Cracking discovery: Japan scientist uses egg white for clean energy

Yahoo – AFP, 15 February 2018

It's a cracking discovery

A Japanese scientist said Thursday his team has cracked open a method to improve the production of carbon-free energy -- by using proteins taken from egg white.

Yusuke Yamada, a professor at Osaka City University, said his team has managed to use protein from egg white as a "tool" for producing hydrogen, a powerful source of clean electricity.

The new method "brings us closer to our ultimate goal of producing hydrogen from water," Yamada told AFP.

"This lays the groundwork for the clean production of hydrogen in the future," added the scientist.

When it reacts with oxygen, hydrogen produces electricity, releasing only water and heat in the process.

But hydrogen is currently mass-produced using natural gas or fossil fuels, which themselves result in harmful emissions.

It can be produced in labs without fossil fuels and scientists have traditionally done this by creating a special interaction of the molecules in liquid, explained Yamada.

But free-moving and randomly located molecules and particles in the fluid can interfere with the process of producing hydrogen and scientists have long searched for a way to immobilise them.

Yamada's team used a protein found in egg to build crystals with lots of tiny holes to trap these particles.

The change brought a sense of traffic control to the molecular interactions and improved the efficiency of clean, hydrogen production, Yamada said.

"If you use hydrogen as an energy source, it only releases water in the environment. It is extremely environmentally friendly," he told AFP.

"We found protein was a useful tool" to generate hydrogen in a lab without using a fossil fuel, the professor said.

The world's leading companies see hydrogen as the ultimate clean energy to power everything from cars to office buildings in the future, and ditch fossil fuels that cause global warming.

Yamada's method was published in the February edition of the scientific journal "Applied Catalysis B".

Travel firms to brief holidaymakers on their trip’s environmental footprint

DutchNews, April 12, 2016

A Fokker 70 takes off from Schiphol
airport. Photo jvanderwolf via
Depositphotos

Dutch travel firms are to start informing holidaymakers how much environmental damage their trip is doing by listing ‘holiday footprints’ in brochures and on websites, travel sector organisation ANVR says in Tuesday’s Volkskrant. 

‘We aim to eventually allow consumers to calculate their own holiday footprint via an app or website,’ ANVR spokesman Gerben Hardeman told the paper. ‘We are still a long way off that. But we are now working with a group of travel firms to determine how we can best inform consumers about what we know already.’ 

By helping consumers to realise the impact of their holiday on the environment, holidaymakers can ‘make a responsible choice’, he said. 

Currently, airline passengers can pay extra to offset the cost to the climate of their journey. The amounts vary from €10 to €100, depending on the way the potential damage is calculated by different airlines. 

The system used by the ANVR has been developed by researchers at several hbo colleges and 10 travel firms. It is based on confidential information from airline manufacturers, airlines themselves and the hotel website Booking.com.

Government to Kick-Start $56b in ‘Green’ Investments

Jakarta Globe, Tabita Diela, Apr 23, 2015

Photovoltaics on the eastern islands of Sumba are being used for electricity
generation. (Antara Photo/Hafidz Mubarak)

Jakarta. Indonesia will hold a global renewable energy summit next week, marking the launch of the country’s initiative to attract $56 billion in investment in environmentally friendly power generation over the next five years.

The “Tropic Landscape Summit 2015,” next Monday and Tuesday, will bring together government representatives and investors in the renewable energy industry from Australia, Switzerland, China, France, the United States, Britain and Singapore.

“Indonesians will account for 3.5 percent of the world population in 2025, but our fossil fuel reserves are much less than our needs,” Sudirman Said, the minister for energy and mineral resources, said at a press conference in Jakarta on Wednesday.

“If we rely only on fossil fuels, we will run out when the time comes. We don’t have any choice other than to shift to renewable energy,” he said. GA

Related Articles:

Sumba Renewable Energy: A Bright Future Where the Lights Don’t Go Out

Sumba powers up with renewables

Amsterdam bee population is booming

DutchNews.nl, March 5, 2015

Bee populations may be in trouble elsewhere but in Amsterdam there are now 61 different bee species, up from 51 in 2000, according to new research. 

The most common bee in the city is the common furrow (Lasioglossum calceatum) while the hairy-footed flower bee, which was very rare in 2000, now lives in abundance in the city’s Vondel park, the research shows. 

The research was commissioned by the city council. Bee expert and researcher told the Parool the city council should be extremely pleased the city has such committed people managing its green spaces. ‘The city can thank their expertise for the increase,’ he said. 

Ten years ago the city council took a new, environmentally-friendly approach to its green areas and roadside verges. It no longer uses pesticides and wild flowers have been sown in many places. Specific bee friendly projects have also been set up.

SBY Honored, Along With Companies, for Green Growth

Jakarta Globe, Feb 26, 2015

Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono when he was still president of Indonesia. (EPA
Photo/Bagus Indahono).

Jakarta. Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono was among a diverse group of winners of awards for sustainable business practices whose names were announced on Wednesday evening, with the former Indonesian president receiving praise for “his achievements in developing green growth in Indonesia and his commitments to action on climate change globally.”

A Special Award for Leadership in Green Growth and Development was presented to Yudhoyono at the Shangri La Hotel Jakarta, during a ceremony attended by Vice President Jusuf Kalla, Coordinating Minister for the Economy Sofyan Djalil and other ministers, as well as CEOs, heads of international agencies and media.

“Development and growth is something that needs to be planned carefully. It needs to ensure social inclusiveness. It needs to protect the environment, it needs to correspond to climate challenge, it needs to go on for the long term,” Yudhoyono said at the award ceremony.

The 2014 Sustainable Business Awards Indonesia were organized by Global Initiatives in cooperation with PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), the Indonesian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Kadin) and the Indonesia Business Council for Sustainable Development.

The organizers said in a press release that cement company Holcim Indonesia emerged the overall winner, but companies such as Bank BNI, Astra International, Bukit Asam, Nestle Indonesia, Bumi Serpong Damai and Unilever also won in various categories.

Tony Gourlay, CEO of Global Initiatives, said in the press release: “For the third year in a row, we are pleased to showcase companies in Indonesia who have embedded sustainability in their corporate mission and whose leadership shares this vision. We encourage other companies to follow their lead and communicate their sustainability efforts more widely.”

The complete list of SBA winners

MAIN AWARDS

Overall Winner: Holcim Indonesia

1. Strategy and vision: Unilever Indonesia

2. Workforce: Holcim Indonesia

3. Community: Astra International

4. Energy management: Holcim Indonesia

5. Water management: Bukit Asam

6. Waste & material productivity: Danone Aqua Group

7. Climate Change: Holcim Indonesia

8. Supply Chain: Nestle Indonesia

9. Land Use, Biodiversity and the Environment: Monsanto Indonesia (Branita Sandini)

10. Business Responsibility and Ethics: Unilever Indonesia

* Environmental Disclosure: Dupont Agriculture Products Indonesia

SPECIAL RECOGNITION AWARDS

1. Pioneer in Green Finance in Indonesia: Bank Negara Indonesia

2. Outstanding leadership in sustainable agriculture: Great Giant Pineapple

3. SME placing sustainability at the core of its business: Pulau Nikoi

4. Outstanding Energy Management in the mining sector: Vale Indonesia

5. Outstanding Water Management in the property sector: Bumi Serpong Damai

Special Award for Green Growth & Leadership: Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono

Kadin and Medco’s Novel CSR Initiative Helps to Light Up Aceh

Jakarta Globe, Feb 08, 2015

Shinta Kamdani, middle, chairwoman of Kadin’s division that deals with environment,
 climate change and sustainable development, symbolically handed over a LED
Sunlife Super Bright, to Aceh Governor Zaini Abdullah. The LED is a solar-powered
light that can shine four times brighter than normal LEDs and can last for up to 30
hours when fully charged. (Photo courtesy of Kadin)

The Indonesian Chambers of Commerce and Industry, known as Kadin, together with Aceh’s provincial government and  listed oil and gas company Medco Energi Internasional, initiated an energy solution program in Aceh.

On Friday, Kadin, Medco and provincial officials from Aceh held a ceremony for the “We Light Up Indonesia” program, where Aceh Governor Zaini Abdullah and East Aceh district head Hasbullah Bin M. Thaib symbolically received a LED Sunlife Super Bright, a solar-powered light that can shine four times brighter than normal LEDs and can last for up to 30 hours when fully charged.

LEDs will be installed in 50 locations, which will be decided by Kadin’s Aceh chapter, the 
local government and local leaders.

“Considering many people in rural areas of Indonesia haven’t yet enjoyed electricity, Kadin … took the initiative to start a program to supply environmentally friendly electricity,” said Shinta Kamdani, chairwoman of Kadin’s division that deals with environment, climate change and sustainable development.

“Kadin hopes this program can 
improve the quality of life of people and help stimulate the economic growth in the region,” she said.

Lukman Mahfoedz, president and chief executive of Medco Energi, said the program is part of Medco Energi’s sustainable corporate social 
responsibility program.

International media reported in January that Medco Group had signed a gas sales deal worth $2 billion to underpin development of the company’s field in the onshore Block A in East Aceh regent.

Aceh Governor Zaini has 
expressed his appreciation of the initiative and hoped the 
program will be continued by other companies in the region.

GlobeAsia

Taiwan's Singtex develops fabric with coffee grounds

Want China Times, Staff Reporter 2014-12-29

Models display clothing made with Singtex's S.Cafe technology.
(Photo/Hung Hsi-lung)

Taiwanese textile company Singtex Industrial has struck gold by using recycled coffee grounds to create an environmental friendly fabric that offers great functionality, the Global Entrepreneur magazine reported.

Set up in 1989, Singtex started out as a bedding manufacturer, but has been transformed following company chairman Jason Chen's decision to focus on the development of chemical fiber, in order to build a niche amid growing competition from China and Southeast Asia, where labor costs are much lower, the magazine said.

Apart from lingerie maker Victoria's Secret, Singtex's list of clients includes Nike, The North Face and Puma, and over 100 other sports or outdoor wear brands.

Singtex caught global attention after showcasing its S.Cafe fabric — made from coffee grounds and recycled plastic bottles — in late 2008 at a fair in Germany.

The use of coffee grounds was inspired by Chen's wife, who noticed that the coffee waste was being used as a deodorizer in the Starbucks kitchen in 2005. She jokingly said to her husband that people who become smelly and sweaty after exercise might apply coffee grounds to their body as a deodorant.

"In Taiwan, 40 tons of coffee grounds are produced every day. It can be a good business, if the stuff can be used effectively," Chen stated.

It took four years and cost the company US$2 million to finally create the fabric made with coffee grounds that can reduce the smell of perspiration, but S.Cafe generated revenue of NT$100 million (US$3.15 million) for Singtex during its first year in 2009, the magazine said.

Revenue generated by the unique fabric rose to NT$342.5 million (US$10.77 million) in 2013, accounting for a quarter of the overall sales at Singtex, while the company saw gross margin improve from 2010's 20.44% to 2012's 23.52%.

Although it costs 20 to 30% more to produce S.Cafe than traditional fabrics, overall costs for producing a garment have not risen that much because it requires only 35% of the new fabric in a piece of clothing to instill its odor-reducing and insulating abilities, said Chris Chiang, director of overseas business development at Singtex.

Singtex has also made an effort to reduce carbon emissions by stopping the use of chemicals, such as acetone, and replacing coal with the more expensive natural gas in its production.

As a result, the company's S.Cafe fabric has received a Bluesign environmental certification, which represents that each process is in line with environmental sustainability standards.

Singtex has also used coffee grounds to develop the S.Cafe Airnest sponge, which reduces the use of petrochemical products in foam. This product is the main component in orders placed by Victoria's Secret, the magazine said.

To expand the scale of industry surrounding coffee ground fabrics, Singtex established a business alliance in Shanghai called SPIIN in 2013, and plans to join forces with Chinese textile suppliers to further explore opportunities in Western markets, and later establish its own brand in China, Chen said.

Details of first pilot center for APEC Green Supply Chain disclosed

Want China Times, Xinhua 2014-11-15

The Yujiapu railway construction site in Tianjin, March 7. (File photo/CNS)

More details on the first pilot center for the Cooperation Network on Green Supply Chain of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) were disclosed by Tianjin's Yujiapu Financial District on Friday.

One of the achievements of the APEC Beijing meetings, the pilot center, which will be established in Yujiapu, will explore and share China's experience of low carbon to Asian-Pacific region economies.

The Green Supply Chain is a kind of management mode with an emphasis on energy efficiency and environmental friendliness throughout the whole product life cycle. Enterprises adopting this management style will achieve both environmental and economic benefits.

The cooperation network aims to conduct applied research on the green supply chain, subsequently establishing pilot centers and relevant websites to share information, explained assistant general manager of Tianjin Innovative Finance Investment Company, Mu Lingling, who is in charge of the preparation work.

"We hope the pilot center can help develop an information sharing mechanism and form a kind of Tianjin Mode in the market and service, so as to export the 'Chinese Standard' to Asia Pacific," Mu said.

The Yujiapu Financial District, set up in 2009, aims to become the world's biggest financial district. By 2012, the number of registered enterprises in the zone exceeded 470.

Wind energy blowing away nuclear power

Deutsche Welle, 22 April 2012

Wind energy supplies 3 percent of global electricity needs and will soon supply more electricity than nuclear power. In 2011, some 50 billion euros were invested in wind, leading some to say it's cheap and creates jobs.

Wind energy is booming and it is gaining in significance worldwide. It supplies some 20 percent of electricity in Spain and Denmark as well as about 10 percent in Germany. By 2020, the share of wind energy will have risen to between 20 percent and 25 percent in Germany, according to estimates.

Last year, new wind power plants with a total capacity of some 40 gigawatts (GW) were installed worldwide, according to the World Wind Energy Association (WWEA). This puts wind energy's global capacity at 237 GW by the end of 2011- the equivalent of what some 280 nuclear power plants generate. Currently, there are some 380 nuclear power plants producing electricity worldwide.

Four times more wind power by 2020 

The harvested wind makes
a generator turn inside

Wind energy has expanded at a remarkable speed worldwide, WWEA said. There has been an annual 20 percent increase in wind turbine installations. The WWEA said it expects a four-time increase in wind power capacity by 2020, bringing performance up to more than 1,000 GW.

China is pushing expansion of wind power like no other country in the world. In 2011, nearly half of all wind turbines produced were set up in China. Despite covering 3 percent of all energy used in China, the country is still the world leader in use of wind energy. In per capita terms, European nations, including Denmark, Spain and Germany, lead in wind energy use.

Cheapest source of energy

Wind power is environmentally and climate friendly, but the real reason for its boom lies in the price. Electricity generated from wind energy is often the cheapest form available.

Stefan Gsänger, CEO of World Wind Energy Association, said the price for one kilowatt hour of electricity from onshore wind turbines to be between 5 euro cents and 9 euro cents. That's the reason, he told DW, "that wind energy has become one of the most popular sources of energy." 

Stefan Gsänger (WWEA)

In comparison, electricity generated in new coal power stations costs some 7 euro cents in Europe. But the real price for electricity from coal is far higher, according to the EU and the German Ministry for the Environment. They said that factoring in soot from coal power stations causes high costs in the health sector that should be included in calculating the price of energy. Their figures showed that electricity from other new fossil power plants and new nuclear reactors also costs more than onshore wind power when secondary costs are factored in.

Legal conditions are vital

Wind power may already be one of the cheapest sources of energy, but Gsänger said it still needs political support - not by fixing costs but by guaranteeing feed-in tariffs. The price paid to producers has to be fixed by law in order for banks to give out loans.

Gsänger added that Turkey was a good example because "the feed-in tariff is lower than the market price. And still the feed-in tariff is necessary in order for banks to finance wind turbines. That would also be an option for other countries."

Setting up offshore wind farms is a logistics challenge

Custom-made facilities

Wind energy technology has been advanced further over the last few years. In areas with less wind energy potential, taller turbines and turbines with larger blades are used to harness the wind more efficiently. Meanwhile, gigantic offshore power plants are also being built. Off-shore installation and maintenance are particularly difficult, which means prices for electricity are consequently twice as high as onshore, at between 18 euro cents and 20 euro cents per kilowatt hour (kWh).

Small wind turbines will gain in
significance, say experts

Small wind power plants for houses, small villages or industrial complexes are also on the rise. More than half a million such plants have been installed, with most of them in China and the United States. Small-scale wind power facilities could be used in developing countries and in remote areas. In developed countries, small-scale wind power turbines are also gaining in significance with consumers because the electricity generated with them costs less than that offered by many energy providers. Experts see a long-term growth potential in small wind technology.

Citizen participation raises acceptance

More than half the wind turbines in Germany are run by private citizens, farmers and local communities. This is important for wind power's overall acceptance and success, according to Hermann Albers, president of Germany's federal association of wind energy. Over the last 20 years, he has set up several citizen wind farms in the region where he lives, together with other farmers and citizens.

"There is a high degree of acceptance with the communities," he told DW. "In many cases, half the population wants to invest in wind power there. The people have understood that it represents a big opportunity."

Author: Gero Rueter / nh

Editor: Sean Sinico

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Windfarms that float – or fly – could be the future of energy generation

Japanese government criticized for downplaying nuclear disaster


"Recalibration of Free Choice"–  Mar 3, 2012 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Caroll) - (Subjects: (Old) Souls, Midpoint on 21-12-2012, Shift of Human Consciousness, Black & White vs. Color, 1 - Spirituality (Religions) shifting, Lose a Pope “soon”, 2 - Humans will change react to drama, 3 - Civilizations/Population on Earth,  4 - Alternate energy sources (Geothermal, Tidal (Pedal wheels), Wind), 5 – Financials Institutes/concepts will change (Integrity – Ethical) , 6 - News/Media/TV to change, 7 – Big Pharmaceutical company will collapse “soon”, (Keep people sick), (Integrity – Ethical)  8 – Wars will be over on Earth, Global Unity, … etc.)  - New !  

"Update on Current Events" – Jul 23, 2011 (Kryon channelled by Lee Carroll) - (Subjects: The Humanization of God, Gaia, Shift of Human Consciousness, 2012, Benevolent Design, Financial Institutes (Recession, System to Change ...), Water Cycle (Heat up, Mini Ice Ace, Oceans, Fish, Earthquakes ..), Nuclear Power Revealed, Geothermal Power, Hydro Power, Drinking Water from Seawater, No need for Oil as Much, Middle East in Peace, Persia/Iran Uprising, Muhammad, Israel, DNA, Two Dictators to fall soon, Africa, China, (Old) Souls, Species to go, Whales to Humans, Global Unity,..... etc.)

Puma aiming to produce compostable trainers and T-shirts

German sportswear manufacturer working on designs for shoes and clothing that can be buried at the bottom of the garden

guardian.co.uk, Louise Osborne in Berlin, Sunday 13 November 2011

Along with the leftovers, you may soon be able to add your old trainers to
the compost heap. Photograph: Kathy De Witt/Alamy

Your flowers love it, it's environmentally friendly and saves on rubbish collection. And soon you will be able to add your worn-out trainers and T-shirts to the carrot peels, potato skins and eggshells on the compost heap at the end of your garden, if German sportswear manufacturer Puma gets its way.

"We are confident that in the near future we will be able to bring the first shoes, T-shirts and bags, that are either compostable or recyclable, to the market," Puma boss Franz Koch told the German business magazine Wirtschaftswoche.

He explained that the company was working with partners on developing products on the principle of the "cradle-to-cradle" design. "It follows two circuits, the technical and the biological: I can use old shoes to make new ones or something completely different, such as car tyres," said Koch, who has led the sports clothing company since July.

"In the biological cycle, I can make shoes and shirts that are compostable so I can shred them and bury them in the back garden. We are working on products that meet these two criteria."

Last year the sportswear company revealed its five-year sustainability strategy with the unveiling of its Clever Little Bag, a reusable bag produced to replace shoeboxes and made from 65% less paper as well as having a reduced water, energy and diesel consumption.

The developments come at a time when there has been a trend towards the creation of green fashion in the form of ecological and sustainable clothing.

German fashion designer and microbiologist Anke Domaske has produced organic chemical-free clothing using milk to create the first manmade, industrial-strength fibre at the Hanover-based company Qmilch.

And earlier this year, Harry Potter actor Emma Watson teamed up with Italian designer Alberta Ferretti to launch a collection made entirely from environmentallyfriendly materials.

Michelle Obama to write gardening book

US first lady to publish book about healthy eating and the vegetable patch she created at the White House

guardian.co.uk, Ewen MacAskill in Washington, Thursday 17 March 2011

Michelle Obama takes part in the third planting of the White House
kitchen garden with local children on Wednesday. Photograph: AP

Michelle Obama is hoping to join her husband on the bestseller lists with a book devoted to her experience of creating a vegetable plot on the White House lawn.

The book, due in April next year, will detail the US first lady's pet project, set up as part of a campaign against obesity, and will be padded out with the Obamas' favourite healthy recipes.

Given the success of books by previous first ladies, it is almost certain to become a bestseller. Barack Obama made a small fortune from his autobiography, Dreams From My Father, and a political treatise, Audacity of Hope, but the proceeds of his wife's book will to go to charity.

Michelle Obama dug her first vegetable garden on the White House lawn in March 2008, two months after Barack Obama became president, and has grown about 55 varieties, most of whichare used by the White House chefs. As well as vegetables, such as lettuce, peppers and spinach, Obama and her team of helpers also grow herbs and berries.

She was out on the lawn again on Wednesday for photographers to mark the garden's third season.

In an interview with AP, she said she wanted to share the story of the garden with the rest of the nation and perhaps the rest of the world because she "received so many questions about it: How did we do it? Why did we do it? How do I do this in my own home or community?"

Eleanor Roosevelt had a "victory" garden at the White House during the second world war and the Clintons made a modest effort, with a few vegetable pots on the White House roof. Michelle Obama did not have a vegetable plot in her home city, Chicago, but was persuaded by advocates of healthy eating to take it up as project when she moved to Washington.

She has said she was partly influenced by a paediatrician who expressed concern about the diet of the Obama children, Malia and Sasha, brought up in Chicago on processed, fast-foods such as pizza, and how they might put on weight.

Obama said her book, which will be written with the help of a ghost-writer, will have the president's input in some capacity. "I will definitely have him be involved and look at it," the first lady told AP.

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Obama could kill fossil fuels overnight with a nuclear dash for thorium

If Barack Obama were to marshal America’s vast scientific and strategic resources behind a new Manhattan Project, he might reasonably hope to reinvent the global energy landscape and sketch an end to our dependence on fossil fuels within three to five years.

Telegraph.co.uk, By Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, International Business Editor, 29 Aug 2010

Dr Rubbia says a tonne of the silvery metal produces as much energy
as 200 tonnes of uranium, or 3,500,000 tonnes of coal

We could then stop arguing about wind mills, deepwater drilling, IPCC hockey sticks, or strategic reliance on the Kremlin. History will move on fast.

Muddling on with the status quo is not a grown-up policy. The International Energy Agency says the world must invest $26 trillion (£16.7 trillion) over the next 20 years to avert an energy shock.

The scramble for scarce fuel is already leading to friction between China, India, and the West.

There is no certain bet in nuclear physics but work by Nobel laureate Carlo Rubbia at CERN (European Organization for Nuclear Research) on the use of thorium as a cheap, clean and safe alternative to uranium in reactors may be the magic bullet we have all been hoping for, though we have barely begun to crack the potential of solar power.

Dr Rubbia says a tonne of the silvery metal – named after the Norse god of thunder, who also gave us Thor’s day or Thursday - produces as much energy as 200 tonnes of uranium, or 3,500,000 tonnes of coal. A mere fistful would light London for a week.

Thorium eats its own hazardous waste. It can even scavenge the plutonium left by uranium reactors, acting as an eco-cleaner. "It’s the Big One," said Kirk Sorensen, a former NASA rocket engineer and now chief nuclear technologist at Teledyne Brown Engineering.

"Once you start looking more closely, it blows your mind away. You can run civilisation on thorium for hundreds of thousands of years, and it’s essentially free. You don’t have to deal with uranium cartels," he said.

Thorium is so common that miners treat it as a nuisance, a radioactive by-product if they try to dig up rare earth metals. The US and Australia are full of the stuff. So are the granite rocks of Cornwall. You do not need much: all is potentially usable as fuel, compared to just 0.7pc for uranium.

After the Manhattan Project, US physicists in the late 1940s were tempted by thorium for use in civil reactors. It has a higher neutron yield per neutron absorbed. It does not require isotope separation, a big cost saving. But by then America needed the plutonium residue from uranium to build bombs.

"They were really going after the weapons," said Professor Egil Lillestol, a world authority on the thorium fuel-cycle at CERN. "It is almost impossible make nuclear weapons out of thorium because it is too difficult to handle. It wouldn’t be worth trying." It emits too many high gamma rays.

You might have thought that thorium reactors were the answer to every dream but when CERN went to the European Commission for development funds in 1999-2000, they were rebuffed.

Brussels turned to its technical experts, who happened to be French because the French dominate the EU’s nuclear industry. "They didn’t want competition because they had made a huge investment in the old technology," he said.

Another decade was lost. It was a sad triumph of vested interests over scientific progress. "We have very little time to waste because the world is running out of fossil fuels. Renewables can’t replace them. Nuclear fusion is not going work for a century, if ever," he said.

The Norwegian group Aker Solutions has bought Dr Rubbia’s patent for the thorium fuel-cycle, and is working on his design for a proton accelerator at its UK operation.

Victoria Ashley, the project manager, said it could lead to a network of pint-sized 600MW reactors that are lodged underground, can supply small grids, and do not require a safety citadel. It will take £2bn to build the first one, and Aker needs £100mn for the next test phase.

The UK has shown little appetite for what it regards as a "huge paradigm shift to a new technology". Too much work and sunk cost has already gone into the next generation of reactors, which have another 60 years of life.

So Aker is looking for tie-ups with the US, Russia, or China. The Indians have their own projects - none yet built - dating from days when they switched to thorium because their weapons programme prompted a uranium ban.

America should have fewer inhibitions than Europe in creating a leapfrog technology. The US allowed its nuclear industry to stagnate after Three Mile Island in 1979.

Anti-nuclear neorosis is at last ebbing. The White House has approved $8bn in loan guarantees for new reactors, yet America has been strangely passive. Where is the superb confidence that put a man on the moon?

A few US pioneers are exploring a truly radical shift to a liquid fuel based on molten-fluoride salts, an idea once pursued by US physicist Alvin Weinberg at Oak Ridge National Lab in Tennessee in the 1960s. The original documents were retrieved by Mr Sorensen.

Moving away from solid fuel may overcome some of thorium’s "idiosyncracies". "You have to use the right machine. You don’t use diesel in a petrol car: you build a diesel engine," said Mr Sorensen.

Thorium-fluoride reactors can operate at atmospheric temperature. "The plants would be much smaller and less expensive. You wouldn’t need those huge containment domes because there’s no pressurized water in the reactor. It’s close-fitting," he said.

Nuclear power could become routine and unthreatening. But first there is the barrier of establishment prejudice.

When Hungarian scientists led by Leo Szilard tried to alert Washington in late 1939 that the Nazis were working on an atomic bomb, they were brushed off with disbelief. Albert Einstein interceded through the Belgian queen mother, eventually getting a personal envoy into the Oval Office.

Roosevelt initially fobbed him off. He listened more closely at a second meeting over breakfast the next day, then made up his mind within minutes. "This needs action," he told his military aide.

It was the birth of the Manhattan Project. As a result, the US had an atomic weapon early enough to deter Stalin from going too far in Europe.

The global energy crunch needs equal "action". If it works, Manhattan II could restore American optimism and strategic leadership at a stroke: if not, it is a boost for US science and surely a more fruitful way to pull the US out of perma-slump than scattershot stimulus.

Even better, team up with China and do it together, for all our sakes.

Virus Helps Researchers Split Water into Hydrogen and Oxygen

POPSCI, By Clay Dillow, 04.12.2010 at 2:30 pm

Splitting Water It's chock full of hydrogen atoms; if we could only unlock it efficiently, we could have an abundant and inexpensive source of energy on our hands. Noodle Snacks

Viruses generally get a bad rap, but they can also be very helpful little machines. For instance, bacteriophages have been engineered to clear up infections that seemed otherwise untreatable, and genetic material from viruses has been used to ease biofuel production. Now a team at MIT is using a modified virus to assemble the biological nano-scaffolding necessary to split water into its constituent hydrogen and oxygen atoms.

Of course, other means to split water into hydrogen and oxygen exist, but none of them are as efficient or simple as the method plants use to oxidize water through photosynthesis, requiring energy from outside the system to carry the process to fruition. Meanwhile, efforts to extract the photosynthesizing components from plants for use in harnessing solar power have been largely unsuccessful.

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Science, Clay Dillow, electricity, energy, hydrogen, oxygen, photosynthesis, water splittingSo the MIT team decided to engineer a virus to imitate plants’ oxidizing machinery by artificial means. Using a zinc porphyrin pigment and iridium oxide catalyst, the team was already able to mimic nature’s own photosynthesizers, which are very efficient at flipping solar power into fuel for water-splitting reactions within plants. But for efficient water-splitting, those catalysts and pigments must be arranged in a very particular way.

Therein lies the team’s innovation: an engineered bacterial virus known as M13 that serves as a sort of self-assembling biological scaffold, spacing the porphyrins and iridium such that oxygen production increases fourfold. The pigments capture sunlight and transfer that energy down the length of the virus the way a wire transfers electricity from one end to the other. That energy in turn powers the iridium reaction that splits the oxygen from the water.

The process still lacks a critical step: once the splitting is complete, the oxygen has been siphoned from the water but the hydrogen is left split into its component electrons and protons. The team is currently exploring other biomimicking systems that might reassemble those building blocks into usable, storable hydrogen atoms. An actual commercial process that produces hydrogen from water as efficiently as plants do is likely years away, but the MIT team hopes to have a working, self-sustaining device that can perform the entire water-splitting process in the lab within two years.

Solar-powered mobile phone

The Strait Times, Feb 16, 2009

BARCELONA - SOUTH Korean electronics group Samsung showcased its first solar-powered mobile phone on Monday at an industry event in Barcelona, promising a commercial launch later this year.

The sleek-looking, touch-controlled 'Blue Earth,' the centerpiece of Samsung's drive to be more environmentally friendly, has solar panels on its back which the company claims are able to charge the battery in 10-14 hours. 

The phone's use of recycled materials and a built-in pedometer might also appeal to fans of eco-sheek gadgets. -- PHOTO: ASSOCIATED PRESS

This would offer approximately four hours of talk time, a company representative said at industry event Mobile World Congress where the phone is on display for the first time. 

The device, expected to be launched in Europe in the second half of 2009, can also be charged normally via a plug, with the solar panels used to top up the battery to extend its power. 

Fellow South Korean manufacturer LG Electronics also has put a prototype solar-powered phone on display here but the company has no launch date or name for the device. 

Industry watchers say the market for a solar-powered phone would include outdoor types in developed countries such as fishermen or campers who head into the wilderness without access to electricity. 

Its recycled materials and built-in pedometer, which shows how far the user has walked, might also appeal to fans of eco-sheek gadgets. 

If the price was low enough - Samsung has not revealed details yet - such a phone could also help link up the millions of poor worldwide who live either without or with very limited access to electricity. -- AFP