The Helius Group has announced a joint venture with The Combination of Rothes Distillers (CoRD) called Helius CoRDe. Their goal is to create a renewable (biomass-powered) combined heat and power (CHP) plant for whisky production on Speyside (northeastern Scotland).
The proposed £50 million project will use whisky distillery by-products to fuel a 7.2 MWe GreenSwitch biomass combined heat and power plant and a GreenFields plant which will turn the liquid co-product of whisky production, known as Pot Ale, into a concentrated organic fertiliser and an animal feed for use by local farmers.
This is the first biomass plant to use dark grains (draff) instead of wood as its fuel. The 7.2 MWe is equivalent to power for about 9,000 homes, yet the new CHP is expected to produce only 5,000 tons of CO2 emissions a year. A coal-fired plant of the same size would generate more than three times that amount. Perhaps the best thing about this news is that it makes whiskey, usually treated as a conservative and venerable industry, innovative and reconnects it to the conservation and sustainability of nature.
Here is a list of single malts in Speyside that could benefit from the new plant.
* Aberlour Single Malt
* Ardmore Single Malt
* Aultmore Single Malt
* Balmenach Single Malt
* Balvenie
* Benriach Single Malt
* Benromach Single Malt
* Cardhu Single Malt
* Cragganmore
* Dailuaine
* Dufftown Single Malt
* Glendronach Single Malt
* Glendullan Single Malt
* Glenfarclas Single Malt
* Glenfiddich Single Malt Scotch Whisky
* Glen Grant
* Glen Keith Single Malt
* The Glenlivet
* The Glenrothes
* Glentauchers Single Malt
* Glen Elgin
* Glen Moray
* Imperial Single Malt
* Inchgower Single Malt
* Knockando
* Linkwood Single Malt
* Lismore Single Malt
* Longmorn Single Malt
* The Macallan
* McClelland’s Speyside
* Miltonduff Single Malt
* Mortlach Single Malt
* Speyburn Single Malt
* The Speyside
* Strathisla Single Malt
* Tamnavulin Glenlivet Single Malt
* Tamdhu
* Tomintoul Single Malt
* Tormore Single Malt
Smooth and creamy key lime custard topped with organic blueberry sauce in our sweet shortbread crust
I actually wanted to mention this because of the name dispute that was resolved amicably with another pie truck operation. That’s good news since both pie trucks now can focus on delivering amazing pies instead of throwing them at each other over a domain name.
I guess a boom in pie is a logical next step given the sudden rise of gourmet ice cream as the big new dessert of 2009.
The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced today that it has awarded $25 million for clean diesel projects in California under the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act (ARRA) of 2009 National Clean Diesel Funding Assistance Program
A single clean-burning diesel locomotive engine can cost $1.6 million, so companies like California Northern Railroad (CFNR) have been encouraged to upgrade by federal and state financial incentives. 80 percent of the cost of the new CFNR 501 engine came fom the Carl Moyer Memorial Air Quality Standards Attainment Program at the Bay Area Air Quality Management District. Likewise, Caltrans is upgrading their fleet.
The first Caltrans locomotive to be upgraded is a Model F59PHI originally built by Electro-Motive Diesel in October 2001. EMD has installed a 710ECO™ Repower upgrade package with the latest microprocessor-controlled locomotive engine technology for lower emissions, increased fuel economy, greater reliability and predictable maintenance costs. The newly upgraded locomotive will now achieve EPA Tier 2 emissions performance – two levels cleaner than required for this model.
Thus it has taken state laws, local and national grants, as well as 40% more fuel efficiency, and concern about health quality (85% particulate matter reduction in the new engines) to get the railroads to finally get moving in this direction.
Darwin was also not aware that appendicitis, or a potentially deadly inflammation of the appendix, is not due to a faulty appendix, but rather to cultural changes associated with industrialized society and improved sanitation, [William Parker, an immunologist at Duke University Medical Center in Durham, N.C.] said.
“Those changes left our immune systems with too little work and too much time their hands – a recipe for trouble,” he said. “Darwin had no way of knowing that the function of the appendix could be rendered obsolete by cultural changes that included widespread use of sewer systems and clean drinking water.”
Now that scientists are uncovering the normal function of the appendix, Parker notes a critical question to ask is whether anything can be done to prevent appendicitis. He suggests it might be possible to devise ways to incite our immune systems today in much the same manner that they were challenged back in the Stone Age.
“If modern medicine could figure out a way to do that, we would see far fewer cases of allergies, autoimmune disease, and appendicitis,” Parker said.
So the lowly appendix actually served a security role, making us less vulnerable, which was made redundant by a decline in threats to our health.