Category Archives: Green Ideas
CO2 sucker could just clean the air
Researchers in California have produced a cheap plastic capable of removing large amounts of carbon dioxide (CO2) from the air. Down the road, the new material could enable the development of large-scale batteries and even form the basis of “artificial trees” that lower atmospheric concentrations of CO2 in an effort to stave off catastrophic climate change.
These long-term goals attracted the researchers, led by George Olah, a chemist at the University of Southern California (USC) in Los Angeles. Olah, who won the 1994 Nobel Prize in chemistry, has long envisioned future society relying primarily on fuel made from methanol, a simple liquid alcohol. As easily recoverable fossil fuels become scarce in the decades to come, he suggests that society could harvest atmospheric CO2 and combine it with hydrogen stripped from water to generate a methanol fuel for myriad uses.
Olah and his colleagues also work on making cheap, iron-based batteries that can store excess power generated by renewable energy sources and feed it into the electrical grid during times of peak demand. To function, the iron batteries grab oxygen from the air. But if even tiny amounts of CO2 get into the reaction, it kills the battery. In recent years, researchers have come up with good CO2 absorbers made from porous solids called zeolites and metal organic frameworks. But they’re expensive. So Olah and his colleagues set out to find a cheaper alternative.
They turned to polyethylenimine (PEI), a cheap polymer that is a decent CO2 absorber. But it only grabs CO2 at its surface. To boost PEI’s surface area, the USC team dissolved the polymer in a methanol solvent and spread it atop a batch of fumed silica, industrially produced porous solid made from microscopic droplets of glass fused together. When solvent evaporated, it left solid PEI with a high surface area.
When the researchers tested the new material’s CO2-grabbing abilities, they found that in humid air each gram of the material sopped up an average of 1.72 nanomoles of CO2. That’s above the 1.44 nanomoles per gram absorbed by a recent rival made from aminosilica and among the highest levels of CO2 absorption from air ever tested, the team reported in the Journal of the American Chemical Society. Once saturated with CO2, the PEI-silica combo is easy to regenerate. The CO2 floats away after polymer is heated to 85 degree Celsius. Other solid CO2 absorbers must be heated to over 800 degree Celsius to drive off the CO2.
Straw as Building Material for Future
A modern take on straw-bale construction may well be the grand design of the future if results coming out of the University of Bath are accepted by the construction industry. Think of a straw-bale house and you might imagine a tumbledown shack that leaks, creaks, slumps and smells somewhat of the farmyard. But step into Bale-Haus, a startlingly contemporary looking prototype home that has been built on the Bath Campus and there’s nary a wisp of straw to be seen. Instead, you are in a hallway of an upside down house with two bedrooms and a bathroom on the ground floor and an airy open plan living area upstairs. It feels like a little piece of Scandinavia has just arrived in Somerset, southwest England. The straw bales are all packed tightly inside a series of prefabricated rectangular wooden wall frames, which are then lime rendered, dried and finally slotted together like giant Lego pieces called ModCell panels.
People perceive straw houses as being a bit hippy and not particularly durable. Add to that the problems of getting mortgage – very few lenders will consider straw-bale construction. The benefits of straw, points out Professor Peter Walker, director of the University of Bath’s BRE Centre for Innovative Construction Materials, are that “it’s cheap, widely available and a good insulator. It’s been used in buildings houses for hundreds of years”.
The stack that remains after grain has been harvested – straw also helpfully soaks up carbon from the atmosphere and locks it in, so long as it is not allowed to decompose. For the building industry, which currently depends on materials with very high embedded energy costs - concrete and brick are expensive in carbon terms both to make and to transport – straw could therefore offer a welcome solution to housing’s greenhouse gas emission.
The straw-bale house won’t get sopping wet in a thunderstorm or go up in a whoosh of flames if you knock over a candle. The results now being published by Walker and his research partner, Dr Katharine Beadle, who have spent the past 18 months testing the BaleHaus against an exhaustive list of risk factors that could rot it, burn it or blow it down, so far seem to be reassuring.
Beadle with his team took a ModCell unit to a test laboratory and tried to reduce it to ashes by strapping it to a fiery furnace and raising the temperature to over 1,000 degree Celsius. “It’s standard test to replicate a fire in a building.” explains Walker. “It means you know that a house will at least retain its structural integrity for half an hour, which gives people a chance to get out”. “It took an hour and a half of being in direct contact with the flames”, says Beadle, before the lime render began to drop off, “and then the straw did start to burn back, but because it’s so compacted it suffered more charring then actual disintegration.”
When it come to blowing the house down – hydraulic jacks were placed against the walls to replicate wind forces pushing against the bales – the ModCell panels moved a few millimeters, but stayed within the tolerances allowed for by the computer modeling carried out prior to its construction. That says Walker, could be very good news for the price of the eventual ModCell building system. “It means the house is stiffer than it needs to be.” The approximate cost of the current modular building system for this design is £132,000 from above the concrete slab. “Cost is a challenge to the introduction of this technology but as a prototype house I think it stacks up well,” said Walker. “The aspiration is that it should be cost competitive with more savings coming through reduced heating bills.”
To replicate the heat given off by humans and appliances arrays of incandescent light bulbs on timers blaze in every room at pre-programmed times of day “to see how much heat escapes, and what level of heating would be needed at different times of the year,” explains Beadle.
“That environmental modeling will give us all the numbers about the energy the house is predicted to use. And if we are predicting how it will operate in given climate change, we can then put in those variables.”
Sensors embedded within each wall panel constantly monitor the degree of moisture absorbed and then released back through the breathable lime render into the sir outside by the panels. And on the air tightness test that was carried out, BaleHaus came in way under the building regulations threshold, and did considerably better than the far lowest “best practice” standard.
- The Guardian
Why don’t you walk and generate some electricity
Juicing up the portable electric devices on the go using energy emitted from human bodies is a dream long conceived by researchers and technology developers. This might now be near possible with this latest development by researchers at the University of Wisconsin in Madison.
Using reverse electrowetting technology that converts the energy generated by moving liquid into electricity the system will be embedded in footware to generate about 20 watts of usable electricity, using heat lost from the body during walks. This can charge up small portable devices and in the future, might generate enough juice to power up those hefty energy drinking mobile phones too.
Other uses of dental floss
There are so many ways to use dental floss than just keeping your teeth and gums healthy. Here are few of the many alternative uses of dental floss:
- Hang time: Use dental floss to hang pictures. In fact, you can use it to hang just about any small object in need of string or wire.
- Sew neat: If you have ever had a coat button that keeps coming off, try dental floss instead of thread the next time you sew it on.
- Cookie saver: Crumbling cookies got you down? Slide some floss underneath your baked goods to easily lift them off the baking tray.
- It’s a wrap: Use dental floss, instead of twine, to securely tie packages for mailing.
- Gone fishing: If you happen to break your fishing line, dental floss makes a sturdy replacement.
Green iphone speaker dock
If you are planning to buy a new iphone speaker dock than this should definitely interest you. You can now buy an iphone speaker dock that is as green as one can get. I think this product will put an end to your search. The new product is called Koostik iPhone Stereo dock.
Nothing gets greener than the Koostik and here is why. It needs no plugging in to amplify your music. So how dies it function? Using the principals of wood acoustics, this one amplifies all your favorite tracks playing out of your iPhone. No wires, no electricity and no grid connections required here.
If you are into heavy metal and high volume music, this one might not just be the right choice for you. If you live those soft vocals and instruments playing though, the Koostik is sure to make you smile.
Optionally made for walnut, cherry and birdseye maple, the Koostik seems to be the best way to play your iPhone music out loud, without electricity.
New Zealand wine set to display carbon footprint
Scrutinizing bouquet, viscosity and finish on the palate is no longer enough for the accomplished wine connoisseur but carbon footprint as well. Now they can consider a vintage’s environmental credentials — for one brand at least.
A New Zealand wine has become the first in the world to display the carbon footprint of each individual glass serving on its label — laying bare to the shopper or drinker the full environmental impact of making and transporting it. Each bottle of Mobius Marlborough sauvignon blanc — which takes its name from the highest peak of the range of hills above the town — will display its carbon footprint emissions for a typical 125 ml glass.
On the new label the relevant emissions, which are calculated to reflect the environmental impact of factors such as transportation and refrigeration, will be measured separately for every export market. So, bottles sold in New Zealand, for example, will carry a figure of 140g CO2, whereas bottles shipped to Australia will display 190g.
Significantly, the wine is the world’s first to be certified by the UK’s Carbon Trust which is leading a drive to influence consumer choice by encouraging universal carbon footprint labeling — using its own Carbon Reduction label — across all products.
This certification is a milestone for the New Zealand Wine Company (NZWC), which is based in Marlborough in the country’s South Island and which has been pursuing sustainable management within the New Zealand wine industry.
Craig Fowles, NZWC’s sustainability manager, said, “It’s a very important certification as it is a full-life cycle carbon approach. In a very recent development, the Carbon Trust in the UK announced that sales of products carrying its carbon footprint reduction label will shortly top GBP 2bn per annum.”
Definitely a great move to display carbon footprint on their products.
Solar powered Blood Pressure meter
Blood Pressure meter
There are places on Earth that are so far fetched and distant from any urban civilization, that electricity isn’t all too common as it is to many. These off-grid places do have a hard time catching up with a lot of facilities enjoyed by many today, including medical aid. A few researchers with some really great intentions in their hearts have designed a Blood Pressure meter device, powered by solar energy. This one needs no electrical outlets to plug in and is juiced up solely by the sun. With a device like solar Blood Pressure meter, doctors in areas far away can now keep tabs on cardio-vascular diseases amongst people.
Currently being tested in Uganda and Zambia in Africa, this Blood Pressure meter is not too expensive either — $32. An innovative way to keep health issues in check using green energy, this Blood Pressure meter will for sure make the work of doctors in off-grid areas a lot easier.
Do some green deeds while sleeping
Ecotypic Bed
Sleeping till late hasn’t really been too productive for any of us before but here is Ecotypic Bed. Well, sleeping and lazing around on the Ecotypic Bed could do a lot more!
Designed by Arthur Xin is a marvel of technology. Packing a battery below, this Ecotypic Bed generates electricity from the activities carried out on the bed. Basically, everything you do in bed and around the bed is turned into energy. This electricity generated is then use to power up the LED reading lamps, the speakers that play some soothing music to wake you up, and also LED lights that help the plants on this one grow.
The Ecotypic Bed has hooked on a bunch of straps and pulleys for you to exercise with, that helps generate electricity too.
“This is a green bed.” It has everything you need! A LED reading lights, speakers and a flower box.
There’s a battery below the bed which turns the activities you do on the bed and around the bed into energy.
Do everything all day long on the Ecotypic bed!
wireless keyboard running on solar power
Most people enjoy getting rid of wires for their computer peripherals and electronics, but the cost of batteries that these peripherals need to run on at times is far more than one is willing to shell out. And to fix up that void, Logitech has taken a logical step ahead to come out with a solar-powered keyboard. 
The Logitech Wireless Solar Keyboard K750 features laptop style keys and is as slim as one-to three-inch on the profile. The keyboard also comes with ambient light solar panels fit on either side of the face of the keyboard so that you never need to plug it into a socket for recharging.
Logitech claims that the low power integrated circuits in theory can function smoothly for three months without seeing any direct sunlight. It uses a 2.4GHz nano unifying receiver, so you can plug it into your USB ports and you’re good to go!
Running on wind power
Wind power could meet about a fifth of the world’s electricity demand within 20 years, an industry group and environmental watchdog Green-peace predicted in a new report released on October 5. The global market for wind power grew 41.7 per cent in 2009, beating average annual growth of 28.6 per cent over the past 13 years, said Steve Sawyer, secretary general of the Global Wind Energy Council (GWEC). China ranked second in the world in installed wind generating capacity in 2009 and was the largest buyer of wind technology, Sawyer told reporters at the launch of GWEC and Green-peace’s Global Wind Energy Out- look 2010 report. “We would expect China to continue to be the largest market and perhaps even be the (overall) largest market in the world by the end of this year,” he said.
The report’s “advanced scenario”— its most optimistic outlook — projects the world’s combined installed wind turbines would produce 2,600 terawatt hours (TWh) of electricity by 2020 — equal to 11.5 to 12.3 percent of power demand. By 2030, wind energy would produce 5,400 TWh — 18.8 to 21.8 per cent of the world’s power supply, the report said. The more conservative “reference” scenario based on figures from the UN’s 
International Energy Agency saw wind power triple in the next decade to cover up to 4.8 percent of electricity — equal to Europe’s current total production.
The “moderate” scenario based on current industry figures would see wind power meet up to 9.5 per cent of the world’s power demand by 2020, the report said. “For more than the last 10 years, the actual performance of the wind industry has exceeded our advanced scenario every time,” said Sawyer. Under the advanced forecast, 1.6 billion tones of carbon dioxide emissions would be saved each year, the report said. This would increase to 3.3 billion tones of CO2 saved each year by 2030. The cumulative amounts of CO2 saved would be 10 billion tones by 2020 and 34 billion tones by 2030, the report said.