Thursday, 21 Jun 2007

Orange You Glad We Didn't Say Switchgrass?

Fruit may be the latest source for biofuel madness

Could your kumquat power your Kia? A team of U.S. scientists has made a low-carbon fuel from fructose, the sugar in many fruits. It could be a better bet than ethanol, with 40 percent more energy, less vulnerability to water, and more stability; since it can also be made from plant cellulose, it could also skirt the food-vs.-fuel debate. DMF -- 2,5-dimethylfuran, the result of mixing fructose with salt water, hydrochloric acid, a solvent, and a copper-coated catalyst -- "should be a great fuel," says James Dumesic of the University of Wisconsin-Madison. His team has made only small batches, and unknowns abound. But Dumesic says, "We could make this happen [on a large scale] within the next few years if we are told from an environmental safety point of view that this would be a good thing to do. The process ... is very much like a petroleum process, and the knowledge of the petroleum industry in scaling things up could all apply here." Yeah, Big Oil will definitely want to play along with this one.


Coal is the central, vexing question facing anyone attempting to create a 21st-century energy policy. So says Rep. Ed Markey (D-Mass.), chair of the Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming, who drops by Grist today to lay out his thoughts on the mineral everyone's talking about. The short version: Coal for electricity is cool, as long as the CO2 it produces gets sequestered. But making liquid fuel out of coal? No, no, no. Head over to Gristmill to see what else Markey has to say.

Well, There's One Thing They Can Agree On

National party conventions aim to go green

You've maybe noticed that green is the Hot New Thing these days -- and the U.S. political arena is no exception. The 2008 Democratic and Republican national conventions both plan to get hip to the greenness. Denver, Colo., site of the Democratic potlatch, is primed to beat eco-friendly convention predecessor Boston by providing hybrid transportation from the airport, encouraging biking to and from hotels, reducing paper use, and recycling -- which the convention HQ Pepsi Center doesn't currently do but is, says a spokesperson, "looking forward to exploring." Delightfully named Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper (D) is jazzed but realistic: "The greatest challenge is getting everyone on the same page." Presumably that's even more true when it comes to the Republican rendezvous in Minnesota's green-leaning Twin Cities; no specific plans have emerged, but there have been mutterings about energy efficiency and flex-fuel vehicles. But hey, by August 2008, voters might be totally over this whole green fad.


For decades, American farming has been propped up by federal subsidies. It's a broken system today, but should it go away -- or does it just need a good spit and polish? Tom Philpott explores the arguments circulating among the sustainable-ag crowd, and explains why he thinks industrial farmers still deserve support. Yep, that's right, a small-time organic farmer thinks the big guys need help -- find out why.

Scent From Above

Professional noses sniff out pollutants in China

Got a sensitive schnoz? Your services may be needed in southern China, where air-pollution experts at an environmental monitoring station are training the sharp-nosed to sniff out chemicals in the air. "We have honed our smelling skills from various sources of pollution. It will help in the detection efforts of our bureau, and, hopefully, bring more pollution violators to justice," says olfactory expert Liu Jingcai. Eleven professional noses are already on the job, reaping the benefits of being able to differentiate between the hundreds of different smells that emanate from chemical plants, rubber factories, garbage dumps, and sewers. Can you say bragging rights? But there is a downside: "The work is quite unpleasant. We have to stay in a lab smelling those awful gases repeatedly," says Liu. The job also doesn't come with a lot of security, as sense of smell diminishes with age. And then there's the whole breathing-in-potentially-poisonous-gases factor. But did we mention the bragging rights?

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