What if you could run your car on stuff you had lurking around your home? Sounds eco-friendly and budget-friendly, right? Introducing the E-Fuel MicroFueler. It’s Shaq-endorsed and Schwarzenegger-approved. The portable micro-refinery system from GreenHouse is made for at-home use. You can turn organic waste like grass clippings, wood chips, brewery waste, algae and other non-food carbohydrate waste products into high performance ethanol fuel that’ll get your car from point A to point B in a cleaner and more eco-friendly way. And you can do it all right in your own backyard, including fueling up.

Shaquille O’Neal is an investor in the product. After calling himself “Big Eth,” he said “I tried it, I liked it. I flew to Southern California to see it first hand. It’s cost effective and it works. Hopefully, with my presence people will look at (the fuel system) and they’ll try it.”

California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger was there when GreenHouse unveiled the new alternative energy product and the state is also looking at a pilot program to test it. Notable companies have signed up to partner with GreenHouse, too. Karl Strauss, Gordon Biersch and Sunny Delight plan to convert 29,000 tons of liquid waste using the E-Fuel system.

Rumor has it the sophisticated at-home system costs around $10,000. Click here to read more

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At age 15 many kids are primarily focused on what movies are out, what clothes are in style and who likes who. But not Javier Fernandez-Han. At 15-years old he’s most concerned with helping impoverished people all over the world meets their needs in sustainable ways, and he’s doing more than just worry about the situation–Fernandez-Han is finding solutions.

Fernandez-Han is the winner of this year’s Invent Your World Challenge, a competition that inspires young people to work on inventions that create positive change in the world and awards 50 junior inventors a combination of mentorship, seed funding and networking opportunities. Fernandez-Han won with his plans for intricate algae-powered energy system dubbed “the VERSATILE system” and secured a $20,000 scholarship (as well as a trip to global roundhouse on climate change at MIT) for it. Click here to read more

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The powder that Spokane residents are sneaking into the county may surprise you. It’s nothing they’re smuggling for illegal sales on streets, but rather, dishwasher detergent to get their porcelain plates into prime condition.

The out-of-county importing is a result of the nation’s strictest ban on dishwasher detergent made with phosphates, which is being tested in Spokane before launching statewide in the summer of 2010. Conventional dishwasher detergents like Cascade and Electrasol can be up to 9 percent phosphates, but those sold in Spokane have a cap of 0.5 percent, which usually means buying eco-friendly brands like Seventh Generation and Ecover.

While such brands have been popular in other areas, citizens in Spokane have complained the green-focused detergents are not cleaning their dishes as well as the brands they’re used to, and have taken to driving into Idaho (a shorter distance than leaving Spokane for another Washington county) to pick up dishwasher detergent. Because the ban is on the sale of phosphate-heavy dishwasher detergents and not on actual possession or use, citizens who seek their dish cleaners elsewhere are not breaking any laws. Part of the cause of the unpopularity of the ban is due to the water in certain areas of the Spokane county, where mineral-rich hard water is resistant to soap and makes it harder for low-phosphate dishwasher detergents to remove food scum. Click here to read more

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Biofuel made from Plants, beyond Ethanol:

Biofuel made from Algae: Algae grows with only water, air and light. Algae oil is used for biofuel feedstock and ingredients in food, pharmaceuticals, and health and beauty products at a significantly lower cost than comparable oil-producing crops such as palm and soybean. Please also watch this other video.

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