The Awqaf and Minors Affairs Foundation (AMAF) in Dubai has announced a plan to convert a mosque to the first eco-friendly mosque in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). According to the Khaleej Times newspaper, the project will cost 25 million UAE dirhams or 6.81 million USD.

The eco-friendly mosque is expected to save about 20 percent of water and power consumption. The normal consumption of water in the mosques is about three liters per person a day while the normal consumption of electricity in the mosques is about  250 kilo watts per square meter a year. Adding to eco-friendly conversion, the mosque would extend to about 9,754.82 square meters (105,000 square feet), making it the largest mosque in Dubai.

After the modifications, the mosque would accommodate about 3,500 worshipers at the same time. The roof of the mosque would be gardened to reduce the sun heat; additionally, it will use the solar energy to heat ablution water. The ablution is an Islamic procedure for washing parts of the body by using water to be prepared for prayer. The recycling plant within the mosque facilities will take the used ablution water for gardening and washroom use. The mosque will be constructed by eco-friendly materials to avoid non-biodegradable waste. It will also use an automatic thermostat to keep cool without wasting energy and will use natural light.

According to the Khaleej Times, Mr. Tayeb Abdulrahman Al Rais, Secretary-General of the AMAF, said: “The construction of the mosque is in line with the UAE leadership’s vision towards the conservation of resources, environment protection, and the adoption of green practices. With the global call for energy conservation, it is essential for developers to take responsibility for creating buildings that comply with green standards. The mosque project complies with best practices in corporate governance, while being transparent and gaining the validation of Awqaf, government and private institutions.”

In the neighboring city, Abu Dhabi’s General Authority of Islamic Affairs & Endowments department approved the plan of an eco-friendly mosque to be built within Saadiyat Island. The design was made by Suhail Mohammed Suleiman, a graduate architecture student at Al-Hosn University. This initiative is not the first in the mosque-building field. In 2008, the Islamic community in Manchester opened Masjid-E-Noor, which was the first partially eco-friendly mosque in the world. The mosque was built with wood from renewable sources.  It also possessed solar panels to generate electricity.

In 2010, the Muslim community in Cambridge opened the first fully operated eco-friendly mosque. The mosque was designed by the award-winning architecture company, Marks Barfield, who designed a lot of projects in the UK and in the world, such as London Eye and Kew Treetop Walk.

Additionally, in 2010, eco-friendly mosques were opened in Buyukeceli village, which is in the Mersin province of Turkey. The mosques were opened by the residents of the village to protest having a nuclear plant there. This action was taken to show the government that there are many renewable sources that generate clean energy and are preferable to a nuclear plant.

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Research from SRI International has identified a promising new way to produce liquid transportation fuels from coal without consuming water or generating carbon dioxide. Based on data from bench-scale tests, SRI engineers estimate that the capital cost for a full-scale plant using SRI’s process would be less than half that of a conventional coal-to-liquids plant that uses a process called Fischer-Tropsch synthesis. FTS produces only a small fraction of the hydrocarbons needed for fuel and requires extensive recycling.

SRI’s new process uses natural gas to provide the hydrogen needed to convert coal to syngas (a mixture of carbon monoxide and hydrogen). Syngas is first converted into methanol, which can then be efficiently processed to make transportation fuels.

Using natural gas eliminates the need to add water as a source of hydrogen, reduces the need to add energy to drive the gasification reaction, and results in the use of a smaller gasifier. In conventional CTL approaches, energy is supplied by burning a portion of the coal feed, which then produces carbon dioxide. SRI’s approach makes it economical to use carbon neutral electricity, such as nuclear, hydro, or solar as a source of additional energy.

“The implications of this research are expansive, including enhancing U.S. energy security through the use of domestic carbon sources,” said Robert Wilson, Ph.D., director, Chemical Science and Technology Laboratory, SRI International. “The process can also dramatically reduce the environmental footprint associated with alternative transportation fuels.”

SRI performed a series of analyses to examine the environmental impact of the technology under several scenarios. Based on these analyses, if diesel were produced using biogas as the source of methane, the resulting product would qualify as an alternative fuel under the revised Renewable Fuels Standard of the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007. The Act requires alternative fuels to meet a standard of 50 percent reduction of greenhouse gas emissions compared to other fuels.

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The Japanese government has become dumping tonnes of radioactive water from Fukushima nuclear plant into the Pacific Ocean.

The government has issued statements saying the level of radiation in the water is low and will not pose a threat to humans.

The Plant operator, Tokyo Electric Power Company, began released the water yesterday and said that a total of 11,500 tonnes would be dumped in the ocean.

The government has expressed support of this measure with Prime minister Naoto Kan’s top spokesman, Yukio Edano, saying in a television press conference: “We have no choice but to release water tainted with radioactive materials into the ocean as a safety measure.”

According to the ABC emergency crews are still attempting to stop a crack near Fukishima’s number two reactor.

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