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The Generator news service publishes articles on sustainable development, agriculture and energy as well as observations on current affairs. The news service is used on the weekly radio show, The Generator, as well as by a number of monthly and quarterly magazines. A podcast of the Generator news is also available.
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  • Carbon-neutral Hydrogen on the Horizon

    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.

  • Victorian water wars escalate

    Activists opposing plans to pipe water from parched rural centres to Melbourne’s suburbs were advocating disrupting train and water services to Melbourne, and blockading highways and Labor MPs’ electorate offices as the state’s water debate became increasingly bitter.

    Instruction leaflets delivered: Leaflets with instructions on how to carry out these tactics had been distributed around rural centres north-west of Melbourne, but they were unsigned, wrote Duncan Hughes in The Australian Financial Review (24/11/2007, p. 4).

    Emotions running high: Plug The Pipe, the lobby group attacking the plans for a north-south pipeline, disclaimed responsibility for inciting any violence or damage to private property but warned emotions were running high in a community suffering from the worst drought in a century. It could also provide other drought-stricken communities around the nation with tested tactics on how to combat desperate governments trying to find ways of dividing dwindling water supplies between towns and country.

    "Quasi-terrorist" tactics: Water Minister Tim Holding, who was responsible for the $4.9 billion of water infrastructure projects aimed at drought-proofing the state, had accused Liberal federal member Sharmon Stone and failed Liberal candidate Mike Dalmau of stirring up trouble and warned about "quasi-terrorist" tactics.

    Debate about 75 GL of water: The first wave of the water wars was being fought over the $2 billion Food Bowl Modernisation Project, based around the Goulburn Murray irrigation district, which was intended to save 225 gigalitres annually by 2012. The debate was about 75 gigalitres of water to flow to Melbourne from savings in the Goulburn Valley. Dalmau, who denounced extreme tactics but admitted to having distributed some controversial literature, said: "They cannot win the argument so they are attacking individuals." Nationals leader Peter Ryan, who wanted an alternative strategy of improved rainfall capture and increased recycling, believed the opponents were "clearly" winning the fight.

    The Australian Financial Review, 24/11/2007, p. 4

  • Stormwater offers local water supply

    US experience: "Lakes can be used to capture stormwater, as demonstrated in Canberra. Large quantities of water can be stored underground. Adelaide uses urban stormwater, where water goes through a holding storage and a constructed wetland before being fed into a brackish aquifer and recovered at drinking-water quality. The holding basin and a cleansing reed-bed reduces nutrient and pollutant loads by up to 90 per cent. Aquifer recovery fields operate at 60 US sites, where it is seen as an effective means of storing large volumes of water at low cost. The success of aquifer storage in Florida has led to 25 new projects.

    Preventing saline-intrusion: "… A key aspect of aquifer recharge is to protect the beneficial uses of the ground water. In some cases, stormwater would improve the water quality in aquifers close to the coast of Brisbane where the ground water is brackish and not currently usable. Monitoring at the Port of Brisbane shows ground water is some 2m below the surface at most locations and is in transition from a saline to freshwater system. Injection of fresh water can prevent seawater intrusion into coastal aquifers and still provide a useful urban storage. Generally before injection into an aquifer, stormwater will need to be cleansed in sediment basins, reedy wetlands or by using sand filters.

    Can be used directly: "When extracted it may be possible to be used directly for parks and golf courses. But for human consumption, reverse osmosis is likely to be used to remove heavy metals and other contaminants. Capturing stormwater will reduce the pollution of Brisbane’s creeks and could avoid the environmental impacts of building dams," Wylie added.

    Reference: Dr Peter Wylie is a researcher and consultant, specialising in environmental issues, including water, energy, climate change and sustainable farming. He can be reached at peter@horizonrural.com.au

    The Courier Mail, 3/11/2007, p. 55

  • Greenpeace protesters invade power station

    When it was suggested that it was frightening to think how easy it was to gain access to a power station, Mr Campbell said: "Not everybody can actually do it and we’re actually very highly trained and we research the activities very well."

    When further pressed about how the activists managed to get in, he said there was, "No comment".

    On Wednesday, police received reports of people taking photographs of the nearby Vales Point Power Station, prompting speculation that it could have been Greenpeace members preparing for their protest.

    Tuggerah Lakes Local Area Commander Superintendent Geoff McKechnie said the group had gained access yesterday by cutting through a wire perimeter fence.

    He refused to answer questions about Delta Electricity’s monitoring of the power station fence lines, citing security concerns.

    "They do have security processes in place and we will be working with Delta to improve those security processes," he said.

    Yesterday a Delta spokeswoman said the incident would be investigated, "but it really is now a matter for the police".

    Power station staff were evacuated during the protest but power production was not interrupted.

    Police eventually cut free the protesters, who were later charged with a range of trespass and malicious damage offences.

  • UN chief calls for Antarctic action

    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.


    Satellite images show the West Antarctic ice sheet is thinning and may even collapse in the future, causing sea levels to rise.

    Amid occasional flurries of snow, Ban flew over melting ice fields in a light plane, where vast chunks of ice the size of six-storey buildings could be seen floating off the coast after breaking away from ice shelves.

    "All we’ve seen has been very impressive and beautiful, extraordinarily beautiful," he told reporters.
    "But at the same time it’s disturbing. We’ve seen … the melting of glaciers."

    It was the first visit by a UN chief to Antarctica.

    Ban is preparing for a UN climate change conference in Bali, Indonesia, in December, which is expected to kick off talks on a new accord to curb carbon emissions after the Kyoto Protocol expires in 2012.

    Ban has focused strongly on the environment and held a climate change summit at the United Nations on the eve of the annual General Assembly gathering of world leaders.

    He is expected to continue his South American tour at Chilean national park Torres del Paine, where Andean glaciers are also being affected by global warming.

    He will then visit Brazil, a leading force in developing biofuels from crops as an alternative to fossil fuels. Fears about climate change have fuelled a boom in biofuels.

    Despite the controversy of diverting food crops into fuel production, Ban has said alternative energy sources are vital to addressing climate change.

    Antarctica – a continent with only about 80,000 temporary residents – is 25 per cent bigger than Europe and its ice sheets hold some 90 per cent of the fresh water on the Earth’s surface.

  • Speed up solar power says MP

    Solar power station to address peak power demand: "There is a project planned for northern Victoria which will address some of that peak power demand — that is, a solar power station…The station is costed at $420 million…the time frame is over the period to full commissioning in 2013; it will have 154 megawatts, and it will use photovoltaic technology… it will save us 400,000 tonnes of greenhouse gases a year and will provide power for around about 45,000 average homes.

    Pilot plant does not start until 2010: …"The pilot plant is not meant to start until 2010 and be completed until 2013. The technology is proven. The Victorian government is a substantial contributor to the project investment. Of that $420 million, $75 million has come from the Australian government and $50 million from the Victorian government. If the technology is proven, I call on the Victorian government to consult with the partners and accelerate the project beyond the current Bendigo pilot plant. We cannot wait until 2013 for this peak power project," said Crisp.

    Reference: Peter Crisp, Member for Mildura, Legislative Assembly, Victoria, 9 October 2007.

    Erisk Net, 8/11/2007