Traveling by train has been the green mode of transport of choice over flying for a long time, but did you know how much less harmful travelling this age old way actually is compared with taking to the skies?

A recent Eurotunnel study in association with the ADEME (The French environment and energy management agency) claims taking the train to Paris emits 100 times less C02 per passenger compared with flying from Heathrow.

The Eurotunnel is amazingly only running at 50% capacity and has recently announced new plans to significantly increase use of the tunnel in the coming years which is good news for those of us who would like to lower our carbon footprint.

However the argument doesn’t stop there, the International Air Transport Association (IATA) come back saying that traveling by train isn’t as green as the train companies would have you believe. Of course the tracks are constructed using vast amounts of energy and C02 emissions. Although I think we all can see that this argument doesn’t stand up when you look at the big picture, for example how much energy is used constructing airports, planes etc…

There is of course a third alternative to rail and air, and that is the ferry! Currently running under capacity the ferry industry in the channel has seen better days. The fleets are being cut and so are the prices for passengers in a bid to make the sea crossing more attractive.

Despite this P&O are introducing two new maximum size Dover to Calais ferries this year at a cost of £310 million. Both ferries will be able to take twice to load as a standard ferry whilst using the same amount of fuel as the smaller ships.

So Plane, Train or automobile, the competition crossing the channel tunnel is still gaining momentum. However the team at BioAdvance.co.uk vote to take the tunnel for it’s green credentials.

The people at Quantas have big plans to fuel their future fleet of jets with fuel produced from food waste, reconstituted packaging and other household and manufacturing waste.

Quantas are teaming up with US fuel supplier, Solena, to investigate the possibility of using waste left by passengers on it’s jets as bio-fuel. Together this team also plan to create a state of the art biofuel plant in Sydney in an effort to produce green fuel to fuel the air line’s fleet. The plant would be the second waste biofuel plant of it’s kind in the world.

However, Quantas are not the only airline with big plans to harness the power of bio-fuels.

British Airways are constructing a similar plant, here in London. The new plant is due to come into commission in 2014 and will convert up to 500,000 tonnes of waste a year into 73 million litres of green ‘bio’ jet fuel. An amount that would be enough to power 2% of British Airway’s Heathrow base.

Qantas has had a long-standing interest in biofuels and is a member of the global Sustainable Aviation Fuel Users Group.

Qantas spokeswoman Olivia Wirth said the airline was closely involved with other industry stakeholders in a “road map” study into the outlook for sustainable aviation fuel development in Australia.

“We are also in discussions with a number of companies about specific fuel-producing technologies,” Ms Wirth said.

“Under an agreement with Solena Fuels, we have committed to investigate the feasibility of a waste-based aviation fuel production plant in Australia.

“We expect to produce a business case for such a plant within 12 months. While we are still in the early stages of this project, the possibilities are exciting”.

American president, Barack Obama has agreed to provide nearly $2bn (£1.3bn) in loan guarantees to help kick start the solar power industry in the USA.

The new cash injection will be put to good use, one of the firms to take advantage of the new policy, Abengoa Solar, has said that they are planning to use the money to build the largest solar power plant in the world in Arizona. The new plant should power 70,000 homes and cut carbon dioxide emissions.

The new projects will reportedly produce 5,000 new jobs which of course will come as a great advantage to recession bitten America. However Obama has admitted the loans will not be an instant solution, but sets America on the right road with green energy.

The biggest green energy advance at the moment is the recent solar-powered aircraft 24 hour test flight. The plane was launched on Wednesday (7th June) and has landed safely in Switzerland after successfully flying through the night. The makers plan to take the next step and make a full circumnavigation across the globe simply using the power of the sun as it’s fuel.

The aircraft has been fitted with super-efficient solar cells and batteries to stay in the air after the Sun’s rays had faded. This is the essential factor which will allow the plane to make it’s non stop global journey and flight through the night sky as the world spins below.

The test flight actually lasted 26 hours, during the flight it reached a height of 8,700 m (28,543 ft). When the plane came in to land, assistants rushed to stabilise the pane as it touched down, as it’s wings span a massive 63m (207ft) and were at risk of scraping along the ground, and possible taking the whole craft off balence.

This 26 hour flight is a mile stone in solar powered aeronautics, and has achieved the title of longest and highest flight recorded by a solar-powered plane. Which they plan to smash with their global journey sometime in 2013.

US President, Barack Obama has called on his poltical party to back a “new future” of clean energy.

This comes in the aftermath of the ongoing BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. Obama was visiting areas affected by the spill, he said the full resources of government were being used, with 17,500 National Guard soldiers available.

Barack Obama has promised local Americans living on the Gulf of Mexico that their beaches will be cleaned up and restored back to their natural condition, whilst promising that BP will be held responsible and should pay for the damage from oil pollution.

The recent oil spill has been disastrous  for wildlife in the area, as well as hugely damaging for BP whose share price once again fell sharply, dropping 9% in London and New York. In a bid to stop the oil leaking into the ocean, BP placed a cap on top of the damaged oil well earlier this month; and by the end of last week, it was collecting about 15,000 barrels of oil a day.

The US Coast Guard estimates a daily leak of about 35,000 barrels.

There’s so much information out there on green technology ideas and advances, we thought it’s time to put a quick list togther for our readers. Get involved, if we’ve missed anything out that you’re passionate about, share the news!

bioAdvance’s top 5 Green Technology ideas for the future:

1. Fertilising the world’s oceans
What’s the plan? Dispersing iron dust into the ocean to eradicate carbon.

It’s widely known that the world’s oceans act as a sponge to carbon, soaking up 2bn tonnes of carbon every year. Dispersing iron dust on ocean waters is proven to trigger massive plankton blooms the size of a small city. The algae then absorbs carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, and when the algae dies, the whole lot sinks to the bottom of the ocean and becomes locked into the seabed.

2. New-look biofuels
What’s the plan? biofuels that run on waste organic material

Biofuels got off to a bad start, with controversy of growing food stock for starving cars – not starving people and growing unenvironmentally friendly monocultures, ploughing up vast expanses of virgin land. But here’s the solution to the biofuels problem. This time the idea is to use whole plants and by converting waste materials like cornstalks and leftover sugar-cane fibres into cellulosic ethanol that will then be turned into raw power.

3. Hydrogen cargo ships
What’s the plan? Emissions-free shipping

Ok so this may be a while off, but still a ground breaking idea none the less! Hydrogen-hybrid boats could turn global shipping and freight into an unlikely zero-emission poster boy. Current developments have come in the form of a canal boat called Ross Barlow, converted by Birmingham University. Believed to be the world’s first hydrogen-hybrid canal boat, the Ross Barlow’s system works by storing hydrogen in lithium hydride powder, which can be topped up when it has been exhausted.

4. Carrotmobbing
What’s the plan? The carrot, not the stick for corporate social responsibility

It’s the flash mop with a healthy concise. The idea is simple; ‘businesses will do anything for money’. Brent Schulkin came up with a radical new idea for encouraging green credentials upon 23 liquor and grocery stores in his San Francisco neighbourhood. Asking how much they were prepared to invest in energy-efficiency improvements in return for him organising a “mob” of shoppers to visit the store. The rather unprepossessing K&D Market won the bidding with 22%. Using the internet, Schulkin publicised the scheme, then nervously waited to see if any shoppers would turn up. They did. A huge K&D carrotmob spent about $9,000 in two hours, breathing life into the old corporate-social-responsibility adage that corporations with values can translate this into cold, hard cash. Schulkin appears to have hit on a form of activism that could have mass appeal. Ultimately he wants to create carrotmobs so big that they can negotiate with some of the globe’s biggest corporations.

5. Precycling
What’s the plan? Forget recycling, the future is precycling.

Everyone has thought it when unwrapping a precious tomato from it’s layers of plastic packaging – why waste all the energy recycling when it’s not needed in the first place?! From now on, we can all choose a product that comes with the least packaging! Saving both materials and landfill space.

We’ve all heard about electric cars before, the promises and hype with every new electric car is nothing short of phenomenal. But at this year’s Detroit auto show it was clear the major car companies are starting to make electric finally work, not just to gain the important green credentials, but also keeping the high performance that their customers want. What does this mean for petrol heads out there? Soon to become electro heads??

The new technology is under the bonnets, these cars are fueled by federal clean-energy funding and rapid improvement in lithium-ion batteries.

The North American International Auto Show in Detroit is not typically known for promoting green advances in automobile technology. With the norm being the gas guzzling 4×4s that seem to never be a few meters from young women, rather impractically clothed for off road driving. But it seems that is all about to change…

The heat is on, but we’re not talking petrol powered heat, It’s become a race to market for green cars, it won’t be too long until you’ll be able to buy many of the electric vehicles that were on display last week in Detroit. Even with all the stunning advances, the only practical plug-in electric vehicle you can buy today is the $109,000 Tesla Roadster, by the end of 2010 it will be joined by such contenders as the Nissan Leaf, Coda sedan, and the Think City.

Indeed, the entire auto industry — from giants such as Ford, GM, and Renault-Nissan to startups such as Fisker Automotive — has joined the movement to build and market affordable electric vehicles.

So why the big change of heart over petrol power Vs electric for the manufacturers? Of course it money is the key factor pushing the car giants to producing these car. The Obama administration has launched new green initiatives for automobile manufacturers, including Department of Energy (DOE) loans and grants, as well as economic stimulus funds that provide $30 billion for green energy programs, tax credits for companies that invest in advanced batteries, and $2.4 billion in strategic grants to speed the adoption of new batteries. Other factors behind the push to manufacture electric vehicles are a federal mandate to improve fuel efficiency to an average of 35.5 miles per gallon by 2016, concerns about global warming and peak oil, and sheer technological progress building better batteries.

We are proud to announce the launch of www.bioadvance.co.uk we hope our readers enjoy all the interesting and powerful technologies we bring to light on this website. Thanks to all the contributors!