November 24th, 2009

Intel encourages green tech at the university level

Posted by Heather Clancy @ 5:50 am

Categories: China, Russia, climate change, conservation, green tech, research

Tags: Team, Green Technology, Intel Corp., Team Management, Management, Heather Clancy

Spoke with one of the teams that participated last week in the Intel+UC Berkeley Technology Entrepreneurship Challenge. Although not strictly a green technology competition, there were a number of teams focused on solving environmental issues through innovative applications of technology.

One great example was the team I interviewed, which represented AMIREco, a year-old Russian venture that has developed a phosphate material that can be used to remove oil from soil or from other materials.

Igor Rozhdestvensky, senior partner of the venture from St. Petersburg, says the company recently earned a contract to test its idea at a site in Russia in conjunction with a large Russian company in his company’s target customer demographic. Rozhdestvensky and several other AMIREco partners traveled to the challenge event in order to gather ideas for how to develop and market their idea, as well as how to produce it in scale and not just small test batches. “Intel gave us an excellent course on entrepreneurship,” he says.

They also walked away from the event with some suggestions about how to overcome certain potential challenges with the materials, says the company’s research and development manager Oleg Rozhdestvensky.

Two other green-techie ideas represented during the competition were Treems from Technical University Munich, which is pitching a way of identifying, selling and managed protected trees or other forestry resources, and the New Green team from Shanghai, which was pitching cards (sort of like the ph tests you would do on the pool in your backyard) for detecting the presence of pesticides and bacterias in Chinese food products.

Here’s a link to more information about the winner of the challenge, a Chinese student development team called Ihealth that is working on biodegradable bone screws. The team was awarded $25,000 by Intel to help fund it idea. Here’s a list of all the teams that participated.

November 23rd, 2009

Chinese wallboard gets a dirty bill of health

Posted by Harry Fuller @ 2:32 pm

Categories: Blogroll, China, air pollution, building, environmental health, federal government, housing

Tags: U.S., Health Care, Vertical Industries, Benefits, Healthcare, Human Resources, Harry Fuller

Some Chinese wallboard imported after Hurricane Katrina is giving off toxic fumes. Numerous lawsuits are already underway.

The feds have just confirmed what we already knew.
The investigators concluded that both formaldehyde and hydrogen sulfide are exuding from the wallboard, especially when it’s damp. There may be sixty thousand homes in the southern U.S. with the imported, dangerous wallboard. It corrodes metal, and is unhealthy for inhabitants. Imported wallboard is now unregulated in the U.S. Currently there are no requirements on content of imported wallboard or its possible health hazards.

November 16th, 2009

Asia-Pacific leaders: no final deal in Copenhagen

Posted by Harry Fuller @ 4:51 am

Categories: Blogroll, China, Europe, Kyoto Protocol, air pollution, climate change, energy, environmental health, federal government, global warming, law & politics

Tags: Leader, Copenhagen, Asia-Pacific, Leadership, Management, Harry Fuller

Here’s the word from the Singapore meeting of Asia-Pacific leaders which includes Japan and the U.S. There’ll be plenty of global warming talk at the Copehagen talks beginning December 7. There will be no binding deal reached. That situation will be reinforced when President Obama meets with China’s President Hu.

Meanwhile, Copehagen’s hosting a pre-meeting meeting. Forty major countries have sent their environmental ministers or lead negotiators. Think of the carbon footprint of all those jets. Couldn’t they do a Skype conference call?

This week’s pre-meeting meetings are closed to the media in Copenhagen, but there’ll likely be plenty of publicity by those trying to pressure others to do what they want. As you might expect, some Europeans are reporting that the delaying tactics leading up to Copenhagen and no agreement…why that’s due to the fact that the U.S. Senate has not passed a climate and energy bill.

There is a distinct gulf between what rich nations and poor nations are looking for. As often is the case, the money part of any agreement is proving to be the toughest part. Who pays whom to stop polluting the one atmosphere we have?

November 15th, 2009

U.S. and China to talk global warming

Posted by Harry Fuller @ 8:09 am

Categories: Blogroll, China, Kyoto Protocol, air pollution, climate change, energy, environmental health, federal government, fossil fuel, global warming, law & politics

Tags: China, Copenhagen, Global Warming, Government, Harry Fuller

The Copenhagen climate talks are less than four weeks away. President Obama and China’s President Hu Jintao will meet soon for their own two-way climate talk. They are the world’s two leading CO2 emitters and two major nations that refused to sign the Kyoto Protocol. The stance of China and the U.S. when they arrive in Copenhagen could prove crucial to any attempt to craft a widely acceptable agreement on global warming.

Hu, of course, has a great deal of unilateral power in China. No Congress, no lobbyists, many of China’s major companies are owned largely by the Chinese government. China’s sovereign wealth fund is a huge investment force across the globe. In Washington it is clear no climate and energy bill will be voted on by the U.S. Senate before Copenhagen talks convene December 7. Still not clear: will President Obama personally appear in Copenhagen? Would it matter if he did?

November 12th, 2009

Hybrids not the only greener cars

Posted by Harry Fuller @ 10:15 pm

Categories: Blogroll, China, Europe, air pollution, biofuel, cars & traffic, conservation, energy, engineering, fossil fuel, petroleum

Tags: Car, VW, Sales Strategy, Sales Force Management, Sales, Harry Fuller

VW is having a surge of sales in the U.S. without a hybrid model to market. VW says much of their increased sales is from fuel-efficient diesel models that out-perform standard gasoline engines. Modern diesel tech is much more fuel efficient and produces less CO2 emissions than gasoline or old-fashioned diesel engines some of us remember from the 1970s.

VW has not been immune to the global auto slump, however. Their profits and units sales numbers are down as they are for nearly all auto brands.

ONE HOT AUTO MARKET

In China auto sales are greatly increased year-to-year. The government has a vigorous set of incentives to increase car sales and it is helping most manufacturers, including GM and Ford who both saw big increase in sales in China.

November 10th, 2009

IBM figures rail transit is going to get faster and cleaner

Posted by Harry Fuller @ 2:11 pm

Categories: Africa, Blogroll, China, India, Latin America, Russia, air pollution, cars & traffic, conservation, energy, engineering, environmental health, federal government, green tech, law & politics, renewable energy, research

Tags: Harry Fuller

I recently spoke with IBM’s Ken Donnelly, the company’s world-wide industry leader for transportation. IBM is busily working with major rail systems all over the globe: China, India, Taiwan, South Africa, Brazil, even in the U.S. IBM’s smart transit services are suited for metro area rail lines and bus lines as well. IBM’s system offers asset management, real-time monitoring of conditions of trains, signals and rails.

It’s exciting to hear about the state-of-engineering rail lines. Taiwan’s new end-to-end system transects the island on a north/south axis. It can travel at 300 KM per hour. With thirty minutes for stops the train goes end to end in Taiwan in 90 minutes. And their on time record: over 99%.

What’s on-time in Taiwanese? Here in the willy-nilly world of U.S. rail a train within two or even three minutes of its scheduled time is considered “on time.” However, in Taiwan the leeway is exactly six SECONDS.
Taiwan high speed train. Courtesy IBM.

The IBM management system used on the Taiwan high-speed rail system monitors the cars, the rails, the signal system and measures the crucial vibration effects along the route. Taiwan, like California, is prone to earthquakes which can threaten rail system safety.

Speaking of California, it is estimated a north-south high speed rail system there will cost over $50 billion. The current stimulus plan has eight billion to spread around the U.S. Meanwhile, the Chinese government is going to spend a quarter of a trillion dollars on their high speed rail system. Donnelly says the technology for high speed rail now exists, and like the highway system the U.S. began building in the 1950s, high speed rail will bring great economic rewards if it is built.

Most large nations are investing heavily in rail services. Russia. India. In Brazil they’re preparing for the summer Olympics in 2016. They hope to have a high speed rail service connecting Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro when the Olympics come to town. Earlier I blogged about the new consortium doing rail research and planning, in a center based in China.

All the new technology of high-speed rail is electric-powered, said Donnelly. In many areas railroads run their own power-generation plants and electricity is carried on overhead lines or ground-level third rails. The trains, rails, bridges, signals are all metered and data is constantly fed into the IBM management system that then sechedules maintenance and replacement, measures wear on parts, watches for failures of equipment and manages the necessary invrestory of new parts. Donnelly said the efficiency of rail systems is crucial if they are going to attract and maintain heavy daily use or replace air travel for medium distance travel. In Taiwan you can go 300 KM in 90 minutes, faster than you can get checked onto an airplane in most airports. At that level of service, you take the train and avoid the plane. Trains are far more fuel-efficient than trucks, cars, planes.

November 6th, 2009

Update on Chinese wallboard with a side order of sulphur

Posted by Harry Fuller @ 1:36 pm

Categories: Blogroll, China, air pollution, building, environmental health, housing, law & politics, research

Tags: chinese wallboard, toxic, sulphur, drywall, Hurricane Katrina, coal ash

Lawsuits. Post-pollution huffing and puffing. Perhaps a hundred thousand homes with sulphur exhaling wallboard. Questions of free trade vs. consumer protection. This one’s got a lot of fingers pointing in different directions.

Here’s a recent summary of some of what’s happened. I first blogged about this Chinese import issue back in March.

Here’s S 1606, a bill that would require overseas manufacturers to make products that meet American industrial regulations. It is NOT legal in the U.S. to use sulphur-bearing coal ash to make wallboard. That’s apparently what happend in the Chinese drywall. And we all know that China has mountains of coal ash. The Chinese drywall was imported across the Pacific after Hurricane Katrina because U.S. domestic production was suddenly not enough to meet demand. That meant it was profitable to ship wallboard thousands of miles to the southern U.S.

The problem is so widespread there’s a conference today in Sarasota. It’s devoted to sharing all the many investigations and test results tracking the wallboard and its possible toxic effects.

Some research indicates there is a chemical trail that is causing the problems with the imported wallboard. There is elemental sulfur in the wallboard. That reacts with tiny amounts of carbon monoxide in the air and that can produce carbonyl sulfide. In turn that reacts with moisture and produces hydrogen sulphide and even sulphuric acid. So the sulphur-bearing wallboard is particularly problematic in the humid U.S. Gulf Coast region.

An opposing theory about the sulphurous wallboard: blame some sulphur-fixing bacteria.

November 3rd, 2009

Washington: lots of talk about global warming

Posted by Harry Fuller @ 2:35 pm

Categories: Blogroll, China, Europe, European Union, Kyoto Protocol, air pollution, cars & traffic, climate change, conservation, energy, environmental health, federal government, fossil fuel, global warming, green tech, law & politics, nuclear power, petroleum, renewable energy

Tags: EU, Obama, Kerry-Boxer, US Senate, greenhouse gas, carbon dioxide, emissions, Copenhagen, Senator Boxer

Lots of talk around the American capital today on the topic of global warming. The CO2 emissions from various political factions and lobbyists alone could raise the global temp another degree or two. And that’s not counting the carbon footprint of all the plane travel involved in moving these special folks around.

On a grand scale there’s a summit meeting between President Obama and leaders of the European Union (EU). The EU’s just pledged itself to a 30% cut in greenhouse emissons compared to the 1990 levels. The U.S. has magnanimously suggested a 4% cut as a target, after eight years of refusing any mandates of any kind. The African nations have suggested cancelling global warming talks until there’s some serious commitment from the world’s wealthiest nations, that would include the U.S. which currently camouflages its great wealth as massive debt. Meanwhile there is much interest in what, if anything, the U.S. is really willing to do.

At their summit today President Obama said the US and the EU agreed to re-double their efforts on climate change. This about five weeks from the international conflab on climate change in Copenhagen. The U.N. has given up any hopes of a global agreement coming out of that conference. There is some indication some nations (like the EU again) will pledge money for efforts to help poorer nations reduce greenhouse gas emissons. Again, that effort is led by the EU whose political leaders generally agree global warming’s a real problem. In Britain there’s even a strong environmentalist running for Parliament as a Conservative. That guy’d last about five seconds in the Republican Party here.

The EU is also pointing the finger at China, co-champion in greenhouse gas emissions along with the U.S. Why doesn’t China do more they ask?

SENATE SHOWDOWN

The showdown started with no-shows. Nothing happened in the Senate committee that is considering the Kerry-Boxer energy and climate change bill. The Republican members boycotted the session. Senate tradition requires at least two members of each party be present as well as a quorum before the “mark-up” process. That process precedes any committee voting. Eventually the committee chairwoman, Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-CA), can move ahead in violation of tradition but in keeping with the strict rules of the committee. That is considered by Republican analysts as a “nuclear” option which would rule out forever and forever any possible Republican votes in favor of said Kerry-Boxer bill. Currently the bill already has zero Republican support. Sadly for Kerry, Boxer and their supporters, the bill lacks support from some Dems and that could keep it from ever coming to a vote on the Senate floor. Though it is possible a Dem would vote to close debate allowing a floor vote and then go on record by voting against the bill itself. This political drama will continue to play out. Not likely the Senate will have finished its acting, or action, on Kerry-Boxer before the Copenhagen talks next month.

November 2nd, 2009

Science boycotts over envirnomental issues?

Posted by Harry Fuller @ 11:17 am

Categories: China, Europe, air pollution, climate change, environmental health, federal government, global warming, law & politics

Tags: Boycott, Harry Fuller

Here’s an issue below the public opinion horizon, but one that could become crucial in future years. Is it wise to boycott a nation’s academic and scientists over that country’s action or laws? There’s been some move in China to boycott over their population control law. Other science organizations have suggested boycotting Israel for political purposes.

It is easy to imagine countries trying to cut emissions pushing boycotts of U.S. or Chinese scientists if those two leading air polluters don’t take action on global warming.

October 25th, 2009

Copenhagen countdown

Posted by Harry Fuller @ 2:21 pm

Categories: Africa, Blogroll, China, India, Kyoto Protocol, air pollution, climate change, conservation, energy, environmental health, federal government, law & politics

Tags: Nation, Copenhagen, Leadership, Food & Beverage, Management, Manufacturing, Harry Fuller

Will he or won’t he? To go, or not to go? That is the question.

Some MSM outlets say Obama will skip Copenhagen. Yet political leaders in the U.S. and abroad are urging him to attend.

The international climate change conference flies into Copehagen in December, trailing clouds of CO2 behind each jet. And the speculation and political bloviation over whether President Obama will attend is sure to reach atmospheric heights unless he makes a public announcement of his intentions.

Meanwhile, President Obama continues to push for an energy bill from Congress, and even talked to MIT students and faculty about how they can help with clean energy innovation and research. Bet they already know that.

Whether or not the American President is at the Copenhagen talks is more symbolic than substantive. His presence did not get Chicago the Olympics they wanted so why would we imagine he can wrestle over 170 nations into some global warming concensus?

President Obama is to go to Oslo, Norway, to accept his Nobel Peace Prize. That’s set to happen while the climate change conference is going on. Oslo’s a very short plane ride from Copenhagen. It is also a guaranteed international platform where he could talk about global warming without going to nearby Denmark.

COPENHAGEN: THE STAKES

Some African nations see their future at stake. Many nations there already have widespread poverty, drought, starvation. The three poorest nations on earth are in tropical Africa. Some analysts warn African nations they have to walk away from the next international agreement if it limits how they are can grow food or their economy.

Both China and India have been signalling they are ready for global action on global warming. But they also take the long-beloved stance that they want no legally binding mandates. They get the “you-can’t-tell-us-what-to-do” position from the longstanding American policy that this nation is above international law, period. India did ratify the Kyoto Protocol, China and the U.S. did not. That expires in 2012. The lead U.N. negotiator on climate change has now admitted there’ll be no agreement reached in Copenhagen. Perhaps a framework? An understanding? A promise to meet again? A statement of intention? An option on future talks? Maybe they need some political deriatives that look good and have no value. That’s worked great for Wall Street.
India is asking for widespread sharing of clean technology.

 Loading ...