Pulau Semakau
About 5 miles off the coast of mainland Singapore, adjacent to two mangrove habitats, a small island is being created out of the country's waste, section by section, at a rate of just under 2000 tons per day.
Semakau Landfill, the world’s first offshore landfill and Singapore’s only waste destination, has been described by Singapore’s government as “Scenic Waste Disposal.” The site has been open to the public for recreational activities since 2005 and has been envisioned as an eco-park featuring renewable energy generation and educational facilities. Commissioned in 1999, the landfill was designed to work in harmony with the bio-diverse surrounding areas; it physically connects the islands of Pulau Sakeng and Pulau Semakau. A perimeter bund includes an impermeable membrane, marine clay and rock layers, which prevent waste and its byproducts from leaching into the surrounding water.
Initially expected to reach full capacity in 2040, the landfill’s lifespan has been extended due to the country’s efforts at waste reduction. Singapore now has a goal of recycling 60% of its waste by 2012.
World’s first osmotic power plant
Norway-based company Statkraft has just opened the world’s first osmotic power plant, tapping into the emissions-free energy produced when fresh water and salt water mix. Osmotic power harnesses osmosis, the natural process by which a solute in solution travels from an area of lower to higher concentration across a semi-permeable membrane (permeable to the solvent but not the solute). In the case of osmotic power, the combination of salt water and fresh water produces movement from areas of lower to higher salinity. Osmotic pressure created during this process is the potential force that can be used to power energy generation turbines in an osmotic power plant.
The Statkraft plant is being opened as a testing site for the technology, but it has the potential to output up to 1,600-1,700 terawatt-hours per year, or approximately 50% of the European Union’s total power production.
(via CleanTechnica)
NYC commissioners roundtable interview
Transportation Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan, Design and Construction Commissioner David Burney, Planning Commissioner Amanda Burden, and Parks Commissioner Adrian Benepe
In a roundtable conversation hosted by The Architects’ Newspaper, four New York City Commissioners–Transportation Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan, Design and Construction Commissioner David Burney, Planning Commissioner Amanda Burden, and Parks Commissioner Adrian Benepe–discuss recently designed and developed projects as well as what they believe is achievable during Mayor Bloomberg’s next four years, especially given tightening fiscal constraints. It’s a pretty in-depth interview, and it’s great to hear the shared thoughts of this group, who have helmed some major projects in the City over the last eight years, including the High Line, the pedestrianization of Broadway in Times and Herald Squares, Brooklyn Bridge Park, Yankee Stadium redevelopment and, of course, Freshkills Park.
Trash begets fuel on a large scale
Partners Waste Management and Linde Group have begun processing fuel at the world’s largest Landfill Gas (LFG) to Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) plant, located at Altamont Landfill near Livermore, CA. Waste Management–the leading US waste services company and largest national operator of refuse and recycling trucks–collects the garbage, and Linde, an engineering company, purifies and liquifies the LFG produced by the waste. LFG goes through a purification process and is then fed into a natural gas liquifier, where it is cooled below the natural gas boiling point of -260 degrees Fahrenheit, yielding LNG. Unlike the energy harvested from LFG at the Freshkills Park site, which is used for residential energy needs, the Altamont facility’s Liquified Natural Gas can be used as a gasoline or diesel fuel substitute in heavy duty vehicles.
(via Treehugger)
Open source live solar mapping
The Open Source Live Solar Mapping Project, recently released by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, tracks private installations of photovoltaic (PV) solar panels by location in the US and maps them in time. The map-video, spanning from 1998 to the present day, highlights the spatial concentration of solar energy harvest with changing colors that indicate the number of PV installations in each state. Solar energy has been identified as the world’s fastest-growing energy technology, with the number of photovoltaic installations doubling every 2 years since 2002. The Solar Mapping Project is community-driven, relying on information submitted by individuals, industry professionals and government officials.
(via Clean Technica)
NYC biking up 26% in 2009
According to the NYC Department of Transportation (DOT), biking in New York City has increased by 26% in 2009. This is following a 35% increase in 2008 and corresponds with 200 miles of new striped or separated bike routes developed over the past three years. DOT’s graph, below, shows just how big the uptick has been.
The ‘Indicator Values’ on the Y-axis are derived by dividing the cyclist count for each year by the value for the year 2000 and multiplied by 100 (further explanation of the data is available through DOT). DOT collected their data by counting cyclists crossing 50th Street on the Hudson River Greenway, riding over the four East River bridges, and entering and exiting the Staten Island Ferry at Whitehall Terminal.
(via Treehugger)
Green infrastructure: pavement
As part of its Green Infrastructure Research Program, The EPA has announced that it will begin long-term testing of porous paving materials, in an effort to combat storm water runoff from streets and parking lots. Storm water from parking lots often contains grease, antifreeze, oil and other toxins that can contaminate nearby soils and bodies of water. This is particularly important in places (like New York City) that have combined sewers–where storm water mixes with untreated human and industrial waste–which tend to overflow into local harbors during heavy rains.
At its site in New Jersey, the EPA is testing three kinds of material: interlocking concrete pavers, porous concrete, and porous asphalt, as well as multiple rain gardens that naturally filter rain water. Companies at work developing types of permeable pavement include Xeripave and Vastpavers; other alternative pavement under development includes Pavegen Systems’ Energy Generating pavement, which redirects kinetic energy created by footsteps either to power nearby lights and displays or to be stored in lithium polymer batteries.
(via Scientific American and Inhabitat)
Greenbelt Native Plant Center, yesterday and today
The Parks Department’s Greenbelt Native Plant Center (GNPC), on Victory Boulevard on Staten Island, sits on the site of what was once the Mollenhoff Family Farm. From 1911 to 1992, the Molenhoffs operated a 32-acre vegetable farm that was well-renowned among small growers for its innovations in farming methods, including a mechanical watering system and steam-heated greenhouses.
In 1950, the US Army shot an ‘educational’ film about the Mohlenoff farm to be shown in Japan, extolling the virtues of the American farmer and the prosperity that small family businesses are afforded in a free society. It’s propaganda, but it’s also a terrific portrait of 1950s New York City and American values. Staten Island is described as “64 square miles of small towns and spacious farmland where life moves at a calm pace.” The film is available for streaming online, near the bottom of the GNPC’s history page.
The Native Plant Center has been the talk of the town recently–literally, it was featured in last week’s Talk of the Town section of The New Yorker for its efforts to collect and archive seed native to the New York metropolitan region. The article is only available online to subscribers. It’s in the November 16th print edition.
Harvesting methane–and money–from sewage
The New York City Department of Environmental Protection has identified Greenpoint, Brooklyn’s Newtown Creek Wastewater Treatment Plant as a prime site for methane gas harvesting, a process which has been bringing in approximately $11 million annually from the Freshkills Park site. While the decision has not yet been made to implement the plan, collection is proposed to begin in 2011 and would convert methane–a byproduct of anaerobic organic decomposition released during raw sewage processing at the plant–into energy for use in about 2,750 Greenpoint homes. Officials have chosen the Greenpoint facility because of its proximity to a National Grid gas line.
(via The New York Daily News)
Gotham and its Garbage, tomorrow
NYU’s Robin Nagle, Anthropologist-in-Residence of the NYC Department of Sanitation, will be giving a talk tomorrow evening called Gotham and its Garbage: What it Was, What it Is and What It Might Become, at the Bloomingdale Library on the Upper West Side and sponsored by the Park West Neighborhood History Group. Robin is a terrific speaker and knows an enormous amount about New York City’s waste management system. Should be a great talk.
Tuesday, November 17, 6:00pm
Bloomingdale Library
150 West 100th St, bet Columbus & Amsterdam, 2nd floor
