If you had to guess what plant (other than corn or sugar) could power cars with a clean fuel source, what would you guess? I’ll save you some pondering time and come out and say it: it’s the cactus. Yes, those prickly plants could become the world’s next powerhouse biofuel.

According to Grist, this is welcome news because cacti are cheap to grow and drought tolerant. Corn and sugarcane, other plants used for biofuel, haven’t proven to be environmentally friendly (they both use a lot of farmland space — not cool, considering they also can be eaten).

Cacti, specifically prickly pear cacti, however, excel at staying alive in incredibly dry climates where people don’t farm. The news about cactis’ cool secret was published in detail at Chemistry World, “[R]esearchers from the University of Oxford, Tropical Power, Imperial College London and the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew, say that CAM species like Opuntia ficus-indica (prickly pear) and Euphorbia tirucallli could make a huge contribution to sustainable biogas production.”

The work was led by Mike Mason, a bioenergy entrepreneur. Mason says that “electricity production from biogas is incredibly flexible” — ” ‘you can bring it up or down as demand goes up and down. The problem is that there isn’t much resource to turn into biogas and it’s horribly expensive.’ ” And that’s why it’s so great that CAM plants could change the alternative gas game.

“Mason estimates that it would take between 4 percent and 12 percent of available semi-arid land to generate 5PWh of electricity per year, equivalent to that generated from natural gas. The products of anaerobic digestion, nutrient rich wastewater and solid digestate, can be re-used for irrigation or as fertilisers. The wastewater could also be used for highly productive forms of aquaculture – potentially increasing food production from land growing biofuels instead of decreasing it,” Chemistry World reports.

Does this news excite you as much as it does us? Enough to hug a cactus?

Related on EcoSalon

United Airlines To Use Food Scraps For Renewable Jet Fuel

Cleaning Up the Chesapeake Bay by Turning Chicken Poop Into Biofuel

Is Synthetic Biology Genetic Engineering? Either Way, it’s In Your ‘Green’ Cleaning Products

The post Hug a Cactus? Yep, They Could Soon Provide Clean Fuel for Your Car appeared first on EcoSalon.

Known as “green gold” in Turkey, green builders are looking into using pistachio shells for clean energy to heat Turkey’s new eco-city.

Pistachios are downright delectable, whether as a classic ice cream flavor or as a main ingredient in baklava. But there’s much more to these salty treats than just their gastronomical applications.

Officials in Turkey are planning the country’s first sustainable city and they’re considering burning pistachio shells for biogas to heat both the public and private buildings. The new city, named Gaziatep, will potentially house 200,000 people and it will be located 6 miles from the province’s capitol (also named Gaziatep).

It’s all about utilizing the renewable resources that you have on hand and in an area that produces 6,800 tons of the nut annually, the shells need a better end game than simply turning into waste.

“We thought the ecological city could be heated by burning pistachio shells because when you plan such environment-friendly systems, you take a look at natural resources you have,” said Seda Muftuoglu Gulec, a green building expert for the municipality on AFP.

What’s Biogas?

Biogas is also known as biomethane and it’s a product of anaerobic digestion of organic matter. A solid waste like pistachio shells is then upgraded to a purity standard that makes it safe enough to use as a source of clean energy. It can be used to provide electricity and heat as well as fueling cars. This pistachio shell biogas could provide up to 60 percent of the city’s heating needs.

Related on EcoSalon

Wisconsin Hospital Lights Up Hospital the Green Way

The Power of Pigs

10 Cities Make Their Own Green

Image: mjtmail

The post Nuts for Clean Energy: Turning Pistachios Into Biogas appeared first on EcoSalon.

As a rule, hospitals aren’t all that keen on the alcohol industry. Alcohol, after all, is seen as causing many of the accidents that bring victims through their emergency room doors every day.

But one hospital in LaCrosse, Wisconsin is starting to see the alcohol industry in a totally new light. Gundersen Lutheran Hospital and the local City Brewery are participating in a joint heat and power project with the potential to create about 3 million kilowatt hours of energy a year.

The project consists of capturing the methane gas released by City Brewery during its brewing process, and using it to run a biogas Jenbacher engine which, in turn, feeds electricity into the grid. This electricity is credited to the hospital by Xcel Energy (a local power company), and is just one of the many ways in which Gundersen Lutheran Hospital hopes to reach its goal of becoming 100 percent energy independent by 2014.

But the hospital isn’t the only one gaining from this project. Heat generated from the Jenbacher engine is also being captured and re-used by City Brewery to assist with the brewing process.

Looks like, at least in some circumstances, hospitals and alcohol can get along.

Image: boliston

The post Wisconsin Brewery Lights Up Hospital the Green Way appeared first on EcoSalon.