'Masdar Plan': Article Summary

The article ‘Masdar Plan’ was printed in The Economist on the 4th of December, 2008. The link to the article is: http://www.economist.com/research/articlesbysubject/displaystory.cfm?subjectid=348924&story_id=12673433
The article ‘Masdar Plan’ discusses the ambitious project that is currently being put into practice in Abu Dhabi, the Masdar initiative which was unveiled in 2006. The Masdar initiative consists of a research institute for environmental technologies, an investment arm for these technologies and an eco-city; it aims to find solutions for global energy security issues, climate change and sustainable human development. Though this project will not have an effect on Abu Dhabi’s environmental impact (carbon footprint), since it is too tiny to negate the fact that people from countries in the UAE have the highest greenhouse gas emissions per head, it is a step to diversify the economy in preparation for when its primary income, oil, runs out.
The Masdar Initiative is, unlike other extravagant projects on Abu Dhabi’s part, continuing in construction. A grant of $15 billion from the government is, in addition to investments into different areas of the project by companies such as Credit Suisse, the financial means of this project. Constructing the facilities in an environmentally friendly way is proving to be a difficulty, since, for example, the concrete and steel being used has to have a high recycled component. One branch of this project is the Masdar Institute for Science and Technology (MIST) that, with the aid of MIT, is recruiting and training faculty to teach the students, who will first be admitted in 2009. MIST is appealing to great minds with the promise of minimal teaching requirements, many opportunities to pursue research, and the ‘open laboratory’. The eco-friendly city, Masdar City, has received most scrutiny, since its promise of zero-carbon emissions seems a bit overambitious, especially when considering the harsh environmental conditions. It plans to do this by using the most efficient & beneficial technologies to benefit the environment. Buildings are created to be extremely energy efficient, solar panels are being installed throughout the city and in large areas to provide the energy needed, water will be recycled, cars are prohibited, personal rapid transport pods are the only means of fast transportation, and the greenery is chosen according to its drought resistant properties. In addition, space has consciously been left for new technologies of the future. Overall, the project is due to be completed in 2016.
This project is considered to be more of a development project than an environmental one. Its hopes of producing more energy than it consumes are not within reach at this moment; its claim to producing zero carbon is, at the moment, slightly false. This is because the primary energy providers, solar panels, cannot generate enough energy to power the city by night. Gas-fired power is currently being imported until better solar energy storing technologies are developed. Overall, Masdar still has a long way to go until it can truly have an impact.

'Green Iron': Article Summary

The article ‘Green iron’ was published on Economist.com on the 14^th of November 2008. The link to the article is: http://www.economist.com/research/articlesbysubject/displaystory.cfm?subjectid=348924&story_id=12587219

 

Iron is normally not associated with having any sort of outstanding advantages with regards to preserving the environment. However, iron shavings can now be utilized as a cheap, efficient and quick way to clean industrially polluted water, as a research project in China demonstrates. The method was applied to a wastewater facility in the Taopu district of Shanghai, where small pharmaceutical, petrochemical and textile factories contaminate the water with dyes, phosphorus and nitrogen. This method, only recently developed but based on prior information, is applied to industrial waste water since the standard water cleaning system isn’t effective if water contains toxic and non-biodegradable compounds. The idea is simple; the waste water passes through iron shavings, which are cheap and readily available (treated with a solution of copper chloride to increase their effectiveness), which attract the non-biodegradable chemicals, react with them by sharing electrons and therefore degrade them. After this, the water can be treated as normal waste water. The method has been proven to work, at least at this small of a scale, since it, for example, the removal of nitrogen went from 13% to 85%. At 20 cents a kilogram in China, with an additional 5 cents for the treatment with the copper chloride solution, the iron shavings method developed by Dr. Wei-Xian Zhang could prove to be especially useful in developing countries. Already, larger wastewater plants that apply this method are being planned in China and, hopefully, this idea will be picked up by other countries as well.