"Greenbox" converts greenhouse gases to algae while you drive

Three fishermen from northern Wales have developed a device that captures 85-95% of carbon dioxide and nitrous oxides in a vehicle’s exhaust and converts it to algae, which can then be used to produce biofuels.

The “Greenbox”, as the inventors have dubbed it, is a small bioreactor that contains algae that feeds on the emissions from the vehicle’s exhaust, as pictured above. The box can be swapped out when refuelling, where the algae can be processed into biodiesel as well as potentially methane and fertilizer. The three men who invented it are now hoping to get government or private sector funding to refine and improve their product.

(Not specifically Australian, I know, but something like this - if it can be shaped into a useful, workable product - is simply too great an idea not to talk about.)

(Source: Engadget, thanks to Karan for the tip)

More information on Conservo

Since the story was first published, we’ve had a lot of interest in Melbourne’s Conservo petrol station. Conservo markets itself as a “green” service station, offering biofuel blends and organic products. For people looking to find it and take a look for themselves, the service station is located in High St, Prahran, near Swinburne University. Read on for more details of what it offers and some photographs.

Analysis: Australia’s future fuel

If you’ll indulge me for a moment, I’d like to take the opportunity to step back from each individual step that we’ve been focusing on here to take a look at the broader perspective.

In 2005, Australia consumed:

- 18,712 million litres of petrol (15,856 ML of which was used in passenger vehicles)
- 8690 million litres of diesel fuel (5,636 ML of which was used in rigid or articulated trucks)
- 1564 million litres of LPG/CNG fuel

Current indicators are that fossil fuel use has increased in the 18 months since this data was recorded; alternative fuel use in transport was not significant enough to appear with these statistics at the time. In terms of fuel production:

- Non-renewable fuel production has increased 446% in the last 30 years
- Renewable fuel has increased 28% in the same period

Clearly these are not the markers of a country that has embraced alternative and renewable fuels, as much of the world is doing. This is both a weakness and an opportunity for us: although we have so far given up the chance to be a world leader in the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions, we have been able to observe a very rapidly maturing field of fossil fuel replacements and make a sensible decision about which is best for the Australian environment. If you’re interested in knowing who the primary contenders are, read on.

Green service station opens in Victoria

Following on from our last post on algae biodiesel trials in Victoria, a separate company has opened up the state’s first “green” service station, selling only biofuel-blended fuel. Conservo, located in Prahran in the inner suburbs of Melbourne, sells ethanol-blended petrol, such as E10, as well as biodiesel made from canola and tallow. The business also sells a variety of other eco-friendly products in-store, ranging from organic coffee to solar powered laptop bags. Conservo hopes to be using Energetix’s algae biodiesel when it’s available in two years.

Source and image credit: ABC News

Algae biodiesel trials underway in Australia

Victoria’s Hazelwood coal power station, not exactly known for its clean environmental record, is the site of a trial for a new form of biodiesel. Biofuel company Energetix is testing some US-based technology there that allows them to produce biodiesel from algae, rather than the traditional canola or soybean crops. Algae biodiesel has a far higher yield per hectare than traditional crops, with much higher energy returns, but is still in the experimental stages. The algae feeds on carbon dioxide from the power plant. Energetix’s managing director, Mile Soda, says the initial results have been encouraging.

“What we’ve been able to successfully do is take the liquid, or the oil, and have our partners in the United States turn that oil into biodiesel,” he said.

Biodiesel from conventional sources is already available in limited areas in Australia, but Energetix hopes to see algal biodiesel in production within two years.

Source: ABC News

Editorial: Are cars a scapegoat?

Carsguide.com.au recently published a story regarding the image of cars being largely to blame for carbon emissions, with some interesting points raised within it. The article reports that passenger cars contribute less to global warming than “the nation’s sheep and cow population emit through flatulence” and that moving the entire Australian passenger car fleet to plug-in electric would cause a “massive increase in greenhouse gases”. The bottom line: keep driving your car, it’s not to blame. How true is this claim, and is it responsible journalism to make it?

Neil Dowling, the article’s author, draws the bulk of his information from government sources such as the Australian Greenhouse Office and the Sustainable Energy Development Office, and the data he uses from these sources is certainly reasonable at face value. As a percentages game, vehicles aren’t the main culprit by any means - road transport makes up about 15 per cent of Australia’s greenhouse gas emissions, compared to stationary energy generation which comprises about 35 per cent, thanks to our dependence on coal. Australia is in an unfortunate position in this respect; our electricity is so polluting that an electric car would produce more CO2 than an average sized petrol-driven car, such as a Toyota Camry.

As any green motor enthusiast would know, however, electric cars are but one part of the equation. While we can make some substantial cuts in our electricity use through various means - switching to CFLs, adjusting the thermostat, buying green power and solar panels - it’s important not to lose perspective of how much each of our activities affects emissions. A V8 car pollutes just as much on your local street as it does on a road in the United States, or in China, or in Norway. If you’re dedicated to reducing your “carbon footprint”, to borrow a rather clichéd phrase, you can’t say “oh, I use energy-saving lamps so I can afford to buy a Commodore instead of a Prius”.

Dowling also neglects to give any time to the far more feasible options of biofuels such as ethanol and biodiesel. Australia has a huge sugar cane growing capacity, and given the higher efficiency of ethanol derived from sugar cane as compared to corn (which is used almost exclusively in the United States), we’re wasting an opportunity to significantly reduce our oil consumption. Combined with methane capture from the farm flatulence mentioned earlier and various sources we can use to create biodiesel, we can reduce our fossil fuels use considerably.

In short: we have a long way to go in reducing emissions and our electricity consumption is a large part of it. For that reason, electric vehicles aren’t the best mainstream option for Australia right now, not until we move to more renewable or low-carbon sources. That doesn’t mean that we can neglect other areas in which we’re responsible for not only CO2 emissions, but others such as nitrogen oxides and particulate emissions which can have a damaging effect on the local air quality. We need to take a holistic approach rather than playing the tired old blame game if we want to effect any change at all.