Category: Climate chaos

The researchers used naturally occurring bacteria in a microbial electrolysis cell with acetic acid — the acid found in vinegar. Acetic acid also is the predominant acid produced by fermentation of glucose or cellulose. The anode was granulated graphite, the cathode was carbon with a platinum catalyst, and they used an off-the-shelf anion exchange membrane. The bacteria consume the acetic acid and release electrons and protons creating up to 0.3 volts. When more than 0.2 volts are added from an outside source, hydrogen gas bubbles up from the liquid.

"This process produces 288 percent more energy in hydrogen than the electrical energy that is added to the process," says Logan.

Water hydrolysis, a standard method for producing hydrogen, is only 50 to 70 percent efficient. Even if the microbial electrolysis cell process is set up to bleed off some of the hydrogen to produce the added energy boost needed to sustain hydrogen production, the process still creates 144 percent more available energy than the electrical energy used to produce it.

For those who think that a hydrogen economy is far in the future, Logan suggests that hydrogen produced from cellulose and other renewable organic materials could be blended with natural gas for use in natural gas vehicles.

"We drive a lot of vehicles on natural gas already. Natural gas is essentially methane," says Logan. "Methane burns fairly cleanly, but if we add hydrogen, it burns even more cleanly and works fine in existing natural gas combustion vehicles."

The range of efficiencies of hydrogen production based on electrical energy and energy in a variety of organic substances is between 63 and 82 percent. Both lactic acid and acetic acid achieve 82 percent, while unpretreated cellulose is 63 percent efficient. Glucose is 64 percent efficient.

Another potential use for microbial-electrolysis-cell produced hydrogen is in fertilizer manufacture. Currently fertilizer is produced in large factories and trucked to farms. With microbial electrolysis cells, very large farms or farm cooperatives could produce hydrogen from wood chips and then through a common process, use the nitrogen in the air to produce ammonia or nitric acid. Both of these are used directly as fertilizer or the ammonia could be used to make ammonium nitrate, sulfate or phosphate.

The researchers have filed for a patent on this work. Air Products and Chemicals, Inc. and the National Science Foundation supported this work.

A recent Science Friday broadcast on National Public Radio featured an interview with the researchers. You can listen to the show and learn more about the technology here.

Antarctica’s ice sheets are nearly 2.5km thick on average – five times the height of the Taipei 101 tower, the world’s tallest building. But scientists say they are already showing signs of climate change.

The Permaforest Trust – Centre for Sustainability Education, in partnership with National Environment Centre campus of the Riverina Institute of TAFE, is now offering accredited, specialist sustainability training for transition to a low carbon future from its Byron Bay campus in northern NSW, Australia.

Learn permaculture skills, relocalisation strategies and systems thinking to proactively meet the challenges of peak oil, climate change and other limits to growth in positive and strategic ways.

Permaforesttrust’s accredited Certificate 4 and Diploma courses start in March 2008 and include permaculture theory and practice, energy descent planning, community climate change strategies, relocalisation and bioregional planning, food security, community gardens and post carbon transition.

For more information contact Permaforesttrust at:

info@permaforesttrust.org.au, www.permaforesttrust.org.au, Ph: (02) 6689 7579

Antarctica already contributing to rising sea levels: Recent accurate satellite measurements of gravity fields over Antarctica showed that Antarctica was already contributing to sea-level rise, which was not thought to be the case at the time of the 2001 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report and was not included in the sea-level projections in the latest IPCC report in 2007. The upshot was that the WAIS, and indeed the whole Antarctic Ice Sheet, might be contributing to sea-level rise earlier than expected. At what point this process became irreversible due to the accelerated disintegration effects already mentioned for the WAIS was uncertain, but a 3-4°C global warming might well take it beyond the tipping point.

Many major cities would be flooded: The disintegration of the WAIS would mean a sea-level rise of 5-6 metres with huge impacts on Australia. The combined effect of the melting of Greenland and rapid disintegration of part, or all of, the Antarctic ice sheet would result in unprecedented damage and disruption to civilisation. Most of the major and historic coastal cities of the world would be almost totally destroyed, or, given huge expenditure over centuries, turned into walled cities not unlike New Orleans before hurricane Katrina. We would no longer be concerned about the sinking of Venice, but of London, Lisbon, New York, Shanghai, Bangkok, Calcutta, Lagos and dozens of other major cities that lay at the roots of our civilisation. Extensive low-lying areas of several major Australian cities such as Adelaide, Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane would be affected.

Reference: "Dangerous Aspiration: Beyond 3ºC Warming in Australia". A report commissioned by WWF-Australia, published September 2007; written and researched by Dr A. Barrie Pittock, PSM, former leader of the CSIRO Climate Impacts Group and author of "Climate change: Turning up the Heat". Copyright WWF – Australia, all rights reserved. Contact: WWF – Australia Head Office, Level 13, 235 Jones St, Ultimo, NSW 2007. Phone: +612 9281 5515 Fax: +612 8281 1060 Website: http://www.wwf.org.au

Erisk Net, 25/10/2007, p. 18

Compensation available: However, the net cost of emissions trading for these companies was likely to be far less. Not only would they be able to pass some costs to customers, but also these companies would all be likely to be able to claim compensation. Under the federal government’s proposed emissions trading scheme, companies operating in trade-exposed industries would be allowed to claim free permits to offset the cost of carbon price. But the details of these arrangements were still being discussed with industry, wrote Breusch.

Many companies listed by CDP: While the Carbon Disclosure Project listed only those companies that responded to its requests, that included 74 per cent of the S&P/ASX 50 and all but one company in the S&P/ASX 20. Responding to the CDP, BlueScope had said it was too early to estimate the likely cost of emissions trading.

The Australian Financial Review, 24/10/2007, p. 7

The Climate Institute report card on the parties’ climate change policies shows a stark contrast between the successful Greens (90%) and failed Coalition (23%) and Labor (40%). The environment and climate change tops the economy as a voters’ concern in 2007.

"The Climate Institute’s methodology is conservative. For example, it overlooks the huge greenhouse gas policies of both big parties in promoting the logging and burning of Tasmania’s forests and Gunns’ polluting pulp mill which will exude 10 million tonnes of carbon dioxide annually. Both parties back public monies going to fund these activities," Greens Leader Bob Brown said today.

"The Greens’ policy to retrofit Australia’s 7.4 million homes with insulation and a solar hot water service has not been matched by Mr Turnbull or Mr Garrett," Senator Brown said.

"And neither party is prepared for the shock news (Guardian overnight)that world oil production peaked in 2006 and will fall 7% per year – an issue Greens Senator Christine Milne has pursued in the senate for years."

"The Greens’ call for a funding switch from tollways to fast, efficient public transport must be heard by Labor and the Coalition," Senator Brown said.