Waste heat engine can be paired with solar
to generate house power requirements. …
March 19, 2011
February 23, 2011
Enerkem W2E Technology
Enerkem turns waste to biofuels and chemicals ..." converts residual materials, such as non-recyclable municipal solid waste, into clean transportation fuels, advanced chemicals and green electricity."
Enerkem's technology eliminates waste products and turn otherwise unusable materials into useful products.
Enerkem has 2 facilities in Canada and is developing one on Mississippi with funds from the US DOE.
CLICK to see a schematic of the process.
Via: Enerkem LINK
January 30, 2011
IST Energy - Waste to Electricity Systems
There can be a lot of "energy" hidden in waste materials and land-filling is not a good solution ... it takes up limited landfill space and can be expensive ... waste minimization or W2E is often a better choice.
A turn-key W2E systems can be just the thing you need ... 
IST Energy manufactures systems that can convert trash to energy (electricity and heat). The integrated systems can turn " ... paper, wood, plastic, agriculture waste, and food into electricity and heat."
" ... transformation ... within a self-contained, modular environment designed for ease of operation and maintenance."
Via: IST Energy LINK
December 19, 2010
Sustainable Waste Solutions - Waste to Energy
I saw a trailer
in a parking lot with the Sustainable Waste Solutions and knew there would be a blog post there. SWS is a local company with a Souderton, Pa address that turns waste to energy (W2E).
" ... a landfill-free alternative for recycling, waste transportation, and disposal to companies ... throughout Southeastern Pennsylvania, Lehigh Valley and Delaware. ... we generate enoug
h electricity from waste to power tens of thousands of homes per day ..."
W2E burns waste material to generate electric and results in waste that is only 10% by volume compared to the starting amount.
Until we run out of trash this is a renewable energy solution!
See SWS website for more details ...
Via: Sustainable Waste Solutions LINK
December 16, 2010
Kristianstad Sweden Uses Biofuels Not Fossil Fuels for Heat and Electricity
Kristianstad Swede
n uses no fossil fuels for heating. Instead they uses biomass from farming leftovers. 80,000 homes heated by biomass and not fossil fuels like coal, oil and gas! And this is an area of the world where it gets VERY COLD !
Since solar and wind would not be effective in Kristianstad they worked with biomass. " ... remains from farming ... manure, potato peels, pig intestines, and even cookies, .... to create biogas ... a certain type of methane, ... heat of the entire city, and to provide electricity for the city as well."
The driving force for the move away from fossil fuels was to protect their environment and they did not want to import fossil fules from abroad.
Via: Metrolic LINK
October 06, 2010
Dog Poop to Methane Converter
Dog waste is often picked up in plastic bags and dropped in the trash - to spend eternity in a landfill. What a waste of waste ...
Here is a novel idea to turn dog waste into methane ... "dog waste ... decomposes over time. The anaerobic conditions inside the digester create methane gas ... " The methane gas lights a gas lamp.
If successful this could be deployed to larger dog parks across the country.
Funded by MIT and located in Cambridge, Mass the digester shows a creative use for waste .. a great "reuse" idea.
Via: TerraPass Blog LINK
September 09, 2010
GM Plants Drive Down Waste - Many Achieve Zero Landfill Status
Eliminating waste sent to the landfill saves both money and the planet. Many GM plants " ... no longer send any production waste to landfills."
43 % send no production waste to landfills !
LINK to see plants by type and location.
The numbers are huge ... " ... 2 million tons ... will be recycled or reused ...additional 45,000 tons ... converted to energy at waste-to-energy facilities...."
Via: General Motors LINK
May 27, 2010
HP's Cow Powered Data Center ... Manure to the Rescue
It might be a marriage made on the farm .. with data centers being located in rural areas that have lots of farms using manure to power data centers is a way to be green
"Data centers need a lot of energy. Dairy farms create a lot of methane. ... HP Labs has done the math to show that one could be used to support the other."
" ... data centers ... increasingly being located near existing power generation or cooling resources. ... untapped source of energy, however, is the methane generated by manure on farms around the world."
" ... HP ... paper shows how a farm of 10,000 dairy cows could ... power a typical modern data center and still support other needs on the farm."
" ... turning data centers from being energy hogs into energy neutral facilities ... goal ... see if we can take the data center completely off the grid."
Via: Hewlett Packard LINK
May 25, 2010
HP Uses Bio Fuels for Rural Data Center Power
Data Centers are moving to rural areas where land and labor are less expensive. There are often farms and lots of cows ... and therefore lots of cow manure.
A significant cost of operating data centers is the electric bill.
" ... data centers ... building them in rural areas, which happen to have an excess of animal waste. The heat from a data center could be used to improve the process by which the waste turns it into methane, which can be used in place of natural gas or diesel, HP's researchers maintain. "
"... average dairy cow, ... produces approximately 120 pounds of waste a day. It would take 10,000 cows to produce enough energy for a data center big enough to support a bank. "
Via: Fierce CIO LINK
May 11, 2010
Zero landfill manufacturing facilities are possible
General Motors demonstrates sustainability leadership in its manufacturing facilities by recycling and eliminating its waste streams. …
… “More than 2 million tons of waste materials will be recycled or reused at GM plants worldwide this year. An additional 45,000 tons will be converted to energy at waste-to-energy facilities.
Although zero landfill sites recycle or reuse their waste in some way, other GM facilities also attain high levels of recycling. Overall, GM’s global facilities currently recycle more than 90 percent of the waste they generate.
Waste elimination and recycling at GM’s zero landfill plants and other facilities will prevent more than 3 million metric tons of carbon dioxide-equivalent emission reductions from entering the atmosphere this year. ” …
Via GM: Plants eliminate waste to landfills.
February 13, 2010
Carbon Content of Food Choices
Our food choices determine our carbon footprint / impact. Some choices are less carbon intensive than others. The video that follow shows how the choice of a grilled chicken sandwich has approx. 1/5 the carbon intensity of a cheesburger. Check out the video for more on food choices and their carbon impact. Via: SmartPlanet LINK
January 24, 2010
Visionaire - Green Living in Battery Park City, NYC.
There is a new Green building in NYC - at the southern tip of Manhattan in Battery Park City. Read about the Visionaire - it is one very green building - though a very expensive place to live with pricing startling at just under $700,000 and going to a little over $6 million.
" ... the Visionaire ... a testing ground for urban green architecture."
"... All building fixtures reduce use of potable water, and a blackwater treatment system means that all toilet water in the building is recycled, treated wastewater. Stormwater collection reserves irrigate the green roofs, which cover 70 percent of the roof surface ... a natural gas-powered microturbine on the structure’s roof harnesses its own waste energy to heat water."" ... saves an estimated 42 percent in energy costs against a base-line average. This is largely the result of efficient building systems and the building envelope ... goal was achieved through exhaustive attention to detail ... "
Via: Greensource LINK
December 30, 2009
Hallmark - Greer Greeting Cards
" ... began recycling paper in the 1940s, have used recycled paper in products and packaging since the 1970s ... established a corporate-wide environmental conservation program in the 1990s...."
Other efforts include ... " ... sponsors e-waste events to collect and responsibly dispose of employees' discarded electronics ... actively participate in the Environmental Protection Agency's WasteWi$e and Energy Star Building programs ... Since the early 1990s we have reduced solid waste by 70 percent and hazardous waste by 90 percent ... waste-to-energy program at our distribution center in Enfield, Conn., has resulted in an ongoing zero percent waste program since 1998. Materials not recycled are used as electrical generator fuel."
Via: Hallmark LINK
August 22, 2009
Chicken Poop Powers 90,000 Homes
Animal manure is a natural by-product of raising animals ... and needs to be disposed of properly. Improperly disposed of it can pollute water and make a smelly mess.
Here is a way to reduce waste and re-use the manure to make enerty.
... world’s largest biomass power plant running exclusively on chicken manure has opened in the Netherlands .... will deliver renewable electricity to 90,000 households ... capacity of 36.5 megawatts, and will generate more than 270 million kWh of electricity per year."
" ... more than merely “carbon neutral” ... If ... spread out over farm land, it would release not only CO2, but also methane, a very potent greenhouse gas. ..."
" ... will utilize approximately 440,000 tons of chicken manure, roughly one third of the total amount produced each year in the Netherlands. ... European countries ... suffer under an excess of different types of animal manure that pollute the environment."
Via: Meatefficient LINK
August 07, 2009
A GREENER Toilet Uses no Energy and Turns Poo into BioFuel
Imagine a toilet that uses no energy and turns waste into compost.
Virginia Gardiner is doing just that ... check out the VIDEO of this interesting GREEN device.
" ...working on a new waterless toilet system ... create a toilet for city dwellers that uses no energy, and turns waste "into a commodity.""
" ... portable, low-tech LooWatt effectively captures odor and allows human waste (... to be turned into a source of energy via anaerobic digestion. With 40 percent of people globally in need of sanitary facilities, it's well worth imagining a solution that doesn't flush drinking water down the toilet."
Via: SustainLane LINK
June 15, 2009
Energy-Inc. - Profitable Solution to a Zero Carbon Footprint
John O'Hurley ... of Seinfield fame as J. Peterman ... has co-founded Energy-Inc. The Las Vegas, Nevada company has a variety of services and technologies for producing power from waste ...
>>> Their tagline is ... a profitable solution to a zero carbon footprint.
>>> Their message is Waste to Energy rather than waste to landfills.
They design, build and manage waste to power systems. Rather than paying to dispose of waste you can turn it into power ... Listen to the video for more ... and see how they plan to make landfills obsolete. They guarantee performance and up to 100% financing ...
Via:: Energy-Inc. Link