One of the stories that crept under my personal radar a couple of week ago related to aircraft engines. Aircrafts account of 2% of the greenhouse gas emissions. The impact of this figure is thought to be higher because the emissions are expelled at height, where they can do the most absorption of light energy. Further aircraft expel vapour trials which are thought to have an effect on the amount of light reaching the surface of the planet by dimming it.

So it is possible, but not completely proved, that flying gives us the worst of all possible worlds – heating the air and dimming the surface.   In the UK  Business Secretary, Mr Peter Mandelson, has announced that £45 million of taxpayer’s money will be spent on funding a “partnership” (as these things are fashionably bit inaccurately called) between nine Universities and Rolls-Royce, who produce aircraft engines, in a quest to discover ways of making aircraft engines more efficient. If the research finds a more efficient engine, there is no guarantee that the world’s airlines and military will adopt it. The nine Universities concerned would be better to focus research on projects less grand but with better environmental effect.It is an interesting contrast to the way that the Government has treated water heating, where for £45 million, there are existing ways to reduce emission. The aircraft industry has over the years received many hand outs form the taxpayer.  Justification of this is that “The knowledge, skills and high-end production … give us huge opportunities to benefit as global demand for low carbon products grows.” Yes, the opportunities are so huge that Rolls-Royce needs a hand out in order to take advantage of them. By all means invest in low carbon research which is important, but when the ship is sinking it is not the time for the crew to start re-arranging the deckchairs.

THE ‘High Nelly’ bike is back — and this time no pedal power is required.

A family-owned company is attempting to beat the recession and add a 21st-century touch to the world-famous bike by powering it with a battery.

The bike, manufactured by GoEco in Cappamore, Co Limerick, is the first electric bike manufactured in the country and already orders have been placed for the new product from the UK and continental Europe. (more…)

Every gallon of motor fuel produces 19 pounds of carbon dioxide when burned.  So it’s kind to both pocket and environment to conserve.  Your car will work more efficiently if you obey the speed limit and avoid rapid, unnecessary acceleration. Keep your tires properly inflated and have it serviced regularly.

Click here for more in depth info on how you can Save Money & CO2

Although we have already picked the winners for the March “Drive like a Woman, Shop Like a Man” competition, we received so many great tips that we thought we would share them with you. 

We have bunched together some of the submitted motoring tips which will help you reduce your carbon footprint while keeping money in your pocket

1.Start a “no idle” rule at your child’s school. When picking up your children from school, turn off your engine while you wait.
 
2.When possible, plan your trips to avoid rush hour. Stop-and-go driving burns petrol and increases emissions of smog-forming pollutants.

3. Never wash your car with water or chemicals. Save Water, Energy, and reduce CO2 emissions whilst stopping the pollution of our groundwater.  GreenMe recommends NOWET. A solution to pollution it cleans, polishes, waxes and seals your car without using water yet 100% of ingredients are derived from bio-based organic sources.

4.Keep your vehicles well-tuned. Vehicles that are not property tuned can emit more pollutants.  A well-tuned vehicle can also improve miles per gallon

 5.Try to avoid “topping-off” the your tank when refueling. Spilled petrol and diesel evaporates and contributes to air pollution.

 6.Avoid quick starts and aggressive driving. A smooth, steady speed saves gasoline and reduces wear and tear on the engine, tires, transmission and brakes.

7.Avoid extra weight in your vehicle. For example, you may have unused items in your boot. The extra weight makes the engine work harder and consumes more fuel.

8.Keep the tyres on your vehicles properly inflated to save petrol.

9.If you can, try to telecommute to work. With instant messaging, video chats, teleconferencing and e-mail you can avoid driving into the office every day.

To be in with a chance to win a copy of 101 tips which will not only help save you money but also the planet. Email us your top green tip

Each week brings some new technological idea for ‘fixing’ the world’s rising CO2 problem. Such as capturing the gas and storing (sequestering) it underground or on the ocean floor.

These ideas often strike me as far fetched, costly, and difficult, and I can’t help thinking it would be simpler, cheaper and quicker to find ways of reducing our greenhouse gas emissions.

But one ingenious idea caught my eye this week. It comes from Iceland where, let’s face it, they need a little good news these days.

CarbFix plans to turn CO2 into stone. Powered by Iceland’s unlimited geothermal energy, they will chemically convert the gas into calcite, the carbonate mineral that is a major component of limestone. Unlike sequestration, this would permanently lock the gas into a stable mineral form, so there would be no fear of the gas leaking out catastrophically.

Another story that caught my eye is a US project to harness solar power from space. Solaren Corp. plans to launch solar panels into orbit, convert the power generated into radio transmissions that can be beamed to earth, and then fed into a power grid. You can read an interview with the Solaren CEO here, on the Next100 website.

Another potentially good news story is research that suggests bacteria can digest oil-tar to yield a cleaner gas resource.  If you’ve heard of the controversial Canadian tar-sands, you’ll know that these enormous deposits are costly and dirty to extract, and to process and refine into a useable form. But as oil prices rise, they are becoming an increasingly important Canadian resource.  This latest research suggests a new, more acceptable way to extract value from the sands.

Bad news however, from a WWF report into fishing fleets, which confirms what many people feared: huge amounts of catch are wasted, and commercial fleets discard a stunning 40% of what they take.  It’s an unsustainable situation, and a disaster in the making unless something radical changes fast.

Not so good news either from a UK report this week into ‘greening’ and future-proofing existing homes.  Most of the homes will still be in use in 50 years time, but improving insulation and energy efficiency will, the Economic and Social Research Council and the Technology Strategy Board reckon, be ‘a herculean task’. The same is surely true in Ireland.

And still with the bad news . . . much of the Canadian province of Manitoba is now underwater, with mass evacuations in place.  (Nasa satellite view here.)

I’m in Canada for 6 months, where the top news story for the last month has been the annual Red River floods in Manitoba and in North Dakota, so I don’t know if this story has reached Ireland yet.  Amazingly, given the scale of devastation, the floods have claimed just one life, so it’s possible the story hasn’t yet reached a threshold that would bring it to European attention.

The floods come with the annual snow melt, excacerbated this year by the long winter, the frozen lakes (which have effectively dammed the river at its northern outlet), the frozen and waterlogged ground which can’t absorb any more water, and even frozen sandbags (which don’t make for a watertight seal).

What has been especially interesting for me as an outsider, is the different approach taken in Canada and, south of the border, in North Dakota which lies upstream.  Canadians are happy to take government intervention, and this has led to major flood prevention works, including a massive canal to diver the flood around the provincial capital of Winnipeg, which seems to have held, despite this year’s record flood level.

North Dakotans, however, don’t take kindly to government intervention — action that would be viewed as socialism! — and there it is every man for himself. Hence the floods have hit harder there, despite the fact that they are upstream of the worst. It’s an interesting socio-cultural difference in approaching climate and environmental problems. You can read about it here – though I see Toronto’s Globe and Mail charges for access to its stories!

And finally . . . know anyone who will take a tonne of metal across the sea this summer for you, and not charge you a penny?  Provided the metal has four wheels, the cross-channel ferry companies are happy to oblige it seems.

Veteran British environment and science writer Fred Pearce is taking on the ferry companies and the fares policy that favours motorists over foot passengers, in his GreenWash column at the Guardian.

If you haven’t already discovered Fred, he’s always worth a read.

(c) Mary Mulvihill 2009  http://marymulvihill.net/

Mary’s new guide to easy, sustainable living is Drive Like a Woman, Shop Like a Man (2009).  Click here to suggest a tip, and be in with a chance to win a copy of the book.

Hydrogen cars are not only the future, they are here, now.  And when hydrogen cars become the norm we can finally;

• lessen our dependence upon oil
• achieve lower prices at the fuel pumps
• cut down on the greenhouse gases that produce global warming

Not bad hey?

The future of hydrogen cars is not just a flight of fancy.  There are already many hydrogen cars on the road.   California and Japan have many hydrogen cars being used as fleet vehicles now.

Honda were the first to lease a commerical hydrogen car to a family in California.

How Green?

Well, unlike many of the hybrid and “green” cars currently on the market, hydrogen cars offer the promise of zero emission technology.   The only byproduct from a hydrogen car is water vapor.  Current fossil-fuel burning vehicles emit all sorts of pollutants such as carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, nitrous oxide, ozone and microscopic particulate matter.  Hybrids and other green cars address these issues to a large extent but only hydrogen cars hold the promise of zero emission of pollutants. The Environmental Protection Agency estimates that fossil-fuel automobiles emit 1 ½ billion tons of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere each year and going to hydrogen-based transportation would all but eliminate this!

Not only that, but the ‘hydrogen highway’ will naturally  lessen our dependence upon oil.  No bad thing for the environment or our pockets for that matter.

The good news is, there are more hydrogen fuel cell cars being built currently than any other kind.

The article below from www.hydrogencarinfo.com examines the current state of the hydrogen fuel cell powered car industry, who the major players are, and when you can expect to see affordable versions of your favorite hydrogen powered cars at your local car dealership.

Hydrogen Car Manufacturers and Prices

Many car manufacturers are currently launching hydrogen fuel cell vehicles, but affordable models are realistically 5 to 10 years away.

In October General Motors announced that by 2010 they expect to be developing  a wide choice of hydrogen powered  vehicles.

The largest automobile manufacture is already in the process of building a New York fleet of 40 cars under the U.S. Department of Energy’s Infrastructure Demonstration and Validation Project. General Motors puts a price tag of $1 million on each HydroGen3 vehicle it will produce.

The developing technology and limited quantity of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles makes them very pricey right now. The fuel cell energy in these vehicles operates like a battery. Fuel cells take in hydrogen and oxygen, and give off pure water and electricity. This electricity runs the motor. The vehicles run smoothly, handle well and can accelerate to speeds of more than 100 miles per hour.

Not until 2004 had scientists been able to develop material that can safely store and release hydrogen, and limit the storage capacity to allow for maximum seating. Other hurdles toward mass production: The availability of hydrogen stations with only a handful in the world, and a fuel cell vehicle can only travel 150 miles on average before running out of hydrogen.

If the buyer takes this under consideration and has about $1 million (€750,000) to spend, the current hydrogen fuel cell vehicles that are available come from top manufacturers such as Ford, BMW, Mercedes-Benz, Honda, Hyundai, Toyota and DaimlerChrysler.

Ford delivered 30 Focus Fuel Cell Vehicles (FCV) in Florida in September as part of a real-world testing program. The FCV looks and drives like other Focus sedans, but under the hood of is a sophisticated hybrid electric engine called a powertrain. Ford is also developing the “Model U” SUV with a hydrogen internal-combustion engine that as of yet does not have a release date.

Ford also features the E-450 shuttle bus that is to hit the industrial market next year. The State of Florida will debut its fleet of six shuttle buses, and the Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport plans to use V-10, hydrogen-powered buses next year.

BMW unveiled its first hydrogen car – the BMW 750hl – in 2000 and has since released the MINI in 2001 and the 745h last year. The 745h produces 184 horsepower and can achieve a top speed of 133 mph. The cruising range is 190 miles. It is also more reliable for longer distances before fill-ups.

Mercedes-Benz has unveiled 60 A-Class “F-Cell” automobiles since the end of last year in Germany, the US, Japan and Singapore as part of an initial test phase.

DamilerChrysler produced the first fuel-cell vehicle in 1994 with the NECAR 1, which has been followed by 20 research vehicles and prototypes.  DaimlerChrysler was also the first to conduct world-wide trial phases of its fuel-cell vehicles.  The manufacturer has approximately 100 vehicles in service around the world.

Honda has the only fuel cell vehicle in regular daily operation with customers in the U.S. and Japan. It has 14 hydrogen fuel-cell vehicles (called the Honda FCX) in America.  The Honda FCX is the world’s first and only fuel cell vehicle to be certified by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and California Air Resources Board (CARB).

Hyundai’s fleet of fuel-cell vehicles is particularly small with only five produced as the Hyundai Tucson and Kia Sportage Fuel Cell Electric Vehicles (FCEVs).  But the Korean automobile manufacturer is looking to be a major player in the hydrogen-car industry.  They paired with ChevronTexaco to build a Hydrogen energy station at the Hyundai-Kia America Technical Center in Chino, Calif., sanctioned by the U.S. Department of Energy.

Since the Toyota’s fuel cell hybrid passenger vehicle FCHV began in Japan and the U.S. in December 2002, 11 FCHVs have been leased in Japan and five in the U.S.

In the last year, Toyota has conducted real-world verification tests with a fuel cell bus prototype within Tokyo’s metropolitan public bus system. Toyota now has eight units of its FCHV-BUS transporting visitors between the Nagakute and Seto areas of the 2005 World Exposition in Aichi, Japan.

So it looks like the hydrogen economy is just around the bend.  Will you be ready?

Related articles:  The pros & cons of hydrogen cars

Sources: www.hyrdorgencarsnow.com, www.hydrogencarinfo.com

Photo / Donna Coveney

This inert looking material (photo, left) could soon lead to improved rechargeable batteries. Ones that are lighter than existing ones, 100 times faster to charge and giving dramatically faster acceleration in electric cars.

The new substance, created by scientists at MIT, is a re-engineered form of the material already used in lithium-ion batteries, and so it could make it to the market quite soon.

Current re-chargeable Li-ion batteries are sluggish to charge and discharge (the latter explains why electric cars don’t have great acceleration).

Materials scientists at MIT, led by Prof Gerbrand Ceder, have studied the structure of Li-ion batteries and come up with a simple re-design: they’ve put a nanochemical ‘beltway’ or ‘ring road’ around the surface structure, that allows the Li ions to move more quickly.  (Read MIT’s press release here; the research has just been published in the March 12 issue of Nature.)

Their material can charge in seconds, compared with hours for existing batteries. Because their design is more efficient and requires less material, batteries made with it could also be smaller and lighter.  The MIT team reckons their batteries could be on sale within three years.

(c) Mary Mulvihill 2009

Diesel or petrol? Bioethanol or used chip oil? How about wind-generated electricity? And if so, how many wind turbines would it take to power all the cars and trucks in the USA?

In the early days of motoring there was no network of petrol stations, and drivers had to carry extra fuel with them.  Yet slowly, as more cars took to the roads, demand increased and a network developed.

Today, the lack of similar networks for alternative fuels — hydrogen, say, or charging stations and battery exchanges for electric cars — is often cited as an obstacle for switching from the conventional internal combustion engine. But if we built a service network 100 years ago for motorists we can surely do it again.

And indeed, recharge stations are already appearing in a number of cities around the world.  Not to mention the ambitious Better Place project that is rolling out electric vehicles (EVs) and recharging stations in Israel and Denmark.

To be truly green, the electricty should come from renewable sources — swapping a petrol engine for an electric battery powered by a coal-burning station merely moves the emissions from the exhaust pipe to the chimney stack.  And in fairness, Better Place’s vision of moving ‘from pump to plug’ aims for renewable energy.

One of the best developed and established renewable electricy sources is wind-power (second only to hydro), but a major argument against its widespread use, especially for transport, is the amount of land needed for turbines.

So I was pleasantly surprised to read in New Scientist recently about a detailed study which calculated that the US could replace all its cars and trucks with electric vehicles, powered by wind-generated electricity, and the turbines would take up only 3 square kilometres, a relatively small space indeed.

The study, by Mark Jacobson, professor of civil and environmental engineering at Harvard University, compared the environmental impacts of seven alternative energy sources, and found wind came out tops over all, with concentrated solar steam power next, then geothermal, tidal, solar panels, wave power and, last, hydroelectric dams.

His comparison takes into account the full environmental impact of each type of power, as well as reliability and availability.  As a result biofuels scored poorly on account of land use issues, while nuclear power scored poorly because of the high levels of greenhouse gas emissions during construction of any power plant.  Read a summary of his paper here, in the journal of Energy & Environmental Science.

It’s an interesting thought: if it would take just 3 sq km of land in the USA, how little would Ireland need?

But don’t change car just yet. About half of the emissions associated with a car are during manufacture, so only change your car when you really have to. In the meantime, if you are ever hiring a car, see if you can rent an electric or hybrid one.

And drive carefully, regardless of fuel source.

(c) Mary Mulvihill 2009

In an effort to prevent illegal dumping and scrapping of vehicles the European Parliament brought about the End-of-Life Vehicles (E.L.V.) Directive. Every E.U. Member State is obliged to have in place a network of licenced Authorised Treatment Facilities (A.T.F.s) where people can bring their unwanted vehicles (cars, vans & commercials up to 3,500kg) to be depolluted, dismantled and recycled in an environmentally responsible manner.

The service is free of charge* and a Certificate of Destruction must be issued by the A.T.F. to the vehicle owner. The A.T.F. must first depollute the vehicle and then prove it is meeting recycling targets of 85% by weight of the vehicle (This target increases to 95% by January 1st 2015^).

For more information log onto www.elvs.ie

^{*Provided the vehicle is not missing ′essential components′ e.g. engine, gearbox, catalytic converter}

Firstly what is a Transition Town…

Well it all starts off when a small collection of motivated individuals within a community come together with a shared concern: how can our community respond to the challenges, and opportunities, of Peak Oil and Climate Change?

They begin by forming an initiating group and then adopt the Transition Model with the intention of engaging a significant proportion of the people in their community to kick off a Transition Initiative.

(more…)