Unique salt allows energy production to move inland

Engineerblogger
March 2, 2012

Microbial reverse dialysis test cell. Credit PSU

Production of energy from the difference between salt water and fresh water is most convenient near the oceans, but now, using an ammonium bicarbonate salt solution, Penn State researchers can combine bacterial degradation of waste water with energy extracted from the salt-water fresh-water gradient to produce power anywhere.

"We are taking two technologies, each having limitations, and putting them together," said Bruce E. Logan, Kappe Professor of Environmental Engineering. "Combined, they overcome the limitations of the individual technologies."

The technologies Logan refers to are microbial fuel cells (MFC) -- which use wastewater and naturally occurring bacteria to produce electricity -- and reverse electrodialysis (RED) -- which produces electricity directly from the salinity gradient between salty and fresh water. The combined technology creates a microbial reverse-electrodialysis cell (MRC). The researchers describe MRCs in today's (March 1) edition of Science Express.

RED stacks extract energy from the ionic difference between fresh water and salt water. A stack consists of alternating ion exchange membranes -- positive and negative -- with each RED membrane pair contributing additively to the electrical output. Unfortunately, using only RED stacks to produce electricity is difficult because a large number of membranes is required when using water at the electrodes, due to the need for water electrolysis.

Using exoelectrogenic bacteria -- bacteria found in wastewater that consume organic material and produce an electric current -- reduces the number of stacks needed and increases electric production by the bacteria.

Logan, working with Roland Cusick, graduate student in environmental engineering, and postdoctoral fellow Younggy Kim, placed a RED stack between the electrodes of an MFC to form the MRC.

While the researchers previously showed that an MRC can work with natural seawater, the organic matter in water will foul the membranes without extensive precleaning and treatment of the water. Seawater use restricts MRC operation to coastal areas, but food waste, domestic waste and animal waste contain about 17 gigawatts of power throughout the U.S. One nuclear reactor typically produces 1 gigawatt.

Rather than rely on seawater, the researchers used ammonium bicarbonate, an unusual salt. An ammonium bicarbonate solution works similarly to seawater in the MRC and will not foul the membranes. The ammonium bicarbonate is also easily removed from the water above 110 degrees Fahrenheit. The ammonia and carbon dioxide that make up the salt boil out, and are recaptured and recombined for reuse.

"Waste heat makes up 7 to 17 percent of energy consumed in industrial processes," said Logan. "There is always a source of waste heat near where this process could take place and it usually goes unused."

The researchers tested their ammonium bicarbonate MRC and found that the initial production of electricity was greater than that from an MRC using seawater.

"The bacteria in the cell quickly used up all the dissolved organic material," said Logan. "This is the portion of wastewater that is usually the most difficult to remove and requires trickling filters, while the particulate portion which took longer for the bacteria to consume, is more easily removed."

The researchers tested the MRC only in a fill and empty mode, but eventually a stream of wastewater would be run through the cell. According to Logan, MRCs can be configured to produce electricity or hydrogen, making both without contributing to greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide. The MRC tested produced 5.6 watts per square meter.

Logan also said not having to process wastewater would save about 60 gigawatts.

The King Abdullah University of Science and Technology supported this work.

Source: Pennsylvania State University

Hydrogen from Acidic Water: Researchers Develop a Potential Low Cost Alternative to Platinum for Splitting Water

Engineerblogger
Feb 10, 2012

Using a molybdenite complex and the PY5Me2 ligand, Berkeley Lab researchers synthesized a molecule that mimics catalytically active triangular molybdenum disulfide edge-sites. The result is an entire layer of catalytically active material. Molybdenum atoms are shown as green, sulfur as yellow.

A technique for creating a new molecule that structurally and chemically replicates the active part of the widely used industrial catalyst molybdenite has been developed by researchers with the U.S. Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab). This technique holds promise for the creation of catalytic materials that can serve as effective low-cost alternatives to platinum for generating hydrogen gas from water that is acidic.

Christopher Chang and Jeffrey Long, chemists who hold joint appointments with Berkeley Lab and the University of California (UC) Berkeley, led a research team that synthesized a molecule to mimic the triangle-shaped molybdenum disulfide units along the edges of molybdenite crystals, which is where almost all of the catalytic activity takes place. Since the bulk of molybdenite crystalline material is relatively inert from a catalytic standpoint, molecular analogs of the catalytically active edge sites could be used to make new materials that are much more efficient and cost-effective catalysts.

“Using molecular chemistry, we’ve been able to capture the functional essence of molybdenite and synthesize the smallest possible unit of its proposed catalytic active site,” says Chang, who is also an investigator with the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI). “It should now be possible to design new catalysts that have a high density of active sites so we get the same catalytic activity with much less material.”

Says Long, “Inorganic solids, such as molybdenite, are an important class of catalysts that often derive their activity from sparse active edge sites, which are structurally distinct from the inactive bulk of the molecular solid. We’ve demonstrated that it is possible to create catalytically active molecular analogs of these sites that are tailored for a specific purpose. This represents a conceptual path forward to improving future catalytic materials.”

Chang and Long are the corresponding authors of a paper in the journal Science describing this research titled “A Molecular MoS2 Edge Site Mimic for Catalytic Hydrogen Generation.” Other authors are Hemamala Karunadasa, Elizabeth Montalvo, Yujie Sun and Marcin Majda.

Molybdenite is the crystalline sulfide of molybdenum and the principal mineral from which molybdenum metal is extracted. Although commonly thought of as a lubricant, molybdenite is the standard catalyst used to remove sulfur from petroleum and natural gas for the reduction of sulfur dioxide emissions when those fuels are burned. Recent studies have shown that in its nanoparticle form, molybdenite also holds promise for catalyzing the electrochemical and photochemical generation of hydrogen from water. Hydrogen could play a key role in future renewable energy technologies if a relatively cheap, efficient and carbon-neutral means of producing it can be developed.

Currently, the best available technique for producing hydrogen is to split water molecules into molecules of hydrogen and oxygen using platinum as the catalyst. However, with platinum going for more than $2,000 an ounce, the market is wide open for a low cost alternative catalyst. Molybdenite is far more plentiful and about 1/70th the cost of platinum, but poses other problems.

“Molybdenite has a layered structure with multiple microdomains, most of which are chemically inert,” Chang says. “High-resolution scanning tunneling microscopy studies and theoretical calculations have identified the triangular molybdenum disulfide edges as the active sites for catalysis; however, preparing molybdenite with a high density of functional edge sites in a predictable manner is extremely challenging.”

Chang, Long and their research team met this challenge using a pentapyridyl ligand known as PY5Me2 to create a molybdenum disulfide molecule that, while not found in nature, is stable and structurally identical to the proposed triangular edge sites of molybdenite. It was shown that these synthesized molecules can form a layer of material that is analogous to constructing a sulfide edge of molybdenite.

“The electronic structure of our molecular analog can be adjusted through ligand modifications,” Long says. “This suggests we should be able to tailor the material’s activity, stability and required over-potential for proton reduction to improve its performance.”

In 2010, Chang and Long and Hemamala Karunadasa, who is the lead author on this new Science paper, used the PY5Me2 ligand to create a molybdenum-oxo complex that can effectively and efficiently catalyze the generation of hydrogen from neutral buffered water or even sea water. Molybdenite complexes synthesized from this new molecular analog can just as effectively and efficiently catalyze hydrogen gas from acidic water.

“We’re now looking to develop molecular analogs of active sites in other catalytic materials that will work over a range of pH conditions, as well as extend this work to photocatalytic systems” Chang says.

Adds Long, “Our molecular analog for the molybdenite active site might not be a replacement for any existing catalytic materials but it does provide a way to increase the density of active sites in inorganic solid catalytic materials and thereby allow us to do more with less.”

This research was supported by the DOE Office of Science, in part through the Joint Center for Artificial Photosynthesis, a DOE Energy Innovation Hub.


Source: Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

Development of Material for Quick, Simple Removal of Toxic Arsenic in Drinking Water

Engineerblogger
Jan 19, 2012

Prof. Dr. Sherif A. El-Safty, a Principal Researcher of the Materials Recycling Design Group, Research Center for Strategic Materials, National Institute for Materials Science developed a nanomaterial which enables simple detection and removal of arsenic from drinking water

Prof. Dr. Sherif El-Safty, a Principal Researcher of the Materials Recycling Design Group (Group Leader: Dr. Kohmei Halada), Research Center for Strategic Materials, National Institute for Materials Science (President: Prof. Sukekatsu Ushioda) developed a nanomaterial which enables simple detection and removal of arsenic from drinking water. This nanomaterial responds to warnings that as many as 60 million people live in contaminated areas in Southeast Asia without safe drinking water.

The nanomaterial is a further developed for heavy metal ion sensors for lead (Pb), mercury (Hg), etc. and adsorbent materials, which Dr. El-Safty developed previously for a rare metal adsorption/recovery materials such as cobalt (Co), palladium (Pd), etc. and radioactive element adsorbents for cesium (Cs), strontium (Sr), etc. As a Principal Researcher whom he originally livid at the Middle East, where a clean water is particularly precious, Dr. El-Safty devoted himself to the development of this material in order to save the world’s drinking water.

Groundwater in Asia, South America, and Africa is now widely contaminated with arsenic. Arsenic contamination of the drinking water for 35 million people in Bangladesh is especially well-known. Long-term ingestion of this water causes serious disorders of the skin, nervous system, and cardiovascular system, and can also cause health problems in the form of frequent development of cancers. Although the United Nations and the governments of individual nations have taken countermeasures over many years, it was difficult to develop an arsenic removal method that is inexpensive, simple, and easy to use in treatment of everyday drinking water.

In the developed technology, the inner walls of nanoporous substances, namely a high order mesoporous (HOM) structures, are densely packed with a functional group which is sensitive and selective for capturing arsenic. When even a trace amount of arsenic is present in water, these nanomaterial captors can quickly adsorbed and removed arsenic. As a distinctive feature, the detection/removal of arsenic can easily be confirmed because the color of the nanomaterial captors changes in the adsorption stage with the same frequency of human eyes, showing the user that the removal has occurred.
As one particular advantage of this technology, the potential use is not limited to large-volume water treatment plants. Because its features include high sensitivity, low cost, visualization of results, light weight, and high speed, it can also be used easily by individual persons. As a result, the threat of arsenic can be greatly reduced when the development of new water sources in the developing countries and elsewhere is achieved. Efforts will be made to popularize this new device in many urgent regions, as a technology that can secure the safe water on an everyday basis.


Source:  National Institute for Materials Science (NIMS)

Project to pour water into volcano to make power

Engineerblogger
Jan 16, 2011

In this May 16, 2008, file photo, Newbery Crater project drilling manager Fred Wilson stands near a drilling rig at the Newberry Crater geothermal project as he describes the work near LaPine, Ore. Geothermal energy developers plan to pump 24 million gallons of water into the side of the dormant Central Oregon volcano this summer to demonstrate new technology they hope will give a boost to a green energy sector that has yet to live up to its promise. (AP Photo/Don Ryan, File)

Geothermal energy developers plan to pump 24 million gallons of water into the side of a dormant volcano in Central Oregon this summer to demonstrate new technology they hope will give a boost to a green energy sector that has yet to live up to its promise.

They hope the water comes back to the surface fast enough and hot enough to create cheap, clean electricity that isn't dependent on sunny skies or stiff breezes—without shaking the earth and rattling the nerves of nearby residents.

Renewable energy has been held back by cheap natural gas, weak demand for power and waning political concern over global warming. Efforts to use the earth's heat to generate power, known as geothermal energy, have been further hampered by technical problems and worries that tapping it can cause earthquakes.

Even so, the federal government, Google and other investors are interested enough to bet $43 million on the Oregon project. They are helping AltaRock Energy, Inc. of Seattle and Davenport Newberry Holdings LLC of Stamford, Conn., demonstrate whether the next level in geothermal power development can work on the flanks of Newberrry Volcano, located about 20 miles south of Bend, Ore.

"We know the heat is there," said Susan Petty, president of AltaRock. "The big issue is can we circulate enough water through the system to make it economic."

The heat in the earth's crust has been used to generate power for more than a century. Engineers gather hot water or steam that bubbles near the surface and use it to spin a turbine that creates electricity. Most of those areas have been exploited. The new frontier is places with hot rocks, but no cracks in the rocks or water to deliver the steam.

To tap that heat—and grow geothermal energy from a tiny niche into an important source of green energy—engineers are working on a new technology called Enhanced Geothermal Systems.

"To build geothermal in a big way beyond where it is now requires new technology, and that is where EGS comes in," said Steve Hickman, a research geophysicist with the U.S. Geological Survey in Menlo Park, Calif.

Wells are drilled deep into the rock and water is pumped in, creating tiny fractures in the rock, a process known as hydroshearing.

Cold water is pumped down production wells into the reservoir, and the steam is drawn out.
Hydroshearing is similar to the process known as hydraulic fracturing, used to free natural gas from shale formations. But fracking uses chemical-laden fluids, and creates huge fractures. Pumping fracking wastewater deep underground for disposal likely led to recent earthquakes in Arkansas and Ohio.

Fears persist that cracking rock deep underground through hydroshearing can also lead to damaging quakes. EGS has other problems. It is hard to create a reservoir big enough to run a commercial power plant.

Progress has been slow. Two small plants are online in France and Germany. A third in downtown Basel, Switzerland, was shut down over earthquake complaints. A project in Australia has had drilling problems.

A new international protocol is coming out at the end of this month that urges EGS developers to keep projects out of urban areas, the so-called "sanity test," said Ernie Majer, a seismologist with the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. It also urges developers to be upfront with local residents so they know exactly what is going on.

AltaRock hopes to demonstrate a new technology for creating bigger reservoirs that is based on the plastic polymers used to make biodegradable cups.

It worked in existing geothermal fields. Newberry will show if it works in a brand new EGS field, and in a different kind of geology, volcanic rock, said Colin Williams, a USGS geophysicist also in Menlo Park.
The U.S. Department of Energy has given the project $21.5 million in stimulus funds. That has been matched by private investors, among them Google with $6.3 million.

Majer said the danger of a major quake at Newbery is very low. The area is a kind of seismic dead zone, with no significant faults. It is far enough from population centers to make property damage unlikely. And the layers of volcanic ash built up over millennia dampen any shaking.

But the Department of Energy will be keeping a close eye on the project, and any significant quakes would shut it down at least temporarily, he said. The agency is also monitoring EGS projects at existing geothermal fields in California, Nevada and Idaho.

"That's the $64,000 question," Majer said. "What's the biggest earthquake we can have from induced seismicity that the public can worry about."

Geologists believe Newberry Volcano was once one of the tallest peaks in the Cascades, reaching an elevation of 10,000 feet and a diameter of 20 miles. It blew its top before the last Ice Age, leaving a caldera studded with towering lava flows, two lakes, and 400 cinder cones, some 400 feet tall.

Although the volcano has not erupted in 1,300 years, hot rocks close to the surface drew exploratory wells in the 1980s.

Over 21 days, AltaRock will pour 800 gallons of water per minute into the 10,600-foot test well, already drilled, for a total of 24 million gallons. According to plan, the cold water cracks the rock. The tiny plastic particles pumped down the well seal off the cracks. Then more cold water goes in, bypassing the first tier, and cracking the rock deeper in the well. That tier is sealed off, and cold water cracks a third section. Later, the plastic melts away.

Seismic sensors produce detailed maps of the fracturing, expected to produce a reservoir of cracks starting about 6,000 feet below the surface, and extending to 11,000 feet. It would be about 3,300 feet in diameter.

The U.S. Bureau of Land Management released an environmental assessment of the Newberry project last month that does not foresee any problems that would stop it. The agency is taking public comments before making a final decision in coming months.

No power plant is proposed, but one could be operating in about 10 years, said Doug Perry, president and CEO of Davenport Newberry.

EGS is attractive because it vastly expands the potential for geothermal power, which, unlike wind and solar, produces power around the clock in any weather.

Natural geothermal resources account for about 0.3% of U.S. electricity production, but a 2007 Massachusetts Institute of Technology report projected EGS could bump that to 10% within 50 years, at prices competitive with fossil-fuels.

Few people expect that kind of timetable now. Electricity prices have fallen sharply because of low natural gas prices and weak demand brought about by the Great Recession and state efficiency programs.

But the resource is vast. A 2008 USGS assessment found EGS throughout the West, where hot rocks are closer to the surface than in the East, has the potential to produce half the country's electricity.

"The important question we need to answer now," said Williams, the USGS geophysicist who compiled the assessment, "is how geothermal fits into the renewable energy picture, and how EGS fits. How much it is going to cost, and how much is available."

Source: The Associated Press

Millennium Project: The Falkirk Wheel

Engineerblogger
Jan 12, 2012

 

As the Falkirk Wheel approaches its 10th anniversary, its owners couldn't be more delighted in how the one-of-a-kind boat lift has transformed Scotland's once-forgotten and neglected canal system into a thriving recreational and tourist attraction. The 35-m-high, 1,500-tonne structure, internationally recognized as an engineering marvel, reconnects the Forth & Clyde Canal and the Union Canal, a vertical drop of 18 m, and provides water transport between Edinburgh and Glasgow.

Conceived in the 1990s as part of the United Kingdom's Millennium Project, its owners, British Waterways Scotland, were seeking a novel, landmark design to take an Industrial Revolution-era project into the new century. The two canals had been connected through a series of 11 locks that were taken out of service in the 1930s when overland transport by road and rail supplanted the canal system. The canals were closed altogether in the 1960s. The Falkirk Wheel, a rotating lift operating through what BWS Business Development Manager Richard Millar calls a "simple and elegant design," move two gondolas on opposite arms from one level to the other. Each gondola, or caisson, contains at least 250,000 L of water and can carry up to eight boats at a time.
  

Synchronous gears placed within the wheel ensure that the gondolas stay in the horizontal plane during lifting.

Locks and Lifts

To reach the wheel, boats moving through the Union Canal must still negotiate two locks, sail through a tunnel excavated beneath the Roman-era Antonine Wall, and proceed through a stretch of reinforced-concrete aqueduct . All are part of the overall £78-million Millennium Project. Still, there is a height difference of 11 ft between the wheel and the main channel of the Union Canal; the aqueduct could not be positioned higher because of its location to the Antonine Wall, which marks the northernmost boundary of Rome's empire in Brittania. The lift then lowers one gondola to a loading basin and entry to the Forth & Clyde Canal, and raises the other to the aqueduct and the Union Canal.

Design is meant to resemble a Celtic cross.

The wheel actually consists of two sets of opposing arms designed to resemble a double-headed Celtic axe. Designed by architect RMJM, they extend 15 m from the 3.5-m-diameter central axle and are placed 25 m apart. Each is fitted between the arms with a diametrically opposed water-filled caisson, or gondola, mounted on bearings riding on a circular rail. When one caisson is lowered, its opposite rises (see video of the Falkirk Wheel).

Simplicity

The weight in each of the gondolas remains the same, no matter how many boats are being lifted or lowered. The mechanics follow the Archimedes principle of displacement: the mass of the vessels moving into the gondola will displace an exactly proportional volume of water. This keeps the wheel balanced, allowing both gondolas to rotate 180 degrees in just five and one-half minutes. The efficiency of the design allows it rotate using very little power, just 22.5 kW to power the electric motors.

MG Bennett & Associates, Rotherham, UK, known now as Bennett Atkins and a part of Atkins Global, designed the mechanical and electrical systems for the project, working with structural engineer Tony Gee and Partners under a contract with Butterley Engineering. Butterley was awarded the contract to design and construct the wheel from Bachy/Solentanche and Morrison Construction Joint Venture, which won the overall contract to design and build the new canal section, tunnel, and aqueduct as well as the wheel and receiving basin.

Aqueduct for the Union Canal leads to the upper portion of the Falkirk Wheel.

The existing design was refined from one that envisioned four gondolas with an interlocking gear system. "The interesting thing about the Falkirk Wheel is it is an integration of different areas of engineering," says Nicholas Cooper, who led the work for Bennett and now is engineering director for Atkins' energy business. "It is a machine held together by a structure."

Engineering Integration

To make it work, Bennett drew on its experience in tunneling and undersea engineering to design a drive system based on those of tunnel-boring machines as well as air-lock doors to provide seals at each end of the gondolas and the canal gates.

Hydraulic rams are used to open and close the gates, release the seals and stabilize the gondolas. As the gondolas contain no power units, Bennett drew on its subsea pipeline experience to design a hydraulic connection to the ram using a "hot stab," an external link that extends from the structure into a port in the gondola where it connects the hydraulic circuit.

A pair of 4-m-diameter, three-row slewing bearings are incorporated into the drive system. Located at the ends of the axle, the outer rings of the bearings are bolted to the fixed support structure and the inner rings are bolted to the tubular axle. The inside diameter of the inner ring has gear teeth that mesh with a gearbox within the axle.

Finally, to ensure the gondolas remain stable and in the horizontal plane during rotation, the designers used a series of synchronous gears cut with a shallow involute angle commonly found in old clocks. The concept allows the gears to accept structural deflection as the gondolas move.

And they move enough to handle 130,000 to 150,000 people traveling the canals annually, says Millar. The wheel takes 15 minutes to move boats from one level to the next, compared to the half-day traverse of the old 11-step lock system.

"We were looking for something to grab the people's imagination," says Millar. "We were looking for something that would take us to the 21st Century."

A recent inspection showed the structure is aging gracefully as it enters its second decade of operation. With its 125-year design life and robust popularity, the Falkirk Wheel is fulfilling its owner's desire.

Source: ASME

Metal oxide simulations could help green technology

Engineerblogger
Jan 12, 2012

Computer simulations show that metal oxides in water go through many short-lived shapes and structures. (William Casey/UC Davis graphic)

University of California, Davis, researchers have proposed a radical new way of thinking about the chemical reactions between water and metal oxides, the most common minerals on Earth. Their work appears in the current issue of the journal Nature Materials.

The new paradigm could lead to a better understanding of corrosion and how toxic minerals leach from rocks and soil. It could also help in the development of “green” technology: new types of batteries, for example, or catalysts for splitting water to produce hydrogen fuel.

“This is a global change in how people should view these processes,” said William Casey, UC Davis professor of chemistry and co-author of the study with James Rustad, a former geology professor at UC Davis who now works as a scientist at Corning Inc. in New York.

Previously, when studying the interactions of water with clusters of metal oxides, researchers tried to pick and study individual atoms to assess their reactivity. But “none of it really made sense,” Rustad said.

Using computer simulations developed by Rustad, and comparing the resulting animations with lab experiments by Casey, the two found that the behavior of an atom on the surface of the cluster can be affected by an atom some distance away.

Instead of moving through a sequence of transitional forms, as had been assumed, metal oxides interacting with water fall into a variety of “metastable states” — short-lived intermediates, the researchers found.

For example, in one of Rustad’s animations, a water molecule approaches an oxygen atom on the surface of a cluster. The oxygen suddenly pulls away from another atom binding it into the middle of the cluster and leaps to the water molecule. Then the structure collapses back into place, ejecting a spare oxygen atom and incorporating the new one.

The U.S. Department of Energy and the National Science Foundation sponsored the research.

Source: University of California, Davis

Eco Wave Power Company is Taking the Fast Track to Success

Engineerblogger
Jan 9, 2012

Test Pool: Credit: Eco Wave Power

Eco Wave Power has completed the construction and testing phase of its first sea wave energy generation models the "Wave Clapper", and the "Power Wing".

The testing took place in the wave pool of the Hydro-Mechanical National Institute of Kiev . The "wave pool", 2.5 meters depth, and 18 meters length, provided Eco Wave Power with the perfect conditions for testing the unique wave energy generation technologies under controlled wave heights and wave periods.

Among the different tests, Eco Wave Power has examined the characteristics of 8 different unique floaters shapes (all with the same volume), through the following experiments: Measuring Voltage output in different wave heights, and different wave periods, Measuring the influence of side waves on the floaters and the connections, Examining different effects originating from the floaters' shapes, Connecting the floaters to different electric devices and showing a stable electric supply (with and without an accumulator), Examining the influence of floaters in proximity to each other, Examining the option to unite all floaters to one electric grid and charge a common accumulator, as well as -Examining the floaters' storm-protection Mechanisms.

All the experiments were monitored by officials from the Hydro-Mechanical Institute, and some remarks were made with regard to potential improvements to the shapes of the floaters. Eco Wave Power has immediately applied such remarks and the tests results were determined to be successful.

The Protocol submitted to Eco Wave Power, by the Hydro-Mechanic Institute, has concluded the experiments as following: "All floaters of Eco Wave Power Company have proved their workability… According to the results of the tests, we have reached a decision to recommend continuing the development of the green energy generation system that is based on such principles, and enlarge the model to greater sizes."

Therefore, it has been decided to move on to the following stage, which is the construction and testing of the medium scale model, capable of producing 5KW from each floater. The model will be composed of one "Wave Clapper" floater, and one "Power Wing" floater, in the size of 2.5 meters each. The construction of the medium scale models has already begun, and the testing will be taking place in early 2012.

As can be seen at Eco Wave Power's website, the company has already secured funding for three ocean energy generation models, the last of which will be a full-size commercial scale power plant, with the ability to supply electricity to at least 1000 households.

Mr. David Leb , the founder of the company, has stated that: "We are a young and innovative company in the field of ocean energy. As a result, we believe in a fast, yet reliable, progress. Our competitors in the ocean energy sphere had spent 5 to 15 years researching the ocean energy field, resulting with no commercial scale devices available for sale and implementation. We want to be different. We want to be able to offer our commercial scale devices within the shortest time frame, and for the most attractive prices."

As said by John Henry Newman : "Nothing would be done at all if a man waited until he could do it so well that no one could find fault with it."

Our system is being developed to produce electricity for a cheaper price than traditional energy generation methods such as coal, gas and oil and also cheaper than renewable energy generation methods such as wind or solar. This will be achieved by using low cost materials, low maintenance prices and low maintenance periods, still yielding-long life expectancies.

3D illustration. Credit: Eco Wave Power

 The Eco Wave Power wave energy converter is a simple and inexpensive technology to harvest wave energy from high and low waves. It is designed to be simple and robust while offering technical advantages over other renewable energy generation systems.

A short video presentation of the sea wave energy generation unit test.



Source: PR Newswire

A new approach to harvesting wave energy

Engineerblogger
Dec 15, 2011

Danish researchers believe they have a breakthrough in tidal power, using the waves of the ocean to generate energy.

Weptos is a small power plant which lies on the ocean, tied to the ocean bed. The waves move flaps on the two arms of the device which spin an axel, which then generates the power.

Each machine is a separate unit, so they are very easy to move around, adjust and fix.

Each devise also moves its two arms as the weather conditions change. In severe weathers it narrows meaning it is more stable and does not lose its energy-making capabilities.

The device is also scalable, which means the bigger the unit, the more energy, up to a certain degree of course.

In total over 200 tests has looked "exceedingly promising," according to the developers.

"I think this unit has a very good chance of making a breakthrough in this field," says Jens Peter Kofoed, an associate professor at Aalborg University's Department of Civil Engineering, where Weptos is being developed.

Previous attempts to make profitable wave power plants have faltered because they have not met the three vital parameters: the ability to turn waves into electricity, a robust construction to withstand the impact of powerful waves, and relatively low construction and maintenance costs.

The next version will be 10-15 size the prototype, which is only a medium sized one to the envisaged final version.

Source: Science Nordic

BioPower Systems Power Module Grid-Tested And Ready For Sea Trials

Engineerblogger
Dec 07, 2011

bioWAVE is a wave power system, inspired by the swaying motions of kelp plants

Ocean energy company, BioPower Systems, announced that it has completed extensive tests of its full-scale O-Drive power conversion module, successfully delivering stable power to the grid over extended periods with a high level of efficiency.

The O-Drive 250kW module is designed to plug into wave and tidal energy systems, such as the company’s bioWAVE  and bioSTREAM. It is driven in an oscillating fashion to convert the ocean energy harnessed by such systems into grid-ready AC power.

The bioSTREAM technology has been extensively tested at 1:15 scale in state-of-the-art towing tank facilities. Click below to watch a video of a bioSTREAM model in operation.

Work commenced on the O-Drive in 2008 under a project partly funded by an Australian
Commonwealth Government REDI grant. The O-Drive combines a hydraulic circuit, an electric generator, and complex control algorithms to convert the characteristically large forces, and slow motions, inherent to ocean waves into a steady flow of electricity. A test rig was built to reproduce ocean forces and apply these to the O-Drive in order to perform tests.

“Ocean energy devices typically oscillate slowly in response to huge forces, and this presents a significant challenge in terms of harnessing the energy to produce electricity. The O-Drive solves this problem outright, as it not only gears up the motion, but also rectifies it and smooths it, so that we can produce grid-ready electricity using a standard electric generator” the CEO of BioPower Systems, Dr Timothy Finnigan, said. “We are very pleased with the efficiency of this system, and with the quality of power that is produced.”

The O-Drive is designed to be detached from a moored ocean energy system, which enables easy and cost-effective maintenance. It produces high-voltage power, which allows ocean energy systems to be installed even at substantial distances from shore, as the losses during transmission are minimal.
BioPower Systems will use the O-Drive module in a bioWAVE pilot demonstration off the coast of Victoria, Australia. The company also intends to produce a 1MW commercial version of bioWAVE, which would utilise four 250kW O-Drive TM modules.

“BioPower Systems has invested substantial capital and expertise to ensure that the O-Drive performs optimally and reliably before deployment” said Dr Finnigan.

The company is planning to offer turnkey ocean energy solutions to project developers. Ocean energy equipment, services and support will be provided to the companies that currently develop wind farms.

“We intend to adopt a similar business model to those used in the wind energy sector. It is well-proven,
and serves as a good precedent for ocean energy,” Dr Finnigan added.




Source: BioPower Systems
 
Related Information:

• BioPower Systems Awarded $5 Million From Victorian Government

Wastewater system generates energy, produces drinking water

Engineerblogger
Dec 05, 2011

MSU scientist Wei Liao is developing a portable wastewater treatment system that generates electricity and produces drinking water. Photo courtesy of MSU.

A Michigan State University researcher is using a $1.92 million Department of Defense grant to develop a portable wastewater treatment system that could improve the military’s efficiency.

The solar-bio-nano project, which is being spearheaded by Wei Liao, an MSU assistant professor of biosystems and agricultural engineering, also will generate energy and produce drinking water, thus providing a potential blueprint for the future of municipal/agricultural wastewater treatment systems.

During military operations, shipping from port to bases on or near the front lines can push the cost of water up to nearly $60 per gallon. A portable, self-sustaining system would allow the bases to be more nimble and cost-effective, Liao said.

“Bases on or near the front lines could transport this small-scale system by semi-truck and will greatly reduce their demand for water and fuel,” he said. “The integrated system can serve about 600 people, is patentable and hopefully can be scaled up to serve larger populations.”

The integrated system will comprise three major components. First, the solar unit will use new materials and employ a novel configuration making it up to 80 percent lighter than traditional solar units. Second, biological conversion processes will break down wastewater and food scraps to produce methane that can be used as fuel. Finally, a nano-filtration system will then take the discharge from the biological processes to provide drinking water.

If the team’s project proves effective in military settings, it has great potential in a wide range of wastewater treatment systems, from agricultural operations to municipal wastewater treatment plants, Liao said.

“The short-term goal is to drive costs down and to allow the military to alleviate supply chains’ overarching control over its maneuvers,” he said. “The long-term goal is to apply advanced and integrated technologies to transform agricultural and municipal wastes from an environmental liability into a public and private asset.”

Source: Michigan State University

Revolutionary ultrasonic nozzle that will change the way water cleans

Engineerblogger
Nov 15, 2011

Professor Leighton (left) and Dr Birkin with their device

A team of scientists from the University of Southampton have developed a revolutionary ultrasonic attachment for taps, which massively enhances the ability of water to clean.

Currently, industry uses excessive water, power and additives for cleaning. For example, it can take up to 100 tonnes of water to produce 1 tonne of clean wool after shearing. Many industrial processes also generate large quantities of contaminated run-off. The water from hosing down an abattoir represents a real health risk and cannot be allowed to enter the water supply. Purifying run-off is costly – each cubic metre of water used for cleaning in the nuclear industry can cost around £10,000 to subsequently treat.

Professor Tim Leighton and Dr Peter Birkin’s device works with cold water, minimal additives and consumes as much electrical power as a light bulb. Its application will be wide – licenses have already been sold to a number of industries to look at cleaning in food preparation, hospitals, manufacturing and the home. The new technology consumes less water and power than the established competitor technologies.

Talking about the need for such a technology, Professor Leighton says:

“Society runs on its ability to clean. Ineffective cleaning leads to food poisoning; failure of manufactured products such as precision watches and microchips; and poor construction – from shipbuilding to space shuttles – since dirty surfaces do not bond. The impact in healthcare is huge – hospital-acquired infections, from instruments that aren’t properly cleaned, cost the NHS £1 billion per year. There’s a very obvious need for technologies that improve our ability to clean while saving on our most important resources, water and energy.”

In recognition of their invention, Professor Leighton and Dr Birkin were today (10 November) awarded the Royal Society Brian Mercer Award for Innovation 2011.

Using the £250,000 award from the Royal Society, the team will develop products based on an ultrasonic nozzle which can fit on the end of a tap or hose. The device uses less water and power than the equivalent pressure washer (approximately 2 litres/minute compared to 20 litres/minute and less than 200 W compared to 2kW). It is also far less damaging as the stream pressure is less that 1/100th that of a pressure washer. Another advantage is that it generates far less runoff and aerosol (tiny atmospheric particles of water that can carry contaminates into the air to then settle and contaminate other surfaces). As it is able to use cold water, energy is saved on heating water.

Power washing generates large volumes of contaminated run-off and aerosols, presenting a hazard when used e.g. cleaning sewage systems or nuclear contamination. One of the main pieces of equipment currently used for industrial cleaning, ultrasonic cleaning baths, can only clean objects small enough to fit in them and the devices to be cleaned sit in a soup of contaminated liquid. Neither power washing (high-power pressure washing) nor ultrasonic cleaning baths can easily be scaled up and neither can be used on delicate materials such as hands or salad.

The new nozzle generates both bubbles and ultrasound. Both travel down the water stream to the dirty surface and there the bubbles act as microscopic ‘smart scrubbers’, seeking and entering crevices to remove dirt there using shear forces in the same way that currents in a babbling brook can strip off riverbank soil . The device can be used at a high-power and a low-power setting – the latter being suitable for delicate products like hands and foodstuffs.

Licences to enable companies to bring the technology into their product lines have been negotiated with a number of companies to explore cleaning products for hospital hygiene, dentistry, food preparation, manufacturing and the power industries.

Dr Birkin says of the award:

“The Brian Mercer award represents a significant milestone for the development of this technology and its possible exploitation. There is a clear gap in the funding system with ground breaking technology produced by universities, unexploited by industry. It is also difficult to find other suitable sources to take the technology further. It is in this situation that our invention found itself.

“In these trying times for innovative research, the foresight of the Royal Society to regularly sponsor and support these initiatives, should be congratulated. It is also pleasing that a significant ‘blue skies’ research effort within our team, over the last 10-15 year time period, has led to an understanding of the basic physical and chemical processes that underpin this technology. The Brian Mercer award, as well as being timely, will significantly enhance the chances of this novel technology making the leap from the lab and into wider society.”

Professor Leighton adds:

“Support for step changing innovation is vital if we are to have marketable technology to address the problems that will face society on the 10-50 year timescale, rather than just responding to today’s problems.”

The Brian Mercer Awards for Innovation were established by the Royal Society in 2001 following a bequest from the late Dr Brian Mercer, an enthusiastic inventor and entrepreneur. The awards aim to encourage these qualities in the next generation of scientists and provide a grant of £250,000 to develop an already proven concept or prototype into a near-market product.


Source: University of Southampton

British Antarctic Survey engineering team heads to Antarctica to explore hidden lake

British Antarctic Survey (BAS)
Oct 11, 2011

Next week a British engineering team from British Antarctic Survey (BAS) heads off to Antarctica for the first stage of an ambitious scientific mission to collect water and sediment samples from a lake buried beneath three kilometres of solid ice. This extraordinary research project, at the frontier of exploration, will yield new knowledge about the evolution of life on Earth and other planets, and will provide vital clues about the Earth’s past climate.

Transporting nearly 70 tonnes of equipment the ‘advance party’ of four engineers from BAS will make a journey almost 16,000km from the UK to subglacial Lake Ellsworth on the West Antarctic Ice Sheet (WAIS) - one of the most remote and hostile environments on Earth with −25°C temperatures.

Subglacial Lake Ellsworth Programme Manager Chris Hill is part of the team. He says,

“Our task is to prepare the way for the ‘deep-field’ research mission that will take place next year. In October 2012 we will return to the site with a team of 10 scientists and engineers to make a three kilometre bore hole through the ice using state-of-the-art hot water drilling technology. We will then lower a titanium probe to measure and sample the water followed by a corer to extract sediment from the lake.”

Lake Ellsworth is likely to be the first of Antarctica’s 387 known subglacial lakes to be measured and sampled directly through the design and manufacture of space-industry standard ‘clean technology’.

For years scientists have speculated that new and unique forms of microbial life could have evolved in this cold, pitch black and isolated environment. Sediments on the lake bed are likely to reveal vital clues about the history of life in the lake and the ancient history of the WAIS, including past collapse.

Dr David Pearce, Science Coordinator at BAS, is part of the team leading the ‘search for life’ in the lake water and will go to Lake Ellsworth for stage two of the mission. He says:

“Finding life in a lake that could have been isolated from the rest of the biosphere for up to half a million years will tell us so much about the potential origin of and constraints for life on Earth, and may provide clues to the evolution of life on other extraterrestrial environments. If we find nothing this will be even more significant because it will define limits at which life can no longer exist on the planet.”
To read more click here...

Marine Technology Builds Corvette-Inspired Speedboat

Engineerblogger
Oct 11, 2011

Just the Facts:

• Marine Technology built a Corvette-inspired speedboat with two 1,350-horsepower engines.
• Its interior mimics the ZR1, with a steering wheel, shift knob and dashboard that look straight out of the Chevy's cockpit.
• Its $1.7-million price tag includes a trailer that's equipped with lots of LED lighting and an air suspension.

Marine Technology, a performance boat maker, has built a $1.7-million speedboat that uses genuine parts from the Chevrolet Corvette ZR1.

Called the ZR48, the boat has Corvette headlights, taillights and badges. Its lightweight body is due to plenty of carbon fiber, and it clearly has a look inspired by the Chevy Vette, with aggressive styling of the hull sides. A polycarbonate window is placed in the center of the bow, to further its homage to the powerful ZR1, with the supercharger window on the hood.

The speedboat has a little more power than its automotive muse. Two 1,350-horsepower, twin-turbo Mercury Racing engines propel this beast across the waves.

The interior looks as if it were transplanted directly from the ZR1, including steering wheel, shifter, dash and gauge setup. It's also equipped with gullwing-like doors and has six air-conditioned seats, LED lighting and footrests engraved with the ZR48 logo. An 8,000-watt sound system with Apple TV and WiFi provides entertainment and includes a custom iPad dock integrated into the glovebox.

A ZR48 purchase includes a trailer complete with generator, water tank, power washer, engine flush system and five televisions. It is meant to hold the boat on its side to avoid the necessity of an overwidth permit to haul, has more than 900 LED lights above and below the frame rails and features an air suspension that allows the ride height of each of the four axles to be controlled.

Source: Insideline.com

New technology uses solar UV to disinfect drinking water

Engineerblogger
Sept 29, 2011

Civil engineering professor Ernest "Chip" R. Blatchley III inspects a parabolic reflector for a prototype water-disinfection system he built as part of an effort to help provide safe drinking water to a large segment of the world's population in developing nations. The system uses ultraviolet radiation from the sun to kill waterborne pathogens. Sunlight is captured by the reflector and focused onto a UV-transparent pipe though which water flows continuously. (Purdue University photo/Andrew Hancock)

A team of Purdue University researchers has invented a prototype water-disinfection system that could help the world's 800 million people who lack safe drinking water.

The system uses the sun's ultraviolet radiation to inactivate waterborne pathogens. Sunlight is captured by a parabolic reflector and focused onto a UV-transparent pipe though which water flows continuously.

"We've been working on UV disinfection for about 20 years," said Ernest "Chip" R. Blatchley III, a professor of civil engineering. "All of our work up until a couple years ago dealt with UV systems based on an artificial UV source. What we are working on more recently is using ultraviolet radiation from the sun."

Motivating the research is the need to develop practical, inexpensive water-treatment technologies for a large segment of the world's population in developing nations.

"More than 800 million people lack access to what we consider to be 'improved' water," Blatchley said. "The water available for people to drink in many developing countries hasn't been treated to remove contaminants, including pathogenic microorganisms. As a result, thousands of children die daily from diarrhea and its consequences, including dehydration. Half of the world's hospital beds are occupied by people who are sickened by the water they drink."

Blatchley built the parabolic reflector in his garage. The team, including an undergraduate student supported by a National Science Foundation program, finished the prototype in the lab, lining it with aluminum foil. The system was then tested on the roof of Purdue's Civil Engineering Building.

"It turns out that the solar radiation we receive in Indiana at some times of year is intense enough to inactivate some waterborne microorganisms with this type of system," he said. "We demonstrated that we can disinfect water using sunlight. The reactor was very inexpensive to build, less than $100 for the materials."

The natural UV system inactivated E. coli bacteria. However, the system must be able to kill dangerous pathogens such as Vibrio cholerae, which causes cholera, and Salmonella typhi, which causes typhoid, and Cryptosporidium parvum, which causes cryptosporidiosis, a parasitic disease that causes diarrhea.

"In the future we want to prove that our solar-UV system is going work against these other pathogens," said Blatchley, who has worked on the project with doctoral student Eric Gentil Mbonimpa, who is from Rwanda, and Bryan Vadheim, an undergraduate from Montana State University. "We also want to automate it and build sensors for it so that we know how fast the water should be pumped through the system, depending on how sunny it is at any particular time."

The NSF funded Vadheim's work through its Research Experiences for Undergraduates program.

The parabolic reflector is made out of a wood called paulownia.

"That material was selected because the tree grows very rapidly in regions near the equator, where many people lack safe drinking water," Blatchley said. "It is very light, strong and stable, so it's not going to twist or warp or bend or crack in a climate that's alternating between humid and dry."

Natural UV has a longer wavelength than most artificial UV sources, which means it has less energy. Blatchley's hypothesis, however, is that UV from sunlight will inactivate pathogens via the same mechanism as artificial UV: The radiation damages the genetic material of microbes, preventing them from reproducing.

"We are looking at other inexpensive reflecting materials, for example metalized plastic," Blatchley said. "It's similar to the material that's used to make potato chip bags. We've done measurements, and some of these materials are about twice as reflective as aluminum foil."

Improving water quality in developing countries is one of 14 "grand challenges" established by the National Academy of Engineering and also has been named a "millennium development goal" by the United Nations.

Blatchley also is working on an inexpensive filtration system that uses layers of sand and gravel to clean water. The filters were developed by Aqua Clara International, a Michigan-based non-profit corporation. Purdue and Aqua Clara are teaming up with Moi University in Kenya on that project. Purdue students tested the behavior of the filters in a Global Design Team project in Africa through Purdue's Global Engineering Program.

Water flows slowly through the filter, allowing a bacterial film to establish near the top of the filter to remove organic contaminants while certain pathogens also are removed by attachment to the sand.

However, the water may still require disinfection to kill remaining pathogens, and it might be possible to use the slow-sand filters in combination with a water-disinfection system like the new solar UV approach.

"We want to develop drinking water treatment systems that improve water quality for people in developing countries, using Kenya as an example," Blatchley said.

Aqua Clara has developed a business model for the filtration system.

"This provides business opportunities for local entrepreneurs who are trained how to make these filters out of locally available materials," he said. "You can build one of these things for $10, and it's capable of producing something like 40 liters of water a day. It's intended to produce enough water for a family of four."

The use of the filters is becoming more widespread.

"About 1,900 of the sand filters have been installed in villages throughout Kenya," said William Anderson, director of the Global Engineering Program. "More and more, Purdue's faculty and students are extending our land-grant tradition for the benefit of people throughout the world."

Source: Purdue University

Water purification unit generates its own energy

Siemens Press Release
July 25, 2011

A new biological water purification facility developed by Siemens generates enough methane gas to power its own operations. It also produces much less sludge than conventional systems. The pilot facility for this process, which is located at a site run by Singapore’s Public Utilities Board, has been operating in an energy- neutral manner since June 2010. Now, the city state is building a much larger pilot facility – one that will process 300 times more effluent than its predecessor, or about as much sewage water as is produced by around 1,000 people.

A typical urban biological water purification facility accommodates water from 10,000 to 100,000 residents. Today an aerobic (ventilated) process is used in which bacteria break down impurities in water by digesting them and converting them into new bacterial substances. This produced bacteria flakes filled with impurities — forming sludge that is then separated and either deposited in landfills or burned. But the organic impurities contain ten times more energy than needed to do the cleaning itself. They can therefore be used to generate methane, which could be used in gas-fired power plants or combined heat-and-power plants. However, sludge concentrations in municipal sewage systems are too low to produce methane economically.

With this in mind, development engineers from Siemens Water Technologies have developed a technology for charging bacteria flakes with organic impurities for an extremely short time during ventilation. As a result, bacterial reproduction is minimized. After most of the water is separated, the bacteria ferment the impurities into methane in an anaerobic process step. After two aerobic steps and one anaerobic step, the sludge has been broken down so that the least possible amount of sludge remains and the largest possible amount of methane is available, as reported in the latest issue of the research magazine "Pictures of the Future".

The pilot facility now in operation cleans around half a cubic meter of wastewater per day. A conventional water treatment plant requires a little less than 0.25 kilowatt-hours of energy to do this, so the pilot unit needs to generate roughly that amount of energy in the form of methane. A bigger facility could be run in an energy- neutral manner. Market launch of the technology is scheduled for 2012.

Tiny ring laser accurately detects and counts nanoparticles

Washington University
June 27, 2011

A microlaser no bigger than a pinprick can accurately detect and count individual viruses, the particles that jumpstart cloud formation or those that contaminate the air we breathe.

A tiny doughnut-shaped laser is the latest marvel of silicon microminiaturization, but instead of manipulating bits it detects very small particles. Small particles play a big — and largely unnoticed — role in our everyday lives. Virus particles make us sick, salt particles trigger cloud formation, and soot particles sift deep into our lungs and make it harder to breathe.

The sensor belongs to a category called whispering gallery resonators, which work like the famous whispering gallery in St. Paul’s Cathedral in London, where someone on the one side of the dome can hear a message spoken to the wall by someone on the other side. Unlike the dome, which has resonances or sweet spots in the audible range, the sensor resonates at light frequencies.

Light traveling round the micro-laser is disturbed by a particle that lands on the ring, changing the light’s frequency. The ring can count the touch-down of as many as 800 nanoparticles before the signals begin to be lost in the noise. By exciting more than one mode in the ring, scientists can double-check the accuracy of the count. And by changing the “gain medium,” they can adapt the sensor for water rather than air. 

To read more click here...

Stanford team devises a better solar-powered water splitter

Stanford University School of Engineering
June 20, 2011

The process of splitting water into pure oxygen and clean-burning hydrogen fuel has long been the Holy Grail for clean-energy advocates as a method of large-scale energy storage, but the idea faces technical challenges. Stanford researchers may have solved one of the most important ones.

Solar energy is fine when the sun is shining. But what about at night or when it is cloudy? To be truly useful, sunshine must be converted to a form of energy that can be stored for use when the sun is hiding.

The notion of using sunshine to split water into oxygen and storable hydrogen fuel has been championed by clean-energy advocates for decades, but stubborn challenges have prevented adoption of an otherwise promising technology.

A team of Stanford researchers may have solved one of the most vexing scientific details blocking us from such a clean-energy future.

The team, led by materials science engineer Paul McIntyre and chemist Christopher Chidsey, has devised a robust silicon-based solar electrode that shows remarkable endurance in the highly corrosive environment inherent in the process of splitting water.

They revealed their progress in a recent paper published in the journal Nature Materials.

Conceptually, splitting water could not be simpler. Scientists have long known that applying a voltage across two electrodes submerged in water splits the water molecules into their component elements, oxygen and hydrogen.
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Creating a material that mimics dolphin skin amongst new scheme’s research collaborations

Imperial College
June 15, 2011

Researchers from Imperial College London and University College London are planning to develop a new material that mimics dolphin skin, so that water can flow more efficiently down pipes, in one of seven early-stage projects that will receive support from a new scheme announced today.

The Kick-Start scheme aims to advance engineering research and promote collaborations between the two universities. They have distributed one hundred thousand pounds in seed funding among projects that also include an initiative to make power plants that use energy from waste more sustainable. The seed funding will help teams to establish their collaborative projects and pursue further funding to get their research to the next level. The scheme is an initiative of the Faculty of Engineering at Imperial and the School of the Built Environment, Engineering and Mathematical and Physical Sciences at UCL.

Professor Jeff Magee, Principal of the Faculty of Engineering at Imperial, says:

“From improving the way that water is managed to enhancing the way that energy is generated, this scheme provides vital seed funding to get some innovative projects off the ground. We think our wealth of outstanding researchers, the close proximity of both institutions and the complementary areas of research at both universities will make it easier for these collaborations to work well. I look forward to seeing how these projects have evolved in the next few years.”

Two of the new scheme’s projects are:

• Super-smooth pipes
• Improving the sustainability of power plants that generate energy from waste

To read more click here...

Silicon Technology Helps to Improve Efficiency of Water Delivery

Engineerblogger
June 9, 2011

Solar-powered pumps, drip irrigation systems reduce water utilization on farms

As countries around the world grapple with water shortages due to fast-growing populations and changing climates, silicon technology is helping farmers around the world irrigate their crops more efficiently, reducing the amount of water required.

According to UNICEF, almost three million people lack sufficient water in China’s northern Shanxi province; in India, 12 states are facing the most severe drought in a century; and in Pakistan, nearly three million citizens are at risk of starvation due to a drought that has affected crops and livestock.

Roughly 70 percent of all fresh water used internationally is for agricultural purposes, so technology innovations and conservation through efficient irrigation systems are going to play an increasingly important role in ensuring adequate water supply to keep up with expanding food requirements, according to Conservation International.

Solar-powered pumps and silicone rubber membranes used in drip irrigation systems to control water flow are two such silicon-enabled innovations that can help.

Photovoltaic (PV) solar panels rely on polycrystalline silicon to covert the sun’s energy into electricity and can power devices such as water pumps that can be moved from one location to another without having to be connected to a municipal power grid, which is especially critical to farmers in remote villages.

“Solar energy provides an exciting convergence of sun and silicon – two abundant, natural resources that will enable a sustainable, environmentally friendly solution to global energy and water needs,” said Greg Bausch, solar product market manager for Hemlock Semiconductor Group, one of the world’s largest producers of polycrystalline silicon and a joint venture of which Dow Corning Corporation is majority shareholder.

But the role of silicon-based materials does not stop there. Due to its durability and ability to perform across wide temperature ranges, silicone rubber used in drip irrigation systems can help control the amount of water – in some cases, just a few drops at a time – released into the soil.

“Water conservation is one area where silicon-based materials can help address a growing global problem and make a difference in people’s lives,” said Justin Jorgensen, global marketing manager for Dow Corning’s XIAMETER® brand. “In addition, the need to conserve water is most urgent in parts of the developing world where cost is an issue. With the XIAMETER brand, we provide reliable, high-quality, standard silicone products without the cost or complexity of customization that our customers don’t need.”

Copyright from Dow Corning Corporation

New water-filter factory in Ghana

MIT News
May 6, 2011

In northern Ghana, that nation’s poorest and most rural region, most families get their drinking water from rivers or large, shallow ponds. The water in these bodies, which are also used by livestock, is clouded with sediment and teeming with bacteria and parasites.

MIT Senior Lecturer in Civil and Environmental Engineering Susan Murcott ’90, SM ’92 has spent years trying to combat the widespread disease caused by poor water quality in many developing countries. This spring that work took a major leap forward with the long-awaited completion of a Ghanaian factory to produce thousands of inexpensive water-filtration systems.

To read more click here...