New Design For Motorcycle Engines Powered By Compressed Air

In 2005 I first heard of compressed air engines when I read an article on a cool concept car, the CityCAT aircar. The CityCAT is a small urban two-seater that comes equipped with an engine that runs on pressurized air. Something like you would find amongst your basic scuba equipment.  The specs didn't blow my mind at the time but the concept sounded promosing. I immediately thought of air powered scooters and motorcycles. It seems the CityCAT died a silent death (correct me if I'm wrong) but th...

Swimmers knew it all along, covering a surface with a sharkskin-like structure reduces drag and surface friction. Consequently, it can reduce CO2 emission, by cutting down on fuel usage, if you'd put it on an airplane. Less friction means less fuel burned! A team from the Fraunhofer Institute for Manufacturing Engineering and Applied Materials Research in Bremen (or "IFAM" for short :P) won the prestigious Joseph von Fraunhofer Prize for developing a paint (and its manufacturing technology) that...

Quite ironic, here we are, blogging for a better environment and future and it turns out that we are actually part of the problem that we're trying to solve. A Harvard University shows that the average website is responsible for 0.02 grams of carbon dioxide emissions for every visitor. They then calculated that a blog with 15,000 visitors each month produces 8 pounds of emissions each year. Ouch.. But of course, for every problem there is a solution. Make it Green!, a German organization tha...

A lot of 'eco-blogs' are flooded with messages and reviews of so called NEV's (Neighborhood Electric Vehicle) and electric bicycles. It keeps surprising me those blogs promote these types of vehicles as alternative for car rides under 5km. The CO2 emission of these so called eco-friendly vehicles might be nil, but producing them and braking them down leaves a huge ecological footprint. So for our tenth (anniversary, yay!) #ecomonday tip I would like to say to these bogs, and to our beloved reade...

MIT-led team designs airplanes that would use 70 percent less fuel than current models. In the CO2 emission rankings, aviation is high up there. But good news; MIT predicts a fundamental shift in commercial aviation. An MIT-led team has designed two green airplanes that are estimated to use 70 percent less fuel than current planes while also reducing noise and emission of nitrogen oxides (NOx). The MIT D 'Double Bubble', as the plain is called, could possibly replace the Boeing 737 class aircr...

This isn't hot of the press or anything, but a few days ago I read a little news article on electric mobility, European policy and CO2 emission that got me thinking. The German government decided to stimulate electric mobility and support this new industry with a few billion euro's. For most people this will sound like good news, while in fact it isn't (yet). Why? Because Germany supplies these electric cars with fossil based energy. And Germany isn't the only country with holes in it's policy....

The Eyjafjallajökull volcano in Iceland erupted last Wednesday. As a result most flights in Europe are cancelled. A volcano eruption like this doesn't only spew ash into the atmosphere. The Eyjafjallajökull volcano emitted more than 7000 tons of CO2 over the last few days. But aviation is an even bigger player in the CO2 market. So no aviation means a decrease in CO2. Now throw some basic math in there and this is would be the conclusion: 206.465 tons less CO2 emission due to a simple volcano...

This great little tool is able to calculate your carbon footprint in a matter of minutes. The Carbon Footprint Calculator doesn't need much information. Just type in where you live, how much energy you use, if you drive a car (and how much you drive it) and tell it about your daily habits. The Carbon Foorprint Calculator will do the rest. I like how you can actually see what aspects of your life contribute to your ecological footprint. I immediately saw my biggest problem: travel :( Responsible...

According to a very recent research done by Dutchmen Jan Magnus, Bertrand Melenberg and Chris Muris, the estimates concerning the future rise of global temperature might have been a wee bit on the optimistic side. They say the earth's temperature will rise with over 4 degrees Celsius in the following 50 years if we don't cut back on our CO2 emission. Previous studies concluded a rise in global temperature of around 1 to 3 degrees Celsius for this period. To reach their higher estimate, the thre...