Blue Print for Earth

Nissan Electric Car

2009-08-04T22:55:00.000-07:00

Nissan Chief Executive Carlos Ghosn drove quietly out of the Japanese automaker's soon-to-open headquarters Sunday in the first public viewing of its new zero-emission vehicle.

It was the first time the external design was shown of Nissan Motor Co.'s environmentally friendly electric automobile, set to go on sale in Japan, the U.S. and Europe next year. The blue hatchback had a sporty design and a recharging opening in the front.

Designer Shiro Nakamura said the vehicle was designed to avoid a stereotypical futuristic design.

"This is not a niche car," he said. "We didn't make it unusual looking. It had to be a real car."
Nissan has promised that the Leaf, which goes into mass-production as a global model in 2012, will be about the same price as a gas-engine car such as the 1.5 million yen ($15,000) Tiida, which sells abroad as the Versa, starting at about $10,000.

Ghosn drove out on stage with former Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi sitting next to him, and with a Yokohama governor and mayor in the rear seats.

"This car represents a real breakthrough," Ghosn told reporters and guests at a showroom in the new headquarters.

He said the new car and new office building in Yokohama, southwest of Tokyo, marked two fresh starts for Nissan, which hopes to take the lead in zero-emission vehicles.

Nissan, which has an alliance with Renault SA of France, has fallen behind Japanese rivals Toyota Motor Corp. and Honda Motor Co. in gas-electric hybrids that have become increasingly popular recently.

Nissan said the new 22-story headquarters was designed to be sufficiantly energy efficient to qualify as one of the most ecological buildings in Japan. The company, which is losing money amid the global downturn, is selling its old Tokyo headquarters as part of efforts to cut costs.

Koizumi said environmentally friendly auto technology is key to Japan's economic growth.
"It was so unexpectedly smooth and quiet," he said after getting out of the car. "I am sure this car is going to be popular."

via Yahoo! News

Did you know: Facts About Triclosan

2009-07-20T18:29:00.000-07:00

Triclosan, an anti-bacterial fighting agent used widely in home products such as antibacterial hand-soap, toothpaste, laundry detergents, deodorants, fabric softeners, cosmetics and many other home products. Here some facts about triclosan you should know

- Triclosan, the leading germ-fighting compound in antimicrobial soaps, acts by destroying enzymes in bacteria cell walls so they cannot replicate; it targets the same enzyme as the antibiotic isoniazid, used to treat tuberculosis.

- In the United States, 75 percent of liquid soaps and nearly 30 percent of bar soaps now contain triclosan and other germ- fighting compounds, whose prevalence can foster the growth of bacterial resistance.

- A 2002 study by the U.S. Geological Survey found that triclosan and phthalates from antibacterial soaps and other detergents were polluting water bodies across the U.S. in low concentrations through waste water.

- Reports have suggested that triclosan can combine with chlorine in tap water to form chloroform gas, which the United States Environmental Protection Agency classifies as a probable human carcinogen. As a result, triclosan was the target of a UK cancer alert, even though the study showed that the amount of chloroform generated was less than amounts often present in chlorinated drinking waters.

- Tricolsan's widespread use increases the chances of harmful bacteria becoming resistant to the drug

- Triclosan can react with other chemicals to form dioxin and chloroform, which are known to be toxic

So choose your home products wisely. There are so many choices out there that you can avoid using triclosan-contained products. Plain soap and water are enough to fight germs and bacteria.

Cleaning Up Coasts and Estuaries

2009-07-02T12:35:00.000-07:00

Keep a watch

Many inshore pollution incidents are the results of illegal dumping. Water belongs to all of us: reporting offenders help to prevent them repeating their actions.

Boycott polluters

A number of household products particularly paint and plastics can cause severe water pollution during manufacture. Although pollution may be within legal levels, it does not have to happen at all. It can be stopped by consumers boycotting persistent polluters.

Prevent pollution afloat

To protect the marine environment, boat-owners should dispose of rubbish on land. We do not have a right to pass on our rubbish to marine life.

Action on sewage

If you live in an area where sewage is disposed of by dumping it at sea, let the authorities in charge of waste disposal know that they should use land-based methods of disposal instead.

Do not use anti-fouling paints

These toxic paints, which are used to prevent encrustation of boat hulls, kill shellfish not only on boats but also around them. Responsible boat-owners should not use them.

Watch out for plastic hazards

Clear plastic is particularly dangerous to aquatic animals because it is invisible underwater. Fishing lines and the plastic retainers from packs of cans can strangle birds and seals. Picking it up will prevent this happening.

How to Help the Preservation of Rare Breeds

2009-07-02T11:24:00.000-07:00

Buy local varieties

Buying local varieties of fruit and vegetables will help to prevent them being replaced by their standardized big-business counterparts.

Use a seed bank

Some organic farming and gardening associations maintain seed banks which preserve old varieties of cultivated plants for the future. Joining an association will allow you to grow and exchange unusual and valuable seeds.

Rare breeds preservation societies

A number of organizations now exist to safeguard the future of rare farm animal breeds.

Fuel Cells For Small Household Appliances

2009-07-01T19:47:00.001-07:00

Fuel cell technology and research has come a long way since the early days. Fuel cells used to be large, bulky, and expensive to build and maintain. But this new generation is any but big and bulky. In fact, it is now possible to build fuel cells small enough to power nearly any small household appliance.

Fuel Cells for Everyday Use

With the development of these new small fuel cells could come a major evolution in portable power sources for small household appliances. Because fuel cells can now be made that are small and lightweight, they can make nearly any small appliance in your house cordless. I'm sure you can easily see the advantages of that!

Developing the Small Fuel Cell

While these types of applications were not exactly what the pioneers of fuel cell research had in mind, they are a natural offspring of the desire to make smaller, lighter, and more efficient fuel cell designs. First targeted towards green vehicles, researchers quickly realized that fuel cells could provide more power for a longer period of time than any battery technology currently available. This led to research towards putting fuel cells into cell phones and laptops - both products that use relatively large amounts of power and require a power source that is both small and light, and provides plenty of reserve electricity. A miniature fuel cell fits these requirements perfectly. The energy density obtainable using a liquid fuel source far exceeds even the best batteries in the same amount of space.

How To Reduce Water Pollution

2009-07-01T08:39:00.000-07:00

Liquid detergents

The main problem with these is their phosphate content. Use phosphate-free or low-phosphate washing-up liquid if you can obtain. If not, try reducing the quantity you use.

Washing powders

No-one with a washing machine can avoid using these. However, try experimenting with reduced quantities-remember manufacturers have an interest in making you use more than is actually necessary.

Bleach and scouring powders

Again, the problem here is one of quantity. Very dilute bleach left to work for longer is just as effective as a strong solution poured away after a few minutes.

Water fresheners

Don't use them. They do not "freshen" water at all-rather they pollute it with synthetic perfumes and colors.

Garden chemicals

If you garden organically, using only natural products on the garden, you will avoid causing any water contamination.

DIY chemicals

None of these should ever be poured down a drain or sink. Pure cellulose wallpaper paste can go on the compost heap: other chemicals should be poured into a deep hole well away from plants.

Car cleaning and maintenance

The same rule applies here as for DIY chemicals - do not pour oil, battery acid or car polishes down the drain. Do not use detergents in excessive quantities.

The Direct Methanol Fuel Cell

2009-07-01T08:29:00.000-07:00

The direct methanol fuel cell takes the low costs, direct-injection advantages of the hydrogen fuel cell, and couples it with the high energy density and high liquification temperature of petrochemicals. Because of this, methanol is an excellent alternative to both hydrogen and gasoline fuel cells. At least, it could be.

Limitations of the Direct Methanol Fuel Cell

The biggest problem with direct methanol fuel cells is their relatively low efficiency due to membrane permeation by the methanol, This phenomenon is called methanol crossover, and leads to sluggish responses to dynamic power requirement changes. In other words, if you stomp the accelerator, your car would be sluggish to respond due to the cell taking time to "ramp up" to the new required levels. There are also problems with managing the carbon dioxide produced as waste gas.

These problems make the methanol fuel cell a better choice for low power, long duration applications, such as personal electronics, cell phones, laptops, and the like. But with more time and research, direct methanol fuel cells could be a good solution to our current alternative fuel crisis. Cheaper to produce than gasoline fuel cells, much safer than hydrogen, and currently available for purchase, these direct methanol fuel cells may just be the wave of the future.

Air Pollution Sources

2009-06-30T21:13:00.000-07:00

There are three types of air pollution sources: point, area, and line sources. A point source is a single facility that has one or more emissions points. An area source is a collection of smaller sources such as emissions from residential heating within a particular geographic area. A line source is a one-dimensional, horizontal configuration such as roadway. Most emissions emanate from a specific stack or vent. Emissions emanating from sources other than stacks, e.g., storage piles or unpaved lots, are classified as fugitive emissions.

EPA requires that each step develop emissions inventories for all primary pollutants and precursors to secondary pollutants that are classified as criteria or hazardous air pollutants. In clean, rural areas, country-wide emissions totals for individual pollutant species may be all that is needed as long as emissions from large point sources are inventoried separately. For urban areas having severe air pollution problems, gridded emissions inventories are required. An area is divided into grids, typically 5 to 10 km to a side, and area-and line- source emissions are calculated for each grid. Large point sources are listed individually. Such inventories are used as inputs to sophisticated air quality models, employed to develop air pollution control strategies.

Emissions rate for a specific source can be measured directly by inserting sampling probes into the stack or vent and this has been done for most large point sources. It would be an impossible task to do for every source in an area inventory, however. Instead, emission factors, based on measurements from similar sources or engineering mass-balance calculatios, are applied to most sources. An emissions factor is a statistical average or quantitative estimate of the amount of a pollutant emitted from a specific source type as a function of the amount of raw material processed, product produced, or fuel consumed. Emission factors for most sources have been compiled. Emission factors for motor vehicle are determined as a function of vehicle model year, speed, temperature, etc. The vehicles are operated using various driving patterns on a chassis dynamometer. Dynamometer-based emissions data are use in EPA's MOBILE 4 model to calculate total fleet emissions for a given roadway system.

Alternative Energy Source: Ethanol

2009-06-30T02:47:00.000-07:00

Ethanol, as we’ve already addressed is basically 85 percent grain alcohol and 15 percent gasoline. It is a cleaner burning fuel and provides more horsepower than gasoline alone. While ethanol burns cooler than gasoline, it doesn’t provide enough power to get an engine started on cold days which is why gasoline is added to the mixture.

With the rising popularity of E85 gasoline, more vehicles are being produced that can accommodate this new fuel. E85 fueling stations are currently available in 36 states (as of 2006), and over 6 million vehicles that can use E85 have been sold. The performance of E85 vehicles is potentially higher than that of gasoline vehicles because E85's high octane rating allows a much higher compression ratio, which translates into higher thermodynamic efficiency. However, the flex-fuel vehicles (FFVs) that retain the capacity to run on gasoline alone can't really take advantage of this octane boost since they also need to be able to run on pump-grade gasoline.

How to Reduce The Use of Biocides

2009-06-30T02:43:00.000-07:00

Buy organically grown food

Because organic farmers do not use biocides, buying their produce will ensure that an increasing area of land is farmed without the use of chemicals.

Buy fresh produce

Significantly more chemicals are used on food crops which are destinated to be packed and sold far away from their place of origin. Although fresh produce may take time to prepare, it does not encourage the use of biocides.

Ban biocides at home

It is not good insisting that farmers should not use chemicals if they are still used in and around home. Avoiding the use of garden biocides is an important part of reducing the general level of these poisons.

Simple Ways to Save Water

2009-06-30T02:38:00.000-07:00

Choose water-efficient appliances

There are large differences in the amount of water used by different brands of washing machines and dishwashers. Choosing appliances that are sparing with water will reduce your consumption.

Cut down on car-washing water

A large proportion of the domestic water that is used outside the home gets consumed in washing cars. Although a car that is regularly washed will generally last longer, nothing is to be gained by overdoing it: obsessive car-washing just wastes water

Recycle your kitchen water

Dirty washing-up water is generally harmless to plants. Using it to water your vegetable garden will save tap water in summer.

Solar Energy Storage

2009-06-12T16:59:00.001-07:00

Solar energy is an abundant source of energy. Solar energy fluctuation and its inconstant radiation intensity are important factors in the use of solar energy. For example, the radiation intensity in one place varies depending on season, weather, day or night. In general, it is difficult to reconcile energy needs with the availability solar energy. Therefore storage of solar energy is one of important issues of solar energy application study. Solar energy storage can be classified into three major groups:

1. Sensible Heat Storage

In the solar system with low and medium temperature, water and stone are type of storage medium give us the cheapest and the best performance. Solar energy collectors collect the heat so that the temperature of the medium increased. This temperature increase indicates that medium store heat energy. When needed, heat energy can be released from the medium. The weakness of this type of storage is in their short storage time.

2. Latent Heat Storage

For this type of storage, heat storage medium must be able to absorb heat in large, small variety of volume, little corrosion, and can be re-used. Currently, the medium used is sulphate, nitrate, and hydrate carbonates. The latent heat storage has high energy storing density and long storage period.

3. Chemical Reaction Energy Storage

On this type, endothermic chemical reaction is used to store heat energy. When the process reversed, heat can be released. Chemical materials used for this purpose are inorganic oxides. The advantages of this process is the large storage capacity and a long storage time. However, the high temperatures required for endothermic reaction takes the high cost.

Biomass Convertion Systems

2009-06-12T08:47:00.000-07:00

Biomass is one alternative source of energy that available abundantly on the earth. Using biomass as renewable energy source can reduce the use of fossil fuels that continue to decrease in number. To be used as a source of energy, biomass must be processed first. These processing technologies are:

Direct combustion. This is the easiest way to get energy from biomass. This has been used for centuries ever.
Biomass gasification. In this process, biomass is converted to gas products through pyrolysis. Pyrolysis is the process of heating or thermal degradation without the existence of oxygen or air. This process can convert almost all biomass into a product gas consisting of CO, CO2, H2 and CH4.
Liqudation of biomass. Results from the processing present usually in metanol form. This process includes biochemistry method through hydrolysis and digestion, mechanical processes such as the pressing and extraction, and chemical processes such as esterification.