Making the most of the water you have

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

For more about it: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/8297276.stm

Saving money on sewage treatment

A regular sewage plant for  28,000 people costs about €225,000 a year to run according to figures from Germany. Installing a new form of digester unit (many sewage plants don’t have them) made by IGB, shortened the digestion process from 30-50 days down to 5-7 days. In addition there is reduction in the residue by about 1/3 which reduces disposal cost by €70,000 a year. In addition, sewage plants us a lot of electricity in the process. The biogas produced by the digester can provide enough electricity to reduce costs by a further €100,000 a year. A bit of a no-brainer?

The full article is here.

Early Rice Harvests Ease Annual Famine In Bangladesh

Problem:

In Bangladesh  Monga ( famine that affects 2 million households from Sept to Dec when food has run out) can be decreased by

• Planting seed directly into ground instead of the usual method used in Asia.

[The rice seeds are sown by hand in special nursery beds. Then they are transplanted to rice fields.]

• Using a seed with shorter growing season

What is achieved?

• The growing season 25 – 40 days shorter
• Increases rice yield
• Direct planting reduces planting costs
• This permits growing of 2^nd crop eg maize, potato wheat chickpeas or vegetables
• Give 2 lots of work to landless peasants

Full article found here:  http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/07/090722093808.htm

China Outpaces U.S. in Cleaner Coal-Fired Plants

May10 2009  New York Times Link

IANJIN, China — China’s frenetic construction of coal-fired power plants has raised worries around the world about the effect on climate change. China now uses more coal than the United States, Europe and Japan combined, making it the world’s largest emitter of gases that are warming the planet.

But largely missing in the hand-wringing is this: China has emerged in the past two years as the world’s leading builder of more efficient, less polluting coal power plants, mastering the technology and driving down the cost.

While the United States is still debating whether to build a more efficient kind of coal-fired power plant that uses extremely hot steam, China has begun building such plants at a rate of one a month.

While construction has stalled on a new generation of low-pollution power plants that turn coal into a gas before burning it in the US , China has already approved equipment purchases for just such a power plant, to be assembled soon in a muddy field here in Tianjin.

Western countries continue to rely heavily on coal-fired power plants built decades ago with outdated, inefficient technology that burn a lot of coal and emit considerable amounts of carbon dioxide. China has begun requiring power companies to retire an older, more polluting power plant for each new one they build.

This is not to say that China has got it all right. There are still old inefficient power stations producing electricity and some of the better ones are not being used to their best effects. Only half the country’s coal-fired power plants have the emissions control equipment to remove sulphur compounds that cause acid rain, and China has not begun regulating some of the emissions that lead to heavy smog in big cities.

After relying until recently on older technology, “China has since become the major world market for advanced coal-fired power plants with high-specification emission control systems.”

Recent international reports have cut its forecast of the annual increase in Chinese emissions of global warming gases, to 3 percent from 3.2 percent, in response to technological gains.

But by continuing to rely heavily on coal, which supplies 80 percent of its electricity, China ensures that it will keep emitting a lot of carbon dioxide; even an efficient coal-fired power plant emits twice the carbon dioxide of a natural gas-fired plant. So the next step is who will be first to remove all CO₂ from thermal energy production? Many countries, including the UK, say they are investigating it strongly. But China has just built a small, experimental facility near Beijing to remove carbon dioxide from power station emissions and use it to provide carbonation for beverages, and the government has a short list of possible locations for a large experiment to capture and store carbon dioxide.

But it does not stop there. China is making other efforts to reduce its global warming emissions. It has doubled its total wind energy capacity in each of the past four years, and is poised to pass the United States as soon as this year as the world’s largest market for wind power equipment. China is building considerably more nuclear power plants than the rest of the world combined, and these do not emit carbon dioxide after they are built.

Biodiesal from non-food crops on marginal land that is more productive

Ardent Energy Group has formed a sub-branch in Adis Ababa, Ethiopia to grow jatropha and castor oil plant. A 50-year lease on the land includes permission to operate an oil crushing plant and biodiesel processing facility has been given on marginal land in Western Ethiopia

Jatropha and castor were selected as the first source of oil by AEG due to the resiliency of the plant, its ability to grow in marginal soil conditions and the extremely high-yield of oil to hectare as compared to other crops such as soybean. The ability of jatropha to thrive in harsh climates is also favorable, as the plant will not be competing with land that could otherwise be used for food production.

RESTORING THE LIVELIHOODS OF POST-TSUNAMI VICTIMS IN THE MALDIVES WITH IRIS AUTOPOTS

I saw this article here about how this innovate method of farming in uncompromising circumstances was leading to improved community facilities (aka Fair trade-type arrangement) as well as  local people earning a better and more sustainable living using these autopots. It would seem that the Maldives are very sandy are were not much use for agriculture but are now into producing golden melons much loved by the tourists! And the system is sustainable, eco friendly etc.  etc. So I went searching and found this picture.

What appears to be the way it works is that water + nutrients flow through the pipe to a valve on the lower right – the little box then fills and allows liquid through to the tray on the left. Once full, the valve closes and does not open again until all the liquid has been taken up by the plant in the big pot.

These are the types used in the Maldives. However, in many other areas big commercial systems using the same system in big banks  in China and many other places in Malaysia (where it was first developed) and other Far Eastern Countries.

Biomass made into electricty produces more miles than bio-ethanol

Electric vehicles using biomass converted into electricity travelled 81 percent farther per area of cropland than vehicles with internal combustion engines running on  ethanol, researchers in California found.

A small sport utility vehicle could do 36,000 km on the energy produced from a hectare of switch-grass converted into ethanol. But converting that biomass into electricity allowed a battery-powered SUV to get 56,000 km on the highway, the study published in Science magazine said.

But we do not yet produce enough switch grass to run power stations nor is the development of 2nd generation  bio-fuels sufficiently advanced for this to be a current reality. But certainly the idea that electric cars could prove to be more efficient than those run on bio-fuels is something to bear in mind.

Source: http://planetark.org/wen/52798

Lives changed by a millipede

This is in Kenya, near Mombasa

Look around at the lush and fertile landscape and it’s hard to believe that this is a man-made environment. Yellow weaver birds making a huge din whilst building their pendulous nests, a sleek cormorant prepares to dive into the water and even a hippo wallows in the mud.

The hippo as it turns out has a vital role to play in the ecosystem. The mud on it’s back is removed from the ponds and so stops the water hole from silting up. The crocodiles too play their part. They feed on the dead farm animals or remnants from the thriving organic fish-farm. And their excreta helps fertilise the water making the algae grow, which is food for the fish as well as nutrients for the rice paddies and bananas

Only 30 years ago – this thriving forest landscape was a rocky, lunar-like desert, created by mining coral for cement. Actually, there are still parts of it which have been newly quarried to give one an idea of how it all started. The inspiration behind the transformation is Dr. Rene Haller, a Swiss agronomist, who has just celebrated his 50th anniversary of living on the Kenyan Coast.

He started experimenting with different trees to see if any would put down roots into the dry, rocky terrain. The Casuarina tree, whose seeds had been washed onto Kenyan shores when Krakatoa erupted in the 1860s, was the best candidate. It produces nutrients in nodules on its roots and so is self-sustaining

But Haller’s most miraculous discovery was the beneficial effects of the millipede. This marvellous red-legged insect loves eating the needles dropped by the casuarinas. It’s pooh then becomes the humus for the more vegetation – thus starting the whole ecosystem development.

Haller’s vision didn’t stop there. He managed to set up lots of different business enterprises supported by rehabilitated land, both employing and providing food for hundreds of local people. He also managed to demonstrate the value of conservation – for example, by showing farmers the benefits of tree-planting in preserving water for irrigation.

To find out more about his ideas go to www.haller.org.uk

Third-World Stove Soot Is Target in Climate Fight

This article from the New York Times implies that 18% of the global warming effect is caused by soot as against 40% from CO2. In areas where there are few vehicles and little electricity, soot from smoky wood fire that are used by nearly everyone in these poor areas for cooking may be having a major impact on polar warming. As you will from elsewhere in this blog, there are many attempts to provide cooking facilities which do not have unpleasant side effects for the users and prevent them having to cut down trees.  Appropriate technological solutions are coming thick and fast and this might have the unforeseeable side effect of reducing polar melting.

A delightful quote from the article ‘Like tiny heat-absorbing black sweaters, soot particles warm the air and melt the ice by absorbing the sun’s heat when they settle on glaciers.’

Prize winning Kyoto Box

This box, costing a little over £3 a time, will save wood in poorer countries, as it uses solar power to turn it into an oven.

It won an award for sustainablilty as it was th simplest idea put forward, that will help save the forests and save the poorest people a lot of time and/or money.

It is made of 2 cardboard boxes with newspaper between the layers for insulation.  The inside is painted black and the outside is covered with silver foil. This  maximises the amount of heat that is trapped inside. It is appropriate technology that can easily produced locally, and because it is a flatpack, is easily transported.