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Hydrogen Fuel Cells Might Clean Up Ports
Hawaii has become a hotbed of renewable energy projects, including a fuel cell to power refrigeration in port
Feb 28, 2014 |By Nathanael Massey and ClimateWire
If all goes according to plan, Honolulu's main port may soon get a power source as clean as the water sloshing under its docks.
A consortium of partners headed by the Department of Energy's Sandia National Laboratories is looking to integrate a portable hydrogen fuel cell unit into the operations of Younger Brothers Ltd., the primary shipper of goods throughout the Hawaiian Islands. Its architects say the technology demonstration could serve as a model for similar facilities in ports around the nation.
Composed of four 30-kilowatt fuel cells, the unit would be housed within a 20-foot shipping container that could be floated, lifted or rolled around the dock.
Hydrogen as a fuel source produces zero emissions, and its only waste byproduct is clean water. The relatively high cost of securing hydrogen -- usually by stripping it from natural gas -- has made it historically uncompetitive with other energy sources in most situations, however.
But Honolulu's port is particularly positioned to make use of the technology, said Joe Pratt, project manager at Sandia Labs.
"Because of the specific characteristics of this port, the numbers actually do pencil out," he said. "There's a good probability that this project will be cost-effective."
Much of Hawaii's bulk commodities -- including much of its food -- has to be shipped to the islands from elsewhere, he said. A large portion of this cargo is routed through Honolulu's port, meaning many refrigerated containers sit in port for hours on end before being loaded onto barges and redistributed to the other islands.
Currently, those refrigerated units are powered by large diesel generators. And like so many other things in the Aloha State, the imported diesel fuel is significantly more expensive than it would be on the mainland, opening the playing field to other fuel sources.
"We compared the efficiencies of [the port's] diesel engines versus fuel cells, studied the energy efficiencies at various power levels and estimated the savings and reductions in emissions that would be realized if they were to convert to a fuel cell-powered operation," Pratt said. Because hydrogen fuel cells operate more efficiently at less-than-maximum power, their advantage relative to diesel generators rises, he said.
Hydrogen looks to expand its niche
Hawaii has, in fact, been something of a hotbed for test projects in green energy design. Volcanic in origin, geothermal energy supplies 20 percent of the Hawaii Big Island's energy needs. State regulations and a favorable market have driven the expansion of solar and wind power, and biomass gas is even harvested from landfills in some areas.
Hydrogen, on the other hand, has typically been more of a "niche" energy source, requiring its proponents to seek out just the right vector of cost and convenience to put it to work.
As the technology improves, however, applications for hydrogen as a fuel are expanding.
"The fuel-cell industry has largely moved beyond one-off demonstration projects towards pre-commercialization and even commercialization in certain markets," said Bud DeFlaviis, director of government affairs at the Fuel Cell & Hydrogen Energy Association.
Cost-effective applications for fuel cells have been identified for material handling equipment, as well as primary and backup power for data centers and telecommunication systems, he said.
The Honolulu prototype has likewise been developed with an eye to more extensive proliferation. After the fuel-cell unit is deployed in 2015, the team behind it -- which includes the Department of Transportation's Maritime Administration, the Hawaii Natural Energy Institute and the prototype developer, Hydrogenics Corp. -- will study its performance, in terms of both physical performance and cost-effectiveness. Based on their findings, they hope to design a commercial-ready product that could be purchased and deployed by ports around the country.
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/hydrogen-fuel-cells-might-clean-up-ports/
World Resource Ventures
April 09, 2014
Location
Representative Office of Northrhine-Westphalia, Hiroshimastrasse, Berlin-Tiergarten
11.15 p.m. Priority Presentations
Tauriga Sciences (USA)
http://www.worldresourceventures.com/program-world-resource-ventures-lv-nrw.html
In South Africa harvested rainwater harbors pathogens
Sat 1 Mar 2014 - 12am PST
South Africa has been financing domestic rainwater harvesting tanks in informal low-income settlements and rural areas in five of that nation's nine provinces. But pathogens inhabit such harvested rainwater, potentially posing a public health hazard, especially for children and immunocompromised individuals, according to a team from the University of Stellenbosch. The research was published ahead of print in Applied and Environmental Microbiology.
International studies had indicated that harvested rainwater frequently harbors pathogens, and that, in light of the financing of harvesting tanks, drove the investigators to study the matter locally, says principal investigator Wesaal Khan.
The sampling was conducted in the Kleinmond Housing Scheme, which was initiated by the South African Council for Scientific and Industrial Research and the Department of Science and Technology. The houses, designed to be sustainable, are approximately 400 square feet, with alternative technologies such as solar panels and the rainwater tanks.
The list of predatory prokaryotes the investigators found includes Legionella (found in 73% of samples), Klebsiella (47%) Pseudomonas (19% of samples), Yersinia (28%), Shigella (27%), and others. They also found some protozoan parasites, including Giardia (25% of samples).
Many of the pathogens are normal fresh water inhabitants, but Salmonella (6% of samples) indicates human fecal contamination, while Yersinia are markers of fecal contamination by wild and domestic animals, according to the report.
Residents, many of whom are little-educated and unemployed, typically use the rainwater for washing clothes and house-cleaning, but about one quarter of people polled in the study said they used it for drinking, as well. The finding that coliforms and Escherichia coli counts from rainwater samples - markers of fecal contamination - always significantly exceeded drinking water guidelines, reinforces the World Health Organization's opinion that rainwater must be pretreated prior to use for drinking, says Khan.
Rainwater harvesting is needed in South Africa's "informal communities" because residents often depend on communal "standpipe" systems that frequently serve more than 100 people, who may have to walk as far as a third of a mile to get water, says Khan. Approximately 23,000 rainwater tanks have been installed, two thirds of them in the Eastern Cape and one third in KwaZulu Natal. Nearly 20% of South Africans lack sustainable access to water.
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/273318.php
MorganStanley and CitiBank evaluation of water market...
Water as Seen by an Economist — An essay by Willem H. Buiter, Global Chief Economist. He outlines why water will eventually become the single most important physical commodity asset class.
http://www.morganstanleyfa.com/public/projectfiles/f8e732d5-6162-4cd9-8b1d-7b7317360163.pdf
The World Bank's Introduction to Wastewater Treatment Processes
Wastewater treatment is closely related to the standards and/or expectations set for the effluent quality. Wastewater treatment processes are designed to achieve improvements in the quality of the wastewater. The various treatment processes may reduce:
1. Suspended solids (physical particles that can clog rivers or channels as they settle under gravity)
2. Biodegradable organics (e.g. BOD) which can serve as “food” for microorganisms in the receiving body. Microorganisms combine this matter with oxygen from the water to yield the energy they need to thrive and multiply; unfortunately, this oxygen is also needed by fish and other organisms in the river. Heavy organic pollution can lead to “dead zones” where no fish can be found; sudden releases of heavy organic loads can lead to dramatic “fishkills”.
3. Pathogenic bacteria and other disease causing organisms These are most relevant where the receiving water is used for drinking, or where people would otherwise be in close contact with it; and
4. Nutrients, including nitrates and phosphates. These nutrients can lead to high concentrations of unwanted algae, which can themselves become heavy loads of biodegradable organic load Treatment processes may also neutralize or removing industrial wastes and toxic chemicals. This type of treatment should ideally take place at the industrial plant itself, before discharge of their effluent in municipal sewers or water courses.
Widely used terminology refers to three levels of wastewater treatment: primary, secondary, and tertiary (or advanced).
Primary (mechanical) treatment is designed to remove gross, suspended and floating solids from raw sewage. It includes screening to trap solid objects and sedimentation by gravity to remove suspended solids. This level is sometimes referred to as “mechanical treatment”, although chemicals are often used to accelerate the sedimentation process. Primary treatment can reduce the BOD of the incoming wastewater by 20-30% and the total suspended solids by some 50-60%. Primary treatment is usually the first stage of wastewater treatment. Many advanced wastewater treatment plants in industrialized countries have started with primary treatment, and have then added other treatment stages as wastewater load has grown, as the need for treatment has increased, and as resources have become available.
Secondary (biological) treatment removes the dissolved organic matter that escapes primary treatment. This is achieved by microbes consuming the organic matter as food, and converting it to carbon dioxide, water, and energy for their own growth and reproduction. The biological process is then followed by additional settling tanks (“secondary sedimentation", see photo) to remove more of the suspended solids. About 85% of the suspended solids and BOD can be removed by a well running plant with secondary treatment. Secondary treatment technologies include the basic activated sludge process, the variants of pond and constructed wetland systems, trickling filters and other forms of treatment which use biological activity to break down organic matter.
Tertiary treatment is simply additional treatment beyond secondary! Tertiary treatment can remove more than 99 percent of all the impurities from sewage, producing an effluent of almost drinking-water quality. The related technology can be very expensive, requiring a high level of technical know-how and well trained treatment plant operators, a steady energy supply, and chemicals and specific equipment which may not be readily available. An example of a typical tertiary treatment process is the modification of a conventional secondary treatment plant to remove additional phosphorus and nitrogen.
Disinfection, typically with chlorine, can be the final step before discharge of the effluent. However, some environmental authorities are concerned that chlorine residuals in the effluent can be a problem in their own right, and have moved away from this process. Disinfection is frequently built into treatment plant design, but not effectively practiced, because of the high cost of chlorine, or the reduced effectiveness of ultraviolet radiation where the water is not sufficiently clear or free of particles.
http://water.worldbank.org/shw-resource-guide/infrastructure/menu-technical-options/wastewater-treatment
What's the difference?
Market report on emerging nanotechnology now available
NSF and NNCO-funded independent study identifies more than $1 trillion in global revenue from nano-enabled products in 2013
Nanotechnology has an established presence in everyday life.
February 25, 2014
Nanotechnology has had an established role in industry for many years. For more than a decade, the National Science Foundation (NSF) has supported cross-disciplinary nanoscale science and engineering research, helping to spawn global growth in nanotechnology research and development.
To help quantify that growth, Lux Research released a new report on global spending for emerging nanotechnology and the next generation of nano-enabled products.
These findings help illustrate the long-term impact investments in fundamental science and engineering research under an innovative initiative can have on the global marketplace.
What: NSF is part of the National Nanotechnology Initiative (NNI), a U.S. federal research and development program that coordinates 20 departmental and agency units advancing nanotechnology knowledge. The independent study was funded in part by NSF and NNI's National Nanotechnology Coordination Office.
The survey shows global funding for emerging nanotechnology has increased by 40-to-45 percent per year for the last three years. It shows that revenue from nano-enabled products grew worldwide from $339 billion in 2010 to $731 billion in 2012 and to more than $1 trillion in 2013. Revenue from the United States alone was $110 billion, $236 billion and $318 billion those same years, respectively.
Who: Mihail C. Roco, NSF senior advisor for nanotechnology and founding chair of the National Science and Technology Council's subcommittee on Nanoscale Science, Engineering and Technology, is available to talk with members of the press about the report's context and importance.
When: Wednesday from 2 to 4 p.m. E.S.T., or by request at 703-292-8301.
Background: In 1991, NSF funded the first program solicitation on nanoparticles, and in 1999 prepared the report Nanotechnology Research Directions: A Vision for the Next Decade. This report provided the vision and long-term goals for NNI.
In March 1999, Roco proposed NNI at the White House on behalf of an interagency group. In 2000, an NSF workshop report estimated that the global nanotechnology market would reach $1 trillion annually by 2015.
Because nanotech-enabled products were unknown at the time, that estimate was challenged. The new Lux Research industry survey shows this target was not only realized but completed two years earlier than estimated.
-NSF-
The National Science Foundation (NSF) is an independent federal agency that supports fundamental research and education across all fields of science and engineering. In fiscal year (FY) 2014, its budget is $7.2 billion. NSF funds reach all 50 states through grants to nearly 2,000 colleges, universities and other institutions. Each year, NSF receives about 50,000 competitive requests for funding, and makes about 11,500 new funding awards. NSF also awards about $593 million in professional and service contracts yearly.
http://www.nsf.gov/news/news_summ.jsp?cntn_id=130586&WT.mc
About freakin' time! eom
I concur.
Urban agriculture and related water supply: Explorations and discussion
By: Magnus Moglia
Highlights
•Urban agriculture provides a range of benefits to cities.
•Urban agriculture provides a range of benefits for urban water planners.
•Urban water and recycled nutrients can support urban agriculture.
•There exist synergies between urban agriculture and the urban water sector.
Abstract
This article provides a review of the opportunities and challenges of urban agriculture. Secondly, it is explored whether it may be feasible for the urban water sector to facilitate greater uptake of urban agriculture and this is done by exploring a hypothetical case.
Urban agriculture is an opportunity for many cities, with some cities sourcing more than half of the fresh produce from within the city boundaries.
The literature describes numerous benefits of urban agriculture; some which are difficult to measure such as women's empowerment, increasing social cohesion, and others that can be more easily measured such as job creation, or reductions in greenhouse gas emissions. However, the potential for this depends on the local context, and local restrictions.
It may be possible that the urban water sector can help facilitate greater uptake of urban agriculture in synergistic relationships. The case for this statement however hinges on a number of assumptions, and estimates that are laid out in this article.
Further research is suggested to explore the validity of such assumptions and estimates in various contexts.
Keywords
Urban and peri-urban agriculture (UPA); Urban water; Water recycling; Nutrient recycling
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0197397514000095
CNBC, marijuana central.... bolds are mine...
The marijuana boom. America's marijuana industry is thriving like never before and raking in what's estimated to be tens of billions of dollars nationwide.
About the Show
Marijuana Inc. Inside America's Pot Industry
America's marijuana industry is thriving and raking in what's estimated to be tens of billions of dollars nationwide.
While it may not be traded on Wall Street any time soon, marijuana has become a booming cash crop. CNBC goes behind the scenes to explore the inner workings of this secretive industry, focusing on Northern California's "Emerald Triangle," now the marijuana capital of the U.S. In this scenic pocket of America, the pot business, much of it legal under state law, now makes up as much as two-thirds of the local economy.
WEB EXTRAS
Inside America's Pot Industry Slideshow
CNBC’s Trish Regan goes behind the scenes to explore the inner workings of this secretive industry, focusing on Northern California’s “Emerald Triangle,” now the marijuana capital of the U.S.
A Gallery of Medical Marijuana
Thousands of patients claim marijuana provides them relief from devastating symptoms. We asked High Times Cultivation Editor Danny Danko to put a cost on this relief.
A Backyard Pot Garden Tour / Marijuana Inc.
Eric Sligh, the editor and publisher of 'Grow' magazine, takes us on a tour of one backyard marijuana garden in Mendocino County. Here, he walks us through what it takes to grow and cultivate a marijuana plant.
Mendocino County Sheriff Butch Gupta / Marijuana Inc.
We accompanied County Sheriff Butch Gupta on a raid of pot gardens deep in the wilderness of Mendocino County. Many of the growers he busts have very sophisticated operations despite their remote locations.
Blue Sky Cafe / Marijuana Inc.
The Blue Sky Cafe in Oakland, CA is a marijuana dispensary with a not-so-average menu. Their "budtender" walks us through some of the many other products available to its customers.
Smuggler Bruce Perlowin / Marijuana Inc.
Bruce Perlowin smuggled in more than 300-thousand pounds of marijuana during his career on the West Coast. He spoke with Trish Regan on how he used local fishermen to bring the drugs right under the Golden Gate Bridge, and eventually become a marijuana kingpin.
http://www.cnbc.com/id/28281668
Contaminated barrelled water triggered norovirus in E China
HANGZHOU, Feb. 20 (Xinhua) -- As many as 511 students in east China's Zhejiang Province have been infected with norovirus, a common cause of viral gastroenteritis, after drinking contaminated barrelled water, local authorities said on Thursday.
The students from several schools in Haining City and Haiyan County, including three kindergartens and 10 middle schools, are receiving treatment in local hospitals, according to the municipal government of Jiaxing City, which administers the two places.
The outbreak began on Feb. 11 in Haining and Feb. 13 in Haiyan.
An epidemiological investigation showed that norovirus among all the affected students was triggered by contaminated barreled water with the same brand.
Classes will be suspended for three days.
"Norovirus infection is characterized by vomiting and diarrhea. In general it will be self-cured within three to five days," said Chai Chengliang, a health expert with the provincial disease control and prevention center.
The virus can easily break out in densely-populated areas and is transmitted through the digestive system as well as the respiratory system, he said.
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/china/2014-02/20/c_133130975.htm
Why does "operated as monitors, filtration devices, and sensors" matter? Ask GE:
bolds are mine...
How Smaller Utilities Can Do More With Less
Written by Alan Hinchman
In the water and wastewater industry, smaller doesn’t mean simpler. Smaller utilities tend to be remotely located, with aging infrastructures that are often surrounded by fragile ecosystems. These facilities not only face the usual challenges that come with improving process efficiency to meet regulatory mandates, they also have to do so without increasing costs or consumables.
For these smaller systems, the best solution is to use what they already have: data.
Throughout daily operation, water and wastewater utilities collect massive amounts of data. This information has the potential to assist with operational continuity and troubleshooting while also providing the necessary records for regulatory compliance.
Though many larger systems have found success in using automation software solutions to capture and analyze this data, this approach has long proven to be cost-prohibitive for small- and medium-sized facilities. Recently, however, new software solutions have emerged to help these smaller facilities cost-effectively collect process and operations data throughout their entire systems.
The result? Information that can be used by small water and wastewater utilities to optimize treatment, protect fixed assets, and increase system profitability.
Download my latest white paper, Automation Within Reach Even for Small Water, Wastewater Facilities, to learn more about the automation software solutions available for smaller systems.
http://www.ourwatercounts.com/blog/index.php/2014/02/12/smaller-systems-can-less
bolds are mine...
Transgenic microbes with an altered electrogenic efficacy, biofilms comprising such microbes, and microbial fuel cells comprising such microbes are provided. The microbial fuel cells can be operated as monitors, filtration devices, and sensors.
Claims
That which is claimed:
1. A transgenic Pseudomonas aeruginosa cell stably transformed with an isolated nucleic acid molecule that disrupts an endogenous nucleotide sequence of interest selected from the group comprising pilT (SEQ ID NO:1), pilA (SEQ ID NO:2), nirS (SEQ ID NO:3), bdlA (SEQ ID NO:4), lasI (SEQ ID NO:5), lasR (SEQ ID NO:6), ftsZ (SEQ ID NO:7), and fliC (SEQ ID NO:8) wherein said microbial cell exhibits decreased expression of said endogenous nucleotide sequence of interest and said cell exhibits an altered electrogenic efficacy.
2. The transgenic cell of claim 1, wherein at least 2 endogenous nucleotide sequences of interest are disrupted and wherein said disrupted endogenous nucleotide sequences are selected from the group comprising pilT (SEQ ID NO:1), pilA (SEQ ID NO:2), nirS (SEQ ID NO:3), bdlA (SEQ ID NO:4), lasI (SEQ ID NO:5), lasR (SEQ ID NO:6), ftsZ (SEQ ID NO:7), and fliC (SEQ ID NO:8).
3. The transgenic cell of claim 2, wherein said at least two disrupted endogenous nucleotide sequences are selected from the group of double nucleotide sequences of interest comprising pilT (SEQ ID NO:1) bdlA (SEQ ID NO:4); bdlA (SEQ ID NO:4) nirS (SEQ ID NO:3); bdlA (SEQ ID NO:4) lasI (SEQ ID NO:5); nirS (SEQ ID NO:3) pilT (SEQ ID NO:1); nirS (SEQ ID NO:3) lasI (SEQ ID NO:5); lasI (SEQ ID NO:5) pilT (SEQ ID NO:1); ftsZ (SEQ ID NO:7) pilT (SEQ ID NO:1); ftsZ (SEQ ID NO:7) bdlA (SEQ ID NO:4); ftsZ (SEQ ID NO:7) nirS (SEQ ID NO:3); and ftsZ (SEQ ID NO:7) lasI (SEQ ID NO:5).
4. The transgenic cell of claim 1, wherein said cell has a reduced proliferative capability as compared to a non-transgenic cell.
5. The transgenic cell of claim 1, wherein said cell has a reduced virulence as compared to a non-transgenic cell.
6. The transgenic cell of claim 5 wherein said reduced virulence is in mammals or plants.
7. The transgenic cell of claim 1, wherein said cell exhibits reduced motility as compared to a non-transgenic cell.
8. The transgenic cell of claim 1, wherein said cell exhibits altered pilus sticking as compared to a non-transgenic cell.
9. The transgenic cell of claim 1, wherein said cell exhibits altered twitching motility as compared to a non-transgenic cell.
10. The transgenic bacterial cell of claim 1 wherein said cell exhibits an increased current output/bacterial cell when said bacterial cell is a component of a microbial fuel cell.
11. The transgenic cell of claim 1, wherein said cell exhibits increased electron transfer to an anode.
12. The transgenic cell of claim 11, wherein said electron transfer is direct or indirect.
13. A matrix comprising a transgenic cell of claim 1.
14. The matrix of claim 13 wherein said matrix is selected from the group comprising sponges, filters, beads, powders, tissues, cassettes, cartridges, and capsules.
http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&d=PALL&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsrchnum.htm&r=1&f=G&l=50&s1=8,354,267.PN.&OS=PN/8,354,267&RS=PN/8,354,267
Health experts warn of water contamination from California drought
By Sharon Bernstein
SACRAMENTO, California (Reuters) - California's drought has put 10 communities at acute risk of running out of drinking water in 60 days, and worsened numerous other health and safety problems, public health officials in the most populous U.S. state said on Tuesday.
Rural communities where residents rely on wells are at particular risk, as contaminants in the groundwater become more concentrated with less water available to dilute them, top state health officials said at a legislative hearing on the drought.
"The drought has exacerbated existing conditions," said Mark Starr, deputy director of the California Department of Public Health.
The state has helped about 22 of 183 communities identified last year as reliant on contaminated groundwater to bring their supplies into conformance with environmental guidelines, but the rest are still building or preparing to build systems, he said.
The contamination warning comes days after President Barack Obama announced nearly $200 million in aid for the parched state, including $60 million for food banks to help people thrown out of work in agriculture-related industries as farmers leave fields unplanted and ranchers sell cattle early because the animals have no grass for grazing.
The California Farm Bureau estimates the overall impact of idled farmland will run to roughly $5 billion, from in direct costs of lost production and indirect effects through the region's economy.
Last month, Democratic Governor Jerry Brown declared a state of emergency, as reservoir levels dipped to all-time lows with little rain or snow in the forecast.
On Tuesday, the state's top public health officials said they were targeting 10 communities for immediate relief, trucking in water when necessary and helping to lay pipes connecting residents with nearby public water systems.
Worst hit is the small city of Willits in the northern part of the state, public health director Ron Chapman said. Also targeted for priority help included tiny water systems throughout the state, one so small it serves 55 people in a community listed simply as Whispering Pines Apartments.
"Small drinking water systems are especially vulnerable to drought conditions," the public health department said on its website. "They have fewer customers, which can mean fewer options in terms of resources like funding and infrastructure."
STAGNANT POOLS, CONTAMINATED WELLS
Linda Rudolph, co-director for the Center for Climate Change and Health in Oakland and a former state health official, said millions of Californians rely on wells and other sources of groundwater where the concentration of contaminants is growing because of dry conditions.
"Many groundwater basins in California are contaminated, for example with nitrates from over application of nitrogen fertilizer or concentrated animal feeding operations, with industrial chemicals, with chemicals from oil extraction or due to natural contaminants with chemicals such as arsenic," Rudolph said.
In addition, as dry conditions turn ponds and creeks into stagnant pools, mosquitoes breed, and risk increases for the diseases they carry, she said at the hearing. Residents with asthma and other lung conditions are also at risk as dry conditions create dust.
The state's firefighters put out 400 blazes during the first three weeks of January, normally the state's wettest season and its slowest for wildfires, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.
"We are experiencing conditions right now that we would usually see in August," its website quoted Chief Ken Pimlott as saying.
(Editing by Richard Borsuk)
http://mobile.reuters.com/article/idUSBREA1I06P20140219
China plans to spend 2 trillion yuan, or $330 billion, on an action plan to tackle pollution of its scarce water resources, state media said on Tuesday.
China has a fifth of the world's population but just 7 percent of its water resources, and the situation is especially precarious in its parched north, where some regions have less water per capita than the Middle East.
The plan is still being finalized but the budget has been set, exceeding the 1.7 trillion yuan ($277 billion) China plans to spend battling its more-publicized air pollution crisis, the China Securities Journal reported, citing the Ministry of Environmental Protection.
It will aim to improve the quality of China's water by 30 to 50 percent, the paper said, through investments in technologies such as waste water treatment, recycling and membrane technology.
The paper did not say how the funds would be raised, when the plan would take effect, or what timeframe was visualized, however.
Groundwater resources are heavily polluted, threatening access to drinking water, Environment Minister Zhai Qing told a news conference in the capital, Beijing, last week.
According to government data, a 2012 survey of 5,000 groundwater check points found 57.3 percent of samples to be heavily polluted.
China emits around 24 million tons of COD, or chemical oxygen demand, a measure of organic matter in waste water, and 2.45 million tons of ammonia nitrogen, into its water each year, Zhai said.
Over the next five years, China has previously estimated it will need to spend a total of 60 billion yuan to set up sludge treatment facilities, and a further 10 billion yuan for annual operation, the environment ministry says.
China is short on water to begin with but its water problems are made worse by its reliance on coal - which uses massive amounts of water to suppress dust and clean the fuel before it is burnt - to generate nearly 70 percent of its electricity while self-sufficiency in food remains a key political priority.
(Reporting by Kathy Chen and Stian Reklev; Editing by Clarence Fernandez)
http://mobile.reuters.com/article/idUSBREA1H0H120140218
The Anaerobic Digestion & Biogas industry is accelerating forward, with multiple projects coming online in 2014 and fresh support from state governments across the US.
[not to be confused with Pilus Energy harnessed metabolism]
Renewable Waste Intelligence has just commissioned a complimentary 2000 word industry perspectives whitepaper to dig deeper into this growing market; 3 top industry leaders have given us their thoughts on the state of the North American AD & biogas industry and comment on the big issues facing it today.
The whitepaper features interviews with 3 top industry specialists:
Harrison Clay, President, Clean Energy Renewable Fuels
Robert Joblin, Cenergy
Julia Levin, Executive Director, Bioenergy Association of California
They will be addressing the questions such as the current state of the market, regulatory changes and state level funding dynamics over the coming year as well as examining the potential of the Bio CNG market and the impact it could have on the viability of Anaerobic Digestion.
http://www.renewable-waste.com/anaerobic-digestion-conference/pdf/AnaerobicReport.pdf
Brazil rations water in 140 cities amid worst drought in decades
Over 140 Brazilian cities have been pushed to ration water during the worst drought on record, according to a survey conducted by the country's leading newspaper. Some neighborhoods only receive water once every three days.
Water is being rationed to nearly 6 million people living in a total of 142 cities across 11 states in Brazil, the world's leading exporter of soybeans, coffee, orange juice, sugar and beef. Water supply companies told the Folha de S. Paulo newspaper that the country's reservoirs, rivers and streams are the driest they have been in 20 years. A record heat wave could raise energy prices and damage crops.
Some neighborhoods in the city of Itu in Sao Paulo state (which accounts for one-quarter of Brazil's population and one-third of its GDP), only receive water once every three days, for a total of 13 hours.
Brazil's water utility company Sabesp said on its website that the Cantareira water system (the largest of the six that provide water to nearly half of the 20 million people living in the metropolitan area of Sao Paulo) is at less than 19 percent of its capacity of 1 trillion liters. The company described the situation at Cantareira as "critical": the amount of rain registered in the month to January was the lowest in 84 years. Sabesp said the other five water supply systems in Sao Paulo's metropolitan area were normal for this time of year, however.
The PCJ Consorcio water association said the area would have to see 17 millimeters of rain a day for two months until Cantareira's water level recovers to 50 percent of its capacity.
Average reservoir levels in the southeast and central-west regions, which account for up to three-thirds of Brazil's hydroelectric power generation, fell to 41 percent in late January.
January was the hottest month on record in parts of the country, including in Sao Paulo. The heat, plus a severe drought, has raised concerns over growing water shortages and crop damage. According to Brazil's national meteorological institute INMET, Sao Paulo's average maximum daily temperature so far this year was 31.9 degrees Celsius (89.4 degrees Fahrenheit), a degree hotter than the previous January record and surpassing February 1984 as the city's hottest month ever.
According to the state meteorological agency in Ceara state, the northeast of the country is also experiencing its worst drought in at least 50 years. Hundreds of thousands of cattle have died from heat exhaustion, and farmers are getting desperate. "I have never seen a drought like this,” Ulisses de Sousa Ferraz, an 85-year-old farmer in Pernambuco state, told Reuters, adding that he has lost 50 cows. “Everything has dried up."
It's believed that yields from the 2014-15 coffee crop, which will be collected in the southeastern states of Minas Gerais and Sao Paulo starting in May, were also probably hurt by dry weather in January, according to the PROCAFE Foundation. A shortage of rain could also diminish yields on the current orange crop.
It's hoped that summer rains could finally return by March to refill reservoirs and prevent serious economic losses.
http://rt.com/news/water-ration-drought-brazil-253/
Paris restaurants turn food scraps into biogas
By Geert De Clercq
PARIS (Reuters) - A group of Paris restaurants is turning food scraps into biogas and compost ahead of a new law that will force thousands of French food outlets to recycle their organic waste.
Some 80 restaurants, caterers and hotels, including gourmet food company Fauchon and Michelin-starred Taillevent, signed up for a pilot project to collect their food waste, which is used to generate biogas and produce electricity and heat, as well as compost for farms around Paris.
The initiative, launched earlier this month, comes ahead of a tightening of environmental legislation that by 2016 will force up to one in five restaurants to recycle their organic waste or face fines of up to 75,000 euros.
France, which lags northern European countries in recycling, is driving efforts to turn organic waste into methane as it tries to reduce landfill, incineration and greenhouse gases.
Stephan Martinez of neighborhood bistrot Le Petit Choiseuil, who took the initiative for the project, said the collection anticipates the law but that participating restaurants are happy that someone collects their waste and puts it to good use.
"The positive response from customers about recycling is also a big bonus," said Martinez, whose 50-seat restaurant produces only about five tons of organic waste per year.
In his own tiny kitchen, cooks now put peelings and leftovers in transparent plastic bags that are collected every morning by quiet biogas-fuelled trucks.
COMPOST
Since 2012, France requires companies to recycle their organic waste if they produce more than 120 tons of it per year, but that threshold is gradually lowered to include not just supermarkets and agrifood firms, but also company canteens, hospitals and other collective kitchens.
Environmental services groups Veolia and Suez Environnement are investing in biogas-fired power plants to recycle organic waste from the likes of food maker Danone and grocer Carrefour.
From this year, recycling is required for anyone producing 40 tons of waste per year and from 2016 this will go down to 10 tons (some 33 kilos a day), which will cover restaurants with some 150 servings a day - about a fifth of all eateries.
"From 2016, the number of restaurants covered by this regulation will increase exponentially," said Herve Dutruel of Bionerval, which turns the Paris restaurant waste into methane and compost in a biogas plant in Etampes, south of Paris.
Bionerval, a unit of German biogas specialist Rethmann, runs four biogas plants in France, each with a capacity of 40,000 tons per year.
In huge tanks, bacteria turn waste into methane gas, which is burned in a turbine that generates two megawatt/hour of electric power - as much as a wind turbine. After methanization, the waste is further composted and turned into fertilizer that is used by farms in the region.
For now, the firm only handles some 5,000 tons of food waste per year from some 700 restaurants - mainly canteens and some demonstration projects in schools - but expects that volume to grow quickly in coming years. Bionerval plans to build two or three more biogas plants.
EARTH
Specialists say France is way behind countries like Germany, Austria, Denmark, Belgium and the Netherlands, which have various systems of mandatory organic waste collection for households as well as restaurants.
Last year, some 100 New York restaurants signed up for a pilot composting program and former mayor Michael Bloomberg had announced plans to collect organic waste from households.
The Paris pilot project - whose 450,000 euro cost is financed by French environmental agency Ademe and restaurant union Synhorcat - aims to collect 200 tons of waste in the next six months and expects that more of Paris' 25,000 restaurants will join before regulation tightens.
Ademe specialist Philippe Thauvin said collection costs are estimated at about 200 euros per ton, with another 60-80 euros/ton for methanization.
"This is the first operation of significant size in France in this area," he said, adding that France is well behind northern neighbors when it comes to methanization.
Synhorcat president Didier Chenet said that once the Paris pilot has finetuned logistics, it will roll out the initiative in other French cities.
"Nobody sees this as a burden. It is an opportunity to give back to the earth what comes from the earth," he said.
(Reporting by Geert De Clercq; Editing by Louise Heavens)
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSBREA1B1A020140212
Water-energy provision a challenge before world leaders
[bolds are mine]
India Water Review : January 20, 2014, 8:00 pm
New Delhi : World water demand could exceed 44 per cent of the available annual resources by 2050 as global population grows from 7 billion today to 9 billion by then, experts warned at a recent conference organised by the United Nations (UN), adding that one of the two most pressing and enormous challenges in the next four decades would be ensuring sustainable supply of water to everyone.
The conference discussed the inextricable link between water and energy, with the expert stating that besides ensuring a sustainable supply of water to 768 million people with no access to water, the other enormous challenge was provision of energy access to approximately 1.4 billion people, or one in five globally, that even lack electricity to light their homes or conduct business.
The conference in preparation for World Water Day 2014 in Zaragoza, Spain had representatives from United Nations agencies, governments, businesses, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and global industry experts discuss the importance of water and energy.
Water is needed for primary energy extraction and processing and water requirements for energy is growing with economic growth, demographic shifts and changing lifestyles. Clean drinking-water supply requires energy - desalination in particular. Water demand could exceed 44 per cent of the available annual resources by 2050 while energy demand could experience a 50 per cent increase by the same date.
The general consensus among global water experts was that the world cannot afford energy policies that do not take into account the fact that water is needed to produce hydroelectricity as well as cooling in the manufacturing of power generation.
Similarly, they called for rethinking of water policies that do not consider how much they need energy to pump, purify, transport, pressurize and clean water.
Representatives of water companies emphasized that without energy you cannot do anything when it comes to water management; water is heavy, so a lot of energy for transportation is needed, but this energy is still too expensive.
For a water utility, 30 per cent of its operational cost is represented by the cost of energy needed to manage water. It's clear that water poverty and energy poverty go hand in hand, so there must be social policies that consider both water and energy if these policies are intended to be inclusive.
IIASA research scholar Paul T Yillia, who represented the Vienna-based Sustainable Energy for All (SE4ALL), an initiative of the UN Secretary-General, noted that the water-energy nexus is much more than just the links.
"It is more about exploring shared uncertainties, searching for synergy and gaining insight into plans within others' sphere of control and influence," he was quoted as saying in a statement.
The goal is to find solutions to the constraints of both - to optimize resource use and eliminate inefficiencies in the system, he added.
UN Secretary-General's Special Representative on Sustainable Energy for All and Chief Executive Officer of the initiative Kandeh K Yumkella termed energy and water as two sides of the same coin.
"We recognized that energy technologies are very thirsty and the investments we need to make water and energy available to all, the scale and speed of change we want to see happen, will only come from genuine partnerships," Yumkella added.
http://www.indiawaterreview.in/Story/Features/waterenergy-provision-a-challenge-before-world-leaders/1399/2#.UwJ9lXkoB0p
India ranks low on Yale EPI index; but improvement in water access on
India Water Review : January 29, 2014
New Delhi : India has been put at a lowly 124th place in terms of access to water and sanitation in a ranking of 178 countries on the 2014 Environmental Performance Index (EPI) released by US-based Yale University last week.
India scored a dismal 26.28 out of 100 in terms of access to drinking water, getting ranked at 103rd place out of 178 countries being considered. In terms of access to sanitation, India fared even worse, scoring just 6.2 and getting ranked at 144th place.
The EPI tracked the performance of 178 countries on environmental issues ranging from air and water quality, to fisheries and forests, to human health, to climate change, painting a picture of disappointment side-by-side with hope.
The water and sanitation indicator in the EPI tracked percentage of population with access to improved drinking water sources and improved sanitation, including pit latrines and toilets.
On the issue of water resources, which includes wastewater treatment, India got a score of 10.49, putting it at 87th place out of all the countries considered. The water resources indicator tracked how well countries treated wastewater from households and industrial sources before releasing it back into the environment.
However, on a positive note, the rankings showed that there was an upward trend in terms of improvement in terms of access to water and sanitation in India, indicating that the efforts of the Central and state governments to expand coverage of water access and sanitation are bearing some fruit.
In overall water and sanitation indicator, India saw a 55 per cent improvement during 1990-2011. In access to water alone, India saw a 53.26 per cent improvement during the decade while it did even better in sanitation, pulling in an impressive 69 per cent improvement.
The EPI study also noted that while the world has made great strides in increasing access to improved drinking water sources, only 55 per cent of the global population has access to piped drinking water. This has both social and public health implications, as piped drinking water supplies on premises are associated with the best health outcomes, and minimize the disproportionate burden placed on women and children to retrieve water.
Additionally, improving global access to sanitation has been slow. UNICEF estimates that approximately 2.5 billion people worldwide still lack access to adequate sanitation, and 15 per cent of the world’s population is forced to defecate in the open. These one billion people are primarily (71 per cent) rural.
The 2014 Environmental Performance Index found that the world lagged on some environmental issues, while demonstrating progress in others. The EPI report said a 'global scorecard' provided first-time insight as to collective policy impacts on the major environmental issues of our time.
Overall, improvements have been made in many of the categories of the environmental health objective, including access to drinking water, child mortality, and access to sanitation, though air quality has declined.
Declines and overall low scores are found in air quality, fisheries, and wastewater treatment. While in most areas, trends suggest improvement, some primary issues like air quality and fisheries show distressing decline over the last decade.
Overall too, India has been placed at 155th place out of 178 countries in terms of environmental protection, scoring just 31.23 out of possible 100. India's air quality has been judged to be among the worst in the world, keeping pace with China in terms of the proportion of the population exposed to average air pollution levels exceeding World Health Organisation (WHO) thresholds.
The EPI said in India alone, premature deaths from outdoor air pollution increased from 100,000 to 600,000 between 2000 and 2010.
http://www.indiawaterreview.in/Story/TopNews/india-ranks-low-on-yale-epi-index-but-improvement-in-water-access-on/1411/15#.UwEcwHi9LCR
Strontium in water...
Tepco took months to release record strontium readings at Fukushima
BY MARI SAITO
TOKYO Thu Feb 13, 2014 2:00am EST
(Reuters) - The operator of Japan's wrecked Fukushima nuclear plant knew about record high measurements of a dangerous isotope in groundwater at the plant for five months before telling the country's nuclear watchdog, a regulatory official told Reuters.
Tokyo Electric Power Co (Tepco) said late on Wednesday it detected 5 million becquerels per liter of radioactive strontium-90 in a sample from a groundwater well about 25 meters from the ocean last September. That reading was more than five times the broader all-beta radiation reading taken at the same well two months earlier.
A Tepco spokesman said there was uncertainty about the reliability and accuracy of the September strontium reading, so the utility decided to re-examine the data.
Shinji Kinjo, head of a Nuclear Regulation Authority (NRA) taskforce on contaminated water issues at Fukushima, told Reuters he had not heard about the record high strontium reading until this month. "We did not hear about this figure when they detected it last September," he said. "We have been repeatedly pushing Tepco to release strontium data since November. It should not take them this long to release this information."
Strontium-90, which has a half-life of around 29 years, is estimated to be twice as harmful to the human body as cesium-137, another isotope that was released in large quantities during the meltdowns at the Fukushima Daiichi plant in March 2011. The legal limit for releasing strontium into the ocean is 30 becquerels per liter.
Tepco has been heavily criticized for its inept response to the 2011 disaster at Fukushima, including delays in releasing radiation data. The NRA's chairman said on Wednesday that Tepco still lacks a fundamental understanding of measuring and handling radiation.
"This is not an appropriate way to deal with the desire of the public (for transparency) and in particular, the regulator, which is now very closely regulating issues related to public health, the environment and so on," said Martin Schulz, a senior research fellow at the Fujitsu Research Institute.
Tepco, which was taken over by the government in 2012, came under criticism last year after highly radioactive water leaked from a holding tank at Fukushima.
Japan's government vowed to provide half a billion dollars to help contain contaminated water at Fukushima last September, just days before Tokyo won its bid to host the 2020 Olympic Games. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe told the International Olympic Committee then that contaminated water at Fukushima was "under control".
Abe is scheduled to visit towns around the Fukushima plant later this week.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/02/13/us-japan-nuclear-fukushima-strontium-idUSBREA1C09720140213
China Has Plans to Curb Water Pollution, Securities Journal Says
By Bloomberg News Feb 14, 2014 2:20 AM ET
China’s Ministry of Environmental Protection is considering policies to reduce water pollution, the China Securities Journal reported, citing unidentified people close to the ministry.
Treatment of sludge found in wastewater will be the focus of the policies, the report said,
China is the world’s biggest producer of sludge and treats only 10 percent of it, the report said, citing Chen Tongbin, a researcher at the Chinese Academy of Sciences.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-02-14/china-has-plans-to-curb-water-pollution-securities-journal-says.html
Will Distributed Energy Make Up One-Third of the US Power Supply by 2020?
Fast-growing solar PV and demand response, plus a huge CHP and backup generator base
Jeff St. John
February 13, 2014
Here’s a sobering thought for U.S. utilities and grid planners seeking solutions for a future filled with distributed, customer-owned energy assets: that future is already here.
That’s one way to look at a striking chart presented at the DistribuTECH smart grid conference last month. It indicates that distributed energy resources (DER), far from being a tiny fraction of the country’s massive central generation fleet, may account for up to one-third of the total U.S. electricity supply by decade’s end.
But there’s a catch -- this supply isn’t mostly made up of rooftop solar PV, or homes and business equipped with modern energy-saving, peak-shaving demand response technology. While those resources are growing fast, by far the biggest share of this untapped DER resource comes in the form of two decidedly un-sexy technologies: combined heat and power (CHP) systems and rarely used backup generators.
Here’s the chart, provided by former Southern California Edison smart grid chief and Cisco connected grid CTO Paul De Martini during a presentation hosted by grid software startup Bit Stew on the future of distribution grids:
This chart indicates that there’s a much larger pool of DER than is usually recognized when one looks at solar PV or demand response on their own. It also points out that customer-sited, rather than utility-scale, power projects are expected to make up most of the incremental growth in generation capacity over the remainder of the decade.
De Martini’s purpose was to show how utilities are going to be forced to manage these growing DER resources. That’s going to require a combination of new smart grid technology developments, such as distribution operations “hubs” or “transactive energy” constructs that merge customer-owned energy assets to existing transmission grid and energy market structures, he noted.
It’s also going to require a lot of work with regulators to create pathways to incorporate all this DER into their grid planning and business operations, he said. These challenges have been front and center for distributed solar PV, with net-metering policy struggles in California and Arizona setting the stage for state-by-state debates over how solar-equipped customers and utilities should share the costs and benefits of incorporating this fast-growing resource into the energy landscape.
In the meantime, the much greater amounts of distributed energy capacity represented by CHP systems and backup generators are largely lying dormant today when it comes to grid integration. That’s because these systems most often are built to supply customers with their own power independently of the grid, as part of a campus or facility-wide energy efficiency scheme in the case of CHP, or strictly for emergency power when the grid goes down, in the case of backup generators.
Even so, there are ways that CHP systems could begin to play a much more useful role as the foundations of microgrid systems, able to offer always-on power consumption flexibility to utilities and grid operators, as well as to take themselves off-grid during emergencies. Almost all the large-scale microgrid systems that kept running amidst grid outages during Hurricane Sandy were centered around CHP systems, and New York and Connecticut are looking to invest millions of dollars to create more storm-resilient microgrids.
Backup generators, in turn, make up a significant part of the portfolios of many demand response aggregators such as EnerNOC, and they account for the vast majority of national programs like the U.K.’s Short-Term Operating Reserve (STOR). The idea isn’t to run generators all the time, but rather to call them into play at moments of grid stress, local congestion or peaking energy prices.
Indeed, some utilities, such as Portland General Electric in Oregon and Madison Gas and Electric in Wisconsin, have programs that dispatch them to meet critical grid needs, De Martini noted. Demand response company Blue Pillar got its start testing the readiness of hospital backup generator systems, and has since moved into building-wide, grid-interactive energy management systems based around emergency power supplies.
How can on-site diesel-fueled generators, or even natural gas-fired microturbines, be a green alternative? De Martini noted that the latest systems from big CHP providers such as Tecogen and big backup generator companies such as Generac are able to meet stringent air-quality standards.
They can also be quite useful to mitigate the intermittency of solar and wind power as compared to conventional large-scale generation, according to the Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory. That’s largely because they come in bite-sized versus megawatt-scale increments, and don’t lose lots of their power to transmission and distribution line losses.
One thing’s for sure: DER is out there, it’s coming on-line at a rapid pace, and there ought to be a way to integrate it into the overall energy infrastructure, whichever forms that takes. Vanguard energy markets like California are already working on ways to integrate these grid-edge resources into their traditional grid capacity and reliability planning methods, and Japan and Germany are arguably even further ahead.
And, as De Martini told his DistribuTECH audience, “Suffice it to say, if you don’t have quality and reliable data coming out of the field, it’s going to be next to impossible to manage in this kind of domain” for utilities.
http://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/distributed-energy-to-be-one-third-of-u.s.-power-supply-by-2020
Johannesburg’s Golden Legacy Includes Radioactive Dump
Radioactive water from gold mining process
By Kevin Crowley Feb 10, 2014 5:00 PM ET
A traffic highway and railway lines, right, pass waste ground and a mine dump in Johannesburg, South Africa, on Dec. 14, 2013. While Johannesburg flourished after the discovery of gold in 1886 the stress that the mining has placed on underground rock formations has increased seismic activity.
Johannesburg sits atop the world’s most productive gold reef -- a staggering 40,000 tons of the precious metal has been mined from it during a history tracing back 130 years. That legacy of riches has left behind a toxic inheritance: radioactivity from uranium hauled up in the mining process.
Scientists have found uranium quantities in rivers west of the city to be as much as 4,000 times natural levels and in tap water as much as 20 times higher. A soil sample taken by Bloomberg News and tested by government-certified WaterLab Ltd. from pumpkin roots grown a little more than a mile from a recently closed gold mine contained five times more uranium than background levels considered normal by the International Atomic Energy Agency.
Residents of Johannesburg and surrounding communities live among an estimated 600,000 metric tons of uranium buried in waste rock and covering an area four times the size of Manhattan, according to university researchers. Another undetermined amount lies below ground, where water has filled abandoned mines and leaks into the environment.
“There’s nowhere in the world where you’ll find so many people living alongside such a vast amount of ore-bearing uranium,” said Carl Albrecht, head of research at the Cancer Association of South Africa, or Cansa. “There are 400,000 people in the area who are subjected to this environment and yet the government is unwilling to consider the health impact.”
Health Threat
Government regulators and health advocates disagree over the public-health threat this poses. Albrecht and others point to U.S. Environmental Protection Agency data that says even low-level radiation exposure, if prolonged, can lead to an increased rate of cancers. Susan Shabangu, minister of South Africa’s Department of Mineral Resources, said levels recorded in and around Johannesburg are “a cause for concern” but not yet a “level of danger.”
One thing is indisputable: the amount of untreated waste material containing uranium is growing as a 28 percent plunge in the gold price last year has shuttered mines and increased the number of abandoned mine sites. The Blyvooruitzicht mine 50 miles (80 kilometers) southwest of Johannesburg -- near where the Bloomberg News soil sample was taken -- was closed in July, throwing 1,700 miners out of work.
The mine’s last operator, Village Main Reef Ltd., isn’t responsible for the environmental rehabilitation of the mine because it never took legal ownership of the operation, according to Chief Executive Officer Ferdi Dippenaar.
Village operated the 72-year-old mine for 18 months, he said.
‘Within Limits’
“As far as I am aware, and based on tailings recoveries, the content of uranium during this time was definitely within limits,” Dippenaar said. Tailings refers to waste material. Village has no plans to reopen the mine and it’s currently being liquidated, he said.
Unmaintained, abandoned dumps lose their shape as their toxic material seeps into the surrounding area, said Anthony Turton, a professor at University of the Free State’s Center for Environmental Management. When waste dumps, known as tailings dams, are abandoned “you get major erosion taking place and slides of toxic material into wetlands,” he said.
While South Africa has required companies to set aside money for environmental mitigation since 1994, “the reality is the funds set aside for environmental liabilities are totally insufficient,” Turton said.
Cleanup Costs
South Africa will be forced to spend about $2.7 billion on cleaning up its nearly 6,000 abandoned mines, the World Wildlife Fund said in a 2012 report, citing the country’s auditor general. Of the country’s working mines, almost 40 percent don’t have adequate funds available for rehabilitation, according to the Department of Mineral Resources’ 2012-2013 annual report.
The effects of low-level, chronic exposure to radiation include cancer and changes to DNA, known as mutations, that can be passed onto offspring, according to the U.S. government. High uranium intake over time can also lead to increased cancer risk and liver damage, the agency said.
For every ton of ore mined, South African produces between 3 grams (0.1 ounce) and 15 grams of gold, meaning most rock removed from the earth is waste material, and contains toxic chemicals including uranium, mercury, radon, arsenic and sulfuric acid.
The upside of gold mining here is well known. The industry stretches back to 1886 and among its pioneers was German immigrant Ernest Oppenheimer, who founded Anglo American Plc and helped to turn Johannesburg into Africa’s richest city. Mining helped make fortunes not just for the Oppenheimers but for Cecil John Rhodes, the first chairman of DeBeers, and current billionaire Patrice Motsepe, founder of African Rainbow Minerals Ltd.
Unsightly Legacy
That legacy’s unsightly side is in plain view here. Waste rock from hundreds of mines that have been developed over the years has been deposited around Johannesburg in mounds that cover a combined area of 400,000 square kilometers and can be as many as 10 stories high. One such dump, which looks like a flat-topped sand mountain, sits next to the FNB Stadium, where the final of soccer’s World Cup was played in 2010.
The tailings contain about 600,000 tons of uranium, three times the amount exported during the Cold War, according to Professor Frank Winde at South Africa’s North-West University. It’s getting into the water supply, according to Winde, a German-born scientist who has studied the effect of uranium on South Africa’s environment for 30 years and overseen university testing for radiation levels.
Dissolving Metal
This happens in a variety of ways, according to Winde. The radioactive metal dissolves in rainwater and runs off the dumps into rivers during storms or is carried into water sources when it seeps through porous rock as abandoned mines are flooded. It can also be spilled by companies that re-mine dumps for the metal. Dust clouds containing uranium form when high winds hit the dumps.
Soil taken by Bloomberg News from pumpkin roots about 100 meters away from Wonderfonteinspruit, a stream feeding the Vaal River and close to Blyvooruitzicht, was found to contain 10.4 milligrams of uranium per kilogram. That’s five times higher than the 2 milligrams per kilogram average, according to the IAEA.
‘No Threat’
Shabangu, the mineral resources minister, says the levels aren’t cause for alarm.
“Scientifically, it has been proven we’re not at a level that poses a health threat to communities,” she said in an interview.
Winde disagrees. “We have generally underestimated the presence of uranium in the water supply,” he said. “If the government has a study saying it’s safe then I would like to see it. As far as I’m aware, nobody has studied whether it has an impact on general health, on the likelihood of cancer, on hormonal functions, on DNA” in South Africa.
Two hours west of Johannesburg’s business district of Sandton lies Khutsong, a township of 60,000 from which the soil sample was taken. Residents there struggle daily for water, electricity and work.
Two-bedroom brick houses built by the local government are surrounded by improvised shacks with corrugated iron roofs. Jobs are scarce after gold mines, including Blyvooruitzicht, were closed.
No Choice
While the government prohibits people from drinking, irrigating and washing in water taken directly from rivers, for thousands living in an area known as the West Rand there is no choice, said Sello Mokoena, 27, a worker on the vegetable patch in Khutsong.
“People tell us that the water is polluted from the mines but we have nothing else,” said Mokoena, wearing a green sports shirt and orange trousers. He earns about 700 rand ($63) a month working on the vegetable patch and herding livestock, and uses it to support his mother, three brothers and a sister.
The Bloomberg soil sample was taken from an area suspected of containing mine waste and was not part of a scientific study. No vegetables picked from the patch by Bloomberg News were found to contain elevated levels of uranium.
Joe Maila, a spokesman for South African Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi, referred questions to West Rand District Municipality. The municipality is “concerned with all activities which may have a negative impact on public health,” Cheleng Khotle, a manager for municipal health, said in a statement. “The municipalities may currently not be able to provide funding” for further studies. “Continued technical monitoring is encouraged and would be supported by municipalities through participation.”
Elevated Levels
Water samples from Wonderfonteinspruit show uranium levels on average 400 times background levels, and reaching as high as 4,000 times, according to Winde, who compiled a series of studies he and other scientists have done over the past 20 years.
Winde detected uranium levels of 53 micrograms per liter at the Boskop Dam, which supplies Potchefstroom, a town 75 miles west of Johannesburg and about 25 miles southwest of Blyvooruitzicht, in November 2012. That indicates 21 micrograms per liter of uranium in tap water sourced from that dam, 40 percent higher than the World Health Organization’s safe level of 15 micrograms per liter, he said.
While that was a one-time test and exceeded usual tap-water readings of about 5 micrograms per liter in Potchefstroom, below the safe level, it shows that residents are sometimes exposed to dangerous water quality, said Winde, who lives in the town and doesn’t drink the water.
Water Safety
Wonderfonteinspruit, Carletonville, and Potchefstroom are towns in the West Rand, downstream from Johannesburg and the mine-waste dumps. The metropolis’s water supply isn’t contaminated because it comes from the upper part of the Vaal River and from nearby Lesotho, a landlocked mountainous kingdom surrounded by South Africa.
Tap water in the West Rand including Potchefstroom is safe to drink, according to Marius Keet, senior manager at the Department of Water Affairs.
“At the moment there’s no danger there,” he said. “We’re in contact with the scientists there and there are concerns -- not now, but in the future -- if there is a slow increase of uranium in the feed water.”
People shouldn’t drink water directly from rivers, such as Wonderfonteinspruit, dams or seasonal streams in the area, Keet said.
“You’re not allowed to take water from any river in South Africa,” he said. “For as much as uranium is a challenge, there’s also the challenge of bacteria.”
Unprecedented Exposure
South Africa is unique among gold-mining countries because of the dense population that has grown up around its mines. That means exposure to low levels of uranium over a long period of time is unprecedented and should be investigated by the government, according to Cansa’s Albrecht.
In 2011, Cansa found uranium levels in two Carletonville residents’ teeth that were as many as 100 times higher than a 2007 study that took the same measurement from people living in a Brazilian mining area.
The Department of Water Affairs’ Keet said he’s in favor of studying the effect of low levels of uranium intake over long periods of time on people’s health. The Department of Health should conduct such research, he said.
His major concern is uranium seeping from the mine dumps through dolomitic rock, which is porous, and into the water table. “That will have to be well monitored in the future,” he said.
Mines’ Responsibility
The government’s long-term approach to remove uranium from mine dumps is to allow companies to re-mine them for gold, eliminating toxic wastes as they go. A number of companies are already doing that, among them AngloGold Ashanti Ltd., DRDGold Ltd. and Mintails Ltd.
DRDGold, which doesn’t mine in the West Rand, said this process is “enormously” helpful because it removes waste and deposits it in modern tailings complexes under the scrutiny of regulators. Mintails is “proud to be playing a leading role” in removing hazardous materials from “potentially the most uranium contaminated landscape in the world,” said Turton, who acts as an adviser to the company.
While re-mining can be part of a solution to uranium pollution, it’s also part of the problem, according to Mariette Liefferink, CEO of the Federation for a Sustainable Environment.
“Cost-cutting and disregard for the environment mean there are radioactive spillages every few weeks in the West Rand,” she said. “Unless these mining companies mine cleanly, they will only make the situation worse.”
Environmental Incidents
AngloGold was responsible for 10 environmental incidents it classified as “significant” in South Africa in 2012, according to the company’s annual report. They involved toxic waste being spilled onto farmland and in rivers. Of the 10 incidents, seven were attributed to Mine Waste Solutions, which re-mines waste material and was bought for $335 million from First Uranium Corp. two years ago.
The company has spent about $90 million upgrading Mine Waste Solutions since the acquisition and has improved its water monitoring, pipeline maintenance as well as creating so-called containing areas for potential spills, CEO Srinivasan Venkatakrishnan said in an interview.
Winde, who is attempting to raise money for further research, says the companies and government aren’t doing enough.
“We know there are elevated levels of uranium from years of gold mining all over the West Rand but what we don’t know is how much worse it will get as mines close and what the health implications are,” he said. “Given the magnitude of the problem, there’s a complete lack of action to address it.”
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-02-10/johannesburg-s-golden-legacy-includes-radioactive-dump.html
Kosovo rations water amid worst drought in decades
Reuters
PRISTINA (Reuters) - Kosovo started rationing water in and around its capital Pristina on Monday as it struggled with its worst shortages in at least three decades, officials said.
Unusually low levels of snowfall and rain had left reservoirs at worrying levels, said state water company Prishtina.
Under normal circumstances, the company pipes water to most houses in the area for 14 hours a day, generally cutting off supplies over night. That would now be reduced to 10 hours a day, said company spokeswoman Arjeta Mjeku.
"We haven't had this situation since 1983," when the company started working in the area, Mjeku told Reuters. Prishtina serves around 400,000 people, about a quarter of Kosovo's population.
http://mobile.reuters.com/article/idUSBREA191OC20140210?feedType=RSS&irpc=932
Protecting the Florida Keys with Advanced Nutrient Removal Technology
In the Florida Keys, one strategy to improve water quality was converting residents from septic systems to a municipal sewer connection. To do that, Big Coppitt Key Wastewater Treatment Plant needed an advanced wastewater treatment system that was flexible, could accommodate increasing flows, and met stringent nutrient removal and water reuse effluent limits
http://www.waterworld.com/video/case-studies.html?bcpid=1519042088001&bckey=AQ~~,AAAAAEheacc~,POub7blnBC8zCqLa3EVS97mK8otL3s9y&bclid=997053046001&bctid=2020428712001
The Anaerobic Digestion Processes Used For Municipal Solid Waste
Diversion Away From Landfill And Biogas
Increasingly Anaerobic Digestion Processes are being Applied To Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) for the production of biogas as a renewable energy source, and also for Waste Diversion. Waste Diversion in this context means the diversion of waste (especially organic waste) away form landfill.
Anaerobic digestion (AD) of MSW is often part of an MBT Plant (Mechanical Biological Treatment Plant) and the AD process is applied to the organic fraction of the waste which is separated from the mixed residual waste which the householders place in their “black bag” and is known as residual waste. To start with the municipal solid waste feedstock is macerated (chopped up in specialized knifing equipment) with the addition of a large proportion of process water to provide either a dilute thin (‘wet’), or thick (‘dry’), slurry that can be fed into a digester tank. This stage also normally includes a useful decontamination stage to remove heavy and light contaminants through wet gravimetric (gravity based) separation.
The digestion process takes place in sealed tanks (digesters) that are normally mixed thoroughly using externally mounted pumps which pull the liquor out into the pump, which while returning it ejects it at speed again into the tank, or stiring blades, to maximise contact between microbes and waste. Mixing can also be achieved using the methane gas by pumping it out from the reservoir above the digestor reactor into the tank, and allowing it to bubble up to the surface to create a mixing effect.
The AD process can be operated at mesophilic (typically 30 – 40°C) or thermophilic (typically 50 – 60°C) temperatures (see Table). Dry Anaerobic Digestion processes work well in the thermophilic range of temperatures. Wet processes can be either mesophilic or thermophilic with the first being the most commonly adopted for MSW AD. The EU Animal By-Products Regulations (ABPR) (current at time of writing but in case of changes readers must check for themselves) require the pasteurization of MSW which is classed as a mixed source AD waste, to a standard method which ensures a temperature of 70°C for one hour. UK legislation has an alternative option which (at the time of writing) requires treatment for 57°C for 5 hours.
AD processes can be single step processes where all the waste is placed into a single digestion stage (biogas reactor tank) or multiple step processes.
Multiple step processes usually include a separate hydrolysis stage, which can be either aerobic or anaerobic. Hydrolysis (heating to a high temperature and raising the pressure) is used to optimize the breakdown of complex organic material into soluble compounds. This is most often followed by a high-rate AD process for biogas production. The AD process can take place in a number of vessels, or just one, but normally two are employed, one as a hydrolysis vessel and the second as the digester.
An example would be to use thermal hydrolysis of the organic content of MSW followed by anaerobic digestion to produce a biogas that is burnt in an engine electricity generator set. The reason for using a hydrolyser, is the addition of this process stage results in more of the degradable material in the feed being converted into biogas, rather than just passing through and emerging in the digestate.
The key process stages which would be seen in the waste processing plant (MBT Plant or MRF) include an MSW reception area, shredding, and a form of wet separator, where the biodegradable material is separated from the inert and reject (sometimes called “contrary”) material. A thermal hydrolysis stage is a feature of many MSW biogas process systems, followed by a one stage anaerobic digestion process.
The AD plant utilizes the biogas produced is often used to power an engine, which powers a generator, with waste heat recovery that delivers the steam and heat to the hydrolyser and digesters.
It is accepted by many AD professionals that the rate-controlling step in the anaerobic digestion of MSW is the hydrolysis of complex materials such as cellulose, in paper and leaves etc. in the waste. The process converts the waste into small soluble molecules such as glucose, which can then be easily digested by the biogas producing microbes. In the commercially available process this conversion is accelerated by heating the material under pressure to around 150°C. This results in substantially more of the biodegradable material being made available for conversion into gas and ensures the feed material is also sterilized, as required by the EU Animal By-Products Regulations.
After this initial anaerobic composting period (when there is biogas production) the raw compost is placed in windrows (often out in the open) to mature for an additional 5-6 weeks, in the same way as for aerobic composting treatment. The matured compost is then passed through a trommell screen to remove any plastics.
In a final processing step to produce a digestate product for sale, the compost can be blended with additives (e.g. sand, brick dust). Plus, Nitrogen, Phosphorus and Potassium) can be added to meet different specifications from wholesale and retail sellers, and bagged if required.
http://anaerobic-digestion-news.blogspot.com/2014/02/the-anaerobic-digestion-processes-used.html?m=1
Water safety threatened by North Carolina coal ash spill, group says
By David Zucchino
February 6, 2014, 7:18 p.m.
EDEN, N.C. – An environmental group Thursday challenged Duke Energy’s assurances that drinking water from the Dan River in North Carolina and Virginia remained safe despite a massive spill of toxic coal ash that released a deluge of murky gray sludge into the river Sunday.
The Waterkeeper Alliance said its tests of water collected just yards from the spill site here showed dangerous level of toxins, including arsenic, chromium, lead, iron and other heavy metals. Arsenic levels in the samples were 35 times higher than the maximum containment level set by the Environmental Protection Agency for drinking water, the group said.
"The stuff flowing into the river out of that pipe is disturbingly high in toxins and laden with heavy metals," Peter Harrison, staff attorney for the alliance, said as he stood on the riverbank downstream from the spill site late Thursday afternoon. Tests were conducted by a certified lab in North Carolina, he said.
The samples were collected Tuesday, 48 hours after the spill was discovered, Harrison said. He spent two hours in a kayak on the river Thursday, collecting more water samples whose test results are expected in a few days.
The Waterkeeper Alliance called the ash spill the third-largest in U.S. history. The biggest was a 2008 spill in Tennessee that unleashed more than a billion gallons of ash slurry, destroying homes, flooding residential areas and polluting waterways.
State regulators said initial test results, released Thursday night, found no violations of state water quality standards for 17 heavy metals in most samples taken Monday and Tuesday. Copper levels were above state surface water standards, the North Carolina Department of Environmental and Natural Resources reported.
Tom Reeder, director of the state Division of Water Resources, said tests of the water and river bottom sediments would continue. "The Dan River does not have a clean bill of health," he said.
Duke Energy spokeswoman Paige Sheehan, standing on an overlook above the spill site at the company’s shuttered coal-fired Dan River plant, said company tests showed only traces of heavy metals within accepted safety standards for drinking water, fish and wildlife. Levels of arsenic, lead and selenium taken from water intakes at Danville, Va., and South Boston, Va., were less than two parts per billion – the lowest level that lab instruments can accurately measure, the company said.
Danville and South Boston are the nearest cities downstream from the spill, which Duke Energy said dumped between 50,000 and 80,000 tons of coal ash into the river after a 48-inch stormwater pipe ruptured beneath the ash basin. Some 24 million to 27 million tons of polluted water from the basin also poured into the Dan River, the company said.
The state of North Carolina, along with several environmental groups – including Waterkeeper Alliance – have sued Duke Energy over its handling of coal ash at the utility’s coal-fired plants. The Dan River plant, closed in 2012, is one of seven Duke decommissioned coal-fired plants. Another seven remain in operation.
Sheehan said crews were still working Thursday to plug the leak, four days after the spill was reported. She said they had managed to stop almost all water seepage from the basin and most of the flow from the ruptured pipe.
"It’s a very low flow and at times no flow," Sheehan said, gesturing toward workers, trucks and a crane at the edge of the coal ash basin near the river’s edge.
Sheehan said the company has tested river water at 11 locations above and below the spill site, as well as near the spill itself. "There is no challenge to drinking water," she said. "Drinking water is absolutely safe downstream."
The Waterkeeper Alliance said levels of lead in its tests were far higher than levels recommended by the EPA to prevent contamination of drinking water. Dangerous levels were also detected for boron, manganese, zinc and iron, the group said.
"Duke could have avoided contaminating the Dan River and poisoning Virginia’s water supplies if it had removed its toxic ash heaps years ago after being warned by EPA," said Robert F. Kennedy Jr., president of Waterkeeper Alliance.
Erin Culbert, a Duke spokesperson, said the highest arsenic level in samples taken from the river Monday was 35.3 parts per billion – below the state surface water standard of 50 ppb. The highest test results for samples filtered to indicate levels that would be expected after water is treated for drinking were 3.43 ppb, well below the 10 ppb drinking water standard, she said.
Duke is also having water tested at municipal water intakes downstream and after water has been treated by municipal water systems. "Results in both areas look very good," Culbert said.
North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory, a Republican and former Duke executive, visited the site Thursday and called the incident "a very serious spill," adding, "We need to get it under control as quickly as possible."
EPA officials began sampling water from the river Wednesday and sediment on the river bottom Thursday to determine the amount of ash that had settled there, said Dawn-Harris-Young, an EPA spokesperson in Atlanta.
Sheehan, the Duke spokeswoman, said hundreds of people were working at the spill site 24 hours a day, trying to come up with a way to plug the leak and to secure the pond.
Harrison, the Waterkeeper Alliance attorney, said water was still flowing from the ruptured pipe when he paddled near the site Thursday.
Culbert said at that site Thursday that efforts to deal with the spill could last for weeks.
http://www.latimes.com/nation/nationnow/la-na-nn-coal-ash-water-20140206,0,4265633.story
Water, Citizenship in State of the Union and 113th Congress
Water Citizen | February 7, 2014
Already during the start of 2014, water issues have taken center stage on Capitol Hill – from the President’s State of the Union address to the passage of the Farm Bill to the introduction of new legislation on the Energy-Water Nexus. Congress and the President have also called for an active citizenry on legislation. At several points during the 2014 State of the Union Address, President Obama talked about water issues while laying out his legislative priorities for this Second Session of the 113th Congress.
Water in the State of the Union
At several points during the State of the Union, the President addressed priorities on water and water-related legislation – both directly and indirectly through priorities on energy, food, jobs, and innovation.
The President discussed water directly in his call for upgraded ports and passage of waterways legislation, and the protection of water during energy production. He also noted several issues where water plays a significant role, such as support for basic research and patent reform for entrepreneurs and small business owners (which includes innovations in water technologies), and for high-tech manufacturing jobs (including water manufacturing jobs); and about food exports (including the water that goes into growing those food exports).
Water in the 113th Congress
During 2013 – the first year of the 113th Congress – and even the first few weeks of 2014, water has proven to be one of the few topics on which Republicans and Democrats in the House and Senate have been able to come together on several important pieces of legislation. Some of the water-related legislation from 2013 included:
the Water Resources (Reform and) Development Act;
the Farm Bill – which includes several programs related to water for rural communities as well as water used to grow food;
the Energy Savings and Industrial Competitiveness (ESIC) Act – which has considered of use of energy for water in buildings and water treatment
Already this year, the Farm Bill passed the Senate and was signed into law by the President February 7, 2014.
New legislation on the Energy-Water Nexus was proposed by Senators Wyden and Murkowski – currently Chair and Ranking Minority Member (respectively) of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee
Water Citizens in Congress
As part of the State of the Union address, President Obama talked about citizenship.
President Obama called Citizenship: “the spirit that has always moved this nation forward … the recognition that through hard work and responsibility, we can pursue our individual dreams but still come together as one American family to make sure the next generation can pursue its dreams as well. …
Citizenship demands a sense of common purpose; participation in the hard work of self-government; an obligation to serve our communities.”
As experts, activists, and advocates, people who are passionate about water are finding ways to become “people of influence” on water by learning more about how they can track, testify on, and transform water-related legislation in Congress.
Water Citizens Turn to KWIC Quick Guide
The Water Citizen Network created the 2014 Keys to Water in Congress KWIC Quick Guide to Selected Congressional Committees That Address Water to provide Water Citizens with easy access to some key information on several of the House and Senate Committees that regularly address water issues and how to find them. More KWIC guides, programs, and tools will follow to support Water Citizens in understanding the people, the processes, and the ways to participate in Water in Congress.
–> FREE copies of the 2014 Keys to Water in Congress (KWIC) Quick Guide to Selected Congressional Committees that Address Water Issues are available for download for a limited time at www.waterincongress.com.
http://watercitizennews.com/water-citizenship-in-state-of-the-union-and-113th-congress/
Reduced water supply forecast affects hydropower outlook in Pacific Northwest
The Northwest River Forecast Center (a unit of the Department of Commerce) released on January 8 its first water supply projection of 2014 for the Pacific Northwest. The forecast indicates a below-normal runoff, as compared to the 30-year average (1981-2010), for a majority of the observation stations in the region. The map above shows observation stations throughout the watershed region of the Pacific Northwest. Forecasts for the percent-of-normal water supply for each station are indicated by color: above normal (blue), near normal (green and yellow), or below normal (orange and red).
The Pacific Northwest is home to the largest concentration of hydroelectric capacity in the country. Because water supply and the subsequent hydroelectric generation can vary widely from year to year, these forecasts are closely monitored. Reduced generation not only affects the immediate area; it can also affect neighboring regions, including California, that import hydropower from the Pacific Northwest. Water supply in California, as discussed in yesterday's Today in Energy article, is also extremely low.
Precipitation for the hydrological year that began last October has been below 70% of normal levels throughout most of the Northwest, with the middle-to-lower Snake River basin in southeast Washington experiencing a particularly large precipitation deficit.
Source: National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Northwest River Forecast Center
Hydroelectric supply can have implications for the dispatch of other generators (such as wind turbines, thermal generators, and the Columbia nuclear station) in the Pacific Northwest, where four states (Washington, Oregon, Idaho, and Montana) host 35% of U.S. hydroelectric capacity. The level of hydroelectric output in this region can also greatly influence regional wholesale power prices. Absent an abundant supply of hydroelectric output, wholesale power prices may be increasingly determined by the cost of natural gas generation in the region.
Principal contributor: Michelle Bowman
Tags: California , Electricity , Forecast , Hydroelectric , Oregon , States , Washington , Weather
http://www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/detail.cfm?id=14931#
Water as part of circular economy?
Moving toward a circular economy
In this narrated slideshow, McKinsey alumnus Markus Zils explains how the circular economy encourages companies to seek ways of retaining more of the value of the material, energy, and labor inputs that go into their products.
Narrated slideshow
The circular economy aims to eradicate waste—not just from manufacturing processes, as lean management aspires to do, but systematically, throughout the life cycles and uses of products and their components. Indeed, tight component and product cycles of use and reuse, aided by product design, help define the concept of a circular economy and distinguish it from the linear take–make–dispose economy, which wastes large amounts of embedded materials, energy, and labor.
In the first exhibit of this narrated slideshow, McKinsey alumnus Markus Zils explains how a circular economy works. In the second, he uses the example of a market for power drills to detail four scenarios in which circular-economy principles are applied:
In the status-quo scenario, 1,000 power drills are made in China and sold in the European Union.
In the refurbishment scenario, 800 drills are sold at the original price, and 200 are refurbished and sold at 80 percent of it. As an incentive to return drills for refurbishment, customers that do so receive a 10 percent refund of the original price.
In the recycling scenario, new and refurbished drills are sold, as above, but other customers return 700 end-of-life drills for recycling that recovers some 80 percent of their materials. Customers that return drills for recycling receive a 5 percent refund on the original price.
In the additional sales scenario, new and refurbished drills are sold and 700 end-of-life drills are recycled, as above, but we assume that the refurbished drills do not cannibalize sales of the new drills. Instead, refurbished units are sold to a completely new customer segment, thus expanding the market.
In a circular economy, the goal for durable components, such as metals and most plastics, is to reuse or upgrade them for other productive applications through as many cycles as possible. This approach contrasts sharply with the linear mind-set embedded in most of today’s industrial operations. Even their terminology—value chain, supply chain, end user—expresses a linear take–make–dispose view.
About the author
Markus Zils is an alumnus of McKinsey’s Munich office.
http://www.mckinsey.com/Insights/Manufacturing/Moving_toward_a_circular_economy
Drought Emergencies Put Water Supplies at Risk Around World
WEDNESDAY, 05 FEBRUARY 2014 12:40
Drought
As California endures a drought that could be the worst in 500 years, federal politicians are wrangling over how best to allocate available water supplies, the San Jose Mercury News reported. You can see Circle of Blue’s reporting on California’s drought and water pollution here.
Severe droughts are also threatening water supplies for communities around the world.
Sao Paulo, Brazil could lose half of its water supply within 45 days if rains do not relieve an intense drought that is drying up water supplies in the region’s Cantareira water system, Bloomberg News reported. Outside of the city, which is the largest in South America, industrial production is also being hit by the lack of water, and purification costs are rising as river levels drop.
At least two communities in Queensland, Australia have floated the possibility of evacuating if drought conditions do not improve, the Australian reported. Though water supplies from dammed lakes are currently sufficient, local officials say they “have to talk about the worst case scenarios”.
Africa
At least 400 families were evacuated from communities below a dam in Zimbabwe after cracks were found in the dam wall, and 4,000 more will likely be asked to leave, Xinhua reported. Heavy rains and rising water levels have put pressure on the dam, which is still under construction.
The World Bank is proposing a $US 1 billion project fund to map mineral resources across Africa in order to provide more detailed information to mining companies and governments, Reuters reported. The bank believes having more information will allow governments to better negotiate with mining companies and plan infrastructure development and water allocations.
http://www.circleofblue.org/waternews/2014/the-stream/stream-february-5-drought-emergencies-put-water-supplies-risk-around-world/
In California, more than 1,200 miles of canals and pipelines move trillions of gallons of water to where it does not naturally flow – from the mountains of the north to the city lights and farm fields of the south. Today, however, there is little water to move. The nation’s most populous state and largest economy is mired in one of its worst droughts of the last 500 years.
The biggest immediate effect will be on farmworkers in the Central Valley, with many people put out of work in a region that is already deep in poverty. Built of steel and concrete and relying increasingly on unsustainable groundwater, California’s gargantuan water-supply system is ill-prepared for 21st-century challenges. The state is struggling to ensure clean water for its most impoverished citizens, to revive an imperiled estuary, and to adapt to a warming globe. Polluted, convoluted, and depleted, California’s water-supply system faces a historic test.
Released yesterday, new satellite data shows that the California's two largest watersheds and the Central Valley lost 13.2 trillion gallons of water -- nearly twice the volume of Lake Mead -- over the last decade, a volume equal to one year's worth of water withdrawals in the state.
http://www.circleofblue.org/waternews/weekly/
Solar Thermal Technology Poses Challenges for Drought-Stricken California
Reducing water consumption at solar thermal plants raises costs and decreases power production.
By Kevin Bullis on February 3, 2014
WHY IT MATTERS
Solar thermal power may be needed to meet California’s renewable energy goals.
California’s ambitious goal of getting a third of its electricity from renewable energy sources by 2030 is being tested by its driest year on record, part of a multiyear drought that’s seriously straining water supplies. The state plan relies heavily on solar thermal technology, but this type of solar power also typically consumes huge quantities of water.
The drought is already forcing solar thermal power plant developers to use alternative cooling approaches to reduce water consumption. This will both raise costs and decrease electricity production, especially in the summer months when demand for electricity is high. Several research groups across the country are developing ways to reduce those costs and avoid reductions in power output.
Solar thermal power plants use large fields of mirrors to concentrate sunlight and heat water, producing steam that spins power-plant turbines. Utilities like them because their power output is much less variable than power from banks of solar panels (see “BrightSource Pushes Ahead on Another Massive Solar Thermal Plant” and “Sharper Computer Models Clear the Way for More Wind Power”).
The drawbacks are that solar thermal plants generate large amounts of waste heat, and they consume a lot of water for cooling, which is usually done by evaporating water. Solar thermal plants can consume twice as much water as fossil fuel power plants, and one recently proposed solar thermal project would have consumed about 500 million gallons of water a year.
A technology called dry cooling, which has started appearing in power plants in the last 10 years or so, can cut that water consumption by 90 percent. Instead of evaporating water to cool the plant, the technology keeps the water contained in a closed system. As it cools the power plant, the water heats up and is then circulated through huge, eight-story cooling towers that work much like the radiator in a car.
Dry cooling technology costs from two and a half to five times more than conventional evaporative cooling systems. And it doesn’t work well on hot days, sometimes forcing power plant operators to cut back on power production. In the summer, this can decrease power production by 10 to 15 percent, says Jessica Shi, a technical program manager at the Electric Power Research Institute. On extremely hot days, power production might be reduced even more than that.
One approach to solving this problem is to oversize the cooling system so that it can deliver enough cooling even on hot days. That’s the approach taken by the developers of California’s new Ivanpah solar thermal plant, which is about to start production (see “World’s Largest Solar Thermal Power Plant Delivers Power for the First Time”). But it adds to the cost of an already expensive system.
More than a dozen research groups funded by the Electric Power Research Institute and the National Science Foundation are developing ways to avoid the current problems with dry cooling technology. One project uses a conventional evaporative cooling system but captures the water vapor to reuse it. Others are working to improve the efficiency of dry cooling towers so that they can be made smaller and cheaper. A third approach is to use nanoparticles in the cooling fluid to improve its ability to absorb heat. And new designs that improve air circulation could reduce the size and cost of cooling towers.
The drought and water shortage that California is undergoing will increase the costs associated with solar thermal power, but they aren’t likely to bring the spread of the technology screeching to a halt. While dry cooling costs far more than conventional water cooling, it accounts for a relatively small part of the total cost of a plant—about five percent of around $2 billion.
http://www.technologyreview.com/news/523856/solar-thermal-technology-poses-challenges-for-drought-stricken-california/
A worsening drought in California will likely force a first-ever complete cutoff this year in state-supplied water sold to 29 irrigation districts, public water agencies and municipalities up and down the state, officials said Friday.
Although the state Water Resources Department typically ends up supplying more water than first projected for the year ahead, its forecast for a "zero allocation" in 2014 is unprecedented since the agency began delivering water in 1967.
The announcement came a day after the agency said that water content in the snow pack of the Sierra Nevada mountain range - a key measure of surface water supplies - stood at just 12 percent of average for this time of year.
That marked the lowest level recorded in more than half a century, despite a late-arriving Sierra winter storm.
Barring an unexpected turn-around in California's current dry spell, the state faces its worst-ever water supply outlook, the agency said.
Governor Jerry Brown, whose drought emergency declaration two weeks ago capped the driest year on record for the state, said the agency's zero allocation was a "stark reminder that California's drought is real."
On Thursday Brown urged residents to redouble conservation efforts, suggesting they avoid flushing toilets unnecessarily and to turn off the tap while soaping up in the shower or shaving.
Some 25 million people, roughly two-thirds of California's residents, and more than 750,000 acres of farmland get some or all of their drinking and irrigation supplies from the state Water Resources Department.
The water originates from the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta in northern California, fed by rainfall and snow-melt runoff from the Sierras.
The water is delivered to local agencies by way of a sprawling network of reservoirs, pipelines, aqueducts and pumping stations known as the State Water Project.
While a return to wetter weather in the months ahead could quickly ease the water crunch, the zero allotment announced on Friday was greeted with alarm by the project's water users.
"For the first time in history, we are facing the real possibility of getting no water from the State Water Project. It's a very serious situation," said Terry Erlewine, general manager of the State Water Contractors.
The president of the California Farm Bureau Federation, Paul Wenger, called the news "a terrible blow."
Each local agency will adapt in its own way, making up for some of the difference with groundwater reserves, buying water from other sources, using carry-over supplies conserved from the year before and increased conservation.
Besides the 29 local agencies that purchase water from the State Water Project, a separate group of Sacramento Valley farm districts whose rights to delta water predate construction of the State Water Project - and are thus guaranteed - could see their deliveries cut in half for the year, the agency warned.
Deliveries to the so-called "settlement contractors" were last reduced in 1992.
The other major supplier of water from the delta - and a more important one for California farmers producing over half of the fruit, vegetables and nuts grown in the United States - is the federal government's Bureau of Reclamation.
That agency is slated to announce its initial allocation from the Central Valley Project next month, and it too is expected to be dismal.
(Reporting by Steve Gorman; Editing by Lisa Shumaker)
http://mobile.reuters.com/article/idUSBREA1005D20140201
Research and Markets: Water Purifier Market Revenues in India Expected to Grow at the CAGR of 24% Till 2018
January 29, 2014 01:26 PM Eastern Standard Time
DUBLIN--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Research and Markets (http://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/bwgz3m/india_water) has announced the addition of the "India Water Purifier Market Forecast & Opportunities, 2018" report to their offering.
During the past decade, the Indian population has witnessed considerable improvement in accessing drinking water. However, the poor quality of the water supplied by the civic authorities still remains a challenge. Diarrhoea, a disease resulting from consumption of contaminated water accounts for 13% of overall deaths in children younger than 5 years of age. Poor water quality and complications associated with it are contributing to the increasing demand for water purifiers in Indian market. Water purifier in India is no longer a consumer electronic good limited to affluent households as it is available at low prices and has started to penetrate in lower income and rural households.
According to India Water Purifier Market Forecast & Opportunities, 2018' the four edition of it water purifier report, the Indian market has shown tremendous growth during the last few years. The water purifier market revenues in India are expected to grow at the CAGR of 24% till 2018. High metal content in water sources in areas such as West Bengal, Bihar, Rajasthan and Orissa, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh are contributing to the water purifier demand in Tier II and Tier III cities. Till recently, rural Indian markets were not exposed to water purifiers as a result of economic factors and poor sales and distribution networks in these areas. However, companies with innovative products are now targeting this segment and the rural Indian markets now indicates high growth potential, particularly for offline water purifiers.
India Water Purifier Market Forecast & Opportunities, 2018 report elaborates following particulars:
- India Water Purifier Market Size, Share and Forecast
- RO, UV and Filter based Water Purifier Market Size & Forecast
- Policy & Regulatory Landscape
- Pricing Analysis & Sales Channel Analysis
- Changing Market Trends & Emerging Opportunities
- Competitive Landscape & Strategic Recommendations
Companies Mentioned:
- Essel Nasaka
- Eureka Forbes Limited
- Godrej Industries Ltd.
- HUL
- Hi Tech RO Systems
- Ion Exchange India Ltd.
- Kent RO System Ltd.
- Panasonic Corporation
- Tata Chemicals Ltd.
- Whirlpool India Ltd.
For more information visit http://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/bwgz3m/india_water
About Research and Markets
Research and Markets is the world's leading source for international market research reports and market data. We provide you with the latest data on international and regional markets, key industries, the top companies, new products and the latest trends.
http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20140129006199/en/Research-Markets-Water-Purifier-Market-Revenues-India#.Uuz_63i9LCQ
Meet Imagine H2O Finalists
Thursday, December 16th, 2010
10 Water Startups with Energy-Saving Innovations
Finalists selected from a global field of over 50 startups
Imagine H2O is pleased to introduce the finalists from our 2010 Water-Energy Nexus Prize. Selected by a panel of expert judges, these water companies represent 10 innovative energy-saving solutions. Read our complete press release here.
Agua Via develops a 1-atomic layer thick nanotech membrane that enables desalination at a 66% energy reduction and 50% cost reduction, providing energy efficient purification and wastewater remediation.
BlackGold Biofuels recovers energy from wastewater streams, creating lucrative renewable energy assets from pollution liabilities.
FogBusters treats petroleum, biofuel and food processing wastewater “better, faster, cheaper, cleaner and greener” while capturing the FOG (fat, oil and grease) to make into biodiesel.
Hydrovolts makes portable floating turbines that make renewable energy and clean water from an untapped global resource of hydrokinetic energy in water canals.
mOasis harnesses water on any land in the world so that plants grow and the planet can restore its ability to sustain life.
NLine Energy, Inc. converts wasted energy found in water transmission and distribution systems into renewable energy.
Pilus Energy harnesses genetically enhanced bacteria in scalable electrogenic bioreactor and harvests the electricity and biogases from their metabolism of organics like those found in wastewater.
Puralytics solves critical water contamination problems with environmentally superior products.
Solar Machines’ non-PV based technology directly and efficiently converts solar energy into mechanical work for water pumping applications.
Water Resources Management Co helps water utilities realize the full benefits of their investments in advanced meter reading, system control and asset management.
http://imagineh2o.org/blog/?tag=pilus-energy
Amidst drought and growing population, water tech quietly emerges
Drought and fears of water shortages are drumming up interest in new water technology. Just don’t count on venture capitalists to chase these new water tech deals.
Investments in water technology have historically been as low as the current snow pack in the Sierra Nevada mountains. But with increasing talks of drought and fears about feeding a rapidly growing world population, that’s starting to change — albeit slowly.
That’s why a San Francisco-based startup and nonprofit, Imagine H2O, has begun to help organize and encourage emerging water innovations in recent years. Founded in 2007, Imagine H2O runs an annual water technology startup competition and accelerator program and offers the winners not only cash but also opportunities to run pilot projects — and prove that their technology works — with water utilities, growers and food processors. Imagine H2O recently chose 12 finalists for its competition and plans to announce the winners this upcoming March.
Though, venture capitalists, many of which were recently burned by cleantech investing, might not be flooding to back these startups just yet. “Water historically hasn’t fit the traditional venture capital model,” Scott Bryan, chief operating officer of Imagine H2O, told us in an interview. “That said, you are seeing more activities from corporations acting as strategic investors and family offices.”
Part of the reason building a water business is tough is that water remains a cheap commodity, despite that water rates are rising in parts of the country. Another reason is that water utilities don’t make easy customers because their procurement process can be complex, and they don’t have much money to spare. Water utilities also may not be willing to test out new technologies that don’t have a lot of hard operating data just yet.
But the worry over a lack of ample rains throughout California and other parts of the western United States have certainly prompted water utilities to promote conservation. The country’s largest seawater desalination plant is under construction in Southern California because a drought in the 1990s and supply concerns from its main water seller prompted the San Diego Water Authority to look for alternative sources.
Couple that with growing interest by big corporate and industrial water users, such as Coca-Cola, who want to protect their water supplies, and new water technologies start to look like a better business.
Much of water technology out there is focused on equipment for purifying and recycling water, treating wastewater more efficiently and turning byproducts of the wastewater treatment process into compounds for making fertilizers or other products. In this sector, obstacles that other cleantech hardware technologies face, also applies to water tech. The time to develop and commercialize these technologies can take far longer than the traditional technology timelines that venture capitalists prefer.
There is little hard data showing how long it would typically take for a water startup to bring its technology from concept to market. But anecdotal evidence shows that it could very well take 10 years, Bryan said. Around 1 percent of venture capital investments go into water companies, he noted.
Corporate investors and family offices don’t face the same pressure to raise funds and generate big returns, and that makes them perhaps a more ideal source of capital for water startups. That’s true for True North Venture Partners, which was founded by former long-time First Solar CEO, Michael Ahearn, and involves four families as investors.
“We are trying to form large companies over time — find disruptive innovation, stick with them and help them reach their full potential,” said Steven Kloos, a partner at True North and a judge at this year’s Imagine H2O competition. “We are not in the game of raising funds. We don’t have to exit.”
Imagine H2O itself relies on support from private foundations and corporate sponsorships to operate. One of its main supporters is the California Water Foundation, which involves five families, including the Bechtel and the Fisher families. Imagine H2O operates as a nonprofit to make it easier for it to line up support from government agencies and utilities, Bryan said. As a result, it doesn’t take an equity stake in startups in its accelerator program.
Imagine H2O was born as a project at the Harvard Business School. The two founders, Tamin Pecht and Matt Evans, saw how difficult it was to launch water startups and bring their ideas to commercialization because key resources were lacking. For example, there isn’t a federal agency for water like there is for energy that helps to focus public funding and research efforts. There are roughly 50,000 water utilities in the country with autonomy that can make it challenging for startups to wade through the often complex utility regulations.
Aside from True North, Imagine H2O has also recruited Google Ventures for judging this year’s competition, which sports a “food and agriculture” theme. The water sector is so broad that narrowing down the focus is important for business plan judging. Themes from the competition in previous years included water efficiency, wastewater and consumer-oriented technologies. It announced its inaugural class of winners in spring 2010.
The intersection of water and agriculture is an interesting space because agriculture makes up 70 percent of the world’s fresh water use. Imagine H2O lined up BlueTechValley, a group of growers and food processors in California’s Central Valley, as part of its accelerator program to provide the startups a chance to do field testing of their technologies.
The competition drew 70 startups from 11 countries, and 12 of them have been chosen as finalists. The finalists are divided into early-stage and growth-stage categories. A winner in each category will receive $15,000 in cash while two runner ups from each category will each get $5,000. All six winners will also have access to about $150,000 in in-kind legal service from Cooly, marketing service from Weber Shandwick and software from Autodesk.
“We believe that this sector is willing to pay for innovation. Whether it’s China or California, you will have issues of scarcity and quality that is becoming legitimate financial risks for corporations,” Bryan said. By the time the world hits a 9 billion and 10 billion population in the next few decades, no doubt water tech will have become a crucial part of the equation.
http://gigaom.com/2014/01/31/amidst-drought-and-growing-population-water-tech-quietly-emerges/
Inadequate Water Supply Propels the Commercial and Residential Point-of-Entry Water Treatment Systems Market in India
Expanding suburbs and rising health consciousness among consumers aids market growth
MUMBAI, India - January 23, 2014 - Increasing water scarcity, exacerbated by inefficient water management practices, is driving the commercial and residential point-of-entry (POE) water treatment systems market in India. Escalating demand for water from a growing population, faster depletion of water resources than is replenished, and the contamination of ground water tables and surface water bodies are lending momentum to the POE water treatment systems market in the commercial and residential segments. A water treatment system having capacity up to 20 cubic meters per hour, installed in a suitable location where the main water pipeline enters the building, is called a POE system. This POE system could be installed in the building basement, backyard or in a corner depending on the water source i.e. ground water or municipal water and is meant for the entire building.
Though urban areas receive piped water from municipal corporations, the quality of water is a suspect since the municipal water authorities normally do not employ advanced treatment methods due to resource crunch. To make matters worse, pipes that transport drinking water from municipal treatment plants to end users are in a state of disrepair resulting in frequent seepage of sewage. In order to improve the water supply coverage in remote corners of the city, municipal corporation provide water by 1000-gallon tanker lorries. Poor cleaning and maintenance of these tankers results in contamination of water. Hence, all along the value chain, from sourcing to treatment to final supply, the quality of water is compromised, which drives demand for POE water treatment systems.
New analysis from Frost & Sullivan (http://www.environmental.frost.com), Commercial and Residential Point-of-Entry Water Treatment Systems Market in India, finds that the market earned revenues of INR 3.40 billion in 2012 and estimates this to reach INR 5.43 billion by 2017. The study covers reverse osmosis (RO) and conventional systems such as filtration systems, iron removal and arsenic removal systems, softeners, etc.
"The unavailability of municipal water in the sub-urban areas of India, where there is large-scale investment in the commercial and residential segments is fuelling the uptake of POE water treatment systems," said Frost & Sullivan’s Analyst from Environment & Building Technologies Practice. "New hotels, hospitals, large residential complexes and apartments in the suburbs are installing POE water treatment systems to purify the groundwater they are dependent on, as it is usually non potable."
The penetration of RO systems is increasing, with these systems used for potable applications in hotels and residential apartments. Increasing tourism in India is paving way for hotels to adapt to international water quality standards. Hospitals deploy RO systems for critical applications such as surgeries, equipment sterilization etc. The market share of RO systems in 2012 stood at 52 percent of the total commercial and residential POE water treatment systems. The RO systems are projected to grow at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 10 percent from 2012 to 2017.
The rising health consciousness among consumers in India is further spurring the adoption of POE water treatment systems, especially in the residential segment. POE water treatment systems in many residential projects majorly use conventional treatment systems utilizing ion exchange, activated carbon, and sand filters as key processes. However, the high price of RO systems is slowing its penetration in this segment, as customers prefer low-cost technologies that are easy to operate and maintain. Though the residential segment accounts for less than 10 percent of the total POE market today, this segment is poised to grow at a CAGR of around 15 percent, much higher than the overall market, in the same period of 2012 to 2017. Many of the residential projects coming up in the city outskirts have water treatment systems. This segment would offer long-term growth opportunities to market participants.
Escalating demand for water treatment systems is also encouraging many small participants to enter the market, intensifying competition and reducing profitability. Market participants can overcome this challenge by providing value-added services such as extended warranty periods. "To gain a foothold in the POE water treatment systems market, suppliers should offer a one-stop-shop-solution for end users’ water and wastewater management needs," advised the analyst. "In addition, they must promote their products aggressively to rapidly expand their share in the commercial and residential POE water treatment systems market in India."
If you are interested in a virtual brochure, which provides a brief synopsis of the study and a table of contents, then send an e-mail to Ravinder Kaur / Priya George, Corporate Communications, at ravinder.kaur@frost.com / priyag@frost.com, with your full name, company name, title, telephone number, company e-mail address, company website, city, state and country. Upon receipt of the above information, a brochure will be sent to you by e-mail.
Commercial and Residential Point-of-Entry Water Treatment Systems Market in India is part of the Environmental Growth Partnership Service program. Frost & Sullivan’s related studies include: Packaged Wastewater Treatment Market in India, Water and Wastewater Disinfection Systems Market in India, Water and Wastewater Treatment Equipment Market in Saudi Arabia, and Indian Market for Membrane Modules. All studies included in subscriptions provide detailed market opportunities and industry trends evaluated following extensive interviews with market participants.
http://www.frost.com/prod/servlet/press-release.pag?Src=RSS&docid=288785149