Plane takes toilet break

Yes it is true …..

On a recent business trip I&I was returning from Johannesburg directly to Sydney – at least that was the plan. When the plane was approaching Australia from the south, the pilot announced that as the whole toilet system was full, passengers could not use the toilets and serving of meals would cease.

It was decided that for Occupational Health and Safety reasons (presumably it was for the passengers not the plane!) the aircraft would have to land at Melbourne for a flush as well as let desperate passengers go on the ground. Once the tanks were emptied the plane continued its journey to Sydney.

According to the crew the plane’s toilet tanks had not been emptied at Johannesburg as per normal procedure – you just hope other critical checks are not missed in the future!

As I&I missed getting a meal before the kerfuffle and only had a muffin and pear in ten hours we wondered if this was the new frequent flyer fad diet! Of course we should not name the airline but it is known for its flying “hops” from its Australian headquarters.

We just think that this experience is one idea (or innovation?) that should not take off so to speak!

Storing Carbon waste underground

With all the talk both by industry and the Federal Government about carbon dioxide storage underground (often called geosequestration) I &I thought this was an interesting article to explain the process.
CSIRO scientists say Western Australia is poised to lead the country in the underground storage of greenhouse gases emitted by power stations and offshore oil and gas facilities. Big energy producers such as Chevron and Woodside Petroleum will be able to capture and store carbon dioxide on site or under the seabed before they pollute the atmosphere using technology under development in Australia.

"WA's liquefied natural gas industry is likely to lead Australia in carbon storage technology," says CSIRO researcher Lincoln Paterson. "Carbon dioxide is removed from natural gas before it is converted to LNG, so technologically it can be done."

According to Dr Paterson, the oil and gas industry served as a technological platform for the next-generation carbon capture and storage facility at Chevron's $11 billion Gorgon gas plant on Barrow Island off WA's North-West coast.  He says carbon dioxide becomes liquid-like and dissolves into the surrounding groundwater once injected deep underground. When dissolved, the groundwater containing carbon dioxide becomes heavier and sinks, ensuring it stays underground indefinitely.

"The gas falls under its own weight," he says. "It settles down like natural gas deposits which have been around for millions of years."

Dr Paterson says Australia's oil and gas industry also boasted a tremendous safety record, and CSIRO geochemist Linda Stalker agrees. "We can do it safely in Australia. We are setting new benchmarks in environmental monitoring and management using data on the atmosphere, soil, groundwater and underground reservoirs."

A senior gas geochemist and research team leader at CSIRO Petroleum Resources in Kensington, Dr Stalker believes Australia has the know-how to develop ways to dispose of polluting greenhouse gases. Dr Stalker is involved in Australia's first geological carbon dioxide storage demonstration project in Victoria's Otway Basin, where the CSIRO and industry partners have buried about 15,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide in an old natural gas reservoir up to 2km below the surface. Up to 100,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide is expected to be buried in the disused reservoir by 2018.

The project, launched in April this year, is regarded as a testbed for the geosequestration of future greenhouse gas emissions. However, will technologies developed as a result of this research be enough to curb the amount of carbon dioxide entering the atmosphere?

Dr Peter Cook, chief executive of the CRC for Greenhouse Gas Technologies, says geosequestration promises to mitigate the impact of climate change by disposing of up to a third of all global carbon dioxide emissions. However, he believes the technology was no ‘silver bullet’ – on its own.

Damian Dwyer, Australian Petroleum Production and Exploration Association director engineering markets and climate change, also believes geosequestration was one of a number of technological solutions to managing future carbon dioxide emissions. He says the North Sea experience with sub-seabed disposal of carbon dioxide proved the industry could manage waste gases, as "they've shown things behave exactly as they are supposed to".

"The technology already used by the oil and gas industry is well advanced," Mr Dwyer says. "WA's Gorgon geosequestration project will be the biggest commercial project in the world. It presents big opportunities for WA."

To find out more about the science behind the process: http://www.sciencewa.net.au/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2261&Itemid=710

Courtesy of Science Network Western Australia: http://www.sciencewa.net.au /

Steam to make a comeback?

Say "steam power" and you conjure up images of Stevenson's rocket, Isambard Kingdom Brunel and the heyday of the Victorian railways - romantic, but hardly the stuff of a clean, cutting-edge technology. But steam could be about to make a comeback thanks to a company that is trying to make the internal combustion engine more efficient.

The British newspaper The Guardian reported that Clean Power Technologies, in Newhaven on the English south coast, is developing steam hybrid engines that claw back some of the immense amount of energy wasted by the internal combustion engine. Ultimately they aim to develop a car engine that runs partly on steam power.

"When you talk of steam people think you are going backwards," said Abdul Mitha, the company's CEO and president, "Anywhere where you are wasting a lot of heat, we can go in, capture the heat and turn it into energy savings... Steam has tremendous power. If it can drive a steam locomotive, why can't it drive an automotive engine?"

Mitha's company aims to target the wasted heat that is currently pumped out of the exhaust and convert it into useful power. Of the energy in your petrol tank, just 27% is converted into forward motion, 33% is spent cooling the engine, 4% is lost as friction and a whopping 36% is lost as exhaust heat. "There is a lot of heat that is created and totally wasted," said Mitha. Clean Power Technologies aims to recover 40% of this exhaust heat.

Clean Power Technologies has developed an experimental set up in which engine exhaust at 750C - typical for a lorry - is run through a steam accumulator. This closed vessel allows water to be heated to 360C or hotter, creating high pressure steam that can then be used to provide useful power.

Ultimately, the aim is to pipe the steam back into the main engine and use it to drive some of the pistons, but the first step for the company is using it to run the refrigeration units on trucks that transport frozen goods. They are currently building a demonstration truck that will be finished by the end of October. They have links with Safeway supermarkets in the US and a haulage firm East-West Express Transportation in Calgary who are interested in fitting the technology to their vehicles. Currently each Safeway truck uses $10,000 to $15,000 (£5,400 to £8,000) worth of diesel per year to power the separate refrigeration unit.

For the full story, visit http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/aug/27/alternativeenergy.energy

THIS INFORMATION was supplied by the RESOURCE RECOVERY FORUM
www.resourcesnotwaste.org 

Seminar: The Future for Marine Transport - The Rise of the Hybrid

Shipping makes 20% of world sulphur dioxide emissions and 30% of nitrous oxide emissions, both rather nasty gases. It is also estimated that shipping is responsible for 60,000 pollution related deaths per year and consumes two billion barrels of oil per year. Dr Robert Dane, a local inventor, is CEO and founder of Solar Sailor Holdings.

Solar Sailor Hybrid technolgy is gaining global acceptance as real alternative in reducing carbon and other emissions in a wide range of shipping. As well as successfully developing the Solar Sailor ferry, now sailing on Sydney Harbour, Dr Dane has recently signed a contract with Suntech Corporation for a VIP vessel for the 2010 World Expo and four ferries of advanced design for Hong Kong. He has also signed an MOU to conduct research into hybrid technology with the world's largest shipping company.

Futureworld invites everyone to a public seminar by Dr Robert Dane at 5.30pm (Light refreshments) for 6pm, Thursday October 3Oth at Futureworld Eco-Technology Centre, Miller St, Coniston (south of Wollongong). Cost: $20, $15 Futureworld members, $12 Student/ Concession.

RSVP:  by October 28th Russell Verdon 42269147 or ftrworld@bigpond.net.au;  www.futureworld.org.au 

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