Wednesday 25 June 2014

Podcast #53: US power plants, Farm in a box + Great Barrier Reef



This podcast includes the following stories:
  1. US Environmental Protection Agency's bid to curb emissions from power plants
  2. Inventor in Kenya wants everyone to become farmers
  3. My web picks
  4. UNESCO and Leonardo DiCaprio warn Australia over Great Barrier Reef
Listen to more CoolGreen episodes here

The Smallest Farm in the World
Satao - A Legend (Mark Deeble)
Armadillo of the World cup (BBC - Science in Action)

Wednesday 4 June 2014

Farm in a box

An inventor in Kenya has come up with a farm kit he claims can grow enough plants and livestock to feed a family in a space the size of a small car.

The 'aquaponic' system combines growing beds with a tank for rearing edible fish or shrimps. The two systems work in harmony using minimal amounts of energy and water.

If this sounds like the stuff of science fiction, its creator assures me the idea has been around for centuries and is beguilingly simple. That said, he has little doubt about its potential to revolutionise the way food is produced in the future.

I meet Heino Dahmen in a sprawling garage on the outskirts of the port city of Mombasa. He has run this business and an adjoining shipyard on the Mtwapa Creek for 20 years, but now devotes almost all his time to a bewildering array of engineering projects.


Saturday 10 May 2014

Friday 25 April 2014

Human waste as fuel

Dried human waste could be the next big business opportunity in Sub-Saharan Africa as well as helping to flush out the problem of poor sanitation, according to a start-up in the coastal city of Mombasa.

Waste Enterprisers believes the "faecal sludge" found in pit latrines and septic tanks could be used as industrial fuel in place of imported coal and other biofuels. 

The company's CEO, Dr Ashley Muspratt, said that dried waste has been shown to burn at least as well as coffee husks and palm nut shells in tests. Unlike these more common biofuels, there is a plentiful local supply of sewage all year round. 

"I like to talk about what we're doing as replacing [sewage] treatment plants with factories. When you talk about factories you're talking about bringing in a raw material and putting out a value-added product," Dr Muspratt said. 

A pile of dried sludge in Kampala (Moritz Gold / SANDEC)

Saturday 26 October 2013

Podcast #49: Peru's dolphin cull, making airlines pay for emissions + trees that point to gold


This podcast includes the following stories:
  1. World's 'largest illegal dolphin slaughter'
  2. Battle for control of airline emissions
  3. My top environmental web picks
  4. Banning damaging PIB dumping at sea
  5. Australian bushfires: No climate change link, says PM
  6. Trees that point to gold