South San Francisco, Calif. - The forest green algae bubbling in a stainless steel fermenting tank in a suburban warehouse may look like primordial pond scum, but it is a promising new source of domestically produced fuels being tested on the nation's jets and warships.
In a laboratory just a few steps away from the warehouse, white-coated scientists for a company called Solazyme are changing the genetic makeup of algae to construct a new generation of fuels. These "bioengineered" algae are placed into tanks where they get gat on sugar beets, switch grass or a host of other plants. The sun's energy, which is stored in the plants, is transormed by the hungry algae into oil, which can be refined into jet fuel, bio-diesel, cooking oil or even cosmetics.
"Most of the the planet is producing some kind of plant matter, even in the oceans," said Jonathan Wolfson, the CEO and co-founder of Solazyme. "(Our) unique microbial conversion technology process allows algae to produce oil in standard fermentaion facilities quickly, efficiently and at commercial scale."
The U.S. military hopes to run 50 percent of its fleet on a mixture of renewable fuels and nuclear power by 2020. As part of this drive, the Department of Defense has been investing in companies like Solazyme to help jump-start the young industry. The military as a whole uses more than 90 percent of the energy consumed by the federal goverment, officials said. The federal government uses about 2 percent of the energy consumed in the United States.
Excerpt from Fox News/Associated Press 10/27/10
USGBC Requests Public Comment for LEED Program Update
The proposed update builds on the foundation of LEED 2009, including the alignment and weighting of credits, and advances the "bookshelf" framework where credits are applied to specific building types. This latest draft also places increased emphasis on an intergrated process and building performance. USGBC also is improving the process it uses to collect and respond to stakeholder feedback on the ideas presented in the public comment drafts of LEED.
In addition to the public comment Web pages at usgbc.org, USGBC will also take feedback from projects testing pilot credits, and use input from a moderated forum dedicated to discussing the LEED program as well as comments from various webinars that will be held with key stakeholders.
Environmental Leader 11/10
Well, that's finally changing. BMW has announced that it's investing $560 million by 2013 to develop and produce an EV. The BMW plant in Leipzig, Germany, will be expanded to produce the new vehicle, which is currently being called Megacity. BMW will of course be using its luxury car expertise and materials in this new car. The head of BMW has said that this will be the first production model "with a carbon fiber passenger compartment" to lighten the weight while retaining strength and resistance -- and keep up the cost.
That's about where the details end for now. It is being called a series model, so we'll have to wait and see where this vehicle falls in the BMW range.
Megan Treacy for AFP
