Thursday, March 18, 2010

Using grass to run your car?

No, they are not planning to pluck out grass from the Earth to change it to biofuel.

That wouldn't be environmentally friendly right, using precious land to farm grass. And plus it'll be weird looking at bald patches on the ground. The Carbon Trust is working together with the University of York to research how using microwave technology could turn garden and wood waste into biofuel. The process of using microwave to heat the waste without oxygen is called pyrolysis. The research will look at how this process could be used to produce a biofuel to blend with fossil fuel or as a fuel on its own. The carbon footprint of this new pyrolysis biofuel could potentially save 95% of carbon compared to fossil fuels.

The trust also announced the creation of a new consortium of British businesses led by Axion Energy, which will aim to enhance existing pyrolysis technology to produce biofuels created from organic waste materials en masse. The consortium aims to produce its first biofuel from a pilot plant in 2014 and estimates that this will save seven million tonnes of carbon, the equivalent to the annual emissions of three million cars. If this research goes through then it will be great for Singapore with the many grass cutting days they have here, which is done every other week. Wakes my son up from his sleep and makes my kitties scurry for safety!

Tip of the day: If you have a cold, go old skool and use a handkerchief instead of disposable tissues :) Maybe you'll start a new fashion statement!

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