Word: nitrogenous
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 2000-2009
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...Honda's clean diesel car engine. Diesel is the choice of fuel-guzzling 18-wheelers, but it burns as much as 30% more efficiently than gasoline. It's also dirtier. But last month Honda unveiled an engine that uses a new catalytic converter to block pollutants like soot and nitrogen oxide, a greenhouse gas. Honda says the engine, which it expects to market in the U.S. by 2009, will meet California's new emission regulations, the toughest in the world. That could translate to a competitive advantage, since big states like California can shape the global market...
...heading for a collision with states and cities struggling to meet pollution standards. Environmental controls on electric plants have cut emissions of six principal air pollutants by half since 1970, despite a 42% increase in energy consumption. But even with mandated controls, old-fashioned pulverized- coal plants still spew nitrogen oxide and sulfur dioxide (think acid rain) as well as toxic mercury. Carbon dioxide emissions, blamed for global warming, would soar. Shareholder activists are increasingly aggressive about demanding an accounting when companies like TXU, which had 2005 earnings of $1.7 billion, stick to old coal methods. "TXU," says Leslie Lowe...
...granddaddy of coal plants, Big Brown, built in the early 1970s in the rolling hills of east Texas, the sky is a pristine blue above two big smokestacks. That's illusory, since the plant pumps out a steady stream of can't-see-'em pollutants like nitrogen oxide, sulfur dioxide and mercury. Inside, giant HEPA filters (which look just like a nest of vacuum bags) grab most of the solids from the coal fire. You wouldn't want to eat off the floor, but the place is clean. Even the open-pit-mining operation nearby--which has scoured...
...filthy!" from the TXU staff. "They don't see the irony," she says. "'Why would you want to touch the coal?' they asked. My response? 'Why would I want to breathe it?'" TXU estimates the plant emits 82,000 tons of sulfur dioxide, 6,700 tons of nitrogen oxide and 1,180 lbs. of mercury a year--not to mention 10 million tons of unregulated carbon dioxide. Now it wants to add a third smokestack...
...wonders how anybody could oppose a plan to build 11 new plants--and retrofit old ones--while lowering overall emissions 20% (that's right, 20% below their current level). TXU would also beat by five years emissions-cap guidelines for the second phase of a federal program to reduce nitrogen oxide by 2010. "I'm worried I'm not being an effective communicator here," he says in frustration during an interview at the company's Dallas headquarters. Although it's the state's biggest buyer of renewable capacity, TXU is now heavily reliant on natural gas, which is subject...