Green Tech

GET's 5W-30 G-Oil.

(Credit: Green Earth Technologies)

Green Earth Technologies (GET) announced Wednesday that its environmentally friendly motor oil for cars will soon be available on shelves across the U.S.

The manufacturer of the biodegradable, carbon neutral motor oil made in part from the animal fat of beef slaughter byproducts has been waiting on certification from the American Petroleum Institute before selling its G-Oil to the public.

G-Oil has received API starburst certification, a symbol put on a product's packaging to signify it meets specific standards and is recommended for use by leading vehicle manufacturers. GET's car oil was additionally granted the API service symbol donut, a seal signifying an oil product has "energy-conserving properties in a standard test in comparison to a reference oil."

Until recently, GET has only been selling a 2-cycle G-Oil and a 4-cycle 10W-30 G-Oil for use in small-motor things like lawn mowers and tractors.

Now that the API approval has come, GET, which will be showcasing new products at the AAPEX show in Las Vegas next week, says consumers will begin to see its G-Oil motor oil for cars and trucks at leading national chains. It already began selling its product at National Auto Stores, a Pennsylvania-based chain, as of October 1.

The announcement is not just good news for a company. If the majority of the general public starts buying motor oil that biodegrades rather than taints groundwater, it could have a meaningful impact on the environment. Used motor oil from a single oil change that is dumped into the ground can contaminate about 1 million gallons of fresh water, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.

But, of course, the motor oil has to work well with your car.

While the International Motor Sports Association's American Le Mans Series has adopted G-Oil as its official motor oil of choice, the real test will be whether or not the American driving public and car enthusiasts like how it performs in their cars.

While no formal announcement has been made, it's likely a deal is in the works with the retailers already carrying G-Oil for small motors. This would include chains like Amazon.com, Home Depot, Ace Hardware, and True Value, among others.

A standard for a universal phone charger was approved this week by the International Telecommunication Union, a branch of the United Nations.

Side by side view of a Micro-USB connector and a regular USB connector.

(Credit: Wikimedia Commons)

The Universal Charging Solution will enable the creation of one-size-fits-all chargers that can be used on any future phone, according to the ITU.

The standard is based on input from the GSM Association, which expects the shift to eliminate 51,000 tons of redundant chargers, or 13.6 million tons of greenhouse gas emissions each year.

Based on Micro-USB, the new chargers will also be energy efficient.

"Universal chargers are a common-sense solution that I look forward to seeing in other areas," Malcolm Johnson, director of ITU's telecommunication standardization bureau, said in a statement.

Manufacturers are not required to adopt the new chargers, but some have already signed up, such as Sony Ericsson, according to the BBC.

California regional finalists for the Cleantech Open were announced Wednesday.

(Credit: Cleantech Open)

Think of the Cleantech Open, which started in 2006, as a Western divisions-only March Madness for environmental techies looking for funding. Contestants initially compete against each other in three Western U.S. regions: California, Rocky Mountain, and Pacific Northwest. Since its inception, the contest has garnered more than $125 million in funding for its contestants, according to Cleantech. It's also helped companies like Cool Earth Solar, and GreenVolts get noticed.

This year the California region judges had an initial pool of 278 teams, which it narrowed down to 49 semifinalists who then presented their projects in person. From those semifinalists, six regional finalists were chosen, one for each category of environmental technology that the Cleantech Open focuses on. Those final six, which received $100,000 worth in prizes for their regional win, will now go on to compete against finalists from other regions for the national award in their category.

This year's air, water, and waste category in California was won by Micromidas, a company trying to perfect a process to turn raw sewage into biodegradable plastic products.

Alphabet Energy, a team from the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, won the energy efficiency category for a system that produces electricity from waste heat. The group, which twittered a thank you to "the academy" for its win, says its inexpensive method has the potential to offset up to 500 million metric tonnes of carbon dioxide per year.

Tru2earth won the green building category for its Life Cycle Roof Tile made from recycled water and soda bottle plastic that can double as siphons for capturing gray water.

A DIY-installation solar roof panel system from Armageddon Energy, called the SolarClover, won the renewable energy category, while the smart power category was claimed by EcoFactor. The company developed an SaaS platform that "collects, analyzes and acts upon thousands of data points relating to a home's HVAC needs and preferences to help utilities improve demand management and enable consumers to lower energy costs and save money on utility bills without sacrificing comfort or giving up control."

"The Cleantech Open helped Armageddon Energy get off the ground. It brought the founding team together, helped us build our business plan and make crucial business connections. And, by winning the Renewable Energy category, it will undoubtedly help us as a small company gain credibility with crucial customers, supply chain partners, and investors," Armageddon Energy CEO Mark Goldman, said in a statement.

The transportation category was handed to FuelSaver Technologies. The team proposed a modified design for tractor-trailer trucks to minimize drag. The group claims the invention could reduce fuel consumption of a truck by as much as 25 percent depending on certain conditions, and could pay for itself in fuel savings within a year of long-haul driving.

"Our solution is a full body streamlining of the vehicle's aerodynamic profile, minimizing drag at the back of the trailer, underbelly of the trailer, and the gap between the tractor and trailer," the group said in a statement.

Finalists from each region will attend an awards ceremony and gala in San Francisco on November 17.

Greenpeace may have downplayed Apple's recent environmental efforts, but the organization on Thursday is holding the company up as an example for everyone.

(Credit: Greenpeace)

"Apple has stormed out of the biggest lobby group in the United States," reads a post on the environmental organization's Web site. "At issue is the U.S. Chamber of Commerce's use of funds to oppose climate change legislation. Apple has done the right thing, and IBM and Microsoft should think different too."

Catherine Novelli, Apple's vice president of worldwide government affairs, informed the Chamber of Commerce in a letter on Monday that the company would be resigning its membership. Apple cited differences in environmental policies.

"Apple supports regulating greenhouse gas emissions, and it is frustrating to find the chamber at odds with us in this effort," Novelli said in a letter to chamber President Thomas Donohue.

Donohue didn't take the news laying down. In a letter addressed to Apple CEO Steve Jobs, Donohue said that "while we do support legislation to address climate change, we oppose legislation such as the Waxman-Markey bill that numerous studies show will cause Americans to lose their jobs and shift greenhouse gas emissions overseas, negating potential climate benefits."

Not surprisingly, Greenpeace doesn't agree with Donohue's position. It said the Chamber of Commerce should think about the number of jobs that would be created by helping clean up the environment, instead of lecturing Jobs about innovation.

Apple is the fourth company to leave the chamber in the past few weeks, and Greenpeace challenged other companies to follow Apple in departing the Chamber of Commerce.

"The stakes have never been higher for the climate," Greenpeace said. "Apple's move will throw an uncomfortable spotlight on any company that stays on in the chamber but doesn't act to change its policies."

The relationship between Apple and Greenpeace has been contentious, to say the least. The two have argued publicly over the extent of Apple's commitment to reducing the use of harmful chemicals in its products.

Greenpeace even demonstrated outside Jobs' Macworld keynote in 2007 to bring attention to its environmental efforts. Apple took the challenge and have worked for the last couple of years to remove harmful chemicals like PVC, mercury, arsenic, lead, and BFR from its products.

Greenpeace even released its own iPhone app version of its "Recycled Tissue and Toilet Paper Guide." The app allows users to compare brands to find the most environmentally friendly.

Claims that the Amazon Kindle electronic reader is more environmentally friendly than paper books hold up, according to an analysis by the Cleantech Group.

The research and media company drew on existing studies to do a lifecycle analysis and found that the carbon emissions from electronic books are far lower than traditional book publishing.

Taking into account the manufacturing and mining required to produce an electronic device still gives the Amazon Kindle a significant edge, according to the study which was done by Emma Ritch.

"The roughly 168 kg of CO2 produced throughout the Kindle's lifecycle is a clear winner against the potential savings: 1,074 kg of CO2 if replacing three books a month for four years; and up to 26,098 kg of CO2 when used to the fullest capacity of the Kindle DX. Less-frequent readers attracted by decreasing prices still can break even at 22.5 books over the life of the device," she wrote in conclusion.

(Credit: Cleantech Group)

E-readers aren't typically marketed as environmentally sound, but their environmental impact is now becoming a topic of discussion and research.

In a test, six colleges in the U.S. will make textbooks available on the Kindle DX specifically to use less paper. "Sustainability is the driving force behind Princeton using the Kindle," a representative told The New York Times in May.

Still, there are some obvious environmental drawbacks to using electronic devices--production of a Kindle produces 168 kilograms of carbon dioxide compared to 7.46 kilograms for a book, the Cleantech Group says citing various sources. Like reading a newspaper on a PC, electronic readers need electricity to run.

Electronic waste, too, is a growing problem many tech gadget owners have yet to fully address. On this point, Amazon has said that it will establish a recycling program for the Kindle and its battery by mail to reduce electronic waste.

The Cleantech Group argues that the electronic reader industry can make a significant impact once people start transitioning from paper media en masse: "A user that purchasers fewer than 22.5 books per year would take longer to neutralize the emissions resulting from the e-reader, and even longer to help reduce emissions attributed to the publishing industry," according to the study.

Intuitively, the basic conclusion of the Cleantech Group analysis makes sense: the more you reduce your use of paper media in a single electronic device, the less you'll pollute by harvesting and shipping physical goods. But as with many proposed "fixes" to environmental problems, there are trade-offs.

Ultimately, it comes down to how an e-reader is used. If a person continues to buy books and print periodicals and doesn't recycle the product, the environmental impact could potentially be negative, according to this study.

An ancient technique to fertilize soil by creating charcoal from plant waste is being revived to tackle some of today's environmental problems.

The latest company to pursue manmade charcoal, called biochar, is Biochar Systems, which has developed a biochar-making machine that can be pulled by a pickup truck. Two customers--a North Carolina farm and the U.S. Bureau of Land Management--will be begin testing the units this fall.

The unit, called the Biochar 1000, is designed to convert woody biomass, such as agricultural or forestry waste, into biochar, a black, porous, and fine-grained charcoal that can be used as a fertilizer. It uses pyrolysis--slowly burning biomass in a low-oxygen chamber--to treat 1,000 pounds of biomass per hour, yielding 250 pounds of biochar.

The Biochar 1000 converts agricultural wastes to charcoal, which is then added to soil, a process that enriches soil and removes carbon from air.

(Credit: EcoTechnologies Group)

There still isn't a well established market for selling biochar, but there's growing interest among researchers in the process as a way to cut greenhouse gas concentrations. The United Nations has proposed classifying biochar as a carbon credit for sequestering carbon from the atmosphere.

When forestry or agricultural waste are converted into biochar and put into the soil, the carbon that would have been released through decomposition is held in the soil for hundreds or potentially thousands of years, say proponents.

A number of companies have formed to either create fertilizer or use modified machines to convert biomass into a liquid fuel such as methanol. The first U.S. biochar conference was held in Boulder, Colorado, two weeks ago, organized by the International Biochar Initiative industry group.

Tons of green waste
Biochar Systems, a joint venture created by BioChar Engineering and EcoTechnologies Group, has developed a mobile machine targeted at landowners or other organizations that generate a lot of "green waste," such as agricultural producers, nurseries, or land managers. The biochar can be used on-site as a soil amendment or moved and sold as a fertilizer, according to Fernando Migliassi, chief corporate development officer at EcoTechnologies Group.

The Bureau of Land Management will use one unit, which weighs 4,000 pounds and is 12 feet long, seven feet high, and five feet wide, to improve soil that has been damaged by mining, according to Biochar Systems. The North Carolina Farm Center for Innovation & Sustainability will use test a unit as well to see how agricultural waste can be converted into fertilizer.

The Biochar Systems Biochar 1000 costs $100,000 and is capable of turning out 1,000 tons of biochar a year.

Another unit will be tested by the Colorado State Forest Service to thin forests and treat the tons of wood infested by pine beetle into a soil amendment. Thinning forests manually is very expensive but the biochar machine could be a cheaper route.

"If this is feasible, it would allow us to manage a greater portion of forested lands that right now aren't cost effective," Joseph Duda, forest management supervisor for the Colorado State Forest Service told ClimateWire.

The U.S. produces 368 million tons of forest product waste a year and another 60 million tons a year of wood infested by the pine beetle, according to BioChar Engineering. Having a mobile unit reduces overall pollution as biomass doesn't need to be hauled for treatment at a centralized plant, according to the company.

But although it has potential to mitigate climate change, some people have warned against relying heavily on biochar as a carbon offset. The impact of biochar on land may have changed since the time thousands of years ago when people in Amazon region created charcoal, called terra preta.

"But despite its astounding potential, caution is warranted in implementing biochar on any sizeable scale. Though re-creating terra preta sounds simple, recent research suggests that modern-day soils may respond less well to the treatment and that the carbon may escape sooner than anticipated. On these questions alone, all of the evidence is not in," according to a recent editorial in the journal Nature Reports Climate Change.

The Green Electronics Council said Monday it is making its EPEAT rating system, now mandated in U.S. government agencies, available for computer gear sold in other countries.

Products certified by EPEAT--which stands for Electronic Product Environmental Assessment Tool--are listed in a registry. Products are judged on 23 attributes that make up an environmental performance rating. There are 28 optional attributes as well.

The ratings--either gold, silver, or bronze--cover monitors and desktop computers right now. The organization, which is made up of manufacturers, recyclers, and advocacy groups, is in the process of establishing an EPEAT rating for televisions, printers, and copiers. It also expects to take on consumer electronics and servers, according to executive director Jeff Omelchuck.

(Credit: Green Electronics Council)

Registries for monitor and PC buyers will now be able available in Canada, Europe, China, Japan, Taiwan, Australia, New Zealand, Brazil, and Mexico. The Green Electronics Council says it now has 1,300 products listed and participation of 30 vendors, which represents $60 billion in tech purchases.

While the Department of Energy-run EnergyStar rates energy efficiency, EPEAT covers other factors including the amount of toxic material used in electronics, manufacturers' recycling and take-back policies, and packaging.

To get the EPEAT certification, manufacturers need to fill out a complex form, which is reviewed by EPEAT. It also performs independent audits, sometimes through third parties, "to keep them honest," according to Omelchuck. The nonprofit is funded by members' fees.

Federal agencies are required to ensure that 95 percent of their computing equipment is EPEAT-certified. The actual adoption rate, however, is lower with about 13 of 22 agencies last year approaching the 95 percent purchasing market, according to Sarah O'Brien, director of communications at the Green Electronics Council.

Corporate computer buyers are showing growing interest in the EPEAT rating, said Steve Hoffman, director of strategic marketing and sustainability initiatives at Hewlett-Packard, which has had EPEAT-certified equipment since 2007.

"When you get outside the public sector, we are all seeing higher awareness around the environment," Hoffman said.

It's a gas: the tank for preparing onion juice to be turned into biogas

(Credit: Gills Onions)

Bill and Steve Gill have gone from onion farmers to power producers.

Their company, Gills Onions of Southern California, on Friday will take the wraps off a system that converts up to 300,000 pounds a day of agriculture waste into electricity. At an event at its facility, Gills Onions will receive a check for $2.7 million from SoCal Gas, which offers incentives to customers that reduce natural gas consumption through on-site generation.

One of the main components of the system is an anaerobic digester that converts treated onion plant waste into biogas. That gas is then conditioned and turned into methane, the main component of natural gas. Then the natural gas is fed into a 600-kilowatt fuel cell from Fuel Cell Energy to make electricity.

Gills Onions estimates that the $9.5 million project will have a six-year investment pay back. Among the financial benefits are reducing its electricity bill by $700,000 a year and $400,000 annual savings from handling onion wastes, which used to be spread on their land. The project also received $499,000 from a state waste-to-energy research program.

The technologies to do this sort of waste-to-energy system have been available for some time. But the project, called the Advanced Energy Recovery System, required a group of engineers to assemble and test the pieces as a system based on onion wastes. An important breakthrough in the project was finding a fuel cell that can make electricity from natural gas.

"Many of the things we did took a leap of faith, since nobody knew anything about onion gas," said Steve Gill in the company newsletter.

The combination of products can generate electricity at any farms that generate a large amount of agricultural waste or at waste-water treatment facilities, said SoCal Gas Vice President Hal Snyder, who heads up the utility's research and development. "Any facility that ends up with a bioproduct that an anaerobic digester can work with would work," he said.

A fuel cell from Fuel Cell Energy that can convert methane into electricity.

(Credit: Gills Onions)

SoCal Gas is looking at other ways to generate biogas, including collecting "green waste" from homes and dairy farms. Eventually, methane produced at customers' premises could be fed into SoCal Gas' pipeline.

From an economic point of view, the technology is still relatively immature and requires a hefty up-front investment. But the general direction on cost is favorable, particularly when there are financial incentives to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, Snyder said.

In addition to using its waste for energy, Gills Onions forecasts that it will eliminate the equivalent of 30,000 tons of carbon dioxide per year.

Updated at 8:20 a.m. PT with corrected figure for the amount of onion waste generated per day.