The challenge of wind turbine blade repair

RenewableEnergyFocus.com
07 November 2011
George Marsh

WITH A growing number of composite wind turbine blades now in service, rotor blade maintenance is becoming a major issue. George Marsh looks at the techniques used to inspect and repair blades, and experiences first hand a new system designed to speed up the repair process.

They call them skyworkers. Seen from a distance, they resemble ants as they manoeuvre around the blades of mighty wind turbines though, in fact, they are more comparable with spiders since they are supported and enabled to do their work by a web of ropes.

They are a new breed of worker in composite materials, combining reinforced plastic maintenance capabilities with abseiling/climbing skills. They are inspecting, cleaning and repairing the sometimes enormous rotor blades whose good condition is vital to wind turbine efficiency. For these members of a new breed of industrial worker, a head for heights is a key qualification.

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Melding Talents with a Career in Bioprocessing

Science Magazine
By Emma Hitt
July 15, 2011

Bioprocessing is an expanding field encompassing any process that uses living cells or their components (e.g., bacteria, enzymes, or chloroplasts) to obtain desired products, such as biofuels and therapeutics. As with other fields considered under the broader scope of biotechnology, bioprocessing draws upon multiple areas of knowledge, but especially molecular biology, chemical engineering, and manufacturing. With advances in biotechnology and an ongoing need for pharmaceuticals and sustainable forms of fuel as well as cheaper, more effective ways to make them, the opportunities in bioprocessing, at both the undergraduate and graduate level, are looking promising.

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Back to School With Biomass

Biomass Magazine
August 2010
By Bruce Folkedahl

Returning from a business trip on a flight from Memphis to Minneapolis, my boss sat next to a young man who was traveling to be in a friend’s wedding. He was using a “diamond traveler” ticket earned with air miles accumulated mostly from his job as a turbine repair technician. Gas turbines for electrical power have been installed around the clock for several years because of cheap gas, lower capital costs, rapid construction and the goal of greater efficiency and lower carbon dioxide emissions. This young traveler was living the American dream. He attended a technical college in Minnesota for one year, was snatched up early by an energy business, and has been flying to strange lands experiencing cultures and people he had only read about on Wikipedia.

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Richland Community College (IL) Selects David Blume's Alcohol Can Be A Gas Book as Core Curriculum for New Innovative Workforce Solutions BioFuels Pro

Grainnet.com

Richland Community College (IL) Selects David Blume's Alcohol Can Be A Gas Book as Core Curriculum for New Innovative Workforce Solutions BioFuels Program
Date Posted: March 17, 2009

Chicago,IL—International Institute for Ecological Agriculture (IIEA) announced today that Richland Community College has selected Permaculture and Biofuel expert David Blume's Amazon.com best-selling book Alcohol Can Be A Gas, as course text for its new BioFuels Program.

Under the auspices of its Economic Development and Innovative Workforce Solutions administration the Decatur, IL-based College has launched a new course offering in the current semester to help retrain and supplement victims of recent area industrial market layoffs.

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Job growth likely in advanced biofuels, group says

International Herald Tribune - Global Edition of the New York Times
The Associated Press
Published: February 25, 2009

SIOUX FALLS, South Dakota: A national biotechnology trade group estimates that advanced biofuel refineries could create thousands of new U.S. jobs within a few years, growing to nearly 200,000 by 2022.

A report released Wednesday by Biotechnology Industry Organization estimates that the full economic impact from advanced biofuels — renewable fuels derived from sources other than corn starch — could result in more than 800,000 jobs by 2022.

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