Thinning glaciers 'endangering South Asian water supply

24 November 200

[NEW DELHI] New evidence that Himalayan glaciers are shrinking has added weight to concerns that there could be severe water shortages in the region by 2030.

Researchers drilling an ice core in the 6,050 metre-high Naimona'nyi glacier near Tibet were expecting to find radioactivity left by atomic tests carried out 50 years ago. Instead they found little more than background levels of radioactivity.

The scientists, from the Institute for Tibetan Plateau Research, the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the US-based Ohio State University, say that this is a sign that the glacier is thinning, with no accumulation of new ice since 1944.

Seasonal runoff from glaciers such as Naimona'nyi feeds the Indus, Ganges and Brahmaputra rivers in that part of the Asian subcontinent. The rivers are already severely depleted in places for months each year, say the researchers, writing in Geophysical Research Letters this month (November). The lack of new ice accumulating on the glaciers can only decrease river levels, they add.

Current models predicting river flow in the region have taken recent glacial retreat into account, say the researchers. But they have not considered that some glaciers are also thinning.

"If the thinning isn't included, then whatever strategies people adopt in their efforts to adapt to reductions in river flow simply won't work," says Natalie Kehrwald, a doctoral student at Ohio State University and lead author on the paper.

The news comes in the same month that a major report from the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) highlighted the role of 'atmospheric brown clouds' in melting the Hindu Kush-Himalaya-Tibetan glaciers, amongst other effects.

The vast brown clouds, caused by the burning of fossil fuels and biomass, are now thought to be warming these elevated regions with a strength equal to that of greenhouse gases, says the report. The clouds could also be depositing black carbon on the snow and ice, causing them to absorb, rather than reflect, solar radiation — and thus warm up.

The Chinese Academy of Sciences estimates that glaciers in the region have shrunk by five per cent since the 1950s.

Link to abstract in Geophysical Research Letters

Link to UNEP report

Israel and Korea to Boost Environmental Cooperation

Via Israel Ministry of Environmental Protection:

Israel Environmental Protection Minister Gideon Ezra and his Korean counterpart Environment Minister Lee Maanee signed a memorandum of understanding on bilateral environmental cooperation on November 12, 2008.

Under the agreement, the two countries will enhance cooperation on air pollution, climate change, biological diversity and sewage disposal and will promote exchanges between environmental experts.

Among the subjects discussed by the two ministries during Minister Lee Maanee’s visit to Israel were renewable energies and efficient use of water resources. The ministers called on professionals in their respective ministries to review possibilities for joint projects and continue coordination in international environmental forums.

An electrifying solution for wastewater treatment

Via: Israel 21c

By Karin Kloosterman
October 12, 2008

Industrial and municipal waste doesn't go away when we flush it down the drain. It takes an enormous amount of energy for treatment plants to process it, while massive environmental and financial costs go into disposing of the leftover sludge.

Now, two Israelis are about to change the way we look at wastewater, by turning its constituents into a valuable source of power.

Emefcy (M.F.C Microbial Fuel Cell) was founded in 2007 by Eytan Levy and his partner Ronen Shechter. It aims to harness a bacteria found in nature that produces electricity as it decomposes organic matter.

Electric bacteria known to science

"The idea was found about 100 years ago, that certain bacteria under certain conditions have the ability to generate electricity," Levy tells ISRAEL21c. "The reactor has to be structured in a certain way, and generate it while consuming organic matter."

Over the years teams of scientists tried to harness the power of the bacteria. "But it was never turned into a product, possibly due to the natural barrier between academia and industry," explains Levy, Emefcy's CEO.

Levy and his partner revived the idea, and are now working with a leader on microbial fuel cells, Bruce E. Logan from Pennsylvania State University. To optimize electricity production, the eight-man Caesarea-based company has created a network of tubes made from a special polymer - the cathodes - and a network of carbon brush anodes that together promote bioelectrochemical reactions.

The net result is that bacteria form an electrical conductive biofilm over the surface of the anodes and cathodes, decompose organic matter, and produce electricity at the same time.

This bioelectrochemical reaction is performed by three main bacteria, Geobacter sulfurreducens, Shewanella oneidensisand Rhodoferax ferrireducens, already present naturally in wastewater effluent. The company's main goal, however, is to give the "electrifying" bacteria optimal conditions to digest the human and organic industrial waste in sewage treatment plants.

While the charge from each bacterium is tiny, about half a volt, the company can step it up to 220V, while each kilogram of organic contamination can produce 1-kilowatt hour of electricity, says Levy. In large industrial wastewater plants, Emefcy's solution can produce megawatts of electricity. A real power plant, Levy says.

Tiny volts that add up

He believes the enormous cost savings of about 30-50 percent per year on various practices, can allow a power plant to achieve a return on investment (ROI) within two to three years. The solution has a number of financial benefits, he points out: the sale of generated electricity, treatment plants save money on aerating the sewage, the process reduces the amount of raw sludge for disposal by up to 90 percent; and working with this system can generate carbon credits.

The Emefcy solution can be an add-on to existing plants, and is expected to be on the market by 2010.

Levy and Shechter are specialists at inventing solutions for making the wastewater treatment market more efficient, and environmentally sound.

Before Emefcy, they founded AqWise, a company which specializes in creating tiny plastic beads to house and aerate bacteria, in order to increase the breakdown of biological waste in treatment plants. Today AqWise has 30 installations around the world.

With Emefcy, Levy and Shechter plan "to reinvent the wheel in the wastewater world," says Levy. "We realized we were incorrect," he explains. "Treatment plants are spending energy to purify wastewater and there is something wrong with that. Wastewater has energetic value."

Emefcy has received seed funding of $1 million from Israel Cleantech Ventures, additional undisclosed support, and a grant from the Office of the Chief Scientist in Israel.