Last week was the annual ‘Made in Palestine 2012’ fair showcasing local Palestinian innovations. Now in its seventh year, the fair was co-sponsored by the Swedish NGO Diakonia and by Al Nayzak, a Palestinian organization. There were two exhibitions, one in the West Bank, at the Ramallah Cultural Palace exhibition hall, and one in the Gaza Strip. Together they showcased over 20 scientific innovations, including green technology, agricultural tools and mobile applications related to food and health.

One participant, Afnan Hamad, a 23-year-old chemical engineering graduate from An-Najah National University in Nablus, told IPS that he hopes to someday be the first supplier of alternative fuel in Palestine. “We designed a device to convert plastic waste into gasoline, kerosene and diesel fuel,” he said.

Environmental education and organic farming are growing increasingly popular in the West Bank. Much of the fair celebrated work from young scientists, including inventions by many young Palestinian women. At another booth in Ramallah, 20-year-old computer engineering student Rasha Saffarini, and her colleagues Isra’ Al-Qatow and Abdullah Al-Qatow, showcased their cell phone application called ‘Healthy Gate,’ which helps users calculate healthy food choices and set corresponding alert-reminders.

“Our families are very proud and so are we,” said to Hamad. “We invented something new for Palestine.”

::IPS

Image of scientist via Shutterstock

Read more about green innovation in Palestine:

Organic Farming Boom in Palestine

Investing in Ramallah’s Children Key to Sustainability

Get a Green Loan From the Green Palestine Investment Company

The post Palestinians Celebrate Green Innovation appeared first on Green Prophet.

Is using human fat as lipo-diesel going too far in the name of environmentalism?

In general, most people look for ways to trim the fat.  Trim some fat out of your diet, or your budget, or, if you’re “green”, trim some fat out of your carbon emissions.  But how do you know if you’re going too far?  Some would claim that over-the-top ‘carborexic’ behaviors constitute going too far environmentally, and others would claim that if you want to get rid of your love handles you should just foot the bill for a gym subscription instead of paying for lipo?

And if you’re going way way too far if the fat trimming process, you may be a plastic surgeon using your patients’ fat to produce lipo-fuel for personal use.  Is that an ecological solution or guilt-free way to offset the procedure of lipo, or is it just an insane idea?

A couple of years ago, a Beverly Hills plastic surgeon decided to create “lipo-diesel” fuel from the fat he removed from his patients through liposuction.  He used the lipo-diesel to fuel his Ford SUV and his girlfriend’s Lincoln Navigator (it wasn’t like this guy was driving a Prius).

Even though the doctor was living and practicing in liberal California, California state law still forbids the use of human medical waste to power vehicles.  And so the plastic surgeon was investigated.

The doctor’s response?  He said that “the vast majority of my patients request that I use their fat for fuel – and I have more fat than I can use.  Not only do they get to lose their love handles or chubby belly but they get to take part in saving the earth.”

Hmmm… was this guy an environmentalist or just too cheap to fill his SUV’s tank with legitimate bio-diesel?

Here’s another idea for people to trim their fat while trimming their carbon emission fat: walk instead of drive.

Image via: Tony Alter

: Top News

Read more about bio-diesel and biofuels (the kinds not generated from human fat)::
New Biofuel Company “MME New Diesel” Links Jordan, Gaza and Israel
Free Concert Powered by Falafel Oil Brings Earth Hour and Earth Day to the Tel Aviv Masses
Putting the Pedal to the Heavy Metal

The post Trim the Fat and Your Carbon Emissions with… Lipo-Diesel? appeared first on Green Prophet.

Okay, this week’s parashah is a no-brainer. Seriously, how can an Eco-Rabbi NOT talk about Parshat Miketz? The parashah which contains the solution for dealing with famine…

Parshat Miketz opens with Pharaoh, King of Egypt, receiving a dream in which he sees 7 fat, healthy cows consumed by 7 weak and sickly cows. Then Pharoah sees 7 fat, healthy bundles of grain consumed by 7 weak and sickly bundles.

After consulting with every wise man around he finds Joseph, who had been thrown in jail. While in jail Joseph helped, correctly, interpret the dreams of 2 cellmates. One of them ended back in Pharaoh’s court – and it was he who recommended Joseph to Pharoah.

Joseph explains that there will be 7 years of plenty followed by 7 years of famine. He recommends that if Pharaoh is wise, he will save during the years of plenty for the following years of famine. Pharaoh immediately raises Joseph up to be his top advisor and Egypt is saved.

The advice of Joseph in Parshat Miketz is wise, even today. We have been blessed with a storeroom full of fuels – natural gasses, coal and oil. But at the rate at which are burning them, it will be all be gone, perhaps even within our own lifetimes.

Additionally, our current infrastructure for utilities is not sustainable. With too many years of drought we will be without water, even though there are few countries in the world who do not border on an ocean. Not to mention all the waste we dispose of which could be reused or recycled. Our Sun is an unlimited source of energy, if we only invest in harvesting it.

The problem is that if we continue consuming at this rate we will be left without. On an individual basis, Joseph’s advice is wise. If we all can conserve, we will last longer before we use up our resources.

On a larger scale, Joseph’s advice is crucial. Governments need to be taking advantage of this time-period of plenty for developing alternative solutions to their country’s needs.

Israel is a country that develops some of the most advanced environmental technologies but those individual companies cannot implement them here because the government is not providing the financial support. Support for programs that would ultimately be beneficial to her.

Let’s remember with this Hanukkah the three R’s: Reduce, Reuse and Recycle. And let us work towards a sustainable future of plenty.

Image Credit: Ted and Jen

The post Eco Rabbi – Parshat Miketz – Solutions for Famine appeared first on Green Prophet.

In order to remain afloat and to store the energy they soak in, diatoms create an oil substance. But in order to use this oil to fuel your car it needs to be condensed in the ground for millions of years. It takes about a 20 metric tons of these these guys to make one liter of gasoline for your car.

The post Where Does Oil REALLY Come From? appeared first on Green Prophet.

It’s much less expensive than regular refined gasoline, and they won’t let your car into a below ground shopping mall parking lot if you have this installation, but at least 15,000 cars and trucks in Israel have already been converted to run on liquefied propane gas, otherwise known as LPG.

From an environmental standpoint, using bottled LPG gas in your car is also much cleaner, with virtually no emissions, as compared to even unleaded gasoline.

So what’s involved with doing this and, how much does it cost? This information was revealed on a consumer magazine show with Channel 2’s roving reported Menachem Horowitz, who took his own Peugeot 407 Salon to the Gaspro garage in central Israel to have the device installed.

Gaspro’s spokesman and asst. director, Udi Tamir, said that it cost NIS 8,500 (about $2,000) to have the device installed “on any gasoline engine car, 1995 and upwards”. He said that a person “can bring his car in early in the morning and pick it up afterwards in the late afternoon.”

The device is a special kit that has high pressure hoses and gauges that send the liquefied bottled gas into the engine from a bottle or “balloon” located under the rear baggage compartment of the car (where most spare tires are today).

Ariel Oren, Asst. General Manager of Pandor Ltd, importer of the conversion kit, said there are now 50 LPG gas stations in Israel (compared to only 15 two years ago). The difference if price of LPG gas compared to 95 octane unleaded is obvious: NS 2.80 a liter compared to 6.14 (before the last price increase due to increased VAT).

“15 million people in the world now travel on bottled gas, especially in countries like Australia and the UK; and there’s no reason why Israel can’t follow their example,” Gaspro’s Udi Tamir said. So what happens when you want to sell you car and don’t want to include the LPG kit with it? 

“Very simple – you simply return the car to the garage and have it removed (for much less money), and kit can then be installed on another car,” Tamir said.

While it sounds like a great idea, there are some “catches” in doing this, however, (aside from not being able to us large underground parking lots).

Dan Parminsko, a writer for Auto Magazine, said that the issue of using LP gas in cars is still being talked about in the Transport Ministry and that they could decide to increase the price of the gas to make it not worthwhile, or decide to pass legislation restricting its use.

This might be a bit difficult to do, however, since the gas the same stuff most people use in their homes (and an price increase would affect them as well) and judging from the fact that so many people already are using it.

Also, with the discovery of large natural gas fields off Israel’s shores, more and more homes – and cars – will eventually benefit from this energy source,  that despite being a fossil fuel is still much cleaner than either crude oil or coal. And according to Zonk if installed correctly propane gas retrofits are no more dangerous than regular petrol.

So, it looks like more and more people will follow that old slogan “go cheaper – go gas!”

Want to convert your car to propane : read all about it on Mother Earth News. 

[image via House of Sims]

The post 15K Israelis Retrofit Hotrods, Cars and Trucks To Power With Propane appeared first on Green Prophet.

Purifying the uranium needed to generate the energy is extremely dangerous, and if the waste is not taken care of properly it can be more hazardous to the environment than what would be saved from the use of the “clean” energy.

Another problem is that the purification of the uranium is the same process one needs to go through for the production of warhead grade uranium. Basically, if you are building a power-plant you can slip by a few nukes while you’re at it.

But all that aside, Iran still has announced that they are planning to replace their oil fueled power stations with nuclear reactors. One would think that Iran actually wants the United Nations Security Council breathing down its neck.

Source: Teheran Times

The post Iran Going Nuclear in Joint Nuclear Power Plant Venture with Neighbors appeared first on Green Prophet.

Time Magazine included Berzin in its list of the 100 most influential people in the world in 2008, and Fortune Magazine also published a flattering article about the company, which has raised tens of millions of dollars in venture capital. Just last week the company raised another $13.9 million from Access Private Equity, Draper Fisher Jurvetson, and Polaris Venture Partners.

Now back in Israel and a senior faculty member at the Interdisciplinary Center in Herzliya, Berzin is busy establishing an Israel-based international institute to formulate an alternative energy policy.

With the thriving market for growing algae as a source of energy – more than 250 companies and universities are engaged in this sphere – Berzin has decided to focus on setting policy:

“I want Israel to become an international center of knowledge in the realm of alternative energy. The world is looking for solutions in this sphere, and in my view Israel is in a very special position. The toolbox that is needed to create solutions of this kind is here.”

For more clean technology see: Israel’s 12th Annual Cleantech Expo Israel Cleantech Ventures Exceeds Its Own Expectations New “Cleantech Israel” Group Meets in Herzliya

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