RETURN2GREEN VISITS LARGEST RICE MILL IN NORTHERN GHANA

September 26, 2011 – Tamalee, Ghana
Press Release

RETURN2GREEN VISITS LARGEST RICE MILL IN NORTHERN GHANA

Ms. Lily He of Return2Green International and Professor Zhou call on Minister of Food and Agriculture Regional Director and Council Members to introduce new technologies for manufacturing with agro-waste and distributed energy using agro-waste as fuel.

The group also visited Nasia Rice Co. Ltd, the largest rice mill in Northern Ghana, which was assisted by Africa Development Bank. Nasia Rice Co. Ltd produces 830,000 kg rice of chaff per month.

The factory is literally choking itself with rice chaff waste, a common problem with all rice producers.

Rice husks have to be shipped to distant locations to be burned, which costs money and creates harmful emissions.

Next, Ms. He and Prof. Zhou met with Chief Andani Abdulai II, director of Ghana Council for Scientific and Industrial Research to discuss the potentials of starting up Return2Green projects in different regions of Ghana.

Over the last 4 days, high level meetings have indicated a very strong interest in Return2Green project proposals. They are much needed and a great fit for Ghana’s rural areas and industries.

RETURN2GREEN VISITS EJURA MAIZE FARMS IN EFFORT TO ENHANCE FARMER INCOMES AND REDUCE TONS OF CO2

September 24, 2011 – Ejura, Ghana
Press Release

RETURN2GREEN VISITS EJURA MAIZE FARMS IN EFFORT TO ENHANCE FARMER INCOMES AND REDUCE TONS OF CO2 BEING CREATED BY BURNING OF AGRICULTURAL WASTE

Ms. Lily He, President of Return2Green International, visited expansive maize farms in Ejura, the largest maize producing district in Ashanti, with officials from The Ministry of Food and Agricultural. The purpose of the visit was to gain cooperation with the Farmer’s Association for a public and private investment program in which agricultural waste from
the farms is collected for use as Distributed Energy Fuel and raw materials for MZ-3 flower pots.

By collecting the agro-waste for alternative uses; as opposed to burning it, thousands of tons of CO2 per year that harm the environment will be eliminated. Additionally, thousands of hours of paid working time for farmers at the manufacturing plants will be created, thus adding to their economic and social status.

The program which is still in the development stages is intended to be spread around the entire country creating substantial positive effects for thousands of Ghanaians.

Energy Secretary Chu's Vision of Coal

America's Energy Czar Is Taking a New Look At Coal Technologies. 

U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu is really an academic. But he's is learning the art of politics while on the job. The Nobel-prize winning scientist, who had once called coal his "worst nightmare," spoke to a largely pro-coal audience in West Virginia.

Chu, who was tapped by President Obama to serve, has never shied away from his belief that coal is largely responsible for creating climate change. His views have evolved, however, to the point where he realizes that the nation - indeed the world - is not going to just replace the preponderance of its generation supplies overnight.

That's why he has subscribed to the White House's position that the U.S. will become a leader in the development of clean coal technologies and specifically carbon capture and sequestration. With financial assistance from the federal stimulus act, the secretary said that as many as 10 projects could be commercialized within 8-10 years and that electric prices would only increase 10-20 percent because of it.

He went on tell the audience in Charleston, WV that the level of heat-trapping emissions has increased by 40 percent since the start of the industrial revolution. However, the White House has allocated $3.4 billion to clean coal technologies that will help keep coal relevant. Without that, it would lose ground to higher-priced natural gas.

Climate change is "man-made" and "human fingerprints are all over it," intoned Chu. But he then repeated the administration's official position, saying that "these new technologies will not only help fight climate change, they will create jobs now and help position the United States to lead the world in clean coal technologies, which will only increase in demand in the years ahead."

The energy secretary was joined on stage by U.S. Senator Jay Rockefeller, D-WV, who has proposed legislation to block for two years efforts by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to write regulations that would curb carbon dioxide emissions - a right bestowed on it by the U.S. Supreme Court a couple years ago. But while Rockefeller said that such rules would likely be delayed, they could not be stopped. 

Rockefeller, who said he was in the business of preserving jobs for coal miners, referred to EPA regulations that are set to take effect early next year as "harmful regulations." At the same time, he said he was not one of those who believed that global warming was a myth and then went on to urge those who espouse such thinking to quit "burying their heads in the sand."

"I agree with the science of climate change," Rockefeller told the audience. "Greenhouse gas emissions are not healthy for the earth. It will not go away if we ignore the issue. There will be some additional regulations within a couple years."

Commercializing Technologies

With the EPA's newfound authority, it holds the bargaining power. And it is under pressure from green groups and some Democratic lawmakers to exercise its rights and to enact tougher restrictions on carbon emissions. Others, though, think it is simply trying to use its authority as a lever to force Congress to write its own rules.

As it stands now, power plants and other factories that emit 25,000 tons or more of carbon dioxide a year will operate under the new rules. If such facilities are modernized, or if new ones are built, they would then be required to install "best available technologies." EPA estimates that 10,000 plants would be affected -- units that produce about 85 percent of all emissions.

An earlier but similar rulemaking also requires the formation of a registry to force the same industrial concerns to not just tabulate their heat-trapping emissions but to also consider ways to reduce them. In effect, what gets measured gets managed. That, in turn, would make it more feasible to enact national policy that would require cuts in those releases and could facilitate the implementation of a cap-and-trade system.

While the U.S. Senate seems unable to muster the super-majority needed to pass a climate change bill, it does seem poised to block EPA's latest rulemaking. The U.S. House, by comparison, has passed an energy bill that would enact a cap-and-trade program that sets emission limits for carbon. Industries that exceed those requirements could then acquire credits and either bank them or sell them to those that are unable to meet those goals.

Supporters of cap-and-trade that include the Obama administration say it will work. The best example of just how effective the strategy can be is the program used to reduce sulfur dioxide, or acid rain. Since the measure was enacted as part of the Clean Air Act of 1990, such pollutants have fallen by 50 percent from 1980 levels while the benefits of the program are four-to-five times greater than the costs.

But Secretary Chu focused his talk on carbon capture and sequestration. He pointed to the 10-megawatt trial by American Electric Power at its Mountaineer plant in WV - a project that got $334 million in federal funds. If it is successful at burying the carbon, the utility will then try a 200-megawatt project in Oklahoma. And if that works, proponents say that the technology that uses chilled ammonia could be commercialized by 2015.

Making carbon capture and sequestration commercially viable and widely deployable may be crucial to the future of coal, says Charles McElwee, a West Virginia-based attorney, and Gary Spitznogle of AEP. West Virginia, they say, is dependent on such progress; it has the fourth largest recoverable coal reserves in the country and it generates 97 percent of its electricity from coal.

With such forces coming at him, Secretary Chu has pulled back from his earlier views on coal. Now, the secretary is part of an administration that is committed to reducing carbon emissions while also commercializing the technologies to enable such progress.

Article by Ken Silverstein, EnergyBizInsider

New "Volcano" Biomass Plant Runs on Palm Kernel Shells

There is a new green power plant that may be coming to Stockton-on-Tees, England, that sounds fantastic – and looks amazing, too.

The volcano-shaped biomass plant is going to run on the discarded palm kernel shells from an existing palm oil plantation. This means, the energy source is not only sustainable, but will not require that any farm land be repurposed in order to create the fuel. The plant will be built on the bank of a river and the shells will be transported to the plant by ship rather than land, so as not to increase local road traffic.

Excess heat that is generated by the plant will be converted into heat for local homes. The biomass plant is expected to create only 20% of the carbon emissions of a standard coal-burning power plant – and that includes the shipping of the palm shells from Malaysia.

Construction is scheduled to begin near the end of this year on the proposed green power station.

Article By: Eloah James Courtesy of Got2beGreen.com