Dirty Diesel

Why is diesel now bad news?

The mayor of Paris wants the city to become ‘semi-pedestrianised’

The Mayor of Paris Anne Hidalgo wants to ban diesel cars and the pollution they bring from the streets of the French capital. But not long ago, diesel engines were thought to be environmentally friendly. What could have gone wrong?

Opinion on diesel cars has swung widely over the years.

Diesel is a more efficient fuel than petrol, but in the past diesel engines were often noisy and dirty.

Then, with growing concerns over climate change, car manufacturers were urged to produce cleaner, quieter diesel cars to capitalise on their extra fuel efficiency.

The cars were fitted with a trap to catch the particles of smoke associated with the fuel. Several governments rewarded the manufacturing improvements by incentivising the purchase and use of diesel cars.

But the policy has backfired.

Going into reverse

First, there have been problems with the particle traps – some drivers have removed them because they sometimes don’t work properly unless the car is driven hot.

Second, the diesels are still producing nitrogen dioxide (NO2), which irritates the lungs of people with breathing problems. Diesels make several times more NO2 than petrol cars.

Now, in order to meet European air pollution laws, politicians are being forced into an embarrassing U-turn, telling drivers that they’ve decided they don’t much like diesels after all.

MPs in the UK have mooted a scrappage scheme for diesel cars, while the mayor of Paris has called for a ban.

Several European nations are currently in breach of EU clean air laws.

The EU’s NO2 limit was exceeded at 301 sites in 2012, including seven in London. The concentration on Marylebone Road was more than double the limit.

Districts in Athens, Berlin, Brussels, Madrid, Paris, and Rome are also exceeded the ceiling.

Not just carbon: Key pollutants for human health

• Particulate matter (PM): Can cause or aggravate cardiovascular and lung diseases, heart attacks and arrhythmias. Can cause cancer. May lead to atherosclerosis, adverse birth outcomes and childhood respiratory disease. The outcome can be premature death.
• Ozone (O3): Can decrease lung function and aggravate asthma and other lung diseases. Can also lead to premature death.
• Nitrogen oxides (NO2): Exposure to NO2 is associated with increased deaths from heart and lung disease, and respiratory illness.
• Polyaromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), in particular benzo a-pyrene (BaP): Carcinogenic.

Politicians are now scurrying to persuade the courts that they are obeying an EU demand to clean up the air as soon as possible.

Source: BBCNews Read more

Make you Fink on Friday

Deal to turn whisky ‘leftovers’ into biofuel for cars

By-products, like draff, from the Tullibardine distillery are to be turned into biofuel

A deal has been signed to turn by-products from a Scottish distillery into fuel for cars.

In what is claimed to be a world first, the Tullibardine distillery in Perthshire has linked up with a spin-out company from Napier University in Edinburgh.

They plan to use bacteria to feed on the “leftovers” from the whisky making process.

This will produce butanol which can be used to fuel vehicles.

More than 90% of the stuff that comes out of a whisky distillery is not whisky. It is leftovers like draff and pot ales – both produced in the early stages of the process.

They are high in sugar and are currently used for things like fertiliser and cattle feed.

Napier University’s Biofuel Research Centre (BfRC) has already shown that the right bacteria can feed on those by-products to produce butanol – a direct replacement for vehicle fuel.

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What other processes have waste that could be utilised in the manner?

Monday Moaning

Climate change isn’t only affecting things on the ground, but up in the air as well.

Climate change will lead to bumpier flights, say scientists

The shifting of the jet stream over Europe caused by global warming will lead to clear-air turbulence

Flights have become bumpier in the past 44 years, and are set to get worse as climate change affects the jet stream, a study has shown. Photograph: Pictorial Parade/Getty Images

Climate change will lead to bumpier flights caused by increased mid-air turbulence, according to an analysis by scientists of the impact of global warming on weather systems over the next four decades.

The increasing air turbulence results from the impact of climate change on the jet streams, the fast, mile-wide winds that whistle round the planet at the same altitude as airliners. The shifting of the jet stream over Europe has also been blamed for the UK’s wash-out summer in 2012 and frozen spring this year.

The rough ride ahead joins other unexpected impacts of climate change, which include dodgier wi-fi and mobile phone signals and even slower marathon race times for athletes.

Paul Williams, at the University of Reading who led the new research, said: “Air turbulence does more than just interrupt the service of in-flight drinks. It injures hundreds of passengers and aircrew every year. It also causes delays and damages planes, with the total cost to society being about £100m each year.”

The study, which used the same turbulence models that air traffic controllers use every day, found that the frequency of turbulence on the many flights between Europe and North America will double by 2050 and its intensity increase by 10-40%.

“Rerouting flights to avoid stronger patches of turbulence could increase fuel consumption and carbon emissions, make delays at airports more common, and ultimately push up ticket prices,” said Williams.

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Opinion:

Us mere mortals simply have no idea about the extent and ramifications of climate change.

Neither do the corporations and industries, and they don’t even care.

What will happen if air travel becomes nonviable? And we can’t just flit off to Miami or Hawaii for our holidays.

No living person has experienced the changes that we are having at the moment. Our knowledge comes from fossil records and historical anecdotes.

We don’t know what to expect, at the moment, there is this attitude of “Just ignore it, it’ll go away!” It won’t, ‘just go away’, it’s here and it’s going to get a lot worse before it gets better; and we’d better get used to that idea.

Are we heading for a new ice-age? If so, there’s not enough fuel or electricity in the world to keep us warm, some of us are going to freeze.

Is the opposite about to happen? If the planet heats up and creates more desserts, there’s not enough food to feed us all now, let alone in the future.

Either way, we’re deep in the shit!

Be prepared people, because people are going to die! And some of those who do, are reading this now.