By Tina Casey •
September 1, 2009
Electricity is the ultimate portable fuel, so running a car on electricity opens a world of possibilities in terms of harvesting and using sustainable energy while on the go. Thermoelectric innovator Amerigon Incorporated has one especially interesting approach: capture the waste energy from the car’s engine exhaust and recycle it into electric power. Through its BSST subsidiary and with $1.1 million in backing from the U.S Department of Energy, Amerigon is entering the fifth phase of the project. Completion is targeted for March 31, 2010, and then look out, world.
By now, we’ve all heard about the environmental and social costs of large-scale coffee farming: lost biodiversity, unfairly reimbursed farmers, pesticide pollution and more. Another downside, though, might be less familiar: ecosystem damage caused by coffee-processing wastewater.
According to the EPA, “The wastewater produced from the wet-processing of coffee places a heavy burden on the local ecosystems. Currently, there are few environmentally sound measures that monitor the discharge of this effluent. It is often discarded in a manner that disrupts both streams and the local water supplies.”
What’s the solution? A team of students at Appalachian State University, located in Boone, North Carolina, think they might have the answer. You might call it (as the EPA has) “fair-trade ethanol.”
