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November, 2011:

Push to Complete Military Plasma Projects Dents Revenue

30 November 2011
Push to Complete Military Plasma Projects Dents Revenue
Revenues at plasma gasification specialist, PyroGenesis Canada are down as the company focuses on completing existing military projects, according to its recently published financial and operational results for the third quarter.

Revenue for the quarter was $1,909,231 compared to $1,928,782 in the third quarter of 2010, while revenue for the year-to-date was $3,283,936 compared to $5,786,348 in the prior period, a decrease of $2,502,412.

The company attributed the decline primarily to focusing on the completion of the its two major projects – a land based contract with the U.S. Air Force and a marine based contract with Newport News Shipbuilding.

Third quarter highlights for the company include:

  • Completed the design, construction and testing of a Plasma Arc Waste Destruction System (PAWDS) for a U.S. Navy aircraft carrier. The conclusion of this testing is a prerequisite to the PAWDS system being disassembled, packaged and shipped for installation on board the Navy’s CVN 78 aircraft carrier
  • The U.S. Air Force Special Operations Command (AFSOC) accepted the company’s Plasma Resource Recovery System (PRRS). The Company said it has received a follow-on contract from AFSOC to operate the PRRS for an initial three and a half month period at Hurlburt Field, Florida, the Air Force base where the system is currently located
  • Subsequent to quarter end, the Company was awarded a follow-on engineering contract from a multi-national mining and metallurgical company. The follow-on contract is the fifth in an ongoing series of agreements that started in 2009.

P. Peter Pascali, president and chief executive officer of PyroGenesis commented: “The agreements we signed during and subsequent to quarter end, highlight our ability to develop and scale up novel plasma based solutions, which act as competitive advantages for our defense industry and public sector customers.”

Read More

Air Force Steps Ahead with Plasma Waste to Energy
The U.S. Air Force Special Operations Command has commenced operations of a transportable plasma waste to energy system – developed with Canadian gasification specialist, Pyrogenesis – at its Hurlburt Field, Florida base.

Canadian Plasma Arc Gasification Ready for Take Off After U.S. Navy Trial
Canadian plasma technology manufacturer, PyroGenesis, has completed the testing of its Plasma Arc Waste Destruction System with the U.S. Navy and is ready to roll out the process into marine and land-based markets.

Mobile Waste Gasification Units for Military Applications
Dynamis Energy has launched its WasteStation – a mobile waste gasification unit with military, healthcare and hospitality applications.

Could your pee power the next generation of fuel cells?

http://www.businessgreen.com/bg/news/2124250/pee-power-generation-fuel-cells

A chamberpot beneath a bed

We each produce 2.5 litres of the stuff a day and a total of 6.4 trillion litres globally, but until now it has been widely regarded as a rather unpleasant waste product.

However, a team of UK scientists reckon they may have found an extremely useful application for urine by turning it into electricity.

Dr Ioannis Ieropoulos and his team of scientists at the University of the West of England, Bristol, published researchthis week investigating whether urine could be used in microbial fuel cells.

The paper concludes that urine is rich in chemicals that can effectively be used in the cathode half of a fuel cell to react with bacteria in the anode.

The initial tests confirmed that urine-powered fuel cells are technically feasible, and the team now hopes to scale up a prototype system capable of powering homes, businesses or even a small village.

The researchers are particularly interested in using the 38 billion litres of urine produced each day by farm animals, which can have an adverse effect on the environment if not properly managed.

The fuel cells would effectively clean the urine so that it could be safely discharged into the environment, removing the need for costly and energy-intensive treatment by wastewater companies.

Ieropoulos explained that, while the team managed to produce only a small amount of power during trials, it is now looking at stacking up the fuel cells so that the stream of urine runs through the system and produces more power.

“The impact of this could be huge, since it enables us to think of ‘waste’ in a new way, and offers great potential for the future,” he said.

Glastonbury festival founder Michael Eavis has said that he would consider using urine produced by festival-goers to generate electricity for the event.

Green is way to go for biodiesel plant

http://www.thestandard.com.hk/news_detail.asp?we_cat=4&art_id=116856&sid=34386271&con_type=1&d_str=20111109&fc=2

Samson Lee

Wednesday, November 09, 2011

A Hong Kong-based company is investing US$164 million (HK$1.28 billion) to build a biodiesel plant to produce 100,000 tonnes of fuel each year.

“As a clean, alternative transport fuel made from waste, our biodiesel has the potential to make a valuable contribution to improving Hong Kong’s environment,” ASB Biodiesel chief executive Anthony Dixon said yesterday.

Dixon said emissions of greenhouse gases from biodiesel are 85 percent less than those of fossil diesel.

Widespread use of biofuel has sparked controversy, with opponents seeking to taint the diversion of crop supplies toward biofuel production as disastrous for food supply.

Dixon said the problem may be overcome by producing biofuel from waste.

He also said rising food prices will have little impact on production costs.

Noting that local demand for biodiesel currently stands at 70,000 tonnes a year, Dixon urged the government to provide more support for producers.

He said the fuel his firm produces will be distributed to local petrochemical and oil companies, as well as the international marketplace.

Construction of ASB Biodiesel’s plant – located on an 18,000-square-meter site in Tseung Kwan O Industrial Estate – will be completed in December 2012, with production starting in 2013.

Greeners Action executive director Angus Ho Hong-wai said biodiesel use can reduce our dependence on fossil diesel, which generates large amounts of air pollutants, such as sulfur dioxide.

Ho suggested the government offer incentives, such as providing land, for producers to build their plants. There are currently three biodiesel production plants in the territory.

In order to promote the use of biodiesel locally, motor vehicle biodiesel is duty-free.

Thorium: An Energy Solution

http://topdocumentaryfilms.com/thorium-energy-solution/

Thorium is readily available and can be turned into energy without generating transuranic wastes. Thorium’s capacity as nuclear fuel was discovered during WW II, but ignored because it was unsuitable for making bombs.

A liquid-fluoride thorium reactor (LFTR) is the optimal approach for harvesting energy from Thorium, and has the potential to solve today’s energy/climate crisis.

LFTR is a type of Thorium Molten Salt Reactor (Th-MSR). This video summarizes over 6 hours worth of thorium talks given by Kirk Sorensen and other thorium technologists.

Thorium is a naturally-occurring mineral that holds large amounts of releasable nuclear energy, similar to uranium. This nuclear energy can be released in a special nuclear reactor designed to use thorium.

Thorium is special because it is easier to extract this energy completely than uranium due to some of the chemical and nuclear properties of thorium.

New Australia carbon laws to hit CLP

Reuters in Hong Kong 
12:54pm, Nov 08, 2011

Hong Kong-based regional power utility CLP Holdings (SEHK: 0002) said on Tuesday that its this year results will likely be hurt by Australia’s newly passed carbon law.

“As a consequence, the financial results of CLP Holdings for this year are expected to be adversely impacted,” CLP, which has big investment in Australia’s power generation industry, said in a filing with the Hong Kong stock exchange.

Australia’s parliament passed landmark laws to impose a price on carbon emissions on Tuesday in one of the biggest economic reforms in a decade, giving new impetus to December global climate talks in South Africa.

The scheme’s impact will be felt right across the economy, from miners to LNG producers, airlines and steelmakers and is aimed at making companies more energy efficient and push power generation towards gas and renewables.

Shares of CLP were trading at HK$70.90 at midday on Tuesday, up 0.07 per cent