A new process could be a way to reduce greenhouse gas… and turn that gas into fuel for your car.
This story from Reuters says scientists at the Institute of Bioengineering and Nanotechnology in Singapore are using non-toxic organocatalysts to make carbon dioxide into ethanol:
In a statement, the institute said the team, led by Yugen Zhang, used N-heterocyclic carbenes (NHCs), an organocatalyst in the chemical reaction with carbon dioxide. NHCs are stable and the reaction between NHCs and carbon dioxide can take place under mild conditions in dry air, the statement said, adding only a small amount of the catalyst was needed.
The process also used hydrosilane, a combination of silica and hydrogen. “Hydrosilane provides hydrogen, which bonds with carbon dioxide in a reduction reaction. This carbon dioxide reduction is efficiently catalyzed by NHCs even at room temperature,” Zhang said in the statement.
“Methanol can be easily obtained from the product of the carbon dioxide reaction,” Zhang added.
The team says this process is much more efficient than previous attempts to make CO2 into a more useful product.
A pipeline in the Southeastern United States that has already tested moving biodiesel (see 
That familiar Wal-Mart smiley face might be glowing like the sun as the company has upped its commitment to sustainability efforts by adding solar panels to 10 to 20 Wal-Mart facilities in California.
The study comes as indirect GHG emissions has been made a major issue by the California Air Resources Board (ARB) as it prepares to approve regulations for its Low Carbon Fuel Standard. In a CARB staff report submitted to the board for adoption, biofuels are the only fuel that has indirect effects included in their carbon accounting. Despite this new study, no indirect effects are included for petroleum-based fuels. Critics of California’s regulations have argued that applying an indirect penalty to biofuels is unfair as it sets different standards for determining a fuel’s carbon intensity. California currently imports more than 45 percent of its oil from foreign sources.
There is a glimmer of hope that all the input being provided is being heard by officials making the decision, according to a letter received this week by 
Motorists in Grand Island, Nebraska now have a range of choices at the pump when it comes to ethanol blended gasoline. 
President Barack Obama was in Iowa for this Earth Day, visiting a former appliance maker that has converted to make parts for the state’s burgeoning wind energy industry.
The amount of industrial fats and oils in the U.S. has grown by nearly one-fourth over the past couple of years, fueled mostly by the growth in popularity of biodiesel.
America’s first eco-sustainable city is taking its first steps toward sustainable energy.
Today’s Earth Day Celebration is brought to you in part by the book, “Green Hell” written by Steve Milloy. I’ve never met or spoken to the man, but I can presume that he is not a celebrator of Earth Day since his entire book is dedicated to stopping the “greens.” The premise of his book is to educate the public on how environmentalists are trying to control our lives and what we can do to stop them. He writes, “While it is beyond the scope of this book to debunk the scientific claims of global warmists, we’ll take a brief moment here to note the fatal flaw of global warming alarmism: there is no scientific evidence indicating that carbon dioxide, much less man made carbon dioxide emissions, control or even measurably impact global climate.”