oil
Researchers with the petroleum company Saudi Aramco have found a way to use a laser to “fingerprint” oil. The innovation promises a number of benefits, including better quality control at refineries. The laser device takes mere nanoseconds to excite an oil sample’s fluorescence spectra, which is then analysed to
energy
Sure, the global economy is a mess and is expected to stay that way for some time, but the US Energy Information Administration (EIA) sees a bright spot in the morass: cheap oil and natural gas prices. In its latest “Short-Term Energy Outlook,” released this week, the EIA revised downward
ethanol
Robbie Burns would understand the current difficulties facing the well-intended ethanol market, which are aptly described these days as, “The best laid schemes o’ mice an’ men gang aft agley.” Witness the latest situation in the U.S. state of Missouri, where fuel stations once required to sell a petrol-ethanol
japan
You know that whole emissions problem from burping cows? Yes, this is serious, no tittering at the back – well, Japanese tests might have found an answer to the burpy, methane spewing walking meat. That answer is not, as Greenbang expected, a lesson in manners – it’s actually oil from cashew
biodiesel
According to the New York Times, there’s a terrible new scourge attacking America’s beloved fast food restaurants. While you sleep, they’re out there prowling – on the hunt for yellow gold. Oh yes – the fat hunters are striking. The New York Times says that miscreants, driven by higher
gas
What’s it like to have an angry Rockefeller on your back? Not a pleasant experience, Greenbang reckons, apart from the potentially ear-pleasing sounds of gold bullion dropping from his trouser pocket as you try to shake the blighter off. One company who could describe the Rockefeller experience is Exxon
alternative fuels
If Greenbang were to replace Sir Alan on The Apprentice, he would be as sure as his arse has got a hole in it that his idiot charges should always remember two things: if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it, and always stick to what you know. But
bioremediation
Greenbang will be throwing out her feather duster and jay cloths and replacing them with a shedload of fungi, if this story from International Herald Tribune is anything to go by. Nope, it’s not the first sign of incipient madness, but the latest way to clean up pollution. Fort
montana
Greenbang’s getting rather excited about this year’s US presidential election. Normally, choosing between presidential candidates is no different to choosing between different washing powders. They all look the same and do the same thing, its just that one has nicer packaging than the other. In the electoral spirit,
hydrogen
What do oil, Chelsea football club and fuel cell technology have in common? Yes, they were all part of that sentence Greenbang wrote just now. Yes, they all contain the letter o and l and yes, they’re quite popular among Russian oligarchs. At least, they are these days. According
biofuels
That George Bush is a little slow isn’t he? Greenbang doesn’t mean slow in that way, although, you know, that’s probably true too, but slow to pick up on environmental trends. The leader of the home of the free has just cottoned onto the fact that the
oil
Do you ever wake up in the morning and want to be something else? Change your job entirely? Become a tightrope walker or a tattooist? “It’s not that easy Greenbang,” you might say. “I trained for years to become what I am – I can’t change that overnight.” If