Waste could fuel low carbon energy and transport

Seemingly insurmountable threats like global warming and toxic emissions make an idea like recycling sound almost quaint – a throwback to the era of disco music and mood rings.

But researchers at KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm say that recycling could play an important role in sustainable energy systems and transportation.

Göran Finnveden, who is Professor in Environmental Strategic Analysis and Vice President for Sustainable Development at Stockholm's KTH Royal Institute of Technology, says that while household waste recycling is important, it takes care of a relatively small amount of the total waste that developed economies generate.

“We could do much more,” Finnveden says.

A wide range of other types of wastes account for the remainder of society’s refuse (in Sweden, non-household wastes contribute 88 percent of the country’s total). And it’s also in that “waste stream” that Finnveden and others see a huge, untapped source of energy.

Waste-to-energy examples abound. In Sweden, a substantial percentage of the country’s district heating comes from burning non-recyclable trash. “In general, recycling saves more energy than incineration of waste,” Finnveden says. “But if recycling is not feasible, waste-to energy processes can have significant advantages”.

At KTH, methods for harvesting hydrogen fuel from waste are also being developed.

When U.S. President Barack Obama made his first state visit to Sweden recently, KTH researchers showed him a system developed at the university which converts olive oil production waste to hydrogen gas. The gas can then be converted to energy through fuel cells.

"You can use the leftovers from olive oil production to make biogas and electricity," says Göran Lindbergh, Professor and Head of the Department of Chemical Engineering and Technology at KTH.

Fuel cell-powered cars, based on the test vehicle Lindbergh showed to Obama during the President's visit to KTH, can also get their hydrogen gas from waste streams. The prototype that Obama examined can travel from Stockholm to Gothenburg and back again – about 1,000 kilometres – on less than a litre of petrol.

“There are really possibilities for technology to make a difference,” Lindbergh says. But technology alone cannot solve global energy and carbon emissions problems. Both scientists agree that policy makers need the support of the public to take real steps toward significant carbon reduction.

Finnveden says a global carbon tax could support transformative change with relatively little disruption. Sweden's carbon tax, which was implemented in 1991, has changed how the country's homes are heated "and people hardly notice this because we still have a warm house and it's just heated in another way", he says.

"You could introduce a global carbon dioxide tax that would change the energy systems and the transportation systems, and we probably wouldn’t even notice it very much," he says.

"The type of fuels must change, and we have to reverse the trend of increasing traffic volumes; but that doesn’t mean the way we transport ourselves has to change drastically,” he says. “Drastic changes are needed but that doesn’t mean there has to be drastic changes in our lifestyles.”

Rs 1 crore device to monitor 100-metre pollution

MPPCB plans to install automatic air sampler for online monitoring at a most polluted location.

The Madhya Pradesh Pollution Control Board (MPPCB) is planning to install an automatic air sampler for online monitoring of air pollution in Indore. The device will be installed at the most polluted area of the city and will capture air quality of 100 metre area around it. The board will spend more than Rs 1 crore on the device.
The board has taken cue from the highly polluted metropolitan cities like Delhi, Kolkata and others and taken a decision of this pilot project. 
Once successful, it will be implemented in other cities of the state including Bhopal.The automatic gadget that will regularly collect air sample, test the air on various parameters like RSPM, NOX and SPM and immediately give the real-time air composition reading of the 100 meters area around it.

Initially, the department plans to install only a single instrument in the entire city that is spread across 276 sq km area and has diverse pollution levels owing to nature of habitat and industrial operations.

"One device will be installed in a polluted location that is yet to be decided and later more of such devices may be added," claimed MPPCB chief chemist Aparna Bapat.

"The entire setup of the device costs more than Rs 1 crore and every other additional device installed to cover rest of the city will cost the same. It is not sure as to when will it be installed though," she added.

The device will have automatic sensors that will capture the air particles on a 24 hours basis and the reading can be taken at any given time.

Environment department head at SGSITS Dr DJ Killedar said, "Although it is a positive move that the system is being put up in our city, the board could have installed more of this instrument at different locations which would have helped in the profiling of the city and declaring pollution free zones too".

"Even the air quality index can only be estimated when the city is profiled in different pollution zones," he added.

At present, the board uses three mobile instruments called as the respirable dust sampler that are shifted from one station to the other for checking the ambient air quality. Explaining the mechanism of this device, Dr Killedar said that it converts the analog signal to digital after sensing the concentration of pollutants in the air.

Critically Ill indore
The MoEF recently included Indore and Singrauli of MP in 8 critically polluted areas of the country on account of which the board is compelled to take stringent actions to bring down the pollution levels.

MPPCB will execute the action plan with other stake holders including IMC, RTO, etc to bring down pollution levels.

Other cities including Delhi, Mumbai, Lucknow  will also install a similar device which is believed to cost around Rs 80L each.

British government won't get European Union funding for CCS projects

CCS technology captures carbon emissions from power plants before they enter the atmosphere and then stores them in long-term storage sites.

The British government has included CCS technology in its plans to meet its emissions reduction targets and says it has earmarked 1 billion pounds ($1.59 billion) to fund a commercial scale pilot CCS program.

One EU source speaking on condition of anonymity confirmed that no British projects had qualified for the so-called NER300 competition "because of lack of funding detail."

Britain's Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) said it had not yet been informed of the decision or what the arrangements might be for the second round.

"We are not going to comment on speculation or rumors," a DECC spokesperson said.

The European Commission, together with the European Investment Bank and EU member states, jointly operate the NER300 financing competition in which governments can shortlist renewable and CCS projects for European subsidies.

EU member states can apply for NER300 funding to finance half of a renewable or CCS project if the national government guarantees funds to cover the remaining 50 percent of the costs.

A second round of projects will be launched early next year and British projects will be able to participate again, the EU source said.

Chris Davies, a British Liberal Democrat politician who led discussion of the funding in the European Parliament, said the failure was "a devastating blow" to hopes of Britain and Europe becoming a world leader in the development of CCS technology.

"The government has no excuse. The EU funding mechanism was only introduced as a result of British pressure and for us not to take advantage of it is simply woeful," he said.

Although proven to work technologically, CCS is a controversial technology because it has not yet been tested at commercial scale and is considered to be expensive since it adds to the cost of electricity generation without adding a value beyond emissions reductions.

Under the NER300 initiative, 300 million EU emissions allowances - which are rights to emit one metric ton (1.1923 tons) of carbon dioxide - on the EU European Emissions Trading Scheme were made available to raise financing for installations of innovative renewable energy technologies and carbon capture and storage, or CCS.

The initiative plans to sell the 300 million allowances in two rounds. The sale of the first tranche of 200 million allowances was completed on 28 September 2012, with a second NER300 tranche of 100 million allowances next year.

The European Investment Bank said that it wants the second round of sales to be completed by the end of 2013.

One allowance is valued around 8.30 euros ($10.55) per metric ton, exchange and broker data on Reuters shows.

Details of the Britain's list of CCS projects shortlisted for NER300 funding can be seen under: here($1 = 0.6286 British pounds) ($1 = 0.7868 euros)

Air pollution in Delhi touched alarming levels, set to get worse after Diwali

Data taken from six places in the Capital between October 22 and November 2 show air pollution is hovering at frightening levels even before Diwali on November 13.Carbon monoxide presence was between 1.2 mg/m3 and 2.5 mg/m3 on Diwali last year, and between 0.87 mg/m3 and 9.75 mg/m3 in 2010.
The Centre for Science and Environment(CSE) says the levels of air pollution have already gone back to the pre-CNG days.

Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board to tie up with IIT-Madras

The Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board (TNPCB) is looking at collaborating with institutions like Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Madras, to set up a technology demonstration centre as part of monitoring source emissions and ambient air quality on a real time basis.

The board is already running a centre for accessing real time air (quality) information report (CARE AIR), a real time emission monitoring system functioning 24X7.

“TNPCB is in the process of establishing a technology demonstration centre in collaboration with leading institutions in the state. Every effort will be taken to provide a focal point of reference on all environment related issues in the TNPCB,” said a policy note submitted by state environment minister BV Ramanaa.

Discussions have been held with IIT, Madras, for establishment of the centre and a memorandum of understanding is under process, it added.
The present system is designed so as, when the emission levels exceed the norms, an inbuilt alarm system alerts the industry concerned and remedial action is taken immediately.

India worse than Pakistan, Bangladesh in toxic air quality

India scored a miniscule 3.73 out of a possible 100 points in the analysis, lagging far behind the next worst performer, Bangladesh, which scored 13.66. In fact, the entire South Asian region fares badly, with Nepal, Pakistan and China taking up the remaining spots in the bottom five of the rankings.

These rankings are part of a wider study to index the nations of the world in terms of their overall environmental performance. The Yale Center for Environmental Law and Policy and Columbia's Center for International Earth Science Information Network have brought out the Environment Performance Index rankings every two years since 2006.

In the overall rankings — which takes 22 policy indicators into account — India fared minimally better, but still stuck in the last ten ranks along with environmental laggards such as Iraq, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. At the other end of the scale, the European nations of Switzerland, Latvia and Norway captured the top slots in the index.

India's performance over the last two years was relatively good in sectors such as forests, fisheries, biodiversity and climate change. However, in the case of water — both in terms of the ecosystem effects to water resources and the human health effects of water quality — the Indian performance is very poor.

The Index report was presented at the World Economic Forum currently taking place in Davos, where it's being pitched as a means to identify the leaders and the laggards on energy and environmental challenges prior to the iconic Rio+20 summit on sustainable development to be held in Brazil this June.