4Oct

Navy Announces Unmanned Flight On Biofuel

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The Navy has reached a milestone in the quest to gain energy independence with the first unmanned biofueled flight of an MQ-8B Fire Scout at Webster Field in St. Inigoes, Md. The unmanned helicopter was fueled with a combination of JP-5 aviation fuel and plant-based camelina.

The MQ-8B Fire Scout Vertical Take-Off and Landing Tactical Unmanned Aerial Vehicle provides critical situational awareness, intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance (ISR), and targeting data to the forward deployed warfighter. Fire Scout is designed to operate from all air capable ships and is currently providing ISR support during its first-land based deployment in U.S. Central Command area of responsibility.

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3Oct

Biofuel breakthrough made from microbes

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Biofuel breakthrough made from microbes

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“Two microbes, a bacteria, and a yeast” may sound like a recipe for a bad science joke, but it’s actually the formula that’s led researchers from Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and the Department of Energy to produce a new source for biodiesel.

Working together under the umbrella of the DOE’s Joint BioEnergy Institute (JBEI), a team of researchers have successfully engineered bisabolane into a biosynthetic alternative for making diesel.

There’s a good reason the scientists involved in the project stand like a proud group of superheroes in their most recent lab photo (see above). The potential biofuel source they’ve developed is something quite distinct.

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15Sep

5 Military vehicles that are powered by biofuel

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5 Military vehicles that are powered by biofuel

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In a world pinched sharp by rising oil prices and concerns over the impact of emissions on the environment, even the military is chipping in doing its bit to keep the earth safe. They are planning to go green by switching to biofuels, a general term for all fuels derived from plants, biomass, waste oil and fats.

When we are talking about military vehicles it means it is about fuel guzzling beasts that are designed to conquer their elements be it land, air or sea. An absolute no compromise on power is the unwritten rule when it comes to military vehicles and these vehicles run, fly and sail just as well on biofuels. Here are five military vehicles that are powered by biofuels.

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15Sep

Hawaii Utility Turns to Biofuel To Lessen Reliance on Oil

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Isolation has its merits, but in Hawaii the same seclusion that lures planeloads of tourists also severs the state from its sources of energy.

While the rest of the country’s transportation system relies almost solely on oil, Hawaii remains heavily dependent on petroleum for nearly 90 percent of all its energy needs, including electricity generation. The state’s four largest plants — and 9 of the 10 largest — are primarily powered by petroleum. The amount of oil arriving by ship is of great concern for a state that values its environment and the tourism dollars that come with it. But the energy mix has also led to backbreaking electricity rates that are twice as high as the next costliest state and nearly three times the national average.

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12Sep

U.S. Biofuel Industry Prepares for Life Without Subsidies

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U.S Biofuel Industry Prepares for Life Without Subsidies

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A recent feature story in UK newspaper The Guardian reported that the financial crisis in the U.S. and the country’s pressing need to cut its federal budget by $1.3 trillion had combined to spur lawmakers to reevaluate three decades of corn ethanol subsidies.

A significant factor in this equation was the global food crisis, which has illuminated the consequences of biofuel production – rising food prices as farmland is converted to produce biofuels – and created a public backlash against it.

The Senate had already voted overwhelmingly in June to end the tax credits and trade protection that benefit the ethanol industry. In its story, The Guardian reported that Congress was also expected to end $6 billion in subsidies to the ethanol industry as part of its recent debt ceiling negotiations.

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9Sep

Amsterdam Airport Powering Ground Vehicles With Cooking Oil

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Amsterdam Airport Powering Ground Vehicles With Cooking Oil

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Earlier this year Dutch airline KLM began experimenting with fuel alternatives for its planes, and now it’s looking to do something similar for vehicles on the ground.

KLM has teamed up with Amsterdam Airport Schiphol to invest in a more sustainable way to operate vehicles at airports. Currently 40 percent of all of the ground vehicles at the airport utilize biodiesel, which, just like the alternative plane fuel, is made from reused cooking oil.

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8Sep

Eight Bio-based Technologies for 2050

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Eight Bio-based Technologies for 2050

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What kind of technologies will evolve in the 2030s, and even the 2040s, to transform our fuel, food, and materials choices, and lead us towards some of the fuel targets outlined for 2050 by the International Energy Agency? In looking that far down the line, we have some long term trends to guide us.

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30Aug

How to make biodiesel from used cooking oil at your home

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How to make biodiesel from used cooking oil at your home

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With the scarcity and rising costs of fossil fuels, alternative fuel sources have become more popular. Also, global awareness of environmental issues has made everyone to look out for alternative sources of energy which are clean and green and biodiesel appears to be the best option that is available. The best feature of biodiesel is that it can be prepared from used cooking oil and that too at your home with the use of minimum resources and technology. However, at present a vehicle that uses a diesel or turbodiesel (TDI) engine is the only widely available way for consumers to make use of vegetable oil biofuel. But still, the importance of biodiesel cannot be ignored as making biodiesel is environmental friendly, it encourages the concept of recycling and last but not the least, the process is cost effective. By simply following the steps given below, a backyard biodiesel manufacturer can make hundreds of gallons of biodiesel within a period of 24 hours.

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16Aug

GM corn being developed for fuel instead of food

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US farmers are growing the first corn plants genetically modified for the specific purpose of putting more ethanol in gas tanks rather than producing more food. Aid organisations warn the new GM corn could worsen a global food crisis exposed by the famine in Somalia by diverting more corn into energy production.

The food industry also opposes the new GM product because, although not inedible, it is unsuitable for use in the manufacture of food products that commonly use corn. Farmers growing corn for human consumption are also concerned about cross-contamination. The corn, developed by a branch of the Swiss pesticide firm Syngenta, contains an added gene for an enzyme (amylase) that speeds the breakdown of starches into ethanol. Ethanol plants normally have to add the enzyme to corn when making ethanol.

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15Aug

Plastic “Tree” Uses Biomimicry to Convert Atmospheric CO2 into Green Gasoline

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Plastic “Tree” Uses Biomimicry to Convert Atmospheric CO2 into Green Gasoline

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Recycling has always meant reusing materials like glass or plastic, and reducing atmospheric carbon has traditionally meant cutting emissions, but what if the two could be combined and make combating climate change profitable by recycling carbon out of the atmosphere?

EnergyNOW! correspondent Josh Zepps looked into a new technology that could pull a thousand times more carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere than trees and could one day power our cars and trucks with green gasoline. The full video is available below:

Most efforts to capture and sequester (CCS) carbon focus on smokestack emissions, but prohibitive costs and unproven technology make this type of carbon reduction unlikely to succeed. In addition, CCS technology can only cut back on new pollution, which fails to address the billions of tons of carbon already in the atmosphere.

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