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The Guardian and Cleantech Group, providers of leading research, events and advisory services for the cleantech ecosystem, are proud to present the Global Cleantech 100 – the first ever list of this scale highlighting the most promising private clean technology companies around the world.
The Global Cleantech 100 recognizes companies at the forefront of cleantech innovation offering solutions to some of the planet’s most pressing environmental challenges.
The final list represents the collective opinion of hundreds of leading experts from cleantech innovation and venture capital companies in EMEA, North America, India and China, combined with the specific input of an expert panel of 35 individuals from respected organizations, detailed below.
Their inputs were then combined with insights from the Cleantech Network™, an industry association of international clean technology investors, entrepreneurs, large corporations and other industry insiders.
Some 3,500 companies were nominated/considered. Read all about the program and this year’s winners at the links below.
Expert panel and methodology
By sector and geography
Energy generation – solar
Energy generation – other
Agriculture
Energy efficiency
Energy storage
Manufacturing
Recycling and waste
Transportation
Water and wastewater
How many tomatoes can a power plant grow, if a power plant could grow plants? Great Northern Hydroponics, has installed a GE Energy designed, 12-megawatt commercial power plant at a 55-acre tomato greenhouse complex in Kingsville, Ontario. It’s a combined heat and power (CHP) project that runs the greenhouse, sending surplus power to the Ontario grid. Waste heat from the generators keeps the tomatoes warm, and C02, pulled from a treated exhaust gas stream, feeds them.
Via: Energy Business Review : “GE Energy Inaugurates First North American Greenhouse Cogeneration Facility“
From the article:
Powered by four of GE Energy’s Jenbacher gas engines cogeneration modules, the onsite power plant is one among the seven natural gas-fired combined heat and power (CHP) projects approved by the Ontario Power Authority in 2006.
The plant generates sufficient electricity to Ontario’s transmission grid that can serve around 12,000 to 15,000 Canadian homes annually. Under a 20-year contract with the Ontario Power Authority, surplus of power generated from the plant is sold to the local grid.
The power plant, in order to support greenhouse operations, also treats the gas engines’ exhaust, enabling carbon from the exhaust to be recycled and applied as a special fertilizer to enhance greenhouse crop production. CHP plants consume less fuel compared to separate systems to produce the same amount of power. As a result, cogeneration can help to reduce regional industrial emissions associated with energy production.
GE Energy’s Jenbacher gas engine business has developed the special CO2 fertilization/cogeneration system.
DDACE Power Systems, GE’s Jenbacher engine distributor for eastern Canada has supplied greenhouse cogeneration system. The engineering services for the North American reference plant were provided by H.H. Angus and Associated of Toronto.
The International Herald Tribune 14 July 2009 – Exxon Mobil, perhaps the biggest skeptic about biofuels and alternative forms of energy, is about to make a major commitment to produce fuels from algae. Exxon is planning to spend $600 million in its first major foray into biofuels in partnership with Synthetic Genomics, a biotechnology firm founded by J. Craig Venter, the genomic pioneer.
Synthetic Genomics scientific capabilities encompass areas such as environmental genomics, microbiology, biochemistry, bioinformatics, plant genomics, genome engineering, synthetic biology, and climate change. In addition to the strong applied research efforts conducted at SGI, the company sponsors fundamental research at the J. Craig Venter Institute, a not-for-profit organization with more than 400 scientists and staff working on a variety of genomic research and policy fronts.
The investment amounts to a radical change of heart for Exxon, whose chairman and chief executive, Rex Tillerson, once derisively referred to corn-based ethanol as ”moonshine.”
But Emil Jacobs, the vice president of research and development at Exxon’s research and engineering company, said the investment comes after several years of looking at a range of options, including whether algae could be turned into transportation fuels at a competitive cost.
”We did a lot of work looking at alternative sources,” Dr. Jacobs said in an interview. ”We literally looked at every option we could think of with several key parameters in mind. Scale was the first. For transportation fuels, if you can’t see whether you can scale it up, then you have to question whether you need to be involved at all.”
Algal biofuel – sometimes nicknamed oilgae by environmentalists – is a promising technology, but finding cost-effective ways to mass-produce it has so far eluded researchers.
Experts believe that the benefits of biofuels made from photosynthetic algae are significant. Algae, for example, can be grown using nonarable land and either brackish or salt water unsuitable for crop, plant or food production, unlike first- and second-generation biofuel feedstocks.
It has another benefit that could eventually help cut greenhouse gas emissions that cause global warming: algae need carbon dioxide to grow. Using genomic technologies, including genome engineering, both companies believe they can eventually develop strains of algae that can produce biofuel on a commercial scale while absorbing carbon dioxide emitted, for example, by power plants.
”Algae is the ultimate biological system using sunlight to capture and convert carbon dioxide into fuel,” Dr. Venter said.
Exxon’s investment includes $300 million for in-house studies and ”potentially more” than that to Synthetic Genomics ”if research and development milestones are successfully met,” Exxon said.
The companies referred to their partnership as a long-term research and development effort, with future investments that could rise into the billions of dollars. Large-scale commercial plants are not expected for at least 5 to 10 years, Dr. Jacobs said.
Photosynthetic algae and cyanobacteria, commonly known as blue-green algae, are very efficient at utilizing sunlight energy to convert carbon dioxide into cellular oils, or lipids, and other types of hydrocarbons that can then be processed into fuels and chemicals.
Synthetic Genomics said its scientists had been working for years to develop an efficient way to harvest these oils.
”Traditionally algae have been treated like a crop to be grown and harvested in a process that can be expensive and time consuming,” Dr. Venter said. His company has engineered algae that produce lipids in a continuous process.
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Urine turned into hydrogen fuel 02 July 2009
US researchers have developed an efficient way of producing hydrogen from urine – a feat that could not only fuel the cars of the future, but could also help clean up municipal wastewater.
Using hydrogen to power cars has become an increasingly attractive transportation fuel, as the only emission produced is water – but a major stumbling block is the lack of a cheap, renewable source of the fuel. Gerardine Botte of Ohio University may now have found the answer, using an electrolytic approach to produce hydrogen from urine – the most abundant waste on Earth – at a fraction of the cost of producing hydrogen from water. Botte says the idea came to her several years ago at a conference on fuel cells, where they were discussing how to turn clean water into clean power. ‘I wondered how we could do this better,’ she adds – so started looking at waste streams as a better source of molecules from which to produce hydrogen.
Urine’s major constituent is urea, which incorporates four hydrogen atoms per molecule – importantly, less tightly bonded than the hydrogen atoms in water molecules. Botte used electrolysis to break the molecule apart, developing an inexpensive new nickel-based electrode to selectively and efficiently oxidise the urea. To break the molecule down, a voltage of 0.37V needs to be applied across the cell – much less than the 1.23V needed to split water. Electrolysis breaks down the urea, releasing hydrogen ‘During the electrochemical process the urea gets adsorbed on to the nickel electrode surface, which passes the electrons needed to break up the molecule,’ Botte told Chemistry World. Pure hydrogen is evolved at the cathode, while nitrogen plus a trace of oxygen and hydrogen were collected at the anode. While carbon dioxide is generated during the reaction, none is found in the collected gasses as it reacts with the potassium hydroxide in the solution to form potassium carbonate.
According to Botte, currently available processes that can remove urine from water are expensive and inefficient. Urea naturally hydrolyses into ammonia before generating gas phase ammonia emissions. These emissions lead to the formation of ammonium sulphate and nitrate particulates in the air, which cause a variety of health problems including chronic bronchitis, asthma attacks and premature death. The group are currently conducting long term stability studies on their electrolysis systems, as well as conducting computational experiments to better understand the mechanisms at work.
Botte believes the technology could be easily scaled-up to generate hydrogen while cleaning up the effluent from sewage plants. ‘We do not need to reinvent the wheel as there are already electrolysers being used in different applications.’ She believes the only the thing that would hamper the process would be the presence of a lot of salt.
Bruce Logan, an expert in energy generation from wastewater and director of Pennsylvania State University’s H2E Center and Engineering Environmental Institute, applauded Botte’s efforts in developing a more energy efficient way of producing hydrogen than splitting water. However, he did caution that urea gets converted very quickly into ammonia by bacteria, which could limit the usefulness of the technique. However, Logan does feel that it would be a good idea to start saving up our urine – although not for the hydrogen. ‘You have to remember about the P [phosphorus] in pee – globally we need to start thinking about conserving phosphorus for fertiliser, because, just like oil, one day the deposits are all going to run out and we need to start building phosphorus recycling into our infrastructure,’ he says.
References: B K Boggs, R L King and G G Botte, Chem. Commun., 2009, DOI: 10.1039/b905974a
You’d be hard pressed to find anyone in this country who believes Canada needs more ice. But the distributors of a new green energy technology are trying to show consumers that’s exactly what we do need.
Behind a fence in the back of the Mountain Equipment Co-Op store parking lot in Burlington, Ont., six large blocks of ice, each the size of a playpen, sit in steel boxes melting slowly in the afternoon heat.
It’s the first Canadian installation of Ice Bear, the air conditioner’s answer to the hybrid car. It uses 95 per cent less electricity in peak hours than a conventional air conditioning unit.
“We see Canada as a terrific market,” said Greg Tropsa, Executive Vice President of Ice Energy, the company that developed and manufactures the Ice Bear. “We’ve got great prospects, especially now with the legislation that’s trying to get more green energy in the market.”
Toronto-based Transformative Technologies Inc. is partnering with Ice Energy to market and distribute the Ice Bear in Canada. “I think of all the effort it takes to build new natural-gas-fired facilities or fossil fuel power,” said James Alden, TTI’s president. “It’s clear Ice Bear is a great solution.”
And it’s getting attention. Gathered in the noonday sun in Burlington’s MEC parking lot are reps from Hydro One, London Hydro and Hydro Ottawa, among others. As the sweating lid is unscrewed from one of the 5-tonne units to reveal the melting ice inside, one of them quips, “Where’s the beer?”
Unlike your standard brew cooler, however, the big block of ice inside the Ice Bear is not what cools the building’s air. Not directly, at least.
During off-peak hours when electricity rates are at their lowest, the Ice Bear acts like a normal air conditioner and uses its compressor to cool refrigerant that in turn cools the air blowing into a building. What also happens overnight is the unit re-freezes water that had melted off the huge 200 kilograms cubes of ice. During the day when electricity rates are at their highest, the Ice Bear turns off its compressor and uses the ice to cool the refrigerant.
The result is an air conditioning system that uses about 300 watts – the equivalent of five or six light bulbs – rather than a traditional system that uses 6,000 watts.
For a store the size of this MEC, that could mean savings of roughly $400 a year, according to Ice Energy’s figures. Businesses also earn the goodwill of customers who like the use of green technologies in their stores.
“We’ve been getting a lot of feedback,” said Alicia Cairns, the manager of the Burlington MEC location. “The biggest things we hear about, are the solar panels and the Ice Bear system.”
But at a price tag of $8,500, businesses may ask themselves just how much a green image is worth.
While Ice Energy has done a few commercial installations, the company’s target market is utility providers. The technology allows utilities to reduce emissions and lower transmission costs. And in the hottest months when demand for energy goes into overload, instead of spending millions to rewire their distribution systems utilities can shift that demand to off-peak periods, Mr. Tropsa said. In the U.S., more than 20 utilities have already had trials of the Ice Bear units.
Canadians may not be far behind. London Hydro is “very seriously” considering investing in the technology, said its Conservation Program Manager, Hans Schreff.
“Our biggest problem here is the summer with air conditioning. It’s a very focused approach to solving that problem,” Mr. Schreff said. “It attacks peak energy, which helps us lower costs.”
With the Green Energy Act passed by the Ontario government in May, which is designed to increase the province’s dedication to renewable energy, utilities are being asked to consider more green technologies, said Tom Semler, Manager of Conservation and Demand at Hydro One.
“We’re going to get bigger targets for conservation,” he said. “These units could have a big impact for us.”
Ice Energy has yet to be profitable, but with the interest in the units Mr. Tropsa expects that could change within the next two years.
“You’re looking for [energy] storage, and what could be cheaper than water?” Mr. Tropsa said. “It’s a feel-good business, but it’s a potential money-maker too.”
Link Water, Energy and Climate in Global Talks, Business Urges
Istanbul, 19 March 2009 – Business leaders from some of the world’s biggest companies today called for water, energy and climate change to be linked in global negotiations, such as the international climate talks due to culminate in Copenhagen in December.
The business leaders were speaking at the launch of a report by the World Business Council for Sustainable Development at the 5th World Water Forum in Istanbul. The forum is expected to produce a ministerial statement calling for proactive policies on water issues.
“Water is everybody’s business. It is used to generate energy, and energy is used to provide water. Climate change will affect the use and availability of both. It is important that we get the policies right,” said Björn Stigson, president of the WBCSD.
“The World Water Forum in Istanbul has done a lot to focus attention on water, energy and climate change. But there is still a significant gap in addressing all three together at a global level. We must link them in the climate negotiations to have any real hope of finding a solution.”
The report, Water, Energy and Climate Change: A contribution from the business community ( 1.8 MB), says water, energy and climate change are inextricably linked.
“Water plays a central role in many of the world’s most pressing issues, among them climate change, energy security and the need to spur economic growth. The time has passed for commitment alone – we must act,” said Steve R. Loranger, CEO of ITT Corporation and co-chair of the WBCSD Water Project.
The paper lists five important policy recommendations from business to climate negotiators and policy-makers. These are:
- Provide reliable climate change risk data, models and analysis tools.
- Integrate water and energy efficiency in measurement tools and policy.
- Bring water issues into the mainstream, and ensure that water authorities and institutions have staff trained to deliver common management practices, education and awareness raising.
- Integrate and value ecosystem services (the benefits that nature provides to society, such as water and forest products) into cross-border decision-making.
- Encourage best practice through innovation, appropriate solutions and community engagement.
It also includes 25 case studies showing how business is already linking water, energy and climate across their operations.
Oct 6th 2008
From Economist.com
The world will soon know more about carbon dioxide
SINCE the start of the industrial age, the concentration of carbon dioxide in earth’s atmosphere has increased by about 25%—from about 280 parts per million to over 370 parts per million. As concerns over climate change increase, scientists are being asked difficult questions about the extent to which carbon is being put into, and taken out of, the atmosphere. Precise answers to questions like these are necessary to reliably forecast changes in earth’s climate. But massive gaps remain in our understanding of what happens to carbon dioxide after it has been produced.
Unfortunately, essential data on the geographic distribution of CO2 does not yet exist. Currently, the Carbon Dioxide Information Analysis Center, based in the United States, monitors emissions from a global network of ground-based sites. But there are not enough stations to give the kind of resolution that climate modellers need. Consequently, the processes that regulate the exchange of CO2 between the oceans, atmosphere and biosphere are poorly known. This is a problem. For example, current measurements from ground stations suggest that only half of the CO2 released into the atmosphere has remained there. There rest has been absorbed by the oceans and land-based ecosystems, but understanding where, how and why this happens is difficult without more data.
NASA
Artist’s impression of the Orbiting Carbon Observatory
Artist’s impression of the Orbiting Carbon ObservatoryWhat is needed, then, is a high-resolution global map of CO2. And one may now be forthcoming, thanks to a planned new NASA satellite, the Orbiting Carbon Observatory (OCO), scheduled for launch on January 15, 2009 and discussed this week at the International Astronautical Congress in Glasgow.
The OCO’s mission, for the next two years, is to map in detail where carbon is being produced and where it is being lost. It will help to document the natural processes and human activities that regulate the abundance and distribution of this important greenhouse gas. Surprisingly, these will be the first space-based measurements of CO2.
During the OCO’s mission, it will fly in an orbit that allows it to observe most of the earth’s surface at least once every sixteen days. It will also fly in a loose formation with a series of other earth-orbiting satellites known as the Earth Observing System Afternoon Constellation, or the A-train. This formation flying will allow data from the OCO to be compared with those obtained by other earth-observing satellites.
And like that data, the OCO’s will have to be “ground truthed”—meaning it will have to be checked to ensure that they accurately measure what is happening on the ground. Scientists have to make sure that satellites that detect things such as forest, grassland, water vapour and CO2, are really seeing these things. To do this, scientists at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) need to overcome some steep challenges.
Because the satellite measurements are essentially an average in a column of gas, it is important to know as much as possible how that measurement relates to the actual gas from the ground to the upper atmosphere. But this is where it gets tricky: while measurements can be regularly taken on the ground, and using airline flights, how do you regularly, and reliably, get into the high atmosphere?
Enter a project that seeks to take tourists into space using a high-altitude aircraft to carry a rocket of thrill seekers to 110km. The high-altitude aircraft, known as White Knight Two, will start its test flights this year. It will regularly fly above 50,000 feet, and as of next year will be carrying a series of experiments designed to support the OCO, which will allow scientists to profile the atmosphere of more than 90% of the atmospheric column.
The OCO heralds an important new era of climate change research. And this is relevant to all of us because climate change will likely affect everyone. Some places will warm but others could well cool. Jet streams, ocean currents and rainfall patterns may change. Understanding what might happen is essential. Even if we don’t like the answers.
Top companies share anti-pollution patents
Big companies like DuPont and Xerox are breaking from tradition and sharing their normally tightly held patents online. The public domain patents were developed to help fight pollution, and the corporations hope to be seen as doing good for the environment.
The resource will allow anyone with a computer and an Internet connection to access the patents — including other companies looking to solve their own environmental problems without going to the trouble and expense of trying to reinvent anti-pollution devices created elsewhere.
Since the “eco-patent commons” launched in January after being developed by Geneva-based World Business Council for Sustainable Development, businesses have listed about 75 patents for such things as better ways to recycle cell phones and optical disks, several methods of cleaning up contaminants in dirt and ways of dealing with solvents. At least three have already been used by other companies.
“We are pleased that the commons is beginning to have an impact,” said World Business Council for Sustainable Development President Bjorn Stigson. He added that he hoped it will “be a positive contribution to the challenge of technology diffusion around the world” (Martin Mittelstaedt, Toronto Globe and Mail, Sept. 11).
By al fin
Extracting the energy from deposits of shale oil, oil sands, and heavy oil can be expensive. More than half of the oil in a conventional oil well is never recovered, due to expense. Various ingenious ways have been developed to get at that oil, but here is a new one that might get the biggest chunk of that energy out: seed the “exhausted” wells with micro-organisms that convert oil to natural gas.
The OU researchers found that they can use their organisms to convert hydrocarbons in oil reservoirs to natural gas. “Because two-thirds of U.S. oil is still in place, we can use these organisms to convert residual hydrocarbons into natural gas and create a new source of domestic energy. The concept of anaerobic metabolism is an innovative process and the OU initiative is the only one of its kind in the United States at the present time. We are also experimenting with shales and other unconventional reservoirs.” _Bioenergy
Micro-organisms can also convert coal, oil shale, and oil sands to natural gas. That is extremely important for where the deposits are difficult to get to by conventional mining methods.
Natural gas can be converted to liquid fuels, to plastics, or to any other organic materials. Or the gas can be used to produce electricity, to drive transportation vehicles, or to cook your lunch.
Innovation in emerging markets: 2008 annual study
Source: Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu
A spate of high-profile product recalls involving emerging market suppliers has made product safety and product quality top issues for manufacturing companies. Also, in response to a rising “green” consciousness among consumers, global manufacturers are paying more attention to the potential environmental impact of their production processes.
The “Innovation in emerging markets: 2008 annual study” by Deloitte’s Global Manufacturing Industry Group explores how manufacturers from developed and developing countries view product safety, product quality and environmental standards in emerging markets and how they are managing their exposure to risk stemming from sourcing from these markets.
Based on a global survey of more than 650 executives across various manufacturing sectors including: industrial equipment, process industries, automotive, consumer goods, medical equipment/pharmaceuticals, telecommunications, and aerospace and defense, the report provides perspectives on how companies are:
- Responding to risks in emerging market sourcing
- Taking steps to upgrading standards
- Selecting emerging market suppliers
- Monitoring emerging market suppliers
- Building a sustainable supply chain
+ Full Report (PDF; 531 KB)
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