Brasil produzirá combustível a partir de lodo de esgoto

O Brasil vai importar da Alemanha um processo de fabricação de combustível limpo –sem emissão de gases do efeito estufa– que usa esgoto como matéria-prima.

O processo transforma os gases gerados na decomposição do lodo do esgoto em biometano, um tipo de GNV renovável, diferente do derivado de petróleo.

O sistema será implantado em uma estação de tratamento da Sabesp (Companhia de Saneamento Básico de São Paulo) em Franca (a 400 km da capital) e deve começar a operar em março, ainda em caráter experimental.

O novo combustível já é usado em frotas organizacionais (públicas e privadas) na Europa há uma década. Mas, por aqui, passará por testes.

Orçado em R$ 6 milhões, o projeto é desenvolvido em parceria com a fundação Fraunhofer. A Alemanha repassará R$ 5,1 milhões e a Sabesp bancará R$ 900 mil.

O superintendente de inovação tecnológica da Sabesp, Américo de Oliveira Sampaio, diz que a planta a ser instalada em Franca produzirá 1.900 m³ de biometano por dia.

Cada m3 do gás equivale a um litro de gasolina e, por isso, o volume diário previsto para a unidade corresponde a 10% de todo combustível utilizado hoje pelos 5.057 veículos que compõem a frota da Sabesp no Estado.

“Essa produção inicial pode reduzir a emissão de CO2 em até 16 toneladas por ano”, afirmou Sampaio.

Inicialmente, porém, o novo combustível será usado em 49 carros da companhia.

Se a experiência der certo, o biometano pode ser adotado em toda a frota da Sabesp.

MAIS TESTES

Antes, serão necessários três anos de estudos sobre a viabilidade e a logística para distribuição no Estado.

Apesar de produzido a partir do lodo de esgoto, o biometano não tem o cheiro ruim típico do esgoto.

Isso porque o processo de fabricação filtra o H2S (sulfeto de hidrogênio), responsável pelo odor de ovo podre e capaz de corroer o motor.

Também são retirados do gás os siloxanos, substâncias que formam crostas que podem entupir pequenas tubulações da máquina.

Autor: Araripe Castilho
Fonte: Folha
Original: http://bit.ly/tn6Rk1

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Ap Verheggen, Dutch Artist, Making Ice In Desert To Push For Climate Change Solutions

ZOETERMEER, Netherlands — Is it a piece of art, or a groundbreaking water experiment in the desert?

Take the design of a leaf – nature’s master at absorbing the sun’s energy – and cover its 200 square meter (2,153 square feet) surface with solar cells. Under the face of the elm leaf-shape structure are cooling condensers that soak up humidity from the desert air. Even in the hottest conditions, it will produce a layer of ice on the leaf’s ridged underside – so the theory goes.

Ap Verheggen’s vision of creating a “glacier” in the desert is a statement. It’s not meant to solve the world’s ever-worsening water problems, but to demonstrate, as he says, that the seemingly impossible is indeed possible.

For the Dutch artist, his sculpture will be a cry of alarm at the rapid pace of global warming. Impractical in itself, it is meant to spur others to strive for innovative responses to the evolving circumstances of changing climates.

“I give inspiration. What you can do with it is up to others,” he says.

“You have to open the borders of your thinking,” he said, in his apartment surrounded by his works. “To make ice in the desert is breaking down the border, and that is opening a new world.”

Verheggen’s giant sculpture is so far only a sketch and a series of charts in a laboratory in Zoetermeer, near his home in The Hague. Cofely, a refrigeration company that makes ice rinks and custom-designed cooling units for food storage, is testing the principles of creating ice in desert conditions.

Tests should be concluded by next year, then the task of sculpting the massive work will begin, said Verheggen. An unidentified north African country will be the first to host it.

Scientist Andras Szollosi-Nagi says Verheggen’s work falls at the crossroads of art, environment and science. “It’s an amazing piece, it’s very unusual and that makes it very exciting.”

In Zoetermeer, engineers have produced a 10-centimeter (4-inch)-thick layer of ice on a slab of aluminum inside a shipping container-sized box that simulates desert conditions, with the temperature set at 30 Celsius (86 Fahrenheit) and plans to crank it up to 50C (122F). A humidifier provides the moisture, and a fan is directed at the ice like a desert breeze, resulting in a pool of water dripping off the surface of the ice sheet even as it thickens.

The company is using off-the-shelf technology. “Everybody thinks it’s dry in the desert, but it’s roughly the same amount of moisture in the air as here,” said project manager Erik Hoogendoorn.

It’s unlikely the idea will be developed anytime soon on an industrial scale to bring water to arid areas for human or agricultural use.

But Verheggen’s work will carry symbolic importance, says Szollosi-Nagi, the rector of the UNESCO Institute for Water Education, an arm of the U.N. Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. The institute, which brings students from developing countries to study water issues, will use the work on its website and in promotional movies, he said.

“We are not good at conveying simple messages in a powerful way. Science has its own limits, beyond which art can go,” he said at his office in the nearby city of Delft.

“The project demonstrates that in a totally hopeless environment you can still generate hope. The message is that what many call the looming water crisis is not inevitable. There are solutions, and it all depends on human ingenuity. It all depends on us,” he said.

Last year, Verheggen, a cultural ambassador for UNESCO, erected a huge sculpture on an iceberg off the coast of Greenland, an area he has visited annually for many years.

It was the struggle of the indigenous Inuits to cope with extreme temperatures and shrinking ice that prompted thoughts of building an ice-making piece of art in the desert.

“Let’s accept the climate is changing,” he says. “We have to see that as a challenge, to find new ways to deal with the changes in climate circumstances.”

Author: Arthur Max
Source: HUFFPOST GREEN
Original: http://huff.to/vFPpJV

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Jaguar e Fórmula 1 lançam superesportivo híbrido

(Fotografia: Divulgação)

Está dada a largada para a produção do modelo superesportivo híbrido da Jaguar C-X75. Apresentado no salão de Paris em 2010, para marcar os 75 anos da fabricante de carros de luxo, o modelo é fruto de uma parceria com a equipe inglesa de Fórmula 1 Williams. A princípio, serão produzidos apenas 250 modelos, que chegarão ao mercado em 2013 por um preço estimado entre 800 mil e 1, 2 milhão de euros.

O híbrido contará com um motor a combustão de quatro cilindros apoiado por dois motores elétricos, um em cada eixo do carro. Responsável pelo sistema propulsor, a Williams também vai auxiliar no desenvolvimento da parte aerodinâmica do carro, que terá chassi em fibra de carbono.

No modo elétrico, só com baterias de íons de lítio, o C-X75 faz 50 km sem emitir ruídos ou um único grama sequer de CO2. Segundo a montadora, quando associados os dois motores (combustão e elétrico), o híbrido acelera de 0 a 100km em 3 segundos e alcança velocidade máxima de 320km/h. A potência do veículo, entretanto, não foi divulgada.

Autor: Vanessa Barbosa
Fonte: Exame
Original: http://bit.ly/lV9XJM

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Trashing the Grand Canyon

Corporations that help subsidize some national and state parks might have undue influence over park policy.

A portion of the Grand Canyon in Arizona is seen in this photo taken in 2000. Plastic bottles are the biggest single source of trash found in the park, according to Stephen P. Martin, who formerly oversaw the Grand Canyon for the National Park Service. (Photography: Ira Dreyfuss / AP)

Every year, more than 4 million visitors come to see the awesome majesty of Grand Canyon National Park — the soaring rock formations, the mighty erosive power of the Colorado River, the plastic bottles strewn along the trail, the chipmunks chewing on twist-off bottle caps….

Plastic bottles are the biggest single source of trash found in the park, according to Stephen P. Martin, who formerly oversaw the Grand Canyon for the National Park Service. Martin had a smart plan to solve this problem by banning the sale of disposable water bottles inside the park. But according to the New York Times, that idea was crushed by higher-ups who were apparently worried about losing sponsorship money from Coca-Cola, which has donated more than $13 million to the National Park Foundation. The about-face is not just a concern for national park patrons. Money from Coke also adds life to California state parks.

In a desperate attempt to keep parks open amid devastating budget cuts, state officials are soliciting partnerships with companies such as Coca-Cola, which has been teaming up with supermarket chain Stater Bros. to raise money through in-store promotions in which the purchase of $10 worth of Coca-Cola products results in a $1 donation to state parks. The $2 million raised by the program so far has helped replant burned trees in Cuyamaca Rancho and Chino Hills state parks; in return, Coke has gotten an opportunity to burnish its image and the right to put its logo on interpretive signs in the parks. We’ve already pointed out that this risks opening the parks to ever more obtrusive advertising, but the Grand Canyon incident reveals an even bigger concern: that corporate sponsors might exercise undue influence over park policy.

Park Service chief Jon Jarvis says Coca-Cola had no impact on his decision to table the water-bottle ban, claiming he was concerned about concessions contracts and public safety. Yet emails leaked to the New York Times indicate that Jarvis wanted to hold off on the ban until getting input from Coke, the National Park Foundation and major producers of bottled water (Coke’s Dasani brand is among the nation’s biggest). Claims from the ban’s opponents that it wouldn’t be effective or that it would endanger thirsty hikers, meanwhile, don’t hold water. A similar program at Zion National Park in Utah cut down dramatically on trash, and Grand Canyon patrons in search of cold water would still have been able to buy it, along with reusable bottles, at stations throughout the park.

Parks are a public treasure, and park budgets are relatively tiny in the grand scheme of state and federal expenditures. Corporate sponsorships can help keep them running when times are tough, but it’s a very risky choice. The public should find a way to protect and maintain public resources.

Source: Los Angeles Times
Original: http://lat.ms/sXxsak

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