It isn’t always easy to fill up your tank, when the fuel that propels your vehicle is Natural Gas. It really depends where you live, and planning a trip can be tricky too.

Thankfully, if you are heading out towards Orange County, things will be easier now.

A new Clean N’ Green Fuel public fueling station in Santa Ana supports commercial fleet drivers and owners of CNG-equipped vehicles. Today, Waste Management of Orange County representatives and officials from PetroCard, the City of Santa Ana and the South Coast Air Quality Management District celebrated the grand opening of the station.

This new addition to the few CNG stations operating in Orange County is very welcome. Waste Management added new infrastructure to fuel its existing fleet of CNG recycling and trash collection vehicles at the Santa Ana site.

In addition to cost savings, nitrogen oxide emissions are reduced by up to 50 percent and greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) are reduced by over 21 percent compared to standard diesel trucks. GHGs can be reduced by over 80 percent when using landfill gas derived CNG and LNG fuel. As an additional benefit, CNG trucks run 50 percent quieter than diesel trucks.

“CNG is addressing two of the biggest imperatives for fleet owners today – reducing costs and decreasing emissions. Our collaboration with Waste Management at this facility makes it more convenient for fleet owners to save money at the pump while shrinking their carbon footprint from operations.”
- Steve Tolton, CEO of PetroCard

The new station is just one of several green initiatives Waste Management has rolled out in Santa Ana in recent months. The company and the City of Santa Ana Public Works Agency unveiled eight new solar powered trash compactors at the Santa Ana Train Depot. The compactors will help reduce trash collection frequency, costs, and fuel use and greenhouse gas emissions at the landmark facility.

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NASA is enabling biomedical research with National Institutes of Health (NIH) grants that take advantage of the unique microgravity environment aboard the International Space Station to explore fundamental questions about important health issues.

The NIH Biomedical Research on the International Space Station (BioMed-ISS) awards are the next step in a new partnership to apply the national laboratory to research that complements NASA’s own space studies. The NIH studies include research on how bones and the immune system weaken in space.

“This marks the beginning of a new era in microgravity-based research with the International Space Station turning the corner from construction to use as a new national laboratory,” said Mark Uhran, assistant associate administrator for space station, NASA Headquarters in Washington.

In 2005 Congress recognized the immense promise the station holds for U.S.-led science and technology efforts. It opened the U.S. portion of the facility to federal agencies, university and private sector researchers by designating the station as a national laboratory. In addition to NIH, NASA has similar research agreements with the Departments of Defense, Agriculture and Energy and the National Science Foundation.

Scientists will conduct their experiments under a two-stage mechanism. The first is a ground-based preparatory phase to allow investigators to meet select milestones and technical requirements. The second is an experimental phase on the space station that will include preparing the experiments for launch, working with astronauts to conduct them on orbit and performing subsequent data analyses on Earth.

“BioMed-ISS offers a novel opportunity for gaining scientific insights that would not otherwise be possible through ground-based means,” said Stephen I. Katz, M.D., Ph.D., director of the NIH’s National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases and NIH liaison to NASA. “The beauty of this initiative is that it offers an unprecedented opportunity for benefitting human health on earth, while leveraging the American public’s investment in the ISS.”

NIH is hosting three rounds of competition for the initiative. The first round of grants for the ground-based phase, totaling an estimated $1,323,000, with one award to San Diego.

Declan McCole, Ph.D., University of California, San Diego was awarded a grant for his research.

The movement of toxins from intestines to other organs in the body is a major source of illness in the United States. A major factor in disease stems from the ability of toxins to compromise the natural barrier function of cells in the gastrointestinal tract.

Using microgravity based three-dimensional cell culture models, McCole plans to generate insights regarding the barrier properties of the intestines, and explore how the absence of gravity affects a toxin’s ability to diminish this barrier.

For more information about NIH and NASA activities, visit:

http://www.niams.nih.gov/News_and_Events/NIH_NASA_Activities/

For information about the International Space Station, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/station

For more information about NIH and its programs, visit:

http://www.nih.gov

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