Wednesday, May 22, 2013

Crown Jakarta Management - New Discovery: One Good Thing Coal Does for Nature


Before we get started, a warning. What you’re about to read is going to sound at first like something cooked up by the same folks who gave us the oxymoronic (and otherwise moronic) advertising slogan “Clean Coal.” It will sound like a fantasy story even a Fox News anchor would not dare announce: “Coal—The Biodiversity Fuel.”
In a paper being published in the journal Conservation Biology, researchers in the Czech Republic, who have been studying bees and wasps, report that some of that country’s endangered species, including four insects that had been presumed regionally extinct, have turned up instead thriving in the fly ash heaps at coal-fired power plants.   
Fly ash, as the paper helpfully explains, is what’s left over after a power plant burns coal, and it’s composed of “glass-like particles of mineral residua which are carried out of the boiler in the flow of exhaust gases,” plus bottom ash, boiler slag, and “flue gas desulphurization materials.” To be clear, the “fly” in “fly ash” is not a reference to insects; rather, it has to do with the fact that the substance is so light and fine that it flies up during combustion.
The study found 227 species of bees and wasps, including 35 that were endangered or critically endangered, living at two power plant sites. Some of these insects are important pollinators, and others may be valuable as predators and parasitoids for controlling agricultural pests. According to lead author Robert Tropek, an entomologist with the Czech Academy of Sciences, a follow-up paper will look at five other invertebrate groups also making their last stand on fly ash waste.   
Among the creatures populating this man-made habitat, for instance, is a tiger beetle, Cicindela arenaria viennensis (pictured at right), a remarkably swift predator known as the cheetah of the insect world. Like many of the species in the current study, that beetle thrives in inland dunes and banks of drift sand, a habitat that has been systematically eliminated from much of Central Europe to make “wasteland.” Tropek says he came up with the idea for the study after photographs of fly ash deposits reminded him of that lost habitat. (Tropek said the study was funded by the Czech Science Foundation and the University of South Bohemia. Power industry involvement was limited to the sites that allowed access to the power plants and agreed to hold off on reclamation pending the results of the research.)
Tropek has spent much of the past 10 years studying the wildlife of man-made wastelands, partly because he likes the spirit of these abandoned sites and partly because they have become genuinely important habitats. “The evidence is accumulating,” he and his co-authors write, “that various post-industrial barrens, such as quarries, gravel pits, spoil heaps and brownfields, often harbor biotic communities of high conservation value, providing refuges for many species vanishing from human-affected landscapes.” These are the only places left for animals to hide out when everything else is in ruins. 
To complicate matters, fly ash wastelands are disappearing, being covered over with dirt or planted to minimize the human health hazards of airborne fly ash waste, which may include lung damage. In an email, Tropek acknowledges the difficulty of the issue. The solutions are “quite good for the human environment. On the other hand, it is fatal for the newly established [animal] communities originally specializing in the drift sands.” His ambition is that the coal ash heaps will last at least until people—or power companies—come to their senses and begin “effective restoration of natural habitats.” At that point, “the postindustrial refuges would be the species pool for recolonizing newly restored plots.”
The phenomenon of species forced to find refuge among industrial waste is also common in the United States. What Tropek and his co-authors are reporting, says Lisa Evans, an attorney with the U.S. environmental group Earthjustice, is “not as strange as you think, in terms of coal ash impoundments being used as wildlife habitats.” There are 1070 such impoundments and another 350 coal ash landfills in this country, according to the official count, and they are located generally close to the power plants that produced them. These facilities are often hazardous for humans. In December 2008, for instance, the earthen wall at a coal ash impoundment in Harriman, Tennessee, burst open and dumped 1.7 million cubic yards of waste onto nearby neighborhoods. 
For birds, amphibians, and possibly other animals, these compounds are “an attractive nuisance,” the equivalent of toxic waste sites doubling as playgrounds for city children. Biologists use the term “population sinks” to describe them, says Evans. “From the outside they look like habitat for critters, but because of the toxic chemicals in the ash, it becomes their last resting place. They’re attracted to it, but they don’t get out.” A study last year at a power plant in South Carolina, for instance, found that birds nesting around coal fly ash basins inadvertently contaminated their young with arsenic, selenium, cadmium, and strontium. Multiple studies found that amphibians at the same site suffered profound developmental problems and increased mortality.
So, no, coal is never actually going to become the biodiversity fuel, especially given its richly destructive record of mountaintop removal, acid rain, mercury contamination, and, of course, global warming. But the new studies suggest a fresh way for coal-burning companies to clean up their dirty reputations. Skip the clever advertising campaigns. Instead, spend money to dispose of coal fly ash safely for people and wildlife alike. Then spend a little more to relocate the desperate menagerie huddled in those fly ash heaps to some restored version of their natural habitat. 
Related Stories : 


Tuesday, May 21, 2013

Livejournal - Reducing Energy Cost Through Boiler Efficiency - Crown Jakarta Management


Boiler Efficiency – Why is it important?

·          Cost of boiler fuel is 2.5–3 times higher than 4 years ago and continues to rise.
·          May be the highest single feed manufacturing cost??
·          Competition knows it is important!!
·          Company feed mill managers
·          Agri-stats
·          BOSS wants lower costs!!!

Boiler Efficiency
·          Input Energy
·          Fuel oil
·          Natural gas
·          Propane
·          Output Energy
·          Process Steam

General Boiler Information

·          1 boiler horse power = 42,000 BTUs of INPUT
·          1 pound of steam =1,200 BTUs of INPUT fuel
·          Typical boiler efficiency = 75-85%
·          New high efficiency near 90%
·          Fuel sources:
·          Natural Gas = 1,031 BTU/ft3
·          Propane = 91,000 BTU/gal
·          Fuel Oil = 139,000 BTU/gal

Operations

A Fable

A feed mill manager once went to a wise man for help in improving his inefficient, unprofitable feed milling operation. The wise man wrote a charm on a piece of paper and sealed it in a box that he gave to the manager.
“Carry this box into every part of your mill three times each day for a year,” he told him. The mill manager did so.
In the morning he carried the box and its charm into the warehouse and found a laborer fast asleep on a pile of sacks instead of working. At noon, he carried it up to the milling floor, he noticed a leak in a spout that was contaminating a bin of grain. He also spotted a hot bearing and called a mechanic to grease it. At night, he carried the box to the packing room and found his employee overfilling the bags.
Everyday, as he took the box and its charm from place to place in the mill he found things to correct. At the end of the year, he returned the box to the wise man.
“Let me keep the charm for one more year,” he begged. “My mill is more efficient and more profitable than it has every been before”
The wise man smiled and took the box. “I’ll give you the charm itself,” he said. He broke the seal, lifted out the piece of paper and handed it to the mill manager.
On it was written: IF YOU WANT THINGS TO PROSPER, LOOK AFTER THEM YOURSELF.

SOURCE
http://crowncapitalmgt.livejournal.com/6172.html

Thursday, May 16, 2013

A Rush of Environmental Legislation


May 12, 2013: The bill “cross-over” deadline arrives this week. By May 16, most  bills  must pass either the House or the Senate and “cross over” to the other chamber  to avoid sudden death. (There are exceptions for finance bills, budget bills and constitutional amendments.) Because of the deadline, bills have been flying out of committees and to the House and Senate floor — leading to a flurry of posts. Two more bills that came out of committee last week (and are scheduled for votes this evening on the Senate or House floor):
Senate Bill 638 (N.C. Farm Act of 2013) makes  a  significant change to state water quality law by excluding  any wetland that is not considered “waters of the United States” from protection under the  state’s water quality permitting requirements.  The bill  takes a term (“waters of the United States”)   that  describes  federal  Clean Water Act  jurisdiction and  uses it  to  remove state protection for  wetlands that fall outside federal jurisdiction.  For reasons that mostly have to do with limits on federal authority under the Commerce Clause of the U.S. Constitution, not all state waters or wetlands are considered “waters of the United States”.  The limit on federal jurisdiction has nothing to do with the  importance of the wetland — it has to do with how the Constitution divides responsibility between the  federal  government and the states. The change in definition would mean that  someone could fill or discharge pollutants to wetlands that fall outside federal jurisdiction without any water quality  permit from the state. In committee, the change was described as one intended to help farmers, but developers are likely to benefit more.
House Bill 677 (Local Government Regulatory Reform)  came out of the House Regulatory Reform Committee. Language in the bill could interfere with efforts  to  keep the state’s urban areas in compliance with the  federal air pollution standard for ozone.  Meeting the ozone standard will be an increasing challenge as  population grows  and the ozone standard becomes tighter.  An area that fails to meet the ozone standard risks losing federal highway funding and new industrial development projects.  House Bill 677  prohibits cities and counties from adopting an ordinance that “[r]equires an employer to assume financial, legal, or other responsibility for an employee’s carbon footprint, which may result in the employer being subject to a fine. fee, or other monetary, legal, or negative consequences”.   Although the intent of House Bill 677 isn’t completely clear (and there was little committee discussion), the  bill  could  affect local programs to reduce  motor vehicle emissions that account for as much as 70% of the ozone pollution in urban areas. For example, a Durham  ordinance  requires large employers to do certain things to reduce commuter miles traveled by employees   in an effort to  reduce motor vehicle emissions.  The question is whether House Bill 677 will take away some tools that fast-growing urban areas like Durham can now use to stay  in compliance with the ozone standard.
Related Sources 

Tuesday, May 14, 2013

World's first algae house produces green energy at IBA Hamburg

The first house in the world to supply its own energy with unique “bioskin” through the cultivation of micro-algae is being presente

d at the International Building Exhibition IBA Hamburg in Germany. 

 As a part of the International Building Exhibition IBA Hamburg, the Bio Intelligent Quotient (BIQ) House is the world’s first building to have a bioreactor façade. The façade of the five-story BIQ House comprises a vertical algae farm with an integrated bioreactor, turning the building into a Plus Energy House. This weekend, the house became fully operational as the glass façade was filled with liquid biomass. From now on, microalgae will be cultivated in 129 transparent glass panels, individually measuring 2.5 x 0.7 meters, which make up its “bioskin.” While these panels are used to produce energy, they also regulate light and provide shade. The combination of energy-saving algae and geothermal and solar energy will generate more energy than the residents of the house will consume. “The BIQ House makes the district of Wilhelmsburg, the biggest urban river island in the heart of Hamburg, more sustainable,” said Uli Hellweg, managing director of the IBA. “From now on, the microalgae on the façade will be supplying renewable energy for the building’s residents and the surrounding district. We know that about one-third of CO2 emissions are produced by households. Because of that, this innovative approach of sustainable urban living is an important signal for building construction in times of climate change. 


The BIQ House is part of a cluster of different energy projects launched by the IBA that will help to make Wilhelmsburg the most climate-friendly district in Hamburg within this year. Within the next four decades, the district of Wilhelmsburg with more than 50,000 inhabitants could become completely carbon-neutral.”



Cycles of Solar Energy
With its holistic energy concept, the BIQ building is setting new standards: it draws all of the energy needed to generate electricity and heat from renewable sources—fossil fuels are not required. The building is able to generate energy using the algae biomass harvested from its own façade. Moreover, the façade collects energy by absorbing the light that is not used by the algae and heat generation, similar to a solar thermal unit, and is then either used directly for hot water and heating, or can be cached for later use in the ground using borehole heat exchangers—80 meter-deep holes filled with brine. This remarkably sustainable energy concept is thus capable of creating a cycle of solar and geothermal energy, while also integrating a condensing boiler, local heat and the capture of biomass using the bioreactor façade.
Multifunctional Façades
The BIQ building shows that, in future, façades will be able to serve a number of different functions, and be much more than an aesthetic cladding to protect against the elements. While the northeast and northwest sides of the building have an elaborately decorated shell to draw the eye, the algae within the southwest and southeast façades produce biomass for renewable energy. In addition, the façade also serves the more conventional purposes of insulating the building from sound, heat and cold, and provides shade in bright sunlight. But the house will also offer residents a new approach to life using visionary spatial concepts. Individually controlled rooms will make it possible to switch functions and components on and off on demand.
IBA: Models for Climate-Friendly Urban Development
On Europe’s biggest urban river islands, Wilhelmsburg and Veddel, the International Building Exhibition IBA Hamburg is currently showcasing future modes of living, working and learning. In 2013, the IBA’s presentation year, more than 60 projects are displaying innovative approaches for the city of the future. Additional topics include ideas for future energy supply and ways of addressing the challenges posed by climate change. Right beside the new Inselpark, on the international garden show premises, the “Building Exhibition within the Building Exhibition” opened its gates on March 23. This key IBA project in Wilhelmsburg Central showcases the future of building and living, with smart buildings constructed of “intelligent” and regenerative building materials—such as the BIQ House with its energy-supplying algae façade or the Energy Bunker, a former flak bunker, now a flagship for renewable energy.

Hamburg: Hotspot for Green Techs, Renewable Energies
Hamburg is combining environmental protection with economic growth. Projects such as the International Building Exhibition IBA Hamburg exhibit the potential of green technologies for companies and residents alike. Hamburg has the potential to successfully implement the energy transition, meet ambitious climate targets and create additional jobs. This is also owing to the strength of the city’s companies and research facilities in the field of green technology. According to a 2012 survey of the Hamburg Chamber of Commerce and Industry, there are approximately 1,980 green technology companies in Hamburg with around 33,400 employees. These companies are active in the core fields of power generation, green building, water, recycling and waste management, financing and insurance, energy services, as well as mobility and logistics. The estimated sales volume for 2012 amounted to approximately €10.66 billion.
Related Source : http://www.slideshare.net/andrewfelix/jakarta-capital-crown-capital-eco-management-environmental-scam-prevention-watch