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Archive for February, 2008

EcoDump Feb08

Feb 27

Posted by Sam T in EcoDump

Well. Since there’s happening so much on the eco-front, I decided to–sort of–dump some of the interesting “eco” links I’ve read during the month. This would be the first and I will try to do one at a monthly basis.

Expect no more than a somewhat categorized list of links.

So, what do we have this month then?

One new-found site that does an awesome job of summarizing the eco blogosphere and that I recommend is GreenOptions.com.

Our neighbors to the east, Russia, seems to be on the eco-friendly-really-tall-building pills with their Gazprom Tower and Russia Tower. Both very tall and in some way considered green.

We also have some rain-power and some advances in solar-power and a promising attempt to copy photosynthesis while at it. And of course a boat powered by the very waves it’s riding.

Also, don’t forget about Earth Hour at March 29th.

More links after the jump.

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Green Freedom, CO2 into Fuel

Feb 18

Posted by Sam T in Science

Los Alamos National Laboratory has developed a low-risk, transformational concept, called Green Freedom™, for large-scale production of carbon-neutral, sulfur-free fuels and organic chemicals from air and water.
Currently, the principal market for the Green Freedom production concept is fuel for vehicles and aircraft.

Our concept enhances U.S. energy and material security by reducing dependence on imported oil. Initial system and economic analyses indicate that the prices of Green Freedom commodities would be either comparable to the current market or competitive with those of other carbon-neutral, alternative technologies currently being considered

The above quotes come from the Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) website describing Green Freedom™, a concept for transforming carbon dioxide into fuel. The idea is to be able to make a capable of replacing the current fuel in vehicles and aircraft without need for mechanical modifications.

Unlike other bio-fuel production, this concept uses already existing power plants and does not need large tracts of land or farming resources for production.

If this all works out the way it is planned… well. That’s not for me to say. But it sure would be nice to actually take carbon dioxide from the air and make fuel out of it.

references:
http://www.lanl.gov/news/index.php/fuseaction/home.story/story_id/12554
http://www.inhabitat.com/2008/02/18/los-alamos-laboratory-gets-fuel-from-air/

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Humans: The Next Generators

Feb 12

Posted by Sam T in Science

As simple as it is ingenious. Fluxxlab, a New Your based studio, decided to tell us how blind we all are to the most obvious solutions sometimes.

In an attempt to have malls, offices and other public buildings consume less energy–or at least reduce the need to import energy from the external power grid, saving the money and the environment–they had the revolutionary idea to use the revolving doors as generators. Their “Revolution Door“is quite simply a generator, Powered By the People–Oh my god, it’s full of puns–as they push it around.

Used wisely, meaning wherever possible, and wired into the buildings power grid, anyone passing through will generate some electricity that will be directly fed to the building itself. Every revolution will generate a current, however small, that will directly reduce the amount of power needed from external, expensive and potentially harmful, sources.

You can’t have a Revolution unless it’s powered by the people. ;)

references:
Inhabitat.com – Generate Energy with Fluxxlab’s ‘Revolution’ Revolving Door
http://www.fluxxlab.com/projects/

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