carbon

"Without carbon capture and sequestration, we are all toast."

Jiang Lin, a scientist with the China Sustainable Energy Program with Lawrence Berkeley Lab, issued that gloomy proclamation earlier this week, and it's a fitting description of the current world situation when it comes to global warming. To make it worse, I asked Lin about how the world is responding to the challenge. Not well.

"We haven't invested in deep research or spent much money in testing out the scenarios," he said. "There are a lot of uncertainties."

Still, it's not over … Read more

It's a water-based molecule that repels water.

That's Hycrete's business in a nutshell, according to CEO David Rosenberg. The company has a molecule--which consists of a water molecule with a long hydrocarbon attached--that links up to metallic ions in whatever it's mixed into. In the right circumstances, the molecule behaves like an oil and pushes water away.

The company currently sells its material to concrete manufacturers and contractors who use it to replace the bound-to-fail plastic membranes employed to keep water out of building foundations and freeway pilings. With Hycrete's molecules mixed into the cement, … Read more

Carbon counting, it seems, is a growth business.

Carbonetworks, from Victoria, British Columbia, has developed software that gives companies a way to make financial decisions around their carbon emissions. It's one of several organizations sprouting up and looking to build a business or derive revenue from regulatory limits on carbon.

Although North America does not yet have regulations that cap greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide, companies are already keeping track of their emissions, said CEO Michael Meehan, who started Carbonetworks in early 2006.

Even after doing an inventory, though, companies don't have a unified way of managing that … Read more

Researchers at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute have come up with a way to detect potential structural problems with fighter planes while in flight, and in some cases repair them.

The technique, which is still experimental, involves applying an epoxy later infused with a wire grid and carbon nanotubes onto a wing or other structure. The epoxy is similar to the materials currently used to make fighter plane components. The wire grid and the nanotubes function as a communication network. Mechanics (or a computer) will shoot an electrical charge through the structure and measure how long it takes an electrical charge to … Read more

Michael Dell says he aims make his company "carbon neutral" in 2008, according to an article in The Wall Street Journal.

The computer giant is looking to zero-out its carbon emissions through a number of initiatives, such as offering small businesses and consumers curbside recycling of their old computers, stuffing small recycling bags with free postage into new printer-ink cartridge boxes, and operating a "Plant a Tree for Me" program. Companies implementing carbon-neutral programs can adopt pollution- and energy-management practices in their own operations and/or purchase carbon-reduction credits from other businesses, which, in turn, offset … Read more

SEATTLE--Carbon offsets, energy efficiency credits, renewable energy certificates. The lexicon of the new, niche business world of brokering in greenhouse gases was spoken at the Discover Brilliant conference Monday. (It felt like being in Charlie Brown's classroom.)

Carbon markets have begun to boom over the past year, offering corporations options for offsetting their emissions by trading them with cleaner companies. Many proponents of carbon trading want laws to force businesses to clean up their act.

"As long as companies can dump carbon without paying, they will," said K.C. Golden, policy director of Climate Solutions, a nonprofit … Read more

Serious Materials plans to build a big, multimillion dollar factory that's going to be powered by solar panels.

The company is currently scouting out a site for a factory that will be capable of churning out 400 million square feet of drywall a year, said CEO Kevin Surace. The factory, however, will only require a 100-kilowatt solar system to provide its power. The relatively low power requirements come from how Serious makes drywall.

One hundred kilowatts is enough to power about 33 homes. For industrial manufacturing, that's not a low of power. Google put a solar system in … Read more

Ever fling fast-food wrappers from the window of your speeding Prius? True Green Confessions invites you to tell the tale. Unlike so many other green social networking websites that encourage you to practice bicycling, recycling and other planet-friendly habits, here you can share the shame of not doing enough or not caring enough about your fat carbon footprint.

There are many confessions about driving, like taking the SUV to the organic grocery store, as well as rants against "self-righteous" vegans. Other posts are a bit more twisted. One mother-to-be wrote: "I dont (sic) think I am contributing … Read more

Is Microsoft Vista global warming friendly? Could Vista be the best-selling clean-tech product in the world? I was thinking about this question the other day, and started e-mailing the Microsoft press relations folks looking for an answer.

The Microsoft answer--yes, it is. They have a recent release titled "Windows Vista Power Management Features Can Help U.K. Companies Reduce Their Carbon Footprint" on some independent research they had done by PC Pro Labs in the U.K.

Here's their quote:

"Windows Vista is Microsoft's most energy efficient operating system to date with its power … Read more