Entries Tagged 'Pollution' ↓

No matter where you stand on the Global warming debates, we can all agree that pumping pollution into the atmosphere is not a good thing. If the Global warming advocates are right, then we will have major catastrophic weather in out future. But even if they are wrong, we still have smog and pollution buildup in our air and water. Which can have all kinds of nasty side effects.

So anything that reduces buildup of pollutants is a good thing. And if you can get a tangible economic benefit from that reduction, you are much more likely to have people deploy and use it. And that is what scientists at the Sandia National Laboratories in New Mexico have come up with. Basically they have created a system that uses solar energy to convert CO2 into fuels such as methanol or gasoline.

Right now it is still pretty expensive, but with the cost of fuel rising all the time, it is getting more economically feasible. Plus the scientists expect to be able to reduce the cost as they improve the process.

Check out the article at Wired: Scientists Use Sunlight to Make Fuel From CO2

A company in India is starting to mass produce the first air powered car. Rather than run on electricity, gasoline, or hydrogen, this car runs on compressed air. It will go up to 68 miles per hour, and has a range or about 125 miles on a single tank. You can refuel it anywhere you can get access to compressed air. It also has a built in air compressor that can be run by simply plugging it in. The built in air compressor takes about 4 hours to “refuel” the car. So it’s something you would want to do overnight.
The cool thing about this car, is that it is completely emissions free. Whether you believe strongly in the dangers of global warming, or not, you have to agree that anything that cuts down on pollution is a good thing. Of course, the electricity that is used to produce the compressed air has to come from somewhere. So if it comes from a dirty coal burning plant, then all you have done is shift the pollution away from you.

Via EcoGeek: Air-Car Ready for Mass Production

The big news today is that Ethanol based fuels may actually be just as bad for the environment and for public health as Gasoline. In fact, Ethanol can even increase smog in some areas of the country. Ethanol is a plant, usually corn, based fuel that can be produced locally in our country. E85 is the most commonly used type of ethanol fuel.
This is really bad news for the alternative fuel crowd, because E85 has been pushed recently as a viable alternative to Gasoline. It seems that while certain chemicals and pollutants that Gasoline produces are reduced or not present when burning ethanol based fuels, others that are just as bad are increased.
I’m all for reducing our dependence on foreign oil, and for finding better fuels that don’t pollute the environment. But we really need to be smart about it. There are a lot of possible alternatives to Gasoline. Any alternative that we push, should be evaluated and properly studied to make sure that the alternative is actually better than the current system(Gasoline). Especially if the alternative is going to be more expensive than Gasoline.

Via Wired: Ethanol Fuel Greener, But Not For Lungs
And LiveScience: Surprise: Ethanol as Deadly as Gasoline For Now
Stanford Study this is all based on: Effects of Ethanol (E85) Versus Gasoline Vehicles on Cancer
and Mortality in the United States (PDF format)