News – Page 917

Even if the Solar Impulse completes a successful circumnavigation, though – it would fly day and night – there is not much chance of a solar-power aviation industry emerging any time soon, if ever.

There seems no way for solar to power the loads required of civil aviation or to achieve the heights or speed required.

But the aviation industry is looking at alternatives to jet fuel that are practical and sustainable, and have a smaller carbon footprint, particularly in light of emission trading schemes that seem likely to be a feature of the world economies in coming years.

Air travel is estimated to contribute just two per cent of greenhouse gas emissions, but the industry’s high growth rate has raised concerns about future emissions. The European Union recently included aviation in the third phase of its emissions trading scheme.

The International Air Transport Association, which represents more than 230 airlines, or almost all the commercial airlines in the world, has set a target of using 10 per cent alternative fuels by 2017.

Although several options to reduce emissions are available, including synthetics known as Fischer-Tropsch fuels and first-generation biofuels, the industry is favouring so-called second and third-generation biofuels because they have the required high energy content, do not freeze at cold temperatures produce fewer carbon emissions and do not compete with food crops.

During the past 12 months, there have been at least four flights by leading airlines that have tested biofuels.

Virgin Atlantic flew a Boeing 747-400 with one engine operating on a 20 per cent mix of babassu oil – derived from the nut of a native Brazilian tree – and coconut oil. Air New Zealand flew a similar plane in December with one engine operating on a 50 per cent mix of biofuel from jatropha.

Continental Airlines flew a Boeing 737-800 in January with one engine using a 50 per cent mix of algae and jatropha, while Japan Airlines in January also flew a Boeing 747-300 with a 50 per cent biofuel mix containing jatropha, camelina (an energy crop grown in rotation with wheat and other cereal crops) and algae.

IATA and the airlines are still digesting the results, but the initial response is promising.

Honeywell, which provided the process technology to convert the second-generation, renewable feedstocks to green jet fuel, says the demonstration flights will have a tremendous influence on how the aviation community thinks about biofuels.

Honeywell subsidiary UOP’s renewable energy and chemicals unit general manager Jennifer Holmgren says the tests demonstrate that its technology produces “on-spec” green jet fuel from sustainable feedstocks.

She says commercial-scale production and usage of these biofuels in the aviation industry could be a reality in a few years, and having a substantial effect on aviation jet fuel supply within three to five years.

However, according to those providing the potential feedstocks, market accessibility and economic benefits still need to be addressed, as it is not yet clear that there is enough raw material to supply the entire aviation industry.

Coast residents warned to brace for climate change

“The frequency of flooding events is going to increase significantly,” he said.

“The average for Australia is that if we have a sea level rise of only half a metre, which is very conservative for this century, you’re going to see flooding events increasing by a factor of something like 300.

“This means that if you’ve got a flooding event that happens every year at the moment, it’s going to be happening every day by the end of the century.

“I say it’s a risk-based thing, it gives you the probability of a flooding event during the life of the asset.

“It includes both the uncertainty of when the next storm’s going to come and also the uncertainty of the projections of sea level rise into the future.”

New catalyst boosts hydrogen as transport fuel

Umit Ozkan, a professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering at Ohio State University, has led a team of scientists to develop a catalyst that can make hydrogen from ethanol without the need for high temperatures or expensive materials such as platinum or rhodium. The work could circumvent some of the storage and transportation problems.

“Instead of making hydrogen from biofuel at a centralised facility and transporting it to gas stations, we could use our catalyst inside reactors that are actually located at the gas stations. So we wouldn’t have to transport or store the hydrogen – we could store the biofuel, and make hydrogen on the spot.” The research was presented on Wednesday at the American Chemical Society‘s annual meeting in Philadelphia.

Catalysts that can make hydrogen from biofuels already exist but usually need rare, expensive ingredients. “Precious metals have high catalytic activity and, in most cases, high stability, but they’re also very expensive,” said Ozkan.

She said that her goal from the outset was to develop a cheaper catalyst, one that was based on readily-available metals. The resulting catalyst is made from calcium, cobalt and small grains of cerium oxide, a common ingredient in ceramics. According to the researchers, it an produce hydrogen with 90% efficiency at around 350C – a low temperature by industrial standards. “Rhodium is used most often for this kind of catalyst, and it costs around $9,000 (£4,800) an ounce,” said Ozkan. “Our catalyst costs around $9 a kilogram.”

She added that operating at lower temperatures would also bring energy savings. “And if the catalyst is highly active and can achieve high hydrogen yields, we don’t need as much of it. That will bring down the size of the reactor, and its cost”.

The production of hydrogen from ethanol produces waste gases such as carbon dioxide and methane – the former can be trapped and stored while the latter can be burned to supply some of the energy needed for the conversion process itself. Though the team’s current research focused on ethanol, the researchers believe it could be adapted to other liquid biofuels.

Ozkan said that a preliminary economic analysis of her technique showed that the price of hydrogen could approach that of petroleum. “As gasoline prices continue to rise, hydrogen produced from renewable sources such as bio-liquids will be more and more competitive. Also, the possibility of using hydrogen in fuel cells will provide much higher efficiency than internal combustion engines can. So the actual cost, in dollars per mile, may already be lower.”

Friends of the Earth‘s biofuels campaigner Kenneth Richter warned that hydrogen was only as clean a source of power as the energy used to produce it. “Rather than being a clean alternative to fossil fuels, biofuels are actually increasing carbon dioxide emissions. Hydrogen-fuelled cars are still a long way off – the immediate priority for cutting emissions is smarter cars that burn less fuel.”

Open-source hydrogen car takes to the road

The car, which drove in to the launch event, is capable of a 50mph top speed, 0-30mph acceleration in 5.5 seconds, and has a 240 mile range. The car’s backers say it has greenhouse gas emissions of 30g/km CO2, less than a third of the latest hybrid petrol cars such as the Toyota Prius and Honda Insight.

The lightweight Smart car-size vehicle uses hydrogen in a modest 6kW fuel cell, and – in the case of this prototype – uses hydrogen converted from natural gas. Hydrogen can also be created from water using electrolysis and potentially even from biofuels.

The open-source decision was made to speed the car’s commercialisation, with the company hoping entrepreneurs globally will adapt it to local conditions. Hugo Spowers, a motorsport engineer and the founder of Riversimple, said: “We want competitors, even if they’re in the UK. We believe that open source is commercially the best thing for us to do, as it will help grow the market for hydrogen technology, from parts to repairs and the refuelling infrastructure.”

Sebastian Piëch, the finanical backer for Riversimple, added: “Now that we have the basic vehicle in place with practical technology, the challenge is to begin the development of a fuelling infrastructure to accompany it.”

The car, which cost nearly £500,000 to develop in partnership with Oxford University and Cranfield University, is expected to cost £200 a month to lease when it is launched as a production vehicle. The date for UK availability is yet to be announced, but Riversimple is in talks with UK cities including Oxford and Worcester for pilots.

Hydrogen cars have so far enjoyed little real-world success, due in part to a lack of charging infrastructure, cost and – more recently – a political swing towards electric cars.

Gordon Brown has publicly backed electric cars as a way to reduce UK carbon emissions, and in April the government announced plans to offer £5,000 grants towards anyone buying an electric car in 2011.

In the US, the Obama administration recently cut research budgets for hydrogen vehicles. Steven Chu, the US energy secretary, last month said: “We asked ourselves: ‘Is it likely in the next 10 or 15, 20 years that we will convert to a hydrogen car economy?’ The answer, we felt, was ‘no’.”

Spowers disputed the notion that widespread hydrogen technology was a long way off. “I agree the passion is swinging away from hydrogen, but the reason is people are sceptical of the near-term possibilities of hydrogen vehicles – people are still clear that hydrogen is the end-game.”

The Riversimple urban car, he said, proved the technology was available now.

Past Climate Variability and Change in the Arctic and at High Latitudes

Final Report

Note: All links are to PDF files.

Entire Report: Past Climate Variability and Change in the Arctic and at High Latitudes

Plate 1: Map of Arctic Ocean

Plate 2: Timeline of Climate Events and Time Periods

For further information regarding this Synthesis and Assessment Product, please contact Dr. Fabien Laurier at SAP-info@usgcrp.gov . Please include “SAPinfo” in the subject line.

This document, part of the Synthesis and Assessment Products described in the U.S. Climate Change Science Program (CCSP) Strategic Plan, was prepared in accordance with Section 515 of the Treasury and General Government Appropriations Act for Fiscal Year 2001 (Public Law 106-554) and theinformation quality act guidelines issued by the Department of the Interior and the U.S. Geological Survey pursuant to Section 15). The CCSP Interagency Committee relies on the Department of the Interior and the U.S. Geological Survey certifications regarding compliance with Section 515 and Department guidelines as the basis for determining that this product conforms with Section 515. For purposes of compliance with Section 515, this CCSP Synthesis and Assessment Product is an “interpreted product” as that term is used in U.S. Geological Survey guidelines and is classified as “highly influential”. This document does not express any regulatory policies of the United States or any of its agencies, or provide recommendations for regulatory action.

US Climate Change Science Program, Suite 250, 1717 Pennsylvania Ave, NW, Washington, DC 20006. Tel: +1 202 223 6262. Fax: +1 202 223 3065. Email: information@climatescience.gov. Web: www.climatescience.gov. Webmaster: webmaster@climatescience.gov

17 June, 2009

Revealed: climate change impact on the US.

“It is clear that climate change is happening now. The observed climate changes we report are not opinions to be debated. They are facts to be dealt with,” he said.

The nearly 200-page document is a joint venture between the White House and 13 federal agencies.

It has been released as the US Congress considers legislation that imposes the first national cap on emissions while also seeking to reduce them.

Mr Obama’s chief science adviser, John Holdren, says action must be taken.

“Action needs to include both measures to reduce the emissions of heat-trapping pollution that are driving this problem and measures to adapt to the part of climate change we can’t avoid,” he said.

The report compiles years of scientific research and updates it with new data, painting a bleaker picture of global warming in the United States than has been done before.

It reveals that the average temperature in the US has risen 2 degrees Fahrenheit over the past 50 years, and might rise by up to 11 degrees Fahrenheit by the year 2100.

It warns the number of deaths from heat waves could double in Los Angeles and quadruple in Chicago if emissions are not reduced.

Sea levels are also expected to rise, with the area near New York City one of the worst hit.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Jane Lubchenco says humans are to blame.

“We’re also reporting today with greater confidence than ever before that human activities are the main cause of the changes we see underway,” she said.

“I really believe this report is a game changer, I think that much of the foot dragging in addressing climate change is a reflection of the perception that climate change is way down the road, it’s in the future.

“And this report demonstrates, provides the concrete scientific information, that says unequivocally that climate change is happening now.”

Meanwhile the United Nations is warning of what it calls “megadisasters” in the world’s biggest cities unless more is done to heed the threat of climate change.

It says tens of millions of people are highly exposed because they live in big cities that would be threatened by rising sea levels or earthquakes.

And a new report from the Red Cross likens forecasting the impact of global warming to rolling a dice saying: “confronted with global warming, we know the dice is loaded”.

Category: News

World’s first solar aeroplane and fuel alernatives