(via Technology Review)

Algae are a promising source of biofuels: besides being easy to grow and handle, some varieties are rich in oil similar to that produced by soybeans. Algae also produce another fuel: hydrogen. They make a small amount of hydrogen naturally during photosynthesis, but Anastasios Melis, a plant- and microbial-biology professor at the University of California, Berkeley, believes that genetically engineered versions of the tiny green organisms have a good shot at being a viable source for hydrogen.

Melis has created mutant algae that make better use of sunlight than their natural cousins do. This could increase the hydrogen that the algae produce by a factor of three. It would also boost the algae’s production of oil for biofuels.

The new finding will be important in maximizing the production of hydrogen in large-scale, commercial bioreactors. In a laboratory, Melis says, “[we make] low-density cultures and have thin bottles so that light penetrates from all sides.” Because of this, the cells use all the light falling on them. But in a commercial bioreactor, where dense algae cultures would be spread out in open ponds under the sun, the top layers of algae absorb all the sunlight but can only use a fraction of it.

Melis and his colleagues are designing algae that have less chlorophyll so that they absorb less sunlight. That means more light penetrates into the deeper algae layers, and eventually, more cells use the sunlight to make hydrogen.

The researchers manipulate the genes that control the amount of chlorophyll in the algae’s chloroplasts, the cellular organs that are the centers for photosynthesis. Each chloroplast naturally has 600 chlorophyll molecules. So far, the researchers have reduced this number by half. They plan to reduce the size further, to 130 chlorophyll molecules. At that point, dense cultures of algae in big bioreactors would make three times as much hydrogen as they make now, Melis says.

(rest of the article)

There have been various stories going around the internet on the subject of water being used as a fuel source/carrier. I have compiled a few of these notable stories here for your convenience. The first story I found interesting is (salt) water being burned if it is subjected to a specific frequency. The person who discovered this is John Kanzius who was researching how to use radio frequencies to kill cancer cells. See video here:

The implication of the usefulness of water as fuel is obvious as it would completely change our civilization. Although the net output of the energy from the burning compared to the initial input energy needed must be calculated to determine how useful it is, the fact that water can be used this way is still curious and an oddity. It is interesting that it burns “as hot as the sun”, supposedly, and that it is still cool to the touch?! This is odd.
Next is a story about Stan Meyer, an inventor who designed a car powered by water. His story is pretty interesting and controversial. Of course the actual efficiency and net output of the water power needs to be verified and proven useful, but the usage of water is the key point of interest. Video here:

Some links to check out:
www.waterfuelcell.org
Pennsylvania Man Claims He Made Fuel From Salt Water

Two graduate students at MIT’s School of Architecture and Planning want to harvest the energy of human movement in urban settings, like commuters in a train station or fans at a concert.

The so-called “Crowd Farm,” as envisioned by James Graham and Thaddeus Jusczyk, both M.Arch candidates, would turn the mechanical energy of people walking or jumping into a source of electricity. Their proposal took first place in the Japan-based Holcim Foundation’s Sustainable Construction competition this year.

A Crowd Farm in Boston’s South Station railway terminal would work like this: A responsive sub-flooring system made up of blocks that depress slightly under the force of human steps would be installed beneath the station’s main lobby. The slippage of the blocks against one another as people walked would generate power through the principle of the dynamo, a device that converts the energy of motion into that of an electric current.

The electric current generated by the Crowd Farm could then be used for educational purposes, such as lighting up a sign about energy. “We want people to understand the direct relationship between their movement and the energy produced,” says Jusczyk.

The Crowd Farm is not intended for home use. According to Graham and Jusczyk, a single human step can only power two 60W light bulbs for one flickering second. But get a crowd in motion, multiply that single step by 28,527 steps, for example, and the result is enough energy to power a moving train for one second.

And while the farm is an urban vision, the dynamo-floor principle can also be applied to capturing energy at places like rock concerts, too. “Greater movement of people could make the music louder,” suggests Jusczyk.

Read the rest of the article

We all know how good spinach is for your body, but did you know that it is also good for your house? That’s the proposition behind the house designed by Matthew Coates and Tim Meldrum. Together, they have designed a residence which obtains its electricity from spinach, making it worthy of being declared the winner of Cradle to Cradle contest.

original article via Inhabitat

MD!, a French company has developed a car that uses compressed air as its primary fuel source. Their special designed engine uses Compressed Air Technology(CAT) that incorporates compressed air and gasoline and enables up to 2000 km (1242 miles) mileages with zero pollution in cities.

How do you turn Plastics back into Oil and Gas? Use a big ass microwave! Here’s a description of this GRC TECHNOLOGY- “NON-RECYCLABLE PLASTICS are bombarded with our specific microwave frequency in the form of “molecular vibrations” which causes the “cracking” of the hydrocarbon chain. As a result, the hydrocarbon components in the PLASTICS are gasified. The NATURAL GAS is then collected – the remaining gases are converted into OIL.”

John Doerr, one of the most influential venture capitalist of his generation who made upwards of $1 billion picking dot-com stars like Amazon, Google, Compaq and Netscapes, returns and warn us the carbon-dioxide-sputtering, gas-powered capitalism will destroy us all, and that going green may be the “biggest economic opportunity of the 21st century.”

“I don’t think we’re going to make it,” John Doerr proclaims, in an emotional talk about climate change and investment. Spurred on by his daughter, who demanded he fix the mess the world is heading for, he and his partners at Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers embarked on a greentech world tour — surveying the state of the art, from the ethanol revolution in Brazil to Wal-mart’s (!) eco-concept store in Bentonville, Arkansas. KPCB is investing $200 million in green technologies to save the planet and make a profit to boot. But, Doerr fears, it may not be enough.

Watch the original video from TED.

A nice piece here on new ways to harness wave energy with underwater buoys. These would be less intrusive than surface buoys and present no boating hazards . . . would be fun to explore while diving too!

“A town with 55,000 inhabitants would need half a square kilometre of seabed covered with 100 buoys to power it,” AWS states.

The Pacific coast and the Western edge of Europe would be prime candidates because of their active surf, no luck for the Mediterranean though, too calm . . . 

Original Story via New Scientist

Architect and designer William McDonough asks what our buildings and products would look like if designers took into account “All children, all species, for all time.” A tireless proponent of absolute sustainability (with a deadpan sense of humor), he explains his philosophy of “cradle to cradle” design, which bridge the needs of ecology and economics. He also shares some of his most inspiring work, including the world’s largest green roof (at the Ford plant in Dearborn, Michigan), and the entire sustainable cities he’s designing in China.

This stunning Lord Of The Rings looking PS10 Solar Power Tower in Seville, Southern Spain, is Europe’s first commercial concentrating solar power plant. Upon completion in 2013, the plant will produce enough energy to power 180,000 homes, equivalent to the needs of the city of Seville without producing one particle of carbon emission.

From ENS:

“Known as PS10, the project produces electricity with 624 large movable mirrors called heliostats. Each of the mirrors has a surface measuring 120 square meters (1,290 square feet) that concentrates the Sun’s rays to the top of a 115 meter (377 foot) high tower where a solar receiver and a steam turbine are located. The turbine drives a generator, producing electricity. PS10 is the first of a set of solar electric power generation plants to be constructed in the same area that will total more than 300 MW by 2013. Power generation will be accomplished using a variety of technologies.”

More related links:

Here’s an article from BBC. Inhabitat has a detailed report with more pics. Abengoa, the mother company of Solucar is creating a new U.S. subsidiary.

Australia’s EnviroMission that propose to build the Solar Tower Buronga (here’s an article on CNN Money), proposed to build a similar skyscraping solar tower in Texas.

Wikipedia articles on how Solar Thermal Energy and Solar Updraft Tower works.

Michael Sykes’ “Enertia” building system wins the Grand Prize in the Modern Marvels Invent Now Challenge hosted by the History channel.

Michael Sykes’ invention… is technology to turn a piece of wood into a thermal battery. Wood is no longer just a structural member, or just a decorative trim or paneling- it becomes a solar energy storing device, and when the house is properly configured and sited it can heat and cool itself. Obviously, the more wood the better, so the invention is especially applicable to solid wood homes. This energy from a shift-in-time is called “Enertia®” a word, like the word “Laser,” that Sykes made up and trademarked to describe the phenomenon. Enertia® Building Systems has developed a line of solid Gluelam wall homes to maximize the energy-storing potential of the wood, and to offer the mainstream appearance necessary to attract traditional housing buyers.

In the Enertia® Building System, solid Energy-Engineered(tm) wood walls replace siding, framing, insulation, and paneling. An air flow and access channel, or Envelope, runs around the building, just inside the walls - creating a miniature biosphere. Here solar heated air circulates, pumping and boosting geothermal energy from beneath the house, storing it in the massive wood walls. Thermal inertia causes the house to “float” between the cycles of night and day, and even between the seasons.

Physorg has the a list of the runner-ups winners. New York Times has an interview with Michael Sykes. And if you cannot afford to build a brand new house, Newsday.com has an article about economically greening your home bit by bit.

2007 Burning Man’s theme is called “The Green Man” that celebrates clean energy, green technology and environmental responsibilities. Already a festival with a strong leave no trace behind consensus, this year’s the Burning Man figure will “stand atop a structure that resembles green mountain peak. Nestled at its base, will be the Green Man Pavilion, 30,000 square feet of shaded exhibition space for the display of interactive artistic, scientific and educational models, a “World’s Fair” of emerging technologies.”

One of the centerpieces, Jim Mason’s Mechabolic, is an 80-foot-long slug that will process garbage and turn it into clean energy using “Gasification” technology similar to the energy-from-waste project led by researchers at Purdue University. “The Mechabolic invites participants to walk through the innards of an exploded metabolic animal and contribute their waste paper, wood, coffee grounds and food compost to the fuel making effort. Participants can watch all fuel/food processing through transparent process tanks and plumbing, as well as handle the feed and fuels at various points in the “refining” process. All in all, a fun house walk-through journey of machine digestion and respiration –from mouth to anus, oil well to gas tank, trash dumpster to carburetor plenum– with all the interstitial fun and mysteries of organic chemistry implied therein.”

Cnet has a great article explaining the projects and Eco Razzi has a detailed overviews of this year festival.

Added to Dubai’s insane architectural developments including Time Residences- a fully rotating residential tower powered by solar energy and Hydropolis- the world’s first underwater hotel, Italian-Israeli architect David Fisher unveils The Rotating Tower- a 59 floors Dynamic Architecture building which will be constantly in motion changing its shape. The building “employs wind turbines, positioned horizontally between each floors, which will produce energy to the building itself and will supply as well energy for several other buildings.”

“The total energy produced by this inbuilt ‘powerhouse’ every year will be worth approximately seven million dollars. Each turbine can produce 0.3 megawatt of electricity, compared to 1-1.5 megawatt generated by a normal vertical turbine (windmill). Considering that Dubai gets 4,000 wind hours annually, the turbines incorporated into the building can generate 1,200,000 kilowatt-hour of energy.

As average annual power consumption of a family is estimated to be 24,000 kilowatt-hour, each turbine can supply energy for about 50 families. The Dynamic Architecture tower in Dubai will be having 200 apartments and hence four turbines can take care of their energy needs. The surplus clean energy produced by the remaining 44 turbines can light up the neighborhood of the building.

However, taking into consideration that the average wind speed in Dubai is of only 16 km/h the architects may need to double the number of turbines to light up the building to eight. Still there will be 40 free turbines, good enough to supply power for five skyscrapers of the same size.”

More resources at Wall Street Journal, EcoGeek and Inhabitat

German architect Eckhard Gerber reveals the Burj al Taqa, “Energy Tower“, a 68 stories high office building that powers itself through solar, wind and water installations with zero emissions.

“The Burj al-Taqa’s cylindrical shape is designed to expose as little surface area to the sun as possible.” The building is designed to act like a Thermos Flask that “have a cooling effect in the summer and retain heat in the winter.” Besides using seawater to pre-cool the air, the eco-friendly building also draws inspiration from the Persian wind towers “Badgirs“, which use “clever design to create natural air conditioning- Cool air will be sucked down into the tower while hot air will rise out.” The electricity will come from a “60-meter (197-feet) turbine on the tower roof and two photovoltaic facilities with a total area of 15,000 square meters (161,459 square feet).”

(Original article via Spiegel Online)

United Kingdom based architecture firm, Foster and Partners unveils their plans for the Masdar Initiative - a 6 million square meter dense walled city in Abu Dhab, United Arab Emirates (UAE). The city is claimed to be the world’s first zero carbon, waste free city.

from the press release:

The principle of the Masdar development is a dense walled city to be constructed in an energy efficient two-stage phasing that relies on the creation of a large photovoltaic power plant, which later becomes the site for the city’s second phase, allowing for urban growth yet avoiding low density sprawl.

Rooted in a zero carbon ambition, the city itself is car free. With a maximum distance of 200m to the nearest transport link and amenities, the compact network of streets encourages walking and is complemented by a personalised rapid transport system. The shaded walkways and narrow streets will create a pedestrian-friendly environment in the context of Abu Dhabi’s extreme climate. It also articulates the tightly planned, compact nature of traditional walled cities. With expansion carefully planned, the surrounding land will contain wind, photovoltaic farms, research fields and plantations, so that the city will be entirely self-sustaining.

The firm also won an international design competition for the new La Ciudad del Motor (Motor City) in Arago, Spain that featured sustainable energy and design.