Tag Archives: source
Global house prices rise by 4% but vary from 14% growth to fall of 9.4%
House prices around the world have increased by 4% in the year to June 2016, led by Turkey whiles prices in parts of Asia have cooled considerably, the latest index shows. Turkey leads the rankings in the Knight Frank global house index but its annual rate of growth has slipped from 19% to 14% while […] The post Global house prices rise by 4% but vary from 14% growth to fall of 9.4% appeared first on PropertyWire . Continue reading
Wood: Fastest Growing Heating Fuel In America
October 03, 2013 • Source: USCensus/IHB Recently official released statistics from the US Census Bureau reveal that wood or wood pellets are again the fastest growing heating fuel in America. In 2012, 63.566 more families used wood or pellets as a primary heating fuel, a 2.6% increase over 2011. Wood and pellet home heating grew by 34% in 10 years (2000-2010), ”faster than any other of the fossil fuels, including solar and natural gas”, says US Census. Moreover, oil and propane use continuously declined since 2010. At the present, 2.5 million American households use wood as a primary heating fuel. Comparing with 500.000 that use solar panels and only 50.000 that use solar termal heating, wood is by far the most used renewable energy in the United States. 2.1% of Americans use wood or wood pellets as a primary heating fuel (2000: 1,6%) and 7,7% US households use it as a secondary heating fuel, according to the 2009 EIA Renewable Energy Consumption Survey. The US Census Bureau started recording heating data in 1950. Since then, wood heating has had some discordant fluctuations: in 1950, 10% of the US population was using wood as a heating method; to drop at 1,3% in 1970 at an all-time low. By 1990, this percentage went up to 3,9%, to drop again at 1.6% in 2000. Continue reading
Researchers Focus On Switchgrass As A Renewable Fuel Source
Robin WhitlockTuesday, 10 September 2013 Fungi and bacteria could be made to act on switchgrass in order to reduce the cost of ethanol production for biofuel A research team from Clemson University in South Carolina is looking at switchgrass as a potential source of renewable biofuel, examining in particular the action of fungi and bacteria as a means of releasing vital carbohydrates, such as cellulose and xylan, that can then be used to make biofuel. Most plant-based ethanol derives from sugar and starch in corn and sugarcane since the process of producing fuel from biomass, the waste material from vegetation, is still too costly to be competitive with fossil fuels. In part this is because of the process of releasing cellulose and xylan from lignin, which binds cells and structures in woody plants. The removal of lignin is often an important pretreatment step in biofuel production which subsequently enables microbes to convert cellulose and xylan to glucose and xylose which are then fermented in order to obtain alcohol-based biofuel. The Clemson University team is engaged in studying how to free up carbohydrates in switchgrass and waste paper and microbiologist Mike Henson is looking at the bacteria and fungi that can break down the carbohydrates and xylans in order to release the plant sugars. The project, if successful, will help the environment, particularly with regard to improving atmospheric conditions, and promote a sustainable bio-economy based on renewable energy. “It’s not going to be just one organism or just one enzyme,” said Henson. The fungi and the bacteria work additively as a community. The enzyme will be more like an “enzyme cocktail.” Henson’s task involves working out how to trigger enzymes in a particular order so that each enzyme performs its function at a particular time, but in order to do that he has to find the right enzymes first. This process consists of four stages. First, the enzyme and keyed-to molecule have to find each other and then the enzyme should link to the molecule at a specific location termed the “active site. This produces catalysis which then sets off a change in the enzyme-linked molecule either breaking it down or enabling it to combine with another molecule and finally the enzyme delinks from the molecule ready to perform the whole act again. The overall aim is to reduce the expense involved in making ethanol from biomass with the ultimate objective being biofuel that is competitive with fossil fuels at $3 to $4 per gallon. Further information: Clemson University Clemson University Switchgrass website Continue reading
