A newly discovered bio-based adhesive could help speed up the long, slow fade of petrochemicals. Currently, a wide variety of pressure-sensitive adhesive tapes get their stickiness from petroleum-based polymers (large molecules composed of strings of repeating units). Now an almost accidental discovery by researchers at Oregon State University raises the … [continued]
The emerging green economy has stimulated the growth of green jobs all over the map, and Ellwood City provides a great example of the potential that sustainable energy has for revitalizing towns across the U.S. Located in western Pennsylvania near Pittsburgh, Ellwood City is the home of LED specialist Appalachian … [continued]
The U.S. military’s drive to replace fossil fuels with sustainable energy could result in an interesting twist: the military could wind up being a net supplier of energy to the U.S. electricity grid, in the form of geothermal power tapped from land owned by the Department of Defense (pdf alert). … [continued]
Allentown, the city that songwriter Billy Joel used as a symbol of 1980’s Rust Belt decline, is showing more signs of an economic revival powered by clean, renewable energy and new energy storage solutions. One indication came earlier this year, when hometown manufacturer International Battery announced that it won a … [continued]
Researchers at Purdue University have developed a concept for a new biofuel process that could enable the biofuel industry to expand by leaps and bounds. Until now, one big obstacle has been the cost of transporting large quantities of heavy plant matter to centralized refineries. The new process would be … [continued]
BP’s massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico has drawn the entire fossil fuel industry into an all-out fight to justify its continued dominance over U.S. energy policy. Now the industry appears to be offering up BP as a sacrifice. A new organization called “Save U.S. Energy Jobs” has … [continued]
The laundry list of sustainable biofuel crops just keeps getting longer and longer, thanks to new research that shows how to break down the hard cell walls of woody, non-food plants like switchgrass. Now researchers at North Carolina State University have revamped the woody biofuel production process itself to cut … [continued]
As school districts across the country struggle with budget cuts, the solar energy industry is offering a solution in the form of financing for low cost solar energy installations. It’s a perfect match: many schools have large expanses of flat, unshaded roofs and the buildings are in use mainly during … [continued]
As reported by The Associated Press, in this morning’s weekly radio address President Obama has just announced that almost $2 billion in federal funding for solar energy and green jobs is in the pipeline. The money will go to construct solar power installations in Arizona, Colorado and Indiana. [social_buttons] The … [continued]
Researchers at Cornell University have developed a process for building an organic molecular-scale framework that could be used to collect solar energy. They did it using phthalocyanines, which are common dyes used in blue jeans and numerous other products. [social_buttons] The researchers came up with a way to assemble the … [continued]
