Green Options » sustainable

Environmental Plastic Discovery

Zachary Shahan — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 22:30:30 +0000

News from South Korea is that scientists have succeeded in creating plastic without the use of fossil fuels.

The scientists created sustainable polymers used in common plastics that could replace traditional polymers that use chemicals from fossil fuels. The bioengineered polymers may be what is needed to create truly green-friendly plastic products.

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Seven Robots with Green Jobs

Tina Casey — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 12:57:41 +0000

The new green economy is putting more robots to work in green jobs, especially in environmental research and related fields. In a sustainability twofer, many of the new machines are powered by solar energy and other green alternatives. Click through the show to see what’s up with some of our circuit-centric friends.

1. Robolobster

Northeastern University is developing a remote environmental data gathering robot that resembles an eight legged lobster. The robot is designed to maneuver across rough surfaces while negotiating surging water and shifting currents, making it ideal for exploring rivers and littoral zones (ocean shore areas up to the high water mark).

Image: Courtesy of Jan Witting/Northeastern University.

2. Phoenix Mars

The mother of all green jobs probably belongs to the Phoenix Mars, which launched last year and went to work on Mars for several months with a robotic arm to dig and scoop up soil samples for on-board analysis. It also doubled as a weather station and yes, it was solar powered. The photo montage above provides a unique look at the Phoenix on the planet’s surface.

Image: Phoenix Mars Mission.

3. Robot Composter for the Home

Back on earth, the workhorses of the robot world are the ones that collect and recycle waste, like the NatureMill food composting robot. This one can mix, heat and aerate fresh scraps, automatically send them to a lower chamber to make room for more, and pop on a red light to signal that a fully composted load is ready - all without raising a stink.

Image: NatureMill.

4. Robots and Green Maintenance Jobs

One great advantage of robots is their ability to deploy in places that would put people at risk of life and limb. Wind turbines fit that category. The modest looking RIWEA robot operates on rope-climbing principles that enable it to scale gigantic turbine poles and inspect rotor blades for dings, cracks, and other defects.

Image: FraunhoferIFF.

5. Robots in the Sky

Small drone aircraft can accomplish many environmental research tasks while cutting down on the carbon footprint needed to accommodate human bodies in flight. An early demonstration of NOAA’s Altair drone involved research off the coast of Oregon and California.

Image: Altair unmanned aircraft in flight courtesy of NOAA.

6. Robots in Agriculture

Researchers at the Bristol Robotics Laboratory are developing an agricultural robot that can detect slugs, pluck them up, and eat them - then “digest” the slugs for energy to keep themselves running. The trick will be developing a microbial fuel cell to extract electrons from the source of nutrition. The lab works in partnership with the University of Bristol and the University of the West of England.

Image: Bristol Robotics Laboratory.

7. Swarms of Robots

Mini-robots are another big trend we’ll see more of. UC San Diego researchers are developing swarms of robots no bigger than a soccer ball. They can drift with ocean currents to gather information on the micro-mechanisms that support plankton and other tiny marine creatures. They could also guard sensitive areas or provide on-the-spot information about oil spills, plane crashes and other marine emergencies.

Image: National Science Foundation.

World’s First Osmotic Power Plant Opens

Tina Casey — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 12:51:34 +0000

Mix salt water with fresh water and there you have it: instant carbon-neutral energy. The process is called osmotic power, and a company called Statkraft has just opened the world’s first osmotic power plant in Norway.

For now the plant has a limited production capacity and will focus mainly on testing and developing the technology for commercial application. When osmotic power does go commercial, it could make a significant contribution to a sustainable, carbon neutral energy future. The company estimates that the global potential of osmotic power is equivalent to half of the European Union’s current energy production.

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Scientists Developing Swarms of Miniature Drifting Robots to Patrol the Ocean

Tina Casey — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 17:14:06 +0000

The National Science Foundation has just awarded researchers at UC San Diego a $1million grant to develop small robotic devices that will drift with the ocean currents to study the mechanisms that support plankton and other tiny marine creatures. Swarms of the autonomous underwater explorers (AUE’s) could provide a window into the underlying factors that drive broader ocean processes, by more precisely focusing on localized data on currents, temperature, salinity, pressure, and other properties.

The robots could also some day patrol and monitor protected marine areas, provide early warnings of potential hazards such as algae blooms and oil spills, and even scout out plane crashes and other ocean-going emergencies. Depending on how the devices are powered, the robot swarms could also provide a more sustainable means of accomplishing oceanic research compared to the use of ships and other fossil fuel-powered equipment.

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Quick-Charge Batteries Get a Boost from Defective Carbon Nanotubes

Tina Casey — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 13:08:32 +0000

Researchers at the University of San Diego have discovered that carbon nanotubes don’t have to be perfect to do a better job. The team of UCSD Professor Prabhakar Bandaru and grad student Mark Hoefer found that defective carbon nanotubes actually store energy more effectively than their unflawed counterparts.

The effect, which was originally studied at UCSD by grad student Jeff Nichols, rests in the creation of just the right amount of defects - enough to create additional charge sites on the nanotube, but not enough to break down its electrical conductivity. Though it’s a long way from commercialization, the breakthrough brings us one step closer to the Holy Grail of the electric car, and to the entire battery operated sustainable infrastructure of the future: a genuine quick-charging, long lasting battery.

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Bayview Celebrates the Latona Community Garden

Rhonda Winter — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 23:08:02 +0000

Many of our Bayview neighbors joined us last weekend to celebrate the second anniversary of the Latona Community Garden. What used to be a smelly skanky debris-filled eyesore, is now a thriving organic community garden. The formerly blighted corner has been transformed into a warm and welcoming public space where neighbors gather, local kids play, and organic food is grown.

Several of the neighborhood kids climbing the walnut tree in the Latona Community Garden.

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I Want A Goat, M—– F—–! (Explicit) Video

Rhishja Larson — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 20:56:41 +0000

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The video is explicit, the message is simple: You can transform lives in one of the poorest districts of India by donating a goat.

A life-changing experience in India inspired volunteer Debbie Glasband to launch a program to provide an alternative source of income for tribal people: Goats.

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AgriPlas Puts Wheat Straw Plastic in Ford Flex

Tina Casey — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 16:51:37 +0000

It certainly is the dawning of a new era in automotive technology when the tiger in your tank becomes a moldy relic of bygone ad campaigns while the humble leftovers from harvested wheat get awards for new sustainable thinking. A. Schulman, Inc.’s AgriPlas wheat straw fiber has just been named a Blue Ribbon Finalist in Environmental Innovation by the Automotive Division of the Society of Plastics Engineers, for its application in the Ford Flex crossover vehicle.

AgriPlas’s contribution to the Flex is an injection-molded storage bin and inner lid made of polypropylene and a bio-filler made of wheat straw. Though the application is modest in scope, a spokesperson for Ford’s Plastics Research division sees it as a litmus test of things to come, in terms of increasing fuel efficiency by decreasing vehicle weight.

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U.S. Army’s New Research Center Puts Fossil Fuels on Notice

Tina Casey — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 16:54:36 +0000

If we need just one more reason to be convinced that the era of fossil fuels is quickly winding down, 30,000 square feet of evidence is going up right now in the suburban Detroit town of Warren, Michigan. That’s where the U.S. Army is building its new Ground System Power and Energy Laboratory (GSPEL), and it’s no accident that the site is deep in the heart of the U.S. auto industry.

The high tech GSPEL complex features eight separate laboratories, all dedicated to the development of more sustainable military vehicles and related systems: increasing energy efficiency, using more renewable resources, focusing on ready access to energy and power, and reducing environmental impacts. It’s all part of the military’s overall drive to shed fossil fuels—both foreign domestic—and focus on energy security for the 21st century.

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New Bio-Based Glue Lets Cows Have their Cake and Eat it, Too

Tina Casey — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 12:04:11 +0000

Researcher Susan Sun of Kansas State University has an answer for all those hungry cows out there: let them eat barrels. Sun’s work on sustainable biomass adhesives has already lead to an edible barrel for cattle feed made with straw and soy adhesive. More products are on the horizon, including a new formula that improves the flowability and strength of raw bioplastic, making it easier to pour and mold.

The edible barrels replace oil drums, which cost approximately $6 per barrel to clean for re-use as feed containers in addition to the cost of the barrel. Sun’s elegant waste reduction solution relieves farmers of this expense while practically eliminating the risk of oil-contaminated feed from poorly cleaned barrels. It also eliminates waste or water pollution associated with the cleaning process, and it eliminates the cost (and carbon footprint) of returning used barrels for re-use.

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Electric Mole Takes a Bite Out of Energy Costs, with Help from Solar Power

Tina Casey — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 15:28:51 +0000

Veteran solar installer Parkson Corporation is lending its expertise to a new wastewater treatment plant upgrade for the town of Berlin near the Maryland coast. When it’s finished, the new plant will almost eliminate the use of fossil fuels for drying and converting biosolids, also known as sludge, into a lightweight Class A soil amendment or sustainable fuel. The process is pushed along by a stainless steel “Electric Mole” that automaticaly mixes, aerates, and granulates the sludge as it dries.

The $16 million upgrade project is funded by ARRA (American Recovery and Reinvestment Act). Parkson’s Thermo-System Active Solar Sludge Drying Chambers will enable the sludge conversion process to operate under more than 90% solar power rather than using gas or oil. For disposing sludge in landfills, that translates into a significant savings in preparation and transportation costs. Even better, it makes sludge products more cost-competitive with conventional soil amendments and fossil fuels, effectively taking the “waste” out of wastewater.

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U.S. Water Use Declines Despite 30% Population Increase

Tina Casey — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 12:57:28 +0000

The U.S. Department of the Interior reports that overall water consumption in the United States has declined in the past 25 years, even though the population has increased 30% and use by individual American households has increased. The statistics were compiled by the U.S. Geological Survey.

What’s the secret? The 25-year patterns of water consumption revealed in the DOI report provide tantalizing clues about the ability of the U.S. to sustain its legendarily consumer-centric lifestyle while stabilizing and ultimately decreasing its contribution to carbon emissions and other greenhouse gasses.

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Compost with a Kick: Bokashicycle Brews First Large-Scale Food Waste Fermentation Operation

Tina Casey — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 01:20:39 +0000

Bokashi is a centuries-old Japanese method of recycling household food waste into all-natural compost. By employing a special culture of yeast and other microorganisms, bokashi is a compact, odorless process that takes only days instead of weeks or months. Now the Bokashicycle company is breaking the process out of the kitchen and into a commercial-scale food waste recycling operation, in partnership with New Earth Farm in Hillsboro, Oregon.

New Earth Farm takes in food scraps from Bon Appetit cafeterias on the nearby Intel Hawthorn Farm campus, which provides a significant waste disposal savings compared to disposing the scraps in landfills. Waste reduction is one goal, and in an even more sustainable twist the composted soil is used to grow crops for Abundant Harvest, a local consumer-supported agriculture (CSA) store.

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Rice University Cooks Up Nanotube Stew

Tina Casey — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 17:35:27 +0000

Researchers at Rice University have announced the discovery of a new breakthrough method for producing carbon nanotubes in bulk fluids. Rice’s new nanotube “stew” could spur the inexpensive mass production of carbon nanotube-based products, much like the plastics industry employed bulk loads of melted polymers as a cheap base for making everything from medical equipment to polyester shirts to plastic bags, and countless other things in between.

Rice’s nanotube research was sponsored in party by U.S. Air Force and U.S. Navy. Aside from their military application, carbon nanotubes have a practically unlimited potential for sustainable civilian products because of their strength, light weight, and electrical conductivity among other properties. Lightweight nanomaterials could boost the gas mileage in cars and airplanes, make thinner and more flexible solar cells, increase the efficiency of lithium-ion batteries (in combination with another new high tech material, graphene), and be used in artificial photosynthesis to generate hydrogen fuel.

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WindSentinel from Catch the Wind Could Cut the Cost of Siting New Offshore Wind Turbines

Tina Casey — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 13:53:51 +0000

Catch the Wind Ltd. of Virginia has just announced that its new Vindicator laser wind sensor has been deployed on a specialized buoy for a field test off Race Rocks Island in British Columbia. If successful, the laser sensor would be part of the world’s first buoy-based wind power assessment system, which could shave millions off the cost of assessing conditions at potential sites for offshore wind turbines.

Conventional site assessments for large scale wind farms are done through the construction of a permanent offshore tower, which can cost up to $10 million. Catch the Wind’s movable buoy-based system, called the WindSentinel, could virtually eliminate that expense and help open up sustainable offshore wind power to small communities, military bases, and other modestly scaled projects.

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Driving to Phish Festival 8 in a 2010 Ford Fusion Hybrid

Nick Chambers — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 18:09:34 +0000

Touring bands are notorious for their environmental footprints, but more and more the bands and their fans are taking steps to make the activity less damaging.

When it comes to music, the Beatles—fueled by my parents’ large collection of vinyl—dominated most of my early life. The White Album is like my musical comfort food; it’s what I go back to when I need to feel rooted. But in terms of the music that has influenced and shaped much of my adult life, there is no band more important than Phish.

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Fish and Solar Cells will Co-Exist in Pyron’s New Concentrated Solar Project

Tina Casey — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 22:52:02 +0000

San Diego Gas & Electric has embarked on a demonstration project to test the commercial viability of a new concentrated solar power system that uses shallow pools of water as a passive cooling system for high-efficiency solar cells. The unique proprietary technology was developed by Pyron Solar of Sorrento Valley, California.

The new technology could be attractive in land-rich areas, and it may also have some application for introducing sustainable energy to more densely developed areas, since its use of high efficiency solar cells enables it to pack more generating capacity into less space. It also may prompt some new exploration of the opportunity to double up solar energy generation with other operations, such as fish farming.

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Sharp Nails a Record 35.8% Solar Conversion Efficiency

Tina Casey — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 14:10:46 +0000

Sharp Corporation has just announced that it has achieved the world’s highest solar cell conversion efficiency using a compound layered design based on the technology used in the solar cells that power space satellites. Mindful of the link between sustainable energy and the future market for consumer electronics, Sharp has been aggressively pursuing solar efficiency improvements that lend themselves to commercial application.

Instead of silicon, compound solar cells use two or more photo-absorption layers composed of different elements. The trick is to find materials that generate the most current with the least waste. Sharp’s innovation is a proprietary technology that enables it to produce a high-efficiency crystalline compound, InGaAs (indium-gallium-arsenide), which boosted the efficiency of Sharp’s previous cells from 31.5% to 35.8%.

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First Polio, Now Mercury: World Unites Against Global Health Threat

Tina Casey — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 11:31:02 +0000

Mercury pollution is next on the list of global health threats to face concentrated action with the goal of elimination. According to Zero Mercury Working Group, yesterday the first significant steps toward a binding treaty to control mercury pollution were announced at a United Nations Environmental Program meeting in Bangkok, Thailand, in advance of negotiations that will take place in Stockholm next summer.

The global nature of mercury pollution lies in its ability to travel long distances from its point of emission through the food chain. In fish it accumulates in its most toxic form, methylmercury. Zero Mercury hopes to achieve a treaty by 2013 that promotes more sustainable alternatives to mercury in products and industrial processes, with the broad goal of addressing all controllable emissions of mercury in the environment.

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Solar Water Disinfection Could Kill Even More Germs with New High-Tech Coating

Tina Casey — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 21:19:40 +0000

Solar water disinfection is an idea so simple, it hurts. Now a Georgia Tech scientist may be on to a new high-tech twist that could make this no-cost, zero emission ultraviolet (UV) water disinfection method even more quick and effective.

Solar disinfection is a proven method of killing germs in drinking water by exposing it to direct sunlight in a clear plastic or glass bottle. Dr. Jaehong Kim of the Georgia Institute of Technology has just been awarded a $100,000 innovation grant by the Water Environment Research Foundation for his work in developing a new coating that could be applied to bottles to shorten the solar disinfection process and improve its effectiveness. Though not (yet) practical for large volumes of water, solar disinfection has proven to be a sustainable answer for people in remote locations or impoverished areas that lack the resources to disinfect their drinking water through other means.

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