Jojoba Lubricant  

Continuing the Latin American theme, TreeHugger has a post on the use of jojoba oil as a lubricant in Argentina - lubricants are yet another thing that we need alternatives for as oil becomes more scarce.

We've already informed about Arab Emirates project to use Jojoba oil as fuel some time ago. Well, national newspaper La Nación recently published that the Argentinean province Córdoba National University is working next to one of the major petrol refiners, Repsol YPF, to develop an non contaminant lubricant for cars out of this same seed's content.

Conventional lubricants are produced out of petroleum, a commodity that gets more and more expensive. When used, they usually end up at the soil or water, causing irreversible contamination, as nature lacks of microorganisms which can degrade it. Green lubricants, on the other hand, disappear naturally out of microbic action as any other organic fat.

TreeHugger also has a post on Australian company EnergeTech who are developing some interesting technology for capturing wave energy. Maybe its only useful for capturing money for investors but I'm all for alternative energy research.

I thought maybe I’d fallen asleep in front of the TV and woken up to an ancient episode of Star Trek, but alas no. These guys at Energetech are serious about their ‘ultracapacitors’, ‘waveform zero crossings’, ‘transducers’ and ‘parabolic focusers’. And they aren’t even going into space — just down to the beach. They are installing a new form of wave energy off the coast south of Sydney and one off Rhode Island. They optimistically believe that wave energy will soon attain a 10% share of the renewable energy market. What makes their version different. Well, in their words:

“... the system employs a parabolic wall to focus wave energy on to an Oscillating Water Column (OWC) chamber. The rising and falling motion of the waves causes an oscillatory water motion within the chamber, which in turn forces a high-speed airflow past a unique controllable turbine.” The test plant in Australia could power 500 houses and will produce 2000 litres of desalinated water per day. A similar unit in RI does not affect the natural movement of seabed sediments, nor does it interfere with ‘bottom-dwelling’ critters, such as lobsters."

Beam me down, Scotty.

And lastly, while I'm busy ripping off (sorry guys - just let me know if you want me to desist) half of TreeHugger's content for the day, here's a hand-cranked ice cream maker - the perfect thing for that hot day when the grid has gone down for good.

It’s warming up in the Northern hemisphere and that means icecream time is soon approaching. What better way to sate your indulgence than by making your own. And without resorting to plugging into the nuclear/coal fueled electricity grid. The durable and elegantly simple White Mountain icecream maker delivers lush desserts with the application of a little ‘elbow grease’. Just crank the handle.

Seriously though - all the Viridian sites in my blogroll to the left are all worth reading regularly as a partial antidote to the usual doom and gloom I'm doling out - it is possible the future could be better than the present.
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