Author: Sarah.chappel

Science Daily: Yields of biodiesel from oilseed crops such as safflower could be increased by up to 24 percent using a new process developed by chemists at UC Davis. The method converts both plant oils and carbohydrates into biodiesel in a single process, and should also improve the performance characteristics of biodiesel, especially in cold weather.

A paper describing the method, which has been patented, is online in the journal Energy & Fuels.

Conventional biodiesel production extracts plant oils and then converts them into fatty acid esters that can be used to power engines, said Mark Mascal, professor of chemistry at UC Davis and co-author of the paper with postdoctoral researcher Edward Nikitin. That leaves behind the carbohydrate portion of the plant — the sugars, starches, and cellulose that make up stems, leaves, seed husks and other structures.

The new process converts those carbohydrates into chemicals called levulinic acid esters — at the same time and in the same vessel that the oils are converted to fatty acid esters — resulting in a fuel cocktail that performs better at low temperatures than conventional biodiesel.

The fuel cocktail has a similar boiling range to conventional biodiesel, but is thinner; it becomes waxy at a lower temperature. Performance at low temperatures is a significant problem with B100 (conventional biodiesel), Mascal said.

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Science Daily: Until now, paleontologists have generally believed that the closest relatives of dinosaurs possibly looked a little smaller in size, walked on two legs and were carnivorous. However, a research team including Randall Irmis, curator of paleontology at the Utah Museum of Natural History and assistant professor in the Department of Geology and Geophysics at the University of Utah has made a recent discovery to dispel this hypothesis.

The team announced the discovery of a proto-dinosaur (dinosaur-like animal) — a new species called Asilisaurus kongwe (a-SEE-lee-SOAR-us KONG-way), derived from asili (Swahili for ancestor or foundation), sauros (Greek for lizard), and kongwe (Swahili for ancient). The first bones of Asilisaurus were discovered in 2007, and it is the first proto-dinosaur recovered from the Triassic Period in Africa. Asilisaurus shares many characteristics with dinosaurs but falls just outside of the dinosaur family tree — living approximately 10 million years earlier than the oldest known dinosaurs.

The description of the new species Asilisaurus kongwe appears in the March 4 issue of the journal Nature in a paper co-authored by an international team, including Irmis, Sterling Nesbitt, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Texas at Austin’s Jackson School of Geosciences, Christian A. Sidor (Burke Museum and University of Washington), Kenneth D. Angielczyk (The Field Museum, Chicago), Roger M.H. Smith (Iziko South African Museum, South Africa), and Linda A. Tsuji (Museum für Naturkunde and Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Germany).

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Science Daily: Scientists at Columbia’s Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory have found evidence of hydrothermal vents on the seafloor near Antarctica, formerly a blank spot on the map for researchers wanting to learn more about seafloor formation and the bizarre life forms drawn to these extreme environments.

Hydrothermal vents spew volcanically heated seawater from the planet’s underwater mountain ranges — the vast mid-ocean ridge system, where lava erupts and new crust forms. Chemicals dissolved in those vents influence ocean chemistry and sustain a complex web of organisms, much as sunlight does on land. In recent decades more than 220 vents have been discovered worldwide, but so far no one has looked for them in the rough and frigid waters off Antarctica.

From her lab in Palisades, N.Y., geochemist Gisela Winckler recently took up the search. By analyzing thousands of oceanographic measurements, she and her Lamont colleagues pinpointed six spots on the remote Pacific Antarctic Ridge, about 2,000 miles from New Zealand, the closest inhabited country, and 1,000 miles from the west coast of Antarctica, where they think vents are likely to be found. The sites are described in a paper published in the journal Geophysical Research Letters.

“Most of the deep ocean is like a desert, but these vents are oases of life and weirdness,” said Winckler. “The Pacific Antarctic ridge is one of the ridges we know least about. It would be fantastic if researchers were to dive to the seafloor to study the vents we believe are there.”

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ClimateWire: Colorado scientists are using some new tools to fight bark beetles that are killing the state’s pine trees: liquefied crab and shrimp shells.

According to Colorado State University scientists, a serum made from the shells, which are imported from Iceland, could prevent the beetles from killing the trees if it is sprayed from the air. However, the serum has not attracted support from the U.S. Forest Service for an aerial spray.

The beetles have destroyed millions of acres of trees by laying eggs in the bark and spreading a blue fungus. Other solutions offered have included spraying insecticide, spraying pheromones or even using recorded beetle sounds to drive the insects crazy. However, researchers say this serum could be effective because it contains chitosan, a carbohydrate found in beetle shells. That can make a tree secrete more sap, protecting it from the beetles.

A 2003 Forest Service experiment found that chitosan could boost tree defenses, but it still has not found widespread use. While Colorado is not taking official action on it, the Idaho Forest Service is planning to do tests this summer.

Scientists are working on a patented chitosan mix at an AgriHouse factory. The “Organic Disease Control” mix is already available at nurseries at less than $1 per tree (Bruce Finley, Denver Post, Mar. 2). – JP

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Greenwire: Tens of thousands of Iowa residents yesterday swamped phone lines and crashed a state Web site to get $2.8 million in government rebates for energy-efficient appliances. State officials last week predicted that the money would take at least two weeks to distribute, but it was gone in less than eight hours.

After disappointing responses in Georgia and Michigan, Iowa officials said they expected a calm rollout for the rebate program. The state was distributing rebates of between $100 and $500 for more efficient heaters, refrigerators, air conditioners, washing machines and dishwashers. The rebates had all been claimed by 3:45 p.m. on Monday, which Office of Energy Independence officials chalked up to “Iowa’s spirited and proactive response to energy efficiency.” A launch in Minnesota experienced a similar rush of service.

Helgeson Enterprises, the Minnesota company that was contracted to run the phone lines and Web site, reported it received more than double the projected 11,000 Web hits per hour. Kenny Kuss, an appliance manager at a Sears store in Des Moines, said there was a wide range of customers at the store. He thought that most people were attracted to the program because of the potential savings, not environmental concerns (Jeff Eckhoff, Des Moines Register, March 2). – JP

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Greenwire: A Swedish architect and professor has come up with a product he says can act as a single-use toilet for urban slums in the developing world and also be used to safely fertilize crops.

Anders Wilhelmson calls his invention the Peepoo.

The biodegradable bag, which can be knotted and buried, is lined with a layer of urea crystals that break down the waste into fertilizer — killing off disease-producing pathogens found in feces.

He says the device would be useful in urban slums in Kenya, for example, where there are open spaces where waste can be buried even though the area is densely populated. His idea came from seeing slum dwellers collect their feces in a plastic bag and fling it away.

Starting this summer, Wilhelmson plans to sell the bag for about 2 or 3 cents — comparable to the cost of an ordinary plastic bag. He has already tested the product for a year in Kenya and India.

U.N. figures suggest that an estimated 2.6 billion people — 40 percent of the Earth’s population — do not have access to a toilet. Improper sanitation from open defecation can lead to water contamination.

Therese Dooley, senior adviser on sanitation and hygiene for UNICEF, said that while the “private sector can play a major role, it will never get to the bottom of the pyramid” on this issue, since bringing about large-scale change in sanitation habits would require a “large amount of behavior change” (Sindya N. Bhanoo, New York Times, March 2). – DFM

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ClimateWire: In a bid to breathe life into Australia’s renewable energy project markets, the government proposed amendments to its renewable energy target last week, splitting up its goals for household markets and large-scale renewable energy project investments.

Six months ago, Parliament had crafted a plan to require 20 percent of the country’s energy to come from renewable sources by 2020. But the system, which required major energy companies to buy tradable renewable energy certificates, failed because the government issued credits to households that installed solar hot-water panels and heat pumps — flooding the market with cheap certificates and reducing their worth to large-scale projects.

The market for 45,000 gigawatt-hours of clean power was expected to bolster the finances of large-scale renewable energy projects worth about $19.5 billion, but the plan did not manage to support a single major project.

Climate Change Minister Penny Wong said on Friday that the amended plan, which requires large-scale schemes to deliver on the vast majority of the 2020 target, is “expected to deliver more renewable energy than the original 20 percent target and will ensure we build the clean energy future Australia needs.”

Specificity about how much of the clean energy must be provided by large-scale projects will give additional certainty to investors, she said. The planned changes would go into effect on Jan. 1, 2011.

The clean energy industry has said the changes will unblock large-scale projects planned by companies including AGL Energy Ltd. and Pacific Hydro. AGL CEO Michael Fraser had previously said that more than A$1 billion ($887 million) worth of planned renewable projects were stalled because of problems with the renewable energy target scheme.

The announcement gave a boost to the value of certificates from A$30 ($26) to A$42.50 ($37.70), though the value still falls short of its peak of A$53 ($47) when the original scheme was announced in the fall (Rob Taylor, Reuters, Feb. 26). – DFM

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Greenwire: The amount of nitrogen entering the environment from animal manure has increased at least 60 percent since the 1970s, a torrent of excess waste that is causing systemic problems in the country’s rivers and coastlines.

Unlike other types of pollution, such as human or industrial waste, manure waste has not been strictly regulated by U.S. EPA. But as scientists have begun to highlight the impact of the nutrient, including 230 oxygen-free “dead zones” that have arisen in U.S. ocean waters, regulators have begun to take notice.

Last week, EPA announced that manure runoff will be one of its six “national enforcement initiatives.” Rules have recently gone into effect to tighten manure restrictions at the largest animal farms, and in the Senate, Ben Cardin (D-Md.) has proposed a bill that would impose a cap-and-trade system for nitrogen pollution in the Chesapeake Bay watershed, home to one of the country’s largest dead zones.

“We now know that we have more nutrient pollution from animals in the Chesapeake Bay watershed” than from human sewage, said J. Charles Fox, EPA’s new Chesapeake chief.

The agriculture community has fought back against any new regulations. Such rules could cripple small farmers, according to Don Parrish of the American Farm Bureau Federation.

“It’s clearly going to put a squeeze on people that they’ve always said they didn’t want to squeeze,” including family-run farms, he said (David A. Fahrenthold, Washington Post, March 1). – PV

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Greenwire: Technicians and scientists may have found the source of a tritium leak at the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant.

Their recent efforts to find the source of the radioactive leak, which has sparked a national conversation on the safety of nuclear energy, did not wrap up in time to head off the Vermont Senate vote last Wednesday that may have sealed the fate of the plant after 2012. The state voted 26-4 to close the 38-year-old plant in 2012, but finding and fixing the leak could be the first step Louisiana-based Entergy could take to persuade lawmakers to reverse their decision and allow the plant to seek another permit to continue to operate past 2012.

Based on tritium levels logged at several monitoring wells, workers think they may have triangulated the source of the leak around a 2-inch steel pipe encased in a plastic pipe that is itself surrounded by concrete. The dig is slow going, even though workers are digging around the clock — complicated by snow; nearby pipes carrying essential materials, including fuel for the reactor’s emergency diesel generators; and the fact that the workers have to be wary of a cave-in (Matthew L. Wald, New York Times, Feb. 26). – DFM

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Greenwire: As the United States works to sell off its massive stockpile of helium gas by 2015, government employees and scores of scientists have started to question how the nation is handling the sale of the valuable gas and wondering if it should keep some for itself.

The United States currently has the world’s largest collection of the gas stored 3,500 feet underground in the Texas Panhandle. It has been steadily selling off its supply to comply with plans to close the storage facility by 2015, but experts are now hoping to derail the plan to shutter the helium depot.

The government is not just getting rid of a valuable commodity used for high-tech products, they say; it is doing so in a manner that discourages new production of the gas.

A recent report from the National Research Council, a government-advising body, recommended that federal officials should at least sell the popular gas only at market rates, not at an arbitrary price set by Congress — $64.75 per thousand cubic feet for 2010. The body also said the United States should save some of the helium in its Bush Dome reserve (which is not named for either of the presidents) for emergencies, and that it should encourage producers to fill it with more gas.

House and Senate committees say they are considering revisiting their helium policies this year. The United States supplies about one-third of the world’s consumption of helium for chip and fiber-optic manufacturing and for use in medical diagnosis and scientific research (Ana Campoy, Wall Street Journal [subscription required], Feb. 26). – DFM

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Greenwire: The United Nations will commission an independent group of top scientists to review its climate science panel in the wake of accusations of sloppy work, a U.N. climate spokesman said today.

The announcement comes following the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s admission that it made a mistake in one of its 2007 findings that predicted Himalayan glaciers could vanish by 2035. The figure should have been 2350. The error has fueled climate change skepticism.

The independent group will look at the way the IPCC operates and will recommend changes. Part of the review will investigate the IPCC’s use of information from outside peer-reviewed academic journals, since a report from campaign group World Wildlife Fund is blamed for introducing the false statement that Himalayan glaciers could melt by 2035 into the IPCC report. Details of the review will be announced next week.

“Yesterday, it was clear from the member states roughly how they would like this panel to be — fully independent and not appointed by the IPCC, but appointed by an independent group of scientists themselves,” said U.N. Environment Programme spokesman Nick Nuttall. The group will likely complete its review and produce a report by August, he said (David Adam, London Guardian, Feb. 26).

Meanwhile, a Wall Street Journal analysis has found that the IPCC sometimes faces institutional bias toward oversimplification because of the panel’s tricky mission of boiling sophisticated science into accessible advice for lawmakers (Ball/Johnson, Wall Street Journal [subscription required], Feb. 26). – DFM

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Greenwire: The Teamsters union has formed an unlikely partnership with environmental activists to help clean the air around America’s ports.

The alliance is charging that short-haul trucking companies should purchase low-emission trucks, which can cost $100,000 to $175,000 each. The Teamsters union says truck drivers should not have to pay for the trucks because they are paid too little.

The team has already persuaded the Port of Los Angeles to adopt a plan barring old trucks from using the port and forcing trucking companies to buy cleaner vehicles that emit fewer diesel particulates. Federal officials are also putting pressure on ports to adopt cleaner air regulations, but the American Trucking Associations says the current system puts the burden on drivers to buy their own trucks. The group also wants seaports to subsidize the purchases, no matter who is paying.

The powerful alliance combining the Teamsters’ political clout and the environmentalists has friends in high places, including New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Newark Mayor Corey Booker. Local mayors are urging Congress to amend truck-regulation law to give ports more authority over environmental rules. They say this will lead to more action like that in Los Angeles, where the industry brought in 6,000 new trucks and reduced emissions by 70 percent.

However, the truck industry is asking for the federal regulation to stay in place to make the national industry more standardized (Steven Greenhouse, New York Times, Feb. 25). – JP

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ClimateWire: The head of United Kingdom’s Environment Agency yesterday called for businesses to develop more innovative products to safeguard homes and properties against flood risk.

“Climate change is likely to increase the frequency and severity of flooding, and the U.K. could be the global market leader on technologies to counter the impacts that it brings,” Lord Chris Smith told members of the National Flood Forum, an organization of people who live in more than 200 areas affected by flooding.

One in six properties in England and Wales is already at risk from floods, he said.

Simple measures such as fitting water-resistant skirting boards and installing plug sockets farther up the wall would help property owners protect their homes from damage, he said. Although many households already have defensive products in place, including air brick covers and door barriers, that is not enough, he said.

The Environment Agency has said that £3.2 billion worth of damage was caused by floods during the summer of 2007.

Smith’s agency has said it wants insurance companies to lower premiums and deductibles for homeowners who prove they have tried to prepare for the risk of flooding (BBC News, Feb. 25). – DFM

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ClimateWire: This year’s Catlin Arctic Survey will have scientists studying ocean life and chemicals in northern Canada while a team of adventurers explores the sea ice off of Greenland. Both teams will be looking into ocean acidification and its impact on sea life. Scientists will collect plankton, sea butterflies and other life to measure rising levels of acidity.

This year’s team will also be the first to take water samples from the sea ice in winter. The team will measure how much carbon dioxide passes through the sea ice into water and variations in ice thickness. Last year’s survey found that Arctic ice was thinner than originally thought.

Acidity has risen by 30 percent from preindustrial levels in oceans around the world, posing a danger to small marine organisms. The team is hoping to measure how thinning ice is also affecting marine life. Catlin scientists are also hoping to measure the acidity of the Arctic Ocean, which has been changing faster than the rest of the seas.

The six scientists will work on an ice base on the western shore of Ellef Ringnes Island. The base does not present ideal working conditions, thanks to constant threats of breaking ice, frostbite and polar bears. Meanwhile, Ann Daniels will lead the three explorers to Greenland, where temperatures can drop to minus 75 degrees Celsius. An analysis of the findings will be published in late 2010 or 2011 (Adam Vaughan, London Guardian, Feb. 25). – JP

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Greenwire: In a letter to the Navy last week, U.S. EPA blasted the military’s plan to move thousands of Marines to Guam, saying that the lack of infrastructure upgrade plans would result in raw sewage spills and a shortfall in Guam’s water supply.

In a six-page letter to the Navy regarding a draft environmental impact statement issued by the military, EPA also criticized the military’s plan to build a new aircraft carrier berth at Guam’s Apra Harbor, saying it would result in “unacceptable impacts” to 71 acres of a high-quality coral reef.

“The impacts are of sufficient magnitude that EPA believes the action should not proceed as proposed and improved analyses are necessary to ensure the information in the EIS is adequate to fully inform decision makers,” EPA said in its letter, dated Feb. 17. The letter was first reported by the Pacific Daily News.

The military’s Joint Guam Program Office said in a statement that the issues raised by EPA were “consistent with what we have heard from Guam’s leaders, local agencies and the public.” The office is committed to finding a solution by working with EPA and other federal agencies, it said.

The relocation plan, according to the letter, would involve moving 8,600 Marines and 9,000 of their dependents to Guam from Okinawa, Japan. Large numbers of construction workers would also have to move to Guam, likely boosting the U.S. territory’s population by 45 percent — adding another 79,000 people to its current 180,000 residents (Audrey McAvoy, AP/Los Angeles Times, Feb. 24). – DFM

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ClimateWire: Oxygen-deprived waters are spreading over the continental shelves off the Pacific Northwest, threatening the marine species that live there.

Since 2002, more hypoxic, or oxygen-short, waters from deep offshore areas are moving into shallower areas near the shore, but they are not close enough to get oxygen from waves. That’s a result of oxygen reduction in deep water, which some scientists say may be a worldwide problem due to climate change.

Oxygen levels in the Pacific Northwest have been falling dramatically, leaving the area’s plentiful fish, sea stars and marine worms without air. Monitoring during a hypoxic event revealed many dead marine animals that could not escape.

Researchers say that if the trend continues, large fish like marlin, tuna and sailfish will have to move to shallow waters, making them more susceptible to being caught by fishers. The biodiversity of sea life would also take a great hit.

A paper to be published in Deep-Sea Research describes hypoxic water as a global problem, since tropical low-oxygen zones have expanded around the world while subsurface oxygen decreases. A research team led by oceanographer Lothar Stramma found that hypoxic areas where large species cannot survive have grown to nearly 5.2 million square kilometers since the 1960s. However, the problem is more pronounced in the Pacific because the deep waters there have not reached the surface for a long time.

Among the species that could benefit from the oxygen drain is the Humboldt squid, which has seen its population increase. Jellyfish blooms could also see a rise. However, larval fish could die out, as could species that rely on such fish for food (Michael Tennesen, Scientific American, Feb. 23). – JP

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Climatewire: Jatropha may attract new interest as a biofuel now that a San Diego company has unveiled a commercial variety with greater yield.

The shrubby tree produces oil-rich seeds and can grow without much water. However, its yields were unimpressive, and concerns grew about its long-term viability. But SG Biofuels says it has used three and a half years of jatropha research to retool the plant’s DNA to double the plant’s yield.

Jatropha’s oil is useful as biodiesel or jet fuel, and the plant has an overall better carbon profile than corn or soybeans, partly due to its long life. The oil is also easily converted into fuel, unlike algae.

SG Biofuels CEO Kirk Haney says his modified plant can produce fuel at $1.39 per gallon, or $59 per barrel.

The modified plant will produce eight times more oil per acre than soybeans and four times more than rapeseed, Haney said. It can also be raised on marginal land that cannot grow food crops.

Haney said his company is planning on modifying the plant to work in locations like India and Africa, with the possibility of a cold-weather strain for the United States (Jonathan Fahey, Forbes, Feb. 24). – JP

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GreenWire: The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers will allow a dredging contractor to deepen the Delaware River shipping channel by 5 feet.

Norfolk Dredging Co. of Chesapeake, Va., received a $24 million contract option to deepen the channel, which is currently set at 40 feet deep.

The contract will not start before Friday, the date the government told an appeals court it would begin. The corps will also wait until the Philadelphia Regional Port Authority purchases “emission reduction credits” to meet the requirements of the U.S. Clean Air Act. The Army Corps expects that action to be finished this week.

Environmental groups opposing the project are asking the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to block a federal judge’s order that allowed the deepening to begin in a section of the river off Delaware. They worry that the work will stir up toxic sediment and damage water quality. However, supporters of the project say it is necessary to keep the shipping lanes competitive and that the project will create jobs in the area (Linda Loyd, Philadelphia Inquirer, Feb. 24). – JP

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ClimateWire: Scientists at the National Ice Core Laboratory in Denver are awaiting a new set of ice samples extracted 1,400 feet beneath Antarctica, hoping the ice will provide the best information yet about prehistoric concentrations of greenhouse gases.

The meter-long pillars of ice are now moving by boat from New Zealand toward their final destination, a federal freezer constantly set to minus 33 degrees Fahrenheit. The freezer already contains about 15,500 of the ice pillars.

The laboratory sends slices of the ice to university researchers, who can release trapped air by crushing the ice and then test the air to determine carbon dioxide levels. Previous testing has suggested that levels of the greenhouse gas have risen from 200 parts per million during the Ice Age to 270 ppm before industrialization and 388 ppm today.

“Right now, we have this uncertainty about what happens first: temperature rise or the rise of carbon dioxide,” said Ken Taylor, chief scientist for the West Antarctic Ice Sheet Ice Divide Core Project. “This project will answer that question. It has the potential to really change our understanding of the interaction” (Bruce Finley, Denver Post, Feb. 23). – GN

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ClimateWire: Household goods company Unilever is dropping Indonesian palm oil producer Duta Palma after employees were filmed clearing protected rain forest to make room for palm plantations.

This is the second time in three months Unilever is distancing itself from a palm oil producer as it seeks to ensure that its products do not contain ingredients from firms that endanger protected forests. The controversy also brings up new questions about Indonesian laws protecting the jungles and how active the industry is in preservation.

Two months ago, Unilever canceled its contract with Indonesian company PT Smart after Greenpeace alleged it was destroying rain forests. PT Smart acknowledged “minor mistakes” and drafted stricter environmental controls.

Duta Palma has made no comment about the allegations or BBC evidence. Unilever is the world’s biggest user of palm oil, an essential ingredient in more than half of the world’s best-selling foods as well as brands such as Dove soap.

Both PT Smart and Duta Palma are members of the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil, a group dedicated to protecting the rain forest and giving the palm oil industry a better public face. Many are concerned that palm oil producers are abusing the rain forest to make room for vast palm plantations. Environmentalists say that is endangering the homes of the orangutan and snow leopard, as well as destroying peat-rich land that releases greenhouse gases (Martin Hickman, London Independent, Feb. 22). – JP

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