Transition Island Blog

The biggest prize in history is now waiting for an inventor.

A prize of $25 million for anyone who can come up with a system for removing greenhouse gases from the atmosphere was launched on Friday 8/2/08, by Richard Branson.

The head of Virgin Group said at the launch in London, UK, that the prize was not for removing emissions from power plants before they reach the atmosphere and storing them deep underground - an existing technology known as carbon capture and sequestration.

Instead, the brief is to devise a system to remove a “significant amount” of greenhouse gases [ ] from the atmosphere…

Read more in the New Scientist…

From The County Press

The Island’s first bio-diesel company has appealed for businesses to recycle used cooking oil to convert to green fuel.

Wight Made Bio-Diesel plans to increase production to up to 1500 litres a week, after a successful pilot project.

At around 10p a litre cheaper than normal diesel, there is no shortage of demand, accord­ing to company founders Joan Martin and Chris Sprackling.

Committed to the Island, they only use cooking oil that can be recy­cled as opposed to oil specially produced for bio-diesel. “We want it to stay on the Island. Some companies will collect waste oil but then it has to be transported off the Island to be convert­ed.”

So not only do they help the Island’s economy, they also reduce the transport miles involved.

Action:
Help them with your old cooking oil, contact on wmbd(at)hotmail(dot)co(dot)uk

Richard Branson was jubilant after last week’s successful Virgin Atlantic biojet test-flight.

Just one year ago, flying biofuels at 30,000 feet was deemed impossible. Now we know it works.

Next, Virgin Atlantic and Boeing intend to test biofuel made from algae farmed in seawater ponds on non-productive land in seawater ponds.

But early tests for algae look promising, says a Boeing spokesperson. Fuel derived from algae oil has a lifecycle CO2 advantage, he says, which means it absorbs CO2 when the feedstock is being grown.

It may also produce fewer particulates or other non-CO2 emissions when used in an engine compared to conventional petroleum-based fuel.

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An eco engine for small boats has scooped its Sandown inventor a major deal with a top marine manufacturer.

Graeme Hawksley’s super-efficient propul­sion system is the result of five years’ research into hybrid electric technology and looks set to go into production following a deal struck on Tuesday with leading marine engine manufac­turer Beta Marine.

The partnership sees joint collaboration for the final development, testing and marketing of the system, which is due to be launched in May.

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Saturn’s orange moon Titan has hundreds of times more liquid hydrocarbons than all the known oil and natural gas reserves on Earth.

According to new data from NASA’s Cassini spacecraft, hydrocarbons rain from the sky, collecting in vast deposits that form lakes and dunes. ScienceDaily (21 February 2008)

So all we have to do is get there and mine it!

Off-planet refinery

Titan is like a big petrochemical plant. Although this is all happening at a much lower temperature than in a petroleum refinery, the basic processes going on there are very closely allied to what people do when they make fuel. [more]

Instead of water, vast quantities of organic chemicals rain down on the moon’s surface, pooling in huge reservoirs of liquid methane and ethane. Solid carbon-based molecules are also present in the dune region around the equator.

As well as the famous rings around Saturn, there are 19 satellites in orbit. These range in size from Titan, the second largest moon in the Solar System (Ganymede is the largest), to small asteroid-like objects.

Action:
Design project, anyone?

Filtering Carbon Dioxide may become a real answer for Climate Change.

Researchers have developed porous materials that can soak up 80 times their volume of carbon dioxide. This means the greenhouse gas could be cheaply scrubbed from power-plant smokestacks.

After the carbon dioxide has been absorbed by the new materials, it could be released through pressure changes, compressed, and, finally, pumped underground for long-term storage.

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An engineer has promised that within a year he will start selling a car that runs on compressed air, producing no emissions at all in town.

The OneCAT will be a five-seater with a glass fibre body, weighing just 350kg and could cost just over £2,500. Its engine is less than a quarter the size of an equivalent diesel motor.

Driven by compressed air stored in carbon-fibre tanks built into the chassis, it can be re-filled with air from a compressor in just three minutes - much quicker than a battery car. Alternatively, it can be plugged into the mains for four hours and an on-board compressor will do the job.

The designers say on long journeys the car will do the equivalent of 120mpg.
In town, running on air, it will be cheaper than that.

Another eco-friendly feature is that when driven this car will be pollution-free!

This design is an intelligent step toward energy-saving transportation. It may also urge the big manufacturers to set economy and ecological targets.

The UK has the lowest level of people saying that they are personally making a significant effort to reduce their carbon output.

Only 19% are taking action, compared to levels above 40% in developing countries.

Chris Goodall, author of How to Live a Low-Carbon Life, has distilled some international market research by HSBC. He reports on their 2007 survey, carried out in nine major countries around the world. Called the ‘Climate Confidence Index’, it offers many surprising results.

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