billion if the United States accepts a similar national cap-and-trade program.
Valcent's HDVB bioreactor system can be deployed on non-arable land, requires very little water due to its closed circuit process, does not incur significant labor costs and does not employ fossil fuel burning equipment, unlike traditional food/biofuel crops, like soy and palm oil. They require large agricultural acreage, huge volumes of water and chemicals, and traditional farm equipment and labor. They are also much less productive than the HDVB process: soybean, palm oil and conventional pond-grown algae typically yield 48 gallons, 635 gallons and 10,000 gallons per acre per year respectively.
http://www.valcent.net/s/Ecotech.asp?ReportID=182039
Glen Kertz, CEO of Valcent Products, explains HDVB algae-to-biofuel technology. From Valcent Products, Inc.: ... more -
Renewable, carbon-neutral oil - from algae
This sounds like it has amazing potential!!!
It doesn't drive the price of any foods up, and it's supposedly carbon neutral.
Exciting times... This sounds like it has amazing potential!!! It doesn't drive the price of any foods up, and it's supposedly carbon neutral. ... more -
Green Ain't Always Good
This is a fella from UNC who's currently studying the effects humans are having on climate change. One interesting, disgusting, and potentially fatal effect is the way more lakes are falling prey to a nasty nasty form of bacteria.
Meet Cyanobacteria, the Blue/Green Algae This is a fella from UNC who's currently studying the effects humans are having on climate change. One interesting, disgusting, and p... more -
Biofuel-algae farm begins production
This is possibly the most important alternative energy source. A carbon-neutral renewable fuel that would require no change from our current infrastructure. One can still drive their car without adding to the overall CO2 content of the atmosphere. We can still use our diesel-powered trains and ships. One can still take a jet around the world.
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This is possibly the most important alternative energy source. A carbon-neutral renewable fuel that would require no change from our c... more -
First algae biodiesel plant goes online on April 1st
They could probably have chosen a better date go swing into action, but according to their press release this is not an April fools. Acre by acre, the algae they are growing can yield 30-100 times the amount of oil as soy can, so the problems of deforestation to make way for soy farms is also tackled.
The facility, located in Rio Hondo Texas, will produce an estimated 4.4 million gallons of algal oil and 110 million lbs. of biomass per year off a series of saltwater ponds spanning 1,100 acres. Twenty of those acres will be reserved for the experimental production of a renewable JP8 jet-fuel.
Check out the facility on google maps,
http://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&ie=UTF8&ll=26...
It looks like there's a solution to a pretty big problem, but are people taking enough notice? They could probably have chosen a better date go swing into action, but according to their press release this is not an April fools. A... more -
sf in 2018 - hydronet
HYDRO-NET
Symbiotic and multi-scalar, SF HYDRO-NET is an occupiable infrastructure that organizes critical flows of the city. HYDRO-NET provides an underground arterial traffic network for hydrogen-fueled hover-cars, while simultaneously collecting, storing and distributing water and power tapped from existing aquifer and geothermal sources beneath San Francisco. A new aquaculture zone with ponds of algae and forests of sinuous housing towers reoccupy Baylands inundated by rising sea levels. Hydrogen fuel is produced by the algae, and is stored and distributed within the nanotube wall structure of HYDRO-NET's robotically-drilled tunnels. At key waterfront and neighborhood locales, HYDRO-NET emerges to form linkages between the terrestrial and subterranean worlds. Here new architectures bloom as opportunistic urban caves and outcroppings, fostering new social spaces and densified urban forms, fed by the resources and connectivity provided by HYDRO-NET. These locally responsive and distributed nodes and tendrils facilitate both the preservation and organic evolution of San Francisco. HYDRO-NET ... more -
Revving up the Ocean's engine, to drive carbon to the depths of the deep blue sea.
Ocean Iron Fertilization
Simply put, the concept is this: Fertilize the ocean with iron, algae grows and gobbles up carbon, and then sinks to the deep dark depths of the ocean, taking carbon on a hundred year plus vacation to the depths, and out of our atmosphere. The concept isn't new, the earth has been doing it naturally for years.
I was introduced to the controversy of the concept via Planktos, the carbon cowboys. Essentially, this company, with limited funding, sought to dump first, ask questions later. The lack of funding, lack of research, and lack of respect for international laws and regs, had this environmentalist shaking in her waders.
So I dug a little deeper. In my heart I knew that something big has to be done. Alternative energies are great, but what about the billions of tons of carbon we've already dumped into our fragile atmosphere? We are treading on thin ice, literally, and we need a solution.
But the cowboys were crazy! Was anyone researching and persuing this concept with the scientific care it deserves?
Ahhh, enter Climos, a company with a conscious (I think), and a drive to make things right. Setting the standards high to do this the right way, or not at all...
Ocean Iron Fertilization ... more -
Riding a Wave of Fossil-Fueled Prosperity
So, presuming the industrialized and industrializing nations are serious, who or what can realistically turn the carbon tide?
Can't we give this guy a billion?
http://current.com/items/88792958_running_on_algae
Smokestack emissions bubble through algae-filled tubes at MIT's Cogen plant. (Photo: Ashley Ahearn) So, presuming the industrialized and industrializing nations are serious, who or what can realistically turn the carbon tide? ... more -
Running On Algae
Algae may be ickier than corn, but it has a number of advantages. It grows much faster, multiplying its weight several-fold in the course of a day. Theoretically, one acre of algae can produce 40 times the energy produced by an acre of corn. And it doesn't need prime farmland... a brackish pool of water in a sunny area suits it just fine.
For all these benefits, algae isn't ready to take over the world. It can be fickle to grow. Useless strains of algae can infect the rest of the crop. Separating the fuel from the water is difficult. And nobody in the field can agree whether it is better to grow larger amounts of algae in cheap open ponds or in concentrated amounts in expensive, closed areas.
But one advantage may eventually tip the scales: Algae needs lots of carbon dioxide to grow fast. Start-up Greenfuel Technologies, for example, uses power-plant emissions to boost the production of algae. The company says this can cut carbon-dioxide emissions from a gas or coal plant by 80%. Turning food into fuel doesn't make much sense, but turning waste and even pollution into fuel does.
Algae may be ickier than corn, but it has a number of advantages. It grows much faster, multiplying its weight several-fold in the cou... more
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Algae
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Algae
