New idea emerges from livescience: Bacteria Clean Sewage and Create Electricity

http://news.yahoo.com/s/livescience/powerfulideasbacteriacleansewageandcreateelectricity

Editor’s Note: This occasional series looks at powerful ideas – some existing, some futuristic – for fueling and electrifying modern life.

Batteries made with microbes could help generate power by cleaning up organic waste at the same time.

Sewage is loaded with energy-rich sugars that researchers have struggled for years to convert into useful power. To do so, investigators have experimented with nature’s experts on breaking down waste – bacteria.

“It’s kind of like the movie ‘The Matrix,’” said environmental engineer Bruce Logan at Penn State University. “Instead of wiring people up to generate electricity, we are using bacteria to directly generate electricity.”

Scientists have experimented with a variety of bacteria, but one kind that environmental microbiologist Derek Lovley at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst and his colleagues have focused on is Geobacter, which is naturally found in many soils and sediments.

“Geobacter grows by breaking down organic materials and transferring electrons pretty much onto anything that looks like iron,” he said. “It’s up in the top of the list in terms of generating high power densities.”

When attacking environmental pollutants such as aromatic hydrocarbons, Geobacter can break down some 90 percent, Lovley said. All in all, systems incorporating Geobacter can recover up to nearly all the electrons within sewage.

Although wastewater could essentially serve as a free source of fuel, wastewater alone cannot solve the energy crisis, Logan noted. If animal, food industry and domestic wastewaters were combined together, they could provide roughly 500 trillion BTUs of energy – an impressive figure, until compared with the roughly 100,000 trillion BTUs of energy the United States uses every year.

Still, all the energy that bacteria could generate from wastewater could help power the considerable needs of wastewater treatment. For instances, in the United States, roughly 33 billion gallons of wastewater are treated daily for an annual cost of more than $25 billion, and some 1.5 percent of the electricity produced every year goes into wastewater treatment alone.

“Hopefully, by using bacteria, we will get back more energy than that needed to treat the wastewater, so that we can also have energy to produce drinking water,” Logan said.

Logan and his colleagues have worked to build microbial systems that generate more power for less money. “In 2004, if we made one of these systems, a cubic-meter reactor would probably have cost $100,000,” he said. “Now it’s just a few thousand dollars. We want to make this economical to use.”

Aside from wastewater, another potentially vast source of energy that bacteria could exploit are the organic chemicals in ocean mud. Although humanity already taps into some of this fuel in the form of petroleum, most of this energy reservoir remains beyond reach because it is not nearly as easy to extract and use as oil.

“Organic matter keeps on raining down onto marine sediments as organisms die, so the idea is that marine sediments could basically be a perpetual system for powering electronic devices,” Lovley said.

In terms of advancing these microbial systems further, Lovley has experimented with bacteria in terms of genetic engineering. “So far we’ve managed to double power output that way,” Lovley said.

Lovley added that through breeding programs led to strains that “increased power by at least an order of magnitude.” The resulting bacteria all had more hair-like filaments known as pili emerging from their surfaces than normal, suggesting that genetically engineering to produce more pili could lead to even more productive microbes.

“There are a lot more surprises to comes from these bacteria,” Lovley said.

Carbon sequestration

Clean coal technology is on the drawing board. It’s a part of the great hope. Since coal is our currently ourbiggest source of energy, we must consider ways to clean it, however, we are not there yet. New systems are being considered and perhaps some of them may some day work, but in order to be clear, we must realize that this technology does not yet exist. More later on this subject. Anyone with an opinion or more detailed knowledge is invited to comment further.

(Excerpt from Alternet) By Antrim Caskey
“The Coal Spill Disaster in Kingston – has clued Americans in to the real consequences of coal. We use coal-fired power for almost half of our daily electricity use; when you turn on your lights, your plasma TV or laptop computer, you are probably using coal. The coal industry, which has come under sustained attack, especially in the wake of global climate change, is spending tens of millions of dollars on a public relations war to convince Americans that coal is good and clean.”

Climate 411 – from the Environmental Defense Fund

Akeena Solar, http://www.akeena.net/cm/Home.html

Akeena Solar, located in Los Gatos, is one of the nation’s leading solar installers. Last year they debuted their Andalay panels, which included an integrated racking, wiring and grounding system.

Andalay panels reviewed.

THE ENERGY CHALLENGE
No Furnaces but Heat Aplenty in ‘Passive Houses’ – By ELISABETH ROSENTHAL

Published: December 26, 2008 in The New York Times
DARMSTADT, Germany — From the outside, there is nothing unusual about the stylish new gray and orange row houses in the Kranichstein District, with wreaths on the doors and Christmas lights twinkling through a freezing drizzle. But these houses are part of a revolution in building design: There are no drafts, no cold tile floors, no snuggling under blankets until the furnace kicks in. There is, in fact, no furnace.

(cont,)

Berkeley Artchitect, Nabih Tahan designs passive houses using European techniques. http://www.nabihtahanarchitect.com/

Reflections on U.N. Climate Change Conference in Poznan
Jon Forster, first vice president of AFSCME Local 375/DC37 in New York, was in Poznan, Poland, for the United Nations Climate Change Conference, which concluded Dec. 12. Forster, who was among 100 union delegates, offers his observations on the 12-day event held to build upon the framework negotiated last year in Bali, Indonesia.

The United Nations Climate Change Conference (UNCCC) in Poznan, Poland, provided an important opportunity for trade unions to be present and weigh in on critical climate change issues. As a public service union, AFSCME was able to bring some different perspectives, and a different set of experiences to the table. Working within the meetings convened by the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) and the AFL-CIO, it was exciting to hear the different viewpoints brought by other trade unions from around the world, including Sierra Leone, the Ivory Coast, Pakistan, Japan, Australia, Poland, India, Egypt, Russia, Kenya, Germany, France, Mexico, the Dominican Republic, Canada, among others.

One of the important things that we could add to the discussion was our concrete experience in working on New York City’s 2030 Plan; our experience of job growth as a result of green initiatives; and our ongoing fight to ensure that new, emerging jobs such as “auditors” and “energy professionals” are union jobs and public service jobs wherever possible. While several unions expressed a fear of job loss in the face of green, energy efficient initiatives, our experience reinforced the idea that union job growth through going green also is possible.

Attending some of the non-labor meetings provided the chance to learn about other climate initiatives and share our trade union experiences. After the meeting on energy efficiency in building construction, we exchanged ideas regarding current U.N. building projects and our ongoing efforts in New York City on this issue. In the Pew Center-sponsored event with representatives from the United States and the U.S. Climate Action Partnership (USCAP), I spoke about the presence of a strong international and U.S. labor contingent at Poznan that was committed to climate change issues with a particular emphasis on the development of good union jobs in green industries not only as a positive outgrowth of such efforts, but also as part of the economic engine that can pull our nation and the world out of its current fiscal crisis. At the conclusion of the event, the representatives of Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif..) and Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) stated how much they appreciated the comments and the fact that labor is active on this issue. In retrospect, I believe there is an additional role for labor in these U.N. conferences by encouraging member participation in numerous meetings where labor’s presence and perspective can be raised.

The U.S. labor meeting with the U.S. congressional delegation on Thursday was important in letting the delegation know that there was a large and diverse labor contingent at the conference that is very much engaged on climate change issues. We expressed our commitment to the growth of good green jobs and our anticipation of their support on this issue. We spent the majority of the session discussing the details of pending U.S. legislation, its potential impact on the use of fossil fuels and the potential for the development of clean coal technology. Unfortunately, this focus did not provide a full opportunity to communicate to the delegation the broader array of issues of concern to the unions present..

In the final day of the conference, there was an opportunity to speak to members of the Israeli, Russian and Indian environmental delegations and tell them of our work with the Apollo Alliance and environmental organizations in New York City.  In each case, they expressed great interest in reaching out to their own trade union counterparts and trying to engage them on the issue of global warming. There seems to be a real potential here for active environmental groups to bring more trade unions into this struggle and I referred them to both the ITUC and the Blue Green Alliance.

Overall, the Local 375 and AFSCME presence at the UNCCC was positive. It was an eye-opening experience for me and put me on a very steep learning curve regarding the latest science on global warming, the multitude of efforts to combat it and the workings of the conference itself. Our presence also added the voice of a public-sector representative of the United States and international labor contingents, regarding our current involvements and where we should be going as a movement. Finally, it provided the opportunity to interact with others engaged in climate change to understand what they are doing and share what we have done. I believe the next year will be terribly important in strengthening the participation of unions such as DC37 and AFSCME, as well as other private- and public-sector unions in this process, as the labor movement, and the world, prepare for the critical U.N. climate change negotiations next year in Copenhagen.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/7707847.stm

Increasing the demand for lithium batteries will drive the cost of lithium.

How To Save A Major Automobile Company By Neil Young, from Huffington Post, 11/13/08

Find a new ownership group. The culture must change. It is time to turn the page. In the high technology sector there are several candidates for ownership of a major car and truck manufacturer. We need forward looking people who are not restricted by the existing culture in Detroit. We need visionary people now with business sense to create automobiles that do not contribute to global warming. (read the whole story)

Hybrid Technologies and Superlattice

Hurricane Ike Oil Slick

Oil slicks covering Hurricane Ike floodwaters around High Island, Texas.

Hurricane Ike, Missing Drill Rig, And Oil Spills: It’s The System That Leaks

by Daniel Kessler, San Francisco, California on 09.22.08

Oil Slick After Hurricane Ike, High Island, Texas, Smiley N. Pool / The Houston Chronicle, Excerpt

Some politicians consistently say that offshore oil drilling is safe and that drill rigs have withstood Hurricanes Katrina, Rita and Ike without any significant damage or oil spills. The facts, as they often do, tell a very different story. On September 16, the oil drilling company Rowan announced one of its drill rig was missing, and that it had likely capsized and sunk due to Hurricane Ike. (read the whole story)

Hurricanes and Oil Drilling: Ike’s Toll on Big Rigs

Published: Tuesday, October 14, 2008 at 12:01 a.m.

That is according to The Associated Press, which compiled an environmental score card of the damage caused when Ike hit the upper Gulf Coast on Sept. 13. (more on platform damage.)

Hurricane Ike Spilled 12,000 Barrels of Oil

…The hurricane’s toll highlights the environmental risk in offshore oil.

Hundreds if not thousands of individual spills, from both companies and individuals, resulted from the hurricane, according to the AP. None are classified as “major” but together they add up.

Of about 3,800 oil platforms in the Gulf of Mexico, 52 were destroyed and another 32 “severely damaged,” according to the AP. (more details on the damage and threat.)

Boulder, CO: America’s First Smart Grid

by Cate Trotter,  April 2008

The Smart Grid and all of its energy-saving intelligence is coming to Boulder, Colorado, making this picturesque town at the foot of the Rockies poised to become the nation’s first fully integrated Smart Grid City within the next few years! Chosen by Xcel Energy for its location, ideal size and current infrastructure, Boulder was also chosen because of in-place smart grid initiatives through University of Colorado and several other nearby institutions. Xcel Energy and its Smart Grid Consortium will start research over the next few weeks and the first phase of Smart Grid City could be in place as early as August 2008!

Read the story