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Green Notes - 25 Feb 08

By Chinthana ⋅ February 25, 2008 ⋅  Print This Post ⋅ Post a comment

• World’s first ever commercial bio fuel flight took off from Heathrow and landed at Amsterdam’s Schipol Airport. The flight has been dubbed as a “stunt” by some as some research has revealed that carbon savings from bio fuels are negligible. While 3 of the jet’s engines contained standard jet fuel, the last one contained 20 percent coconut oil and babassu nuts. While using renewable energy is a step in the right direction, it appears that there are many issues that need to be addressed, before we jump on the bio fuel bandwagon.
• Can waste heat from car exhausts be used to generate electricity? Prof. Mike Rowe is all about using the heat from car exhausts to generate electricity, thereby rendering the alternator useless and providing 5% saving in fuel consumption straightaway. The technology to do this has been around for ages; it’s the same technology used in central heating systems and refrigerators. So what’s the deal? There are a few problems when it comes to storing the energy, just like storing any other type of energy. Therefore until some of the practical issues are ironed out, we’ll have to use gas to power our alternators in order to generate electricity.
• Wine via sailboat? The eco-friendly French are taking a step back and using a method used last in the 1800s to export their wine. 60,000 bottles of wine are to be sent from Laungedoc to Ireland using a 3 mast 19th century barque. It’ll take about 4 days for the wine to reach Ireland, but the carbon saving is said to be 4.9oz per bottle. Thus the total saving is about 18,375lbs.
• Mother Nature fights back again as the Kenyan Wild Fire rages on for the second day. While the fires rage in Kenya, coal mining has triggered a minor earthquake in the west German state of Saarland on Saturday. Germany plans to phase out it’s coal mines by 2009 and the closure of this mine was not that much of a surprise. It might be a good thing if all nations start thinking about shutting down the coal mining industry. No one likes earthquakes and electricity when your house is reduced to a bunch of rubble is of little use.