August 15, 2011

Good Morning,

Algae farming is one of the most prospective alternate fuel sources being considered for the future of transportation and manufacturing. Although it is easy to grow and doesn't require much space - comparatively - it comes with a laundry list of foreseeable problems. Check out the second article for all the details on this timely study.

Until Next Time,
Erin

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Largest solar plant approved for Calif.

WASHINGTON - Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar has approved a 550-megawatt solar power project to be built in the California desert, the largest U.S. facility to date.
The Desert Sunlight Solar Farm to be built east of Palm Springs will generate enough energy to power more than 165,000 homes when it is completed, an Interior Department release said Wednesday. Construction activity will create 630 jobs and bring $336 million into the local economy, Salazar said. "The Desert Sunlight Solar Farm is the largest photovoltaic facility Interior has approved thus far and, when built, will help power our nation and economy," he said. Located on approximately 4,100 acres of public lands, the proposal underwent extensive environmental review with the final environmental impact statement issued April 15, 2011. The Interior's Bureau of Land Management is requiring that Desert Sunlight provide funding for acquisition and enhancement of more than 7,500 acres of suitable habitat for sensitive wildlife species to help mitigate the project's potential impacts, the Interior release said.


Report: Algae as fuel presents problems

CHARLOTTSVILLE, Va. - Algae-based fuel is a possible future energy source with high energy output from minimal land use but could come with environmental burdens, scientists say. Algae would produce considerably more transportation energy than canola and switch grass for every acre planted and can be grown on poor-quality marginal land that cannot be easily used to grow food crops such as corn, University of Virginia researchers said in a release. However, from an environmental impact standpoint, algae-based fuel has mixed performance compared with other biomass sources, engineering Professors Andres F. Clarens and Lisa M. Colosi said. Algae-based biodiesel production uses more energy, in the form of petroleum-powered processes, than other biofuels and also requires substantial amounts of water and emits more greenhouse gases, they said. "It comes down to value-driven questions," Colosi said. "Do we value driving long distances in SUVs that require a lot of fuel? If so, we need to look at algae so we can produce as much fuel as possible. "If we are concerned about energy use, climate changes and water supply, then we need to think more strongly about how we can best use canola and switch grass," she said. Environmental costs and benefits associated with production of the various bio-fuels needs to be considered, the researchers said. "Ultimately there is no silver bullet for replacing petroleum as a transportation energy source," Clarens said. "We've seen that alternatives typically come with unforeseen burdens. We saw it with ethanol, and we're seeing it now with shale gas."


Earth 'recyles' itself faster than thought

MAINZ, Germany - The volcanic recycling of crust that sinks due to the movement of Earth's tectonic plates happens faster than previously thought, German researchers say. Scientists at the Max Planck Institute for Chemistry in Mainz say sunken oceanic crust resurfaces from Earth's mantle through volcanic eruptions after only 500 million years, a figure researchers had previously put at about 2 billion years. Hot rock rises in cylindrical columns, so-called mantle plumes, from a depth of nearly 1,800 feet and near the surface it melts because the pressure is reduced and forms volcanoes. The plumes originate from former ocean crust that sank to the bottom of the mantle early in the planet's existence, and scientists had previously assumed this recycling required about 2 billion years. Max Planck researchers found unexpected amounts of strontium isotopes in lava samples from Hawaiian volcanoes that allowed them to date the recycling process. "Apparently strontium from sea water has reached deep in the Earth's mantle, and reemerged after only half a billion years, in Hawaiian volcano lavas," researcher Klaus Peter Jochum said. "This discovery was a huge surprise for us."


Electronic circuits worn like skin

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - Electronics for sensing, medical diagnostics or other uses can be put on a thin patch adhered directly to skin like a temporary tattoo, U.S. researchers say. Engineers at the University of Illinois say the electronic circuit can bend, wrinkle and stretch with all the mechanical properties of skin. "We think this could be an important conceptual advance in wearable electronics, to achieve something that is almost unnoticeable to the wearer," electrical and computer engineering professor Todd Coleman said. "The technology can connect you to the physical world and the cyberworld in a very natural way that feels very comfortable." Skin-mounted electronics could have many biomedical applications, including EEG and EMG sensors to monitor nerve and muscle activity. Skin-like circuits won't require conductive gel, tape, skin-penetrating pins or bulky wires, which can be uncomfortable for the user, a university release said Thursday. Monitoring in a natural environment during normal activity without discomfort to the wearer would be especially beneficial for continuous monitoring of health and wellness, cognitive state or behavioral patterns during sleep, the researchers said. "The blurring of electronics and biology is really the key point here," said Northwestern University engineering professor Yonggang Huang, who collaborated in the research. "All established forms of electronics are hard, rigid. Biology is soft, elastic. It's two different worlds. This is a way to truly integrate them."


Hubble captures image of cosmic 'necklace'

BALTIMORE - A newly released image from the Hubble Space Telescope shows a recently discovered planetary nebula dubbed the Necklace Nebula, U.S. astronomers said. The nebula is the glowing remains of an ordinary sun-like star, in a ring 12 trillion miles across with dense, bright knots of gas that resemble diamonds in a necklace, a release from the Space Telescope Science Institute said Thursday. The nebula, located 15,000 light-years away in the constellation Sagitta, was imaged on July 2 by Hubble's Wide Field Camera showing the glow of hydrogen (blue), oxygen (green), and nitrogen (red). The glowing colors of the knots are due to absorption of ultraviolet light from the nebula's central stars. Astronomers said a pair of stars orbiting very close together produced the nebula about 10,000 years ago when one of the aging stars ballooned to the point where it enveloped its companion star, causing the larger star to spin so fast much of its gaseous envelope expanded into space producing a dense ring.
The stars are still furiously whirling around each other, the scientists said, completing an orbit in a little more than a day.

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