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vineri, 1 iunie 2012

Electricity from Sewage? Possible, Indeed


Ever wondered how much sewage goes down the drain everyday, without any use to anybody! A team of scientists in China has finally found a way to stem this wasteful slide.
Yanbiao Liu and his colleagues from a university in the country have built a device capable of both cleaning wastewater and producing electricity from it.
Using light as an energy source, the team created a photo-catalytic fuel cell that used a titanium dioxide nanotube-array anode and a cathode based on platinum.
Light degrades the organic material in the wastewater and, in the process, generates electrons which pass through the cathode converting it into electricity.
Yanbiao Liu writes in the paper, Water Science and Technology, that the stuff that goes down the toilet when flushed is a great source of environmental pollution and, at the same time, is an important source of energy and an expensive by-product of human existence.
Everyday billions of people contribute to the ever-growing problem of what to do with all the human waste that is created.
Sewage often contains other materials that need to be removed in order to reuse the water for other purposes. In their lab, the team tested their fuel cell’s ability to separate unwanted materials and produce clean water.
Such a plant would be tremendously useful in areas where sewage is sometimes not treated at all, but simply dumped into rivers or streams, or worse, in the streets. In addition to help clean up such places, the people in those areas would benefit from the electricity that would be produced in the process.

PlanetSolar Turanor Solar-Powered Boat Could Cut Down on Greenhouse Emissions


PlanetSolar Turanor Solar-Powered Boat Could Cut Down on Greenhouse Emissions

You might know the global merchant shipping industry contributes  4.5% of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions. Here’s one innovation that is attempting to cut down on that. PlanetSolar’s Turanor is the world’s largest solar-powered boat, driven by a silent, pollution-free electrical engine powered exclusively by solar energy. Turanor has its name derived from J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings, which translates to ‘The Power of the Sun’.
The boat has now anchored in the port of Hong Kong as a part of its world tour. This solar vessel, designed by a Switzerland-based LOMOcean Design and built by Knierim Yachtbau in Kiel, Germany, is a catamaran with dimensions of 101 feet long and 49 feet wide ship to provide maximum of surface area to harvest the sun’s energy. The dock is covered with 5,380 square feet of solar paneling expanding to each side of ship.
The panels on the boat extract solar energy to run the two associated electric motors capable of cruising at 15 miles per hour. Also, the vessel can tap into other renewable sources, such as the wind.
Notably, the panels can store enough power to serve the boat in cloudy weather for around three complete days. A giant lithium-ion battery is used to store the surplus energy. The ship can easily transport around 50 passengers to their destinations.
Turanor started its cruise from Monaco on September 27, 2010, and has been sailing around the globe.
The solar-powered boat has been built at a cost of about $26 million. This may look enormous, but the vessels traversing solely on solar power compensate initial expenditure within a short span.

Sanyo, Mitsubishi Get Working on Solar Powered Hybrid Car Carrier


Sanyo, Mitsubishi Get Working on Solar Powered Hybrid Car Carrier

sanyo mitsubishi solar ship
Marine vessels, or ships use up a lot of fuel, even more so, when the vessel in question is a giant one like a car carrier. Sanyo, Mitsui O.S.K. Lines and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries have come together to create a hybrid system that would make these vessels go easier on fuel, and a lot more environment friendly. The project also has blessings of Japan’s Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism, which will include it in its “Project to Develop Technologies for reduction of CO2 Emissions from New ships.”

The concept ship will have a photovoltaic system (solar panels) and a lithium ion battery system storing energy from the solar panels. The hybrid car carrier is scheduled to be completed in 2012, and it will have solar panels with a maximum capacity of 200kW, while the lithium battery’s max output will be at 3,000kW/h.
The hybrid ship will primarily use electric power at harbors, and diesel generators may be stopped for the said duration. While this accounts only for a small fraction of the time and total journey, the savings can still be huge, considering the emissions from such vessels.
Source: Sanyo

World’s First Solar-powered Ship by Nippon Yusen KK and Nippon Oil Corp


Nippon Yusen KK and Nippon Oil Corp are working on the world’s first solar powered ship … well, at least partially solar powered, they are saying. What? A hybrid ship? The two companies want to put solar panels on top of the 60,000-ton ship that are capable of generating 40 kilowatts of electricity each.
World's First Solar-powered Ship by Nippon Yusen KK and Nippon Oil Corp
The ship will carry Toyota cars. Is anybody surprised?
Fuel savings are expected to be in the neighborhood of 6.5% and carbon dioxide emissions will be reduced by 1-2% or 20 tons per year. It will cost Nippon Usen about $1.4 million to create the solar panel system.
The ship is expected to be completed by December with damage to the panels from salt and vibration the biggest obstacles.
A Nippon Oil dude says, “If it’s possible, we want to aim for the full commercialization of the system in the next three to five years.” Yeah, we got to make money out of this operation, for sure.
Source: CARB via Green Car Congress | Image: Nippon Yusen/Nippon Oil

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