For good article, check out: http://www.electroiq.com/index/display/nanotech-article-display/5033756049/articles/small-times/nanotechmems/energy-environment/2010/november/nanotech_s-answer.html

I want to fill in an important point Mr. Muston made about the carbon cycle though as well. If corn stover was left in the field to decompose naturally, the carbon would still be released into the atmosphere. It only makes sense to try and capture that energy, while still leaving enough stover to provide soil nutrition.

http://www.apegga.org/Members/Publications/Magazines/ThePEG/2010/February/issue1/index.html

Funding awarded to

Researcher: Robert Fedosejevs, Electrical and Computer Engineering (with Ying Tsui)
Title: Fusion Energy-Fast ignition and target fabrication
Industry Partners: Applied Nanotools Inc., MPB Technologies Inc.
Award: $430,650 over three years

To display Google docs, we can use the iframe tag. It will look something like this:

[[iframe http://docs.google.com/pub?key=... width="100%" height="500"]]

So we need to specify a link/URL (which I've truncated here with …), a width and a height. How do we get the URL, you ask? Just create a new Google doc (or open an existing one), click the "Share" button in the top-right corner, and then click "Get the link to share". You will see a popup window like the following:

You will want to check the first box so that anyone can view the document, and optionally check the second box if you also want anyone to be able to edit it (by anyone, I mean anyone who knows the link — i.e. anyone who visits the wiki). Finally, you need to copy the link, click "Save & Close", then paste the link into your wiki code.

The procedure is much the same for a Google spreadsheet, except that there is a little extra work if you would like to enable editing. Essentially, one cannot edit an embedded spreadsheet directly on a wiki page, but we can include an extra link that will open up the actual Google spreadsheet editor.

Here's an example that's taken directly from our volunteer-opportunities page:

[[iframe http://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=tpZsx-U6CncTAlOFXMzS6Uw&output=html&widget=true width="100%" height="560" frameborder="0"]] > **[*http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=tpZsx-U6CncTAlOFXMzS6Uw CLICK HERE TO EDIT THE SPREADSHEET]** >> This will open the spreadsheet in a new window. >> Note that changes are saved automatically, so you don't need to click File, Save, or anything like that.

The second line in this block of code contains a link that the user can click in order to edit the spreadsheet. The link/URL is the same as the one in the iframe tag, except that we removed everything that appears after the first ampersand (&) sign, as it's not needed here. The last two lines just display some extra information to the user.

Here's the result:

CLICK HERE TO EDIT THE SPREADSHEET

This will open the spreadsheet in a new window.
Note that changes are saved automatically, so you don't need to click File, Save, or anything like that.

That's it! Please post any questions that you may have in this discussion forum thread.

If you attended the Solar Alberta discussion panel on Jan 19th, please follow the link below to take a brief survey (ten questions)
http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/WPS9K9J

Engineering professors leading effort to bring nuclear fusion to Alberta

http://www.engineering.ualberta.ca/ece/nav02.cfm?nav02=89230&nav01=24985

Cereal grains are only one of many possible feedstocks to produce biofuel, so I suppose it would be important to look at the advantages and disadvantages of each. This is something I hope my professor will discuss in his presentation (I can give him some guidelines, but I wanted to gauge some discussion on the board first, which has not really happened unfortunately).

Biofuel from Cereal Grains:

Advantages:
1. Byproduct is still usable as livestock feed
2. Technology is available and affordable for production at a reasonable energy in/energy out (vast improvements have been made in recent years, so the argument that says it uses more energy that you get out is no longer valid AND only further improvements should be made)
3. A higher value product (fuel) is made from a low value product (starch)
4. There is a vast overproduction of these grains in North America, so this puts a good use to the excess grain - exports are somewhat limited by the storage capacity of the grain

Disadvantages:
1. It will always be more expensive then fuel made from sugarcane, putting it at an economical disadvantage for export; however, Brazil uses the vast majority of its own production
2. Potential increases in the food value - I say potential because many other factors such as drought played a major role in the spike of food prices around 2007. Since then prices have returned to near historical levels.
3. Ethanol made from cereal grains is not desirable due to the harshness on engine parts, such as gaskets; however, butanol a longer chain alcohol with more energy and more desirable characteristics is being researched as a future possibility

Biofuel from Algae

Advantages:
1. Only microbe that uses inorganic carbon (CO2) as a feedstock to make fuel - this has a plethora advantages
2. Can be grown on arid land or even buildings
3. Lipids have long carbon chains, meaning more high energy bonds and therefore a better fuel

Disadvantages:
1. Not entirely sure where the challenges lie (extraction? refining? growth rate?) Maybe someone else knows.

http://www.generalfusion.com/

1. Go to the page on the wiki to which you would like to add an image or poster.
2. Click the "Files" button near the bottom-right of the page. Some things will appear below the buttons.
3. Click the "Upload a file from your computer" link. Even more things will appear below.
4. To the right of "Select a file on your computer", click the "Browse" button.
5. A popup window will appear. Find the file on your computer and double-click on it. The window should go away and the path to your file should now appear in the text box next to "Select a file on your computer". You can optionally change the name of the file and add a description, but these are not required.
6. Click the "Upload" button and wait a little while as the file is transferred to the wikidot server.
7. Once that is done, your file should be listed at the bottom of the page. If you don't see it, try clicking the "Files" button again to make the list appear.

Now we know that the file is on the wiki, but it won't appear on any page(s) until we add a link to it. First, we'll show how to link to a generic file type, such as a pdf for a poster. See below for the case where the file is an image to be displayed.

1. First, make a note of the name of your file. Let's say it is myposter.pdf, for example.
2. Click "Edit" to edit the page as you normally would.
3. In the editor, find the place where you would like the link to appear, and add a tag like the following:

[[file myposter.pdf | Click here to see the poster]]

Note: The part after the "|" can be whatever text you want to appear in the link.

For instance, if you were adding this to the standard table that appears at the top of an event page, the code for the new table row would be:

||~ **Poster** || [[file myposter.pdf | PDF]] ||

Alternatively, if the file you uploaded is an image, say myimage.jpg, you can display the image with the following code:

[[image myimage.jpg]]

Hope that helps.

How do I upload a poster to the wiki for an event?

http://www.spectrum.ieee.org/blog/energy/renewables/energywise/coal-pollution-fatalities

I think Dinwoodie is a good location, as for style maybe just a career fair. If someone has a good idea for presentations I wouldn't be opposed, but I am not that person.

Any Companies you'd like to see come out?

Location:
-How about having the purposed career forum in SUB where companies can set-up tables infront of large volumes of people?
-Dinwoodie?

Style:
-Career Fair (several tables, walk around)
-Included presenations?

I very much agree with the promotion of the recycling program. In my Solid Waste Management class we're analyzing the U of A's 2006 waste audit. In the last portion, we were simpling looked at the waste and recycling bins in NREF - there was a ridiculous amount of garbage in the recycling bins! Very odd as all recycling bins are located next to garbage bins so its either a matter of laziness or just plain not knowing….

Fyi - there are big brown bins inside ETLC, NREF and other buildings on campus for plastics. There is a big yellow one on 2nd floor NREF that is for glass and metals that you can use, they are unfortunately not in the most prominent areas

Before I ask him for his time, would there be any interest in hearing a lecture on biofuels? Most people in the club are in engineering and have more interest in solar, geothermal, and wind - or so it seems. This is a small piece of the pie though because all these technologies will need to be combined to displace or replace fossil fuel use.

1. I would like to see more promotion and propaganda given to the students and staff. I didn't realize all these initiatives were happening and think they should really promote it. Many new students tend to come to the U of A and are unaware of the recycling program. I have had to teach a countless number of students that the recycling bin is not a garbage and that the garbage is not the recycling bin. I would like to see the initiatives that require our involvement to be explained and shown to all new students as they come to the U of A.

2. The U of A should preach what they practice. How can an engineering student make it through four years of school and only hear sustainability a handful of times. The U of A needs to embed sustainability into all programs on campus as sustainability is about as interdisciplinary as it can get.

3. The U of A should expand the recycling program to take glass, plastic, and all those other recyclable materials that the city takes. I am tired of taking my non paper/cans home with me.

4. The U of A should fund the Energy Club!!!

But, great job U of A.

http://www.globalpublicmedia.com/topics/reality_report/feed

This will notify you of new episodes but you'll still have to go and download them manually.

The UofA received a B+ up from a B last year. Other notables: UBC/UofC/McGill B+ & UofT/Dalhousie B

So a friend of mine Karen Robinson passed along a great document which outlines all the Sustainable Initiatives at the UofA. There are far more going on than I realized, I was a bit surprised. It is definitely worth a read. Just as important tho are ideas on how to move forward into a larger realm of sustainability, so…

Question on the table: How would you like to see the UofA be more Sustainable???

[[table style="align:left"]] [[row]] [[cell]]
||~ **When** || Tuesday, October 6th, 2009 @ 5:15pm ||
||~ **Where** || University of Alberta, ETLC 2-009 (Colt Design Lab) ||
[[/cell]] [[/row]] [[/table]]

This will produce the following left-aligned table:

The tables on most of the "event" pages are aligned to the left, so you can find other examples there, e.g.:
http://energyclub.wikidot.com/event:2009-10-06

Shell looks to be talking the talk, with a hard cap on emissions not intensity based targets. This is good talk to have before the Canadian government flies over to Copenhagen. Although, it would be even better if Canadians (and Americans for that matter) had a clear defined plan to actually take climate change seriously.

On another note, I came across BP's 2009 world energy review (see link below). I never realized that the USA use 1/4 of all energy in the world, or somewhere near that, I read it about a month ago. If anyone needs solutions fast it's them. I'm not saying Alberta isn't part of the problem, but I also am willing to bet a lot of our emissions are due to sending energy down south to be used by Americans.

http://www.bp.com/productlanding.do?categoryId=6929&contentId=7044622 (click the pdf link on the bottom left part of the page)

In the article it's frightening that they shrug off energy conservation as difficult and then continue to pump up CCS. It may be easy to pump in the CO2, but it's WAY WAY beyond the difficulties of conservation in the sense of knowing wtf will happen after large scale CCS.

Check out the Sunday Reader Section in the October 4th Journal
or
http://www.edmontonjournal.com/business/Thomson+Burying+folly/2064972/story.html

http://www.ecogeek.org/component/content/article/2942

Koel, I didn't know they could mix algae directly with fuel? I'm guessing that they are referring to algae derived bio-fuel, not pure algae?

http://www.ecogeek.org/component/content/article/2942

Cool article showing some preliminary interest by Samsung to create a 200 turbine wind farm in Ontario. The feed-in tariff system was probably instrumental in attracting Samsung's interest. Plus there is potential for the creation of some 'green' manufacturing for Ontario's hard hit industry. Watch this one and see how it plays out. A positive outcome would build some much needed momentum for renewable investment during this (brief?) downturn in oil prices.

I ran across this article today on the EcoAmmo website (www.ecoammo.com). This short article looks at Sustainability in Education. The best UofA rank is 4th for both our MBA programs (up 2 spots) and Teacher education (new category this year). We didn't really do too great on incorporating sustainability into our Public Policy school however.

Probably not any microbiologists on this forum that would know what organism that could be…

EDIT: http://energy.einnews.com/news.php?wid=253107293 It appears that the retrofit will produce bio-butanol, which can still be directly blended with gasoline in current engines. Butanol is produced by Clostridium botulinum (the same organism that produces the most toxic substance on the planet). As far as what the conversion process entails, I am not sure. There are people in my lab working on it though.

EDIT 2: http://energy.einnews.com/news.php?wid=253131983 Apparently they have yeast producing bio-butanol. This is news to me and it would figure to be a genetically altered yeast.

http://www.reuters.com/article/GCA-GreenBusiness/idUSTRE58E5X220090915

884t CO2e/GWh = 884,000kgCO2e/GWh = 0.884kgCO2e/KWh

0.884kgCO2* 8.8kWh = 7.7kgCO2 per 40 km.

7.7kgCO2/40 km = 0.19kgCO2/km =19gCO2/km

There is 2360g of CO2/L of gasoline

A fuel efficient internal combustion vehicle = 6.0L/100km = 0.06L/km

0.06L/km* 2360C02/L= 141.6g CO2/km

plug-in hybrid electric: 19g CO2/km
fuel efficient vehicle: 142g CO2/km

There are also criteria pollutants from combustion of gasoline that should be considered such as NOx, PMs, and ozone etc. For combustion of coal, there is Hg, NOx, SOX, PMs etc. I have read a couple papers that modeled air quality based upon number of plug-in electric vehicles within an urban area. Results showed that air quality improved within urban areas, and not surprising, (air quality) decreased around coal-fired plants as the result of increased generation.

There are also the economic and infrastructure related issues surrounding electric vehicles, but that is another can of worms.

One very promising aspect to ethanol production:

There are some initial reports that peg switch grass at negative CO2 balance - meaning that it actually takes CO2 out of the atmosphere. It does this by storing extra carbon into the soil when it grows. The reports also assume that waste or biomass is used at heat energy to distill the ethanol, but that is to me what sustainable design is all about. Unfortunately it will be a few years before they determine if switch grass is commercially feasible. The major study ongoing is in the Oklahoma panhandle - and a commercial plant is scheduled to be built in nearby Kansas just as the study is completed in the end of 2011.

In response to your question Koel:

In Alberta (with a mix of natural gas, hydro, wind, and coal generation) for every GWh of electricity generated, 884 tonnes of CO2e are produced.

I am not sure how rare Earth mines are set-up, but this does seem to be a disadvantage to using hybrid vehicles. When the electricity is produced from coal, I wonder how much less CO2 emissions are produced anyways? Anyone know a way to find out?

Here is another interesting algae site that deals with algae growth on buildings. Lets see some of you engineers build and improve this process!

Here is a link that shows some promise in the algae biofuel industry. A contract of this size would mean great things for expanding biofuels made from algae into popular domain. If the product meets military specifications, it should do the trick for commuters.

25/05/09: Oil - Jeff Rubin

Jeff Rubin, the Chief Economist of CIBC World Markets tells us why he thinks the world is doomed to a series of recessions and recoveries unless we cut back on the amount of oil we use.

[mp3 file: runs 23:40]

Concerned for the future of his new baby boy Sebastian, writer and director Andrew Nisker takes an average urban family, the McDonalds, and asks them to keep every scrap of garbage that they create for three months. He then takes them on a journey to find out where it all goes and what it's doing to the world.

From organic waste to the stuff they flush down the potty, the plastic bags they use to the water they drink out of bottles, the air pollution they create when transporting the kids around, to using lights at Christmas, the McDonalds discover that for every action there is a reaction that affects them and the entire planet.

Everyday life under a microscope has never been so revealing. By the end of this trashy odyssey, you are truly inspired to revolutionaize your lifestyle for the sake of future generations."

Source: http://www.garbagerevolution.com/watch.html

1. Create the new page
   • Follow the usual procedure for creating a new page, namely, type the URL of your new page in your browser's address bar, e.g. http://energyclub.wikidot.com/new-page-name
   • Edit and save your page
2. Place a link to the new page in the side navigation bar, under "User-created content"
   • Go to http://energyclub.wikidot.com/nav:side in your browser, then click the "edit" button at the bottom of the page
   • In the edit window, scroll down to the "User-created content" section and insert a new line that has the form: [[[new-page-name|Link text]]]
     • Here, new-page-name is the same name you gave your page in step 1 (note: this is just the page name; no need to include the energyclub.wikidot.com portion). Link text is the text that will appear in the navigation bar for your link.
     • Since the contents of the navigation bar is essentially a big list, you should prefix your line with a * (this should be clear when you look at the wiki-code that's already there in nav:side)

He came to talk at the GRS, very good perspective. His science was used in IPCC report and the Gore documentary, so he sort of has at Nobel Prize.