Mean Green ?

This piece caught my attention today. Not sure what to say!

Mean Green BioFuels' Technologies
-- Oil Recovery from Poultry and Livestock Wastewater Sludge
About 100 million pigs, 35 million cattle, 1.6 billion
turkeys, and 8 billion chickens are slaughtered and processed
each year in the United States. The USDA requires facilities
that process these meats to use large volumes of clean water
to continuously rinse the meats as they are cut and packaged.
The derivative large volumes of water contain extremely high
levels of protein and fat. These nutrients are removed from
the wastewater using conventional but highly efficient
wastewater processing methods. This results in a cleaned
wastewater and a concentrated sludge, which is called
Dissolved Air Flotation ("DAF") sludge. The poultry industry
alone generates in excess of 2.5 billion pounds or more than
63,000 tanker loads per year of DAF sludge. The conventional
practice in the industry is to transport and dispose DAF
sludge through land application.

Mean Green's sister company, GreenShift Industrial Design
Corporation ("GIDC"), has a proprietary DAF sludge processing
technology that effectively reduces the volume of DAF sludge
by 80% while recovering the majority of the animal fats
contained in the sludge. This fat can be cost-effectively
converted into biodiesel fuel.

GIDC intends to install its DAF processing systems at
qualified processing facilities for no up front cost in return
for fixed annuities equal to a discount to their current gross
disposal costs and GIDC's agreement to purchase the refined
fats extracted from the DAF sludge. GIDC will then sell these
fats to Mean Green for conversion into biodiesel. GIDC
estimates that the benefit of its technology for an average
sized meat processing facility will be about $400,000 per
year.

Read the entire article here

Quote of the day (via Quote Garden)
"I have no doubt that we will be successful in harnessing the sun's energy.... If sunbeams were weapons of war, we would have had solar energy centuries ago.~Sir George Porter, quoted in The Observer, 26 August 1973"

Biodiesel. The dark side

It is safe to say that a concept has enough momentum when somebody you know says, "My dad is already doing something along those lines!" This was the reply I got when I was casually mentioning the Jatropha fever to a friend of mine.

D1 Oils a UK based biofuel company and its aggressive goal is one of the reasons why many people in India are familiar with Jatropha. The company plans to have Jatropha cultivated in 5 million hectares of land in India in the next five years. Mechanized and intensive, the vast majority of the bio diesel produced will be exported to the developed countries.

What ? Wait a second...

The original green dream was to have small and medium farmers in drought prone and degraded areas do organic bio diesel farming. The idea was to help the farmers, help the environment and lessen India's oil dependence. So when something like D1 Oils shows up , one can't help but wonder... Is that a good thing ?

GoodnewsIndia.com asks the question, "Will global carpet-baggers transform themselves into environmentalists, fan out into the developing world and make a tidy profit?"

Here is another sobering thought from Monbiot

"The market responds to money, not need.

People who own cars have more money than people at risk of starvation. In a contest between their demand for fuel and poor people'’s demand for food, the car-owners win every time. Something very much like this is happening already.

Though 800 million people are permanently malnourished, the global increase in crop production is being used to feed animals: the number of livestock on earth has quintupled since 1950.The reason is that those who buy meat and dairy products have more purchasing power than those who buy only subsistence crops."

Soy is another classic example of a good idea going over to the dark side. Soy cultivation today is responsible for large scale destruction of tropical forests and displacement of native tribes in South America.

I feel, we urgently need a sound and scientific national policy on biodiesel. It is a little reassuring to know that the Indian planning commission has put together a draft national bio-fuel policy. I haven't been able to find the entire policy document yet. I can only hope it is based on sound principles.

We need to make sure biodiesel stays biodiesel and not become a biohazard.



PS:
Prof Shrinivasa of Sustainable Transformations has used the seeds from the native tree Pongamia to make biodiesel and electricity in remote and poor villages. Pongamia unlike Jatropha, is a native species and is a tree with a greater life span (80 years).

Also, myths and facts about biodiesel can be found here

President Kalam and the Physic nut

India's current and future energy consumption is a matter of worldwide concern. So when the President Dr Abdul Kalam spoke of energy independence on the eve of India's independence day, it created quite a buzz.

The speech can be found in its entirety on his website presidentofIndia.nic.in

It is often refreshing to listen to the President. Being a scientist himself, he understands the issues and the technologies involved. His style has always been to use science, statistics, economics and vision to create positive public debates and industry participation. I found his emphasis on renewable energy in the speech very reassuring. But... He goes on to promote Coal and Thorium based nuclear energy also. Add to that, he only vaguely refers to global warming. So, I found the speech inspiring and yet disappointing!

India consumes about 114 million tons of oil annually. Almost the whole of that (112 million tons) is used in the transportation sector. Simply put, to solve the problem of oil dependence one needs to focus on transportation. So when the President says that there is a potential to replace 60 million tons (50%) of oil imports with eco friendly bio diesel from energy plantations like "Jatropha" on degraded waste land...... My green radar system screams "WHAT ? HOW ? WHERE ? SERIOUS ?". My Google happy fingers furiously search for more information.

So what is Jatropha ? Jatropha Curcas aka Physic nut is a low growing tree native to South America. It is now grown in many parts of Africa and Asia. It is a vigorous drought and pest resistant plant. It can grow in soil degraded land and even better, is known to restore soil nutrients. The plant has several medicinal value. Most importantly its seeds have high oil content. A hectare of relatively dry degraded land is known to produce about 1 ton of oil. The oil has excellent bio diesel properties and India has about 60 million hectares of degraded land. Hence, the President's statement (and the title of my post)

The plant has been known to the natives of South America for centuries. It was brought into the spotlight by two professors at University of Hohenheim, Prof Dr K Becker and Prof Dr G Francis. Their case study on India and Jatropha can be found here

The study finds production of bio diesel to be almost carbon neutral. If India were to successfully deploy Jatropha, not only can India reduce its oil dependence but also gain significant carbon credits. The Center for Jatropha promotion in India is already engaged in this activity.

Now, before we make Jatropha the next super hero, we need to understand certain things. For one it is a non native plant. The perils of introducing non native vegetation is a common painful knowledge. Also, the idea is to cultivate the plant in wastelands and not on viable farmlands. If Jatropha is to go the way Ethanol is going in North America, it might not be entirely carbon neutral and eco friendly.

A burgeoning Indian population is exerting immense pressure on existing forest cover. Unregulated human activity is creating more and more wastelands. Small and medium farmers are suffering from drought and land degradation. From what I have read so far, I think, Jatropha has the potential of creating a positive impact in India. I hope it doesn't create a negative one

Quote of the day
"When one tugs at a single thing in nature, he finds it attached to the rest of the world"...John Muir

Mexican cuisine, Alternative fuels, Conservationism Vs Environmentalism

We have these quarterly team meetings. We go out for lunch and we congratulate each other on our achievements. This time around, we went to a Mexican restaurant. Nestled in a quaint little neighborhood, with lush greenery, tall gentle trees and overlooking a river. The food turns out better than the view. They make some amazing salsa and cheese enchiladas. The tomatoes for some reason taste extraordinary. Must be organic.

The conversation is free flowing ranging from the summer heat, yard work, how girls grow up too fast, how cute my husband is, how adorable my wife is, marriage, barbecue, NASCAR, left turns, more left turns etc etc. I am hearing all this, but all I really thinking about is my yummy enchiladas (munch munch). So I do the occasional nod, the "Oh really" , the "Wow", the "Hmmm". The conversation flows on... the high fuel prices, China and India's oil consumption, M85. The mention of M85 induces brain activity in me (Mission impossible theme song playing in my head). What ? . What is M85?

M85 is an alternative fuel that has 85% methanol and 15% unleaded premium gasoline. My research led me to this cool site, altfuels.org . Not only did I find answers about M85, but also information about other kinds of alternative fuels

* Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG, commonly known as propane)
* Compressed Natural Gas (CNG)
* Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG)
* Methanol (M85)
* Ethanol (E85)
* Biodiesel (B20)
* Electricity
* Hydrogen

The author, Dr Looper is a PhD from Caltech and a scientist working for Aerospace Corporation. The website talks about the alternative fuels available today, its advantages and its disadvantages. The site is a must surf. E85 and B20 are renewal fuel sources and sound very promising to me. Many carbon-trading projects are helping people in the developing world use Biodiesel.

My dream come true would however be to have an electric car, painted with solar cells. I mentioned dispersible solar cells in my earlier post. Anyway, that is just me and my dream.

Dr Looper says this about himself... "I named this website "Uncle Mark's Alternative Fueling Station" because it is mostly for those three, and for all children growing up breathing polluted air, that I think we need to promote alternatives to gasoline and diesel fuel. In that sense, I am more a conservationist than an environmentalist: an environmentalist mostly values wilderness and wildlife for their own sakes, whereas a conservationist figures that we don't inherit the planet from our parents--we borrow it from our children. This is consistent with my own generally conservative point of view; I have never understood why most conservatives regard conservationism with such alarm--after all, the two words "conservative" and "conservation" come from the same root, and I for one would say that taking care of the planet we are borrowing from the next generation is about as good an expression of "family values" as you're likely to find!"

I hope to be a good environmentalist someday (maybe!). My main motivation is a better and green future. Not just trees and wildlife for my own sake, but also for the future generations. To me, conservationism and environmentalism is the same thing; both are the same people; both are good people. Dr Looper is entitled to his opinion. Regardless, he seems to be a great guy.


Quote of the day
"...But the real thing about Mexican food is that it is not all tacos; it i’s mostly Mexican food from all around Mexico" -- Shelley Golan, a sweet little kid