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A partnership of New Zealand companies have perfected the art of turning toilet waste-water – sewage, by any other name – into “bio-crude,” an oil substitute that can provide 15% of a town’s energy needs from its own waste.  The secret, as with all the best inventions, is mother nature: algae process the waste and, with the help of the sun, transform it into a substance that can be further processed into oil, petrol, diesel, kerosene or bitumen.

The New Zealand project’s technology is essentially a network of wastewater ponds that grow algae, fed by carbon dioxide generated from the nearby Christchurch Wastewater Treatment Plant. The algae is harvested and sent to the Solray Energy plant, where it is routed through reaction tubes under pressures of 6,000 psi and 400 degree C heat and expressed as biocrude.

The companies behind the project are New Zealand’s Solray Energy, chemical engineers Solvent Rescue and mechanical engineers Rayners. The “Algae to Oil Conversion Technology” venture is funded by both government and private sources, a combination of Solray, the Foundation for Research, Science and Technology, and the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research (NIWA).

While 15% of a community’s energy needs may not sound like a lot, the impact of taking all that waste out of the ecosystem can’t be underestimated.

According to Barry O’Leary, chief executive of IDA Ireland, Ireland has some of the best wind and wave resources in the world. “Onshore wind turbines could account for 35 per cent of our energy needs and Ireland has the highest wave energy resource in Europe,” O’Leary writes in the current issue of Heritage Outlook, the Heritage Council magazine. Add 15% waste water to 35% wind and that’s already half-way to sustainable Energy Independence – better than the Copenhagen targets!

“Let it rain, let it rain, let it rain…” What if our beloved Irish rain was actually a national energy asset? Following on from my last post about piezoelectricity generated from foot and car traffic, brilliant minds at CEA/Leti-Minatec, an R&D institute in Grenoble, France, have recently developed a system that can harvest energy from falling raindrops.  “Our work could be considered as a good alternative to power systems in raining outdoor environments where solar energy is difficult to exploit,” Thomas Jager told PhysOrg.com, and he could be speaking specifically to Ireland, where, especially in winter, we can’t guarantee the sun, but can expect a healthy dose of rain.

For those of you with a technical bent, this is how it works: the scientists use a polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) polymer, a piezoelectric material that converts mechanical energy into electrical energy. When a raindrop impacts the 25-micrometer-thick PVDF, the polymer starts to vibrate. Electrodes embedded in the PVDF are used to recover the electrical charges generated by the vibrations, thus converting the raindrop’s mechanical energy into electrical energy.

Slow falling, large raindrops generate the most energy because raindrops falling at high speeds often lose some energy due to splash.  The scientists haven’t yet developed the mechanism for storing this energy, but surely with developments in wind and wave power surely this can’t be far behind?

A number of other organizations are working on piezoelectric devices as well: Zhong Lin Wang at the Georgia Institute of Technology has devised a sensor that can harvest mechanical energy by bending zinc oxide nanowires: he wants to put it in a shoe, so as you walk you generate power. There’s also Trevor Baylis, inventor of the wind-up radio, who designed and used a piezoelectric boot to power his mobile phone during a hike across the Namib desert.  TEXON International is looking to raise £1m to further develop these electric shoes.

One of the beauties of piezoelectricity is that the tools involved are not beyond the reach of a clever diy inventor: while not everyone has PDVF lying around, the essence of piezoelectricity is a copper wire, that when bent produces a negative/positive charge; when the pressure on the wire is relieved, an electrical current can be detected.  So who’s up for singing in the rain?

Remember the classic sitcom “The Good Life?”  John Seymour, the man whose books inspired the series, spent the latter part of his life on his small holding in Wexford.   Despite his profound commitment to being self-sufficient and living off-grid, towards the end of his life he told Patrick Bridgeman of Positive Life that total self-sufficiency was just too difficult; what he envisioned for the future was co-sufficiency: self-reliant local communities that could work together to meet their needs and make the transition to a post-industrial society independent of fossil fuel.

To this end, the Cultivate Centre has developed a course to nurture community sustainability called “Community Powerdown – Training for Leadership, Livelihoods and Local Resilience.”  It can be taken as a weekend intensive workshop or over a ten-week period.  The Powerdown Show, made for broadcast on DCTV, is also available from Cultivate as a DVD.  We can’t all live off-grid or in eco-communities, but within the lifestyles we already enjoy we can change so much to improve our co-sufficiency - this show might just be The Good Life for the twenty-first century!

It’s a dog’s life - sometimes being a website mascot is really demanding!  I’ve been on three photo-shoots now, and not once did someone style my hair or offer me any mascara.  Still, what can you expect from humans?  I forgive them - the main thing is that I’ll do anything to promote carpooling - besides the joy of car-surfing, I really hate smog and traffic.  My humans also seem to like sharing costs - and if they’re saving money they might be able to afford the odd treat for me, which is important!  Have a read of the article and see what you think - is my hair okay?

Eco-Living, Eco-Loving!  Would you like to live without a mortgage or an electricity bill? Last weekend’s Eco-Living Festival in Drumnsa, Co. Leitrim showed you how.  The event was hosted and organized by Permaculture Ireland; permaculture, according to Wikipedia, “is an approach to designing human settlements and perennial agricultural systems that mimic the relationships found in the natural ecologies…The intent is that, by rapidly training individuals in a core set of design principles, those individuals can design their own environments and build increasingly self-sufficient human settlements — ones that reduce society’s reliance on industrial systems of production and distribution.”  And the hosts of the event are living proof that the principles work – even in boggy “bad” Leitrim land. Sian Cowman demonstrated the virtues (and taste!) of permaculture food: growing your own in a non-dig garden. Non-dig is great because it doesn’t disturb the crucial earthworms underneath and also, unlike in conventional farming, the precious topsoil doesn’t dry out and blow away.  Digging also releases CO2, and requires a lot of energy, human, animal, or machine.  In contrast, permaculture is all about mulch: take a 6-foot patch, and in September simply cut the grass and weeds in the area that you plan to plant, leave the cuttings in place, cover this with wet cardboard, cover that with straw and leave it sit until spring, when planting is easy and the soil is rich, and plants and herbs just love it.  There are far too many good ideas to mention here, but you can get more info at permacultureireland - it’s both the newest and the oldest way of living on the earth. Permaculture shelter is embodied in Peter Cowman’s amazing is home: a 25 metre squared “econospace,” built by himself and friends for only €7,000, where he and his family live on their own wind-generated electricity.  No mortgage, no car, no connection to the grid: this family walk the green walk all the way to their outdoor bathtub, where they build a fire underneath and bathe under the stars! Check out Peter’s website for more information about courses and shelter-building.  Without a mortgage and a food bill, how would your life change?