How do you convert 500,000 tonnes of waste into 16 million gallons of green jet fuel every year and effectively take 48,000 cars off the road?

Simple, you get the Solena Group to help you and this is exactly what British Airways has done in order to do its bit for the environment.

British Airways has teamed up with the Solena Group to build the first sustainable jet-fuel plant in Europe which will be used to power its aircraft from 2014.

The process basically provides lifecycle greenhouse gas savings of around 95% when compared to fossil-fuel derived jet kerosene.

The new plant which is likely to be built in East London takes waste materials which would usually go into landfill sites and converts it into aviation fuel.

And the 16 million gallons of fuel is equivalent to making all of the airlines flights from London City Airport carbon-neutral and is also equal to taking 48,000 cars off the road every year.

Solena Group Inc is a world leader in renewable energy systems and from its headquarters in Washington DC, it partners companies throughout the world to produce bio-energy and bio-fuel solutions. And not only will the plant produce airline fuel, it will also generate some 20 mega watts of electricity.

Solena will build and operate the plant and British Airways has agreed to buy the bio-fuel product. Some four sites are being considered in the east of London and its expected to create some 1,200 new jobs.

The bosses are as-one as to the merits of the project, with
Willie Walsh, British Airways’ chief executive, leading the way:
“This unique partnership with Solena will pave the way for realising our ambitious goal of reducing net carbon emissions by 50 per cent by 2050. We believe it will lead to the production of a real sustainable alternative to jet kerosene.”

Next up was Dr Robert Do, chairman and chief executive of the Solena Group who said:
“The Solena - British Airways BioJetFuel project will efficiently convert biomass into clean renewable fuels and electricity and is completely carbon neutral. The plant will be a state-of-the-art renewable fuel manufacturing facility, distinct from a standard waste to energy incinerator facility. It will not produce any polluting emissions or undesirable by-products.”

Not to be out-done in the applause, The Mayor of London Boris Johnson, said:
“I welcome this fantastic new ‘carbon lite’ fuel production facility in London. City Hall has been working with British Airways and Solena to drive this project forward to help untap the massive potential to generate cleaner, less polluting energy from waste, otherwise destined for landfill.”

So next time you take of in a British Airways jet, just think for a minute what might be powering it in the future: the waste of all those Londoners!

The introduction of the Samsung Mythic mobile phone into the US market is most definitely geared towards those that can’t bear to leave their TV’s at home.

Samsung’s PR team obviously think it’s what everyone wants, saying: “Think a phone like this is too good to be true? Think again. The Samsung Mythic is everything you’ve been dreaming of in a phone and then some. You’ll watch live TV right from the extra-large 3.3” touchscreen. And if there’s nothing on TV, a slew of social networking apps and messaging features will keep you busy chatting with friends and updating them on what’s happening in your life.”

Fair enough, but it’s beginning to imply that a human being is less than complete without a steady stream of TV images in their face, or networking sites in which to update. You wake up, then begin a daily cycle of either watching TV, or telling everyone else what you’re watching on TV. The obvious question of course, is if you’re so busy watching TV, when do you have time to live a life, to actually do something that might be worth putting on your social network page?

That’s not going to stop millions of Americans tuning into mobile TV of course. With the Samsung Mythic, they’ll be able to sign up for the AT&T Mobile TV service, which gives them real-time access to stations such as CBS, Comedy Central, ESPN, FOX, MTV and NBC.

Now there’s a thought, you leave the office after a hard day, and whilst you’re wending your tired way back home, you can catch up with the myriad of Friends repeats, just in case you haven’t seen every episode at least ten times before! And when you get back home, you collapse in front of the goggle box and watch some more repeats of Friends. Just think, how interesting will your social network page be sharing that day’s activity?

But the days when a mobile phone was just a mobile phone are long gone.

And, it has to be said, the Samsung Mythic is a little beauty and to think you can watch a TV programme on its 3.3” touch screen, is pretty impressive.

Apart from it’s ability to show your favourite TV sitcoms, it has all the usual points of merit: GSM 850/900/1900; JAVA operating system; 3.2 megapixel camera; music player; email; Bluetooth; and, with the help of a memory card, some 32GB of memory.

So there you are then, if watching TV on the move is important, get this little wonder, and by the way, it will also allow you to make calls.

So how many devices did mobile phone giants Nokia sell in the last quarter of 2009 and do they still continue to dominate the market?

In their recent financial results announcement Nokia confirmed that they had sold some 126.9 devices, up 12% on the quarter, but perhaps more significantly, up 17% on the third quarter.

This is especially good when considering that Nokia estimates that overall industry mobile device volumes were only up 8% on the year and 14% from the preceding quarter.

Nokia reckons that they enjoyed a whopping mobile device market share of 39% in the fourth quarter, a 2% increase on the same period last year and 1% more than the previous quarter (Q3 2009).

Although, despite good sales figures and market shares, sales at 12 billion euros were down 5% compared to the fourth quarter 2008 and down a far larger 22% from the preceding quarter.

Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo, the CEO of Nokia, said:
“We grew our market share in smartphones in the fourth quarter, driven by the successful launch of new touch and QWERTY models. Our performance in smartphones, combined with continuing success in the emerging markets…Our solid results also owe a good deal to world class supply chain management and impressive sales execution.

“Our focus remains firmly on execution, especially around user experience. Here I want to highlight our move to shake up the navigation market with free walk and drive navigation on our smartphones, a good example of how we are leveraging our assets to bring real benefits to consumers.”

The reference to the smartphones market in the above quote might be seen by some observers as a nod to Nokia struggling in the past to make its prescence felt in the top end of this particularly demanding sector. In other words, it does not have the ‘killer’ device. Many feel that although Nokia does dominate in market share terms, it has not traditionally had a device which can take on the iconic iPhones and BlackBerrys.

Brands are of course fickle things and only time will tell as to whether a Nokia smartphone will genuinely begin to challenge the two brands that are considered the trend setters.

The first pan-European helpline phone numbers have been allocated by Ofcom and three big UK charities get the first batch.

The charity Missing People get to use 161 100 for a missing children helpline. NSPCC get 161 111 for its ChildLine service and 161 123 goes to the Samaritans who will use it as an emotional support line.

The new 116 numbers will work alongside the charities’ existing numbers. The idea is that they will allow anyone visiting Europe to be able to access a service via a memorable number.

The 116 numbers have been made available by the European Commission. One of their key aims is for certain social value services to be contactable by the same memorable number in all Member States. More 116 numbers will be issued and allocated in the future.

In the UK the 116 numbers will be free of charge, whether they are called from a landline, or mobile phone. Their introduction is expected later next year.

Martin Houghton-Brown, Chief Executive of Missing People, said:
“This is an exciting opportunity for the charity Missing People to share the Europe-wide number for missing children. The charity already takes 128,000 calls every year and this has extended the opportunities to contact us.”

Christine Renouf, NSPCC Director of helplines, said:
“It’s excellent news that we have been allocated 116 111. This is a positive step towards making sure children are aware there are helplines across Europe which they can access through a single number.”
Catherine Johnstone, Chief Executive of Samaritans, said:
“We welcome the 116 123 phone number which will give anyone in emotional distress a free, short and simple way to call Samaritans. We believe that giving people the chance to talk can alleviate feelings of despair and suicidal thoughts - ultimately saving lives.”

Ofcom’s primary job is to allocate millions of telephone numbers to the communication providers for personal and business use.

Daniel Gordon, Ofcom’s Policy Director, said:
“Ofcom’s role is to enable these numbers to be rolled out in the UK for the benefit of consumers. These new 116 numbers will mean people can call these services wherever they are in Europe.”

So will the new Apple iPad cut the mustard? Will it straddle the gap between a smartphone and laptop? Or to be more precise, will it save the flagging publishing industry?

To great fanfare and usual Apple appetite whetting the iPad has just  been unveiled to an excited public.

It looks sleek and ‘sexy’, something you’d expect from the cool guys at Apple. It’s a tablet shaped computer which looks, say many, like an over-sized iPhone, and boasts a 9.7 inch colour screen.

But for most observers, it’s not about looks, but about where it fits into the overall scheme of techno-gadgets. And in launching the iPad, Apple’s CEO Jobs described where it was targeted, the currently sleepy ebook market. In the same way that Apple took a stranglehold on the music market and helped change the way people listened to music for ever, so they now want to take control of the ebook market.

There’s plenty there already, with Sony’s ereader having been out some time and Amazon putting a lot of weight behind their Kindle ereader.

But Apple has proved that smart design, coupled with smart marketing, can give them the edge as they build the device then stimulate growth and sales.

Of course, the iPad can do many other things as well, including surf the web, send emails, play games, watch TV, make notes and generally organise their owner’s lives.

But Apple have their eye on the ebook market and have created iBooks which lets the user purchase and download ebooks onto the iPad.

And to reinforce their commitment in this sector, they already signed deals with the likes of Penguin, HarperCollins and Simon & Schuster.

What’s more, it’s not only book publishers who are hoping for big things from the iPad. All content creators, the newspaper and magazine groups especially, will be praying that this is the device that not only makes reading content interesting, but also gives it a value. The big hope is that devices such as the iPad and Kindle will change the way people read books and newspapers. And thus bring about the end of the ‘free content’ age, when everything could be expected to be on the internet for nothing.

So if you want to read your Charles Dickens, or Financial Times on the iPad, then American citizens will be able to get their hands on a model by March for around $499, whereas those in the UK will have to wait a little longer and prices have yet to be set.

In case you’re interested, the iPad weighs only 700 grams and is a mere 0.5 inch thick; which is useful, given it has to spend a lot of time cupped in your hands. And it can store between 16 and 64 gigabytes of data.

Form an orderly queue now!