Ultrasound cleans polluted water, makes catfish tastier

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on June 29, 2009 at 6:09 am

From Clean Technica:

One solution to the world’s water pollution problems could be something you can’t taste, touch, see, smell, or hear. Especially hear. Ultrasound, the range of frequencies beyond the limits of human hearing, is starting to emerge as an effective water treatment that is more sustainable than chemical dosing. Researchers are discovering that ultrasound performs well on algae, and that’s only the beginning. Ultrasound can remove a variety of pollutants in water, including those that affect the taste of America’s favorite fish, the catfish.

Ultrasound and Algae

For a number of years now, companies like LG Sound have been promoting ultrasound as a sustainable, energy efficient, chemical-free way to reduce and manage algae in stored water settings, from ornamental ponds up to large industrial water storage facilities. The right frequency simply breaks up the cellular structure of the algae without harming other aquatic life. In practice, it’s somewhat more complicated. According to Duddy Heviandi Oyib, special projects manager and chief biologist of LG Sound, responses to ultrasound depend on the unique properties of each body of water. That includes the water’s current condition in terms of pollutants, as well as its size and depth. Still, the results are impressive.

Find out more about the effects of ultrasound on catfish, wastewater and other pollutants by clicking here.

June 29, 2009 · Filed Under Great Green Ideas

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Water system to get federal stimulus funds

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on April 22, 2009 at 8:05 am

From the California Farm Bureau Federation:

The state’s sagging water infrastructure will get a boost from the $260 million in federal stimulus funds that target a number of projects important to California agriculture. U.S. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, flanked by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and state and federal officials, said the current drought is a “stark reminder that it’s time to modernize California’s water infrastructure.”

He said there will be some hard choices ahead, but “it’s time for the federal government to re-engage in full partnership to (build) a 21st-century water system for California.”

The funding assistance, which comes as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, was announced last week in Rancho Cordova after officials took an aerial tour of the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. The tour included a discussion of challenges California faces because of its inadequate water system.

“The human suffering here (due to drought and judicial decisions) is all too real,” Salazar said. “Farmers are not able to plant. Workers in many communities and counties with unemployment rates of 30 and 40 percent are also now without jobs because there are no crops to harvest and schools are closing as families move away.”

Schwarzenegger told a press conference after the tour, “California’s water system is in crisis, and our future economic growth and prosperity depends on a water system that provides clean, reliable and sustainable water to our people, our farms and our businesses. These recovery act economic stimulus funds will create jobs and provide critical drought relief, helping to shield our water-dependent economy from disaster.”

Read more from the California Farm Bureau Federation by clicking here.

April 22, 2009 · Filed Under Great Green Ideas

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New device allows thirsty plants to Twitter for water

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on March 27, 2009 at 6:17 am

From Clean Technica:

Go on, admit it - how many times have you forgotten to water your houseplants? Maybe you’ve even left some of them so long they’ve withered away to nothing. In fact, the chances are that if a plant could talk the thing they’d be most likely to say would be WATER ME!

Well, thanks to a new device, your long-suffering plants will now be able to do just that. What’s that you say - a talking houseplant? Well, not exactly, but thanks to researchers at New York University’s interactive telecommunications program plants will now be able to to tell owners when they need water or if they’ve had too much via the social networking service Twitter.

The device, called Botanicalls (video), is made of soil-moisture sensors, connected to a circuit board, which measure moisture levels and communicate the information to a microcontroller.

According to co-creator Rob Faludi, “Obviously plants can’t talk or Twitter directly, so we have to help them along with that. There are settings in the software that allow you to set what kind of plant you’re using and also adjust for characteristics of the soil, different soil has different qualities.”

Read more from Clean Technica by clicking here.

March 27, 2009 · Filed Under Great Green Ideas

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Rancho California Water District dedicates 1.1-Megawatt SunPower solar power system

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on March 24, 2009 at 5:55 am

From PR Newswire, this press release:

Rancho California Water District (RCWD) and SunPower Corp. (Nasdaq: SPWRA, SPWRB), a Silicon Valley-based manufacturer of high-efficiency solar cells, solar panels, and solar systems, today announced the completion of a 1.1-megawatt solar-electric power system at the district’s water treatment facility in Murrieta. The system produces a portion of the facilities’ electricity requirements, and is expected to save the district up to $6.8 million in electricity costs over the next 20 years.

In addition to designing and building the solar power system, SunPower also financed the system under a SunPower Access power purchase agreement (PPA). RCWD will buy electricity from SunPower at rates competitively priced against utility rates, providing the district with a long-term hedge against rising peak power prices. RCWD owns the renewable energy credits associated with the system.

“The SunPower Access PPA made it financially possible for the district to build this system, and reap the benefits of competitively-priced solar power from day one,” said Andy Webster, director of engineering for RCWD. “SunPower offered high-efficiency technology that maximizes the amount of solar power generated, and a turnkey solution that allowed the system to be operational in eight months. It’s good for our environment as well as for our residents and businesses.”

For the district, SunPower installed a system that utilizes SunPower solar panels, the most efficient solar panels on the market today, with the SunPower Tracker(R) system. The Tracker follows the sun’s movement during the day, increasing sunlight capture by up to 30 percent over conventional fixed-tilt systems, while significantly reducing land use requirements. The system will reduce more than 2.5 million pounds of carbon dioxide emissions annually, which is equivalent to removing close to 202 cars from the road.

“Solar makes good financial sense today for California’s water agencies. There is financing available through power purchase agreements such as SunPower Access, and there are also financial incentives for solar projects available from state and federal governments,” said Tom Werner, chief executive officer of SunPower. “We applaud the district for hosting this showcase installation that demonstrates both good environmental and fiscal stewardship.”

About Rancho California Water District

Formed in 1965, Rancho California Water District supplies an area consisting of approximately 150 square miles. The District serves the area known as Temecula/Rancho California, which includes the City of Temecula, parts of Murrieta, and other contiguous lands. The District is separated into two divisions: the Santa Rosa Division generally west of I-15 and Rancho Division generally east of I-15. The District currently provides sewer service to the Cal Oaks and Bear Creek areas.

About SunPower

SunPower Corp. (Nasdaq: SPWRA, SPWRB) designs, manufactures and delivers high-performance solar electric systems worldwide for residential, commercial and utility-scale power plant customers. SunPower high-efficiency solar cells and solar panels generate up to 50 percent more power than conventional solar technologies and have a uniquely attractive, all-black appearance. With headquarters in San Jose, Calif., SunPower has offices in North America, Europe, Australia and Asia. For more information, visit www.sunpowercorp.com.

March 24, 2009 · Filed Under Great Green Ideas

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Padre Dam Municipal Water District dedicates solar energy system in partnership with Borrego Solar and SunEdison; 862 kW System at Padre Dam’s Santee Lakes estimated to generate more than 1.4 Million kilowatt hours annually of clean, renewable energy

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on February 26, 2009 at 5:59 am

From Market Watch:

The Padre Dam Municipal Water District, a provider of water, waste water, recycled water and recreation services to the eastern suburbs of San Diego, today announced the activation of an 862 kilowatt (kW) photovoltaic solar energy system. The zero-emission system hosted at Santee Lakes was deployed through a partnership with Borrego Solar Systems, Inc., a leading designer and installer of grid-tied solar electric power systems, and SunEdison, North America’s largest solar energy services provider.

The system, hosted by Padre Dam and built by Borrego Solar in less than 100 days, provides 300 shaded parking spaces for RV storage customers at the Santee Lakes Recreation Preserve. Deployed under a long-term solar power services agreement, SunEdison financed and will maintain the system.
“Our vision is to conserve and protect our natural resources. Santee Lakes is part of that vision. By hosting a solar energy system in the Preserve, Padre Dam is taking another step to protect and improve the local environment,” said Allen Carlisle, Director of Park and Recreation, Padre Dam Municipal Water District. “Working with Borrego Solar and SunEdison means that our visitors benefit from an innovative system design that provides shade and allows us to budget around our energy costs.”

Read more from Market Watch by clicking here.

February 26, 2009 · Filed Under Great Green Ideas, Other Water Agencies

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Purifying water through gravity: System can remove solids and biological material from water largely by gravity and with little external power

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on February 26, 2009 at 5:37 am

From Green Tech Media:

Epuramat says it can take water from your toilet and bring it back to the tap with almost no external energy.

The company’s Box4Water – an industrial container that stands about ten meters high – can remove solids and biological material, depending on the configuration, from water largely by exploiting the power of gravity, according to Herman Blanke, director of business development for North America.

A single unit measuring 20 feet in length can purify all the water for a large hotel, he said, or a village of 200 to 1,000 people. The key is that the device operates on no, or almost no, energy. The only energy that is required is the energy to pump the water to the top of the thing. If the unit is beneath the incoming water stream, the water can flow in and purify itself through gravity.

The company has installed systems in Europe and is talking to a large Canadian petroleum producer to install one to remove oil from waste water in a tar sands operation near Saskatchewan. In about eight weeks, it will install a unit for Calera, the somewhat stealthy green cement company backed by Khosla Ventures, in Calera’s prototype plant in Moss Beach, California, he said. (And there’s your second story-Calera is prepping to test its technique for making cement from plankton and captured carbon dioxide.)

Read more from Green Tech Media by clicking here.

February 26, 2009 · Filed Under Great Green Ideas

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Solar shines at these wastewater plants: California sites track the sun during the day, adding efficiency

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on February 23, 2009 at 6:22 am

From MSNBC:

Two California counties this week unveiled new solar power installations that track the sun during the day — in once case from storm water runoff ditches.

In Richmond, the West County Wastewater District on Wednesday showed off a five-acre installation with 89 tracking arrays, each 22-by-36 feet. Of those, 28 are built atop storm water ditches.

“The solar panels follow the sun, increasing the system’s efficiency by up to 35 percent compared to a similar sized system mounted in a fixed position,” West County WaWastewater General Manager E.J. Shalaby said in a statement. The arrays are expected to provide enough electricity to power 35 percent of the water district’s needs.

Greenest Nation: A laggard no longer, America could soon out-innovate Europe and Japan

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on February 22, 2009 at 7:07 am

From Newsweek:

This is a trick question. What big country is, by most measures, greener than Japan and Germany and produces more geothermal energy than all of Europe combined? It might help to know that this nation is also a pioneer in environmental stewardship, having passed many of the world’s toughest regulations on vehicle emissions, energy efficiency and nature conservation.

It couldn’t possibly be the United States. By now all the world knows that America, with its cheap gas, plentiful coal and eight years of a Kyoto-treaty-bashing president in the White House, is the world’s biggest environmental villain. After all, America emits 50 percent more greenhouse gases than the European Union for each dollar of GDP. Per capita it’s even worse: 20 tons of carbon dioxide for each American per year versus just 8.4 for a citizen of Europe.

And yet, if you were to answer the United States, you’d be more right than wrong. The statistics for the country as a whole obscure tremendous differences among the individual states—several of which, on their own, would rank as major “green” countries in their own right (which gets us to the trick). California, with its 37 million people, emits 20 percent less CO2 per dollar of GDP than Germany. It generates 24 percent of its electrical power from renewable fuels like wind and solar, compared with only 15 percent in Germany and 11 percent in Japan. It also has the world’s largest solar-power plant (550 megawatts in the Mojave Desert), the largest wind farm (7,000 turbines at Altamont Pass) and the most powerful geothermal installation (750 megawatts at The Geysers north of San Francisco). Although California isn’t immune to the economic crisis—its finances are on the brink of collapse, which could translate into growing support for those who argue that green measures cost jobs—its green accomplishments put it at the head of the pack. If California were a country, its economy would rank as the world’s 10th largest and could lay claim to be one of the world’s greenest.

Read more from Newsweek by clicking here.

February 22, 2009 · Filed Under Great Green Ideas

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Aquaculture irrigation combination: Newly emerging pond system reclaims wastewater for hydroponics, fisheries, and endlessly renewable fuel

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on February 4, 2009 at 7:57 am

From Water Efficiency:

Call it aquaculture efficiency or, perhaps better, ultra-everything efficiency-conserving freshwater is only the first-stage benefit here. Beyond this comes water reclamation for reuse, then tightly integrated energy efficiency (virtually, all free, low-tech solar), and next, food production efficiency, free fertilizer byproduct efficiency, bounteous biomass production efficiency surpassing—by at least two- or three-fold—any other known biomass source, and, at the end, a virtually unlimited loop of water recycling efficiency.

Properly speaking, the system itself is called the integrated modular production system (IMPS). Just now it is being implemented at one pilot site to relieve water-challenged cattle feedlots in Texas, and is gaining a foothold internationally. Its inventor Clifford Fedler, a professor of civil engineering and associate dean at the graduate school at Texas Tech University in Lubbock, coined the name in the course of spending a dozen years testing and developing it.

Fedler’s IMPSs essentially take self-cleaning wastewater treatment ponds and equip them with hydroponics. Added in the latter stages are tertiary ponds in which, he explains, “the water has been naturally denitrified by the right combination of plants and sunlight,” sufficient to support pools teeming with fish and enormous, almost hard-to-believe aquaculture crops.

Read more of this article from Water Efficiency by clicking here.

February 4, 2009 · Filed Under Great Green Ideas

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Power switch: Carlsbad turning to solar, water sources for renewable energy to run its facilities and save money

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on January 11, 2009 at 6:28 am

From the San Diego Union Tribune, the city of Carlsbad is looking into ways to generate renewable energy, with the ultimate goal of being able to generate enough energy through solar and hydroelectric projects to power all city-owned facilities:

Hammann said a team of city employees recently began brainstorming for ways to make the city more energy-independent and soon turned its attention to Maerkle Reservoir in eastern Carlsbad, near the border of Oceanside and Vista.

The Maerkle site could turn into the city’s mother lode of renewable energy. The reservoir has an 18-acre cover on it, and the city is exploring overlaying that with a thin solar film that is embedded with photovoltaic cells. “It’s like a film rather than a panel,” Hammann said. “You can lay out this thin solar film right on top of the cover,” and it generates electricity the same way panels do. The technology “is fairly new as opposed to the silica panels that people are traditionally more familiar with.”

The reservoir also is surrounded by 55 acres of nearly open terrain.

“If we turned it into a total solar farm, how much power could we produce there, and how much just for city use?” Hammann said.

Turning Maerkle into a solar-panel farm isn’t in the city’s immediate plans, but another idea is. Southern California may not be viewed as a likely site for generating hydroelectric energy, but Carlsbad sees potential. Maerkle Reservoir, for example, is fed by a large-capacity pipe that carries water under high pressure from the San Diego County Water Authority’s aqueduct about 3-½ miles away.

“When the water discharges into the reservoir, (the pressure is) reduced, so there’s a lot of energy being wasted in terms of stepping down the pressure that could be captured and utilized,” Hammann said. He said the city is considering connecting a turbine to the pipe to generate electricity. “We’re looking at how much would that cost, what would the payback be,” Hammann said. “Hopefully, there will be some economic incentive.”

Read more from the San Diego Union-Tribune by clicking here.

January 11, 2009 · Filed Under Great Green Ideas, San Diego

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Escondido couple launches aquaponic fish- and veggie-farming system

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on December 27, 2008 at 6:48 am

From the San Diego Union Tribune:

Colle Davis has an answer for rising gas prices, expensive produce at the grocery store and world poverty — and it comes in four sizes. The Escondido resident’s invention, which offers a new avenue toward sustainable living, was born 37 years ago when Davis was working on a tilapia project at University of California Davis.

He started experimenting with growing plants in sand using an aquaponics system. Aquaponics is the growing of fish, or other water-based animals with land plants to maximize the use of energy and nutrients. For years, Davis kept going back to the project, trying to find the most efficient way to grow vegetables and raise fish in a self-contained, low-maintenance system. In June of this year, after 37 years of fine-tuning, he finally launched Portable Farms.

With about three to five minutes of maintenance each day, Davis said a portable farmer can grow 100 pounds of fish and more than 400 heads of organic lettuce each year in a 6-foot-by-8-foot space. Other vegetables, including basil, onions, lavender, oregano, thyme and many varieties of peppers can be grown too, and a larger variety of vegetables can be grown in the 10-foot-by-20-foot model.

The system comes in four sizes — the largest is 100-feet-by-100-feet — and each model works the same way. The fish reside in an insulated tank with two automatic fish feeders and a built-in heater that keeps the water at 94 degrees. A pump cleans the water from the fish tank and circulates it twice a day throughout the plant beds filled with river rocks.

Read more from the San Diego Union Tribune by clicking here.

If that sounds too complicated, you can try building a greenhouse from plastic bottles, as the Clean Tech blog shows us:

Do you have tons of plastic bottles lying around your house and excess backyard space? If so, you might want to look into building a plastic bottle greenhouse. The greenhouse idea was devised and brought to life by Blue Rock Station. For $5 (the electronic version is $4), you can buy instructions to build one yourself.

Check it out from the Clean Tech blog by clicking here.

December 27, 2008 · Filed Under Great Green Ideas

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Floating islands: a solution ashores

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on December 7, 2008 at 7:13 am

From The Business Monthly:

After spending most of his career in the law enforcement field, Ted Gattino never thought that a hunter’s mucked-up hunting dog would be the genesis for the next step of his career. The dog in question was a yellow lab named Rufus. His owner, Bruce Kania, couldn’t stand the reddish-tint or “rotten Easter egg smell” of his sporting dog when he emerged from chasing game in his backyard pond in Montana slathered in nutrients that he not only didn’t want on his dog, but in the environment.

The solution? Kania invented floating islands, which are made from recycled plastic bottles. Theses matrices are packed with various materials and plant life that are used to convert nutrients from the water.

Having solved the problem locally, Kania founded Floating Island International, a think tank in Shepherd, Mont. (near Billings), and turned his attention toward the needs of the planet. That’s where Gattino, managing partner with Blue Wing Environmental Solutions & Technologies in Severna Park, came in. He’s the East Coast distributor for the product and is banking that the floating islands will gain wide acceptance as a practical way to clean the water and the surrounding environs through “biomimicry,” which is “taking nature’s design and engineering it for man’s use.”

The media used to build the islands is “very fibrous, like a giant steel wool pad,” Gattino said, noting that each 250-square-foot island is made from 6,000 recycled plastic bottles and has the look of a natural habitat.

The idea was spawned when Kania was growing up in Wisconsin, where he observed the positive effects of peat moss-based floating islands. “I was a fishing guide and noticed the large number of fish that grew around such floating islands because the water was so clean.”

Read more from The Business Monthly by clicking here.

December 7, 2008 · Filed Under Great Green Ideas

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West Basin’s solar powered system produces more power, performs beyond expectation in first year; saves water agency $90,000 in annual power costs

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on November 7, 2008 at 6:19 am

From Market Watch:

West Basin Municipal Water District’s 60,000 square feet of fixed-tilt photovoltaic panels at the Edward C. Little Water Recycling Facility is performing beyond expectations. In the first year of operation, the system produced 11% more electricity than expected. Based on capacity output and solar power area in place, the system was estimated to produce 814,199 kW of electricity and actually provided 903,800 kW for its first year of operation (January to December 2007). This power generation represented an annual power cost savings of $90,000.00.

“Obviously, we are very pleased with our decision to invest in green energy to produce water locally at our water recycling facility, and these results show that solar power is not only feasible, but performs very well while reducing our carbon footprint,” said Donald L. Dear, President of the Board of Directors of West Basin MWD.

The system has been in continuous operation since it was installed in late 2006 and, through September 2008, has produced approximately 160 megawatt hours or 1,596,104 kilowatt hours of energy.
West Basin’s use of solar power in its recycled water operations has kept 521 tons of carbon dioxide from being released into the environment that would otherwise have been released through the use of traditional energy sources. These emissions savings are equivalent to planting a tree plantation of approximately 147 acres of trees or not driving 1.3 million miles.

More from Market Watch by clicking here.

November 7, 2008 · Filed Under Great Green Ideas, Other Water Agencies

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Pavement that’s porous gains ground

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on October 30, 2008 at 3:15 pm

A shout out to the Sisweb for this one! From The Boston Globe:

Joni Mitchell vilified builders in her 1970s hit song, “Big Yellow Taxi,” knocking them for paving paradise to put up parking lots. The asphalt going in at 585 Middlesex St. in Lowell probably wouldn’t have changed the singer-songwriter’s message, but it might have given her pause with the lyrics.

The parking lot at the new headquarters of Nobis Engineering Inc. is being installed with an environmentally friendly asphalt called porous pavement. By letting rainwater seep through to filtration beds, porous pavement is correcting a pollution problem called road runoff, which is of particular concern in the densely populated, heavily traveled Merrimack Valley.

“More and more every day, porous pavement is proving itself to be an environmentally sound method of putting down paving material,” said Scott Colby, environmental and estates manager for Saugus-based Aggregate Industries Inc., the paving company doing the work for Nobis. “Using porous pavement, you can recharge ground water much better, and in the winter it doesn’t freeze up like regular pavement does. The material works quite well.”

Read more from the Boston Globe by clicking here.

October 30, 2008 · Filed Under Great Green Ideas

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The dirty little secret of plastic recycling: Most plastic recycling plants use up to 100,000 gallons of water per day, but new process eliminates water usage

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on October 22, 2008 at 5:36 am

From Cleantech:

Recycling. It’s good, right?

Not when there’s a global water shortage and most plastic recycling plants dispose up to 100,000 gallons of water a day. “The dirty little secret in the recycling business is the amount of water used to recycle plastic,” said Rod Rougelot, CEO of San Francisco-based ECO2 Plastics (OTCBB: ECOO).

According to Rougelot, polyethylene terephthalate (PET) is, by volume, the largest polymer consumed in the U.S. “In the U.S. we currently consume about 11 billion pounds of PET per year,” said Rougelot. “Of that number, about 6 billion pounds are consumed for manufacturing of bottles. If you look at the recycling of PET, virtually all PET is sourced from bottles, which means there’s about 1.4 billion pounds actually collected for recycling.”

Because California enforces stringent laws on water usage and isn’t quick to grant permits, up until a few years ago there were virtually no U.S. West Coast PET recyclers, said Rougelot. “We’ve eliminated the use of water and the chemicals used to clean the plastic,” asserted Rougelot. “We’ve not only made an environmental choice, but we’ve eliminated the costs associated with water. No water. No wastes. No extra costs.”

Sky Vegetables: A brilliant notion

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on September 9, 2008 at 1:36 pm

From the Cooking Up a Story website:

One of the big challenges facing our modern industrial food system is the heavy reliance upon fossil fuels for the growing of crops, and the transporting of them long distances to market. An average head of lettuce travels 1500 miles before reaching the supermarket shelf, a longer distance than many of us travel on vacation. But what if our fresh produce could be grown in the supermarket, the same destination point where it eventually would be sold?

One enterprising, 22 year-old University of Wisconsin—Madison business student, Keith Agoda, came up with the idea to grow fruits and vegetables on the rooftops of supermarkets after a trip to Chicago where he witnessed first-hand community gardens feeding local area residents. Thinking back upon an earlier trip to South America where he experienced fresh produce from street vendors throughout Buenes Aires, he began thinking about how to grow food efficiently without the need for land. This led to the idea for Sky Vegetables, the creation of an urban agriculture firm that specializes in the building and managing of rooftop gardens for sale of produce to supermarkets situated directly below.

Working on his business plan for college credits, along with fellow university student Troy Vosseller together they submitted their plan into the G. Steven Burrill Business Plan Competition, an annual competition to choose the best start-up ideas by a panel of four judges.

Sky Vegetables works with hydroponics, 4 times less weight than traditional soil, an important requirement considering that weight is a critical factor for a a greenhouse structure designed to fit on a 40,000 square foot rooftop. Hydroponics, a nutrient rich solution, can be precisely monitored, and kept in balance, to provide upwards of 5 to 15 times the equivalent yield from that of farmlands, and produces significantly less pollution, and greenhouse gas emissions. Sky Vegetables design also uses recycled rainwater for irrigation, organic nutrients for the hydroponic soils, and solar panels for energy production, allowing for year-round, and sustainable production in most types of climate.

What a great idea! Read the rest of this story from Cooking Up a Story by clicking here. Visit the Sky Vegetables website by clicking here: www.skyvegetables.com

Hat tip to the Aguanomics blog & the Sisweb for this one - which, by the way, if you haven’t checked out both of those websites, you really should!

September 9, 2008 · Filed Under Great Green Ideas

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The ethanol economy: plant will convert green waste to ethanol, using reclaimed water

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on August 31, 2008 at 5:50 am

From the Daily Breeze:

Californians are fed up with high fuel prices, but some relief may finally be in sight. The ethanol industry is revving up to boost the supply of its renewable fuel in Los Angeles County. And the technology has advanced to the point that there are really few downsides to moving forward.

The idea is to transform urban green waste headed for landfills into ethanol through a process that generates little pollution. Ethanol can be either blended with regular gasoline as a clean-fuel additive or used to create E85 gas for so-called flex-fueled cars. (E85 is 85 percent ethanol and 15 percent gasoline.)

Irvine-based BlueFire Ethanol has already received a permit to build a $30million ethanol plant near a landfill in Lancaster. Once the plant is operating next year, it will take in green municipal wastes, such as non-recyclable paper, grass clippings, wood chips, construction debris and straw, and process it into ethanol.

Arnold Klann, BlueFire’s chief executive officer, said the plant would process a batch of urban green waste into ethanol in only 18 hours. For each ton of waste that is fed into the plant, 70 gallons of ethanol are produced - at an operational cost of under $1 a gallon. The plant won’t be a strain on drought-plagued Southern California’s water resources either because it will use reclaimed water.

Read more from the Daily Breeze by clicking here.

August 31, 2008 · Filed Under Biofuels, Great Green Ideas

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Renewable energy reaps savings at water district

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on August 21, 2008 at 5:59 am

From the O.C. Register:

For the Santa Margarita Water District, being environmentally conscious and fiscally conservative is not a bunch of hot air. Burning hot air has yielded big savings and reduced the District’s carbon footprint.

For seven years, the district has saved more than $410,000 by using a renewable energy source to power its Chiquita Water Reclamation Plant near Ortega Highway. The renewable energy source is methane gas, a greenhouse gas that is the byproduct of the water reclamation process. By utilizing the gas, the district removes it from the atmosphere and generates approximately 17 percent of the power needed to run the 29-acre facility.

Methane – also called digester gas – is burned in microturbines 24 hours a day to provide energy to the plant. This process reduces the facility’s energy consumption by approximately 10 percent each year.

Read more from the O.C. Register by clicking here.

August 21, 2008 · Filed Under Great Green Ideas

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Artificial islands, made from recycled plastic, use pollution-eating microbes to suck up toxins from lakes and oceans

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on May 8, 2008 at 7:44 am

From Business Green:

Floating Island International has opened a manufacturing plant in California to create floating islands that it hopes will clean up inland water and oceans.

The company uses recycled plastic to create the islands, which can be customized to different buoyancies and are designed to accumulate pollution-eating microbes. The microbes can chew through heavy metals and other toxins that accumulate in fresh water or the ocean, said owner Bruce Kania. He wants them to be used for cleaning up ‘dead zones’ where too many chemical nutrients have depleted oxygen levels in the water making it uninhabitable for wildlife. He would also like to pilot the island projects in areas such as the Canadian tar sands, where oil extraction has left so-called toxic tailings in lakes and killed wildlife.

Over time, the plastic platforms build up natural deposits on top of the biofilm left by the algae microbes, explained Kania. The deposits completely envelop the plastic and continue to grow underneath and on top of the island, he said, adding that this also helps the island to absorb carbon from the environment.

What a great use of recycled plastic! The company has already shipped 3000 units and is currently negotiating with Singapore for a 25,000 square-island. Read more from the Business Green website by clicking here. Visit the website for Floating Islands International by clicking here.

May 8, 2008 · Filed Under Great Green Ideas

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Yucaipa City Council approves $3.6 million for project to provide flood protection, recreation, and aquifer recharge

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on March 27, 2008 at 8:10 pm

From the Inland Daily Bulletin:

Yucapia - The City Council approved a contract for about $3.6 million to begin building the Oak Glen Creek Basins Project - a string of three holding ponds that will catch rainwater and improve the area’s flood-drainage system.The primary purpose of the project - near Bryant Street and Oak Glen Road - is to provide flood-control protection for residents near the area. It will also add trails and rest areas for visitors.

Including design work, the cost to build the first phase of the project is estimated at $5.4 million, said Ray Casey, director of public works.

“With this project completed, the Dunlap area should be removed from the (Federal Emergency Management Agency) flood map,” he said. “But the most important thing is it will prevent the flooding in Dunlap.”

The project also provides another purpose - an eventual source of drinking water. The retention basins are designed to collect rainwater runoff in three basins. The water will leach into the ground, flow into the aquifer, and eventually be tapped as a source of drinking water by the Yucaipa Valley Water District, Casey said.

Corona-based KEC Engineering is set to begin construction in mid-April.

Read the rest of this article from the Inland Valley Bulletin by clicking here.

March 27, 2008 · Filed Under Great Green Ideas, Groundwater

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Water district to consider using solar power to run waste water treatment plant

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on January 30, 2008 at 7:03 am

From Riverside’s Press-Enterprise:

Rancho California Water District wants to use the sun to power its wastewater-treatment plant, a move expected to save nearly $4 million over time while providing an earth-friendly means of electricity.

A committee of water district board members this morning will discuss a project adding 5,370 solar panels to run the Santa Rosa Water Reclamation Facility in Murrieta. The panels will be installed on 9 acres next to the plant, which is also undergoing an expansion.

The plant processes 2.7 million gallons of wastewater a day, enough to service 10,000 homes. It is the first solar-energy project for the Temecula-based district, which serves more than 120,000 people in Temecula, Murrieta and nearby unincorporated areas.

The cost to install the panels? Merely $225,000, says the article. What a deal! To read the rest of this article from the Press-Enterprise, click here.

January 30, 2008 · Filed Under General Water Issues, Great Green Ideas

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Frito-Lay plans an environment-friendly potato chip

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on November 16, 2007 at 7:35 am

From the International Herald-Tribune:

CASA GRANDE, Arizona: At Frito-Lay’s factory here, more than 500,000 pounds of potatoes arrive every day from New Mexico to be washed, sliced, fried, seasoned and portioned into bags of Lay’s and Ruffles chips. The process devours enormous amounts of energy, and creates vast amounts of waste water, starch and potato peelings.

But Frito-Lay is embarking on an ambitious plan to change the way this factory operates, and in the process, create a new type of snack: the environmentally benign chip.

Its goal is to take the Casa Grande plant off the power grid, or nearly so, and run it almost entirely on renewable fuels and recycled water. Net zero, as the concept is called, has the backing of the highest levels of corporate executives at PepsiCo, the parent company of Frito-Lay.

There are benefits besides the potential energy savings. Like many other large corporations, PepsiCo is striving to establish its green credentials as consumers become more focused on climate change. There are marketing opportunities, too. The company, for example, intends to advertise that its popular SunChips snacks are made using solar energy.

“We don’t know what the complete payoff for net zero is going to be,” said Indra Nooyi, chairman and chief executive of PepsiCo. “If this works even to 50 or 60 percent of its potential, that is fantastic, and it’s so much better than what we already have.”

Just how do they plan to do this?

Over the next several years, Frito-Lay plans to install high-technology filters that would recycle most of the water used to rinse and wash the about 230,000 kilograms of potatoes it receives each day, as well as the corn used to make Doritos and other snacks, and then burn the leftover sludge to create methane gas to run the plant’s boiler.

The company will also build at least 50 acres, or 20 hectares, of solar concentrators behind the plant to generate solar power. A biomass generator, which most likely will burn agricultural waste, is also planned to provide additional renewable fuel.

The retrofit of the Casa Grande factory, scheduled to be completed by 2010, would reduce electricity and water consumption by 90 percent and use of natural gas by 80 percent. Greenhouse gas emissions would be cut by 50 percent to 75 percent, the company said.

To read the rest of this article from the International Herald-Tribune, click here.

November 16, 2007 · Filed Under Great Green Ideas

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Palm Desert: trying to be green in a different way

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on July 27, 2007 at 11:14 pm

Here’s a very interesting article from the San Jose Mercury News that discusses Palm Desert’s efforts to become ‘a model for energy use’:

In a region where temperatures can stick above 110 degrees for days on end, fights erupt in parking lots over the last shaded spot and air conditioning use is so high that summertime utility bills can soar to $2,000 a month. Faced with rising utility costs, the city has been quietly working to cut its electricity consumption and, with the blessing of state energy regulators, recently accelerated those efforts.

July 27, 2007 · Filed Under Drought Tolerant Landscaping, Great Green Ideas

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