Your Greeness

Upgrading your bedroom to become more eco-friendly will not only help save the environment, it will also make your bedroom a more comfortable place to live in. For example, most mattresses are actually made from petroleum-based polyester, polyurethane, and nylon which and give off volatile compounds that increases the risks of respiratory diseases. In addition, some mattresses are treated with formaldehyde which releases harmful perflourooctanoic acid which is known to be a human carcinogen.

It is also important to note that the FDA now requires mattresses to become flame resistant which means that the materials that are used should resist ignition and lit cigarettes. However, the problem is that no known manufacturer actually produces mattresses that meet the new standard. Instead, they use different materials made from both natural and synthetic fiber.

People don’t know the exact composition of these materials so it is important for them to purchase alternative flame retardants that don’t have significant health and environmental risk. Meanwhile, for your bed frame, you might want to consider using metal because it resists bugs so it is more convenient for you. But you can also choose solid wood because it is not only environment friendly; it poses lesser health risks compared to particleboard and plywood.

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.