Greening You » Environmental hazards

Greenhouse gas emissions and data collection

Editor — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 23:01:04 +0000

The Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) is an independent not-for-profit organization which seeks information on the business risks and opportunities presented by climate change and greenhouse gas emissions data from the world’s largest companies:

The CDP teamed up with the Greenhouse Gas Management Institute (GHGMI) to offer a wealth of information to help corporations and also local cities gather accurate date on greenhouse gas emissions for reporting purposes. They have over 3,000 voluntary corporate entries in their databases already.
Get more information or download reports from their website.

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Advances in solar cell technology

Editor — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 01:45:50 +0000

New technologies in solar are moving so fast it’s hard to keep on top of it.
It’s becoming abundantly clear that solar cell production is not moving fast enough, and companies are scrabbling for alternatives to silicon that are more affordable, can be produced more rapidly and with less toxic waste associated with some of the production methods.

Production of silicon solar cells used up to 33% of the world’s electronic grade silicon production in 2006. In addition, the production of silicon is expensive and some production methods entail hazardous chemical solvents that can find their way into the environment.

Video of solar panel production.

Toxic waste
One byproduct of polysilicon production is silicon tetrachloride, a colorless, toxic liquid that causes irritation to the respiratory tract, sneezing, coughing, burning throat, a constricting sensation of the larynx and difficulty in breathing. When it combines with water it becomes highly corrosive to metals.

A recent article in the Washington post exposed how solar cell production in China is leaving behind toxic waste, dumping it openly and polluting the land and aquifers.

There is interest in producing silicon from other materials, such as rice hulls, but even this requires leaching the silicon from the hulls with hydrochloric acid. http://www.osti.gov/energycitations/product.biblio.jsp?osti_id=6204723

With all this in mind, many are turning from silicon to find less expensive options. A recent testing of dye-sensitized, silicon-free solar cells in China holds promise.

The technology entails printing a thin film of nano-sized particles of titanium dioxide which is then sprayed with dye which is in contact with an electrolyte solution. When solar radiation hits the dye it injects a negative charge in the pigment nano-particle and a positive charge into the electrolyte solution, which converts sunlight into electrical energy.

So far, the thin film panels
are less efficient than silicon, but there are hopes that productivity can increase significantly soon and compete with silicon in a real way, thereby reducing the cost of solar energy to our environment.

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Support the coal plant moratorium

Editor — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 20:01:22 +0000

Without emissions controls, a new coal-fired power plant will emit hundreds of millions of tons of global warming pollution over its fifty-year lifetime. Over 100 new plants are still on the drawing board, and even if just a portion of these are built, they will negate most if not all of the emissions saved in other sectors of our economy.

Sign the petition to support a moratorium on new coal fired power plants.

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Find out who’s polluting your neighborhood

Editor — Sun, 01 Jun 2008 18:06:27 +0000

You can quickly see who’s polluting locally at Scorecard.org. View various pollutants sorted by company, location, chemical or levels of damage.

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A new use for Batteries

Editor — Sun, 18 May 2008 13:52:04 +0000

We’re going to have to be creative if we are going to slow down the destruction , EcoGeek tells us about 3 Brazilian students who are using their heads to find new uses for batteries. Camila da Silva Bruzadelli, Alan Juliano de Andrade and Deborah Asbahr, of Limeira, Brazil, discovered that the metals in batteries can be used to color ceramics. The batteries are disassembled and the metals removed, then processed to release the metal oxides, which can then be used as colorants.

Another innovator, Chen; Kuo-Chun (Encinitas, CA), has a patent for his process of extracting rare earth metals for ceramic colorants.

In the US alone, we use nearly 3 billion dry-cell batteries every year to power our tools and toys. It would be fantastic to find a way to re-use them for something constructive rather than dumping toxic metals in the landfill. In the meantime, find out where you can recycle batteries, for your home or your business, check out BatteryRecycling.com.

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Gasoline Spill in Martinez

Editor — Wed, 14 May 2008 15:25:23 +0000

A tugboat at Tesoro’s Golden Eagle refinery Avon wharf facility hit three pipes shortly before 1:10 a.m., dumping 1500 gallons of gasoline into the San Francisco Bay.
The coast Guard has deployed a boom and is using skimmers to try to contain the Gasoline.
Here’s a link to a slideshow of the accident site.
No word yet on the environmental impact, but here’s a story on Kron 4.

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