Khaleej Times: Abu Dhabi targets 90% waste recycling by 2018

Ironically, the oil-producing countries of the Middle East also offer the greatest potential for using Renewable Energy - an abundance of solar power makes them ideal locations for solar thermal power, solar photovoltaics and for the use of solar water heaters and airconditioning systems. The cities which are closely packed also offer fantastic opportunities for recycling waste - which is where this proposal to recycle 90% of he waste in Abu Dhabi becomes interesting.

This is going to be a development that I shall watch. I am guessing that the plan will work as follows:

1. Plastic bottles, aluminum cans and recyclable food and grocery packaging will end up being collected in recyclable trash bins and shipped to India and Pakistan where huge industries exist in reprocessing these materials

2. Ditto for paper - I am aware of paper being shipped to India and Pakistan from the UAE already. My guess is that the paper collection activity will be streamlined and made more efficient

3. Used engine oil will be collected more carefully. India used to be a major center for processing used engine oil, but the Government of India banned this after a poisoning incident where some crooks mixed it with cooking oil and ended up blinding and killing people in India in the 1980s. However, with the sharply increasing price of engine oils, I can foresee used engine oil getting reprocessed once more

I have questions about the processing of sewage and food waste, however. I am not sure if the food waste would be composted or if it would continue to be buried. And whether the sewage would be processed into fertilizer or just burned. Sewage also offers the opportunity to extract methane for use as a fuel. There are advanced technologies available that would help here - at least two US companies, one in Texas and the other in California offer technologies to process food waste and sewage into gasoline and jet fuel. Some of this is currently being bought by the US Air Force from the company in Texas, and the Californian company has a project in Japan as well as one in San Francisco. Perhaps, the UAE will consider inviting these companies to use their technologies in Abu Dhabi. Who knows - this may even increase the amount of waste processed to over 90%.

Here's wishing the UAE well!

Back Blogging After a Long Hiatus

I know I haven't been regular here over the past few months. Personal issues have kept me away from writing about Renewable Energy from my personal, Libertarian standpoint. I am hoping that most of these have now been resolved with my leaving the last educational institution that I was enrolled in. Hopefully, I can now go back to work and blogging about what is a passion. There's much to write about and there is much that has happened in the world of renewables - some good, some bad. I do not plan to go over the events of the months when I was off blogging, but I hope to get back into presenting visitors to my blog new information that I come across.

And, when I see success in what I have been working to do in this field, I shall write about it over here. Wish me luck and keep checking here from time to time!

Solar Light Bulbs - An Invention that This Blog Has to Love

Considering that this blog is called "Showing Fossil Fuel the Fist," a product like the Nokero (for "no kerosene") solar light bulb has to be something to instantly fall in love with! While I can see from their website that they are marketing these bulbs in Pakistan, I hope that they plan on entering the Indian market next. India is a country where even large cities suffer from 8 to 12 hours of power failures a day. These bulbs should sell to both the poor as well as the not quite impoverished population in that country.

Here's wishing the Nokero guys good luck!

Using Used Vegetable Oil to Generate Power

I learned about the Vegawatt Power Generation System from the Smart Planet blog which I subscribe and link to over here. The units throw out several very interesting possibilities especially for India and the Middle east, all countries where a lot of fried food is consumed and where the used oil almost invariably goes down the drain. Needless to say, these are also nations with severe electricity shortages. The system could be used to supplement power generation in large hotels and possibly also on a community collection basis. I need to find out more - I'll shoot these guys an e-mail and report back. Some very interesting stuff here!

Pythagoras Photovoltaic Glass Units - Combining Windows and Solar PVs

This is a really interesting product that a friend alerted me about, and which has been featured on several green building websites - combining a transparent window and solar cells in such a way that light is let into the building while electricity is generated with an energy payback time of five years suggests some very exciting possibilities. I would think that the product would make a lot of sense in countries that have to build upwards because they lack land - India comes to mind, as do the various small Gulf Arab nations - and these are all nations with severe power shortages already. These are also nations that receive abundant sunlight. I would hope that someone in these countries (and in India in particular) checks these windows out.

Hydrogen Powered Electric Car to Race at Le Mans

This is simply amazing news in my opinion - the Swiss Green GT company has been invited to race its car at Le Mans. The fact that something that is as radical as a Hydrogen powered car will race in the toughest race in the world is an achievement itself, whether the Green GT wins or not. In recent years, Le Mans racing has become a very interesting form of racing with alternative fuels like diesel - and now hydrogen - being used in cars that compete with gasoline powered racers. Unlike Formula 1 which seems to look more and more like a silly parade with every passing year - I can't recall when I last bothered to even read Formula 1 results whereas, through the 80s and 90s, I was an addict - Le Mans has been working overtime to pit competing technologies against each other in its grueling racing format. At some point, one or another technology will win by demonstrating a clear superiority over others. But in that victory, the whole world will win because this will be a technology that will eventually filter down to the cars that everyone of us drives.

Green GT's website is well worth a visit.

Flying from New York to Paris on Biofuel

A major criticism leveled by Green Groups against air travel has been the amount of fossil fuel aircraft use. This Forbes article talks about a new biofuel developed by Honeywell's UOP division that works in conventional jet aircraft. By not using crude that has been taken out of the ground and by refining the fuel from the output of a non edible plant that grows overground, UOP only makes use of atmospheric carbon that has been absorbed by the Camelina plant. I do not know much about this plant but it does look like there could be a good opportunity for entrepreneurs to grow it in different parts of the world if the price of the biofuel extracted from it proves competitive with conventional aviation fuel.