Tag Archives for green

Craig Venter wants to save the world

No one grandstands quite like Craig Venter. Whether its leading a team racing the government to the first human genome sequenced, succeeding, or admitting that his team beat the government by sequencing his own genome, this guy has style like few others in science. And while physicists at least have the reputation of having large egos installed as part of their graduate training, Venter’s ego is apparently physicist-sized, at least according to Wired and Forbes.

That being said, there is something phenomenally inspiring about the folks who have no shame about tackling the really big problems. This is a constructive sort of hubris, the kind that Larry Wall correctly identified as a virtue. Venter’s glorious hubris was on display this week at the TED conference, where he announced that he was working on a project to engineer a bacteria that turns carbon dioxide into methane and octane and that he expects results within 18 months on these fourth generation fuels.

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More on biofuels vs. greenhouse gases

In regards to my previous post on the recent studies on biofuels, WorldChanging has posted an article about the issue, citing a study released by the Sierra Club as well as the Science report. The WorldChanging blog post mentions that the Science report “reinforced the urgency of moving to second-generation biofuels.”

In considering this topic, I think something else extremely valuable is coming out of the biofuel boom. We’re learning how to quickly estimate environmental costs.

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More on porous asphalt

I posted a quick note earlier about installing porous asphalt in a green community in Oregon. In that note, I made an offhand comment questioning the water quality coming off the road. After posting the article, I also wondered if the lifetime of the surface would be shorter in areas prone to freezing weather due to the expansion and contraction of ice in the pores.

It turns out that had I been less lazy in doing my research, I’dve had all these questions answered much more quickly. I just found a great article on porous asphalt that covers a lot of topics, including water quality (82% removal efficiency for organic carbon) and lifetime in freezing weather (longer than standard asphalt).

Additionally, the article points out that the porosity allows for less use of salts for deicing and that:

The water drains through the pavement and into the bed below with sufficient void space to prevent any heaving or damage, and the formation of “black ice” is rarely observed. The porous surfaces tend to provide better traction for both pedestrians and vehicles than does conventional pavement. Not a single system has suffered freezing problems.

Pretty darned cool, if you ask me. One has to ask what the factors are that are keeping this from being installed in every new parking lot being built. Undoubtedly, the subsurface strata affect the design – this is also covered in the article – but I suspect strong that the major factor is simply ignorance.

On a lighter note, the best quote from the article is this one: “Fortunately, even without regular maintenance, the systems continue to function (we routinely send graduate students and recent hires out in hurricanes to confirm this).”

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Porous streets

After reading this post from WorldChanging, I wondered a bit about the wisdom of porous pavement. Sure, I understand the issues that are caused by stormwater runoff, but I’m a little concerned about what gets washed off the streets through the pores in the pavement.

There are probably good ways to handle this, including beds of Stropharia mushrooms on either side of the road to mycoremediate the waste water stream or even a filter layer underneath the pavement.

I also wonder what is actually underneath that pavement. Is it the sand and gravel bed that typically underlies roadways? Or is it something else more porous? The percolation through a layered gravel bed might reduce the pollution in the water that passes through.

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