Biocatalysis

Every idea needs to be presented in a compelling way if it is to catch on. According to Jeremy Shere, “What we need more of, to my mind, are stories about energy on a human scale, stories that give the average person a sense of what’s at stake and why he or she should care.” More here.

Compare how Denmark handles its trash with the way New York does it. New York doesn’t fare well in this comparison.

Advancing technology always provides society with new terms, and some of them make the mainstream. Among the new words defined in the Oxford Dictionary this year is “carbon capture and storage”: the process of trapping and storing carbon dioxide produced by burning fossil fuels.

In this year’s edition you will find “carbon capture and storage” along with “vuvuzela”: an obnoxious-sounding horn blown incessantly by spectators during the 2010 World Cup (OK, that is my definition, not the one in the dictionary).

A study conducted by Wood McKenzie determined that by subsidizing the oil and gas industry, American taxpayers are picking up a portion of the real cost of those fossil energy sources. In turn, that discourages conservation and makes it harder for renewable energy sources to compete on price.

I guess that’s why we also now subsidize renewable energy research!

Here is a great feature at Living Green and Saving Energy: the Green Newsfeed. The latest green news scrolls continuously, updated throughout the day. Check it out.

Genencor reported on progress in its project with Goodyear Tire to develop a process to produce isoprene, the building block of rubber in products such as tires.

In a presentation at the Society of Industrial Microbiology conference in San Francisco this week (August 1-5, 2010), Genencor described how synthetic biology is being applied to increase the yield and rate of production of this large volume chemical currently entirely derived from petroleum. BioIsoprene, as they call the renewably-produced isoprene, would make the tire and rubber industry less dependent on petroleum-derived materials.

A new concrete containing a catalyst that breaks down nitrogen oxide from tailpipe emissions has been developed.

Dutch researchers at the Eindhoven University of Technology have created what they call an air-purifying concrete. The material contains titanium dioxide, which in the presence of sunlight acts photo-catalytically to convert nitrogen oxide to environmentally benign nitrate.

Tests were carried out by resurfacing part of a busy highway with more than 1000 square meters (about 10,000 square feet) of the material. Air-purity measurements found the NOx content was 25-percent to 45-percent lower in areas using the new concrete stones.

The cost of the material is claimed to raise road-building costs by only 10-percent.

Imaging how green this concrete would be if the Pavegen concept were added to it?

Serious people and companies are starting to sped significant money to develop ways to capture carbon dioxide emissions.

Some projects seek only to capture the carbon dioxide (CO2) and then sequester it, for example, by injecting it deep into the earth. Assuming the CO2, which is gas, doesn’t leach back out into atmosphere, this would remove the CO2, at least for  while.

But I think the best ideas involve using the captured CO2 to produce another useful product. Apparently, the US Department of Energy agrees. US Energy Secretary Stephen Chu recently announced his agency is stepping in with some big bucks to fund six projects that aim to find ways of converting captured carbon dioxide emissions from industrial sources into useful products such as fuel, plastics, cement, and fertilizers. Read the whole story here and get Jim Lane’s take on it at Biofuel Digest here.

Albemarle Corporation, the Baton Rouge, LA-based specialty chemical company, has launched a new division focused on sustainable, eco-friendly products. With the name and branding of “Earthwise™” this division has as its mission the development and commercialization of a family of green chemistry products. The first Earthwise product due to be commercially available in late 2010 is called GreenArmor™ with a targeted application of fire safety. Earthwise™ will be a company-wide initiative, and, taking a page from the Intel playbook, products incorporating the branded chemicals will promote the moniker “Earthwise Inside.”

I like it.

It happened again. But this time, the reason is different.