green tech

Imagine a high-speed rail line that could get you from San Francisco to LA in 2 hours and 40 minutes. That dream appears to be coming true, thanks to work by the California High-Speed Rail Authority.

What Al Gore is doing is something that no other green organization has tried. That is to mainstreamify as our favorite  verbifying Texan would say.

Clean Burning Natural Gas Vehicles (NGVs) are hot commodities in some parts of the country, where fuel can sell for as low as $0.63 per gallon. This Civic NGV is powered by the simplest and cleanest-burning hydrocarbon available, and though it looks like a standard passenger vehicle, its tailpipe emissions that are often cleaner than ambient air.

General Motors announced today it would be entering into a strategic relationship with Mascoma Corp., a second-generation biofuel company with the technology to produce cellulosic ethanol from non-food sources via a single-step biochemical conversion. This is GM’s second investment in a cellulosic ethanol company, after announcing partnership with Coskata back in January.

Opportunities for green tech entrepreneurs bloom with Microsoft initiatives

A breakthrough technology announced today quickly and cheaply removes metal contaminants like mercury from water. Is the breakthrough a Trojan Horse?

Here's what the hippies (and me) like.

Beautiful graphic from the Department of Energy that depicts conversion of biomass into cellulose.

AAMCO, one of the world’s largest chains of automotive service centers, has started an initiative designed to promote environmental sustainability and energy efficiency. AAMCO is also promoting alternative fuels by installing E85 conversion kits that allow vehicles to run on ethanol blends up to 85%.

Ford Motor Company will be replacing up to 40% of their petroleum-based seat cushions with a new material made from soybean oil. “Soy foam” costs roughly the same to manufacture as traditional petroleum derivatives, but requires less energy to produce and may reduce environmental impacts by 75%.

Researchers announce major breakthrough on the path to green gasoline. A UMass chemical engineer has pioneered a new method for producing zero-emissions green gasoline from switchgrass and poplar trees. This is a major step toward commercially feasible cellulosic biomass technologies.

PetroSun has announced it will begin operation of its commercial algae-to-biofuels facility on April 1st, 2008. The facility, located in Rio Hondo Texas, will produce an estimated 4.4 million gallons of algal oil and 110 million lbs. of biomass per year off a series of saltwater ponds spanning 1,100 acres.

In January, Scientific American writers unleashed an ambitious plan to halt global warming, eliminate our dependence on petroleum and the substantial trade deficit, boost the economy and create 3 million jobs, and brighten the dismal forecasts for the mid twenty-first century. Their solution: solar power, which could eventually provide 90% of transportation energy.

Building Information Modeling and an array of alternative energy and green building technologies are quickly changing how construction and renovations happen, and bringing high performance buildings to a new level.

Consumer electronics reflect a sensitivity to the attitudes of modern consumers of course. But there are indications outside of Vegas that the CES orchestrations are the tip of an iceberg of awareness that technology – which by its nature resonates with the notion of efficiency – can cut a lot of its own energy and resource waste simply by more thoughtful design.