The state wants to build a $50 million laboratory in Malta to develop and test alternative fuels and other technology to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from vehicles.
Gov. David Paterson announced the lab in a Dec. 29 letter to president-elect Barack Obama, requesting billions of dollars in federal infrastructure investments for the state. Paterson said the 80,000-square-foot lab could open within two years if the federal government gives the state $38 million to help build it.
The two-story lab would be built and operated by the state Department of Environmental Conservation. Thirty workers would staff the facility, many of whom already work for the state.
The lab would be located in the Saratoga Technology + Energy Park in Malta, 10 miles south of Saratoga Springs. The New York State Energy and Research Development Authority operates the tech park.
In his letter to Obama, Paterson said the lab is a key way “to keep the United States competitive in the field of energy research and development.”
The facility will test light- and heavy-duty vehicles and develop technology to retrofit older vehicles to cut down on their pollution and greenhouse gas emissions. Scientists at the lab will research a variety of fuels, such as hydrogen fuel cells.
Proponents say the lab will benefit the area’s education sector and the area’s energy and transportation sectors.
For instance, students at Hudson Valley Community College in Troy will receive training at the facility to “help ensure that the technicians entering the work force are equipped to address the very latest in motor vehicle technologies,” said Lori Severino, spokeswoman for the state Department of Environmental Conservation.
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Tuesday, December 30, 2008
Monday, December 22, 2008
Arizona Schools Might Implement Geothermal Technology
by Alex Bloom - Dec. 22, 2008 12:00 AM
The Arizona Republic
Some school districts in Arizona are considering geothermal energy to reduce utility costs. Earlier this month, the Cave Creek Unified School District governing board approved the drilling of a test well at its high-school campus.
K.M. Drilling, a Camp Verde firm, will drill a 250-foot test well on Jan. 10 on the campus at Cactus Shadows High School at no cost to the district. Corgan Associates, a Phoenix architecture firm, has spoken with the Paradise Valley Unified School District about a similar project.
Robert Erickson, an architect with Corgan, said that the firm has spoken with many school districts. Erickson and Don Penn, engineer with Texas-based Image Engineering Group Inc., gave a presentation to the Cave Creek governing board at its Nov. 18 meeting. The district, Erickson said, could be among the first in the state to try geothermal.
"You can lead this state out of the prehistoric age in some respects and get on board with some of these energy savings," Erickson told the board.
The system works by attaching geothermal heat pumps to a series of buried plastic pipes. The pipes circulate water in closed-loop systems. During the winter, the ground's heat warms the circulating water and transfers it to the pumps. The process is reversed in the summer, with the pumps sending heat back into the ground.
Wells can be drilled under parking lots or green areas. Multiple wells are needed for a single building.
"If we can look for energy resources that will eventually save the district money and be more energy-efficient for our schools, then it makes sense," said Casey Perkins, a member of the Cave Creek board.
Perkins said that she first would need to see a cost analysis and that the plan would need community input. She added that geothermal is not the only cost-saving measure under consideration. Penn estimated that retrofitting the science building at Cactus Shadows would cost $250,000 to $350,000.
Corgan is talking to districts around the state about geothermal energy to lower utility costs. Whiteriver Unified School District in Navajo County is taking steps to retrofit a middle school.
"We'd love to see someone else try it in the Valley and be able to collect some data from that process," said Jim Lee, Paradise Valley's assistant superintendent for support services and planning.
Read the Full Article
The Arizona Republic
Some school districts in Arizona are considering geothermal energy to reduce utility costs. Earlier this month, the Cave Creek Unified School District governing board approved the drilling of a test well at its high-school campus.
K.M. Drilling, a Camp Verde firm, will drill a 250-foot test well on Jan. 10 on the campus at Cactus Shadows High School at no cost to the district. Corgan Associates, a Phoenix architecture firm, has spoken with the Paradise Valley Unified School District about a similar project.
Robert Erickson, an architect with Corgan, said that the firm has spoken with many school districts. Erickson and Don Penn, engineer with Texas-based Image Engineering Group Inc., gave a presentation to the Cave Creek governing board at its Nov. 18 meeting. The district, Erickson said, could be among the first in the state to try geothermal.
"You can lead this state out of the prehistoric age in some respects and get on board with some of these energy savings," Erickson told the board.
The system works by attaching geothermal heat pumps to a series of buried plastic pipes. The pipes circulate water in closed-loop systems. During the winter, the ground's heat warms the circulating water and transfers it to the pumps. The process is reversed in the summer, with the pumps sending heat back into the ground.
Wells can be drilled under parking lots or green areas. Multiple wells are needed for a single building.
"If we can look for energy resources that will eventually save the district money and be more energy-efficient for our schools, then it makes sense," said Casey Perkins, a member of the Cave Creek board.
Perkins said that she first would need to see a cost analysis and that the plan would need community input. She added that geothermal is not the only cost-saving measure under consideration. Penn estimated that retrofitting the science building at Cactus Shadows would cost $250,000 to $350,000.
Corgan is talking to districts around the state about geothermal energy to lower utility costs. Whiteriver Unified School District in Navajo County is taking steps to retrofit a middle school.
"We'd love to see someone else try it in the Valley and be able to collect some data from that process," said Jim Lee, Paradise Valley's assistant superintendent for support services and planning.
Read the Full Article
Tuesday, December 16, 2008
Coffee For Fuel?
ScienceDaily (Dec. 15, 2008) — Researchers in Nevada are reporting that waste coffee grounds can provide a cheap, abundant, and environmentally friendly source of biodiesel fuel for powering cars and trucks.
In the new study, Mano Misra, Susanta Mohapatra, and Narasimharao Kondamudi note that the major barrier to wider use of biodiesel fuel is lack of a low-cost, high quality source, or feedstock, for producing that new energy source. Spent coffee grounds contain between 11 and 20 percent oil by weight. That's about as much as traditional biodiesel feedstocks such as rapeseed, palm, and soybean oil.
Growers produce more than 16 billion pounds of coffee around the world each year. The used or "spent" grounds remaining from production of espresso, cappuccino, and plain old-fashioned cups of java, often wind up in the trash or find use as soil conditioner. The scientists estimated, however, that spent coffee grounds can potentially add 340 million gallons of biodiesel to the world's fuel supply.
To verify it, the scientists collected spent coffee grounds from a multinational coffeehouse chain and separated the oil. They then used an inexpensive process to convert 100 percent of the oil into biodiesel.
The resulting coffee-based fuel — which actually smells like java — had a major advantage in being more stable than traditional biodiesel due to coffee's high antioxidant content, the researchers say. Solids left over from the conversion can be converted to ethanol or used as compost, the report notes. The scientists estimate that the process could make a profit of more than $8 million a year in the U.S. alone. They plan to develop a small pilot plant to produce and test the experimental fuel within the next six to eight months.
Full Story
In the new study, Mano Misra, Susanta Mohapatra, and Narasimharao Kondamudi note that the major barrier to wider use of biodiesel fuel is lack of a low-cost, high quality source, or feedstock, for producing that new energy source. Spent coffee grounds contain between 11 and 20 percent oil by weight. That's about as much as traditional biodiesel feedstocks such as rapeseed, palm, and soybean oil.
Growers produce more than 16 billion pounds of coffee around the world each year. The used or "spent" grounds remaining from production of espresso, cappuccino, and plain old-fashioned cups of java, often wind up in the trash or find use as soil conditioner. The scientists estimated, however, that spent coffee grounds can potentially add 340 million gallons of biodiesel to the world's fuel supply.
To verify it, the scientists collected spent coffee grounds from a multinational coffeehouse chain and separated the oil. They then used an inexpensive process to convert 100 percent of the oil into biodiesel.
The resulting coffee-based fuel — which actually smells like java — had a major advantage in being more stable than traditional biodiesel due to coffee's high antioxidant content, the researchers say. Solids left over from the conversion can be converted to ethanol or used as compost, the report notes. The scientists estimate that the process could make a profit of more than $8 million a year in the U.S. alone. They plan to develop a small pilot plant to produce and test the experimental fuel within the next six to eight months.
Full Story
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