Musings and Mutterings

Source: Globe and Mail Some Vancouver area businesses have taken the idea of growing plants on their rooftops to the next logical conclusion: growing edible plants. The idea appears to have "taken root" among local businesses and the practice acts as a outlet for employee stress. One business reported that the company President was so taken with the idea that the roof garden was often the first place they looked for him if he was out of the office.

Source: CBC News Leave it to Islanders to come up with interesting solutions. A sewage treatment plant in Charlottetown, PEI discovered that an upgrade to the plant, as well as a request to process sludge, has resulted in a stink...literally. Their solution, albeit a temporary one, is to use special deodorant sprays smelling of vanilla, creamsicle and blackberry to mask the odours. Meanwhile, the plant to working on a solution to the odour problem.

Source: Reuters How do you make the world's most expensive coffee? First get a civet cat to eat coffee beans (apparently they take their coffee REALLY straight), then extract the beans from the cat's excrement. Coffee made this way is currently selling for $1,000(Aus)/kg in Australia where it is considered by connoisseurs to be best in the world. A single, small cup will cost you more than $50(Aus).

Source: BBC News There was once a joke about getting chocolate milk from brown cows. They haven't accomplished this yet, but a biotech company in New Zealand has discovered that some cows carry a gene that allows them to generate low-fat milk. Currently only one cow, Marge, and her calves are known to carry the gene, but the company is hoping to breed a herd of skim milk-producing cattle.

Source: Virginia Tech News Researchers at the University of Georgia have developed a way to generate hydrogen directly from starch using a combination of 13 enzymes. They envision a typical car with a 12-gallon tank holding 27-kilograms of starch which, when mixed with the enzymes, would produce 4-kilograms of hydrogen. The process is only marginally less fuel-efficient than gasoline (1kg starch is equivalent to 1.12 kg of gasoline), but would generate only water as a waste product. A lack of viable hydrogen storage methods is cited as one of the limitations to widespread use. The proposed method would result in 14.8 mass percent hydrogen per kilogram container and/or storage material. The Department of Energy has made 12 M%H/Kg a target so the proposed system would exceed the target level.

Follow-up to the hydrogen-aluminum engine: 1 pound of aluminum generates 2 kWt-hour of energy in the form of hydrogen and another 2 kWt-Hr in the form of heat. By comparison, gasoline generates 6 kWt-Hr of heat energy, making it 1/3 more efficient (energy-wise). In other words, to get the same range out of a H-Al car would add only 1/3 more in the weight of fuel over a conventional gasoline-powered automobile.