Ethanol made from straw flows at Shell pump

A Shell service station in Ottawa this week started pumping gasoline mixed with ethanol made from wheat straw, what the company is calling the first commercial delivery of cellulosic ethanol.

The ethanol was made by Iogen which has a process that uses enzymes to break down straw so it can be converted into ethanol. Shell is an investor in the Ottawa-based Iogen, which has been working on a demonstration facility since 2004.

Shell Canada is hosting a press event at the service station where Canadian government officials are scheduled to be on hand. Cellulosic ethanol is less polluting than corn ethanol and offers up to 90 percent fewer lifecycle carbon emissions than gasoline, according to Shell.

The fuel at the service station will be 10 percent cellulosic ethanol, made from agricultural residue.

Shell has partnered with a few companies in an effort to create a biofuels business. Its demonstration on Wednesday, however, doesn't mean that Iogen is able to produce cellulosic ethanol at commercial scale yet.
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CERN director: Wind is not the future

While the Obama administration has expressed increasing hopes that wind power will play a key role in America's future energy system, one of the world's leading scientists is ruling out the technology.

Jack Steinberger, the 1968 Nobel Prize winner in physics and director of CERN's particle-physics laboratory, spoke at a conference of Nobel laureates at the 350-year-old Royal Society in London recently.

His conclusion: "Wind is not the future," according to the London Times.

Steinberger says Europe should cancel its big wind plans and that solar energy is the future.

Historical resources in the energy-hungry world are being depleted, he said, predicting that fossil fuels, coal, and oil will be gone in 60 years. But the solution, he asserted, is not wind power.
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The "eco ideas" house that Panasonic is building

World Environment Day may have come and gone quietly for most Singaporeans more concerned about the warehouse sales taking place over the weekend. But the media was at least privy to what might prove to be a good kick in the collective behind for the emergence of an Asia-Pacific eco-consciousness. For the first time perhaps, Friday saw a Japanese company (hopefully, not the last) articulate its green commitment to the Asia-Pacific region outside of Japan.

Panasonic's pledge will see it kicking off eco awareness programs, eco-friendly products and carbon emission initiatives in Asia Pacific, before it looks to the West. Why Asia? Simply because most of the company's factories are in this region, said Panasonic's pragmatic managing executive officer Ikuo Miyamoto who takes the JR train and bus to work as an example to his subordinates.
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Android monitors your power readings while you do dishes

This is one of those, "well I didn't really need this, but the fact that this is even possible is pretty frakking cool" stories.

From Moto Labs, those same wacky guys who brought us the Scalable Multitouch display, comes the DIY Android Home Energy Monitor (or AHEM, as in "ahem, look at my clever acronym").

The AHEM can use an average wireless network to track your utility readings and post them on your Google home page. Here's how it works. Wireless Webcams take pictures of the ever-changing dials on the user's utility meters.
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Sony Ericsson plans to make all phones green

Swedish-Japanese phone maker Sony Ericsson on Thursday announced targets for reducing CO2 emissions.

The initiative, part of its pre-existing GreenHeart program launched in September 2008, is intended to reduce emissions by 20 percent across internal operations and by 15 percent over the full life cycle of its products by 2015.

Sony Ericsson plans to roll its green strategy into its entire portfolio over time, which is different from focusing on individual green products, such as Nokia's Green 3110 or Motorola's Renew W233.
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