90,000 Homes To Be Powered By Chicken Manure

The world’s largest biomass power plant running exclusively on chicken manure has opened in the Netherlands. The power plant will deliver renewable electricity to 90,000 households. It has a capacity of 36.5 megawatts, and will generate more than 270 million kWh of electricity per year.

The biomass power plant is more than merely “carbon neutral”. If the chicken manure were to be spread out over farm land, it would release not only CO2, but also methane, a very potent greenhouse gas. By using the manure for power generation, the release of methane is avoided.

The biomass power plant will utilize approximately 440,000 tons of chicken manure, roughly one third of the total amount produced each year in the Netherlands. Many European countries, including the Netherlands, suffer under an excess of different types of animal manure that pollute the environment.

Source — Environmental News Network

Putting Clean, Efficient Technology on the Fast Track

The American Le Mans Series' Green Challenge will be the first car race to use green racing protocols at the Petit Le Mans Race near Atlanta on Oct. 4. The protocols were developed by EPA, the Department of Energy and SAE International.

"The Petit Le Mans is the ultimate test track," said Margo T. Oge, director of EPA's Office of Transportation and Air Quality. "If clean efficient technologies can handle driving this track, then they certainly can work for your morning commute."

Officials from each organization will present the first ever Green Challenge award to the automotive powertrain manufacturer of the car that achieves the lowest green racing score. The score takes into account the amount of fuel consumed during the race, distance completed, speed, energy efficiency, and a well-to-wheels analysis of greenhouse gases emitted.

To achieve the best green score, cars will use renewable fuels, such as cellulosic E85, E10, and a blend of ultra low sulfur diesel fuel and diesel fuel made from natural gas, multiple propulsion systems, and regenerative energy technologies.

The ultimate goal is to use motor sports to help spur the development of cleaner, more fuel efficient technologies that will eventually be used in consumer vehicles. From the rear view mirror to disc brakes, innovations in safety, durability and performance made by race cars are often transferred to consumer vehicles.

The green racing protocols will be published later this year. Next year, the American Le Mans Series will incorporate the protocols into a season-long Green Racing Challenge Championship.

Source — Environmental Protection Agency

Midwest Flooding: When Will We Learn?

When will we learn that trying to control Mother Nature is always more expensive, and less successful, than working with her? Once again, we are witnessing this futility – we spent billions of dollars on levees and flood control infrastructure to protect and encourage development of river floodplains and low-lying wetlands. Now we're watching those homes and businesses be overrun by flood water.

We saw it with the Mississippi floods in 1993, which caused billions in damages and forced tens of thousands from their homes. Now, here we are again, 15 short years later, and flooding in the Midwest is forcing thousands of people from their homes. It's causing billions in damages to hard-working farmers, putting historic downtowns under water and breaking or over-topping levees.

In between the 1993 floods and today's, we've also seen how levees failed to protect the residents of New Orleans from Hurricane Katrina's storm surge. Spurred in part by those tragic events, the federal government recently assessed the integrity and protection level of thousands of miles of levees from coast to coast and found them seriously deficient.

Our heavy reliance on levees, which are hugely expensive to build and maintain, is sorely misplaced. It leads people to think that living in a floodplain is risk-free behind a levee touted as protecting them against a "100-year" or "500-year storm."

Unfortunately, nothing could be further from the truth. As the time-worn refrain goes, there are only two kinds of levees, those that have already failed and those that haven't failed yet.

To make things worse, our choices have tended to make flood waters run faster, increasing the damage and danger. Levees narrow the river and speed it up. The near total loss of wetlands in the agricultural Midwest exacerbates the problem because those wetlands naturally stored stormwater and slowed runoff to streams and rivers. And the loss of riverside forests that also slow down and absorb flood flows into the ground has added to the current misery.

It's far past time to change our approach to flood protection. At all levels of government, here is what resources and incentives should be focused on:

• Buy-outs of vulnerable lands to decrease the people and property in harm's way
• Returning those lands to forests and wetlands to provide flood buffers
• Reform the taxpayer-funded National Flood Insurance Program to remove incentives for new flood plain development
• Better disclosure of the risks of living in flood plains, even for those lands behind a levee
• Reorienting our approach to flood protection, placing high priority wherever possible on the use of the river's natural floodplain instead of expensive engineered levee and pump systems

Mother Nature is trying to tell us something. Let's listen before she yells any louder.

Source — Environmental Defence Fund

Not All is Doom and Gloom: Foster Wheeler Businesses Continue to Set Records

Researched by Industrial Info Resources, Foster Wheeler's two core businesses are experiencing tremendous growth, and the company is expected to set another record income this year, Chairman and CEO Raymond Milchovich said at the recent D.A. Davidson Seventh Annual Engineering & Construction Conference. The two businesses are the Global Engineering and Construction (E&C) Group and the Global Power Group. "We pride ourselves on expertise and executing large, complex projects throughout the world," Milchovich said. "We believe that we're armed with industry-leading technologies."

The E&C Group provides front-end engineering design (FEED) and engineering, procurement and construction. The unit primarily focuses on upstream oil and gas, liquefied natural gas (LNG) and gas-to-liquids, oil refining, and chemicals and petrochemicals", Milchovich added. With the Power Group, Foster Wheeler designs, manufactures and erects steam-generating and auxiliary equipment, mainly in the circulating fluidized bed market. E&C makes up about 70% of the company, and the Power Group makes up about 30%, he said. Demand remains strong for both, Milchovich said. "We're getting to the point now where we have a very good look into 2009," he said. "2009 earnings growth will not be constrained by the market.

In the second quarter of 2008, Foster Wheeler posted three all-time records: income, cash and earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization. The records come just two years after the company reported its first all-time record in its history of almost 120 years. "We're on track to have record-setting income again in 2008 with both business groups operating very, very well," Milchovich said. "We see the market to support both our Global E&C Group and our Global Power Group as very, very robust, and as a result we're looking at continued growth in 2009."

As part of their International Project Database, Industrial Info is tracking 240 active Foster Wheeler projects totaling almost $71.5 billion. The projects range from a $1.5 million boiler expansion at the University of Minnesota to a $10 billion grassroot LNG production plant in Darwin, Australia. Oil & Gas Production projects make up almost one-third of the total spending with about $26.3 billion across only nine projects. Petroleum Refining follows closely with $23.4 billion in 140 projects.

Source — Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)

ALERT!   SOFTWARE UPDATES

Operator10 v8.17 and Antero v4.10 installs and updates are now available for downloading from our web site.

To download program updates, go to http://www.allmaxsoftware.com/download.php to begin the update process.

To download an evaluation version of Operator10, go to http://www.allmaxsoftware.com/operations.htm and click the "Get Operator10" button on the left hand side of the screen.

To download an evaluation version of Antero, go to http://www.allmaxsoftware.com/maintenance.htm and click the "Get Antero" button on the left hand side of the screen.