refrigerators go on greenhouse gas diet

refrigerators go on greenhouse gas diet

GE says it will switch the gases used when pouring in foam insulation for refrigerator products, slashing the amount of greenhouse gases from production.

GE will change the gas used when pouring in foam insulation for refrigerator products, a move which will reduce greenhouse gases from production significantly.

General Electric's latest green-technology initiative will be found in unlikely place: the inside of a refrigerator.

The industrial giant tomorrow will announce that it has changed its refrigerator manufacturing to use a gas that dramatically reduces the amount of greenhouse gases emitted. GE will host an event at a Decatur, Ala., plant where the atmosphere-friendly gas has first been introduced into GE's refrigerators.

The gas, called cyclopentane, is used as a blowing agent for the foam insulation poured into refrigeration products during manufacture. GE said it will spend about $16 million to convert its Decatur facility, part of a larger investment in the facility, to use cyclopentane instead of HFC 134a, a refrigerant which traps heat in the atmosphere.

By switching over, GE will eliminate the same amount of greenhouse gases that 78,000 cars emit in a year, representing a 99 percent reduction, according to GE. The calculations were made using EPA data for the global-warming potential of different gases and were done in conjunction with consulting company GreenOrder, a GE representative said.

GE Appliances is making the switch to live up to the company's Ecomagination initiative to develop green-technology products and reduce the company's environmental footprint, said Paul Surowiec, the general manager for refrigeration at GE Appliances and Lighting. The company took a "clean sheet" approach to making refrigeration products to consider the performance as well as the environmental attributes from production to disposal, he said.

"There certainly were pockets before but we've seen a significant increase in the desire of consumers to hold us accountable for environmental stewardship," Surowiec said. "We were looking for optimization from an environment and energy perspective and this one hit home."

During operation, the blowing agent will improve the effectiveness of the insulation slightly, he added. GE earlier this year said it will participate in an EPA program to dispose of refrigerators so that ozone-depleting and greenhouse gases are captured when they are recycled.

The company plans to introduce cyclopentane to its other refrigeration products manufactured in the U.S. by 2014.

The Urban and Industrial Environment: Hydrological Effects and Waste Management

The Urban and Industrial Environment:

Hydrological Effects and Waste Management

• What is urban runoff?
• How does urbanization affect water quality?
• What are the main pollutant in urban runoff and in sewage water?
• What are the main problems associated with urban waste management?
• How can urban waste be used in agriculture?

1. Introduction

One of the striking features of the distribution of the world's population is the tendency for large human concentrations to occur near vast expanses of water. Since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution, urban development have influenced the flow and storage of water, as well as the quality of available fresh water.

Urbanization has had significant impacts on the hydrology of the environment by controlling:

Nature of runoff (water from precipitation or irrigation that does not evaporate or seep into the soil but flows into rivers, streams, or lakes, and may carry sediment);

Rates of soil erosion; and

Delivery of pollutants to rivers, streams, lakes and ocean.

A summary of these impacts using a historical model of urbanization has been presented by Savini and Kammerer (1961) and is reproduced here in Table 1. It is important to emphasize that hydrological perturbations often produce detrimental effects on water quality rather than quantity. 

go green save the world

Go Green Save the World Save the Children

At one point last year when the financial crisis transformed into an economic one I was discussing with my environmentalist friends the possible effects over the environment. We split between the following three – the drop of industrial production will have a beneficial effect; the lack of resources will discourage scientific research and this will damage the pro-green efforts in the long run; politicians will be preoccupied with bailing out companies and saving jobs and will lack the time and will to deal with climate change. What is unfolding now is a combination of the three, but the recent news make me think the efforts to reverse climate change are still on top of the agenda.

Yesterday president Obama announced an ambitions plan for car emission cuts in the US. The plan will make car-manufacturers produce vehicles that run at least 35 miles per gallon  on average with current standards being 25 miles per gallon. This means that all SUVs, ATVs, cars and motorbikes will run at an average cost of around 6,7 liters per km. This is indeed a major step in the US legislation, especially considering that it took 30 years for the US to adopt its first car efficiency bill 18 months ago. Only half a year later we see a significant improvement in standards and also a requirement for increase of car efficiency by 5% annually.  This is good for three reasons

Manufacturers have clear standards and know what their limitations are in the long run

Drivers will use more efficient cars and spend less on oil, which they certainly look forward to after the record prices of 4 USD per gallon from 2007

Less fuel will be spent and the car emissions will be cut by 1/3 by 2016.

The so called California standards introduced long ago by the Governor Schwarzenegger are now embraced by the biggest economy in the world. As we can see the new American president keeps the environment high on the agenda, as he pledged in his election campaign So far car manufacturers such as Ford have been producing energy efficient cars for Europe and Japan but still have not applied green standards for the US market. Now such companies will have the opportunity to be leaders, while others will start new investment programs. In fact it is the US government that starts these programs, as it already has a lot of control over the car-manufacturing industry in the US because of the crisis.