Cambridge hears of CO2 to fuel process

A Cambridge University conference heard of plans from an American company to convert carbon dioxide emissions into fuel.

The technology, which would use CO2 as a feedstock for creating gasoline, diesel and jet fuel, could tackle climate change, which is caused by the presence of greenhouse gases such as CO2 in the atmosphere.

Derek McLeish, chief executive officer of Carbon Science, the company developing the technology, told guests at the First International Summit on Policy, Technology and Investment that the world’s dependence on transport made fuel an important product.

He said: "Carbon Sciences has been working for some time on using CO2 as the feedstock for production of high value products. Since the world is highly dependent on the existing transportation and fuel delivery infrastructure, we view fuel to be the ultimate high value product. Automobiles, trucks, trains and planes powered by portable fuels are crucial to our way of life."

According to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, road transport accounted for 22 per cent of all UK carbon emissions. If Carbon Science’s technology became viable, road transport could actually reduce emissions.

EEDA publishes investment plan

The East of England Development Agency (EEDA) has worked with two other regional development agencies to draw up a plan which aims to turn the area into a research and business hub.

Under the Economic Development Investment Plan drawn up with the London Development Agency and the South East of England Development Agency, south Essex centres will receive funding for environmental research and development.

Dagenham Dock’s Sustainable Industries Park will focus on research and development of sustainable construction, renewable energy, waste, recycling and reuse.

The Bio-Renewable Energy Research Park will receive funding to continue its work on sustainable bio-energy technologies for electricity, heat and transport fuel.

Caroline Flint, housing minister, said: "The Economic Development Investment Plan will enable the delivery of a knowledge-driven, well connected, globally competitive region. It also demonstrates how economic growth and environmental sustainability can work together."

EEDA chair Richard Ellis said that progress was already underway towards a "major transformation" of the Thames Gateway.

Renewable building at construction careers fair

Renewable building techniques will be on display at a construction industry careers fair in Norfolk later this month.

The Build Your Construction Future event, which is the county’s biggest construction-related career fair, will be held on September 30 at the Norfolk Showground.

About 750 students from the region’s schools and colleges are expected to attend, with the county council and property consultancy NPS Property Consultants hoping more people attend as well.

As well as giving prospective construction industry workers a glimpse at the renewable elements of the industry, they will get a chance to see traditional crafts and displays on roof building, bricklaying and bridge building.

"This exciting event supports two of our key ambitions for Norfolk - to create aspirational people with high levels of achievement and to build a vibrant, strong and sustainable economy," said council leader Daniel Cox.

"I hope that young people will be inspired by the event."

All people in the construction industry should be aware that all new buildings after 2016 will have to be zero carbon.

LPG powered Jag to race to Naples

Norfolk Jaguar enthusiasts have retro-fitted a liquid petroleum gas (LPG) engine into an old XJ6 to race in the Staples to Naples banger rally.

Under the rules, the cars taking part can cost no more than £100 to buy and The Black Cats, Barry Ayres and Neil Schofield, found their car abandoned in an orchard.

They then converted it to LPG as a way of reducing their carbon emissions during the 1,400 mile race.

Over the course of the four day race, they also expect the modified engine to reduce their fuel consumption by 50 per cent.

LPG cars used to be difficult to insure, but The Black Cats got insurance from their sponsor Adrian Flux.

The insurer’s commercial director Gerry Bucke said the company was among the pioneers in offering LPG cars insurance.

He added: "They are now more common, but for some reason, until quite recently, LPG had a bad name with many insurers, probably because the cars themselves weren’t ’standard’ and many insurers would jack up the premiums.

"But we are perfectly happy that an LPG car is just as good a risk as any other car, and of course there are the lower running costs and environmental benefits."

According to Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs figures, road transport accounts for 22 per cent of all carbon emissions in the UK.

Carbon capture ‘viable by 2030′

Capturing carbon and burying it in undersea vaults could be cost effective and pay for itself by 2030, according to a new report.

A study carried out independently by management consultant McKinsey & Co concluded that provided polluters are forced to pay more and the technology develops sufficiently it will not depend on subsidies in just over two decades.

The technology, which is still in its infancy, involves using chemicals to extract the carbon dioxide from coal power plant emissions and liquefying it before pumping it into naturally formed underground reservoirs.

Scottish power, whose Longannet Power Plant is bidding to be one of the 12 demonstration plants the EU is looking to set up to trial and develop the technology, recently discovered an aquifer which it claims could store Europe’s carbon emissions for 600 years.

E.On is also bidding to build a demonstration plant at Kingsnorth.

The technology for ‘cleaning’ coal plant emissions would apply to the rapid amount of coal plants being built in China and India as well as to proposed plants in Europe.

One tenth of all Europe’s carbon emissions are produced by 30 coal plants.

Cambridge scientists get water management prize

Cambridge University engineers have been given an award for the best paper on water engineering by the Institution of Civil Engineers.

Dr Dick Fenner and two former students were awarded the RA Carr prize for a paper which could help sewage firms establish the state of their networks from a small sample of pipes.

Their paper ‘A case-based reasoning approach for managing sewerage-asses’ was published in the Institution Proceedings Water Management Journal in March 2007.

It examines statistical, deterministic and heuristic approaches to modelling sewer performance and condition and suggests a case-based reasoning approach.

The method involves using known information, including the link between physical characteristics and performance and problems on a few pipes, to infer performance of similar pipes.

Validation tests, which showed that good knowledge on the performance on a few pipes could be used to infer information for other pipes, were carried out with data from two water companies.

Fuel saving sat-nav developed

A satellite navigation system that can help drivers cut down their fuel expenditure and carbon emissions has been developed by Bedfordshire’s Cranfield School of Management.

The VREAM is a vehicle routing device designed by Dr Andrew Palmer of the Centre for Logistics and Supply Chain management at the campus.

Using a digitised model of road networks and data on predicted traffic volumes and speed glows, the model takes congestion and carbon reduction into account.

It considers the amount of acceleration and deceleration a driver might engage in on different roads as both those driving actions increase fuel consumption.

According to Dr Palmer, using the most fuel efficient routes can cut fuel consumption by more than five per cent.

He added: "The aim has not been to produce new mathematical theories, but to produce a pioneering basis for routing which will provide new information and knowledge about how CO2 emissions vary for different minimisation and congestion criteria."

The device has been developed as drivers are increasingly being urged to practice fuel efficient eco-friendly driving. New drivers are now assessed on their fuel-efficient driving as part of the driving test, though it can not affect the outcome of their overall test.

According to the Department for Transport, the road transport sector is one that could reduce its emissions the most.

Plans for windfarm resubmitted

Plans for a windfarm in north Bedfordshire are to go back to the council which rejected them originally after being significantly modified.

Nuon Renewables has scaled back the project, cutting the number of turbines it had planned for the site by two thirds from nine to three.

The project, which is expected to cost £7 million, will also set the turbines farther away form nearby villages and rights of way than in the original plans.

Will Wason, project manager, told Bedford Today: "It is a similar scheme, but we feel it should be given planning permission by the council.

"As soon as we had the result last year of the previous application we began working on this. We hope we have produced something that will be acceptable in light of the objections that were raised last time, but which will still generate a decent amount of green energy."

Mr Wason pointed out that the reduced scheme would mean that only a third of the energy the scheme was originally devised to generate would be created.

He added that the region had to generate 647MW from wind power by 2010 and was currently producing just 120MW.

The government has set targets of 15 per cent of electricity being generated from renewables by 2020, though campaigners say significant investment is required to reach the target.