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This innovative and worthwhile project is being funded with stimulus money. The project is being hosted at the 995-megawatt Cholla Power Plant in northeastern Arizona. Early results indicate that the algae are able to capture 70 metric tons of carbon dioxide per pond acre per year. [...] About 20% of all watermelons are left to rot. USDA says those spoiled and misshapen watermelons can be biofuel feedstock. Farmers just junk them now. Instead, they could be an income stream. The wonderful image of a watermelon VW comes from Inhabitat, who has more on the story too. [...] First generation biofuel comes from edible plants like corn. But this is problematic, because there isn’t enough available land and it can raise the price of food. Second-generation biofuels made from cellulosic material—colloquially, “grassoline”—can avoid these pitfalls. Grassoline can be made from dozens, if not hundreds, of sources: from wood residues such as sawdust [...] A startup based in Cambridge, MA–Joule Biotechnologies–today revealed details of a process that it says can make 20,000 gallons of biofuel per acre per year. If this yield proves realistic, it could make it practical to replace all fossil fuels used for transportation with biofuels. The company also claims that the fuel can be sold [...] So, we’re here in Yosemite and it occurs to me. Maybe using biofuel derived from cooking oil while in bear country might not be the best of ideas, considering it can make the exhaust and maybe even the car smell like french fries and fried chicken. Yosemite has lots of photos and videos of what [...] But the cost of growing and converting it is still steep. A German firm plans to produce biofuel then use the glycerin product to create hydrogen for the already existing hydrogen filling stations for fuel cell cars. Thus the trains run on fuelstock produced within the park, and not food for fuel. Further, their parking lot trams run on CNG and they won an award for recycling 7.6 million bottles and cans. And now the trains will smell like french fries! Virent Energy Systems plans to open a test facility that will convert sugar cane, sugar beets, and other plants into the chemical equivalent of gasoline (not ethanol.) Their CEO said “The molecules we make are exactly the same as the ones that you use to drive vehicles today. It just so happens that ours [...] A new type of plastic created from plant oils is in development. Use it like any other plastic, but instead of tossing it in a landfill when done, it can be turned into biofuel by adding an enzyme. The Pentagon just gave $2.34 million more for research into this. The technique could reduce the [...] |  | ||||
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