Archive for August, 2008
» Expert optimistic on carbon capture
Carbon capture and storage has been demonstrated around the world for 10 years and can be ‘scaled up’ to meet Australia’s requirements, according to Frank van Schagen, Managing Director of Australian Black Coal Utilisation Research Ltd.
However, as a prerequisite, the technologies need to be improved and made more economic, large storage sites need to be identified and characterized, and transport corridors established, he says.
“Most importantly, we need the regulatory or legislative ‘wrapper’ to allow business to take up the opportunity.”
He says implementing the technology is costly, but “moving to an emissions trading system and putting a price on carbon provides some opportunity to offset that cost”.
Mr van Schagen is Day 2 Chairman of the Coal Tech 2008 conference in Brisbane on 29-30 September, when energy industry participants will gather to debate and respond to the Federal Government’s Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme green paper.
The green paper proposes a limited amount of direct assistance to existing coal-fired electricity generators, and points to the potential benefits from developing clean coal technology, particularly viable carbon capture and storage.
The work done by the CRC for Greenhouse Technologies who’ll be presenting at Coal Tech 2008 shows significant potential for storage, Mr van Schagen says.
Professor Victor Rudolph from the University of Queensland is to provide an update on current CO2 storage projects in Australia, while other speakers will go into detail on individual projects.
Among other speakers are Gordon Couch, from the International Energy Agency Clean Coal Centre, UK, who will provide an international update on coal to liquids and implications for transport fuels, and Barry Ford, CEO of Hybrid Energy, who will review the FuturGas project involving coal to liquids gasification and integrated electricity generation.
Much interest will centre on advances in coal gasification, coal-to-liquids, coal drying and other technologies, especially with predictions by Goldman Sachs that the year-end price for crude oil could reach $149 a barrel.
No comments» Keeping a clean work desk
I work in a heavy paper environment and my department is in charge of keeping all the paper in order. I have constant paperwork coming into my in-box, paperwork requested to deliver to others and invoices, packing slips, mail and on and on. I manage to keep everything organized and this helps tremendously with time management and effectiveness at work.
A key factor in keeping a clean desk is NOT multi-tasking. For day to day tasks that are redundant I try my best to concentrate on only one task at a time. I set a up a time-frame for each task and finish what I have started. Once I have completed one task I move on to the next and mentally set up another time frame.
At the end of every month I go through my desk and purge all of the items that are outdated or not needed. I am in charge of purchasing and I get a ton of catalogs from various places. I found that Staples and OfficeMax are my two favorite places to order so I usually go through a new catalog, see if their price on something I buy frequently is good, if not toss it! Holding on to phone books and catalogs take up much needed space on my desk and add to clutter.
The one thing I must be both sad and happy about is the lack of drawers at my desk. Sad because I have a few things on the top of my desk that I would rather hide. Happy because drawers can get stuffed with less than desirable stuff-clutter!
How do you keep your workspace organized? I love the pull out keyboard tray and my in-box!!!
No comments» Music: SimplifyMedia
Do you have a bunch of music on one computer but not another and you don’t want to burn the CD with all the music and then import it again? Well this app helps. It’s not only for Mac but for Windows and Linux also. It takes your iTunes music or (by choice) your whole Music Folder and shares it with only you and your friends accounts. You open up iTunes and Wallah! all your music from your computer is there. This isn’t illegal because it only shares and does not allow you to download the music. And don’t worry, it won’t let other people play your songs you bought from iTunes. It actually looks at your iTunes user info.