Green Innovation Time

The African Women Water Sanitation and Hygiene Network (AWWASHNET) has decried the state of water infrastructure in communities across Lagos, even as it demands innovative financing of the sector within the realm of public control. Observers believe that the bulk of the Lagos population have limited access to potable water AWWASHNET made the demand after carrying out a fact-finding visit to different communities in Lagos, including Orile-Iganmu, Okokomaiko, Orile Agege, among others, drawing the conclusion that the state’s water infrastructure were in dire straits. The group said women bear the brunt of the lack of water as they would have to go the extra mile to ensure they have adequate water for drinking and other domestic uses. Vice Chairperson of AWWASHNET, Vickie Uremma, said: “In the communities visited, the stark reality of lack of water and rotting water infrastructure stared us in the face. Clearly, all the talk of the state government about guaranteeing access t

© PureMadi Access to clean water is an ever-present struggle for over 780 million people on the planet -- so no wonder affordable and effective water purification tools are considered life-savers in such cases. Based out of the University of Virginia, the non-profit organization  PureMadi  has come up with an easy-to-use water purification system that combines ceramics with copper and silver nanoparticles to clean up to 99.9% of the potentially deadly pathogens found in water. © PureMadi Bringing together the experience of the university's students and faculty members from various disciplines, PureMadi has been making ceramic water filters of the same name for the past year out of a factory in Limpopo province, South Africa.  ScienceDaily  details how the filter -- which has been tested extensively at the university -- works: The filters are made of local clay, sawdust and water. Those materials are mixed and pressed into a mold. The result is a flowerpot-shaped filte

© Kikando The lack of clean water has become a serious problem worldwide, thanks to industrial contamination,  agricultural  and urban  pollution , and even from seemingly innocuous acts such as washing your  synthetic fiber clothes . It's hard not to contribute to the problem. But might we find viable solutions by emulating processes found in nature? That's what Royal College of Art design graduate  Pratik Ghosh  is aiming for his design for a home water purification system, which looks like a terrarium and is designed to filter and clean water like a "mini-Amazon rainforest." See how it works: Drop by drop  from  pratik ghosh  on  Vimeo . Called  Drop By Drop , Ghosh's enclosed design is like a mini-ecosystem, incorporating one square foot of plants, plus a pump-activated vacuum system that uses water pressure, transpiration, evaporation and condensation of water to produce about three-quarters of a cup of purified water a day. Says Ghosh: Th

©  Kogalla Personal lighting just took a huge leap forward with the Kogalla RA. Good lighting can make all the difference, not just in a home or business, but during all sorts of activities, from cycling to running to camping, hiking, and adventure sports. Having easy access to a light that clearly illuminates your trail, worksite, or even just the sidewalk is one key component of a safer, more productive, and enjoyable outing after dark. What was once the sole domain of gas- and battery-powered lanterns ended up giving way to handheld flashlights, which dominated until soon after the commercialization of LED bulbs, but has now been slowly giving up ground to LED headlamps that let users go hands-free. With the current state of LED bulb and battery technology, it's now possible to pick up a cheap, lightweight, energy efficient, and bright LED headlamp or flashlight right from the impulse buy section at the local hardware, auto parts, or home improvement store. Headlamps,

The lanterns will be distributed to female headed households within IDP (internally displaced persons) communities in Mogadishu, as part of a renewable energy project financed by the OPEC Fund for International Development (OFID). Solar lanterns can significantly improve safety, especially for women and girls in IDP communities, and provide the opportunity for school children to study after dark. The lanterns are also a clean and safe source of light that can replace potentially hazardous forms of lighting such as candles and kerosene lamps, helping to reduce the risk of fire, and the negative health impacts of burning kerosene indoors. Each household will receive a pair of lanterns: one which can be used for cooking and charging mobile phones, and to provide safety by lighting the way to toilets and other areas of the camps, and one for the specific purpose of enabling children to study in the evenings. Mr. Elmi Omar Elmi, Deputy Minister for the Federal Ministry for Humanita

If you think you can use the solar panels on your roof to power your home during an outage, think again. During an outage, while your home remains connected to the grid, the devices that manage your solar panels are powered down for safety reasons. In other words, this permanent connection to the grid makes it impossible for homeowners to draw on power generated by their own renewable energy resources. A team of engineers at the University of California San Diego wants to change this. They have developed algorithms that would allow homes to use and share power from their renewable energy sources during outages by strategically disconnecting these devices, called solar inverters, from the grid. The algorithms work with existing technology and would improve systems' reliability by 25 to 35 percent. Researchers detail the algorithms and their applications in a paper they presented at the American Control Conference in Seattle, Wash. "We were inspired to start investigatin

Organic solar cells are flexible, transparent, and light-weight -- and can be manufactured in arbitrary shapes or colors. Thus, they are suitable for a variety of applications that cannot be realized with conventional silicon solar cells. In the  Energy Technology  journal, researchers from KIT now present sunglasses with colored, semitransparent solar cells applied onto lenses that supply a microprocessor and two displays with electric power. This paves the way for other future applications such as the integration of organic solar cells into windows or overhead glazing. "We bring solar power to places where other solar technologies fail," says Dr. Alexander Colsmann, Head of Organic Photovoltaics Group at KIT's Light Technology Institute (LTI). The "smart" Solar Glasses designed as a case study by the scientist and his team at KIT, is self-powered to measure and display the solar illumination intensity and ambient temperature. The solar cell lenses, perfe

Power minister, Mr. Babatunde Fashola, has disclosed that the new mini grid regulation recently passed by the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) to promote investments in the country’s distributed energy market, has resulted in the procurement and development of two new solar power projects,  OGN  reports. Speaking at the 19th edition of the monthly power sector operators meeting in Lagos, Fashola disclosed that the NERC had licensed the procurement and development of the two new solar power projects on the back of its inauguration of the regulation. He said one of the projects to be sited in Abuja would provide stable electricity to 145 households and five businesses, while noting that there is another one scheduled for completion and commissioning in Kano shortly. The regulation, contains a net-metering for very small capacities (typically below 1MW); feed-in tariff for capacities up to 5 megawatts (MW) of solar, 10 MW of wind, 10 MW of biomass, and 30MW of smal

A Nigerian startup, Saja, has rolled out its solar-powered mobile phone charging carts in Lagos, which enhance the ability of micro-entrepreneurs to develop their businesses. Saja which was established in May, is a beneficiary of Lagos State Employment Trust Fund (LSETF) loan, and piloted its carts at the NYSC Orientation Camp in Lagos and at the RCCG’s Redemption camp. It has so far deployed 10 carts and charges over 200 phones daily. Co-founder of Saja, Seyi Fakoya, said he was inspired to launch the firm after coming across a vendor who sells airtime by the roadside charging people’s phones using a generator. It plans to also provide agent banking services, point of sale, merchandise and other services. Saja currently makes money via transaction fees, customer acquisition fees, direct service fees and advertising on its carts. SOURCE: energymixreport.com

Report reaching us says that while diesel and petrol consumption increased, the use of bio diesel declined in the first half of 2017, although the higher quota on GHG emission has been in force since January 2017. Bio ethanol remained almost at the year-ago level. March 2017 recorded the highest demand for bio diesel over the past six months, at more than 206,000 tonnes. This was the largest amount since July 2014. However, bio diesel use had been especially low in previous months. consequently, domestic use of bio diesel from January to June 2017 sank to 1.4 million tonnes. This translates to a 7 per cent drop year-on-year. Since at the same time, consumption of diesel rose 5.3 percent to 18.06 million tonnes, the incorporation rate came down considerably. source: biofuelsdigest.com

The European Commission will by September 28 cut anti-dumping duties on Argentine bio diesel imports to between 4.5% and 8.1% from the 22% and 25.7% levels set in November 2013 following a World Trade Organization ruling in October 2016. The WTO that said the duties were too high and led to Argentina losing $1.3 billion in sales annually. The Argentine industry is breathing a sigh of relief, thanks to regaining market access to Europe but the European industry worries that moving in the opposite direction as the United States who just imposed even higher tariffs than the EU had put the market at risk of absorbing excess availability. source: biofuelsdigest.com

After the government raised ethanol prices by just over 1% over August, it also raised bio diesel prices by about 2.7% in September for oil companies who must achieve the 10% blending mandate with prices varying depending on the type of producer from $703.3 per metric ton for the largest, integrated producers to $907.7 per ton for the smallest producers. the export tax was also raised to 0.13% in September from zero the month prior. source:biofuelsdigest.com

As a result of the successful pilot running of a new bio diesel technology developed by Alberto Luiz Coimbra Institute for Graduate Studies and Engineering Research in Rio de Janeiro, China's Biostar Company has proposed to buy an 80% stake in Mato Grosso-based Producao de Biodiesel Parecis Ltda inorder to produce bio diesel using the new technology for Brazilian market. The Brazilian side expects use of the new technology to contribute to the commitment signed by Brazil to increase the use of biofuels in the country’s energy structure to around 18% by 2030. The new technology was developed in China and was the subject of a pilot experiment at the Alberto Luiz Coimbra Institute for Graduate Studies and Engineering Research (Coppe), linked to the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ), which proved its. commercial viability.- macauhub.com.mo

Income can increase for Nigeria from the 47 million tons of cassava tubers that are produced in the country every year and it could become a focus for the country's industrial growth. Cassava is used mainly for food consumption in Nigeria but could be maximally utilized for industrial purpose such as biofuel, livestock feed, flour, wine or any of more than 2,000 uses of cassava in the world because Nigeria is the largest producer of cassava tubers in the world. It would be more beneficial to make for Nigeria to make cassava a national crop and give it a deserving attention. The National Cassava Producers Association believes that the country can save up to $2.54 billion in ethanol imports annually and realize $4.13 billion in revenue if utilized for the production of ethanol. Presently, only 3% of ethanol consumption is produced locally. A previous administration in Nigeria pushed for 20% inclusion of cassava bread to reduce wheat flour importation but processors didn&

A Nigerian Non-Governmental Organization has advocated against the move of International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) and Zurich, Switzerland-based ETHZ laboratories to carry out a controlled trial of GM cassava as a potential ethanol feed stock, claiming that the attempts was a sly way to open the door for other GM crops such as corn and cotton. The modification to the cassava is so that the roots lose less starch after harvesting to allow more flexibility in storage and handling before processing into ethanol. source: biofuelsdigest.com

Dirk Wagener, the UN Environment Coordinator for Resource Efficiency Program said the governments have to collaborate with the private sector to help address the challenges to be able to be at par with other continents. "Policies and regulatory frameworks are necessary to create the incentives to develop green businesses and to mainstream Sustainable Consumption and Production (SCP) practices," Wegener said at the launch of Kenya Switch Africa Green (SAG) Networking Forum in Nairobi. Wegener observed that policies should be combined with support that enables producers and consumers to adopt more environment and climate friendly practices. "This can be done by nurturing eco-innovation and green business development, helping firms to capture opportunities for reducing or changing their resource use, minimizing waste, developing and marketing new products and services, and increasing demand for such products and services," he added. He said that since t