Your Greeness

Biking is certainly an enjoyable activity, not to mention green and fitness friendly to boot! It is a cost-effective solution to beating traffic as well. However, so many people do not even consider biking to get to short distances.

Why? Because of the absence of bike lanes. Many communities and neighborhoods across the country do not have bike lines. This reason prevents them to consider getting a bike to get them to school or work. A street without bike lanes can be very dangerous to bikers! We do not want them to get into road accidents.

You can make a difference to bring bike lanes back! Get your friends together, and write letters to your local officials. You can even start a petition. These little steps will eventually bring back bike lanes into our community!

Is it really possible to turn garbage into a viable fuel source? Many experts believe that it is!

For a long time no scientists have already known that waste could be turned it too fuel. However, little interest was shown in the project. It is only lately that people are realizing the need for such a technology.

Wood chips, garbage and crop waste can be transformed into ethanol and anything that has hydrogen carbon and oxygen components can be turned into fuel as well.

A successful take on turning garbage into fuel could not only lessen the stuff that goes into out landfills, it could potentially solve the fuel crisis that we are currently experiencing.

Alright, its time for another episode of tips to make your home greener and more environment friendly. Remember, the key is to start simply and not get over ambitious. Even if you only change one thing, it will still have a good overall effect!

1.Leave throws and blankets in plain sight, especially when it gets colder. When you use a blanket or a throw instead of turning up the heat, you’re doing the environment a favor.

2. When shopping for new furniture, consider sources like the Salvation army or secondhand shops. If you’re not really keen on using someone’s old stuff, go to stores that promote eco-friendly practices.

3. When getting rid of old furniture, don’t destroy it. Offer it up on Ebay or Craigslist. You’re encouraging someone else to recycle!

4. Pull out the plugs- do you know that your appliances still continue to use energy even when they’re turned off but still plugged? You save so much more energy when you pull out the plugs!

5. If it’s available in your area, choose to go with renewable energy sources such as win, solar or hydro-electric!

A new research breakthrough from Massachusetts have found a way around the age-old problem of harvesting solar energy when the sun don’t shine!

In a study published last August in Science, researchers have found a way to still perform a photosynthesis-inspired process that uses electricity from a renewable source to take apart the water molecule into its main components which are hydrogen and oxygen.

These 2 gases can then be stored in a cell that can produce electricity to replace solar power on days when it’s just not that sunny .

This has huge implications on the road towards a fossil free energy source. We can really look toward solar energy powering more and more homes and buildings!

Go to any motor show today and you will inevitably see signs of the industry’s rush to go green. When you see everyone scrambling to join the green bandwagon, you definitely know that something is up. With Honda, their green credential is a lot more convincing because of their long history of using their engineering resources to reduce emission and boost fuel consumption.

For example, even during the 1970’s when no one bothered to improve the inefficient and heavy anti-smog gear to meet the US emission standard, Honda developed the CVCC; this is a lean and small burn machine that burned more efficiently. Its philosophy was carried over to the i-VTEC engine which is still being used today.

Honda Cell Fuel Program

Apparently, you can expect Honda to look beyond conventional engines. It has seized the opportunity to introduce the FCX Clarity, its first cell fuel car. Being on its initial stages, the Clarity will only be leased to selected users in California at the price of $600 per month. According to Sachito Fujimoto, the goal of Honda is to offer “sustainable mobility”; Honda believes that the fuel cell is a great way to achieve this although they hope that their fuel cell cars will duplicate the success of the Toyota Hybrids.

But the challenge that faces green car manufacturers today is convincing drivers to let go of the internal combustion engines and embrace the fuel cell technology. Fujimoto believes that the best way to achieve this is to catch the drivers’ attention and make the drivers aware of the car’s benefits. In other word, they need to make these green cars look cool. It also doesn’t hurt that there are fundamental advantages of using hydrogen as the car fuel. Catching the attention of the gadget lovers will enable the company to penetrate the market as the rest of the drivers follow suit.

New radiocarbon analysis suggests that biodiesel blending may be inaccurate. Researches from the Woods Hold Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) have found that some blends from small-scale retailers may not actually contain the actual amount of advertised biofuel.

Chris Reddy, a marine chemist together with his colleagues, sampled different pure and blended biodiesel from more than a dozen distributors throughout the country. When hey tested fuels that are advertised as B20, they discovered that the actual percentage actually only ranged from 10% to 74%. Only around 10% of the tested samples met the specifications being used by the US Department of Defense, one of the leading users of this product.

Reddy and his colleagues worked together with a senior scientist from the WHOI, Bill Jenkins, to come up with an accurate radiocarbon-based calibration that can determine of the balance between petroleum and biofuel is correct. This particular method relies of the fact that biofuels are enriched with radioisotopes that comes from plants while petroleum contains no radiocarbon.

The discrepancy between the advertised amount and the actual amount may be partly due to the fact that biodiesels that are made by the local distributors are formed through “splash blending” wherein all the ingredients are poured together in a single container with the respective amounts. They assume that the simple act of pouring all these will ensure proper mixing. But because biodiesel are thicker than the petroleum based diesel, it may settle into multiple layers within the tank.

Another factor that may contribute to this inaccuracy is human error. These include inaccurate measurement, poor math, and insufficient stirring. Currently, the United States already has a voluntary standard practice in place but there is no enforcement. The 2004-2005 study of the National Renewable Energy Laboratory suggested that national-scale manufacturers are also having a difficult time in producing biodiesel with proper blending.