BP Starts Work to Install New Cap on Gushing Well
July 11, 2010Leave a Comment
Kristen Hays and Alexandria Sage, Reuters — BP Plc removed a containment cap from its stricken Gulf of Mexico oil well on Saturday in the first step toward installing a bigger cap to contain all the crude gushing into the sea and fouling the coast.
The maneuver released a torrent of oil that will [...]
Florida Tech Professor Pioneers New Product to Purify Polluted Water
July 8, 2010Leave a Comment
MELBOURNE, FLA.—Florida Institute of Technology chemistry professor Virender K. Sharma is making new strides in solving an old problem—safely and efficiently cleaning polluted water.
Sharma has invented a liquid cleaning product based on ferrate, a supercharged iron molecule. The resulting compound may be used as an oxidant, disinfectant and coagulant, and for industrial “green” purposes. A [...]
BP Oil Spill Continues to Provide Opportunities for New Technology Applications
June 30, 2010Leave a Comment
It has been over two months since BP, PLC’s (BP) Deepwater Horizon offshore oil rig exploded, creating a massive oil spill along the Gulf coast. Earlier (client registration required), we discussed BP’s use of Corexit, a chemical that breaks down the oil slick for bacterial consumption, or sinks it into the [...]
New Solar Water Purification Plant To Visit Philadelphia
June 21, 2010Leave a Comment
Elected Officials and Public Invited to Celebrate Summer Solstice With The HYDRA
What: The HYDRA, the world’s first mobile solar hydrogen powered water purification and community energy station system, will come to Philadelphia to purify Schuylkill River water on one of the days when the sun shines the longest.
Who: The Essential Element, a new Pennsylvania company [...]
“Entitlement” to Water
May 14, 2010Leave a Comment
An piece popped up in the New York Times last week end, dramatizing the problems of maintaining the water system of Washington DC, and noting the waste incurred when maintenance is deferred. You can see it here.
Americans differ little from people everywhere about water. We think it a commodity; free, or [...]
Federal Agencies’ New Approach to Hydropower
April 2, 2010Leave a Comment
Energy Law Alert:
Agencies Sign MOU Establishing “New Approach” to Hydropower, Hydroelectric, and Pumped Storage Facilities
On March 24, 2010, three federal agencies announced a Memorandum of Understanding for Hydropower (MOU) that impacts developers of traditional hydropower, hydrokinetic, pumped storage, and small-scale hydropower facilities. The Department of Energy (DOE), the Department of the Interior (DOI), and the [...]
Groundwater Vulnerability
March 31, 2010Leave a Comment
David A Gabel, ENN — The Earth is truly a blue planet; 70% of its surface is covered with water. Unfortunately 97.5% of that is salt water, unusable for humans. Fresh water accounts for the other 2.5%, however, about two thirds of that is locked up in glaciers and in the icy poles. That leaves [...]
Retreating Glaciers
January 21, 2010Leave a Comment
According to the Union of Concerned Scientists, world wide glaciers are retreating.
The recent publicity over some of the statements in the IPCC (UN International Panel on Climate Change) report is a distraction that leaves two scientists a bit defensive and defiantly angry. They see the increased focus on errors as discouraging new science, not helping. [...]
“Stop Gambling with our Future”
December 15, 2009Leave a Comment
Deal with Climate Change
There are some things that speak louder, and more clearly, than anyone could have imagined. But the UN Foundation has done just that for climate change. They created a full deck of playing cards featuring a selection of the words from the more than 2,000 text, photo and video submissions (from more [...]
WATER IT TO GROW
November 4, 2009Leave a Comment
Offering simple solutions for improved water management, water IT addresses
a $16.3 billion potential market in 2020, says Lux Research.
By 2030, 47% of the world’s population could live in areas of high water stress, according to the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development. Meanwhile, while water treatment technology and infrastructure improvements get lots of attention, some [...]