When ecoBiz Participant Australian Country Choice transported goods between their warehouse and factory, their forklift had to travel around the entire factory to reach the adjacent warehouse.

They decided to build a new door in factory next to their warehouse.

This simple measure means the forklift travels a more efficient route, and they are now saving 184 tonnes of forklift gas, equivalent to over 600 tonnes of greenhouse gas, each year!

Sourced & published by Henry Sapiecha

From Food Industry Waste

Science (Mar. 31, 2009) — The AZTI-Tecnalia technological centre, experts in food research, have put a biogas plant into operation in order to investigate novel systems of sustainable energy production based on the use of waste and sub-products from the food industry.

This new plant exploits the enormous potential of obtaining biogas from the organic matter contained in agricultural food waste, and will help the food industry to reduce the environmental impact caused by organic waste.

The plant, located at the AZTI-Tecnalia premises in Derio, aims to obtain biogas rich in methane by the process of anaerobic digestion* of the organic material contained in the sub-products from food, in order to transform it into electrical and heat energy. In the same way, for 2010, the technological centre foresees adapting the plant and making a commitment to that renewable source of energy which has seen the greatest surge in recent years: hydrogen. So, the aim is to be able to obtain hydrogen and methane from the same combined fermentation process.

AZTI-Tecnalia specialists are thus researching the viability of obtaining benefit from a number of agricultural food sub-products, alone or in combination (co-digestion) with other elements from various sources, such as sludge from purifying plants or food waste from mass consumption. Amongst others are mixtures from animal husbandry silage (purines), together with waste from agricultural food industries (leftovers from fruit and vegetable markets, milk whey, fish ends, aquaculture waste, etc.

With the biogas plant it is possible to reduce the environmental impact caused by organic waste. The emissions of greenhouse effect gases into the atmosphere are reduced, smells are considerably reduced and the final value of the waste is enhanced, As a consequence, the industry can adapt itself to environmental and social requisites, at the same time as its processes are more efficient through making better use of available resources.

The plant is available to government bodies and to food enterprises and environmental services who are interested in developing R+D projects applied to the energy valuation of food sub-products, with the aim of obtaining information for decision-making in the installation of this kind of plant at an industrial scale.

AZTI-Tecnalia is supporting the food industry in sustainable development, implementing measures to enhance its environmental performance. The biogas plant complements the activities undertaken by the centre at its food processing pilot plant, in which valuation trials of sub-products as new sources of raw materials for transformed foodstuffs are also carried out. Likewise, more profitable and innovative options are being sought in order to manage subproducts and waste generated by the food industry and studies of the Life Cycle Analysis (LCA) of the products are undertaken, analysing where the main costs and environmental impacts lie, and proposing, in consequence, situations for the enhancement and optimisation of the process.

* Anaerobic digestion is a biological process which transforms organic material into biogas and into a digested sludge, which can be used as organic enhancement in agricultural applications. Biogas mainly consists of carbon dioxide and methane, the latter with a high calorific value and which, thereby, can be used as a renewable source of electrical and/or thermal energy, or as a fuel for vehicles.

Sourced & published by Henry Sapiecha

51 Allara Street
Canberra  ACT  2600
PH: 02 6213 7961 FAX: 02 6213 7945
Email: Unknown
Website: Unknown

Sourced & published by Henry Sapiecha

Biological Engineers Generate

Natural Gas with Bacteria

October 1, 2006 — A new kind of waste digester uses two different strains of bacteria in different tanks. This would normally take place in the same environment, but microbiologists have now separated it into two stages that increases natural-gas production. The technology increases efficiency and can turn three tons of food scraps into enough energy to power 25 homes for a day.

DAVIS, Calif. — There’s a new twist on the old adage, one man’s trash is another man’s treasure. Now that trash may be another man’s power. Researchers in California are turning garbage into bio-gas that may one day provide the electricity in your home.

Trash could soon be powering your home. A new digester can transform it into energy. It uses two strains of bacteria to convert waste into bio-gas. Most digesters store both bacteria in the same tank, which makes the process unpredictable and slow. But not this digester.

“Zhang’s process takes the two bacteria and separates them into two separate environments,” Dave Konwinski, the director of OnSite Power Systems in Davis, Calif., tells DBIS.

This new and improved digester is the brain child of Biological Engineer Ruihong Zhang. She and her students at UC Davis first built its prototype in the lab. She’s thrilled her new technology is being put to use in the real world.

“It’s a new technology … So it’s like a child grow into adult,” she says.

The digester will turn three tons of food scraps into energy for 25 houses a day. But it’s not just for homes. The digester could be especially useful to fuel processing plants. It s scheduled to be up and running this fall. OnSite Power Systems plans to market it in several states in the next couple of years, including California, Wisconsin and Minnesota.

“We can actually scale a digester to fit their current operations, fill it right at their operations, take the waste stream into the digester, and the energy right back into the plant,” Konwinski says. “It will make a substantial dent in our current energy requirement for petroleum.”

It’s a win-win-win situation for the environment, industry and consumers.

BACKGROUND: Environmental engineers at the University of California, Davis, are building a full-scale anaerobic digester that can convert any type of solid organic waste into electricity — even leftovers from restaurants. The system is part of the $100,000 Sacramento Municipal Utility District (SMUD pilot project), but an even larger digester system is being put into place in San Francisco.

HOW IT WORKS: In the process, food waste is collected from restaurants and institutions and then fed to bacteria that thrive in low-oxygen environments. It’s called anaerobic digestion, a naturally occurring process of decomposition. One type of bacteria turns carbohydrates into simple sugars, amino acids and fatty acids. A second group of bacteria eats those compounds and turns them into hydrogen gas, carbon dioxide, and acetic acid — the primary component of vinegar. Then a third group of bacteria takes those broken-down compounds and turns them into methane and carbon dioxide. Between 60 and 80 percent becomes methane. The methane can be used as fuel for an internal combustion engine that provides electricity.

TYPES OF DIGESTION: Anaerobic digestion is not the same thing as human digestion, since the type of bacteria that produce methane don’t live in the human digestive tract. Industrial anaerobic digesters can also harness this natural process to treat waste, provide heat, and increase nutrients in soil. They are most commonly used for sewage treatment and for managing animal waste.

BENEFITS: The goal of SMUD is to obtain 20 percent of its electricity from renewable sources such as wind, solar, and biodegradable matter by 2011. Currently SMUD derives 10 percent of its electricity from renewable sources, of which biomass accounts for 2.5 percent. The UC-Davis digester would keep food and other biodegradable waste out of landfills; food leftovers account for 18 percent of a landfill’s contents. One tone of leftover food can produce enough fuel to power 18 homes for one day.

WHAT ARE EXTREMOPHILES? An extremophile is any microbe that thrives in extreme conditions, such as temperature (extreme heat or cold), pressure, salinity, low oxygen environments, or high concentrations of hostile chemicals. Most extremophiles belong to a class known as archaeobacteria, but certain species of worm, crustacean and krill can also be considered extremophiles.

The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc., contributed to the information

Sourced and published by Henry Sapiecha 7th June 2010

to Hydrogen Production

Science (June 1, 2010) — Scientists have been hard at work harnessing the power of microbes as an attractive source of clean energy. Now, Biodesign Institute at Arizona State University researcher Dr. Prathap Parameswaran and his colleagues have investigated a means for enhancing the efficiency of clean energy production by using specialized bacteria.

Microbial electrochemical cells or MXCs are able to use bacterial respiration as a means of liberating electrons, which can be used to generate current and make clean electricity. With minor reconfiguring such devices can also carry out electrolysis, providing a green path to hydrogen production, reducing reliance on natural gas and other fossil fuels, now used for most hydrogen manufacture.

MXCs resemble a battery, with a Mason jar-sized chamber setup for each terminal. The bacteria are grown in the “positive” chamber (called the anode). The research team, led by Bruce Rittmann, director of Biodesign’s Center for Environmental Biotechnology, had previously shown that the bacteria are able to live and thrive on the anode electrode, and can use waste materials as food, (the bacteria’s dietary staples include pig manure or other farm waste) to grow while transferring electrons onto the electrode to make electricity.

In a microbial electrolysis cell (MEC), like that used in the current study, the electrons produced at the anode join positiviely charged protons in the negative (cathode) chamber to form hydrogen gas. “The reactions that happen at the MEC anode are the same as for a microbial fuel cell which is used to generate electricity, ” Parameswaran says. “The final output is different depending on how we operate it.”

When the bacteria are grown in an oxygen-free, or anaerobic environment, they attach to the MXC’s anode, forming a sticky matrix of sugar and protein. In such environments, when fed with organic compounds, an efficient partnership of bacteria gets established in the biofilm anode, consisting of fermenters, hydrogen scavengers, and anode respiring bacteria (ARB). This living matrix, known as the biofilm anode, is a strong conductor, able to efficiently transfer electrons to the anode where they follow a current gradient across to the cathode side.

The present study demonstrates that the level of electron flow from the anode to the cathode can be improved by selecting for additional bacteria known as homo-acetogens, in the anode chamber. Homo-acetogens capture the electrons from hydrogen in waste material, producing acetate, which is a very favorable electron donor for the anode bacteria.

The study shows that under favorable conditions, the anode bacteria could convert hydrogen to current more efficiently after forming a mutual relationship or syntrophy with homo-acetogens. The team was also able to reduce the negative impact of other hydogen consuming microbes, such as methane-producing methanogens, which otherwise steal some of the available electrons in the system, thereby reducing current. The selective inhibition of methanogens was accomplished by the adding a chemical called 2-bromoethane sulfonic acid to the adode’s microbial stew.

The group used both chemical and genomic methods to confirm the identify of homo-acetogens. In addition to detection of acetate, formate, an intermediary product, was also discovered. With the aid of quantitative PCR analysis, the team was also able to pick up the genomic signature of acetogens in the form of FTHFS, a gene specifically associated with acetogenesis.

“We were able to establish that these homo-acetogens can prevail and form relationships,” Parameswaran says. Future research will explore ways to sustain syntrophic relations between homo-acetogens and anode bacteria, in the absence of the chemical inhibitors.

Further progress could pave the way for eventual large-scale commercialization of systems to simultaneously treat wastewater and generate clean energy. “One of the biggest limitations right now is our lack of knowledge,” says Cesar Torres, one of the current study’s co-authors, who stresses that there remains much to understand about the interactions of bacterial communities within MXCs.

The field is still very young, Torres points out, noting that work on MXCs only began about 8 years ago. “I think over the next 5-10 years the community will bring a lot of information that will be really helpful and that will lead us to good applications.”

The team’s results appear in the advanced online issue of the journal Bioresource Technology.

Sourced an dpublished by Henry Sapiecha 5th June 2010

Hydrogen Fuel Cell

NGK Insulators Ltd developed a solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) that uses hydrogen gas as fuel and achieved a lower heating value (LHV) of 63%, one of the highest in the world.

The SOFC features a power output of 700W and an operating temperature of 800°C.

The company lowered the resistance value by completely coating the cell’s supporting anode with a thin film (5?m thick) of electrolyte (zirconia) and secured a sufficient power generation area by forming cathodes on both sides of the cell to achieve the large output, it said.

To evenly spread fuel gas to the entire cell, flow channels for fuel gas were formed inside the prototype cell. The thickness of the cell is 1.5mm. Also, the new fuel cell is superior in terms of size and cost because it can generate power on both the top and bottom sides and its flow channels eliminate the need for components (separators) to separate fuel gas from air, NGK Insulators said.

The company provided a stack in which tens of the cells are layered to a leading oil company in Japan, asking it to evaluate the fuel cell’s power generation performance. And it will aim to commercialize the cell for use in homes and commercial facilities such as convenience stores and shopping malls by further improving its performance. The company is planning to advance the development through technical alliances and joint developments with other companies.

Sourced and published by Henry Sapiecha 1st July 2009