The News Review:
- BP objects to Enron comparisons during jury selection in Texas plant…
- Factory-parts maker relocating up the road.
- Kenya’s power utility signs contract for 35-MW geothermal plant
- Huntly gas-fired power station switches on | BUSINESS | NEWS |…
- NWAnews.com :: Northwest Arkansas’ News Source
- US agriculture will have to change to service renewable fuels
- McMaster hits right note for provost
BP objects to Enron comparisons during jury selection in Texas plant…
International Herald Tribune – Aug 31, 2007
The lawsuits by the five plaintiffs barring last-minute settlements are to be the first to be tried in connection with the blast. The five plaintiffs are: _ The 6-year-old and 11-year-old sons of Rene Cardona Sr. 26 from Baytown a contract worker for engineering and construction company Contech Control Services whose suicide six weeks after the blast is being attributed by his lawyers to the trauma of the accident. _ Nara and David Wilson both 44 from Santa Fe Texas. They worked for mechanical contracting company Altair Strickland. _ Scott Kilbert 48 from Bellville an instrumentation supervisor for construction company JE Merit. _ Rolando Bocardo 41 from Baytown an instrument fitter for JE Merit.
Factory-parts maker relocating up the road.
Free with registration – Indianapolis Star – AccessMyLibrary.com – Aug 31, 2007
31–NBLESVILLE Ind. — When fast-growing Japanese factory equipment maker SMC Corporation of America decided to expand it considered hio and Kentucky but finally select.
Kenya’s power utility signs contract for 35-MW geothermal plant
Creamer Media's Engineering News – Aug 31, 2007
The new plant to be constructed at a cost of $875-million is the result of a study which showed there was sufficient steam to sustain production at an expanded generation capacity of 150 MW at lkaria for another 30 years says KenGen MD Eddy Njoroge. “The decision to construct a third unit at lkaria II emanated from the excess steam available at the geothermal field. ” The Mitsubishi companies are undertaking the project on an engineering procurement and construction basis and are expected to complete the project in 2009. KenGen has committed $414-million to the project with additional funding coming from the French government ($243- million) and the International Development Association ($214-million). The new unit will increase Kenya’s geothermal production to 165 MW from the current 130 MW… The new plant to be constructed at a cost of $875-million is the result of a study which showed there was sufficient steam to sustain production at an expanded generation capacity of 150 MW at lkaria for another 30 years says KenGen MD Eddy Njoroge. “The decision to construct a third unit at lkaria II emanated from the excess steam available at the geothermal field. ” The Mitsubishi companies are undertaking the project on an engineering procurement and construction basis and are expected to complete the project in 2009. KenGen has committed $414-million to the project with additional funding coming from the French government ($243- million) and the International Development Association ($214-million). The new unit will increase Kenya’s geothermal production to 165 MW from the current 130 MW. The current installations are lkaria I (45 MW) lkaria II (70 MW) rpower (13 MW) and serian Development Company (2 MW). “However potential exists for up to 2 000 MW of geothermal energy in the Kenyan Rift Valley” says Njoroge.
Huntly gas-fired power station switches on | BUSINESS | NEWS |…
TVNZ – Aug 31, 2007
But state-owned Genesis will not mothball the old plant whenalternative power sources – like wind – are only 35% reliable. “We hope to have 300 megawatts of wind on our portfolio in thenot too distant” says Jackson “But we know all the time that when the wind’s not blowing wehave to have another source of generation and that’s thermalgeneration. The new plant has cost sub-contractors – like Downer Engineering- dearly. “Yes they were a 100 days late on delivery” says Jackson. “They’ve had to wear the penalties for that. What taxpayers will pay for is the one and a half billiondollars worth of Taranaki natural gas it will burn over the next 10years.
NWAnews.com :: Northwest Arkansas’ News Source
nwanews.com – Aug 31, 2007
ne option SWEPC would have if the plant is not approved by the commission is to buy electricity on the open market to provide the power it needs in its growing markets. Attorneys representing the landowners questioned Hostetler about specific costs SWEPC would incur for upgrades to the utility’s transmission lines. Marc Bader a chief engineer for RailAmerica Inc. which owns a short-line railroad in the area where the proposed plant would be built testified that he doesn’t expect there to be any environmental impact from necessary improvements on the rail line. Chuck Nestrud a Little Rock attorney representing landowners provided pictures showing dilapidated bridges along the RailAmerica’s Kiamichi Railroad line. Bader said repairing the bridges and track along the line would be done along the railroad’s right of way and wouldn’t disturb the landowners’ property. If the SWEPC hearings continue through Sept.
US agriculture will have to change to service renewable fuels
Biofuel Review – Aug 31, 2007
The paper reports that as much as 78 percent of the nitrogen fertilizer needed for crops could be recovered from an integrated biological and thermochemical process that converts switchgrass to ethanol. The study says such nutrient recovery and recycling could significantly improve the sustainability of biomass production and the amount of energy required to produce ethanol from plant fiber. The researchers say the nutrient recovery could happen this way: Plant fiber would be converted to liquid fuels by pre-treatments and fermentation. The co-products of fermentation would be dried and heated to turn the solids into gases. The gasification would leave plant nutrients in the resulting ash and ammonia. The nutrients in both streams could be recovered and returned to the fields that produced the biomass. And that potential for nutrient recycling means there's potential for a new kind of agriculture feeding a sustainable bioeconomy… The nutrients in both streams could be recovered and returned to the fields that produced the biomass. And that potential for nutrient recycling means there's potential for a new kind of agriculture feeding a sustainable bioeconomy. "By creating a large new domestic demand for agricultural products the advent of commercial-scale conversion of biomass into ethanol and other industrial chemicals is likely to have a strong influence on the design of agricultural systems" the researchers wrote. "The possibility of recycling nutrients from the biorefinery to the agricultural system that produces the feedstock may allow substantial improvements in both sustainability and production efficiency. "But sustaining biomass production is a complex system that depends on many variables such as soil type and slope soil organic matter and the amount of biomass actually harvested. To help farmers begin to understand how collecting biomass from their fields may affect soil fertility erosion energy needs labor and the bottom line Anex and a team of Iowa State researchers have added bioeconomy elements to I-FARM a Web tool that helps farmers simulate and plan various changes to their operations.
McMaster hits right note for provost
Hamilton Spectator – Aug 31, 2007
steel town August 31 2007 Wade Hemsworth The Hamilton Spectator (Aug 31 2007) It’s been a month since McMaster’s top academic officer started her new job and the more she sees the more she likes. She’s an engineer and a highly regarded researcher whose recent specialty has been reducing hospital noise. She’s a teacher and an administrator whose academic lineage includes a PhD from MIT and who has worked most recently as professor of engineering at Johns Hopkins University where she also served five years as dean. She’s a wife and a mother who enjoys Sudoku and the Sunday Times crossword and devours murder mysteries — especially those set in universities. (“I promise it’s an entirely vicarious thrill” she says with a mischievous smirk. )Ilene Busch-Vishniac 52 is McMaster University’s new provost and vice-president responsible for academics… That plant would later close as part of the upheaval that reshaped the entire industry. Steel which announced its purchase of Stelco this week Busch-Vishniac finds herself in Hamilton ready to roll up her sleeves and help the university contribute to the economic redevelopment of another steel town using the renaissance of Pittsburgh as a loose model. There education and health care helped lead the way back to prosperity.