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Israel
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60 Years
A Nation of Miracles
Chapter Four
The real Israel is making the desert bloom, greening the earth, and
providing energy needs compatible with nature.
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Amos 9:14 And I will bring
again the captivity of my people of Israel, and they shall
build the waste cities, and inhabit them; and they shall
plant vineyards, and drink the wine thereof; they shall also
make gardens, and eat the fruit of them.
Amos 9:15 And I will plant them upon their land, and they
shall no more be pulled up out of their land which I have
given them, saith the LORD thy God.
Eze. 36:34 And the desolate land shall be tilled, whereas it
lay desolate in the sight of all that passed by.
Eze. 36:35 And they shall say, This land that was desolate
is become like the garden of Eden; and the waste and
desolate and ruined cities are become fenced, and are
inhabited. |
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Technology for the Environment
Making the Desert Bloom
Israeli researchers close in on drought-resistant crops — 2008.
Israeli researchers have identified the genes that allow plants to
tolerate and survive the harsh desert conditions of heat, drought
and salinity. These problems are already affecting Israel and other
countries in the Middle East and North Africa, which are suffering
increasing water shortages and are likely to have a profound impact
on crop production in Asia and Africa.
Israeli natural pesticide protects crops with turmeric — 2007. A
Druze researcher from northern Israel has developed a new
environmentally friendly pesticide that relies on the herb turmeric
to keep insects from crops. Extracted from the plant found in Asia,
the liquid developed by Prof. Fadel Mansour, a researcher with the
Israel Agriculture Ministry’s Volcani Research Center, contains a
natural insect repellent. The substance is then inserted between
plastic sheets produced by his company BioPack, which are then
spread on the ground by farmers before sowing or planting. In
preliminary experiments, the sheets prevented the entry of even one
insect to the crops.
International scientists learn how Israel combats desertification
with forestry — 2007. Over 150 scientists recently traveled to
Israel to learn techniques for combating desertification in the face
of the growing global warming threat. Israel is considered a leader
in forestation and desertification technology and the visitors
received hands-on examples around the country of how local
agriculturists have been able to stem the tide of deserts taking
over by planting forests.
The
nations are coming to learn how the desert blooms — 2006.
Ben-Gurion University hosts regular major international conferences
on combating desertification with experts from all over the world
coming to study Israel’s successes in making the desert bloom.
Desertification, according to the conference sponsors, is
responsible for the loss of agricultural production, famine, and
population displacement, as well as the escalation of poverty that
affects about 400 million people in the developing regions,
especially Africa. Israel was selected for these conferences due to
its rich history of rolling back its deserts through innovation and
tenacity.
Israel
produces ‘ambassadors’ of the environment — 2006. Located deep
in Israel’s Negev desert, The Albert Katz International School for
Desert Studies under the umbrella of The Blaustein Desert Research
Institute, hosts 200 Master’s, PhD and Post Doctorate students from
22 different countries. Despite pressure from back home, a large
number of these students come from Jordan, or from countries that do
not have official relations with Israel. The reason: the school’s
global renown for breakthrough land degradation and desertification
technologies including drip irrigation, solar energy, algae
cultivation and brackish water salmon farming—technologies that can
help transform the lives of over a third of the world’s population.
In
Israel, water is the new oil — 2006. Israel has been dealing
with the problem of scarce water resources for decades, making it a
pioneer in water purification, irrigation and desalination
technologies, and other techniques to help it make the desert bloom.
As a growing number of countries face similar concern about where
its next bucket of water is coming from, they are looking to Israel
for innovative solutions. At a recent symposium in Tel Aviv entitled
‘The Tides of Change,’ representatives from around the world were
able to learn from the Israeli experience.
Technology for the Environment
Greening the Earth and Cleaning Water and Air
Israel’s En Gibton is a fountain of youth to polluted water wells —
2008. Concern is growing in the US about water quality after a
number of organic chemicals were found contaminating water wells.
Israel’s En Gibton could have the answer—a compound made from clay
that can safely remove dissolved organic matter from brackish water.
Israel
takes stock of its greenhouse gases — 2008. At the Hiriya
Landfill, the garbage dump of Tel Aviv, EcoTraders are collecting
and flaring landfill gas to reduce greenhouse gases, odors and to
prevent explosions at the site. Some of the gas may be sold to local
industry as a fuel-replacement, which will cut the use of fossil
fuels and contribute to improved air quality.
Israel’s Nirosoft puts the sweet back into drinking water —2008.
Nirosoft Water Industries’ self-contained desalination unit provides
up to 100,000 liters a day of purified, desalinated water. Its
Lego-like portability makes it easy to ship by air.
Nirosoft has been
at the forefront of water purification for many years. After the
tsunami in South East Asia in 2004, UNICEF asked the company to
supply drinking water to people living in the Maldives, which was
badly hit by the disaster.
The UN (High
Council for Refugees) turned to the privately owned Karmiel-based
company to supply drinking water to refugee camps in Kosovo and
Albania. The company was also commissioned for relief projects in
Latin America. The Israeli company has shipped containerized,
self-powered units easily transported by small trucks, to supply
drinking water to villages in disaster areas in Honduras, Guatemala
and Colombia.
Two of the main
advantages of the system are that use of chemicals is minimal, and
operating costs are low. China, with a thirsty population of over
1.3 billion, is facing a water crisis and Nirosoft is already
selling products in China.
Israel’s Ayala uses the secrets of aquatic plants to clean sewage
systems — 2008. Ayala has developed an innovative new system to
clean pollutants such as heavy metals, hormones, explosives and
pesticides from water and land by using aquatic plants that digest
the toxic materials.
Israelis Use Glowing Marine Bacteria to Keep Water Safe — 2008.
A new kit developed by Checklight tests water contamination by using
luminescent bacteria that glow in the presence of toxins and
chemicals. The test, which can be carried out on the spot in real
time, is already being used in Hong Kong.
Israel’s EST holds out promise of an end to chemical waste — 2007.
The biggest challenge facing chemical and pharmaceutical
companies is disposal of toxic waste. Today, solid, liquid, or gas
waste is either sent to waste treatment sites for incineration, to
landfill sites for burial, to Third World countries for dumping, or
is shut it away inside installations where hopefully it won’t leak
into the atmosphere. EST (Environmental Systems and Treatments) has
developed a device that almost completely destroys the waste,
converting it into water and carbon dioxide which is released into
the atmosphere through a vent, or into materials that can be
recycled by the industry.
Industrial pollutants get cut down to size with Israel’s Vortex —
2007. Vortex Ecological Technologies has developed a simple,
cost-effective new solution that cleans pollutant gases in the
atmosphere. The system can neutralize 99 percent of the sulfurous
gas particles emitted by burning fossil fuels and reduce carbon
dioxide emissions by 10 to 15 percent. Aside from cleaning the
environment, the Vortex system also recycles pollutants, allowing
companies to save millions of dollars.
Israel’s BioPetroClean lets Mother Nature do the dirty work — 2007.
BioPetroClean has developed an innovative technique to clean up
oil spills—natural microorganisms that consume and destroy the oil.
Based on research from Tel Aviv University, the company is rearing
the bacteria on a large scale and building biological reactors to
provide a cost-effective clean-tech solution to many types of oil
contamination which before now were almost impossible to clean.
Israel
leading the way in wastewater treatment techniques — 2006.
Israel leads the way in water purification, reusing its water at 70
percent, the highest in the world. At the same time, three Israeli
companies have developed technologies ranging from basic bacteria
treatments to sophisticated electro-chemical systems that are
improving the process of treating wastewater at a higher quality for
less money.
Technology for the Environment
Providing Clean Energy
Israeli innovation turns trash into electricity — 2008. Garbage
is becoming an increasing problem worldwide, but TGE Tech has
discovered a way to turn unrecycled refuse into electricity,
cleaning up landfill sites, and giving municipalities a new source
of income.
“One ton of
garbage can generate 0.4 kilowatts of electricity an hour, which
isn’t a huge amount, but can definitely contribute somewhat to the
energy pool in a locality,” says Jean Claude Ohayon, CEO of Israeli
startup TGE Tech. At the same time—the garbage is gone!
A big
green light for Israel’s Metrolight — 2008. Metrolight has
developed a green lighting solution that prolongs the life of
industrial HID lights, which account for 26 percent of lighting
energy in the US.
Israeli talent creates world’s first renewable energy park — 2008.
The world’s first renewable energy center is being set up in
Israel’s Negev Desert by the Arava Institute with an incubator,
education centers, R&D facilities and a solar power station.
Saving
the environment by helping companies save money — 2008.
Netanya’s Phoebus Energy has developed a system that can cut use of
heating (distillate) oil or gas by large institutions and eventually
households by more than half. Phoebus’ device regulates use of
energy that provides heat and hot water, with no interruption of the
services themselves.
Israel
opens its skies to wind energy — 2008. As part of its bid to
decrease greenhouse gases and search for new and renewable energy
sources, Israel plans for five percent of its national energy needs
to be supplied by the wind by 2012. Already in place, on the top of
Benei-Rasan in the Golan Heights are 10 candy-cane striped wind
turbines that have been operating since 1993. The output from the
farm supplies pollution-free energy to about 20,000 people.
Israel’s Solel to build world’s largest solar park in California —
2007. Beit Shemesh-based Solel has signed a contract with
Pacific Gas and Electric Company to build the world’s largest solar
plant in California’s Mojave Desert. The plant, which will provide
energy for millions of PG&E’s customers in California, will rely on
1.2 million mirrors and 317 miles of vacuum tubing to capture the
desert sun’s heat.
Israeli discovery converts waste into clean energy — 2007.
Environmental Energy Resources (EER) has invented a reactor that
converts municipal waste into clean energy, glass and recyclable
material for building roads, without a trace of pollution and at
substantially lower prices than competing methods.
Israeli startup develops ambitious plant to rid the world of waste —
2007. As the world’s environmentally conscientious look toward
increasing methods of erasing ‘negative’ footprints on earth, one
Israel entrepreneur has found a waste cleanup method that leaves
zero hazard and produces energy efficient byproducts to boot. REN
Waste has developed a state-of-the-art treatment plant which it
claims can dispose of municipal and commercial garbage 100 percent
and transform it into electricity, ethanol, and other significant
recycled products.
Israeli photovoltaic cells to produce inexpensive electricity —
2007. A photovoltaic cell—which produces electricity from the
sun’s rays—has been developed by a Bar-Ilan University professor.
The cells, which are composed of metallic wires mounted on
conductive glass, can form the basis of solar cells that produce
electricity with efficiency similar to that of conventional,
silicon-based cells while being much cheaper to produce, says Prof.
Arie Zaban, head of BIU’s nanotechnology institute, who has just
patented the technology.
Israeli startup transforms sewage sludge into fuel — 2006.
Sewage sludge is a major problem as a pollutant, with over 5.3
million metric tons being produced in the US each year. Now
Biopetrol’s patented technology is able to extract oil out of the
sludge and convert it into petroleum products.
Solar
energy lights up a Negev village — 2006. An Arab village in
Israel’s Negev region has become the first community in the world to
be fitted with a solar electricity system designed to supply all of
its power needs. The system has been installed in 20 of the 100
households in Drijat and is lighting up the science and computer
rooms of the local school, the mosque and the streetlights that now
illuminate the dark desert night sky.
Landfill gas gaining popularity in Israel — 2006. Landfill gas
emissions were first harnessed for energy production in Israel in
2002. Kibbutz Evron in western Galilee, where methane gas is
collected from decomposing trash, produces about 1,000 kilowatts of
electricity per hour and saves more than $300,000 a year in
electricity bills.
Oil
An
Israeli company drills for oil in algae — 2007. Israeli start-up
Seambiotic has discovered a way to produce a safe, non-toxic and
biodegradable biofuel by channeling smokestack carbon dioxide
emissions through pools of algae. Not only does the algae, which
thrives on carbon dioxide and sunlight, clean the emissions but it
creates 30 times more biofuel per hectare of land than traditional
plant crops used in biofuel production.
Turning shale and asphalt into oil — 2007. Ten years ago,
Haifa-based company Hom Tov tried to interest investors in their
revolutionary oil-producing technique which recycles oil shale, a
flinty rock impregnated with hydrocarbon. At the time, the estimates
that the process could produce oil costing $16 a barrel seemed too
steep to justify the huge infrastructure costs. Today, with prices
over the $100 per barrel mark, the company is forging ahead with
developing a way to create affordable and environmentally friendly
fuel which could serve as a guide for other countries with oil shale
deposits.
Israel
to produce synthetic oil from shale at $17 a barrel — 2006. The
Israeli process for producing energy from oil shale will cut its oil
imports by one-third and will serve as a guide for other countries
with oil shale deposits, according to A.F.S.K. Hom Tov. “Israel is
the most advanced [country] in the world in the effort to create
energy from oil shale,” Moshe Shahal told United Press
International.
Because fewer
refining processes are necessary with oil shale than with crude oil,
the final product is a higher quality fuel at a lower price. It
would cost about $17 to produce a barrel of synthetic oil at the Hom
Tov facility, meaning giant profit margins in a world of more than
$100 per barrel crude. Yearly earnings are forecasted to be between
$159 million and $350 million, Shahal said. |
