The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) announced research awards of $11.2 million for “overcoming the scientific challenges associated with the production, storage and use of hydrogen” this week. While not a huge amount by DOE standards, the money will go to 13 projects that “will focus on fundamental science in support of hydrogen technologies,” the DOE says. Nanotechnologies figure in over half of the money.
Here are the DOE’s descriptions of the 13 projects:
Novel Materials for Hydrogen Storage (7 projects, $5.6 million over three years) Both the National Academy of Sciences and DOE have identified hydrogen storage as a key technology for the successful implementation of hydrogen and fuel cell technologies. A broad range of research in hydrogen storage is covered by these projects, including: complex hydrides; nanostructured and novel materials; theory, modeling and simulation; and state-of-the-art analytical and characterization tools to develop novel storage materials and methods.
Nanoscale Catalysts (6 projects, $5.6 million over three years) Catalysts play a vital role in hydrogen production, storage and use. Specifically, catalysts are needed for producing hydrogen from water or carbon-containing fuels such as coal and biomass, increasing hydrogen storage kinetics and producing electricity at low cost from hydrogen in fuel cells. Research areas include: innovative synthetic techniques; novel characterization techniques; and theory, modeling and simulation of catalytic pathways.
There is a list of new projects, and where they will be conducted, after the jump.
I'm turning my StumbleUpon gaze to two very important tags: Global Warming and Climate Change. You'll find a wealth of links on those two pages on the science, politics, personalities of one of the biggest challenges to face humanity- the warming of our climate. We're not going to win the fight if we don't equip ourselves with knowledge,-here are a few links gleaned from Global Warming and Climate Change. If you are just joining in on the Stumble fun and have no idea what I am talking about, a quick click over to the first post I wrote about StumbleUpon might be a good use of a few minutes.
• Video: Al Gore at TED: 15 ways to avert a climate crisis With the same humor and humanity he exuded in An Inconvenient Truth, Al Gore spells out 15 ways we can address climate change, from buying a hybrid car to inventing a hotter brand name for global warming. First, though, comes a hilarious set of stories from The New Gore, who turns out to be a stand-up comedian. The former Vice President has plenty of joke material, and he's funnier than you've ever seen him. Then he gets down to grittier matters with a list of actions ordinary people can take to stem the tide of global warming. His message: Doing something is easier than you think.
• Light bulb may be on its way out NEW YORK — The light bulb, the symbol of bright ideas, doesn't look like such a great idea anymore, as lawmakers in the U.S. and abroad are talking about banning the century-old technology because of its contribution to global warming.
But what comes next? Compact fluorescent bulbs are the only real alternative right now, but "bulbs" that use light-emitting diodes, or LEDs, are quickly emerging as a challenger.
LEDs, which are small chips usually encased in a glass dome the size of a matchstick head, have been in use in electronics for decades to indicate, for example, whether a VCR is on or off.
Those LEDs were usually red or green, but a scientific breakthrough in the 1990s paved the way for the production of LEDs that produce white light. Because they use less power than standard incandescent bulbs, white LEDs have become common in flashlights.
• Clean Energy Spending Can Curb Climate Change, WWF Says GENEVA — The world can avoid the worst effects of climate change with investments in clean energy so long as the wholesale shift from fossil fuels starts within five years, the environmental group WWF said on Tuesday.
In its Climate Solutions report, the Swiss-based body argued that solar, wind and other "benign" power sources could satisfy the world's growing energy needs and keep temperature increases below the critical two-degree Celsius (3.6 F) threshold.
Scientists believe that global warming beyond that point will trigger dangerous storms, floods and droughts that could devastate areas that are home to millions of people.
The WWF said that renewable energy sources, though not yet operating on a large-enough scale to replace petroleum, coal and other carbon-emitting fuels, could do so if governments agree by 2012 to set targets and coordinate investments to develop them.
"In five years it may be too late to initiate a sustainable transition which could avert a breach of the two-degree threshold for avoiding dangerous climate change," it found.
• Deforestation: The hidden cause of global warming In the next 24 hours, deforestation will release as much CO2 into the atmosphere as 8 million people flying from London to New York. Stopping the loggers is the fastest and cheapest solution to climate change. So why are global leaders turning a blind eye to this crisis?
The accelerating destruction of the rainforests that form a precious cooling band around the Earth's equator, is now being recognised as one of the main causes of climate change. Carbon emissions from deforestation far outstrip damage caused by planes and automobiles and factories.
The rampant slashing and burning of tropical forests is second only to the energy sector as a source of greenhouses gases according to report published today by the Oxford-based Global Canopy Programme, an alliance of leading rainforest scientists.
Figures from the GCP, summarising the latest findings from the United Nations, and building on estimates contained in the Stern Report, show deforestation accounts for up to 25 per cent of global emissions of heat-trapping gases, while transport and industry account for 14 per cent each; and aviation makes up only 3 per cent of the total.
"Tropical forests are the elephant in the living room of climate change," said Andrew Mitchell, the head of the GCP.
• Giving Up On Two Degrees The rich nations seeking to cut climate change have this in common: they lie. You won’t find this statement in the draft of the new report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which was leaked to the Guardian last week. But as soon as you understand the numbers, the words form before your eyes. The governments making genuine efforts to tackle global warming are using figures they know to be false.
The British government, the European Union and the United Nations all claim to be trying to prevent “dangerous” climate change. Any level of climate change is dangerous for someone, but there is a broad consensus about what this word means: two degrees of warming above pre-industrial levels. It is dangerous because of its direct impacts on people and places (it could, for example, trigger the irreversible melting of the Greenland ice sheet(1)and the collapse of the Amazon rainforest(2)) and because it is likely to stimulate further warming, as it encourages the world’s natural systems to start releasing greenhouse gases.
• Will Your State's Tree or Flower Continue to Grow in Your State? Plants across the nation are affected by global warming. You have probably seen that many plants in your backyard are blooming earlier. Global warming will mean that many native and iconic plants may no longer find suitable climate conditions in major portions of their historic range. Click on your state to see if your official State Trees or State Flowers may be affected.
• Murdoch sets emissions goal THE world's top media company, News Corporation, will slash its global carbon footprint to zero under a bold plan revealed by its chairman, Rupert Murdoch. Saying the global media empire produced 641,150 tonnes of greenhouse gas last year, the News chairman and CEO last night pledged to go green.
"We could make a difference just by holding our emissions steady as our businesses continue to grow, but that doesn't seem to be enough," Mr Murdoch said.
"We want to go all the way to zero," he told News Corp's worldwide employees.
"This is about changing the DNA of our business to re-imagine how we look at energy."
Under the plan, all News Corp businesses, including News Limited, publisher of the Herald Sun, will be carbon neutral by 2010.
Confused and disoriented by erratic weather, birds are changing migration habits and routes to adjust to warmer winters, disappearing feeding grounds and shrinking wetlands. Failure to adapt risks extinction, experts say.
This weekend, bird watchers and conservationists in dozens of countries staged events to mark World Migratory Bird Day with concerts, films and children's drawing contests to attract attention to the rising threat of global warming.
• Fair Trade: Transparency This is the first in a series of posts that will explore the stated principles of Fair Trade and the requirements for certification.
The first of the major components of fair trade we will look at is transparency. In order to obtain Fair Trade certification, the producer must, among other requirements, be “organized into cooperatives or associations that are transparent, accountable and democratic.” IFAT defines transparency and accountability as “transparent management and commercial relations to deal fairly and respectfully with trading partners.” Transparency appeals to me as a consumer. If you need to cover your operations you have something to hide, right?
If you like any of the links above think about dropping a thumbs up on them. Make sure to swing by (and join) my page on Stumble and check out the Green Options and Green Stumblers StumbleUpon Groups.
There’s a paradoxical tension between rising public interest in healthy, organic, local food and rising rates of obesity-related illness in the US. To put it simply (and perhaps to oversimplify), there’s not a lot of overlap between populations that eat healthy, organic, local food, and those most afflicted by obesity and its consequences, because it’s hard to be in the former category when you live on dollars a day. Nutritional value and cost usually have an inverse relationship, the outcome of which is quite obvious. And although there’s a growing number of farmer’s markets that accept EBT cards, most food stamp recipients purchase cheap food in big grocery stores. Rebecca Blood has been thinking about this, and she decided to undertake a one-month challenge with her husband, during which they would buy food strictly within the USDA’s food stamp budget. But it doesn’t stop there — that challenge was recently completed by the governor of Oregon — they planned to eat according to the same food standards they normally keep. Their eating habits fairly well match those of the first population mentioned above, so this is where the real challenge lies. They would keep their CSA box coming, continue shopping… (more)
Making rental car fleets in the UK a bit greener here and there is nothing new (Green Tomato Cars is one established option), but the announcement today that National Car Rental has, in Toyota’s words “secured a major new deal with Toyota” to offer a fleet of Priuses is still welcome. National and Toyota have a partnership with “a shared vision that focuses on delivering a quality motoring experience whilst reducing CO2 emissions.”
The world’s most popular hybrid will first be available to companies in the London area but a national rollout is planned. Green car rental options in a couple of other locations are listed below.
Swedish bus and truck manufacturer Scania will be showing off their latest hybrid transit bus at the UITP public transport congress in Helsinki next week. Unlike most hybrid buses to date, this one is fueled by ethanol instead of diesel and uses ultra-capacitors instead of batteries. Scania has been working on this bus drivetrain for three years. The Swedes are particularly fond of ethanol as a fuel and Scania is claiming that running this bus on ethanol will reduce ethanol CO2 emissions by up to ninety percent.
The hybrid drive system is claimed to reduce fuel consumption and emissions by twenty five percent or more. Not a lot of detail is given at this point about the hybrid configuration they are using but apparently twelve of these buses will start operating in Stockholm in the next two years.
I hadn’t heard about Armor Electric until their announcement that they will ship two prototypes of an electric powered pedi-cab to Mexico City today for standard certification testing by government engineering labs. There are only tiny pictures of their pedi-cab on their website (see above), but there is a bit more information on the company and this EV deal available there.
Last spring, the company said that because its CEO, Merrill W. Moses, went to “a Republican dinner with President Bush, Senators and Congressmen this past week in Washington, D.C.” and “participated in the National Republican workshop forum on the Republican four part Energy Initiative which, in part, is a ‘brain thrust’ and ‘think tank’ to develop loans and grants for new technology in the fields of alternative energy, hydrogen and ethanol fuels, hybrid electric systems, conservation and other energy saving technologies,” Moses was able to get on the good side of “these Senators and Congressmen who are currently directly involved in Congressional Sub Committee’s on Energy.” I have no idea how or if those connections helped with the company’s fortunes, but the company now has at least two deals in the works for these pedi-cabs.
Since at least January 2006, Armor has been working with companies in Mexico. In that month, the company announced more info on its “Joint Venture Agreement with NuPow’r LLC to provide ‘electric propulsion systems’ for electric powered vehicles. Under this agreement, existing and future contracts for the production of 2,3 and 4 wheeled ‘electric propulsion systems’ (EPS), will be transferred to an operational Joint Venture.”
In August, two three-wheeled taxi cabs were sent to Mexico City for “industry required ‘stress testing’ at a Government approved University. In November, Armor started talking with India’s Hero Motors “to negotiate a worldwide manufacturing and distribution rights agreement for the three wheel electric taxi cab unit.”
Formed in 1998, Armor Electric, “holds the rights for the use of certain proprietary technology to install electric propulsion systems on a variety of electric powered vehicles, including mountain bikes, motorcycles, regular passenger cars, buses and all other types of two and three wheeled vehicles, and watercraft,” according to the OTC bulletin board. Technical details for the pedicab are not available (if they’re on the website, I can’t find them)
[Source: Armor Electric] Prototype Pedi-Cabs Ship to Mexico
SOLANA BEACH, Calif., May 17 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ — Armor Electric Inc. (BULLETIN BOARD: ARME.OB) is pleased to announce that two prototypes of the electric powered pedi-cab will be shipped today to Mexico City where the vehicles will undergo standard certification testing by official government engineering labs. Representatives of the purchasing client, BIMO Electrico S.A., visited the facilities of Armor’s EPS partner last week to inspect final engineering changes and to arrange for customs clearance. BIMO is paying for the transportation and testing of the vehicles, and after government certification BIMO is committed to a large scale purchase order. Armor expects the orders to ramp up on a monthly basis as manufacturing expands until the entire 40,000 unit requirement is fulfilled.
Merrill Moses commented: “Today is an exciting day for Armor and its shareholders. For more than a year, we have pursued the BIMO order with our EPS partners, funding large development costs and enduring numerous engineering changes and challenges as well as the usual delays expected when doing business with government entities. We anticipate a smooth certification process and hope to be able to announce orders and revenue for our shareholders in the near future. We are confident that a successful launch of the electric pedi-cabs in Mexico City will bring serious interest from metropolises around the globe that currently face unmanageable gridlock, pollution, and oil scarcity.”
About Armor Electric, Inc.
Armor Electric, Inc. is a leader in the design, manufacture, and distribution of electric battery power drive systems for land and water vehicles.
This information may include forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. These statements are based on the Company’s current expectations as to future events. However, the forward-looking events and circumstances discussed on the website might not occur, and actual results could differ materially from those anticipated or implied in the forward- looking statements.
Down here in New Zealand we like to say we’re very clean and green but the truth is … well … we’re not as green as we’d have you believe.
The Prime Minister has of late spouted forth some very green sounding rhetoric telling us all how she wants “sustainability to be central to New Zealandâs unique national identity” and that “we could aim to be carbon neutral”. Well great but meanwhile, Genesis Energy a State Owned Enterprise responsible for a coal fired power station that is our single biggest point source of CO2 emission, is busy spending up large on a PR campaign portraying themselves as all clean and green.
Much has been said regarding lithium ion batteries throughout the last twelve months or so. Most of what has been said is that automakers need to invest research, development, time and money into them to be sure that they are reliable and ready for mass consumption. Along with that mass consumption should come pretty large price decreases. In theory at least, until all that testing is done. What type of testing are we talking about here? Well, besides the standard battery (pun intended… sorry) of tests such as power-cycling, power-draining, charging and the like, there are vibration, high heat and freezing cold temperatures to consider. This type of testing is taking place for Nissan at their new technology center in Japan. Remember that Nissan recently announced that they have partnered with NEC to produce lithium ion batteries for themselves and for other automakers, should they be interested. Expect these batteries, assuming they pass the tests, in upcoming Nissan hybrid models which will not be using technology licensed from Toyota.
The plan to require European automakers to meet new carbon dioxide emissions limits looks set to be pushed back a couple of years from 2012 to 2014. The next round of Euro6 emissions standards was already due to take effect in 2014 so it would make sense implement the CO2 changes at the same time. Carmakers are already working on next-generation engines to meet those standards and pulling those ahead to 2012 would be extremely difficult. At that time each carmaker will be required have a fleet average CO2 output of no more than 120 g/km compared to the fleet average for all cars sold in the EU in 2005 of 160 g/km.
The secret to Owen Wilson’s greener rides? Woody Harrelson, who Wilson says hipped him to an environmental consciousness. Wilson explains this on the show “It’s Easy Being Green,” which aired last Saturday on Fine Living TV. “It’s Easy” is hosted by Renée Loux, who is supposedly the “Queen of Green,” and she talks with Wilson about Ecolimo and Wilson’s Prius. Wilson says he like the Prius not only because it’s green but because it’s a good car, he can drive in the HOV lanes and it got him out of paying for at least one parking ticket.
There’s a bit of a a feeling that “we don’t know when we’ll actually air this clip so let’s keep it non-time sensitive” in Loux’s statement that they’re on the set of “Owen’s new movie,” but that’s fine. Actually, maybe it supposed to keep quiet some super-secret hush-hush movie project news. As long as the green stuff doesn’t stay secret.
I didn’t see the whole thing, but other guests in the show included: Harrelson, Jesse James, Alanis Morissette, and the Barenaked Ladies.
Happy Thursday!!! 
Scania has been working on this bus drivetrain for three years. The Swedes are particularly fond of ethanol as a fuel and Scania is claiming that running this bus on ethanol will reduce ethanol CO2 emissions by up to ninety percent. 
