Community Cooker in Kibera

The Kibera slum outside Nairobi, Kenya, does not have much of anything, except mountains of trash that fill rivers and muddy streets, breeding disease. Now a Kenyan architect, Jim Archer, has built a cooker that uses the trash as fuel to feed the poor, provide hot water and destroy toxic waste, as well as curbing the destruction of woodlands.

After nine years of development, the prototype “Community Cooker” is close to being rolled out in overcrowded refugee camps as well as slums around the country.

Behind a black-painted corrugated iron cooking area, rubbish collected by local youths dries on racks before being pushed into the furnace. Technicians have spent three years modifying the firebox to produce enough heat to destroy toxins in the rubbish, particularly plastics. The stove reaches around 650° C at present and the aim is 1000° C, but UNEP who provided funding is happy that the prototype has proven rubbish can be turned into energy.

The Red Cross is looking at taking these stoves countrywide. They hope to build at least a 100 over the next five years, depending on donor funding.

The Kibera stove cost about $10,000 to build as a prototype but the designers estimate each would cost $5-6,000 once produced in larger numbers. This compares with $50 million for industrial incinerators in Europe.

Original article: Barry Moody. Reuters. 2 April 2009. Read more…

Solar Updraft Tower to generate Food and Energy

A new breed of solar tower may soon be sprouting up in Namibia, providing the nation with a carbon-free source of electricity and food during the day and night. At one and a half kilometers tall and 280 meters wide, these massive solar updraft towers could potentially produce 400MW of energy each – enough to power Windhoek, the nation’s capital. Proposed by intellectual property company Hahn & Hahn, the towers generate energy by forcing heated air through a shaft lined with wind turbines. Additionally, the base of each tower will function as a 37 km² greenhouse where crops can be grown.

Solar updraft towers are an oft-overlooked source of alternative energy, although they do require a great expanse of space and copious amounts of sunlight. Fortunately Namibia’s arid desert region provides plenty of space for such a generator, and the country sees around 300 days of sunshine per year.

Solar updraft towers generate energy by using sunlight to heat the air within a vast transparent greenhouse situated at the base of the chimney. As the hot air rises, it is funnelled into the reinforced concrete chimney, driving a series of wind turbines which in turn generate energy.

The structure’s greenhouse base provides the perfect environment for growing crops, which actually allow the plant to produce energy after the sun has set. The water used for crops is heated during the day and transfers this energy to the tower at night.

Original article: Mike Chino. Inhabitat. 10 September 2008. Read more…

Sustainable petroleum product

In the early 1990’s an Australian engineer had an idea: ‘What if we can stop consuming oil and better use the resources we have without compromising quality and reliability?’ Many years of research and development later, this idea has transformed into Hydrodec Group plc.

The company provides advanced oil and chemical process technology, products and services to industry. Their advanced technology specialises in environmentally sustainable, small carbon footprint chemical processing and high performance oil refining, in a closed loop, de-minimus emission process.

Hydrodec’s key technology application allows Transformer Oils to be re-refined an indefinite number of times into Superfine™ transformer oil, which has specifications equivalent to or better than that of new transformer oil. This allows the electricity industry to reduce its exclusive reliance on new oil supplies without having to make compromises in quality and performance. The annual global demand for transformer oil is about 5 billion litres and the production thereof emits about 20 million tons of CO2. Each tonne of transformer oil refined through the Hydrodec system represents a direct saving of several tonnes of CO2 emissions. With the prevalence of low levels of PCB (polychlorinated biphenyl) in used transformer oils, each ton of transformer oil refined through the system represents significant reduction in the background emission to atmosphere of PCB, PCB like chemicals and Dioxin.

Hydrodec also owns patented and unique processes that enable ‘re-manufacture’ of hazardous persistent organic chemical materials, wastes and by-products into valuable products. This breakthrough creates a paradigm shift in the sustainable management of many hazardous chemicals, both at the source of production and in the environment.

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Waste = Input for CleanBoard

The mantra of reduce, reuse and recycle are been taken to a next level by some innovative companies that utilise the waste of others as the inputs in their manufacturing. Not only are their products good for the environment they also employ innovative business strategies to maximise the value they deliver.

One such company is CleanBoard from California. Drywall manufacture is one of the top three building materials in terms of greenhouse gas emissions. It accounts for one percent of all primary industrial energy used in the USA and annual production emits more greenhouse gasses than 6,2 million cars. The gypsum used to manufacture regular drywall is a non-renewable resource that is open-pit mined with significant environmental consequences.

CleanBoard is drywall manufactured from 100% recycled gypsum using power from the sun. The result is a sustainable drywall product with zero carbon footprint. By manufacturing CleanBoard from recycled gypsum that would otherwise be sent to landfills, they help reduce the impact on the environment.

They have also developed ways of eliminating the greenhouse gas emissions by using alternative clean energy sources and are building a drywall factory that is powered entirely by solar energy. In order to deliver on their zero carbon footprint commitment from day-one, they purchase voluntary carbon offsets to cancel out any remaining emissions from the manufacture and transportation of products.

The company works with building contractors to collect all drywall cut-offs thus also saving contractors on waste collection. But, the majority of their board will be made using calcium-sulfate that comes from scrubbing coal-fired power plants. While U.S. power plants are already required to scrub emissions, CleanBoard can offer a financial incentive to plants in China and other developing countries to install scrubbers.

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Utilising high altitude winds

There is an enormous amount of energy hidden in the winds over our heads. At an altitude of 30,000 feet (9,000 meter), the wind energy is twenty times as large as at sea level. The “laddermill” is a new and novel idea to harness this immense energy resource.

The laddermill consists of a large number of kites on an upward and downward motion. The kites used are of a breed between regular kites and airplanes. Whereas a kite climbs relatively easy, getting a kite down requires a force pulling in the cable. An airplane, on the other hand, requires large engines to gain altitude. Decreasing altitude is much easier, as the aircraft can glide to the ground. The kites used in the laddermill, generally called “kiteplanes”, combine the ascension characteristics of kites with the descension characteristics of aircraft. By creating a large loop of kiteplanes ascending and descending, a rotation can be created. In turn, this rotation can be coupled to a generator to create energy. The loop of kiteplanes can ultimately go up to 30,000 feet, which would generate approximately 100MW.

The cable is an important part of the system and consists of strong fiber materials such as Dyneema. The kiteplanes themselves need to be both large in surface area as well as light in construction weight. Structural principles such as inflatables are being investigated. The control of the kiteplanes can be done by a pressure differential in the inflatable members. Its control will ultimately be automated using flight computers.

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Video: Paul Gilding (1)

Video: The Good Life Parable

BoP Learning Lab – Retail sector

Cambridge Programme for Sustainability Leadership in conjunction with the University of Stellenbosch Business School will host a Base of the Pyramid (BoP) Learning Lab session with a focus on the retail sector on Thursday 9 April 2009.

The BoP Learning Lab aims to provide sources of inspiration and to be the toolbox with which the Southern African business community can maximise its social impact at the base of the pyramid. Spread over four continents, the BoP Learning Labs represent a “consortium of leading thinkers and practitioners interested in exploring new business opportunities in low-income communities that would benefit business as well as the local community”.

The lunchtime session on the 9th, the third for 2009, will feature presentations by Woolworths and FNB:

Woolworths has established itself in South Africa as “the difference” when it comes to retail. This seems to go further than the shopper’s experience. Even though Woolworths is decidedly a high income segment brand in South Africa, new procurement practices are constantly tested to include the BoP into the value chain of the company. Through his presentation, Kenneth Carden, strategy analyst within Woolworths, will develop the company’s integrated approach to socio-economic transformation.

David Milligan, FNB Commercial Banking, will describe the work being done by the bank to design and market Enterprise Development Solutions adapted to low income SA entrepreneurs. South Africa’s oldest bank, First National Bank is one of the largest financial institutions in the continent.

DATE: Thursday 9 April 2009
TIME: 12:30 – 14:00
VENUE: Open Innovation Studio, 27 Buitenkant Street, Cape Town

For more information, please visit www.bop.org.za. For bookings please e-mail us.

Masdar city – Paradise built

In 2006, Abu Dhabi’s rulers decided to plough some of their billions of petrodollars into an ambitious plan to build a $22bn carbon-neutral, waste-free green technology centre amid the scrub desert outside the city.

The futuristic Masdar city project is the cornerstone of the Masdar Initiative, which was set up to help diversify Abu Dhabi’s economy away from hydrocarbons and towards what it hopes will be a greener, more sustainable future. Masdar hopes that the car-free city – which is designed by British architects Foster & Partners – will generate 70,000 jobs, house 40,000 residents and add 2 per cent to Abu Dhabi’s gross domestic product, when it is completed in 2016.

In March 2009 Masdar city was awarded the FT ArcelorMittal Boldness in Business award in the Environment category.

All Masdar’s buildings will be elevated above the ground to allow the city’s pod-like automated vehicles to whiz residents around the 6.5sq km development. The elevation will also allow easier access to the various sanitary and technological piping, wires and infrastructure, making them easier to repair and replace.

More than two-thirds of the city’s energy will come from solar farms and photovoltaic panels that will cover the rooftops, and all water will be cleaned and recycled. Sensors will warn when pipes are leaky, and parks will be populated by hardier plants than the water-thirsty foliage that dots the rest of Abu Dhabi. Even the wind will be harnessed. The city will be surrounded by high walls to keep out the sand and grit that permeates the Middle East, but wind will be funnelled through the city’s main entrances, helping to keep the city cool and breezy.

A crucial part of the Initiative is the creation of the Masdar Institute of Science and Technology, in partnership with MIT, that will be the world’s first graduate level institution dedicated to the study and research of advanced energy and sustainable technologies. Instead of merely engaging in “greenwashing”, the objective is to become a global hub for world-class education and research in energy and sustainability.

Original article: Robin Wigglesworth. Financial Times. 20 March 2009. Read more…

Amyris Renewable Diesel

If you could dream up a renewable fuel, it might look a lot like diesel: far more energy intensive than ethanol and combustible in existing engines with no performance tradeoffs. But it would give off a fraction of the emissions of conventional diesel. That’s just what scientists Jack Newman, Kinkead Reiling and Neil Renninger, co-founders of Amyris Biotechnologies, concluded when they decided to apply their synthetic-biology expertise to creating a climate-friendly alternative to petroleum.

The team tinkered with brewer’s yeast, splicing in genes from an organism that produces hydrocarbons as a metabolic byproduct. Amyris’s new microbes metabolize sugar and churn out long hydrocarbon chains that are better known as diesel fuel. The liquid is purer than conventional diesel and burns more cleanly.

Amyris didn’t start out as a fuel company. It launched in 2003 with the goal of synthesizing an affordable substitute for a pricey component of malaria treatment that is extracted from a plant found only in China and Vietnam. The new compound is still in development. Meanwhile, Amyris has formed partnerships to build a diesel plant in Brazil, with the ambitious goal of pumping out a billion gallons within the next five years. Amyris also plans to develop renewably sourced gasoline and jet fuel—but diesel was an ideal place to start.

Most synthetic biologists familiar with Amyris’s research say that while the company may have created some promising compounds, the real challenge will be achieving 90% efficiency of conversion. John Doerr, leading venture capitalist and big supporter of the company states: “If you’re smart enough you can make a better fuel. But to have a business, you have to make it at the right yield and at the right cost.”

Original article: Logan Ward. Popular Mechanics. November 2008. Read more…

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