By Tina Casey •
September 3, 2009
New advances in lithium-ion batteries are making energy storage more effcient, less expensive, and more ready for a deep plunge into the mass market. With application far beyond electric cars - think cell phones, laptops, grid storage, power tools, and even lawn mowers - it is only a matter of time before the world is awash in billions of used lithium-ion batteries.
The emerging lithium-ion battery recycling industry has a lot of catching up to do, but at least two companies are rising to meet the challenge of making the technology more sustainable, Toxco Inc in the U.S. and Nippon Mining & Metals Co Ltd in Japan, both of which are developing new recycling processes.
By Becky Striepe •
June 29, 2009
[Creative Commons photo by Unbridled Transportaton]
California’s South Coast Air Quality Management District, which includes Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside and San Bernardino counties, offered huge discounts to residents who wanted to swap their gas guzzling lawn mowers for electric.
Gas-powered lawn mowers are terrible polluters, but they’ll have to clean up their act in the next few years. So say new regulations announced this week by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
Under the EPA’s new standards, small spark-ignition engines such as those used in lawn mowers will have to reduce their hydrocarbon emissions by 35 percent starting in 2011. Gas-powered boats and other personal watercraft will also have to cut their pollution levels, with those new restrictions coming into play in 2010.
By Max Lindberg •
January 29, 2008
The guy in the picture is JP Patten, entrepreneur and computer expert, shown with his newly outfitted biodiesel lawn mowers. Now, I think this guy’s got a great idea, he buys lawnmower motors from China, takes them apart, rebuilds them so they burn waste grease from deep fryers.
So far, so good. He says the engines are more powerful and more efficient than their gas counterparts, and they cause much less pollution. Ok, I’m sold, but how much are they?
