Biofuels, Not the Only Option!

Transportation accounts for more than 40% of California’s annual greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and the state relies on petroleum-based fuels for 96 percent of its transportation needs. Causing in January 2007, California Governor Schwarzenegger to issue an executive order mandating a statewide goal be established to reduce the carbon intensity of California’s transportation fuels by at least 10 percent by 2020 (“2020 Target”). Establishing a Low-Carbon Fuel Standard (LCFS) greenhouse gas standard for transportation fuels.

Late Thursday, April 23, becoming the first in the nation, the California Air Resources Board (CARB) approved standards to target greenhouse gas emissions from transportation fuels. With the aim to cut 16m tons/year of greenhouse gas emissions in the state by 2020. (more…)

Doug Bizell is the mad scientist of the South. Turning something no
one wants into something everyone needs. He makes a product called
Kudzunol, made from Kudzu. Kudzu is a weed that grows 12 inches a
day, every single day. It will reach 66 – 98 feet in trees.

Used for erosion control in the 1930s, it now covers anything and
everything in the southern U.S. Since Doug lives in Tennessee, he
has no problem finding it. It covers 7 million acres in the American
South.

You cannot kill it, highway departments are trying to control it
which is a neverending and often losing battle. It will grow out in (more…)

Energy efficiency boom leads 9 clean technology predictions for 2009

SHANGHAI, China, December 4th, 2008 – Continuing an annual tradition, the Cleantech
Group™, founders of the cleantech investment category and providers of leading global
market research and financial services for the cleantech ecosystem, today issued nine
predictions for clean technology markets in 2009, forecasting progress in some sectors,
but delays and setbacks in others.

A reflection of undercurrents in the global clean technology category from the company’s
conversations with industry and government leadership worldwide, the nine predictions
include a global focus on energy efficiency as a job creation and economic engine, and an
increase in valuations of global wind companies. (more…)

What is the purpose of termites?…

Those incredibly destructive little creatures have the potential to benefit
humans in the production of biofuels. Or more precisely, the bacteria in
their stomachs. Termites process the wood they ingest in a series of stomachs,
each with a distinct set of bacteria.  Those bugs within bugs release enzymes
that break down cellulose, the sugar chains in wood, into acetate, a fatty
acid that provides the termite’s energy. Scientists with the Joint Genome
Institute at the U.S. Department of Energy, hope to develop a process to
harness the power of these bacteria on an industrial scale to break cellulose
down into ethanol and provide biofuel without using food crops as a source. (more…)